This tenement, once the manor house of the Earl's Closes, we
still retain a slight hold upon; for, in some family
arrangements, it had been settled upon Aunt Margaret during the
term of her life. Upon this frail tenure depends, in a great
measure, the last shadow of the family of Bothwell of Earl's
Closes, and their last slight connection with their paternal
inheritance. The only representative will then be an infirm old
man, moving not unwillingly to the grave, which has devoured all
that were dear to his affections.
When I have indulged such thoughts for a minute or two, I enter
the mansion, which is said to have been the gate-house only of
the original building, and find one being on whom time seems to
have made little impression; for the Aunt Margaret of to-day
bears the same proportional age to the Aunt Margaret of my early
youth that the boy of ten years old does to the man of (by'r
Lady!) some fifty-six years. The old lady's invariable costume
has doubtless some share in confirming one in the opinion that
time has stood still with Aunt Margaret.
The brown or chocolate-coloured silk gown, with ruffles of the
same stuff at the elbow, within which are others of Mechlin lace;
the black silk gloves, or mitts; the white hair combed back upon
a roll; and the cap of spotless cambric, which closes around the
venerable countenance--as they were not the costume of 1780, so
neither were they that of 1826; they are altogether a style
peculiar to the individual Aunt Margaret.
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