Whatever charm of form it may have possessed in the past had been ruthlessly extirpated by the modernisation of the windows, which were now all of one size and form--a long gaunt range of unsheltered casements staring blankly out upon the spectator.
There were no flower-beds, no terraced walks, or graceful flights of steps before the house; only a bare grassplot, with a stiff line of tall elms on each side, and a wide dry moat dividing it from the turf in the park.

Two lodges--ponderous square brick buildings with very small windows, each the exact counterpart of the other, and a marvel of substantial ugliness--kept guard over a pair of tall iron gates, about six hundred yards apart, approached by stone bridges that spanned the moat.
Captain Sedgewick rang a bell hanging by the side of one of these gates, whereat there arose a shrill peal that set the rooks screaming in the tall elms overhead.

An elderly female appeared in answer to this summons, and opened the gate in a slow mechanical way, without the faintest show of interest in the people about to enter, and looking as if she would have admitted a gang of obvious burglars with equal indifference.
"Rather a hideous style of place," said Gilbert, as they walked towards the house; "but I think show-places, as a general rule, excel in ugliness.

I daresay the owners of them find a dismal kind of satisfaction in considering the depressing influence their dreary piles of bricks-and-mortar must exercise on the minds of strangers; may be a sort of compensation for being obliged to live in such a gaol of a place." There was a clumsy low stone portico over the door, wide enough to admit a carriage; and lounging upon a bench under this stony shelter they found a sleepy-looking man-servant, who informed Captain Sedgewick that Sir David was at Heatherly, but that he was out shooting with his friends at this present moment.

In his absence the man would be very happy to show the house to Captain Sedgewick and his party.
Gilbert Fenton asked about John Saltram.
Yes, Mr.Saltram had arrived at Heatherly on Tuesday evening, two nights ago.
They went over the state-rooms, and looked at the pictures, which were really as good as the Captain had represented them.