prior’s ash was not a large town, though of some importance in county estimation. in the days of the monks, when all good people were roman catholics, or professed to be, it had been but a handful of houses, which various necessities had caused to spring up round the priory: a flourishing and crowded establishment of religious men then; a place marked but by a few ruins now. in process of time the handful of houses had increased to several handfuls, the handfuls to a village, and the village to a borough town; still retaining the name bestowed on it by the monks—“prior’s ash.”
in the heart of the town was situated the banking-house of godolphin, crosse, and godolphin. it was an old-established and most respected firm, sound and wealthy. the third partner and second godolphin, mentioned in it, was thomas godolphin, sir george godolphin’s eldest son. until he joined it, it had been godolphin and crosse. it was a matter of arrangement, understood by mr. crosse, that when anything happened to sir george, thomas would step into his father’s place, as head of the firm, and george, whose name at present did not appear, though he had been long in the bank, would represent the last name; so that it would still remain godolphin, crosse, and godolphin. mr. crosse, who, like sir george, was getting in years, was remarkable for nothing but a close attention to business. he was a widower, without children, and prior’s ash wondered who would be the better for the filling of his garners.
the godolphins could trace back to the ages of the monks. but of[10] no very high ancestry boasted they; no titles, places, or honours; they ranked among the landed gentry as owners of ashlydyat, and that was all. it was quite enough for them: to be lords of ashlydyat was an honour they would not have bartered for a dukedom. they held by ashlydyat. it was their pride, their stronghold, their boast. had feudal times been in fashion now, they would have dug a moat around it, and fenced it in with fortifications, and called it their castle. why did they so love it? it was but a poor place at best; nothing to look at; and, in the matter of space inside, was somewhat straitened. oak-panelled rooms, dark as mahogany and garnished with cross beams, low ceilings, and mullioned windows, are not the most consonant to modern taste. people thought that the godolphins loved it from its associations and traditions; from the very fact that certain superstitions attached to it. foolish superstitions, you will be inclined to call them, as contrasted with the enlightenment of these matter-of-fact days—i had almost said these days of materialism.
ashlydyat was not entailed. there was a clause in the old deeds of tenure which prevented it. a wicked godolphin (by which complimentary appellation his descendants distinguished him) had cut off the entail, and gambled the estate away; and though the godolphins recovered it again in the course of one or two lives, the entail was not renewed. it was now bequeathed from father to son, and was always the residence of the reigning godolphin. thomas godolphin knew that it would become his on the death of his father, as surely as if he were the heir by entail. the late mr. godolphin, sir george’s father, had lived and died in it. sir george succeeded, and then he lived in it—with his wife and children. but he was not sir george then: therefore, for a few minutes, while speaking of this part of his life; we will call him what he was—mr. godolphin. a pensive, thoughtful woman was mrs. godolphin, never too strong in health. she was scotch by birth. of her children, thomas and janet most resembled her; bessy was like no one but herself: george and cecilia inherited the beauty of their father. there was considerable difference in the ages of the children, for they had numbered thirteen. thomas was the eldest, cecilia the youngest; janet, bessy, and george were between them; and the rest, who had also been between them, had died, most of them in infancy. but, a moment yet, to give a word to the description of ashlydyat, before speaking of the death of mrs. godolphin.
passing out of prior’s ash towards the west, a turning to the left of the high-road took you to ashlydyat. built of greystone, and lying somewhat in a hollow, it wore altogether a gloomy appearance. and it was intensely ugly. a low building of two storeys, irregularly built, with gables and nooks and ins-and-outs of corners, and a square turret in the middle, which was good for nothing but the birds to build on. it wore a time-honoured look, though, with all its ugliness, and the moss grew, green and picturesque, on its walls. perhaps on the principle, or, let us say, by the subtle instinct of nature, that a mother loves a deformed child with a deeper affection than she feels for her other children, who are fair and sound of limb, did the godolphins feel pride in their inheritance because it was ugly. but the grounds around it were beautiful, and the landscape, so much of it as could be seen[11] from that unelevated spot, was most grand to look upon. a full view might be obtained from the turret, though it was somewhat of a mount to get to it. dark groves, and bright undulating lawns, shady spots where the water rippled, pleasant to bask in on a summer’s day, sunny parterres of gay flowers scenting the air; charming, indeed, were the environs of ashlydyat. all, except one spot: and that had charms also for some minds—sombre ones.
