It was roofed in with gold and silver beams, incrusted with pearls and jade.

Nothing was to be seen save flat meadows, cows feeding unconcernedly for the most part, and silvery pollard willows motionless in the warm sunlight.

Thenceforward my voice was a household law; and at an age when few children have abandoned their leading-strings, I was left to the guidance of my own will, and became, in all but name, the master of my own actions.

What I noticed was that my sadness and loneliness got backburnered, she told the BBC.