After the carriage had travelled a full mile of this avenue, we
reached the summit of a rather abrupt eminence, one of the many which
added to the picturesqueness, if not to the convenience of this rude
approach; from the top of this ridge the grey walls of Carrickleigh
were visible, rising at a small distance in front, and darkened by the
hoary wood which crowded around them; it was a quadrangular building
of considerable extent, and the front, where the great entrance was
placed, lay towards us, and bore unequivocal marks of antiquity; the
time-worn, solemn aspect of the old building, the ruinous and deserted
appearance of the whole place, and the associations which connected
it with a dark page in the history of my family, combined to depress
spirits already predisposed for the reception of sombre and dejecting
impressions. When the carriage drew up in the grass-grown court-yard
before the hall-door, two lazy-looking men, whose appearance well
accorded with that of the place which they tenanted, alarmed by
the obstreperous barking of a great chained dog, ran out from some
half-ruinous outhouses, and took charge of the horses; the hall-door
stood open, and I entered a gloomy and imperfectly-lighted apartment,
and found no one within it. However, I had not long to wait in this
awkward predicament, for before my luggage had been deposited in the
house, indeed before I had well removed my cloak and other muffles,
so as to enable me to look around, a young girl ran lightly into the
hall, and kissing me heartily and somewhat boisterously exclaimed, "My
dear cousin, my dear Margaret--I am so delighted--so out of breath, we
did not expect you till ten o'clock; my father is somewhere about the
place, he must be close at hand.
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