The Lord of the Manor - ebook

CHAPTER I

TIME was when Castlerayne estates marched for miles along the Yorkshire coast. Not so long ago the Castleraynes were people of importance; indeed, the head of the House could claim that distinction now. On second thoughts, he did not so much make the claim as look upon it as a natural and indisputable right. As a matter of fact, the vast estates had been thrown into the crucible of change; they had gone as lands and fields will do under the sway of three generations of spendthrifts. The ‘First Gentleman in Europe’ had been a friend of the present owner’s grandfather, and, after that, little explanation of the family fallen fortunes is needed.

The old castle to-day is a mass of ivy-clad, picturesque ruins, standing high on the seaboard and commanding inland one of the most exquisite prospects in the North. So far as the passer-by can judge, the grounds about the ruins are beautifully kept, whereat the would-be picnicker wonders and envies, for none of his class are ever admitted within the sacred precincts of what had once been a great feudal castle.

If you are bold enough to explore the rugged walls, or fortunate enough to get beyond the sunken dike where the moat used to run, you will be equally surprised. You will cross a brown trout-stream filled with great gold-and-white lily pads; you will see a quiet stretch of velvet lawn, with the grim ivy-clad walls of the fortress for a background. Behind the ruins is a sloping hill covered to the summit with larches and birches and rowans–a marvellous setting to the picture. And then you will note why the ruins are so carefully guarded; for, nestling amongst them, built from their very stones, and knit into their very frame, is a marvellously beautiful and picturesque house covered with creepers to the roof-ties. The house has every appearance of great antiquity; it has latticed panes in the mullioned windows, the upper halves of which are stained glass. There is something very romantic and charming in this refined house, protected by the frowning fortress beyond; something very cooling in the brown stream where the lily pads flourish. Then, if you are discreet, you will make a bolt of it, being perfectly satisfied why the general public are excluded so rigidly from Castlerayne Towers.

As to the house itself, it is pure Elizabethan, though as a matter of fact it is not more than a century old. All the same, it was built–stone and timber–from the remains of the older keep; every bit of panelling, every carved ceiling and cornice, had come from the parent place. The house, together with some four thousand acres of sour, poor land, is all that remains of the Castlerayne property.

But, poor as the land is, it is wonderfully beautiful and picturesque. It lies for the most part fringing the North Sea, a rolling prairie of short thymy grass and heather, with here and there deep dells filled with bracken and blackberry, sand-dunes, and green lawns the turf of which has not been disturbed for centuries. Here and there are deep pits, with banks of refuse at the sides–refuse now covered with heather–where once the tenants of the estate extracted small doles of plumbago. But the plumbago vanished with the rest of the family prosperity, so that to-day there is no sign of commerce there. As for the rest, the greater part of the estates was useless save as a living for a few hundred hardy sheep. Still, the prospect was wonderful, the air brisk and bracing, so that folks came from Hardborough in the summer-time and picnicked there. The bathing was splendid–far more alluring than at Hardborough, the great fashionable and residential watering-place some few miles down the coast. There were still greater and more prosperous towns within twenty miles, and there were people who avowed that Mr. Rayne Castlerayne had the making of a fortune if he would but transform the Towers estate into a watering-place. But nobody ever ventured to make that suggestion to Mr Castlerayne, for nobody had the necessary courage.

For the man’s poverty was only exceeded by his pride. For eight hundred years there had been a Castlerayne more or less ruling over these parts. They had been warriors, divines, statesmen, robbers, in turn. Rayne Castlerayne never forgot that; the reflection warmed him on cold days, and kept him from worrying about his creditors. The slight little man with the clean-shaven face and hooked nose was not in the least like the head of an ancient race; he was shy and diffident so long as you took no liberties and remembered what he was. His eldest daughter, Angela, on the other hand, was all that one might expect from the class of Vere de Vere–tall, dark, exceedingly handsome, the beauties of her face softened by a pleasing smile and a little mouth that sometimes had a pathetic droop in it. There was another daughter, May, who quite incontinently was a Radical. Nobody quite knew where her sentiments came from, whence sprang the spirit of modern commercialism–those terrible ideas. For the rest, she was a pretty blonde, with charming easy manners, and no idea of the family dignity.

As to the household itself, it was greatly swayed–one could not call it ruled–by Miss Gertrude Castlerayne, sister of the head of the family. Miss Gertrude was small, a little faded and nervous; the face was relieved by a pair of dark eyes and abundance of silver hair, the rich silver that has gold flecks in the sunshine. There are certain old maids who are as beautiful and charming as their younger sisters, and Miss Gertrude was one of them. Nobody called her aught but Miss Gertrude, and all loved her, as was fitting they should.