in one part of the grounds there grew a great quantity of ash-trees—and it was supposed, though not known, that these trees may originally have suggested the name, ashlydyat: as they most certainly had that of prior’s ash, given to the village by the monks. a few people wrote it in accordance with its pronunciation, ash-lid-yat, but the old way of spelling it was retained by the family. as the village had swollen into a town, the ash-trees, growing there, were cleared away as necessity required; but the town was surrounded with them still.
opposite to the ash-trees on the estate of ashlydyat there extended a waste plain, totally out of keeping with the high cultivation around. it looked like a piece of rude common. bushes of furze, broom, and other stunted shrubs grew upon it, none of them rising above the height of a two-year-old child. the description given by charlotte pain to george godolphin was not an inapt one—that the place, with these stunted bushes on it, looked in the moonlight not unlike a graveyard. at the extremity, opposite to the ash-trees, there arose a high archway, a bridge built of greystone. it appeared to have formed part of an ancient fortification, but there was no trace of water having run beneath it. beyond the archway was a low round building, looking like an isolated windmill without sails. it was built of greystone also, and was called the belfry: though there was as little sign of bells ever having been in it, as there was of water beneath the bridge. the archway had been kept from decay; the belfry had not, but was open in places to the heavens.
strange to say, the appellation of this waste piece of land, with its wild bushes, was the “dark plain.” why? the plain was not dark: it was not shaded: it stood out, broad and open, in the full glare of sunlight. that certain dark tales had been handed down with the appellation, is true: and these may have given rise to the name. immediately before the archway, for some considerable, space, the ground was entirely bare. not a blade of grass, not a shrub grew on it. or, as the story went, would grow. it was on this spot that the appearance, the shadow, as mentioned by charlotte pain, would be sometimes seen. whence the shadow came, whether it was ghostly or earthly, whether those learned in science and philosophy could account for it by nature’s laws, whether it was cast by any gaseous vapour arising in the moonbeams, i am unable to say. if you ask me to explain it, i cannot. if you ask, why then do i write about it, i can only answer, because i have seen it. i have seen it with my own unprejudiced eyes; i have sat and watched it, in its strange stillness; i have looked about and around it, low down, high up, for some substance, ever so infinitesimal, that might cast its shade and enable me to account for it: and i have looked in vain. had the moon been[12] behind the archway, instead of behind me, that might have furnished a loophole of explanation: a very poor and inefficient loophole; a curious one also: for how can an archway in the substance be a bier and two mourners in its shadow? but, still, better than none.
no; there was nothing whatever, so far as human eyes—and i can tell you that keen ones and sceptical ones have looked at it—to cast the shade, or to account for it. there, as you sat and watched, stretched out the plain in the moonlight, with its low, tomb-like bushes, its clear space of bare land, the archway rising behind it. but, on the spot of bare land, before the archway, would rise the shadow; not looking as if it were a shadow cast on the ground, but a palpable fact: as if a bier, with its two bending mourners, actually stood there in the substance. i say that i cannot explain it, or attempt to explain it; but i do say that there it was to be seen. not often: sometimes not for years together. it was called the shadow of ashlydyat: and superstition told that its appearance foreshadowed the approach of calamity, whether of death or other evil, to the godolphins. the greater the evil that was coming upon them, the plainer and more distinct would be the appearance of the shadow—the longer the space of time that it would be observed. rumour went, that once, on the approach of some terrible misfortune, it had been seen for months and months before, whenever the moon was sufficiently bright. the godolphins did not care to have the subject mentioned to them: in their scepticism, they (some of them, at least) treated it with ridicule, or else with silence. but, like disbelievers of a different sort, the scepticism was more in profession than in heart. the godolphins, in their inmost soul, would cower at the appearance of that shadowed bier; as those others have been known to cower, in their anguish, at the approach of the shadow of death.
this was not all the superstition attaching to ashlydyat: but you will probably deem this quite enough for the present. and we have to return to mrs. godolphin.
five years before the present time, when pretty cecilia was in her fifteenth year, and most needed the guidance of a mother, mrs. godolphin died. her illness had been of a lingering nature; little hope in it, from the first. it was towards the latter period of her illness that what had been regarded by four-fifths of prior’s ash as an absurd child’s tale, a superstition unworthy the notice of the present-day men and women, grew to be talked of in whispers, as something “strange.” for three months antecedent to the death of mrs. godolphin, the shadow of ashlydyat was to be seen every light night, and all prior’s ash flocked up to look at it. that they went, is of no consequence: they had their walk and their gaze for their pains: but that mrs. godolphin should have been told of it, was. she was in the grounds alone one balmy moonlight night, later than she ought to have been, and she discerned people walking in them, making for the ash-trees.
