The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-02-04
THE LUCK OF LADYPRIORS.

auyprlOfS, iis lHameS Oaisihoh may
know is an old Elizabethan house that oe-
cupies pleasant isthmus in one of the
quietest and most secluded bends of the
river And at Ladypriors the Lilburns
have been settled, if not exactly since the
Conquest, anyhow since the days of Oliver
Cromwell. The place, though secluded, is
not unfrequentcd. All through the Sum-
mer the splash of oars may be heard from
the stream; punts are moored here and there
in quiet hooks, and fishermen, and fisher
women, too, ply their patient task from
morn to eve. And yet waterfowl haunt
the sedgy margins of the river, and in the
shallow backwater the heron is sometimes
to be seen poised motionless upon his slen-
der limbs
The neighboring village, too, is favorite
Summer resort, with its noted hostelry, the
"Cross Keys once the homely resort of
artists, but now rather famous for its little
dinners and the excellent cookery of its
proprietor, Mr. Anatole Leroy, and favored
both by the fashionable world and the mag
mates Of the city.
Nor is Ladypriors itself in any way an
abode of gloom, although there is quiet,
old.world aspect about it, with its quaint
gables, UNCOVERED walls, and twisted
chimney-shafts- suggestive rather of dig
nifed repose than of active delight. Quiet
and dignifed people, indeed, had been the
Lilburns, with touch of austerity about
the family type; but the late Squire of the
Priors had been brillian; exception. In
the early years of the Victorian era he had
shone out as gay young blade, one of the
dandies of the period, and in later times he
had been one of the pillars of the Turf-an
owner and breeder of race horses.
1t is not very far from Ladypriors to the
skirts of the Berkshire Downs, and on
these downs Mr.. Lilburn's horses were
trained under the skillful management of
the famous Mr.. Snaffles. Mares and foals
were kept at Ladypriors, in whose rich,
grassy paddocks brood mares and foals
roamed at will and the meadows of the
home farm supplied the haystacks for
Winter provender. In all his plans the
Squire was zealously aided by his wife, who
was, perhaps, better judge than her hus-
band in matters equine. Anyhow, during
her lifetime the Squire scored many sue
cesses. In the prime of life Mrs. Lilburn
was thrown from her horse and killed, and
from that time the Squire's luck deserted
him.
Still Mr. Lilburn clung to his favorite
pursuit. He gave up living at Ladypriors,
and his widowed sister, Lady Richards
took the place off his hands. One morn
ing, some ten years after his wife's death
and when his son Charles was some four
and-twenty years old, Squire Lilburn was
found dead in his own room, having lost
heavily the day before at Newmarket.
There was no legal obligation on Charles,
his only son and heir, to pay his fathers
debts of honor; but he did pay them, bor-
rowing from Mr. Paddock, who had been
of late years his fathers lawyer and chief
adviser
II don't ask you to follow in my foot
steps, Charlie; but if you keep the horses,
that colt by Viking, out of Valhalla, | have
named him 'Wayland Smith, ought to win
everything back again"
Such was the substance of hasty, un-
finished scrawl found by the son among a
heap of bills, trainers accounts, letters
pressing for payment of various liabilities
"a regular tangle of worry and perplexity.
There was nothing here to tempt the young
man to follow in his fathers footsteps.
Where had they led? To ruin, scarcely
averted disgrace, and sudden death, per-
haps suicide. This last point would never
be cleared up. The local doctor was salts
fed that his old friend had died of heart
disease, and an inquest was avoided. But
Charlie had his doubts.
Mr.. Paddock, lawyer only in name, and
otherwise inancier, speculator, moneydeal.
er. and owner of horses, was at hand to
advise. He strongly urged young Lilburn
to sell the whole estate. He had friend
at hand who would purchase everything
Ladypriors, the outlying farms, stock, fur
niture, and everything-at a price that
would leave a. doubtful margin of a few
thousands for Charles benefit. Mr.. Pad
dock advice was reiterated by Lady Rich
ards, Charles aunt, and the present occu
pier of Ladypriors. She had always
prophesied how her brothers infatuatior
would end; and she held high opinion Of
Mr. Paddock, who, she believed, had dont
bis best to extricate Mr. Lilburn from hi
difficulties.
But to Charlie the notion of parting
with Ladypriors and sinking into the posi-
ton of nameless, landless man, was ex
tremely bitter. He loved the old place; h
loved the river along whose banks thu
brightest part of his life had been spent
He loved the horses, too, among which h