Tuxford and Sons Works at Boston. 47 1 



and some of them packed for Japan. Blue was once 

 the body colour, but of late years the taste of custo- 

 mers has run in favour of green. An exact counter- 

 part of the one with two cylinders which did the best 

 duty at Bury — viz. (3 pounds 2f ounces of coal for 

 each horse power per hour), stands in the outer room, 

 and others are drawn up in a shed, along with sections 

 of centrifugal pumps, which are equal to discharging 

 from 350 to 5000 gallons per minute. 



Leaving the Iron King's dominions we enter those 

 of Wood, where seven combined finishing machines 

 are receiving their last touches, and we try to pene- 

 trate the mysteries of the adjustable screen. Patterns 

 of wheels hang on the wall like shields, and for the 

 third and last time we light on our Natal-bound 

 friend with his thirty-feet diameter. A word to a 

 carpenter in a mysterious model gallery running 

 along the centre of the roof, brings him down with 

 the wood coping model, and placing it on the 

 balustrades which are built up into form as they come 

 in from the founders, he shows us a portion of the 

 parapet of the Thames Embankment. All the wood 

 is seasoned for five years, under rain and sunshine in 

 the yard. The elm and the ash are nearly all from 

 the fens, and have 33 per cent, more gravity in that 

 rich clay loam than when grown on lighter soils. 

 Revesby and Kirkstead have furnished many a stately 

 oak, and there was a memorable purchase at Pinch- 

 beck of three oaks growing from one stool, which 

 fell before the wind in a night. It was some time 

 before the bargain was closed, and then the fallen 

 monarchs would never have seen Skirbeck, if a trac- 

 tion engine had not been sent to drag them across the 

 fens. 



THE END. 



