THE MERCHANT. BY THE HEC AUTHOR OF BRAMBLETYE HOUSE, &c. IN THREE VOLUMES. "When novelty's the rage, and love of change, Jogs on the broadway and the beaten track, CHARLES MOORE. VOLUME I. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1843. ADAM BROWN. CHAPTER I. THOUGH the village of Woodcote, situated at the foot of the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire, could lay no claim to picturesque beauty, there was in its immediate vicinity one object which might interest a traveller, especially if he happened to be an antiquarian. This was the Manor-House, at a short distance from the village, on the road to Charlton Abbots. Originally a monastic building of considerable extent, it presented the usual incongruous aspect of such edifices when they have been partly pulled down, and partly rebuilt, and patched, and altered by successive owners, each more solicitous VOL. I. B |