THE CUCKOO'S GLEN.
About a mile above Llangorren Court, but on the opposite side of the
Wye, stands the house which had attracted the attention of Captain
Ryecroft; known to the neighbourhood as "Glyngog"--Cymric synonym for
"Cuckoo's Glen." Not immediately on the water's edge, but several
hundred yards back, near the head of a lateral ravine which debouches on
the valley of the river, to the latter contributing a rivulet.
Glyngog House is one of those habitations, common in the county of
Hereford as other western shires--puzzling the stranger to tell whether
they be gentleman's residence, or but the dwelling of a farmer. This
from an array of walls, enclosing yard, garden, even the orchard--a
plenitude due to the red sandstone being near, and easily shaped for
building purposes.
About Glyngog House, however, there is something besides the
circumvallation to give it an air of grandeur beyond that of the
ordinary farm homestead; certain touches of architectural style which
speak of the Elizabethan period--in short that termed Tudor. For its own
walls are not altogether stone; instead, a framework of oaken uprights,
struts, and braces, black with age, the panelled masonry between
plastered and white-washed, giving to the structure a quaint, almost
fantastic, appearance, heightened by an irregular roof of steep pitch,
with projecting dormers, gables acute angled, overhanging windows, and
carving at the coigns. Of such ancient domiciles there are yet many to
be met with on the Wye--their antiquity vouched for by the materials
used in their construction, when bricks were a costly commodity, and
wood to be had almost for the asking.
About this one, the enclosing stone walls have been a later erection, as
also the pillared gate entrance to its ornamental grounds, through which
runs a carriage drive to the sweep in front. Many a glittering equipage
may have gone round on that sweep; for Glyngog was once a manor-house.
Now it is but the remains of one, so much out of repair as to show
smashed panes in several of its windows, while the _enceinte_ walls are
only upright where sustained by the upholding ivy; the shrubbery run
wild; the walks and carriage drive weed-covered; on the latter neither
recent track of wheel, nor hoof-mark of horse.
For all, the house is not uninhabited. Three or four of the windows
appear sound, with blinds inside them; while at most hours smoke may be
seen ascending from at least two of the chimneys.
Few approach near enough the place to note its peculiarities. The
traveller gets but a distant glimpse of its chimney-pots; for the
country road, avoiding the dip of the ravine, is carried round its head,
and far from the house. It can only be approached by a long, narrow
lane, leading nowhere else, so steep as to deter any explorer save a
pedestrian; while he, too, would have to contend with an obstruction of
over-growing thorns and trailing brambles.
Notwithstanding these disadvantages, Glyngog has something to recommend
it--a prospect not surpassed in the western shires of England. He who
selected its site must have been a man of tastes rather aesthetic than
utilitarian. For the land attached and belonging--some fifty or sixty
acres--is barely arable; lying against the abruptly sloping sides of the
ravine. But the view is superb. Below, the Wye, winding through a
partially wood-covered plain, like some grand constrictor snake; its
sinuosities only here and there visible through the trees, resembling a
chain of detached lakes--till sweeping past the Cuckoo's Glen, it runs
on in straight reach towards Llangorren.
Eye of man never looked upon lovelier landscape; mind of man could not
contemplate one more suggestive of all that is, or ought to be,
interesting in life. Peaceful smokes ascending out of far-off chimneys;
farm-houses, with their surrounding walls, standing amid the greenery of
old homestead trees--now in full leaf, for it is the month of June--here
and there the sharp spire of a church, or the showy facade of a
gentleman's mansion--in the distant background, the dark blue mountains
of Monmouthshire; among them conspicuous the Blorenge, Skerrid, and
Sugar Loaf. The man who could look on such a picture, without drawing
from it inspirations of pleasure, must be out of sorts with the world,
if not weary of it.
