Vol.1 f.002 recto

lazy man would care to count on a sunny day; huge chimnies
zig-[??] zag chimnies [chimneys], after travelling through ^{out of} which it seemed
as though even smoke itself [must c???? out?] could not choose
but come [out?] in ^{more than naturally} [????] fantastic shapes, imparted to it [??] in
its tortuous progress; and [???] vast stables [????], gloomy, and
ruinous, and empty.
[???????. ???? ???]^{The place was} said to have been built in the days
of King Henry the Eighth; and there was a legend, not only
that Queen Elizabeth had slept [???] ^there one night while
upon [????] a hunting excursion, to wit, in a certain oak-panelled room
^{with a deep bay window}, but that next
morning, while standing on a mounting block before the door with one foot in the stirrup,
the virgin monarch had then and there boxed and cuffed an unlucky
page for some neglect of duty. The matter-
of-fact and doubtful folks, of whom there
were a few among the Maypole customers, ^{as unluckily there always are in every little society published text: community}, were
inclined to look upon this tradition as rather apocryphal;
but, whenever the landlord of that ancient hostelry appealed
to the mounting block itself as evidence, and triumphantly pointed
out that there it stood in the same place to that very
day, the doubters never failed to be put
down by a large majority, and all true believers exulted