“Delightful!” echoed Messrs. Snodgrass, Tupman, and Winkle.

“Well, I think it is,” said Mr. Wardle.

“There ain’t a better spot o’ ground in all Kent, sir,” said the hardheaded man with the pippin⁠—face; “there ain’t indeed, sir⁠—I’m sure there ain’t, Sir.” The hardheaded man looked triumphantly round, as if he had been very much contradicted by somebody, but had got the better of him at last.

“There ain’t a better spot o’ ground in all Kent,” said the hardheaded man again, after a pause.

“ ’Cept Mullins’s Meadows,” observed the fat man solemnly.

“Mullins’s Meadows!” ejaculated the other, with profound contempt.