AN * APPLICATION.' 113 



landlord ought to allow 'is tenants to adopt any 

 bother. 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 hagriculturist could be ex- 

 pected to lay out his capital in these improvements 

 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 lec- 

 turer 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 

 handkerchief over the former, so that they were 

 quite buried ; though once or twice a keen observer, 

 not himself oratorically engaged, might have just 

 perceived 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 



i 



