On reaching the hall, they found the backyard gates open, and the court and kitchen seemed crowded with excited milk-fetchers--men, women, and children--whom Mrs. Gill, the housekeeper, appeared vainly persuading to take their milk-cans and depart. (It _is_, or _was_, by-the-bye, the custom in the north of England for the cottagers on a country squire's estate to receive their supplies of milk and butter from the dairy of the manor house, on whose pastures a herd of milch kine was usually fed for the convenience of the neighbourhood. 
On reaching the hall, they found the backyard gates open, and the court and kitchen crowded with excited milk-fetchers - waiting to receive their supplies from the dairy, as was the custom - whom Mrs. Gill, the housekeeper, was vainly trying to persuade to take their milk-cans and depart.
