Durnmelling was built by an ancestor of Godfrey's, who, forsaking the old nest for the new, had allowed Thornwick to sink into a mere farmhouse, in which condition it had afterward become the sole shelter of the withered fortunes of the Wardours.

In the hands of Godfrey's father, by a continuity of judicious cares, and a succession of partial resurrections, it had been restored to something like its original modest dignity.

Durnmelling, too, had in part sunk into ruin, and had been but partially recovered from it; still, it swelled important beside its antecedent Thornwick.

Nothing but a deep ha-ha separated the two houses, of which the older and smaller occupied the higher ground.

Between it and the ha-ha was nothing but grass--in front of the house fine enough and well enough kept to be called lawn, had not Godfrey's pride refused the word.