Cumberland House

“ Whichever way the poet pleases to advance from his house, it must be into scenery of that beauty for mountain, stream, wood, and lake, which has made Cumberland so famous over all England. He may steal away up backward from his gate, and ascend into the solitary hills, or diverging into the grounds of Lady Mary Fleming, his near neighbor, may traverse the deep shades of the woodland, wander along the banks of the rocky rivulet, and finally stand before the well known water-fall there. If he descend into the highway, objects of beauty still present themselves. ”

“ These were built in the age of sawmills and some of them came well down through the century.
It is remarkable how many buildings are to be seen on the Cumberland Road which tell by their architectural form the story of their fortunes. Many a tavern, outgrowing the day of small things, was found to be wholly inadequate to the greater business of the new era. Additions were made as circumstances demanded, and in some cases the result is very interesting. The Seaton House in Uniontown was built in sections, as was the old Fulton House (now Moran House) also of Uniontown. ”

“ For to-night, Arthur Cumberland’s position here is the position of a master.”
“I will respect it, sir, up to all reasonable bounds. I don’t think he meditates giving any trouble. He’s not at all impressed by our presence. All he seems to care about is what his sister may be led to say in her delirium.”
“That’s how you look at it?” The coroner’s tone was one of gloom. Then, after a moment of silence: “You may call my carriage, Sweetwater. I can do nothing further here to-day. The atmosphere of this house stifles me. ”

“ It was the evening of Hugesson Gastrell's housewarming reception in his newly furnished mansion in Cumberland Place, and the muster of well-known people was extraordinary.
Peers and peeresses, prosperous City financiers, celebrities of the drama and of the operatic stage, luminaries of the law, diplomats, and rich retired traders who had shed the "tradesman" and blossomed into "gentleman," jostled one another in the rooms and on the stairs. It is surprising how people will rush to the house of a wealthy man. ”

“ If you are so besotted by your prejudices that you refuse to see the nose before your face; if you don’t believe your own officer who swore he saw Ranelagh’s hands upon my sister’s throat, then this world is all a jumble and it makes very little difference to me whether I’m alive or dead.”
When these words of Arthur Cumberland were repeated to me, I echoed them in my inmost soul. I, too, cared very little whether I lived or died. ”

“ Knumf had left the room and softly turned the handle: it was locked.
Without a word and with a faint smile she approached Alys.
“Do not take your clothes off,” she said; “let us sleep as we are.”
Leaving the candles still burning, she lay down by her sister. Folded in each other’s arms, they lay for a long time without sleeping. Vague noises, whether in the house or not they could not tell, disturbed them from time to time.
“The fire’s coming nearer,” whispered Alys at length. “I know it is: I feel it is. Marie, let us go away from here: we shall be caught.” ”

“ WITH a tin roof, a real door, a glazed window and a plank floor, Si and Shorty's house was by far the most aristocratic in the cantonment of the 200th Ind., if not the entire Winter quarters of the Army of the Cumberland. A marble mansion, with all the modern improvements, could not more proudly overshadow all its neighbors than it did. ”

“ But the vines were bare of leaves and offered no obstruction to his view. “If there had been a light in that window, any one leaving this house by the rear would have seen it, unless he had been drunk or a fool,” muttered Sweetwater, in contemptuous comment to himself. “Arthur Cumberland’s story is one lie. I’ll take the district attorney’s suggestion and return to New York to-night. My work’s done here.”
Yet he hung about the links for a long time, and finally ended by entering the house, and taking up his stand beneath the long, narrow window of the closet overlooking the golf-links. ”

“ Far more important than these military commands was the commencement of Cumberland's political career. He soon gained an important influence over the mind of the Prince of Wales, and in the House of Lords he showed himself a clear, if not very eloquent, speaker and a ready debater. He was a constant attendant at debates, and soon obtained much weight in the councils of his party. From the first he took his place as a tory partisan and a supporter of the protestant religion. ”

