UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 163 



time in useless lamentations, and immediately 

 began, not only to repair, but to improve, and 

 to provide, as much as possible, against a recur- 

 rence of similar misfortunes. He excavated 

 with his own hands a large cellar in the rock 

 near his mill, partly by the pickaxe, and partly 

 by blasting with gunpowder ; and there his 

 stores and winter provisions were safe from any 

 power of destruction, less formidable than an 

 earthquake. 



But this industrious man had long been the 

 wonder of the commune. One of his perform- 

 ances, that almost exceeds belief, was the re- 

 moval, in 1796, of an immense block of marble, 

 and the working it into a millstone for crushing 

 walnuts. The block had fallen into the valley, 

 about three hundred yards from his mill. He 

 had often viewed it with a wishful eye t but to 

 remove it seemed beyond his power ; he was, 

 however, then in the vigour of life, and he re- 

 solved to attempt it. He began by cutting the 

 stone into a proper form, which was a labour of 

 many months ; when this was done, by the aid 

 of his wife, his mother, and his servant boy, and 

 with some miserable pulleys, he contrived, for 

 several successive weeks, to move it a few inches, 

 or a few yards everyday, according to the nature 

 of the ground, till at length he brought it safely 

 within his mill. It is about nine feet in diame- 

 ter, and three feet in thickness ; and cannot 



