Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-01-19

mantle piece, likewise of carved oak,
towers high toward the ceiling, and
extends its mighty breadth to take in
vast area of hearth-the arch OF the fire.
place being positively soimmense that /
could compare it to nothing but the
city gateway. Above its cavernous
opening were crossed two ancient hall
berts, the weapons, possibly of soldiers
who fought under Leicester in the Low
Countries, and elsewhere on the walks
were displayed several muskets. which
some of the present inmates of the hos
pital may have levelled against the
French. Another ornament of the man.
tle-piece was square of silken needle
work, faded nearly white, but dimly
representing that wearisome Bear and
Ragged Staff, which we should not look
twice at, only that it was wrought by
the fair fingers of
POOR AMY RoBSART,
and beautifully framed in oak from
Kenilworth castle, at the expense of Mr..
Conner, a countryman of our own.
Certainly an Englishman would be not
capable of this little bit of enthusiasm.
Finally, the kitchen freight glistens
on splendid display of coffee hagons,
all of generous capacity, and one of
them as big as a half barrel the small
er vessels contain the customary al
lowance of ale, and the larger one is
filled with that foaming liquor on four
festive occasions of the year, and
emptied mainly by the jolly brother
hood. | should be glad to see them do
it; but it would be an exploit filter for
Queen Elizabeth's age than these de-
generate times.
The kitchen is the social hall of the
twelve brethren. In the daytime they
bring their messes of be cooked there,
and eat them in their own parlors but
after a certain hour the great hearth is
cleared and swept, and the old men as
sembled round its blaze, each with his
tankard and his pipe, and hold high
converse through the evening. If the
master be fit man for his office, me-
thinks he will sometimes sit down So
cially among them for there is an
elbow chair by the fireside which it
would not demean his dignity to fill,
since it was occupied by
KING JAMES
at the great feltival of nearly three CEN
turtles ago. As if sop of ale and a
Whit of tobacco-pipe would put him in
friendly relations with his venerable
household and then we can fancy him
instructing them by petty apothegms
and religious texts, which were first ut
tered here by some Catholic priest, and
have impregnated the atmosphere ever
81, Job Z oh
of an older coinage than Joe Miller's /;
as old as Lord Bacon's collection, or as
the textbook that Master Slender asked
for when he lacked small-talk for sweet
Anna Page. No news shall be spoken
of later than the drifting ashore, on the
northern coast, of some stern port or
fgure-head, or barricaded fragment of
one of the great galloans of the Span
ish armada. What a tremor would pass
through the antique group if damp
newspaper should suddenly be spread
to dry before the fire They would feel
as if that printed sheet or they them
selves must be
AN UNHEALTHY.
What mysterious awe if the shrek of
a railway-train as it reaches the War
wick station, should ever SO family in
wade their ears. Movement of any
kind seems inconsistent with the stability
of such an institutions Nevertheless,
trust that the ages will carry it along
with them because it is such pleas
ant kind of dream for an American to
find his way thithcr, and behold a piece
of the sixteenth century, set into our
prosaic times, and then to depart and
think of its arched door-ways as spell
guarded entrance which will never be
accessible or visible to him any more. >
l.. S. V. A.