GARLYLE HOUSE, CHELSEA 



with the piano-practice on the other side. Mrs. Carlyle's diplomacy, 

 however, was not altogether without effect, and there were lucid 

 intervals ; but in 1853 the " cocks were springing up more and 

 more till it seemed as if the universe were growing into one 

 huge poultry yard." After this, her feminine tact prevailing, 

 matters mended, and the poultry were all removed, " to the last 

 feather," on a certain Saturday afternoon. Even after this, on 

 more than one occasion Mrs. Carlyle was recalled home from 

 a visit, to settle the cock-crowing question that at length reached a 

 climax. 



In his desperation Mr. Carlyle had had some thoughts of buying 

 the lease of next door, and turning out the tenants, human and 

 feathered, neck and crop ; but instead of measures quite so drastic 

 and expensive, a soundless room was built at the top of the house 

 costing one hundred and seventy pounds, the roof being, as it were, 

 lifted over it. Comparative quiet was thus obtained, but the room, 

 which must have been very cold in winter, was found to be too hot 

 in summer, and during that season Carlyle formed the habit of 

 descending to the garden, where he generally worked very com- 

 fortably under the shade of a sort of tent, his books and papers 

 being on a butler's tray beside him ; but on one occasion he 

 caught cold, " sitting in the sweep of the wind under the awning." 



The cock-crowing nuisance reasserted itself in 1865, and caused 

 Mrs. Carlyle to lie awake at night devising means to meet it. 

 The neighbours fortunately were more amenable than those of 

 earlier days, and they were not unwilling to oblige, particularly as 

 by this time Carlyle had become famous. So the offending chan- 

 ticleer was shut up in a cellar, and the hens were to evacuate the 

 garden premises at Christmas on hearing which, Carlyle clasped 

 his wife in his arms and called her " his guardian angel." 



I have enlarged upon the topic of the fowls, because they were 

 a garden grievance, but I have only touched upon the annoyances 

 caused by the street-organ and piano nuisances, since, strictly 

 speaking, they have no place in this book ; suffice to say, that the 

 young lady next door was so obliging as to postpone her practising 

 until after two in the afternoon, and that Carlyle was duly grateful. 



If we look back through the nebulae of half a century to that 

 little house in Chelsea, we see that certain personages detach 

 themselves from the quiet surroundings of the dwelling and the 



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