It is inexpressible what an increase of happiness and of consciousness--of inward dignity--I have gained since I came within the walls of this poor cottage--my own four walls. They simply admit that I am _Herr im Hause_, and act on this conviction. There is no grumbling about my habitudes and whims. If I choose to dine on fire and brimstone, they will cook it for me to their best skill, thinking only that I am an unintelligible mortal, _facheux_ to deal with, but not to be dealt with in any other way. My own four walls. The last words form the refrain of a set of verses, the most characteristic, as Mr. Froude justly observes, of the writer, the actual composition of which seems, however, to belong to the next chapter of his career, beginning-- Wild through the wind the huntsman calls, As fast on willing nag I haste Home to my own four walls. The feeling that inspires them is clenched in the defiance-- King George has palaces of pride, And armed grooms must ward those halls; With one stout bolt I safe abide Within my own four walls. Not all his men may sever this; It yields to friends', not monarchs' calls; My whinstone house my castle is-- I have my own four walls. When fools or knaves do make a rout, With gigmen, dinners, balls, cabals, I turn my back and shut them out; These are my own four walls. CHAPTER III CRAIGENPUTTOCK [1826-1834] "Ah, when she was young, she was a fleein', dancin", light-heartit thing, Jeannie Welsh, that naething would hae dauntit. But she grew grave a' at ance. There was Maister Irving, ye ken, that had been her teacher; and he cam' aboot her. Then there was Maister ----. Then there was Maister Carlyle himsel', and _he_ cam' to finish her off like."--HADDINGTON NURSE. "My broom, as I sweep up the withered leaves, might be heard at a furlong's distance."--T. CARLYLE, from Craigenputtock, Oct. 1830. During the last days at Hoddam Hill, Carlyle was on the verge of a crisis of his career, _i.e._ his making a marriage, for the chequered fortune of which he was greatly himself to blame.