But it was a very long time ago.

The little knot of gentry-folk soon found the limitations of their new conditions; years went by in decades, aggrandizing none of them.

They took, perforce, to the ways of the country, and soon nobody kept a groom but the Doctor, and nobody dined late but the Judge.

There came a time when the Sheriff's whist club and the Archdeacon's port became a tradition to the oldest inhabitant.

Trade flourished, education improved, politics changed.