; 



- 



T1IK WOOD-ANT AND TIIK Al'llIDKS. 



: l'o\rrl ;i spectacle is, as thiukcth me, 

 Through which he may his very Frcmlis set."- Chaucer. 



IN ilu midst of an oak wood stands a village or scattered 

 group of rustic habitations. These are curiously excavated in 

 the earth, above which rise their dome-like roofs, thatched in 

 a peculiar manner, with pieces of stick and straw, and each 

 is the common abode of a large community of various ranks 

 and orders. In one of these sylvan dwellings there lived, 

 and perhaps lives still, a good sort of body, a female member 

 of the working class, who set a perfect pattern of industry ; 

 though (to do them justice) all her neighbours and fellow- 



