There was not much life in the society of Buxton Baths towards the end of the year 1568, or, indeed, towards the end of any year. There were not many people there after the closing of the lodging-houses for the winter; no visitors, and not a great number of inhabitants. Some little stir existed, however, in the beginning of this December, for the Countess of Shrewsbury thought proper to come to the Hall just after everybody that could leave Buxton was gone. Nobody was surprised, because Bess of Hardwick had long ceased to surprise anybody. She was amusing, however; and it was with pleasure, on the whole, that the residents in the neighbourhood of any of the Shrewsbury seats heard any morning that the Countess had dropped down among them in the course of the night. When she had been a week at the Hall, on this occasion, a cheerful report began to spread that possibly the Countess would keep her Christmas at Buxton. The Earl was in attendance on the Queen in London; and no mortal in attendance on the Queen could ever tell where he might be, and what he might be doing, three days hence; so whether the Earl would come to Buxton was doubtful. What was not doubtful was, that the Countess was perfectly safe from any summons to Court, and that she would not wait for the Earl to spend her Christmas where and in what manner she pleased. She was exceedingly busy at present, laying plans with her architect, Master Gadbury, and settling accounts with him for the finishing of Hardwick Hall; and before that enterprise was well off her hands she was bent upon discovering some means by which the medicinal spring might be made to bubble up within the inclosure of the Hall at Buxton. Every day she and Gadbury and half-a-dozen attendants came riding to the Baths, consulting and tasting and measuring; and the amusement was too welcome to the inhabitants to be neglected: so there was always a little crowd about the entrance, and plenty of help for holding the horses. Every word that could be caught up was repeated and spread abroad. If the reports of what was said were incorrect, it was owing to
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