the singeing of nightcaps; but though they have a pleasant savour, and

refreshing to think of, I may not stop to note them, unless it be that

goodly one at the incoming of a flood. The school-house stands beside a

stream, not very large, called Lowman, which flows into the broad river

of Exe, about a mile below. This Lowman stream, although it be not fond

of brawl and violence (in the manner of our Lynn), yet is wont to flood

into a mighty head of waters when the storms of rain provoke it; and

most of all when its little co-mate, called the Taunton Brook--where

I have plucked the very best cresses that ever man put salt on--comes

foaming down like a great roan horse, and rears at the leap of the

hedgerows. Then are the gray stone walls of Blundell on every side

encompassed, the vale is spread over with looping waters, and it is a

hard thing for the day-boys to get home to their suppers.

And in that time, old Cop, the porter (so called because he hath copper

boots to keep the wet from his stomach, and a nose of copper also, in

right of other waters), his place is to stand at the gate, attending to

the flood-boards grooved into one another, and so to watch the torrents

rise, and not be washed away, if it please God he may help it. But long

ere the flood hath attained this height, and while it is only waxing,

certain boys of deputy will watch at the stoop of the drain-holes, and

be apt to look outside the walls when Cop is taking a cordial. And in

the very front of the gate, just without the archway, where the ground

is paved most handsomely, you may see in copy-letters done a great

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