ANOTEEB TALE OF ABCADT. 57 



was about £5 ; of a woman £2 5s. In our 

 old hill church is a fair mural monument to 

 Dame (xylpine, of The Hall. I have before me 

 an account of " The nolle yeare waigs of alle 

 her servants at Sellsatt," and these amount to 

 290s. for eight men and nine " maydes." In the 

 days of Dame Gylpine, a thorough knowledge 

 of domestic art was considered necessary to fit a 

 lady for the duties of wife and mother. 



Where one girl can knit a pair of stockings 

 now, there were a hundred then, though in the 

 matter of music and philosophy the proportion is 

 reversed. 



In bygone days the gentry of the country- 

 side deemed it no degradation to manage their 

 affairs, even down to the minutest detail. 

 Iron-shod shoes (clogs) were generally worn ; 

 the parson's and yeoman's children appearing 

 in them at church on Sundays. But these 

 clogs proved injurious to the wearer's stockings, 

 and it is said that careful housewives used to 

 smear the heels of the latter with melted 

 pitch, and dip them immediately in the ashes 

 of the turf fire. Fixed in the woollen texture, 

 the mixture became both hard and flexible, and 

 was well adapted to resist friction. 