There was a canker in the rose, of course–there always is; and the canker in this rose was a prosaic inability to make both ends meet. The metaphor sounds trite and vulgar in the case of such exalted personages, but that is what it came to. The poor land and the equally poor sheep made but scanty provision for the Castleraynes; the scattered tenants on the estate with difficulty paid their rent, though the spirit was willing enough. As May frequently said, things could not go on like this much longer.

‘What is the use of our fine old name?’ she demanded. ‘It does not pay old Morris for his milk and butter; it does not prevent us from owing Mrs. Lacey more than we can ever pay for meat. Dad is fond of saying that honour and integrity no longer form part of the character of the English people. And then he goes on to tell Sutton that he will send him a cheque next week for those seed-potatoes. Now, he knows perfectly well that there is not the slightest chance of paying Sutton next week or next year. And perhaps Sutton will make his arrangements on the strength of that promise. Angela, I ask you, is it honest?’

Angela sighed gently as she proceeded to tie back a refractory verbena. The garden was a blaze of sunshine; the wide stretch of dune and heather and bank was flooded with it. The whole place might have been Tennyson’s ‘haunt of ancient peace.’ If the canker was here, it was certainly not in the hearts of the crimson roses.

‘I calculate that we are six hundred pounds in debt,’ the remorseless May went on. ‘We are living at present on the charity of Aunt Gertrude. And I know for a fact that she has spent all her money but a thousand pounds. And here is a chance of making a steady five hundred a year for the rest of our lives. It drops into our laps like a godsend, and dad puts it aside as if some horrid brewer had offered to turn the old house into a tavern. We can’t afford to be independent.’

‘I call it gross presumption,’ Angela said with dignity. ‘Surely you have not given the proposal proper consideration, dear. For some time past we have tolerated the visits of trippers and the like from Hardborough, who make use of the common. They come here with their baskets; they leave a horrid litter in the heather––’

‘There are a great many rich people in Hardborough,’ May interrupted; ‘and a good many nice people too. They are not all trippers. Hardborough is the queen of watering-places. I should very much like to live there myself.’

Angela very properly ignored the atrocious sentiment.

‘Our father put an end to that kind of thing. He has been too lenient. Then he gets the offer you speak of from the Imperial Hotel Company. They are desirous of taking the old Dower-House on a repairing lease, and opening it as a high-class hotel.’

‘Well, why not? The Dower-House is at present in ruins. Put it in order and reduce the grounds to something like form, and there need be no more charming spot in England. It would not interfere with us in the least; it would only mean that the visitors had the right to reconnoitre on the sacred common, and we should be five hundred pounds a year better off. We should be able to pay our creditors then, and look the world in the face. And the pensioners would not have to go to the workhouse.’

Angela blushed slightly, for May had touched her on a tender spot. For the pensioners in question were dependent on the family bounty–a sacred thing, a tradition that had come down the grooves of the centuries. High up on the common stood ten small houses in which were ten old men and women who had served out the measure of their strong years on the estate; and those almshouses went back to the seventeenth century. To a certain extent, the common was theirs; it had been given them by the founder of the hospital as a means of revenue for keeping up the hospice, subject always to the rights of the Lord of the Manor. In those days plumbago had been found on the common, and the proceeds from the sale thereof had endowed the cottages. But the plumbago had failed, and the pensioners had fallen back on the hospitality of the family.

Sooth to say, the pensioners were having an exceedingly hard time of it at present. Besides the plumbago, there had been a certain well or spring of water containing mineral qualities, a well which had a place in history, a stream with a romance of its own, and the better class of visitors from Hardborough and the like had come there and drunk the water and left largesse behind, so that week in and week out there was as much as keep body and soul together in the hospice. And now the well had suddenly fallen away because, so May said, of the prosaic fact that the new owner of the estate adjoining Castlerayne to the north had been draining his property along the fringe of the sea. May brought up the fact now. She was terribly practical in her arguments.

‘The offer ought to be accepted,’ she said, ‘if only for the sake of the hospitallers. For all practical purposes, the common belongs to them–I mean those few hundred acres of it–and they can do what they like with it. My dear Angela, I could not possibly sit down and see a chance like this thrown away. It will be no fault of mine if the chance is lost. I have taken the bull by the horns and written to Mr Clifford Warrener.’

Angela blushed pink as the verbena she was still training in the way it should go.

