356 ' The Speculator. [^Oct. 



" It's all along measter's faut," said the old man ; " I bean't able to 

 tend the grapery, and fodder two hundred and forty varmint rabbits, that 

 are ever eating, eating, eating, in the sunlight — in the moonlight — in 

 rain and dry weather ; to say nothing of a colony of hawks, which he 

 fosters to destroy the poor rooks, innocent black things! and good 

 friends to the farmers, though he won't believe it." 



Of course liis experiments in favour of horses had invariably failed. 

 And in addition to his losing hundreds upon hundi-eds by the purchase 

 of such a pack of wretched and dying animals, he was obliged to pull 

 down the stables they had occupied, as every quadruped that entered 

 became diseased. 



The dairy had been metamorphosed into a species of distillery for con- 

 verting balm and rue, and potatoes, and Heaven knows what, into 

 brandy. And even the old hall, with its carved oak and moth-eaten 

 tapestry, had been abused to the vile use of storing sheep-skins, which 

 were to be prepared after a fashion of the speculator's, so as to rival all 

 the sheep-skins ever dressed before or since the flood. It was sad to 

 view this change ; the very birds of the air, as they whirled over the 

 fallen trees, chirmed their wailings to each other; and even the swal- 

 lows had abandoned the lake where they had so often dipped their dap- 

 pled wings, or chased the busy insects which the benevolence of an all- 

 providing Nature had appointed to be their food. 



" Do you remember the poor swan ?" said Mrs. Ryland, as she sat 

 caressing her capless babe, who, notwithstanding the absence of lace 

 and muslin round its fat laughing face, looked to my eyes, poor helpless 

 lump ! particularly interesting. " The swan's blood," she continued, 

 mournfully, " was the first shed there. My heart has often bled since." 

 In this brief visit I learnt what I had before anticipated, that my friend 

 had added to his other speculations that of borrowing money — of ap- 

 plying to the money-changers — the human harpies who increase and 

 multiply, and thrive and feast, on the miseries of mankind ; they 

 had taken his broad acres in trust for their comparatively valueless coin, 

 or decidedly valueless bills, wliich had to be discounted by other no less 

 ravenous gentlemen, learned in vice, or the law — which I take it are sy- 

 nonomous terms. Poor Ryland ! even then he might have been saved ! 

 but the madness was still strong upon him, and he returned with tenfold 

 vigour, when the grief and disappointment occasioned by the mining 

 misery was forgotten, to fresh speculations. 



He came occasionally to town, still intent upon some new project, and 

 though the green lands of his ancestors were fading from before his eyes, 

 even as " the green mantle of the standing pool" fades beneath the hot 

 blaze of the mid-day sun yet " wealth is coming" was his continual cry. 

 Do you remember his last project, Leslie ? It was the cure of Insanity ; 

 and he converted a summer lodge, at the termination of the alms-houses 

 I have before-mentioned, which contained some five or seven rooms, 

 into a mad-house. My poor, poor friend ! He was its first inhabitant ; 

 the storm, which had long been gathering and gathering, burst at last. 

 There was no reprieve — no means of escape — he was utterly and hope- 

 lessly ruined in body and mind. The remnant of that fine estate was 

 sold, and persons connected, I believe, with the parish authorities, 

 bought in the very dwellings which Ryland had erected for charitable 

 purposes. It was more than he could support — his mind was active but 



