text:  The old lady protested that the general was nearly as much grieved as herself to behold the old mansion so shorn of its beams; and certain it is that once when on visiting the hall after Sir Laurence had been some years an absentee he found the grass growing among the disjointed stones of the cloisters and justice-hall he made a handsome present to one of the housekeeper's nephews on condition of his keeping the purlieus of the venerable mansion free from such disgraceful evidences of neglect