multitudinous versifiers, Mr. Nightshade and Mr. McLaurel.

The last arrivals were Mr. Cornelius Chromatic, the most scientific of
all amateurs of the fiddle, with his two blooming daughters, Miss
Tenorina and Miss Graziosa; Sir Patrick O'Prism, a dilettante painter of
high renown, and his maiden aunt, Miss Philomela Poppyseed, a compounder
of novels written for the express purpose of supporting every species of
superstition and prejudice; and Mr. Panscope, the chemical, botanical,
geological, astronomical, critical philosopher, who had run through the
whole circle of the sciences and understood them all equally well.

Mr. Milestone was impatient to take a walk round the grounds, that he
might examine how far the system of clumping and levelling could be
carried advantageously into effect; and several of the party supporting
the proposition, with Squire Headlong and Mr. Milestone leading the van,
they commenced their perambulation.


_III.--The Tower and the Skull_


The result of Mr. Milestone's eloquence was that he and the squire set
out again, immediately after breakfast next morning, to examine the
capabilities of the scenery. The object that most attracted Mr.
Milestone's admiration was a ruined tower on a projecting point of rock,
almost totally overgrown with ivy. This ivy, Mr. Milestone observed,
required trimming and clearing in various parts; a little pointing and
polishing was necessary for the dilapidated walls; and the whole effect
would be materially increased by a plantation of spruce fir, the present
rugged and broken ascent being first converted into a beautiful slope,