{"id":"01KG8AK9DYMGYCWB7MJT8HVPPZ","cid":"bafkreicfbqlk3a2oimnez5yrwrp5n2dkx6brdgvbxlda5wac42jkg4jl6e","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2399,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:56.336Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J1C1N72JCD0ZBGTBX0EX","start_line":2335,"text":"famous structure, it seems modeled, only its rate of decrease towards\r\nthe summit is considerably less, and it is truncated. From the exact\r\nmiddle of the mansion it soars from the cellar, right up through each\r\nsuccessive floor, till, four feet square, it breaks water from the\r\nridge-pole of the roof, like an anvil-headed whale, through the crest\r\nof a billow. Most people, though, liken it, in that part, to a razed\r\nobservatory, masoned up.\r\n\r\nThe reason for its peculiar appearance above the roof touches upon\r\nrather delicate ground. How shall I reveal that, forasmuch as many\r\nyears ago the original gable roof of the old house had become very\r\nleaky, a temporary proprietor hired a band of woodmen, with their\r\nhuge, cross-cut saws, and went to sawing the old gable roof clean off.\r\nOff it went, with all its birds' nests, and dormer windows. It was\r\nreplaced with a modern roof, more fit for a railway wood-house than an\r\nold country gentleman's abode. This operation--razeeing the structure\r\nsome fifteen feet--was, in effect upon the chimney, something like the\r\nfalling of the great spring tides. It left uncommon low water all about\r\nthe chimney--to abate which appearance, the same person now proceeds to\r\nslice fifteen feet off the chimney itself, actually beheading my royal\r\nold chimney--a regicidal act, which, were it not for the palliating\r\nfact that he was a poulterer by trade, and, therefore, hardened to such\r\nneck-wringings, should send that former proprietor down to posterity in\r\nthe same cart with Cromwell.\r\n\r\nOwing to its pyramidal shape, the reduction of the chimney inordinately\r\nwidened its razeed summit. Inordinately, I say, but only in the\r\nestimation of such as have no eye to the picturesque. What care I, if,\r\nunaware that my chimney, as a free citizen of this free land, stands\r\nupon an independent basis of its own, people passing it, wonder how\r\nsuch a brick-kiln, as they call it, is supported upon mere joists\r\nand rafters? What care I? I will give a traveler a cup of switchel,\r\nif he want it; but am I bound to supply him with a sweet taste? Men\r\nof cultivated minds see, in my old house and chimney, a goodly old\r\nelephant-and-castle.\r\n\r\nAll feeling hearts will sympathize with me in what I am now about to\r\nadd. The surgical operation, above referred to, necessarily brought\r\ninto the open air a part of the chimney previously under cover, and\r\nintended to remain so, and, therefore, not built of what are called\r\nweather-bricks. In consequence, the chimney, though of a vigorous\r\nconstitution, suffered not a little, from so naked an exposure; and,\r\nunable to acclimate itself, ere long began to fail--showing blotchy\r\nsymptoms akin to those in measles. Whereupon travelers, passing my way,\r\nwould wag their heads, laughing; \"See that wax nose--how it melts off!\"\r\nBut what cared I? The same travelers 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\r\ncrumbling through the aforesaid blotchy parts, where the chimney joined\r\nthe roof. \"Wife,\" said I, \"far better that my house should burn down,\r\nthan that my chimney should be pulled down, though but a few feet.\r\nThey call it a wax nose; very good; not for me to tweak the nose of my\r\nsuperior.\" But at last the man who has a mortgage on the house dropped\r\nme a note, reminding me that, if my chimney was allowed to stand in\r\nthat invalid condition, my policy of insurance would be void. This was\r\na sort of hint not to be neglected. All the world over, the picturesque\r\nyields to the pocketesque. The mortgagor cared not, but the mortgagee\r\ndid.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJJM9B1B6R0AVRGKYSED","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1C1N72JCD0ZBGTBX0EX","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK8N1ATSZJNZYR9QWKRXC","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AK9DRS1HZ0NQHHAB0G50M","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:59.422Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:06.639Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}