130 MY LIFE [Chap. 



caused me to be much surprised when I learned that he was 

 there solely to make the working drawings for the handrails 

 of the principal staircase, and to superintend their proper 

 execution. I remember hearing this gentleman speaking in 

 praise of James Silk Buckingham as one of the most remark- 

 able men and prolific writers of the day. Some six years 

 later, I think, I heard a lecture in London by J. S. Buckingham 

 on some of his travels, and the impression made upon me 

 then was, and still is, that he was the best lecturer I ever 

 heard, the most fluent and interesting speaker. 



Our work here was mainly copying maps or making 

 surveys connected with the estate, and for this purpose we 

 had the use of a small empty house nearly opposite the inn, 

 where a large drawing-table and a few chairs and stools were 

 all the furniture we required. Here we used sometimes to 

 sit of a summer's evening with one or two friends for privacy 

 and quiet conversation, Mr. Clephan, the architect, and his 

 clerk being our most frequent companions. My brother 

 supplied them with gin-and-water and pipes, and I sat by 

 reading a book or listening to their discourse. Sometimes 

 they would tell each other stories of odd incidents they had 

 met with, or discuss problems in philosophy, science, or 

 politics. When jovially inclined, the architect's clerk would 

 sing songs, many of which were of such an outrageously 

 gross character that my brother would beg him to be more 

 cautious so as not to injure the morals of youth. At one 

 time, when Mr. Clephan was away, there was a fire at a farm 

 quite near us which burnt some stacks and outbuildings, 

 and caused considerable excitement in the village. We 

 only heard of it early in the morning when the local fire- 

 engine had at length succeeded in putting it out. My 

 brother wrote an account of this to Mr. Clephan, with 

 humorous descriptions of the sayings and doings of the chief 

 village characters, and, in reference to what we saw when it 

 was nearly all over, he said, " It could best be described 

 in a well-known line from the Latin grammar, ' Monstrum, 

 horrendum, informe, ingens cui lumen ademptum,' which 

 might be freely rendered, 'a horrid shapeless mass whose 



