Heirlooms 103 



accumulate, and are handed down fresh and green, linking 

 to-day and seventy years ago as if hardly any lapse of 

 time had intervened. The inmates talk familiarly of the 

 c comet year,' as if it were but just over ; of the days when 

 a load of wheat was worth a little fortune ; of the great 

 snows and floods of the previous century. They date 

 events from the year when the Foremeads were purchased 

 and added to the patrimony, as if that transaction, which 

 took place ninety years before, was of such importance 

 that it must necessarily be still known to all the world. 



The house has somehow shaped and fitted itself to the 

 character of the dwellers within it : hidden and retired 

 among trees, fresh and green with cherry and pear against 

 the wall, yet the brown thatch and the old bricks subdued 

 in tone by the weather. This individuality extends to the 

 furniture ; it is a little stiff and angular, but solid, and 

 there are nooks and corners as the window-seat sugges- 

 tive of placid repose : a strange opposite mixture through- 

 out of flowery peace and silence, with an almost total lack 

 of modern conveniences and appliances of comfort as 

 though the sinewy vigour of the residents disdained arti- 

 ficial ease. 



In the oaken cupboards not black, but a deep tawny 

 colour with age and frequent polishing may be found a 

 few pieces of old china, and on the table at tea-time, 

 perhaps, other pieces, which a connoisseur would tremble 

 to see in use, lest a cl umsy arm should shatter their fragile 

 antiquity. Though apparently 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 instinctive clinging to everything old, characteristic of 

 the place and people. These have been there of old time ? 

 they shall remain still. Somewhere in the cupboards, 



