FIFTY YEARS AGO. 467 



exceedingly low. Blanconi did not, for his Irish cars, 

 give more than ten pounds a horse, and he frequently 

 purchased them for as low as five pounds. 



Even speaking of fifty years ago reminds me what 

 great strides have been made in the comfort and con- 

 veniences of people's lives during that period. Else- 

 where I have spoken of one hundred years ago ; but 

 take the past half-century, and, if we consider the 

 change that has taken place during the past fifty years, 

 we cannot fail to recognise how great is the general 

 improvement that has been effected, and slowly and 

 almost imperceptibly diffused, over the world, more 

 especially in this particular quarter of the globe, and 

 yet this past fifty years consists only of the period 

 during which Queen Victoria has occupied the British 

 throne. As fifty years ago was a period w^hen persons 

 journeyed on the road, I may not be wrong in referring 

 to it. 



Fifty years ago our agriculturist reaped with a 

 sickle and threshed with a flail, instead of employing 

 complicated machinery ; umbrellas were rarely used, 

 and mackintosh coats were unknown. If one's house 

 caught fire in town or country, only a hand fire-engine 

 could be employed, since steam w^as practically un- 

 known in its application to fire-engines ; neither was 

 there, in those days, such a thing in use as a fire- 

 escape. As for our soldiers, they slew the enemy at 

 short range with an old musket possessing every fault 

 a musket could possess. Our naval armament was 

 built completely of wood, and, during hours of sick- 

 ness, a Gamp of the old school and not a trained 

 hospital nurse it was who watched beside the bed of 

 suffering humanity. 



The chimney-sweep consisted, not of a big brush 



