CHAPTER XXXVII 541
CHAPTER XXXVII
The manor-house of Ferndean was a building of considerable antiquity , moderate size , and no architectural pretensions , deep buried in a wood . I had heard of it before . Mr . Rochester often spoke of it , and sometimes went there . His father had purchased the estate for the sake of the game covers . He would have let the house , but could find no tenant , in consequence of its ineligible and insalubrious site . Ferndean then remained uninhabited and unfurnished , with the exception of some two or three rooms fitted up for the accommodation of the squire when he went there in the season to shoot .
To this house I came just ere dark on an evening marked by the characteristics of sad sky , cold gale , and continued small penetrating rain . The last mile I performed on foot , having dismissed the chaise and driver with the double remuneration I had promised . Even when within a very short distance of the manor-house , you could see nothing of it , so thick and dark grew the timber of the gloomy wood about it . Iron gates between granite pillars showed me where to enter , and passing through them , I found myself at once in the twilight of close-ranked trees . There was a grass-grown track descending the forest aisle between hoar and knotty shafts and under branched arches . I followed it , expecting soon to reach the dwelling ; but it stretched on and on , it would far and farther : no sign of habitation or grounds was visible .
I thought I had taken a wrong direction and lost my way . The darkness of natural as well as of sylvan dusk gathered over me . I looked round in search of another road . There was none : all was interwoven stem , columnar trunk , dense summer foliage -- no opening anywhere .
I proceeded : at last my way opened , the trees thinned a little ; presently I beheld a railing , then the house -- scarce , by this dim light , distinguishable from the trees ; so dank and green were its decaying walls . Entering a portal , fastened only by a latch , I stood amidst a space of enclosed ground , from which the wood swept away in a semicircle . There were no flowers , no garden-beds ; only a broad gravel-walk girdling a grass-plat , and this set in the heavy frame of the forest . The house presented two pointed gables in its