VII.] DRESS, HOUSEHOLD GOODS, AND FUEL. 117 



tainly a much better than that of the drugs and flour 

 which go under the name of mustard. Let any one 

 try it, and I am sure he will never use the drugs 

 again. The drugs, if you take them freely, leave a 

 burning at the pit of your stomach, which the real 

 mustard does not. 



DRESS, HOUSEHOLD GOODS, AND FUEL. 



199. IN Paragraph 152, I said, I think, enough to 

 caution you, the English labourer, against the taste, 

 now too prevalent, for fine and flimsy dress. It was, 

 for hundreds of years, amongst the characteristics 

 of the English people, that their taste was, in all 

 matters, for things solid, sound, and good ; for the 

 useful^ and decent^ the cleanly in dress, and not for 

 the showy. Let us hope that this may be the taste 

 again ; and let us, my friends, fear no troubles, no 

 perils, that may be necessary to produce a return of 

 that taste, accompanied with full bellies and warm 

 backs to the labouring classes. 



200. In household goods, the warm, the strong, the 

 durable, ought always to be kept in view. Oak tables, 

 bedsteads and stools, chairs of oak or of yew tree, 

 and never a bit of miserable deal board. Things of 

 this sort ought to last several lifetimes. A labourer 

 ought to inherit from his great grandfather something 

 besides his toil. As to bedding, and other things of 

 that sort, all ought to be good in their nature, of a 

 durable quality, and plain in their colour and form. 

 The plates, dishes, mugs, and things of that kind, 

 should be of pewter, or even of wood. Any-thing 

 is better than crockery-ware. Bottles to carry a-field 

 should be of wood. Formerly, nobody but the gyp- 

 sies and mumpers, that went a hop-picking in the 

 season, carried glass or earthen bottles. As to glass 

 of any sort, I do not know what business it has in 

 any man's house, unless he be rich enough to live 

 on his means. It pays a tax, in many cases, to the 

 amount of two-thirds of its cost. In short, when a 

 house is once furnished with sufficient goods, there 



