154 RAMBLE OVER DERBYSHIRE HILLS AND DALES. 
some arrangement for drying clothes. It is something after this 
fashion : — 
After a good deal of puzzling, we gave up all attempts at guessing 
its object; but the landlady explained that it was ‘“‘to tie the 
baby to,” and so help it to walk. A wheel with hook attached 
traverses a long strip of wood which is fastened to one of the 
joists ; a cord is attached at one end to the hook, and at the 
other to the baby, keeping the latter on its feet and thus develop- 
ing and assisting the power of locomotion. 
Two miles further, and we were at Ashford-in-the-Water, a 
pretty little village noted for its marble works and quarries. ‘The 
church is a small and ancient building ; we got over the wall, (for 
the churchyard gates, like many others, I am sorry to say, are kept 
locked,) to examine the curious piece of old sculpture with a new 
text added to it, near the south door, the base of a cross, and the 
defaced stone carving over the priest’s door. We also, found a 
curious inscription on the outside of the north wall of the church. 
But the inside, which we could not see on this occasion without a 
loss of time in hunting up the keys, contains the most interesting, 
though fragile memorials, which are becoming extremely rare in 
our county churches ; I mean the funeral garlands made by the 
friends of unmarried women on their decease, and which after the 
funeral were hung up in the churches. This old custom, like 
many others, now belongs to the past. Miss Seward, in some 
lines on her native village of Eyam, writes :— 
