114 Old Weapons. 



parently so little valued, you shall not be able to buy 

 these things for money not so much because their 

 artistic beauty is appreciated, but because of the in- 

 stinctive clinging to every thing old, characteristic of 

 the place and people. These have been there of old 

 time : they shall remain still. Somewhere in the 

 cupboards, too, is a curiously carved piece of iron, 

 to fit into the hand, with a front of steel before the 

 fingers, like a skeleton rapier guard ; it is the ancient 

 steel with which, and a flint, the tinder and the sul- 

 phur match were ignited. 



Up in the lumber-room are carved oaken bed- 

 steads of unknown age ; linen-presses of black oak 

 with carved panels, and a drawer at the side for the 

 lavender-bags ; a rusty rapier, the point broken off ; 

 a flintlock pistol, the barrel of portentous length, and 

 the butt weighted with a mace-like knob of metal, 

 wherewith to knock the enemy on the head. An old 

 yeomanry sabre lies about somewhere, which the 

 good man of the time wore when he rode in the troop 

 against the rioters in the days of machine-burning 

 which was like a civil war in the country, and is yet 

 recollected and talked of. The present farmer, who 

 is getting just a trifle heavy in the saddle himself, can 

 tell you the names of laborers living in the village 

 whose forefathers rose in that insurrection. It is a 

 memory of the house, how one of the family paid 

 40/. for a substitute to serve in the wars against the 

 French. 



The mistress of the household still bakes a batch 

 of bread at home in the oven once now and then, 

 priding herself that it is never ' dunch,' or heavy. 

 She makes all kinds of preserves, and wines too 



