' FARM TO LET.' 101 



Whether in aggravation, or explanation, of the 

 whole scene one can hardly undertake to say, but 

 there was one large bow-window visible a long way 

 up the street and down the street and indeed up 

 and down another street too, (the only attempt at a 

 cross street there was,) for it was a corner window, 

 commanding therefore at a glance all the news of 

 the town. 



Ay ! and a deal more too ! Its wide look-out was, 

 like the little dogs just observed upon, symbolic as 

 well as actual. It was the News-room, Reading- 

 room, Petty-Sessions-room, Literary-and- Scientific- 

 room, Farmers'-Club-room, and a great many other 

 rooms besides, that there is not time to tell. Enough 

 to say that the smallest pin ever manufactured could 

 hardly have alighted point downwards on the floor of 

 that room metaphorically to speak but every- 

 body heard it ten miles round, and could tell you the 

 shape size colour and manufacturer's name within 

 the twenty-four hours: and that was short time in 

 those days. 



I shall not describe that room or its bow-window 

 any further. I conceive that the heaps of news- 

 papers, with the noses and spectacles poring over 

 them, and the polished mahogany tables, to sit and 



