26 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



Deep drain, which ten years ago the timid theorist 

 dared not assert, for its wild and visionary seeming, 

 is now the substance of the ' Report of a Com- 

 mittee,' the last tautology of admitted facts that men 

 endure, and having consigned to the charnel-house 

 of the Blue Books, inscribe its epitaph in an Act of 

 Parliament. 



1 In spite of forty years' experience to the contrary 



