98 CHEONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



Now it happened that at the top of a column in 

 the advertisement-page of the Wetlandshire Mercury 

 which was lying fresh and damp from the Press, and 

 casting a hazy pattern of itself upon the polish of one 

 of those same mahoganies, there appeared one Sa- 

 turday morning in the autumn of the year Eighteen- 

 hundred-and-thirty something, a short dab of an 

 advertisement in the following spasmodic phrase- 

 ology : 



"WETLANDSHIRE. Farm to let; on Lease. 250 

 acres. One third Meadow and. Pasture. Has been 

 drained and otherwise improved in the hands of the 

 proprietor. Capital required, 10/. to the acre. Ap- 

 plication, to Messrs. Penn and Debbitt, Bogmoor, 

 Wetlandshire." 



"I say, Mr. Bowles, have you seen this Farm 

 that's advertised here ? " 



said a gentleman sitting in the window, to 

 another gentleman, in deep perusal at the fireplace, 

 of which he had taken sole seisin, holding it by the 

 hobs with his feet. 



" Yes : No : What is it : " said the voice from the 

 fireplace, uninquiringly, and smothered in a ' leading 

 article/ 



