THE CARTER'S PRIDE 213 



The love of decorating his horses is still a matter of 

 pleasant pride to the good carter, and when I see a well- 

 looking team, made unusually smart for the road or town, I 

 know that the carter is a good fellow, who takes a right 

 pride in his work and cattle. 



But the number of the pretty teams are few compared 

 to those of the older days, when one still heard the pleasant 

 music of the ' latten ' bells. A few years ago I bought two 

 sets of these at a farm sale. An old carter standing by 

 said to me, ' I mind when we always went to market with 



Latten Bells 



the teams dressed and the latten bells on, and when they 

 wore they, the horses was just as proud as the carters was.' 

 Latten is an old English word for a kind of brass or bronze, 

 answering to the French laiton. 



There were four rings of bells in the set, and each set had 

 four bells, except the one with three of the largest bells of 

 deep tone : each set made its own chord, while the whole 

 clanged and jingled in pleasant harmonies. 



The leather hood, plain in the one shown, was often 

 scalloped or evenly jagged at the lower edge, and generally 



