That page, written fifteen years before by Land Recorder Frederic Prigg, was an imprecise description of land without benefit of any survey, and was more eyeball than ciphers, with measures gimcracked together by a claimant and a recorder who barely understood each other.

Hackett was a vain, wealthy, violent gentleman, who held his blood and family in high esteem, and believed that a reverent respect was due to his great riches.

Sound but another [drum], and another shall / As loud as thine rattle the welkin’s ear.

With the downfall of the samurai, for instance, swords as works of art went out of existence. Then those artists had to turn their attention to the embellishment of little articles in common use, such as the sagemono or the hanging things which the Japanese men carried attached to their obis (the tight sashes that hold the kimono in place). The latter consisted of a pipe in a case, a tobacco pouch, perhaps a box of flint and steel, an inro carrying seals or medicines, or a pen case with a section for the ink.