text:  Rather see the old place burned to the ground--rather set fire to it with my own hands--than conceive that when I am in my grave it could possibly be subjected to the rule of such a barbarian!" For it had reached the ears of Sir Laurence--of course with all the exaggeration derived from passing through the medium of village gossip--that a thousand local legends concerning the venerable mansion sanctified by their antiquity in the ears of the family afforded a fertile source of jesting to Jonas Sparks