The old-fashioned Wool Mop 57 



net stretched across below, and finally comes into the 

 possession of one or two old women of the village, who 

 seem to have a prescriptive right to it, on payment of a 

 small toll for beer-money. These women are also on the 

 look-out during the year for such stray scraps of wool as 

 they can pick up from the bushes beside the roads and 

 lanes much travelled by sheep — also from the tall thistles 

 and briars, where they have got through a gap. This wool 

 is more or less stained by the weather and by particles of 

 dust, but it answers the purpose, which is the manufacture 

 of mops. 



The old-fashioned wool mop is still a necessary adjunct 

 of the farmhouse, and especially the dairy, which has to 

 be constantly ' swilled ' out and mopped clean. With the 

 ancient spinning-wheel they work up the wool thus 

 gathered ; and so, even at this late day, in odd nooks and 

 corners, the wheel may now and then be found. The 

 peculiar broad-headed nail which fastens the mop to the 

 stout ashen ' steale,' or handle, is also made in the village. 

 I spell ' steale ' by conjecture, and according to pronuncia- 

 tion. It is used also of a rake : instead of a rake-handle 

 they say rake-steale. Having made the mops, the women 

 go round with them to the farmhouses of the district, 

 knowing their regular customers — who prefer to buy of 

 them, not only as a little help to the poor, but because the 

 mops are really very strongly made. 



In the meadows of the vale the waters of the same 

 stream irrigate numerous scattered withy-beds, pollard 

 willow-trees, and tall willow-poles growing thickly in the 

 hedges by the brook. The most suitable of these poles 

 are purchased from the farmers by the willow handi- 

 craftsmen of the village up here, to be split into thin 

 flexible strips and plaited or woven into various articles. 



