an easier matter to purchase my blinds than to decide in what manner they could be hung up with advantage. Of course my natural instincts led me to hope for wooden rollers and side cords, but I soon found that I must moderate my desires, and content myself with such contrivances as could be devised by my own ingenuity. Some of my neighbours nailed the blinds to the window frame, pinning them up when not in use; others suspended them curtain-wise upon a string; but rollers and cord were luxuries as seldom seen "over the hills" as gates, and it was the same with other kinds of "house fittings."
Lord Mansfield, who objected to bells on the ground that it was a servant's duty "to wait," would have found no bells to object to, nor any servants with leisure to stand expectant; casements were fastened with wooden buttons, for bolts were not furnished by the stores, and in the poorer sort of houses the windows were not glazed, but consisted simply of a wooden frame on which was stretched strong calico. All these little roughnesses were, however, more than compensated by the superb beauty of the climate, which, taken together with the primitive appearance of our carpetless dwelling, conveyed the impression to the mind of perpetually living in a garden-house for the summer season.
I found that those residences, of which the superiority was attested by a good entrance-gate, were generally dignified in addition by containing one carpeted room, but carpets were less in keeping with the summer's heat than matting, and oil-cloth was better than either in the wet season, when people were apt to bring in the mud of the roads upon their boots. There is, however, no
