CHAPTER Y 



COTTAGE ORNAMENTS 



The farmhouse parlour, as I remember it thirty years ago, 

 nearly always had a looking-glass on the mantel-shelf. There 

 was scarcely any variation in its form. The frame had round 

 pilasters, with caps and bases of a sort, running up to angle 

 blocks, and on the upper horizontal part of the frame 

 another such pilaster, connecting the two upper blocks. 



Chimney-Piece Looking-Glass 



This horizontal treatment of a pilaster was, even from quite 

 an early age, an offence to my architectural sensibilities. 

 Still, even with this defect, the old parlour looking-glass— 

 also to be seen in the better cottages, was a far better thing 

 than the cheap gilt-framed pretentious glasses that came 

 after. 



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