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Her thoughts had taken her so far from her surroundings that she started when she found that Lesley Bullen was standing at her side.

"That's the Doleham Valley," she said. "Isn't it beautiful? If you look over there, just beyond that little wood, you'll see Waters Farm."

9

Four of the five Doleham Manor farms were in Doleham Valley and had river names—Waters, Reedbed, Lambpool, and Sweetwillow—spreading along the river until both the property and the parish ended together in Dolehamtail Wood.

Beyond the wood was Pookreed, another river farm. But it did not belong to the Manor. The Cheynell family, when driven out in 1761, had not left the district, but had maintained themselves on an unmortgaged corner of their land. Here they had lived for some time as little more than farmers; but later generations had improved their position, and by the middle of Queen Victoria's reign had recaptured enough of their lost state for a Cheynell son to marry a Bullen daughter.

The Cheynells, however, had never equaled the Bullens either in acres or in income, and the present owner of Pookreed had been glad enough to accept the post of agent for the Doleham Manor estate. There had been no question of an agent while Tom Bullen was alive, for Tom had loved his land as no one else could love it, and cared for it as only a lover could care. But when he was killed in France it became essential for his widow to have someone to manage the place, though it was not until her second marriage had provided her with a town house that she spent so much time away from it.