-- In short, there was no furniture but the utensils
of the kitchen; and the cellar afforded nothing but a few empty
butts and barrels, that stunk so abominably, that I would not
suffer any body to enter it until I had flashed a considerable
quantity of gunpowder to qualify the foul air within.
'An old cottager and his wife, who were hired to lie in the
house, had left it with precipitation, alledging, among other
causes of retreat, that they could not sleep for frightful
noises, and that my poor brother certainly walked after his
death. -- In a word, the house appeared uninhabitable; the barn,
stable, and outhouses were in ruins; all the fences broken down,
and the fields lying waste.
'The farmer who kept the key never dreamed I had any intention to
live upon the spot -- He rented a farm of sixty pounds, and his
lease was just expiring. -- He had formed a scheme of being
appointed bailiff to the estate, and of converting the house and
the adjacent grounds to his own use. --A hint of his intention I
received from the curate at my first arrival; I therefore did not
pay much regard to what he said by way of discouraging me from
coming to settle in the country; but I was a little startled
when he gave me warning that he should quit the farm at the
expiration of his lease, unless I could abate considerably in the
rent.
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