aritable intent--for it was planned to
supply invalids in the neighbourhood with ice, as the, hothouses
supplied them with grapes; and revealing, after all, nothing but a
puddle of dirty water. You see more successful works--the Professor's
little private garden, which he is supposed to cultivate with his own
hands; various little wells and watercourses among the rocks, moss-grown
and fern-embowered; and so you come out on the moor.

There great works go on. Juniper is being rooted up; boggy patches
drained and cultivated cranberries are being planted, and oats grown;
paths engineered to the best points of view; rocks bared to examine the
geology--though you cannot get the Professor to agree that every inch of
his territory has been glaciated. These diversions have their serious
side, for he is really experimenting on the possibility of reclaiming
waste land; perhaps too sanguine, you think, and not counting the cost.
To which he replies that, as long as there are hands unemployed and
misemployed, a government such as he would see need never be at a loss
for labourers. If corn can be made to grow where juniper grew before,
the benefit is a positive one, the expense only comparative. And so you
take your pick with the rest, and are almost persuaded to become a
companion of St. George.

Not to tire a new comer, he takes you away after a while to a fine
heathery promontory, where you sit before a most glorious view of lake
and mountains. This, he says, is his "Naboth's vineyard";[46] he would
like to own so fine a point of vantage. But he is happy in his country
retreat, far happier than you thought him; and the secret of his
happiness is that he has sympathy with all around him, and hearty
interest in everything, from the least to the greatest.

[Footnote 46: Since then become part of the Brantwood estate.]

Coming down from the moor after the round, when you reach the front door
you must see the performance of the waterfall: everybody must see that.
On the moor a reservoir has been dug and dammed, with ingenious
flood-gates--Ruskin's device, of course--and a channel led down through
the wood to a rustic bridge in the rock. Some one has stayed behind to
let out the water, and down it comes; first a black stream and then a
white one, as it gradually clears; and the rocky wall at the entrance
becomes for ten minutes a cascade. This too has it uses; not only is
there a supply of water in case of fire (the exact utilisatio