Long grass grew over its floor from end to end--cut now and then for hay, or to feed such animals as had grass in their stalls.

Along one border, outside the trees, went a footpath--so little used that, though not quite conquered by the turf, the long grass often met over the top of it.

Finding it so lonely, Donal grew more and more fond of it.

It was his outdoor study, his proseuche {Compilers note: pi, rho, omicron, sigma, epsilon upsilon, chi, eta with stress--[outdoor] place of prayer}--a little aisle of the great temple! Seldom indeed was his reading or meditation there interrupted by sight of human being.
About a month after he had taken up his abode at the castle, he was lying one day in the grass with a book-companion, under the shade of one of the largest of its beeches, when he felt through the ground ere he heard through the air the feet of an approaching horse.

As they came near, he raised his head to see.