Additions have been made to the
original edifice from time to time, and great alterations have
taken place; towers and battlements have been erected during wars
and tumults: wings built in time of peace; and out-houses,
lodges, and offices run up according to the whim or convenience
of different generations, until it has become one of the most
spacious, rambling tenements imaginable. An entire wing is taken
up with the family chapel, a reverend pile that must have been
exceedingly sumptuous, and, indeed, in spite of having been
altered and simplified at various periods, has still a look of
solemn religious pomp. Its walls within are storied with the
monuments of John's ancestors, and it is snugly fitted up with
soft cushions and well-lined chairs, where such of his family as
are inclined to church services may doze comfortably in the
discharge of their duties.
To keep up this chapel has cost John much money; but he is
staunch in his religion and piqued in his zeal, from the
circumstance that many dissenting chapels have been erected in
his vicinity, and several of his neighbors, with whom he has had
quarrels, are strong papists.
To do the duties of the chapel he maintains, at a large expense,
a pious and portly family chaplain.
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