_Mr. Seymour and his family visit the Major at Osterly Park.--A controversy between the Vicar and the Major.--The sucker.--Cohesive attraction.--Pressure of the atmosphere.--Meaning of the term suction.--Certain animals attach themselves to rocks by a contrivance analogous to the sucker.--The limpet.--The Walrus.--Locomotive organs of the house-fly.--A terrible accident.--A scene in the village, in which Dr. Doseall figures as a principal performer.--The Vicar’s sensible remonstrance.--The density of the atmosphere at different altitudes.--The pop-gun.--The air-gun.--An antiquarian discussion, in which the Vicar and Major Snapwell greatly distinguish themselves._ In the course of the ensuing week Mr. and Mrs. Seymour proceeded to offer their congratulations to the new proprietor of Osterley Park. On being ushered into the library, they were not a little surprised and startled by the loud voice of the major, who, addressing Mr. Twaddleton, exclaimed, “Never will I again suspect the antiquity of your rarities, nor question the rarity of your antiquities.” “Mr. and Mrs. Seymour,” said the major, “welcome to Osterley Park. You find me, as usual, engaged with our friend in a learned controversy, and I begin to fear that my warmth may have offended him.” “Offended me!” exclaimed the vicar, “oh no. No, indeed, my dear Major Snapwell; a difference of opinion on an antiquarian subject may excite my regret, and in some cases, as in the present instance, awaken my pity; but it cannot offend me; it can never occasion any feeling like anger: that would be to visit the folly of others upon myself.” “What is the subject of your difference, gentlemen?” asked Mr. Seymour. “The evidences of druidical rites, as deducible from certain cavities to be found in granitic rocks, and which have received the appellation of _rock basins_,” replied the major. “And of which,” exclaimed Mr. Twaddleton, “I have a most unquestionable specimen, collected by no less a geologist than the curator of the cabinet at Penzance, from that ancient metropolis of the druids, _Carn-bre hill_.” “I admit,” said the major, “that I never before saw so perfect a specimen; it is as spheroidal internally, as if it had been actually shaped by a turning-lathe.” “And yet, in spite of such evidence,” replied the vicar, “you question its sacred origin, and deny its ever having been used as a pool of lustration.”