(no subject)
The gatekeeper's lodge has been there as long as the rest of Southdown Abbey, nestled against the walls in the stretch before, beneath an ivy blanket, they fade into hedges and trees and ditches, the more gently-defined limits of the abbey grounds. It's perfectly easy to wander in and out now; but only Aziraphael knows that the gates have never needed keeping.
With four rooms and a sharply peaked roof, it's more of a cottage than anything else, built from the same stone as the rest of the abbey - cool in summer but unforgiving in winter. It wouldn't really fit with the aesthetic of the place to have central heating, after all.
So it's probably a good thing that someone has slipped down earlier and set a fire going in the grate.
With four rooms and a sharply peaked roof, it's more of a cottage than anything else, built from the same stone as the rest of the abbey - cool in summer but unforgiving in winter. It wouldn't really fit with the aesthetic of the place to have central heating, after all.
So it's probably a good thing that someone has slipped down earlier and set a fire going in the grate.