As the columns of your MIRROR are a treasury of instruction, perhaps it
may not be thought amiss, or unworthy its pages, to record the advances
of science in the land we live in. I have long since heard of our
American brethren possessing the wonderful art of "launching" as the term
is, their habitations; but I was not aware that my friends on this side
the water had arrived at such a height on the hill of invention, until a
few weeks back, when travelling in the western part of Dorsetshire,
through the small village of _Pulham_, in that county; a neat,
comfortable-looking cottage was pointed out for my observation, and which
I was assured by many creditable persons, who had witnessed the
performance, was, in the year 1826, chimneys, windows, and altogether,
removed, without sustaining any injury, the distance of nearly two miles.
The power employed was that of ten horses. The spot where it was intended
originally to stand, was pointed out to me, being a piece of waste land
called _Lydlinch Common_. I inquired what motive could have induced the
proprietor to coach it off in such a novel manner, and the following
account I received "under the rose."

The brother of the person whose ingenuity has thus exerted itself,
possessed a small property bordering on the aforesaid common. But to
understand my story, you must know that the peasantry of the west of
England, imbibe a notion, whether erroneous or not, I am not learned
enough to say, that if a person builds on waste lands, and is permitted
to proceed uninterrupted by the Lord of the Manor, or any other person,
until he has roofed and occupied it, or as they express it "made a smoke
in it" that the builder has an indisputable right to it. Now the man
willing to act on this principle, set his wits to work and constructed a
house on his brother's property beforementioned, on a movable foundation,