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On Christmas Day he excused himself from walking to church with us, and upon top of his excuse looked up with a sudden happy smile as though his eyes really saw us and quoted Waller's famous lines: "The soul's dark cottage, battered and decay'd, Lets in new light through chinks that time hath made. . . ."

And indeed some Places such Sorry, Scoundrel, Empty, Husky, Wither'd, Decay'd Feathers were offer'd to the Proprietors, that I have sometimes wonder'd any one could have the Impudence to send up such ridiculous Feathers to make a Consolidator, which, as is before observ'd, is an Engine of such Beauty, Usefulness and Necessity.

"The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, Lets in the light through chinks that time has made: Stronger by weakness wiser men become As they draw near to their eternal home: Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view That stand upon the threshold of the new." One day Pamela walked down to Hopetoun to lunch with Mrs. Hope.

"Sweet brother, I have seen the Holy Grail: For, waked at dead of night, I heard a sound As of a silver horn from o'er the hills Blown, and I thought, 'It is not Arthur's use To hunt by moonlight'; and the slender sound As from a distance beyond distance grew Coming upon me O never harp nor horn, Nor aught we blow with breath, or touch with hand, Was like that music as it came; and then Stream'd thro' my cell a cold and silver beam, And down the long beam stole the Holy Grail, Rose-red with beatings in it, as if alive, Till all the white walls of my cell were dyed With rosy colours leaping on the wall; And then the music faded, and the Grail Past, and the beam decay'd, and from the walls The rosy quiverings died into the night.

I cannot help taking notice here of a Method which was used to some stale and decay'd Hops the last Year 1725, to make them recover their Bitterness; which was to unbag them, and sprinkle them with Aloes and Water, which, together with the badness of the Malt of the same Year's growth, spoil'd great quantities of Drink about London; for even where the Water, the Malt, and the Brewer, and Cellars are good, a bad Hop will spoil all: So that every one of these Particulars should be well-chosen before the Brewing is set about, or else we must expect but a bad Account of our Labour.

I have met with the lines in two or three versions, of which the following, copied in the churchyard at Aberystwith, appears to be the most complete: "My sledge and hammer lie reclined; My bellows too have lost their wind; My fire extinct, my forge decay'd, And in the dust my vice is laid. My coal is spent, my iron's gone; My nails are drove, my worck is done."

Carpenters employ'd overhauling the Pumps, all of which we find in a state of decay; and this the Carpenter says is owing to the Sap having been left in, which in time has decay'd the sound wood. One of them is quite useless, and was so rotten when hoisted up as to drop to peices. However, I cannot complain of a Leaky Ship, for the most water She makes is not quite an Inch an Hour. Thursday, 2nd.

In the A.M. transported the Ship from Onrust to Cooper's Island, and moored her alongside the Wharf. Friday, 16th. Employ'd taking in Coals and Ballast; sent one of the decay'd Pumps up to Batavia to have a new one made by it. Saturday, 17th, Sunday, 18th, Monday, 19th, Tuesday, 20th, Wednesday, 21st, Thursday, 22nd, Friday, 23rd, Saturday, 24th, Sunday, 25th.

Fifty or more graves are quite plainly traceable, and as many more decay'd out of all form depress'd mounds, crumbled and broken stones, cover'd with moss the gray and sterile hill, the clumps of chestnuts outside, the silence, just varied by the soughing wind.

Fourth, Fifth and Third streets are store-streets, showy, modern, metropolitan, with hurrying crowds, vehicles, horse-cars, hubbub, plenty of people, rich goods, plate-glass windows, iron fronts often five or six stories high. You can purchase anything in St. Often in going about the town you see reminders of old, even decay'd civilization.