‘Mr Warrener is almost a stranger,’ she protested. ‘We only met him a few times during our visit to London in the spring. And he is actually engaged in trade, May.’

‘Soap,’ May said cheerfully–‘household soap. After all, that is an honest occupation. Soap is a valuable asset in the nation’s balance-sheet. Anyway, I’ve written to Mr. Warrener, and he has telegraphed saying that he will be here to-morrow afternoon.’CHAPTER II

‘I HOLD in my hand,’ Mr. Castlerayne said oracularly, ‘a most extraordinary letter. It is from a firm of solicitors in Hardborough, and refers to the offer of the hotel company as to that preposterous suggestion relating to the opening of a licensed house here. These solicitors are instructed by their client, Mr. Samuel Craggs, to oppose any such action, and state that the rights of the common are vested in the hospitallers under the deed of 17th December 1699. This deed I am prepared to admit; and here comes the strange part of the letter. The hospitallers will resist any attempt to infringe their rights, and they claim the free lease of the common under the said deed; and, further, they claim that in them is vested the sole authority to admit or prevent any building on the common or the use of the said common for any other purpose save the right of sheep-grazing. In other words, they claim that the common belongs to them. Really, my dear Gertrude, your protégé Sam Craggs is going too far. For a Radical cobbler to oppose me like this!’

Miss Gertrude flushed faintly. If the expression might be permitted about so impeccable a lady, there was the suggestion of guilt about her.

‘Samuel is eccentric,’ she admitted; ‘and he has dreadful revolutionary ideas. He is fond of reading Carlyle and Adam Smith, and all kinds of formidable books. Still, he would never have gone into the hospital had it not been for the rheumatism that crippled his hands. And, like most people, he had no desire to starve. I don’t know who told him about the proposal from Hardborough, but he had heard of it some time ago. It was he who gave me the first intimation of it.’

‘And, of course, he was heartily in favour of it,’ Mr Castlerayne said bitterly. ‘It is just the kind of Radical progress idea to please Samuel.’

‘Those people are living on my bounty, and they know it,’ Miss Gertrude reiterated. A retort with her was so rare that she blushed at her own temerity. ‘Fifteen years ago I wanted to close the hospital and send the poor creatures to the workhouse. But you would not hear of it, Rayne; the family dignity prevented you. Craggs may be all that you say; but the bread of charity is bitter to him; he does not like the flavour of it. He would like to see the offer accepted; he would like to feel that his weekly dole comes from people who paid honestly for a remunerative privilege. And he was equally certain that you would refuse to entertain the offer. He had a rod in pickle for you, he said.’

‘A rod in pickle!’ Mr Castlerayne groaned. ‘For me? He actually said that?’

‘He did. I am afraid that Samuel is no respecter of persons. This he told me. He has been looking up the family archives; he has been to Lancaster, and examined the deeds relating to the Crown lands and the manors of East Yorkshire. He says he is quite sure of his ground, and that the commoners here have a vested right in the income to arrive from that part of the common whence the plumbago originally came. On his own initiative he has placed the matter in the hands of those lawyers in Hardborough, and they advise him that he has a good case.’

‘Ah!’ Mr Castlerayne went on, with one of his rare flashes of illumination upon him. ‘As I know to my cost, the lawyers are expensive friends. And Craggs has no money. Who has been providing him with funds for this disgraceful litigation, I should like to know?’

No reply came to the question. Miss Gertrude’s head was bent, a little red spot on either of her pallid cheeks. It was perhaps fortunate that the head of the House did not repeat his question. He muttered something to the effect that he would have to consult his own lawyers. He had not the slightest intention of accepting that hotel company’s offer, nor was he disposed for a moment to admit the claim of the preposterous and revolutionary Craggs. The bare idea that an old tenant on his own estate should take this step filled him with pain.

Angela had listened languidly to the discussion. On the contrary, May was deeply interested. Her blue eyes sparkled with amusement. It was evident that her dignity was not touched. Sooth to say, the Radical cobbler was by way of being a favourite of hers. Dreadful as it sounds, those two had much in common. May placed her arm affectionately through that of her aunt and drew her out into the sunshine.

‘Come as far as the trout-pool,’ she said. ‘I have something serious to say to you. Aunt Gertrude, you are a wicked old woman who is deliberately conspiring to upset the peace and dignity of a once happy family. It is a good thing that dad is so dazzled with his dignity that he can’t see as far as I can. To save you from prosecution, I am going to make a double charge against you. It was you who found the money for Craggs’s action!’

‘He didn’t tell you?’ Aunt Gertrude exclaimed. ‘He never so far forgot his promise––’

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