A FEW WORDS ON OUR PROGRESS IN BUILDING. 221 



THE EUEAL COT OP ME. KNOTT. 



BY LOWEDL. 



My worthy friend, A. Gordon Knott, 



From business siiug withdrawn, 

 Was much contented with a lot 

 "Which would contain a Tudor cot 

 'Twixt twelve feet square of garden-plot 



And twelve feet more of lawn. 



He had laid business on the shelf 



To give his taste expansion, 

 And, since no man, retired with pelf, 



The building mania can shun, 

 Knott being middle-aged himself, 

 Resolved to build (unhappy elf!) 



A mediaeval mansion. 



He called an architect in counsel ; 



" I want," said he, " a you know what, 



(You are a builder, I am Knott,) 



A thing complete from chimney-pot 

 Down to the very groundsel ; 



Here's a half acre of good land ; 



Just have it nicely mapped and planned, 

 And make your workmen drive on ; 



Meadow there is, and upland too, 



And I should like a water-view, 

 D' you think you could contrive one ? 



(Perhaps the pump and trough would do v 



If painted a judicious blue ?) 



The woodland I've attended to ;" 



(He meant three pines stuck up askew, 

 Two dead ones and a live one.) 



" A pocket-full of rocks 'twould take 

 To build a house of freestone, 



But then it is not hard to make 

 What now-a-days is the stone ; 



The cunning painter in a trice 



Your house's outside petrifies, 



And people think it very gneiss 

 "Without inquiring deeper ; 