“what can those people be doing here?” she exclaimed to one of her servants, who was returning to ashlydyat from executing an errand in the town.
“it is to see the shadow, ma’am,” whispered the girl, in answer, with more direct truth than prudence.
[13]mrs. godolphin paused. “the shadow!” she uttered. “is the shadow to be seen?”
“it has been there ever since last moon, ma’am. it never was so plain, they say.”
mrs. godolphin waited her opportunity, and, when the intruders had dispersed, proceeded to the ash-trees. it is as well to observe that these ash-trees, and also the dark plain, though very near to the house, were not in the more private portion of the grounds.
mrs. godolphin proceeded to the ash-trees. an hour afterwards, her absence from the house was discovered, and they went out to search. it was her husband who found her. she pointed to the shadow, and spoke.
“you will believe that my death is coming on quickly now, george.” but mr. godolphin turned it off with an attempt at joke, and told her she was old enough to know better.
mrs. godolphin died. two years after, mr. godolphin came into contact with a wealthy young widow; young, as compared with himself: mrs. campbell. he met her in scotland, at the residence of his first wife’s friends. she was english born, but her husband had been scotch. mr. godolphin married her, and brought her to ashlydyat. the step did not give pleasure to his children. when sons and daughters are of the age that the godolphins were, a new wife, brought home to rule, rarely does give pleasure to the first family. things did not go on very comfortably: there were faults on each side; on that of mrs. godolphin, and on that of her step-daughters. after a while, a change was made. thomas godolphin and his sisters went to reside in the house attached to the bank, a handsome modern residence hitherto occupied by mr. crosse. “you had better come here,” that gentleman had said to them: he was no stranger to the unpleasantness at ashlydyat. “i will take up my abode in the country,” he continued. “i would prefer to do so. i am getting to feel older than i did twenty years ago, and country air may renovate me.”
the arrangement was carried out. thomas godolphin and his three sisters entered upon their residence in prior’s ash, janet acting as mistress of the house, and as chaperon to her sisters. she was then past thirty: a sad, thoughtful woman, who lived much in the inward life.
just about the time of this change, certain doings of local and public importance were enacted in the neighbourhood, in which mr. godolphin took a prominent share. there ensued a proposal to knight him. he started from it with aversion. his family started also: they and he alike despised these mushroom honours. not so mrs. godolphin. from the moment that the first word of the suggestion was breathed to her, she determined that it should be carried out; for the appellation, my lady, was as incense in her ears. in vain mr. godolphin strove to argue with her: her influence was in the ascendant, and he lay under the spell. at length he yielded; and, though hot war raged in his heart, he bent his haughty knee at the court of st. james’s, and rose, up sir george.
“after a storm comes a calm.” a proverb pleasant to remember in some of the sharp storms of life. mrs. godolphin had carried her[14] point in being too many for her step-daughters; she had triumphed over opposition and become my lady; and now she settled down in calmness at ashlydyat. but she grew dissatisfied. she was a woman who had no resources within herself, who lived only in excitement, and ashlydyat’s quietness overwhelmed her with ennui. she did not join in the love of the godolphins for ashlydyat. mr. godolphin, ere he had brought her home to it, a bride, had spoken so warmly of the place, in his attachment to it, that she had believed she was about to step into some modern paradise: instead of which, she found, as she expressed it, a “cranky old house, full of nothing but passages.” the dislike she formed for it in that early moment never was overcome.
she would beguile her husband to her own pretty place in berwickshire; and, just at first, he was willing to be beguiled. but after he became sir george (not that the title had anything to do with it) public local business grew upon him, and he found it inconvenient to quit ashlydyat. he explained this to lady godolphin: and said their sojourn in scotland must be confined to an autumn visit. so she perforce dragged out her days at ashlydyat, idle and listless.
