THE BLACKSMITH 199 



whereas the individual in question was wholly ignorant 

 of the art. 



Here is a specimen of Bullwaist's spelling. We 

 are sorry we cannot give a fac-simile of the calligraphy 

 itself : — 



1836. — Anthew Brown to Eli. Bullwaist. 



£1 13 6 



The above is really and truly an account rendered 

 by Bullwaist so recently as 1836, and looking at the 

 spelling, and the style of the man, what a mass of 

 cruelty his ignorant, brutish barbarity must have 

 inflicted upon the poor animals that the last fifty or 

 five-and-fifty years have brought under the ban of his 

 ignorance. "To a Botel of Blistern oil," for a bottle 

 of blistering oil ! and to " firin the marledg," for firing 

 the mare's leg. "The Jurney to Ruben them," 

 perhaps requires the aid of the glossary even more 

 than the others, and were it not for the " pot of oine- 

 ment " that precedes the item, we should have been 

 puzzled to collect that the "Jurney to Ruben them," 

 meant a journey to rubbing them with the precious 

 stuff. 



We have another bill of the same worthy's before 

 us, where there is a charge for "a bottel of esens," 

 meaning a bottle of essence (essence of what? we 

 wonder), and there is an item " To Rowling the mar 

 and sane," or sow, we cannot tell which, that quite 