And yet just such a man is now viewing it from Glyngog House, or rather
the bit of shrubbery ground in front. He is seated on a rustic bench
partly shattered, barely enough of it whole to give room beside him for
a small japanned tray on which are tumbler, bottle and jug--the two last
respectively containing brandy and water; while in the first is an
admixture of both. He is smoking a meerschaum pipe, which at short
intervals he removes from his mouth to give place to the drinking glass.
The personal appearance of this man is in curious correspondence with
the bench on which he sits, the walls around, and the house behind. Like
all these, he looks dilapidated. Not only is his apparel out of repair,
but his constitution too, as shown by hollow cheeks and sunken eyes,
with crows feet ramifying around them. This due not, as with the
surrounding objects, to age; for he is still under forty. Nor yet any of
the natural infirmities to which flesh is heir; but evidently to drink.
Some reddish spots upon his nose and flecks on the forehead, with the
glass held in shaking hand, proclaims this the cause. And it is.
Lewin Murdock--such is the man's name--has led a dissipated life. Not
much of it in England; still less in Herefordshire; and only its earlier
years in the house he now inhabits--his paternal home. Since boyhood he
has been abroad, staying none can say where, and straying no one knows
whither--often seen, however, at Baden, Homburg, and other "hells,"
punting high or low, as the luck has gone for or against him. At a later
period in Paris, during the Imperial _regime_--worst hell of all. It has
stripped him of everything; driven him out and home, to seek asylum at
Glyngog, once a handsome property, now but a _pied a terre_, on which he
may only set his foot with a mortgage around his neck. For even the
little land left to it is let out to a farmer, and the rent goes not to
him. He is, in fact, only a tenant on his patrimonial estate; holding
but the house at that, with the ornamental grounds and an acre or two of
orchard, of which he takes no care. The farmer's sheep may scale the
crumbling walls, and browse the weedy enclosure at will: give Lewin
Murdock his meerschaum pipe, with enough brandy and water, and he but
laughs. Not that he is of a jovial disposition, not at all given to
mirth; only that it takes something more than the pasturage of an old
orchard to excite his thoughts, or turn them to cupidity.
For all, land does this--the very thing. No limited tract; but one of
many acres in extent--even miles--the land of Llangorren.
It is now before his face, and under his eyes, as a map unfolded. On the
opposite side of the river it forms the foreground of the landscape; in
its midst the many-windowed mansion, backed by stately trees, with
well-kept grounds, and green pastures; at a little distance the
"Grange," or home-farm, and farther off others that look of the same
belonging--as they are. A smiling picture it is; spread before the eyes
of Lewin Murdock, whenever he sits in his front window, or steps outside
the door. And the brighter the sun shines on it, the darker the shadow
on his brow.
Not much of an enigma either. That land of Llangorren belonged to his
grandfather, but now is, or soon will be, the property of his
cousin--Gwendoline Wynn. Were she not, it would be his. Between him and
it runs the Wye, a broad, deep river. But what its width or depth,
compared with that other something between? A barrier stronger and more
impassable than the stream, yet seeming slight as a thread. For it is
but the _thread of a life_. Should it snap, or get accidentally severed,
Lewin Murdock would only have to cross the river, proclaim himself
master of Llangorren, and take possession.
He would scarce be human not to think of all this. And being human he
does--has thought of it oft, and many a time. With feelings too, beyond
the mere prompting of cupidity. These due to a legend handed down to
him, telling of an unfair disposal of the Llangorren property; but a
pittance given to his mother, who married Murdock of Glyngog; while the
bulk went to her brother, the father of Gwen Wynn. All matters of
testament, since the estate is unentailed; the only grace of the
grandfather towards the Murdock branch being a clause entitling them to
possession, in the event of the collateral heirs dying out. And of these
but one is living--the heroine of our tale.
"Only she--but she!" mutters Lewin Murdock, in a tone of such
bitterness, that, as if to drown it, he plucks the pipe out of his
mouth, and gulps down the last drop in the glass.