He burst out laughing, and was some time before he could control
himself; then he clapped me on the back and said:

"I take you, neighbour; you may well wonder at our keeping them
standing, and I know something about that, and my old kinsman has
given me books to read about the strange game that they played there.
Use them! Well, yes, they are used for a sort of subsidiary market,
and a storage place for manure, and they are handy for that, being on
the waterside. I believe it was intended to pull them down quite at
the beginning of our days; but there was, I am told, a queer
antiquarian society, which had done some service in past times, and
which straightway set up its pipe against their destruction, as it
has done with many other buildings, which most people looked upon as
worthless, and public nuisances; and it was so energetic, and had
such good reasons to give, that it generally gained its point; and I
must say that when all is said I am glad of it: because you know at
the worst these silly old buildings serve as a kind of foil to the
beautiful ones which we build now. You will see several others in
these parts; the place my great-grandfather lives in, for instance,
and a big building called St. Paul's. And you see, in this matter we
need not grudge a few poorish buildings standing, because we can
always build elsewhere; nor need we be anxious as to the breeding of
pleasant work in such matters, for there is always room for more and
more work in a new building, even without making it pretentious. For
instance, elbow-room WITHIN doors is to me so delightful that if I
were driven to it I would most sacrifice outdoor space to it. Then,
of course, there is the ornament, which, as we must all allow, may
easily be overdone in mere living houses, but can hardly be in mote-
halls and markets, and so forth. I must tell you, though, that my