A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST 173, 



food. We found a minute, one-storeyed house, with 

 a door in the middle, a window on each side of it, 

 a deep thatched roof, and a shed built on the 

 left side. Looking in at the door, we found a large 

 square room, evidently the "house" ; on the hearth- 

 stone glowed a fire of brilliant peat ash. Opposite 

 us were two beds in the wall, made after the fashion 

 of ship berths; somewhere a loud clock ticked; 

 there were a few chairs, a couple of tables, a lot of 

 children, and a good, kindly housewife, who greeted 

 us right warmly, and said, our " tea would be ready 

 " in a few minutes." Meanwhile, " would the lady 

 " like to see her bedroom ? " and she showed us a 

 door, on the left wall of the house, which led into a 

 minute apartment, perhaps the smallest I ever slept 

 in. Behind this closet was a large room stocked 

 with skins, and on another side of it a cowhouse 

 containing cow and calf, who serenaded us all night. 

 Our little room contained two glorious carved oak 

 chests, a single chair, a small oak bedstead, solid 

 and box-like, a very large number of sheep and calf 

 skins, which were crammed under the bed and into 

 every corner of the place ; and upon a deep, lovely 

 window-seat rested a family Bible, Burns's Poems, 

 the " Pilgrim's Progress," and a Scottish Psalmody. 

 Our hearts sank a little at the thought of the skins, 

 and what live-stock they might contain ; but we 

 were in for a spree, and this was part of the fun. 

 Mr. Wunsch was to sleep in one of the berths in the 

 " house " ; the shepherd, his wife, his wife's sister,. 



