text:  The only means of vengeance therefore possessed by the vindictive man whose follies and vices had been the means of creating this perpetual scourge to his pride was withholding from him the purchase of the remaining lands indispensable to the completion of his estate more especially as regarded the water-courses which at Lexley Park were commanded by the sluices of the higher grounds of the Hall; and mighty was the oath sworn by Sir Laurence that come what might however great his exigencies or threatening his poverty nothing should induce him to dispose of another acre to Jonas Sparks