Western courier. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1837-1838, 1837-10-12

q clear spring, bursting from the hill side,
made lis way 10 the bottom between patch
es Of shaggy underwood and i grove of
smaller trees; vine covered cottage just
pccping b. tween the foliage, and the pc,
turesquo outline Of the court, with its cd
fashioned porch, its long windows, and
its tail, clustered chimneys towering in
;lo distance. 1t was the pretticst prospect
in all Aberlcigh.
The house itself retained strong marks
Of former s'ateIinass, especially in one
| projecting wing, too remote from the yard
to be devoted to the domestic purposes Of
the fariaar's family. The fine proper
lions Of the lofty and spacious apartments,
the rich mouldings of the ceilings, the
carved chimney-Pieces, and the pannced
walls, all at!eeted the former grandeur Of
the mansion, whilst the fragments Of
stained glass in the windows Of the great
gallery, the half oGaced coat of arms over
the doorway, the faded family portraits,
grim, black visaged knights, and pale,
shadowy ladies', or the relics Of moulder-
ing tapestry that futtered against the
walls, and, above ali, the secret chamber
constructed for the priests hiding place
in days Of protestant persecuton-for in
darker ages neither Of the dominant
churches was free from that foul stain
each of these vestiges of the manners and
the history of times long gone by appeal.
ed to the imagination, and conspired 10
give a Mrs. Radcliffe like, CastIe-of-U.
doIpho sort of romance TO the manor
house. Really, when the wind swept
through the oYorSrown espaliers Of that
neglected but luxuriant wilderness, the
terrace garden, when the screech-owl
shriekod from the ivy which clustered up
one of the walls, Sand rats and mice, &
such small DEER" were playing their
pranks behind the wainscot, it would
have formed as pretty locality for su-
pernatural adventure, as ever docayed
hunting, lodge in the rcccsses of the Hartz,
or ruinod fortress on the castlec Rhine
Nothing was wanting but the ghost, and
a ghost of any taste would have been
proud of such habtaton.
Less like ghost than the inhabitants
who did arrive, no human being well
could be.
Mrs. Cameron was young widow
Her father, Scottish officer, well born,
sickly and poor, had been too happy to
bestow the hand Of his only child upon an
old friend and fellow countryman, the
principal clerk in q government office,
whose respectable station, easy fortune,
excellent sense, and super,eXceIent char
acter, were, as he thought, and as faith
ers, right or wrong, are apt to think, ad-
vantages more'than sufficient to counter
balance disparity Of years and appear.
ance, which some daughters might have
thought start!ing-thc bride being beauS
tiful girl Of seventeen, the bridegroom a
plain man of seven and fifty. In this
case, at least, the father is right. He
lived long enough 10 see that the young
wife was unusually attached to her kind
and indulgent husband, and died about
twelvemonth after the marriage, with the
fullest confidence in her respectabilty &
happiness. MIR. Cameron did not long
survive him. Before she was nineteen
the fair Helen Cameron was widow and
an orphan, with one beautiful boy, to
whom she was left sole guardian, an in-
come being secured to her, ample for her
rank in life, but cloggod with the one
condition of her not marrying again.
Such was the tenant, who wearied Off
her dull suburban homo, a red brick house
in the middle of a row of red brick hons>
os; tired of the loneliness which never
presses SO much upon the spirits, as when
left solitary in the environs Of great |
city; pining for country liberty, for green
trees and fresh air; much caught by the
picturcsqucrcss of Upton, and It's mixture
of od-fashioned stateliness and village
rusticity; and, perhaps, little swayed
by desire to be near au old friend and
correspondent of the mother to whose
memory she was so strongly attached,
came in the budding spring time, the
showery, lowery mouth OF April, to
spend the ensuing summer at the court.
We, on our part, regarded her arrival
with no common interest. To me it SEEM
I'd but yesterday since had received an
,piste of thanks for present Of one of
lear Mary Howitt's charming chiIdren's
,ooks-an epistle undoubtedly no. indited
W the writer in huge round text, be-
wcen double pencil lines, with certain
mall errors of orthosraphy corrected IN
smaller hand above; followed in due
ime by postscripts to her mothers letters
pon one single line, and the spelling
much amended; then by short, very