“ At Cumberland Street she got off, and went down that broad street of tall grey houses with their air of decayed gentility. Once, what is known as "better-class people" had had their dwellings there, but now the tall houses were divided into tenements, and several families found their home in one house. Soon Elizabeth was in meaner streets—drab, dreary streets which, in spite of witnesses to the contrary in the shape of frequent public-houses and pawnshops, harboured many decent, hard-working people. From these streets, largely, was James Seton's congregation drawn. ”

“ This was particularly true in the West, where the public house was almost the only available place for any gathering whatever between the scattered villages. But while in the East the landlord was most frequently busy with official duties, the western landlord was mostly engaged in collateral professions, which rendered him of no less value to his community. The jovial host at the Cumberland Road tavern often worked a large farm, upon which his tavern stood. Some of the more prosperous on the eastern half of the road, owned slaves who carried on the work of the farm and hotel. ”

“ Mr M'Leish, knowing this, searched for them to deliver them to the Duke of Cumberland, but Emily Dewar, a faithful servant at the house, hid them in the pump, so that the minister could not find them. He told the tenants not to pay their rents to a rebel landlord. When the Duke of Cumberland, at the request of Lady Gask, sent out a guard from Perth to protect that lady in those troublous times, the minister, on hearing this, was highly indignant, and said—"What right had they to protect a rebel lady?" ”

“ Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby authorized to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, three discreet and disinterested citizens of the United States, to lay out a road from Cumberland, or a point on the northern bank of the river Potomac, in the state of Maryland, between Cumberland and the place where the main road leading from Gwynn's to Winchester, in Virginia, crosses the river, to the state of Ohio ”

“ Its prolongation, Duke Street, rebuilt in 1889 in red brick, dates from about 1770, and was named probably after the Duke of Cumberland. In that year a lying-in hospital stood in the street; opposite a small square is the King's Weigh House Congregational Chapel, a large building erected in 1891. Blocks of artisans' dwellings occupy the small streets round about.
In Gilbert Street are St George's, Hanover Square, District Schools, which replaced the old schools in South Molton Street. The building was erected in 1888 by Caroe on a site given by the Duke of Westminster, and cost £5,000. ”

“ Lord A. Hamilton thought the House was called upon to consider the merits of the individual before it assented to this proposition, unless it were assumed that, upon the marriage of any branch of the [254] royal family, the House was bound to grant an additional allowance, without any consideration of the nature of the marriage, which was a proposition too preposterous to be maintained! The intimation, too, which he understood to be authentic, that it was the intention of the Duke of Cumberland not to reside in this country, furnished another argument against the present measure ”

“ The tavern signs so common in New England were known only in the earlier days of the Cumberland Road as many of the tavern names show. The majority of the great taverns bore on their signs only the name of their proprietor, the earliest landlord’s name often being used for several generations. The advancing of the century can be noticed in the origin of such names as the National House, the United States Hotel, the American House, etc. The evolution in nomenclature is, plainly, from the sign or symbol to the landlord’s name, then to a fanciful name. ”

“ The district attorney showed that he was baffled, and Dr. Perry moved uneasily in his seat, until Sweetwater, coming forward, took up the cue and spoke for the first time since young Cumberland entered the room.
“Then I have no doubt but you will do us this favour,” he volunteered, in his pleasantest manner. “It’s not a long walk from here. Will you go there in my company, with your coat-collar pulled up and your hat well down over your eyes, and ask for a seat in the snuggery and show them this bottle? They won’t know that it’s empty. The man is sharp and the woman intelligent. ”

“ Hamlet.
“Let us enter by the side door,” suggested Sweetwater, as the two moved towards the house. “And be sure you place me where I can see without being seen. I have no wish to attract attention to myself, or to be identified with the police until the necessity is forced upon me.”
“Then we won’t go in together,” decided Hexford. “Find your own place; you won’t have any difficulty. A crowd isn’t expected. Miss Cumberland’s condition forbids it.”
Sweetwater nodded and slid in at the side door.
He found himself at once in a narrow hall, from the end of which opened a large room. ”

