The number of
workmen appeared to be only limited by the space into which they could
be fitted. Great lines of waggons conveyed the white Portland stone
from the depot by the station. Hundreds of busy toilers handed it over,
shaped and squared, to the actual masons, who swung it up with steam
cranes on to the growing walls, where it was instantly fitted and
mortared by their companions. Day by day the house shot higher, while
pillar and cornice and carving seemed to bud out from it as if by magic.
Nor was the work confined to the main building. A large separate
structure sprang up at the same time, and there came gangs of pale-faced
men from London with much extraordinary machinery, vast cylinders,
wheels and wires, which they fitted up in this outlying building.
The great chimney which rose from the centre of it, combined with these
strange furnishings, seemed to mean that it was reserved as a factory or
place of business, for it was rumoured that this rich man's hobby was
the same as a poor man's necessity, and that he was fond of working with
his own hands amid chemicals and furnaces. Scarce, too, was the second
storey begun ere the wood-workers and plumbers and furnishers were busy
beneath, carrying out a thousand strange and costly schemes for the
greater comfort and convenience of the owner.
Pages:
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30