Free Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope

Silverbridge; and there are bits of it, here and there, still to be seenat intervals throughout the whole distance; but the larger remaining portion, consisting of aged hollow oaks, centuries old, and wide-spreading withered beeches, stands in the two parishes of Chaldicotes and Uffley. People still come from afar to see the oaks of Chaldicotes, and to hear their feet rustle among the thick autumn leaves. But they will soon come no longer. The giants of past ages areto give way to wheat and turnips; a ruthless Chancellor of the Exchequer, desregarding old associations and rural beauty, requires money returns from the lands; and the Chase of Chaldicotes is to vanish from the earth’s surface.
    Some part of it, however, is the private property of Mr Sowerby, who hitherto, through all his pecuniary distresses, has managed to save from the axe and the auction-martthat portion of his paternal heritage. The house of Chaldicotes is a large stone building, probably of the time of Charles the Second. It isapproached on both fronts by a heavy double flight of stone steps. In the front of the house a long, solemn, straight avenue through a double row of lime-trees, leads away to lodge-gates, which stand in the centre of the village of Chaldicotes; but to therear the windows open upon four different vistas, which run down through the forest: four open green rides, which all converge together at a large iron gateway, the barrier which divides the private grounds from the chase. The Sowerbys, for many generations, have been rangers of the Chase of Chaldicotes, thus having almost as wide an authority over the Crown forest as over their own. But now allthis is to cease, for the forest will be disforested.
    It was nearly dark as Mark Robarts drove up through the avenue of lime-trees to the hall-door; but it was easy to see that the house, which was dead and silent as the grave through nine months of the year, was now alive in all its parts. There were lights in many of the windows, and a noise of voices came from the stables, and servants weremoving about, and dogs barked, and the dark gravel before the front steps was cut up with many a coach-wheel.
    ‘Oh, be that you, sir, Mr Robarts?’ said a groom, taking the parson’s horse by the head, and touching his own hat. ‘I hope I see your reverence well.’
    ‘Quite well, Bob, thank you. All well at Chaldicotes?’
    ‘Pretty bobbish, Mr Robarts. Deal of life going on here now, sir. The bishopand his lady came this morning.’
    ‘Oh – ah – yes! I understood they were to be here. Any of the young ladies?’
    ‘One young lady. Miss Olivia, I think they call her, your reverence.’
    ‘And how’s Mr Sowerby?’
    ‘Very well, your reverence. He, and Mr Harold Smith, and Mr Fothergill – that’s the duke’s man of business, you know – is getting off their horses now in the stable-yard there.’
    ‘Home fromhunting – eh, Bob?’
    ‘Yes, sir, just home, this minute.’ And then Mr Robarts walked into the house, his portmanteau following on a footboy’s shoulder.
    It will be seen that our young vicar was very intimate at Chaldicotes; so much so that the groom knew him, and talkedto him about the people in the house. Yes; he was intimate there: much more than he had given the Framley people to understand.Not that he had wilfully and overtly deceived any one; not that he had ever spoken a false word about Chaldicotes. But he had never boasted at home that he and Sowerby were near allies. Neither had he told them there how often Mr Sowerby and Lord Lufton were together in London. Why trouble women with such matters? Why annoy so excellent a woman as Lady Lufton?
    And then Mr Sowerby was one whoseintimacy few young men would wish to reject. He was fifty, and had lived, perhaps, not the most salutary life; but he dressed young, and usually looked well. He was bald, with a good forehead, and sparkling moist eyes. He was a clever man, and a pleasant companion, and always good-humoured