{"id":"01KG6YH1X8E9JA9YRKAFTNCARZ","cid":"bafkreihdiit3b4q3b5f2ps7su7zoicw6movji4wlhryfckttgmmzscvvjq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3436,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:45.581Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","start_line":3380,"text":"THE PARADISE OF BACHELORS\r\n\r\n\r\nIt lies not far from Temple-Bar.\r\n\r\nGoing to it, by the usual way, is like stealing from the heated plain\r\ninto some cool, deep glen, shady among the harboring hills.\r\n\r\nSick with the din and soiled with the mud of Fleet Street--where the\r\nBenedick tradesmen are hurrying by, with ledger-lines ruled along their\r\nbrows; thinking upon rise of bread and fall of babies--you adroitly\r\nturn a mystic corner--not a street--glide down a dim, monastic way,\r\nflanked by dark, sedate, and solemn piles, and still wending on, give\r\nthe whole careworn world the slip, and, disentangled, stand beneath the\r\nquiet cloisters of the Paradise of Bachelors.\r\n\r\nSweet are the oases in Sahara; charming the isle-groves of August\r\nprairies; delectable pure faith amidst a thousand perfidies: but\r\nsweeter, still more charming, more delectable, the dreamy Paradise of\r\nBachelors, found in the stony heart of stunning London.\r\n\r\nIn mild meditation pace the cloisters; take your pleasure, sip your\r\nleisure, in the garden waterward; go linger in the ancient library;\r\ngo worship in the sculptured chapel; but little have you seen, just\r\nnothing do you know, not the kernel have you tasted, till you dine\r\namong the banded Bachelors, and see their convivial eyes and glasses\r\nsparkle. Not dine in bustling commons, during term-time, in the\r\nhall; but tranquilly, by private hint, at a private table; some fine\r\nTemplar's hospitality invited guest.\r\n\r\nTemplar? That's a romantic name. Let me see. Brian de Bois Gilbert was\r\na Templar, I believe. Do we understand you to insinuate that those\r\nfamous Templars still survive in modern London? May the ring of their\r\narmed heels be heard, and the rattle of their shields, as in mailed\r\nprayer the monk-knights kneel before the consecrated Host? Surely a\r\nmonk-knight were a curious sight picking his way along the Strand,\r\nhis gleaming corselet and snowy surcoat spattered by an omnibus.\r\nLong-bearded, too, according to his order's rule; his face fuzzy\r\nas a pard's; how would the grim ghost look among the crop-haired,\r\nclose-shaven citizens. We know indeed--sad history recounts it--that a\r\nmoral blight tainted at last this sacred Brotherhood. Though no sworded\r\nfoe might outskill them in the fence, yet the work of luxury crawled\r\nbeneath their guard, gnawing the core of knightly troth, nibbling the\r\nmonastic vows, till at last the monk's austerity relaxed to wassailing,\r\nand the sworn knights-bachelors grew to be but hypocrites and rakes.\r\n\r\nBut for all this, quite unprepared were we to learn that\r\nKnights-Templars (if at all in being) were so entirely secularized as\r\nto be reduced from carving out immortal fame in glorious battling for\r\nthe Holy Land, to the carving of roast mutton at a dinner-board. Like\r\nAnacreon, do these degenerate Templars now think it sweeter far to fall\r\nin banquet hall than in war? Or, indeed, how can there be any survival\r\nof that famous order? Templars in modern London! Templars in their\r\nred-cross mantles smoking cigars at the Divan! Templars crowded in a\r\nrailway train, till, stacked with steel helmet, spear, and shield, the\r\nwhole train looks like one elongated locomotive!\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBGKAZPPX2G91V9P9TY1","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YH1XF1D3SVA2PBJZKWFCM","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:48.840Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:54.323Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}