264 Report of Meetings for 1880, by James Hardy. 



partly restored and rebuilt at a cost of £10,000. The church 

 contains many tombs of the ancient Mitford family, and the oak 

 carving was considered especially fine, though the taste which 

 was observable in the restoration was not to be too highly com- 

 mended. In the tower is a peal of eight bells, rung by machinery 

 of a clock work description. The bells are saucer shaped and 

 struck by wooden hammers, and the manner in which the 

 mechanism plays a selection of hymns is said to be beautifully 

 soft and harmonious. The churchyard, which is surrounded by 

 many large trees, including two aged yews, in addition to a stone 

 coilin, contains many interesting tombstones. Some bear odd 

 inscriptions after the usual information regarding the deceased." 

 The gardener, Mr Lees, was waiting to take the company 

 through the grounds at Mitford Hall. There was a fine spruce 

 fir at the side of the walk near the church. The old hall had 

 stood not far from the church. The tower is still extant ; in the 

 interior of it an old font is preserved. Over the entrance is the 

 date 1637, and the arms of the family. In the kitchen of the 

 hall, now occupied by one of the servants on the estate, is an old 

 dog-spit wheel, an appliance now very seldom seen. The dog 

 was put into the inside of the wheel composed of spokes, and by 

 its motion turned it round, and this wrought the apparatus which 

 turned the roast. The fire' place was large, as fire places in those 

 days generally were. In the old orchard adjoining there were 

 several fine trees ; acacias, maples, planes, silver firs, a medlar, 

 old apple trees, &c. There was a noble ash ; and a Cedrus Lihani, 

 whose circumference of stem was 8 feet,- at 3 feet from the 

 ground, where it gave off a clump of secondary stems. In the 

 border behind the kitchen were several plants of Solomon's seal 

 ( Polygonatum muUiflorum), whose roots are much in vogue among 

 the pitmen for curing a black eye. A gardener at Winlaton in- 

 forms me that the nailers there annoy him by their requests for 

 Solomon's seal to apply to their bruises received in quarrels. By 

 the side of the walk descending to the river, the tail wood- 

 grasses Bromus giganteus and B. asper ; throat wort ( Campanula 

 latifoUa) and Myrrhis odorata grew ; Mercurialis perennis was 

 abundant ; and Saxifraga umhrosa had been planted out. Cross- 

 ing the river by a suspension bridge, the modern hall of Colonel 

 Mitford was before us on the crest of the gently sloping height. 

 It is a large and massive mansion, and occupies a lovely situation 



