It was like the clearing of a primeval forest.
Richard Bassett went about with a witness and counted the fallen.
The poor were allowed the lopwood: they thronged in for miles round, and each built himself a great wood pile for the winter; the poor blessed Sir Charles: he gave the proceeds, thirteen thousand pounds, to his wife for her separate use.

He did not tie it up.

He restricted her no further than this: she undertook never to draw above 100 pounds at a time without consulting Mr.Oldfield as to the application.

Sir Charles said he should add to this fund every year; his beloved wife should not be poor, even if the hated cousin should outlive him and turn her out of Huntercombe.
And so passed the summer of that year; then the autumn; and then came a singularly mild winter.

There was more hunting than usual, and Richard Bassett, whom his wife's fortune enabled to cut a better figure than before, was often in the field, mounted on a great bony horse that was not so fast as some, being half-bred, but a wonderful jumper.
Even in this pastime the cousins were rivals.