Before the house rolled rich meadows, open spaces of cornland, and low-lying orchards.  The building itself stood out boldly on a shelf of the hill; successive generations of the Crewys family had improved or enlarged it with more attention to convenience than to architecture.  The older portion was overshadowed by an imposing south front of white stone, shaded in summer by a prolific vine, which gave it a foreign appearance, further enhanced by rows of green shutters.  It was screened from the north by the hill, and from the east by a dense wood.  Myrtles, hydrangeas, magnolias, and orange-trees nourished out-of-doors upon the sheltered terraces cut in the red sandstone.

The woods of Barracombe stretched upwards to the skyline of the ridge behind the house, and were intersected by winding paths, bordered by hardy fuchsias and delicate ferns.  A rushing stream dropped from height to height on its rocky course, and ended picturesquely and usefully in a waterfall close to the village, where it turned an old mill-wheel before disappearing into the Youle.

If the Squire of Barracombe overlooked from his terrace garden the inhabitants of the village and the tell-tale doorway of the much-frequented inn on the high-road below—­his tenants in the valley and on the hillside were privileged in turn to observe the goings-in and comings-out of their beloved landlord almost as intimately; nor did they often tire of discussing his movements, his doings, and even his intentions.

His monotonous life provided small cause for gossip or speculation; but when the opportunity arose, it was eagerly seized.

In the failing light of a February afternoon a group of labourers assembled before the hospitably open door of the Crewys Arms.

“Him baint been London ways vor uppard of vivdeen year, tu my zurtain knowledge,” said the old road-mender, jerking his empty pewter upwards in the direction of the terrace, where Sir Timothy’s solid dark form could be discerned pacing up and down before his white house.

“Tis vur a ligacy.  You may depend on’t.  ’Twas vur a ligacy last time,” said a brawny ploughman.

“Volk doan’t git ligacies every day,” said the road-mender, contemptuously.  “I zays ’tis Master Peter.  Him du be just the age when byes du git drubblezum, gentle are zimple.  I were drubblezum myself as a bye.”

“’Twas tu fetch down this ‘ere London jintle-man as comed on here wi’ him to-day, I tell ’ee.  His cousin, are zuch like.  Zame name, anyways, var James Coachman zaid zo.”

“Well, I telled ’ee zo,” said the road-mender.  “He’s brart down the nextest heir, var tu keep a hold over Master Peter, and I doan’t blame ’un.”

“James Coachman telled me vive minutes zince as zummat were up.  ’Ee zad such arders var tu-morrer morning, ’ee says, as niver ’ee had befar,” said the landlord.

“Thart James Coachman weren’t niver lit tu come here,” said the road-mender, slyly.  His toothless mouth extended into the perpetual smile which had earned him the nickname of “Happy Jack,” over sixty years since, when he had been the prettiest lad in the parish.