Transactions. 101 



arrival of letters, by depositing them in a water-tight chamber of 

 a cairn or mass of boulders on an eminence a mile perhaps from 

 the shepherd's house, and then erecting a huge pole or semaphore, 

 which soon attracted a messenger. The limbs and backs of boys 

 were stronger, and carried for you heavy carpet bags at Id per 

 mile. Watches were worn in trouser pockets. The school 

 children were titted out with stronger leather bags, like soldiers' 

 liaversacks, containing their dinner as well as their books. Their 

 books were much more carefully covered with cloth, and in some 

 instances with white leather. Their food was more thriftily 

 cared for, and there was no debris of leaves of books and crumbs 

 of scone left on the roadside near the schoolhouse as is at present. 

 The plaid was a much more common article of dress. It is now 

 giving way to the great-coat or waterproof, which is more 

 convenient to a shepherd, affording hirn f)Ockets to hold tea for 

 the weak lambs, and covering his body better. 



When I found myself in the interior of sheplierds' and 

 dairymen's houses, the old eight-day clock, with wooden door and 

 painted dial, was common. It kept company with the meal-ark, 

 a huge chest divided into two compartments — one for oatmeal, 

 one for wheaten flour. Bacon, hams, and flitches, then as now, 

 wrapped in newspapers, hung from kitchen rafters. Puddings 

 were wreathed round suspended poles. Fireplaces are gradually 

 contracting — the older ones are the wide.st. The fire in winter, 

 eked out by peats and cleft-wood, is often very violent in its 

 hospitality. Seated in the cushioned arm-chair, I have for a 

 while maintained conversation by holding up my extended palm 

 for a fire-screen, but was generally obliged to push back my 

 chair at the risk of overturning a cradle or turning the charmed 

 circle into an ellipse. An inner ladder was stationed in tlie 

 porch or between the but-and-ben, up which the children or 

 serving men mounted to their obscure attic hammocks. On 

 great nails, here and there in the walls, hung, and still hang, 

 crooks, shears for clipping sheep, lanterns for moonless nights, 

 mice traps with holes, rat traps with strong iron teeth and 

 springs. Thei'e were no carpets on the rooms, but the floor was 

 raottlhd with sheep skins in their wool, and tlie mat l)efore the 

 room fire was home-made, with all sorts of dark rags stitched 

 together, having a fluffy, cosy look. On the chest of high 

 drawers might be observed a Family Bible, a field glass, a stufl'ed 

 blackcock and pair of large ram's horns, or a basket with curious 



