ANOTHER TALE OF ARCADY. 61 



provide lodgings for journeymen as well as 

 apprentices, matters were even worse. 



The furniture of these northern homes was 

 rude both in design and execution, but it was 

 useful and homely, and eminently in keeping 

 with the houses that contained it. The one 

 quality that was striven after in all domestic 

 utensils was serviceableness. Almost every- 

 thing was of wood, pegs of this substance in- 

 variably supplying the place of nails. Wooden 

 latches were to all the doors and windows, iron 

 being almost unknown in domestic architecture. 



One great feature of the farmhouses was 

 their arks and chests. These were curiously 

 and quaintly carved, with carvings " all made 

 out of the carver's brain." Coleridge lived in 

 a district where the work of the home-bred 

 carver was everywhere to be seen ; and doubt- 

 less the line in " Christabel " was so suggested. 

 In the arks were kept oaten cake, malt, meal, 

 preserves, and dried meats. The " chest " — 

 hoary, heavy, and tall — contained the clothes 

 of the family, often with an immense quantity 

 of linen and cloth of home manufacture — 

 mostly the work of the women. These stores 

 were largely drawn upon for bridal dowries. 