“ A start is all I can hope for, so here goes.”
It was not his intention to revisit the places so thoroughly overhauled by the police. He carried another list, that of certain small groceries and quiet unobtrusive hotels where a man could find a private room in which to drink alone; it being Sweetwater’s conviction that in such a place, and in such a place only, would be found the tokens of those solitary hours spent by Arthur Cumberland between the time of his sister’s murder and his reappearance the next day. ”

“ Carlisle is a post town, and the capital of Cumberland county. It contains about three hundred houses of brick, stone, and wood. The two principal streets cross each other at right angles, where there is a market-house, a neat brick court-house and a large stone meeting-house. There are besides in the town, a German, an Episcopalian, and a Roman Catholick church. The streets are wide, and the footways are flagged or coarsely paved. Dickenson college on the north, was founded in 1783, and was so named in compliment to Mr. ”

“ Passed another mansion, now tenanted by a schoolmaster; many boys playing upon the lawn. I cannot take leave of the country which we passed through to-day, without mentioning that we saw the Cumberland mountains within half a mile of Ellisland, Burns's house, the last view we had of them. Drayton has prettily described the connexion which this neighbourhood has with ours when he makes Skiddaw say ”

“ Tavern Stand for Sale or Rent.—A valuable Tavern Stand Sign of the Harp, consisting of 251⁄2 acres of choice land partly improved, and a dwelling house, together with three front lots. This eligible and healthy situation lies 8 miles east of Columbus City, the capital of Ohio, on the National Road leading to Zanesville, at Big Walnut Bridge. The stand is well supplied with several elegant springs.
It is unnecessary to comment on the numerous advantages of this interesting site. The thoroughfare is great, and the growing prospects beyond calculation. ”

“ It seems to me it is a little late to make discoveries now.”
“This was brought about by the persistence of Sweetwater. He seems to have an instinct for things. He was leaning out of the window at the rear of the clubhouse—the window of that small room where your sister’s coat was found—and he saw, caught in the vines beneath, a—”
“Why don’t you speak out? I cannot tell what he found unless you name it.”
“A little bottle—an apothecary’s phial. It was labelled ‘Poison,’ and it came from this house.”
Arthur Cumberland reeled ”

“ It argues a brute, but he—”
“Arthur Cumberland is selfish, unresponsive, and hard, but he is not a brute. I’m disposed to give him the benefit of my good opinion to this extent, Charlie; I cannot believe he first poisoned and then choked that noble woman.”
Clifton drew himself up in his turn, astonishment battling with renewed distrust.
“Either he or you, Ranelagh!” he exclaimed, firmly. “There is no third person. This you must realise.”
XXI
CARMEL AWAKES One woe doth tread upon another’s heel,
So fast they follow. ”

“ They stopped walking, and he placed his hand upon her shoulder.
“When I think of you, that’s how my heart feels,” he said. “All people must be happy when they think of you.”
“Marania, you think too well of me,” she said craftily.
“My heart is empty because you do not love me, and my house is as empty as my heart. Think of it!—that big house with no one in it save myself and my deaf and dumb servant, Cesiphos. It is not a home: it is only a house. No house can be a home without children.” ”

“ The crooked village was full of black shadows, and even to him who was familiar with them, the twisting, inconsequent streets were like a maze; nevertheless, Orosdi could without difficulty have found his way blindfolded to Stephanie’s house. His nearest way there lay past the central inn, outside which many men were sitting, drinking. For a moment the young farmer hesitated; then, calling for a bottle of mavrodaphne, he flung himself down in a chair and peered around him to see if he could discern the face of Stephanie’s father by the light of the one lamp that hung outside the inn. ”