House and Garden 
ney carried up above the height of 
the ceiling of the ground floor, there 
you will find a bacon loft, and possibly 
see five or six sides of bacon hang¬ 
ing by hooks to iron ribs, being 
smoked. Coal fires are of no use for 
this purpose,and oak wood is the best. 
On one side of the ingle-nook is the 
arched entrance to the brick oven. 
See the ingenious way in which the 
great broad chimney is made to slope 
and grow narrower as it reaches the 
apex of the roof, and is there sur¬ 
mounted by the shaft. There is the 
straight, upright base ; then a steep 
slope sometimes covered with tiles ; 
then another straight piece; then an 
arrangement of brick steps, repeated 
again until the chimney is ready for 
its shaft with its projecting courses, 
and finished with a comely pot, or a 
“bonnet” fashioned of red tiles. The 
same pains were often taken to adorn 
the head as we have noticed in regard 
to the central chimneys, and the effect 
is wonderfully fine, the means em¬ 
ployed being natural, simple and un¬ 
affected. 
In the interior of the cottage a beam runs 
along the top of the fireplace, stretching 
across the opening from which a short cur¬ 
tain hangs. Above this is a shelf blackened 
by the smoke of ages, whereon some of the 
A WEATHER-BOARDED COT AT HERNE BAY, KENT 
AN OLD COTTAGE AT BORDEN, KENT 
cottager’s treasures repose—modern nick- 
nacks, most of them nowadays; cups bear¬ 
ing inscriptions: “A Present from Brighton,” 
or “For a good girl.” Coronation cups and 
Jubilee mugs there are in plenty. Almost 
every cottage has one or two 
of these mementos of events 
in our national history, and 
they stand in conjunction with 
impossible milkmaids, shep¬ 
herds and shepherdesses, and 
dogs and cats with great star¬ 
ing eyes, and miniature dolls’ 
houses, mugs and pigs of di¬ 
vers patterns. Collectors have 
stripped our cottages of many 
of their treasures ; but it is 
curious how many valuable 
objects find their way into 
these humble abodes. In my 
village I have bought no less 
than three colored engravings 
by Bartolozzi. How they 
came into the possession of 
the villagers no man knoweth 
