Fettigrew Hall - The Biography of a House

Fettigrew Hall - Chapter 11

Chapter 11

It was nearly lunch time by the time Megan reached Blingham. She stopped in at the tea shop again for a small lunch. With amusement, she could see that the waitress and another woman behind the counter were obviously talking about her. It made her smile. She could have introduced herself but what was there to say? She didn’t think it was appropriate to say, “Hi, I’m Megan Redford the crazy American who wants to buy the haunted house.” There would be plenty of time to meet people if she ended up settling in the house. She finished her sandwich, paid her bill, and headed toward the house. She had yet to figure out how to reach the front of it. Driving around the lanes, she finally found an old wooden sign post which pointed in the direction of “Fettigrew Hall.” Following this along, she eventually came to a large gate house. It was built over the moat she had always known was there. Behind the gate house and on the other side of the moat was a tall stone wall. Since the house was so tall, she could see the 1st and 2nd floors but not the ground floor. The gate house was in the same style as the house itself, built in the Tudor era. It appeared to be in reasonably good shape. Maybe she would be able to live there temporarily. Well, she would find out tomorrow. She got out of the car and walked along the side of the moat. Phew, she thought, something has to be done and soon. She could see that trees had uprooted and fallen into the moat where they were rotting. Against the trees, leaves and other debris had fallen and stuck there until there was a rotting dam allowing for little water flow.

Next she decided to walk all the way around the moat. This wasn’t as easy as it should have been due to more downed trees, huge bushes, tall grass and weeds. She had to walk far outside the moat area at times just to continue going around the house and moat. She came to the bridge she had walked over before. The garden at the back of the house was also completely over grown. It was hard to make out if there was even an original design to it. Beyond the bridge it became such a tangled mess of shrubbery that she had to walk through a meadow to get around the obstructed areas. Finally reaching the side opposite the bridge she could get closer to the moat again. There was actually a duck floating along on the water. Megan wondered if there were fish in the water.

She decided she would not enter the house again until she and Andrew visited tomorrow. It was late afternoon by now. Taking one last look towards the house she thought she saw movement in a window but then realized it was just the shadow of the trees moving. She headed to her hotel to take a bath and have some dinner before turning in early.

The next morning she was at Andrew’s office before eight waiting at the door. As he came down the street he could see her standing there. “I guess you are anxious to get started.” He laughed.

“I certainly am. I’ve got my camera, a note pad, and I’m ready to go.”

“Okay,” he said, “Come in a minute and let me check messages and email. Would you like some coffee?”

“Nope, I’m good.” She said. She sat in the reception room leafing through a “Country Life” magazine trying to be patient.

Setting out in Andrew’s car, they drove to the gate house entrance.