What he
added he added in stone, but the old house was brick. He was much
abused at the time for his want of taste, and heard a good deal
about putting new cloth as patches on old rents; but, as the shrubs
and ivy have grown up, a certain picturesqueness has come upon the
place, which is greatly due to the difference of material. The
place is somewhat sombre, as there is no garden close to the house.
There is a lawn, at the back, with gravel walks round it; but it is
only a small lawn; and then divided from the lawn by a ha-ha fence,
is the park. The place, too, has that sad look which always comes
to a house from the want of a tenant. Poor Lady Ushant, when she
was there, could do little or nothing. A gardener was kept, but
there should have been three or four gardeners. The man grew
cabbages and onions, which he sold, but cared nothing for the walks
or borders. Whatever it may have been in the old time, Bragton Park
was certainly not a cheerful place when Lady Ushant lived there. In
the squire's time the park itself had always been occupied by deer.
Even when distress came he would not allow the deer to be sold. But
after his death they went very soon, and from that day to the time
of which I am writing, the park has been leased to some butchers or
graziers from Dillsborough.
The ground hereabouts is nearly level, but it falls away a little
and becomes broken and pretty where the river Dill runs through the
park, about half a mile from the house.
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