XIV] FIRST LITERARY EFFORTS 211 



Domestic Life, Customs, etc. 



The house is a tiled, white-washed edifice, in the crevices of which wall 

 rue, common spleenwort, and yarrow manage generally to vegetate, not- 

 withstanding their (at the very least) annual coat of lime. It consists on 

 the ground floor of a rather large and very dark room, which serves as 

 kitchen and dining-room for the family, and a rather better one used as a 

 parlour on high days or when visitors call ; this latter frequently serves 

 as the bedroom of the master and mistress. The kitchen, which is the 

 theatre of the Welsh farmer's domestic life, has either a clay floor or one of 

 very uneven stone paving, and the ceiling is in many cases composed of 

 merely the floor boards of the room above, through the chinks of which 

 everything going on aloft can be very conveniently heard and much seen. 

 The single window is a small and low one, and this is rendered almost 

 useless by the dirtiness of the glass, some window drapery, a Bible, hymn 

 book and some old newspapers on the sill, and a sickly-looking geranium 

 or myrtle, which seems a miracle of vital tenacity in that dark and smoky 

 atmosphere. On one side may be discerned an oak sideboard brilliantly 

 polished, on the upper part of which are rows of willow pattern plates 

 and dishes, in one corner an open cupboard filled with common gaudily- 

 coloured china, and in the other a tall clock with a handsome oak case. 

 Suspended from the ceiling is a serious impediment to upright walking in 

 the shape of a bacon rack, on which is, perhaps, a small supply of that 

 article and some dried beef, also some dried herbs in paper, a large 

 collection of walking sticks, and an old gun. In the chimney opening a 

 coal fire in an iron grate takes the place of the open hearth and smoky 

 peat of Radnorshire and other parts. A long substantial oak table, 

 extending along the room under the window, an old armchair or two, a 

 form or bench and two or three stools, complete the furniture of the apart- 

 ment. From the rack before mentioned is generally suspended a piece 

 of rennet for making cheese, and over the mantelpiece is probably a 

 toasting-fork, one brass and two tin candlesticks, and a milk strainer with 

 a hole in the bottom of it ; on the dresser, too, will be perceived a brush 

 and comb which serve for the use of the whole family, and which you may 

 apply to your own head (if you feel so inclined) without any fear of giving 

 offence. 



Upstairs the furniture is simple enough : two or three plain beds in 

 each room with straw mattresses and home-made blankets, sheets being 

 entirely unknown or despised ; a huge oak chest full of oatmeal, dried 

 beef, etc., with perhaps a chest of drawers to contain the wardrobe ; a 

 small looking-glass which distorts the gazer's face into a mockery of 

 humanity ; and a plentiful supply of fleas, are all worth noticing. Though 

 the pigs are not introduced into the family quite so familiarly as in 

 Ireland, the fowls seem to take their place. It is nothing uncommon 

 for them to penetrate even upstairs ; for we were once ourselves much 

 puzzled to account for the singular phenomenon of finding an egg upon 



