350 The Spccnlalor. [Oct. 



tially concealed by a listen slipper, into the solitary leathern shoe — and I 

 shall never forget the look of dismay he threw upon the pipkin when it first 

 occurred to him that he had, in his rage for experiment, absolutely left 

 himself shoeless. I endeavoured to make him ashamed of his carelessness, 

 but in vain — he laughed at the mistake, vowed his discovery in twelve- 

 months would be more valuable than old vnicle Peter's legacy, and 

 superintended the pipkin operation with manifest delight, while rag- 

 ged Jane went to pvu'chase a pair of boots for the Speculator, at the 

 nearest shoe-shop, of course with my money. " Very kind of Peter ! it 

 will give me the means of diffusing knowledge all over the world — in 

 three years, my friend, that three thousand a-year will be thirty — thirty, 

 ay, twice thirty ! Sir Peter, poor man ! was content to vegetate upon 

 his estate after the old fashion — never thought of improvement. What 

 glorious dyes I shall extract from the bark of the trees in that curious old 

 copse, his American copse as he called it — and what fine water-mills, 

 on my improved model, I can erect, where he was content to see the 

 miller fag in that crazy structure, covered with lichens and ivy, merely 

 because it looked picturesque." 



With many such visionaiy schemes did my friend amuse himself as we 

 walked towards Lincoln's Inn, and I confess that I became so provoked 

 as to feel almost sorry that his vmcle had left such a confirmed madman 

 unbounded power over one of the most beautiful estates in England. 



The Speculator's madness, is a madness peculiar to itself. It is not 

 the madness of affectation, which is fantastical ; — nor of wit, which is 

 biting — nor of sentiment, which is sickening — nor of honour, which, 

 according to modern reading, is blood-thirsty — nor yet of love, which 

 worships ideas as realities — nor of patriotism, which is out of fjvshion. 

 But it is a madness of its own, avaricious, yet revelling in the destruc- 

 tion of wealth ; and in mere wantonness, scattering the gold with tiie 

 one hand, it would feign make the world believe it was accumulating 

 with the other. I have seen several persons possessed with this sort of 

 mania; but of all, Harris Ryland was certainly the most demented. On 

 every thing unconnected with speculation he was sane and intelligent, and 

 I often tried to apply to himself the arguments which he applied to per- 

 sons and things, but in vain. The moment a project of any kind was 

 started — the instant a new view of any thing w'as touched upon, he was 

 up and away, with as much avidity as was ever evinced by a child 

 six years old, after a butterfly ; unfortunately, with a great deal more 

 perseverance. 



I heard of Ryland's taking possession of his estate, of his projecting 

 and putting in practice such schemes as made the entire neighbourhood, 

 from the knight of the shire down to the parish clerk, believe that he 

 was a fit subject for Bedlam ; an opinion which the very paupers would 

 have echoed, w^ere it not that his humanity and his speculations for once 

 agreed. He had submitted to the proper authorities a plan for ventilating 

 alms and workhouses, which he declared would prevent disease from 

 within, or contagion from without ; and prolong the existence of those 

 parish incumbrances to immortality ! Tliis plan you may be certain 

 was not relished by the guardians of the poor, and some warm alterca- 

 tion ensued, which led to a resolution on Ryland's part to prove the 

 truth of his theory by putting it at once into practice. Accordingly on 

 a spot of ground denominated " Ryland's Close," a green picturesque 



