Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1890-03-14
HER ANCESTRAL HOME
by ANNE RICHARDSON EARLE.

young land and restless population the
Landor mansion had been handed down
from father to son, and known as esquire
Landor's place"
1t stood alone, well back from the vii
lagc, and was quite hidden from distant
view by the immense trees which spread
about it. A nearer inspection, however,
showed its p:llared portico and heavy
brass-knockerei door, its many windows
with their small picturesque pancs, and
its gabled roof topped by the huge square
chimneys of by-gone days. There was n
reverend majesty about it at this near
view rs of venerable arstocrat who
shows his birth and breeding.
1t one of its windows, upon an after
noon in the fall very modern young
lady was sitting, the straight back of her
chair reaching high above her we'll
dressed shoulders, her nineteenth century
half-shoes resting upon footstool of
eighteenth th-century needlework
A new silver-mounted travelling ink
stand stood upon the high sill beside
her, new silver-bound lap-tablet rested
on her lap, and she was writing with an
unhesitating speed which showed that
her heart was in her theme.
"AIy dearest, deaSest GIRL" she wrote,
''herc am, alone iu my glory, for good
ness only knows how many hours, while
Aunt Augusta and the 'retainers' are busy
in the kitchen. have offered my valun-
BILE aid, which has been declined, SO my
conscience is clear to devote myself to
you. am glad that it is to you, and to
you only, for do not like to worry NAM
ma, with true accounts of my unnatural
sentiments; yet it is n relief once in n
while to be able to say exactly what one
means.
"CoLfidentially, then, and to he out
with the whole secret at once, this is n
perfectly terrible place. An ancestral
mansion is very fine thing to pride your
self Upon when you are snug aud safe in
the city where you cannot get ut it, and
its ghosts and damp cannot get at you,
but in the reality it is awful in the ex-
treme.
''Poor little Aunt Augusta goes about
all the time with no other company than
the relics of those who are in their graves
She shows me about the house, and not a
room but some member of the family has
died in; not an article of furniture, nor
picture, not even book, but has a
history connected with her dead parents,
brothers, and sisters, grandparents and
their families. or great grandparents and
theirs.
yesterday, rs we stood in the H.
brary, she pointed to n long narrow table
In the corner. THAT is the table upon
which all their coffins have stood she
said, quietly. 1t gave me shock which
believe shall never get over. I shall
do no more reading i'll the library There
are very many and excellent looks, by.
the-way, but they are also of dead and
gone day.
~ do wish that you could sec the por-
traits here and the miniatures. My poor
little great-grandmothe Landor, who
died when she was twcnty-three, only q
year older than I, and TWO Of grand
mother Landor when she was young. She
was McCrcgor, and there ave some
Scotch portraits of her ancestors which
nre very curious. So you see, my dear,
there is plenty of blood, but, after sll,
what does It amount to? With the cx-
SSptiOi VI <huuI tuS lhUttOTS
have been such a short lived family. l
am thankful that get my constitution
and blood too from mamma. I don't
care if her people did make their nlorey
in cattle, and hadn't any ancestors, They
have at least the money, and are olive to
enjoy il.
~ believe Aunt Augusta thinks that
papa made mistake in marrying,at least
she never speaks OF mamma, and I re-
member when l aas little and used to
come here that it was always papa who
brought me.
.I"Yekerday she talked to me fog long
time ahout my responsibilities as her
heir: ana had no. the heart to tell her
that if she left the place to IN. should
sell it. /. is IN idea which shocks even
me, but sentiment Is luxury which has
its drawbacks, end will not encourage
it. OF coJrsi should keep all the pict-
,res and the silver and books, and a
great deal OF the furniture, but the house
should go. 1 canuot decide whether it is
my duty to tell Aunt A, and make her
declining days miaarable, or whether it is
best to say nothing, at all. II there were
any ono else who would value the place
more it would decide me, but shall be
the only surviving LaMdor.
ooh, write to me, Margaret dear, and
think of me all the tine! l hope to be
able to get away gracefully in two weeks;
in fact cannot stand it longer. Have
you seen anything of +. ca If you
should, and he should Asl1 for me, tel
him that he may write to me after all; it
is so unbearably lonely that should be
glad if he would, but L will not promise
to reply. should be sure TO shock him,
heso adorcs old things, and the idea of
family. Pooh!
"Give ray love to any of the girls who
ask for me, and if you go to see mamma,
as l hope you will, do not show her my
letter, but tell her long to get back to
her, which is true-truc-true!"
A week passed, and the same young
lady sat at the same window and wrote: