The old-fashioned Wool Mop 57 



net stretched across below, and finally comes into the 

 possession of one or two old women of the village, who 

 seem to have a prescriptive right to it, on payment of a 

 small toll for beer-money. These women are also on the 

 look-out during the year for such stray scraps of wool as 

 they can pick up from the bushes beside the roads and 

 lanes much travelled by sheep also from the tall thistles 

 and briars, where they have got through a gap. This wool 

 is more or less stained by the weather and by particles of 

 dust, but it answers the purpose, which is the manufacture 

 of mops. 



The old-fashioned wool mop is still a necessary adjunct 

 of the farmhouse, and especially the dairy, which has to 

 be constantly c swilled ' out and mopped clean. With the 

 ancient spinning-wheel they work up the wool thus 

 gathered ; and so, even at this late day, in odd nooks and 

 corners, the wheel may now and then be found. The 

 peculiar broad-headed nail which fastens the mop to the 

 stout ashen ' steale,' or handle, is also made in the village. 

 I spell ' steale ' by conjecture, and according to pronuncia- 

 tion. It is used also of a rake : instead of a rake-handle 

 they say rake-steale. Having made the mops, the women 

 go round with them to the farmhouses of the district, 

 knowing their regular customers who prefer to buy of 

 them, not only as a little help to the poor, but because the 

 mops are really very strongly made. 



In the meadows of the vale the waters of the same 

 stream irrigate numerous scattered withy-beds, pollard 

 willow-trees, and tall willow-poles growing thickly in the 

 hedges by the brook. The most suitable of these poles 

 are purchased from the farmers by the willow handi- 

 craftsmen of the village up here, to be split into thin 

 flexible strips and plaited or woven into various articles. 



