108 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



course system, which no landlord ought to allow his 

 tenants to adopt hany other. Six feet deep and forty 

 yards wide was decidedly the proper depth and distance 

 for drains, and if the clay was well stamped down 

 upon the tile this would drain the wettest land 

 hamply and effectchally. But no ' agriculturist ' could 

 be expected to lay out his capital in these improve- 

 ments without a Lease nineteen years at least, as 

 they ave in Scotland. With a demand of which 

 after many other useful hints about Game, &c., the 

 lecturer concluded his remarks ; offering to exemplify 

 them in his own little person upon this identical ( Clay 

 Farm/ 



The stupid old chronicler meanwhile (the wearer 

 of the shooting jacket before-mentioned) during this 

 eloquent outpouring, seemed somehow to have got 

 into the clouds. During the first half of it, he had 

 never taken eyes or ears off the speaker; when at 

 length he did, it was only to put his hand and hand- 

 kerchief over the former, so that they were quite 

 buried, though once or twice a keen observer, not 

 himself oratorically engaged, might have just per- 

 ceived a very slight spasm or convulsion of the figure, 

 and a sudden redness of the temples over the edge of 

 the kerchief; but the momentary cough, or sneeze, or 



