HEARTHS AND HOMES IN THE OLDEN TIME.

Or all the changes which the progress of science and civilization has produced, that in domestic architecture has perhaps been the most striking. In former times the houses in the towns and cities of Old England were, with very few exceptions, built of wood, and their roofs were thatched with straw. The larger class were built with each story projecting over the story beneath; and in the more populous parts of the cities, where the streets were narrow, the people out of their attic windows could talk, and even shake hands with their opposite neighbours! The houses were generally provided with porches before the principal entrance, sufficiently capacious to seat the whole family; the parlours were large, and the halls ample; but in every other respect they were sadly deficient of those auxiliaries to comfort and convenience which we look for in our modern habitations. Glass was a luxury too expensive for the generality of houses: lattice-work, or an oaken frame finely checkered, and panelled with horn, were the usual substitutes. Glass was not introduced into domestic architecture until the latter part of the fourteenth century, and then it was considered so valuable, that, when a baron left his mansion for any length of time, the windows were taken out, wrapped up, and carefully laid past.

No part of the household arrangements of the olden time has been so much admired as the capacious chimney corners of the Elizabethan age. Such comforts were unknown, however, a few generations before. A hole at the top of the roof, or an unglazed window, imperfectly supplied the place of a chimney. If they closed the window against the inclemency of the weather, they extinguished the fire, or they were in danger of being smothered in the smoke which vainly sought an escape through the apertures of the building. Chimneys were rare, previous to the fourteenth century; they then probably came into more general Piers Plowman speaks of a "chambre with a chimney in which rich men dined." Holinshed says, "the old men in his day noted how marvellously things were altered in England within

use.

their remembrance, and especially in the multitude of chimneys which had been lately erected; whereas in their young days there were only two or three, if so many, to be found in the cities and towns of England." The usual custom was, to have a large hearth in the middle of the room, on which the fire was kindled, and the smoke was allowed to ascend through a hole in the top of the building.

Such were the homes of the people of England in the olden time;-how different from our homes and hearths of the present day! We can scarcely imagine, as we draw the chair to our fireside, with the embers glowing cheerily within its polished grating; a warm rug for our feet; books strewed around us, ready at our hand, and willing to entertain us; the windows tightly glazed, guarding us from the howling wind; and a lamp shedding its light on the social tea-tray;—as we partake of these comforts, and a thousand others, we can hardly imagine how our ancestors of old could have extolled the comforts of their hearths, did we not know how sweet is home, however homely; did we not know how immeasurably more attractive is the meanest chamber with that dear name, than the "marbled halls" of strangers; and did we not know that the most miserable cot of the poorest peasant becomes a paradise of bliss, when sanctified by the name of home.

WONDERS OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE.

A BAG of cotton, even in its unmanufactured state, is a wonderful example of commercial enterprise and tact; for the quantity of the fibrous material yielded by each plant is exceedingly small, and the “ magic of numbers" is required to make up a bag or bale.

Considerably more than a million of such bales of raw cotton are now brought to Liverpool yearly; while in 1755 only five pales of American cotton were imported.

Nothing can excite the attention of a stranger more than the enormous trains of trucks laden with cotton which run smoothly

over the thirty miles between Liverpool and Manchester, and deposit their stores at the terminus.

The perfection of the cotton machinery, and the wonderful rapidity with which the raw fibre can be manufactured into cloth, may be illustrated by the following example:-A Preston manufacturer purchased some raw cotton, which was despatched from Liverpool at three o'clock on a Friday morning. It was delivered at the Preston factory at eight minutes past nine o'clock; and before eleven o'clock part of it had passed through the several operations of mixing, scutching, carding, drawing, slubbing, roving, and spinning. At half-past eleven o'clock a portion of it was made into cloth by the power-loom; and at half-past four a portion of good shirting cloth was despatched by railway to Liverpool, which it reached by seven in the evening. Thus the same specimen of cotton went through all the stages of manufacture, from the raw fibre to the woven cloth, and travelled about eighty miles, all between three in the morning and seven in the evening! The Preston weaver wore a garment made of this cloth on the same evening!

