changed the appearance of the town, had an air of antiquated respectability about it. Had it been near the church it would have been taken for the Vicarage; standing where it did, its physiognomy was such that you might have guessed it was the Doctor's house, even if the pestle and mortar had not been there as his insignia. There were eight windows and two doors in front. It consisted of two stories, and was oddly built, the middle part having, something in the Scotch manner, the form of a gable end towards the street. Behind this was a single chimney, tall, and shaped like a pillar. In windy nights the Doctor was so often consulted by Mrs. Dove concerning the stability of that chimney, that he accounted it the plague of his life. But it was one of those evils which could not be removed without bringing on a worse, the alternative being whether there should be a tall chimney, or a smoky house. And after the mansion house was erected, there was one wind which in spite of the chimney's elevation drove the smoke down,-so inconvenient is it sometimes to be fixed near a great neighbour.

This unfortunate chimney, being in the middle of the house, served for four apartments; the Doctor's study and his bedchamber on the upper floor, the kitchen and the best parlour on the lower, that parlour, yes Reader, that very parlour wherein, as thou canst not have forgotten, Mrs. Dove was making tea for the Doctor on that ever memorable afternoon with which our history begins.

CHAPTER XXIX. P. I.

A HINT OF REMINISCENCE TO THE READER. THE

CLOCK OF ST. GEORGE'S. A WORD IN HONOR OF

ARCHDEACON MARKHAM.

There is a ripe season for every thing, and if you slip that or anticipate it, you dim the grace of the matter be it never so good. As we say by way of Proverb that an hasty birth brings forth blind whelps, so a good tale tumbled out before the time is ripe for it, is ungrateful to the hearer.

BISHOP HACKETT.

THE judicious reader will now have perceived that in the progress of this narrative,—which may be truly said to

bear

A music in the ordered history

It lays before us,

we have arrived at that point which determines the scene and acquaints him with the local habitation of the Doctor. He will perceive also that

in our method of narration nothing has been inartificially anticipated; that there have been no premature disclosures, no precipitation, no hurry, or impatience on my part; and that on the other hand there has been no unnecessary delay, but that we have regularly and naturally come to this developement. The author who undertakes a task like mine,

must nombre al the hole cyrcumstaunce

Of hys matter with brevyacion,

as an old Poet says of the professors of the rhyming art, and must moreover be careful

That he walke not by longe continuance

The perambulate way,

as I have been, O Reader! and as it is my fixed intention still to be. Thou knowest, gentle Reader, that I have never wearied thee with idle and worthless words; thou knowest that the old comic writer spake truly when he said, that the man who speaks little says too much, if he says what is not to the point; but that he who speaks well and wisely will never be accused of speaking at too great length,

Τὸν μὴ λέγοντα τῶν δεόντων μηδὲ ἓν
Μακρὸν νόμιζε, κἂν δύ ̓ εἴπῃ συλλαβάς.

Τὸν δ' εὖ λέγοντα, μὴ νόμιζ ̓ εἶναι μακρὸν,

Μηδ' ἂν σφόδρ' εἴπῃ πολλὰ καὶ πολὺν χρόνον.*

My good Readers will remember that, as was duly noticed in our first chapter P. I. the clock of St. George's had just struck five when Mrs. Dove was pouring out the seventh cup of tea for her husband, and when our history opens. I have some observations to make concerning both the tea and the tea service, which will clear the Doctor from any imputation of intemperance in his use of that most pleasant, salutiferous and domesticizing beverage: but it would disturb the method of my narration were they to be introduced in this place. Here I have something to relate about the Clock. Some forty or fifty years ago a Butcher being one of the Churchwardens of the year, and fancying himself in that capacity invested with full power to alter and improve any thing in or about the Church, thought proper to change the position of the clock, and accordingly had it

* PHILEMON.