LITTLE HUCKLOW : ITS CUSTOMS AND OLD HOUSES. 63 



chamber, measured to the place where the rafters spring from 

 the walls, is 6 ft. 7 in. ; to the ridge-piece it is 10 ft. 7 in. 

 The recess of the window is 2 ft. i in. from the floor ; the 

 lintel of the window is i ft. 3 in. from the rafters. The fire- 

 place was original!} open ; it is not in the middle of the wall, 

 but placed a little to the north, so that the flue may escape 

 the ridge-piece. The timbers which support the spars of the 

 open roofs of the two chambers are oak trees, of irregular shape, 

 roughly squared by the adze, and now whitewashed. The 

 thickest of them has a circumference of 42 in. Adjoining the 

 north side of the house are two apartments, now roofless, the 

 larger one being still called the weaving-room. This room 

 has a fireplace of good ashlar stone, with an overhanging 

 mantelpiece and moulded jambs. Near the fireplace a bake- 

 stone stood. The room was lighted by three small windows, 

 now built up, and has a door in its east wall. An aged woman 

 who lived in this house in childhood remembers a loom and 

 two spinning-wheels in this weaving-room. She remembers, too, 

 a printed song nailed to the loom, which a woman .sang as she 

 wove. It began : 



When first from sea I landed 



I had a roving mind ; 

 Undaunted then I rambled 



Mv true love for to find. 



Her bare neck was shaded 



With her long raven hair ; 

 And they called her pretty Susan, 



The pride of Kildare. 



Addison, in The Spectator (No. 85), mentions the printed 

 papers which, in his time, were pasted on the walls of countr}' 

 houses, one of these being the old ballad of " The Two 

 Children in the Wood." 



The apartment to the north of the weaving-room is said to 

 have been a bakehouse, and it had a window, now built up. 

 on its west side. These two apartments had a lean-to roof 

 sloping to the east. The masonry of these buildings differs 

 from that of the older part of the house ; there are no grit- 



