St Erle Author:Caroline Thompson General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1874 Original Publisher: Simpkin, Marshall and Co. Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com whe... more »re you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: 23 CHAPTER TIL Oh, gentleman, the time of life is short; To spend that shortness basely, were too long, If life did ride upon a dial's point, Still ending at the arrival of an hour. Shakspeare. The Lowland counties of Scotland contain many spots of rare beauty, and not amongst the least beautiful of these was Culcrowthie Vale. The best view obtainable, was from the top of the Crag, a huge, rock-clad hill lying to the north of the Vale. It was a fine, though not very extensive view, for lofty hills rose all around, some of them clad to their summits in spruce firs or stately pines, others almost covered with strange, fantastic groups of dark rock, where here and there a tiny waterfall came flashing and foaming down, while below, softening the wild and rugged outline of the scenery, lay fair fields and thick woods. Leafless trees now, indeed ; beautiful nevertheless. Culcrowthie Vale was by no means scantily supplied with human habitations. Two little villages nestled among the trees, one with a grey church tower rearing its ancient head above the cottage roofs. Numerous clumps of farm- buildings, and thatched cottages were scattered here and there, and some two or three dozen handsome villas. Below the Crag lay Oak Hall, further on, the Rectory, a long, low, comfortable house, and about half a mile to the west of the Crag stood the Priory, the residence of Colonel Maxwell. Exteriorly, it had remained much as it was in itspristine glory. One among the few modern improvements which had been effected outside this fair domain, was a smooth and exten...« less