THE MAKING OF POT-POURRI 171 



so that it can be handled ; this oflScial can hardly 

 get round in time to satisfy the many calls of 

 " Please give me a stir up." The heap grows like 

 one of the big ant-hills in the wood, until at last 

 all the jars are empty, and every one's hands are 

 either sticky with salt or powdery with sweet spices. 

 Now the head Pot-pourri maker takes a shovel, and 

 turns the heap over from left to right and then 

 from right to left, and backwards and forwards 

 several times till all is duly mixed. Then the 

 store cask is brought forward: a strong iron-hooped 

 oak cask with a capacity of fifteen gallons. It 

 looks as if the fragrant heap could never be got 

 into it, but in it goes shovelful by shovelful, and 

 again it is rammed, until all is in, leaving only a 

 bare two inches of space on the top. The cask 

 has been made on purpose, and has no upper head, 

 but a Ud with a wood-hooped rim that fits over 

 the edge, and a knob-handle set out of the centre, 

 the easier to lift the cover by jerking it to one 

 side. 



The full cask is now so heavy that it is a job 

 to get it back to its place against a farther wall ; 

 it must weigh a hundredweight and three-quarters, 

 possibly more. If the mixture stays some weeks or 

 even months in the cask before any is taken out, 

 by remaining untouched for awhile it seems to 

 acquire a richer and more mellow scent. 



The studio floor is left in a shocking state of 



