ear the gate a horse-block for
mounting. The hall was furnished with flitches of bacon, and
the mantelpiece with guns and fishing-rods of different
dimensions, accompanied by the broadsword, partisan, and dagger
borne by his ancestor in the Civil Wars. Against the wall was
posted King Charles's _Golden Rules_, Vincent Wing's _Almanac_
and a portrait of the Duke of Marlborough; in his window lay
Baker's _Chronicle_, Foxe's _Book of Martyrs_, Glanvill _On
Apparitions_, Quincey's _Dispensatory_, _The Complete Justice_,
and a _Book of Farriery_. In a corner by the fireside stood a
large wooden two-armed chair with a cushion, and within the
chimney corner were a couple of seats. Here at Christmas he
entertained his tenants, assembled round a glowing fire made of
the roots of trees; and told and heard the traditionary tales
of the village about ghosts and witches while a jorum of ale
went round. These men and their houses are no more.'

The farmer, in some parts at all events, was becoming a more civilized
individual; the late race had lived in the midst of their enlightened
neighbours like beings of another order[480]; in their personal labour
they were indefatigable, in their fare hard, in their dress homely, in
their manners rude. The French and American War of 1775-83 was a very
prosperous time, and the farmer's mode of living greatly improved.
Farmhouses in England, it was noticed, were in general well furnished
with every convenient accommodation. Into many of them a 'barometer
had of late years been introduced'. The teapot and the mug of ale
jointly possessed the breakfast table, and meat and pudding smoked on
the board every noon. Formerly one might see at church what was the
cut of a coat half a century ago, now dress was spruce and
modern.[481] As a proof of the spirit of improvement among farmers,
Marshall instances the custom in the Midlands of placing their sons as
pupils on other farms to widen their experience. 'Their entertainments
are as expensive as they are elegant, for it is no uncommon thing for
one of these new-created farmers to spend L10 or L12, at one
entertainment, and to have the most expensive wines; to set off the
entertainment in the greatest splendour an elegant sideboard of plate
is provided in the newest fashion.'[482] As to dress, no one could
tell the farmer's daughter from the duke's. Marshall noticed that in
Warwic