"The estate is called Carfax, no doubt a corruption of the old Quatre Face. The house is four sided, and each side is aligned with the main points of the compass. It contains in all some twenty acres, with the solid stone wall all around it. There are many trees, which make it gloomy in places. It has a deep, dark-looking pond or small lake. Obviously it is filled by some springs, as the water is clear and flows away in a fair-sized stream. The house is very large and probably mostly medieval, because one part is built of stone and is very thick, and has only a few windows high up and heavily barred with iron. It looks like part of a keep, and is close to an old chapel or church.

I could not enter it, since I didn't have the key of the door to the house, but I have photographed views of it from different places. The house has been added to, but in a very untidy way. I can only guess at exactly how big it is, but it is certainly very large. There are only a few houses nearby. One is a very large house which has been recently rebuit into a private lunatic asylum. It is not, however, visible from the grounds."

Vocabulary:

Corruption: Here it means 'changed wrongly'
Aligned: Put into the same position as
Main points of the compass: i.e. North, south east and west.
Gloomy: Dark and depressing
Springs: Water coming from the ground to start a stream
Medieval: The period between ancient and modern times
Barred: Strips of iron preventing anyone getting in or out
Keep: The strongest part of a castle
Lunatic asylum: A safe place for mentally ill people
Grounds: The garden of a large house