In old country-houses in England, instead of glass for windows, they used
wicker, or fine strips of oak disposed checkerwise. Horn was also used.
The windows of princes and great noblemen were of crystal; those of
Studley Castle, Holinshed says, of beryl. There were seldom chimneys;
and they cooked their meats by a fire made against an iron back in the
great hall. Houses, often of gentry, were built of a heavy timber frame,
filled up with lath and plaster. People slept on rough mats or straw
pallets, with a round log for a pillow; seldom better beds than a
mattress, with a sack of chaff for a pillow.
October 25th.--A walk yesterday through Dark Lane, and home through the
village of Danvers. Landscape now wholly autumnal. Saw an elderly man
laden with two dry, yellow, rustling bundles of Indian corn-stalks,--a
good personification of Autumn. Another man hoeing up potatoes. Rows of
white cabbages lay ripening. Fields of dry Indian corn. The grass has
still considerable greenness. Wild rose-bushes devoid of leaves, with
their deep, bright red seed-vessels.
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