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September 8, 1860.]
AN AGREEABLE MONK.
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are of panelled oak, with ecclesiastical handles and hinges; there are two tall mullioned windows, filled with sheets of plate-glass; and there is an enormous fire-place, with steel dogs, and shining encaustic tiles, and a black oak chimney-piece nearly touching the ceiling, rich in carved work, relieved with gilding, and gay with a double row of emblazoned coats-of-arms. The walls are papered with a light sea-green, diapered with dark green fleur-de-lys; the window-curtains are now a thin white muslin, but in colder weather marone, with a broad gold border of a Greek pattern; the carpet a soft Turkey, on which the footfalls die a Desdemona death. Thickly hung upon the walls are proof-prints from world-famed pictures by Raffaelle and Ary Scheffer, interspersed with large photographs of English and Continental Cathedrals, and with a few masterly water-colours. They are hung in frames of gold, and velvet, and carved oak; and, as they all have wide white margins, they show out with telling effect from the sea-green walls. The book-cases are of light polished woods, carved in places with open work, behind which dark green cloth has been introduced; green leather, stamped with a gold pattern, is hung from the shelves, which are laden with richly-bound books, redolent of russia, and magnificent with morocco. In one corner is a stand for portfolios and prints; opposite to it is a Collard’s semi-grand, on which the Agreeable Monk will by-and-by discourse most excellent music. Dotted about everywhere are various species of the genus chair—Glastonbury chairs, lounging chairs, easy chairs that do not belie their name, and stiff-backed chairs, for ornament (it is to be presumed) and not for penance. Then, there are two or three tables, where are newspapers, and some of the latest periodicals and reviews, and a miscellaneous oddment of the current sacred and profane literature, stacked for convenience of reference (with a Peerage, and a Clergyman’s Almanac, and a Gardening Calendar, and a Book of Anthems, and a Clergy List, and Army List, and Navy List, and other handy books) in oak book-stands with carved ends of shields and fleur-de-lys. And, in a well-lighted corner, is a writing-table,—so well appointed that it is a pleasure to sit down to it, and scribble off a whole week’s arrears of correspondence. From the cushioned recesses of the two windows, we can look out on the flower-pots of a trimly-kept garden, shaded by venerable limes and cedars. Those sweet blossomy limes are a very store-house of enjoyment for the Agreeable Monk’s bees, who are grandly lodged in yonder ecclesiastical summer-house, the Gothic carvings of which were constructed “out of his own head,” as was once observed by a jocose prebendary, adopting the witty saying of another jocose prebendary, in order to make mild fun out of the Agreeable Monk’s amateur carpenterings. And there, against the south wall of the garden, with the Cathedral