A FARM-HOUSE KITUHEN. 23 



CHAPTER III. 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION. A RUSTIC VILLAGE. FARM-HOUSE KITCHEN. AN 



ORCHARD. STABLES. LEOMIXSTER. A TROUT BROOK. FRUIT CULTURE. 



Monday, June 10th. 



A FTER breakfasting with the Independent minister, (the 

 -* term clergyman is never applied in England except to 

 those of the established church,) he walked with us for six 

 miles out of town upon our road. Three little boys and girls, 

 the youngest six years old, also accompanied us. They were 

 romping and rambling about all the while, and their morn 

 ing s walk must have been as much as fifteen miles ; but they 

 thought nothing of it, and, when we parted, were apparently 

 as fresh as when they started, and very loath to return. 



After looking at several objects of interest near the road, 

 we were taken by a narrow, crooked lane to a small hamlet 

 of picturesque old cottages, in one of which a farmer lived 

 who was a parishioner of our friend s. It was a very pret 

 ty, many-gabled, thatched-roofed timber-house, almost com 

 pletely covered with vines and creepers. We were sorry to 

 find the farmer not at home ; his wife, an elderly, .simple- 

 minded dame, received us joyfully, however. In entering 

 the house, as we have noticed to be usual in old buildings, 

 whatever their purpose, we found that the stone floor of the 

 narrow hall was a step below the street and general surface 

 of the ground outside. The kitchen, to which we were at 

 once conducted, was a large square room, lighted by a single 