we warn our children that idleness is the root of all evil; that it will infallibly lead into mischief those who indulge in it. it so led lady godolphin. one day, as she was looking from her drawing-room windows, wishing all sorts of things. that she lived in her pleasant home in berwickshire; that she could live amidst the gaieties of london; that ashlydyat was not such a horrid old place; that it was more modern and less ugly; that its reception-rooms were lofty, and garnished with gilding and glitter, instead of being low, gloomy, and grim; and that it was situated on an eminence, instead of on a flat, so that a better view of the lovely scenery around might be obtained. on that gentle rise, opposite, for instance—what would be more enchanting than to enjoy a constant view from thence? if ashlydyat could be transported there, as they carry out wooden houses to set up abroad; or, if only that one room, she then stood in, could, with its windows——
lady godolphin’s thoughts arrested themselves here. an idea had flashed upon her. why should she not build a pretty summer-house on that hill; a pavilion? the countess of cavemore, in this very county, had done such a thing: had built a pavilion on a hill within view of the windows of cavemore house, and had called it “lady cavemore’s folly.” only the week before, she, lady godolphin, in driving past it, had thought what a pretty place it looked; what a charming prospect must be obtained from it. why should she not do the same?
the idea grew into shape and form. it would not leave her again. she had plenty of money of her own, and she would work out her “folly” to the very top of its bent.
to the top of its bent, indeed! none can tell what a thing will grow into when it is first begun. lady godolphin made known her project to sir george, who, though he saw no particular need for the work, did not object to it. if lady godolphin chose to spend money in that way, she might do so. so it was put in hand. architects, builders, decorators were called together; and the folly was planned[15] out and begun. lady godolphin had done with ennui now; she found employment for her days, in watching the progress of the pavilion.
it is said that the consummation of our schemes generally brings with it a share of disappointment. it did so in this instance to lady godolphin. the folly turned out to be a really pretty place; the views from its windows magnificent; and lady godolphin was as enchanted as a child with a new toy. the disappointment arose from the fact that she could not make the folly her home. after spending a morning in it, or an evening, she must leave it to return to that grey ashlydyat—the only eyesore to be seen, when gazing from the folly’s windows. if a day turned out wet, she could not walk to the folly; if she was expecting visitors she must stay at home to receive them; if sir george felt ill—and his health was then beginning to suffer—she could not leave him for her darling folly. it was darling because it was new: in six months’ time, lady godolphin would have grown tired of it; have rarely entered it: but in her present mood, it was all-in-all to her.
slowly she formed the resolution to enlarge the folly—slowly for her, for she deliberated upon it for two whole days. she would add “a reception-room or two,” “a bedroom or two,” “a kitchen,” so that she might be enabled, when she chose to do so, to take up her abode in it for a week. and these additions were begun.
but they did not end; did not end as she had intended. as the folly grew, so grew the ideas of lady godolphin: there must be a suite of reception-rooms, there must be several bedrooms, there must be domestic offices in proportion. sir george told her that she would spend a fortune upon it; my lady answered that, at any rate, she should have something to show for the outlay.
at length it was completed: and lady godolphin’s folly—for it retained its appellation—stood out to the view of prior’s ash, which it overlooked; to the view of ashlydyat; to the view of the country generally, as a fair, moderate-sized, attractive residence, built in the villa style, its white walls dazzling the eye when the sun shone upon them.
“we will reside there, and let ashlydyat,” said lady godolphin to her husband.
“reside at the folly! leave ashlydyat!” he repeated, in consternation. “it could not be.”
“it will be,” she added, with a half self-willed, half-caressing laugh. “why could it not be?”
sir george fell into a reverie. he admired the modern conveniences of the folly, greatly admired the lovely scenery, that, look from which room of it he would, charmed his eye. but for one thing, he had been content to do as she wished, and go to live there. that one thing—what was it? hear the low-breathed, reluctant words he is beginning to say to lady godolphin.
“there is an old tradition in our family—a superstition i suppose you will call it—that if the godolphins leave ashlydyat, their ruin is at hand.”
lady godolphin stared at him in amazement. nothing had surprised her on her arrival at ashlydyat, like the stories of marvel which she had[16] been obliged to hear. sir george had cast ridicule on them, if alluded to in his presence; therefore, when the above words dropped from him, she could only wonder. you might search a town through and not find one less prone to superstition than was lady godolphin: in all that belonged to it, she was a very heathen. sir george hastened to explain away his words.
