80 NEW CHIMNEY-SWEEPING ACT, 



horrors of a half-swept chimney. Had I old 

 Circe's power of witchcraft, when she changed 

 the sailors of Ulysses into swine, I would 

 transform every one of them into a goose ; and 

 they should be condemned to pass down our 

 chimneys once a month, in order to do the 

 needful with their wings and beaks. 



England is a land of chimneys. She cannot 

 possibly do without them. There is scarcely 

 anything in the whole routine of our domestic 

 economy, that requires more consideration than 

 the state of our chimneys. A chimney that 

 answers well the end for which it was built 

 is a treasure of no small value ; whereas a, 

 defective chimney is productive of so much 

 annoyance, that it has very aptly been placed 

 in the catalogue of miseries brought into a 

 house by the tongue of a scolding wife. 



There are some placid people in England 

 who are for ever on the look out for objects 

 whereon to exercise their philanthropy. Did 

 the imprudent interference of these good people 

 bring expense and inconvenience on themselves 

 alone, nobody would care to complain ; but 

 when every householder in Great Britain 

 suffers both in purse and person, through their 



