Terrace Hill

And indeed Terrace Hill mansion was a very handsome place, exciting the envy and admiration of
the villagers, who, while commenting upon its beauty and its well-kept
grounds, could yet remember a time when it had looked better even than
it did now--when the house was oftener full of city company, of
sportsmen who came up to hunt, and fish, and drink, as it was sometimes
hinted by the servants, of whom there was then a greater number than at
present--when high-born ladies rode up and down in carriages, or dashed
on horseback through the park and off into the leafy woods--when sounds
of festivity were heard in the halls from year's end to year's end, and
the lights in the parlors were rarely extinguished, or the fires on the
hearth put out. All this was during the lifetime of its former owner.

With his death there had come a change to the inhabitants of Terrace
Hill. In short it was whispered rather loudly now that the ladies of
Terrace Hill were restricted in their means, that it was harder to
collect a bill from them than it used to be, that there was less display
of dress and style, fewer fires, and lights, and servants, and
withdrawal from society, and an apparent desire to be left to
themselves.

This was what the village people whispered, and none knew the truth of
the whisperings better than the ladies in question. They knew they were
growing poorer with each succeeding year, but it was not the less
mortifying to be familiarly accosted by Mrs. Deacon Briggs, or invited
to a sociable by Mrs. Roe.