Old Memories. 115 



cowslip, elderberry, ginger and used to prepare a 

 specially delicate biscuit, the paste being dropped on 

 paper and baked by exposure to the sun's raj-s only. 

 She has a bitter memory of some money having been 

 lost to the family sixt} 7 years ago through roguery, 

 harping upon it as a most direful misfortune : the old 

 folk, even those having a stocking or a teapot well 

 filled with guineas, thought a great deal of small 

 sums. After listening to a tirade of this kind, in the 

 belief that the family were at least half-ruined, it 

 turns out to be all about 100/. Her grandmother 

 after marriage travelled home on horseback behind 

 her husband ; there had been a sudden flood, and the 

 newly-married couple had to wait for several hours 

 till the waters went down before they could pass. 

 Times are altered now. 



Since this family dwelt here, and well within what 

 may be called the household memory, the very races 

 of animals have changed or been supplanted. The 

 cows in the field used to be longhorns, much more 

 hardy, and remaining in the meadows all the winter, 

 with no better shelter than the hedges and bushes 

 afforded. Now the shorthorns have come, and the 

 cattle are housed carefully. The sheep were horned 

 up in the lumber-room two or three horns are still 

 to be found. The pigs were of a different kind, and 

 the dogs and poultry. If the race of men have not 

 changed they have altered their costume ; the smock- 

 frock lingered longest, but even that is going. 



Some of the old superstitions hung on till quite 

 recently. The value of horses made the arrival of 

 foals an important occasion, and then it was the 

 custom to call in the assistance of an aged man of 



