24 THE HOUSE I LIVE IN. 



SIZE OF THE HOUSE. I said it was not 

 the largest building in the world. Very far 

 indeed from that. The mosque of Omar, at 

 Jerusalem, which, according to travellers, is 

 1489 feet (more than a quarter of a mile) long, 

 and 995 feet wide, covering forty-one acres, 

 is of course millions of times as large. The 

 palace and church of the Escurial in Madrid, in 

 Spain, is nearly a mile in circumference. The 

 great tobacco factory at Seville, in Spain, covers 

 about seventeen acres, and is of course millions 

 of times as large as my house is. So are also 

 St. Peter's Church at Rome, and St. Paul's in 

 London ; the latter of which covers six acres. 

 Even the City Hall in New York, which is only 

 216 feet long and 105 broad, is many thousand 

 times as large as the house I live in. In 

 truth, the latter is only a foot or two in extent 

 in any direction. Its height is almost as dimin- 

 utive as its extent ; for though it has two stories, 

 with a cupola, it scarcely towers beyond the 

 height of six feet. 



ITS AGE. It is not the oldest building in 

 the world. A traveller assures me that he 

 once saw a house in Nantes, in France, in 



