The other extensive landlord is Mr. John Morton, a young man, who,
in spite of his position as squire of Bragton, owner of Bragton
Park, and landlord of the entire parishes of Bragton and
Mallingham, the latter of which comes close up to the confines of
Dillsborough,--was at the time at which our story begins, Secretary
of Legation at Washington. As he had been an absentee since he came
of age, soon after which time he inherited the property, he had
been almost less liked in the neighbourhood than the lord. Indeed,
no one in Dillsborough knew much about him, although Bragton Hall
was but four miles from the town, and the Mortons had possessed the
property and lived on it for the last three centuries. But there
had been extravagance, as will hereafter have to be told, and there
had been no continuous residence at Bragton since the death of old
Reginald Morton, who had been the best known and the best loved of
all the squires in Rufford, and had for many years been master of
the Rufford hounds. He had lived to a very great age, and, though
the great-grandfather of the present man, had not been dead above
twenty years. He was the man of whom the older inhabitants of
Dillsborough and the neighbourhood still thought and still spoke
when they gave vent to their feelings in favour of gentlemen. And
yet the old squire in his latter days had been able to do little or
nothing for them,--being sometimes backward as to the payment of
money he owed among them.
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