{"id":"01KG6GMQ4WSBFM4T5HZZFFVDF7","cid":"bafkreifnspj6344wh7ufyzz5kff4xwiojft6bbs4mrcihlcqdnbsrisdjy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":9099,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:03.883Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":9029,"text":"symptoms akin to those in measles. Whereupon travellers, passing my way,\r\nwould wag their heads, laughing: ‘See that wax nose--how it melts off!’\r\nBut what cared I? The same travellers would travel across the sea to\r\nview Kenilworth peeling away, and for a very good reason: that of all\r\nartists of the picturesque, decay wears the palm--I would say, the ivy.\r\nIn fact, I’ve often thought that the proper place for my old chimney is\r\nivied old England.\r\n\r\nIn vain my wife--with what probable ulterior intent will, ere long,\r\nappear--solemnly warned me, that unless something were done, and\r\nspeedily, we should be burnt to the ground, owing to the holes crumbling\r\nthrough the aforesaid blotchy parts, where the chimney joined the roof.\r\n‘Wife,’ said I, ‘far better that my house should burn down, than that my\r\nchimney should be pulled down, though but a few feet. They call it a wax\r\nnose; very good; not for me to tweak the nose of my superior.’ But at\r\nlast the man who has a mortgage on the house dropped me a note,\r\nreminding me that, if my chimney was allowed to stand in that invalid\r\ncondition, my policy of insurance would be void. This was a sort of hint\r\nnot to be neglected. All the world over, the picturesque yields to the\r\npocketesque. The mortgagor cared not, but the mortgagee did.\r\n\r\nSo another operation was performed. The wax nose was taken off, and a\r\nnew one fitted on. Unfortunately for the expression--being put up by a\r\nsquint-eyed mason, who, at the time, had a bad stitch in the same\r\nside--the new nose stands a little awry, in the same direction.\r\n\r\nOf one thing, however, I am proud. The horizontal dimensions of the new\r\npart are unreduced.\r\n\r\nLarge as the chimney appears upon the roof, that is nothing to its\r\nspaciousness below. At its base in the cellar, it is precisely twelve\r\nfeet square; and hence covers precisely one hundred and forty-four\r\nsuperficial feet. What an appropriation of terra firma for a chimney,\r\nand what a huge load for this earth! In fact, it was only because I and\r\nmy chimney formed no part of his ancient burden, that that stout\r\npeddler, Atlas of old, was enabled to stand up so bravely under his\r\npack. The dimensions given may, perhaps, seem fabulous. But, like those\r\nstones at Gilgal, which Joshua set up for a memorial of having passed\r\nover Jordan, does not my chimney remain, even unto this day?\r\n\r\nVery often I go down into my cellar, and attentively survey that vast\r\nsquare of masonry. I stand long, and ponder over, and wonder at it. It\r\nhas a druidical look, away down in the umbrageous cellar there, whose\r\nnumerous vaulted passages, and far glens of gloom, resemble the dark,\r\ndamp depths of primeval woods. So strongly did this conceit steal over\r\nme, so deeply was I penetrated with wonder at the chimney, that one\r\nday--when I was a little out of my mind, I now think--getting a spade\r\nfrom the garden, I set to work, digging round the foundation, especially\r\nat the corners thereof, obscurely prompted by dreams of striking upon\r\nsome old, earthen-worn memorial of that bygone day, when, into all this\r\ngloom, the light of heaven entered, as the masons laid the\r\nfoundation-stones, peradventure sweltering under an August sun, or\r\npelted by a March storm. Plying my blunted spade, how vexed was I by\r\nthat ungracious interruption of a neighbour, who, calling to see me upon\r\nsome business, and being informed that I was below, said I need not be\r\ntroubled to come up, but he would go down to me; and so, without\r\nceremony, and without my having been forewarned, suddenly discovered me,\r\ndigging in my cellar.\r\n\r\n‘Gold-digging, sir?’\r\n\r\n‘Nay, sir,’ answered I, starting, ‘I was merely--ahem! merely--I say I\r\nwas merely digging--round my chimney.’\r\n\r\n‘Ah, loosening the soil, to make it grow. Your chimney, sir, you regard\r\nas too small, I suppose; needing further development, especially at the\r\ntop?’\r\n\r\n‘Sir!’ said I, throwing down the spade, ‘do not be personal. I and my\r\nchimney----’\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6GKZ3MPDDZB30GXGTJ7ATV","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6GMQ4W5T4WER6GVDM8GNF7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6GMQ4WD8Q0HMB1ARHCNAZN","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:08.828Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:55:19.896Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}