“the tradition is nothing, and i regard it as nothing. that such a one has been handed down is certain, and it may have given rise to the reluctance, which the early godolphins entertained, to quit ashlydyat. but that is not our reason: in remaining in it, we only obey a father’s behest. you are aware that ashlydyat is not entailed. it is bequeathed by will from father to son; and to the bequest in each will, so far as i have cognizance of the past wills, there has always been appended a clause—a request—i should best say an injunction—never to quit ashlydyat. ‘when once you shall have come into possession of ashlydyat, guard it as your stronghold: resign it neither to your heir nor to a stranger: remain in it until death shall take you.’ it was inserted in my father’s will, by which ashlydyat became mine: it is inserted in mine, which devises the estate to thomas.”
“if ever i heard so absurd a story!” uttered lady godolphin in her pretty childish manner. “do i understand you to say that, if you left ashlydyat to take up your abode elsewhere, it would be no longer yours?”
“not that, not that,” returned sir george. “ashlydyat is mine until my death, and no power can take it from me. but a reluctance to leave ashlydyat has always clung to the godolphins: in fact, we have looked upon it as a step impossible to be taken.”
“what a state of thraldom to live in!”
“pardon me. we love ashlydyat. to remain in it is pleasant; to leave it would be pain. i speak of the godolphins in general; of those who have preceded me.”
“i understand now,” said lady godolphin resentfully. “you hold a superstition that if you were to leave ashlydyat for the folly, some dreadful doom would overtake you. sir george, i thought we lived in the nineteenth century.”
a passing flush rose to the face of sir george godolphin. to be suspected of leaning to these superstitions chafed his mind unbearably; he had almost rather be accused of dishonour: not to his own heart would he admit that they might have weight with him. “ashlydyat is our homestead,” he said, “and when a man has a homestead, he likes to live and die in it.”
“you cannot think ashlydyat so desirable a residence as the folly. we must remove to the folly, sir george; i have set my heart upon it. let thomas and his sisters come back to ashlydyat.”
“they would not come.”
“not come! they were inwardly rebellious enough at having to leave it.”
“i am sure that thomas would not take up his residence here, as the master of ashlydyat, during my lifetime. another thing: we should not be justified in keeping up two expensive establishments outside the town, leaving the house at the bank to lie idle. people might lose confidence in us, if they saw us launching forth into extravagance.”
[17]“oh, indeed! what did they think of the expense launched upon the folly?” mockingly smiled my lady.
“they know it is your money which has built that: not mine.”
“if thomas and the rest came to ashlydyat you might let the house attached to the bank.”
“it would take a great deal more money to keep up ashlydyat than it does the house at the bank. the public might lose confidence in us, i say. besides, no one but a partner could be allowed to live at the bank.”
“you seem to find an answer to all my propositions,” said lady godolphin, in her softest and sweetest, and least true tone; “but i warn you, sir george, that i shall win you over to my way of thinking before the paper shall be dry on the folly’s walls. if thomas cannot, or will not, live at ashlydyat, you must let it.”
in every tittle did lady godolphin carry out her words. almost before the folly’s embellishments were matured to receive them, sir george was won over to live at it: and ashlydyat was advertised to be let. thomas godolphin would not have become its master in his father’s lifetime had sir george filled its rooms with gold as a bribe. his mother had contrived to imbue him with some of the ashlydyat superstition—to which she had lived a slave—and thomas, though he did not bow down to it, would not brave it. if ruin was to come—as some religiously believed—when a reigning godolphin voluntarily abandoned ashlydyat, thomas, at least, would not help it on by taking part in the step. so ashlydyat, to the intense astonishment of prior’s ash, was put up in the market for hire.
it was taken by a mr. verrall; a gentleman from london. prior’s ash knew nothing of him, except that he was fond of field sports, and appeared to be a man of money: but, the fact of his establishing himself at ashlydyat, stamped him, in their estimation, as one worthy to be courted. his wife was a pretty, fascinating woman; her sister, miss pain, was beautiful; their entertainments were good, their style was dashing, and they became the fashion in the neighbourhood.
but, from the very first day that the step was mooted of sir george godolphin’s taking up his residence at the folly, until that of his removal thither, the shadow had hovered over the dark plain at ashlydyat.
