The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-05-10 00:00:00

_
bedecked

served *rare el the Virgin Mary, r.
in white, blue, and gold,' which Ntood, _
in pearls and ribbons, under a large glass case in the
boudoir, beeide an effigy of the Infant Saviour, and the
"Emblems of the Agony and the Cross." Quiet-
looking men, evidently clorks from the City, who had,
perhaps, known and envied the possessor of all this
finery, passtd sadly up and down the stairs, and
looked with grave curiosity at the many signs of do-
mestic comfort that lay scattered about, and which
to-dsy and to-morrow will pass into the possession of
strangers, and be dispersed for ever. _

_
Although by no means a grandly-furnished house,
thi-re are not wanting evidences of good, if not refined
taste In its several appointments. The pictures and
engravings, hung in almost every room and passage,
are good of their kind, but they are neither rare nor
costly; the furniture, except in the drawing-room and
boudoir, is of a solid and comparatively inex-
'pensive character; the billiard table is of no
great mark, and the books, few in number and
unimportant in literary value, are all contained in
two small and ordinary book-cases with glass fronts,
which stand in the recesses of the billiard-room,
next a cottage pianoforte and a mahogany cue-stand.
The wines are not noted for their rarity or quantity--
in all not exceeding seventy dozens; about as many as
could be binned in a good-sized cupboard. The plate,
glass, and china—sufhcient only for a family of about
a dozen—are not conspicuously handsome; while the
bed-room furniture is, without exception, really plain,
for a house of I'Boo a-year rent. The visitors who came
with high expectations of grandeur were evidently dim
appointed ; but fir others there were eloquent signs of
, hurry and distress in almost every apartment. In the
I front dining-room, for instance, there was over the
mantelpiece a richly-framed canvas with a great square
' hole in it—the portrait of a lady with the face cut
away, as if in shame or pity; in the drawing-room
there were sheets of music, lying open as thou..h
hastily abandoned by the alarmed performer; in the
principal chamber the best bed was left unmade and in
disorder, while in the well of the great wardrobe
was an iron safe, open and empty. In the school-
room were the children's books just as they had
left them, with the copies set and unfinished, the
lessons marked and unlearned, the desks and
the stools put aside agaiost the wills, and the
ipleshes of ink and paint hardy yet dry upon the
paper. In the day nursery were the toys of the
ctii'dren all in confmion—building-briclur and miniature
billiards, parlour croquet implements and a baby's per.
ambulator, a toy house full of chairs and tables, a doll
or two, and an empty bird-cage. And so in the other
rooms, from basement to garret, were to be seen evi-
dences of sudden departure, which even the auc-
tioneer's men had been unable ar unwilling to deface;
boys' cricket bate, hoops, balls, and skates; servants'
brushes and brooms, the butler's corking machine, and
the housekeeper's parrot alive and merry; but shout
all an air of duet an i disorder and melancholy useless-
nem.

The visitors penetrated everywhere : into the dining -
room and drawing-rooms, the boudoir and the billiard-
mm, the bedrooms and passages, the nurseries and
kitchens; and one fine lady was even seen to enter the
boot-hole uuder the front steps, and carefully examine
the patent knife-cleaning machines, and the 'sundries'
there accumulated. The brokers' men and the agents
seemed übiquitous; the latter obsequiously thrueting
cards into the hands of likely looking purchasers, and
volunteering advice as to the value of the several lots,
the dimensions of carpets and (mrtains, and the probable
price at which some 20 or 30 silk dresses and ball and
opera costumes—the most suggestive lots of all—would
be knocked down to-morrow."