London to John O 1 Groat's. 



21 



whitewash ! It covers a tapestry, a carving, or a 

 sculpture all over like a blanket;" like that one spoken 

 of in Macbeth. England is just beginning to learn 

 what treasures of art in old mansions, churches and 

 cathedrals were saved to the present age by a timely 

 application of that cheap and healthy fluid. For 

 there was a time when stern men of iron will arose, 

 who had no fear of Grothic architecture, French 

 tapestry, or Italian sculpture before their eyes ; who 

 treated things that had awed or dazzled the world as 

 " baubles " of vanity, to be put away, as King Josiah 

 put away from his realm the graven images of his pre- 

 decessors. And these men thought they were doing 

 good service to religion by pushing their bayonets 

 at the most delicate works of the needle, pencil and 

 chisel ; ripping and slitting the most elaborately 

 wrought tapestry, stabbing off the fine leaf and 

 vine-work from carved cornices and wainscotting, and 

 mutilating the marble lace-work of the sculptor in 

 the old cathedrals. The only way to save these 

 choice things was to make them suddenly take the 

 white veil from the whitewasher's brush. Thousands 

 of them were thus preserved, and they are now being 

 brought forth to the light again, after having been 

 shut away from the eye of man for several centuries. 

 The school-house is still standing in Huntingdon, 



