COTTAGES AND FARMS 19 



aside for bacon-curing, and sells readily for sixpence a 

 sack. When once alight it keeps on smouldering a long 

 time. No kind of resinous wood, such as fir or pine, can 

 be used for smoking bacon. 



In a large farmhouse in my neighbourhood, now occupied 

 by the owner of an extensive estate, the bacon-loft being no 

 longer wanted it was walled off from the chimney, and had 

 a new entrance made from a bedroom passage. It was pro- 

 posed to turn the space to account as a cupboard; but, in 

 spite of thorough cleansing and lime- whiting, its walls are so 

 deeply impregnated with the briny infiltration that they have 

 received from the tons of salted pig-meat that have hung 

 against them for centuries, that the place cannot be used for 

 any other purpose than the keeping of crockery. Everything 

 of a more absorbent nature becomes damp and mouldy, and 

 the place still gives off a faint, lingering aroma of the departed 

 flitches. It seems to protest against being put to any other 

 use, and to say : " I have been a bacon-loft for centuries, and 

 I will not adapt myself to any other use." 



In the same house is a fine example of an old farm 

 kitchen. It is nearly 30 ft. long by 25 ft. wide. The two 

 great beams that uphold the joists above are stiffened by 

 three solid oak chamfered posts, resting on stone bases. The 

 ' down ' fireplace is raised on four courses of brickwork, and has 

 the large iron hearth-plate that is more often seen further 

 south, in Sussex. The middle space below the plate — in this 

 case temporarily filled in with loose bricks — is handy for 

 warming plates or keeping anything hot. To the right of the 

 fireplace is a range of brewing coppers with their lire-holes 

 under. The mouth of the large brick oven shows to the 

 left, within the arch of the fireplace. 



