Bless This House — Norah Lofts

PIRATE, WITCH, BAWD & RAKE

They had all been sheltered and shaped by the great house. Now, after almost five centuries, Merraway still stood - a beautiful, wracked monument to flaming passions and human hopes....

The story of Merravay, "a stately house, a beautiful house, a poem built not with words, but with timber and glass and brick." Good Queen Bess was on England's throne in 1557 when Merravay was built, and the history of this house spans the generations between her reign and the coronation of Elizabeth II, four centuries later. The house was destined for drama and baptized in tragedy. Its story is told by those who were intimately connected with it through the years -- those who watched it take shape and prosper in happy times, fade and grow old in times less happy. Rascals in one generation are seen gradually to take the color of honorable men as they are remembered two or three generations later by their portraits; chance acts of love or hate set off reverberations that echo through the years.