Search
Home Genre Ranking Short Stories
Create
Get the APP hot
Home / Romance / Venetia
Venetia

Venetia

Benjamin Disraeli
5.0
Romance
85 Chapters
14 View
Read Now

About

Contents

Some ten years before the revolt of our American colonies, there was situate in one of our midland counties, on the borders of an extensive forest, an ancient hall that belonged to the Herberts, but which, though ever well preserved, had not until that period been visited by any member of the family, since the exile of the Stuarts.

Book i. Chapter 1

Some ten years before the revolt of our American colonies, there was situate in one of our midland counties, on the borders of an extensive forest, an ancient hall that belonged to the Herberts, but which, though ever well preserved, had not until that period been visited by any member of the family, since the exile of the Stuarts. It was an edifice of considerable size, built of grey stone, much covered with ivy, and placed upon the last gentle elevation of a long ridge of hills, in the centre of a crescent of woods, that far overtopped its clusters of tall chimneys and turreted gables.

Although the principal chambers were on the first story, you could nevertheless step forth from their windows on a broad terrace, whence you descended into the gardens by a double flight of stone steps, exactly in the middle of its length. These gardens were of some extent, and filled with evergreen shrubberies of remarkable overgrowth, while occasionally turfy vistas, cut in the distant woods, came sloping down to the south, as if they opened to receive the sunbeam that greeted the genial aspect of the mansion, The ground-floor was principally occupied by the hall itself, which was of great dimensions, hung round with many a family portrait and rural picture, furnished with long oaken seats covered with scarlet cushions, and ornamented with a parti-coloured floor of alternate diamonds of black and white marble. From the centre of the roof of the mansion, which was always covered with pigeons, rose the clock-tower of the chapel, surmounted by a vane; and before the mansion itself was a large plot of grass, with a fountain in the centre, surrounded by a hedge of honeysuckle.

This plot of grass was separated from an extensive park, that opened in front of the hall, by tall iron gates, on each of the pillars of which was a lion rampant supporting the escutcheon of the family. The deer wandered in this enclosed and well-wooded demesne, and about a mile from the mansion, in a direct line with the iron gates, was an old-fashioned lodge, which marked the limit of the park, and from which you emerged into a fine avenue of limes bounded on both sides by fields. At the termination of this avenue was a strong but simple gate, and a woodman's cottage; and then spread before you a vast landscape of open, wild lands, which seemed on one side interminable, while on the other the eye rested on the dark heights of the neighbouring forest.

This picturesque and secluded abode was the residence of Lady Annabel Herbert and her daughter, the young and beautiful Venetia, a child, at the time when our history commences, of very tender age. It was nearly seven years since Lady Annabel and her infant daughter had sought the retired shades of Cherbury, which they had never since quitted. They lived alone and for each other; the mother educated her child, and the child interested her mother by her affectionate disposition, the development of a mind of no ordinary promise, and a sort of captivating grace and charming playfulness of temper, which were extremely delightful. Lady Annabel was still young and lovely. That she was wealthy her establishment clearly denoted, and she was a daughter of one of the haughtiest houses in the kingdom. It was strange then that, with all the brilliant accidents of birth, and beauty, and fortune, she should still, as it were in the morning of her life, have withdrawn to this secluded mansion, in a county where she was personally unknown, distant from the metropolis, estranged from all her own relatives and connexions, and without resource of even a single neighbour, for the only place of importance in her vicinity was uninhabited. The general impression of the villagers was that Lady Annabel was a widow; and yet there were some speculators who would shrewdly remark, that her ladyship had never worn weeds, although her husband could not have been long dead when she first arrived at Cherbury. On the whole, however, these good people were not very inquisitive; and it was fortunate for them, for there was little chance and slight means of gratifying their curiosity. The whole of the establishment had been formed at Cherbury, with the exception of her ladyship's waiting-woman, Mistress Pauncefort, and she was by far too great a personage to condescend to reply to any question which was not made to her by Lady Annabel herself.

The beauty of the young Venetia was not the hereditary gift of her beautiful mother. It was not from Lady Annabel that Venetia Herbert had derived those seraphic locks that fell over her shoulders and down her neck in golden streams, nor that clear grey eye even, whose childish glance might perplex the gaze of manhood, nor that little aquiline nose, that gave a haughty expression to a countenance that had never yet dreamed of pride, nor that radiant complexion, that dazzled with its brilliancy, like some winged minister of Raffael or Correggio. The peasants that passed the lady and her daughter in their walks, and who blessed her as they passed, for all her grace and goodness, often marvelled why so fair a mother and so fair a child should be so dissimilar, that one indeed might be compared to a starry night, and the other to a sunny day.

Continue Reading
img View More Comments on App
Latest Release: Chapter 5   11-20 16:43
img
1 Book i. Chapter 1
17/11/2017
2 Chapter 2
17/11/2017
3 Chapter 3
17/11/2017
4 Chapter 4
17/11/2017
5 Chapter 5
17/11/2017
6 Chapter 6
17/11/2017
7 Chapter 7
17/11/2017
8 Chapter 8
17/11/2017
9 Chapter 9
17/11/2017
10 Chapter 10
17/11/2017
11 Chapter 11
17/11/2017
12 Chapter 12
17/11/2017
13 Chapter 13
17/11/2017
14 Chapter 14
17/11/2017
15 Chapter 15
17/11/2017
16 Chapter 16
17/11/2017
17 Chapter 17
17/11/2017
18 Chapter 18
17/11/2017
19 Chapter 19
17/11/2017
20 Chapter 20
17/11/2017
21 Book ii. Chapter 1
17/11/2017
22 Chapter 2
17/11/2017
23 Chapter 3
17/11/2017
24 Chapter 4
17/11/2017
25 Chapter 5
17/11/2017
26 Chapter 6
17/11/2017
27 Chapter 7
17/11/2017
28 Chapter 8
17/11/2017
29 Chapter 9
17/11/2017
30 Chapter 10
17/11/2017
31 Chapter 11
17/11/2017
32 Book iii. Chapter 1
17/11/2017
33 Chapter 2
17/11/2017
34 Chapter 3
17/11/2017
35 Chapter 4
17/11/2017
36 Chapter 5
17/11/2017
37 Chapter 6
17/11/2017
38 Chapter 7
17/11/2017
39 Chapter 8
17/11/2017
40 Book iv. Chapter 1
17/11/2017
MoboReader

© 2018-now CHANGDU (HK) TECHNOLOGY LIMITED

6/F MANULIFE PLACE 348 KWUN TONG ROAD KL

Resources

For Authors Contact Us Tags Completed

Referrals

Law

Conditions of Service Privacy Policy Copyright Complaints
Download App
icon APP STORE
icon GOOGLE PLAY