Many of the manufacturers pride themselves on the fineness of the yarn they produce; and well may they do so. One manufacturer has succeeded in producing so exquisite a degree of fineness as to obtain 386,400 yards, or 220 miles of yarn from one single pound of cotton! Five or six hundred millions of pounds are yearly wrought up into yarn; and if the whole were wrought to this fineness, such is the astounding magnitude of this manufacture in England, that in six hours we might spin a thread that would reach from the earth to the sun; and in less than a fortnight we might make a fairy rope-ladder to the planet. Neptune!

Mr. Koll, a German traveller, appears to have been struck, as every stranger must be, with the completeness of the arrangements for despatching bales of finished goods from Manchester to foreign countries. After describing the vast warehouses, and the bales of goods piled up in them, he says, "Every country has its particular partialities in the goods it purchases. The speculating merchant

must always be well acquainted with these, no less than with the real wants and customs of each nation. From the Manchester warehouses great quantities of black cloth are annually sent to Italy, in order to clothe the innumerable priests of that country; but this black cloth must always be of a particular coal-black, without the slightest tinge of brown or blue. Goods must also be packed differently for different nations; thus, I saw bales of cotton intended for China packed in the Chinese manner, and decorated with bright, tasteful little pictures, representing Chinese customs, ceremonies, costumes, &c. Nor must the manner of transport used in the interior of the countries for which they are intended be forgotten in the packing of the goods. Wares to be carried on the backs of elephants, camels, or llamas, must be differently packed from those to be conveyed by waggons, canals, or railways."-The patterns for the home market are generally indefinite, consisting of spots, stripes, and curves, bearing no resemblance to any particular objects. The Chinese market requires exact copies of some natural objects, such as buds or flowers, without any attempt at perspective. The South American market calls for the most gorgeous assemblage of colours -blue, yellow, and red-that the dyer and printer can give.

The printing of calicoes has gone on increasing year after year to an amazing extent. At the beginning of the present century, the quantity was about thirty millions of yards, whereas it is now somewhere about five hundred millions.

A calico-printing establishment, like a cotton-mill, is a wonderfal triumph of modern science; and when the mechanical and chemical improvements of both are viewed together, they form a splendid and matchless exhibition of science applied to the arts, and easily account for a rapidity of growth and a vastness of extension in the manufacture which has no parallel in the records of industry.

THE SILK MANUFACTURE.

In the reign of the Emperor Justinian, two monks on a mission to China brought away with them a quantity of silk-worm eggs, concealed in a piece of hollow cane, which they carried to Constantinople. There they hatched the eggs, reared the worms, and spun the silk-for the first time introducing that manufacture into Europe, and destroying the monopoly which China had hitherto enjoyed. From Constantinople the knowledge and the practice of the art gradually extended to Greece, thence to Italy, and next to Spain. Each country, as in turn it gained possession of the secret, strove to preserve it with jealous care; but to little purpose. A secret that so many thousands already shared in common could not long remain so, although its passage to other countries might be for a time retarded. France and England were behind most of the other states of Europe in obtaining a knowledge of the "craft and mystery." The manufacture of silk did not take root in France till the reign of Francis I.; and was hardly known in England till the persecutions of the Duke of Parma in 1585 drove a great number of the manufacturers of Antwerp to seek refuge in our land. James I. was very anxious to promote the breed of silk-worms, and the production of silken fabrics. During his reign a great many mulberry-trees were planted in various parts of the country-among others, that celebrated one in Shakspere's garden at Stratford-on-Avon-and an attempt was made to rear the worm in our country; which, however, the ungenial climate frustrated. Silk-throwsters, dyers, and weavers, were brought over from the Continent; and the manufacture made such progress that, by 1629, the silk-throwsters of London were incorporated, and thirty years afterwards employed no fewer than 40,000 hands. The emigration from France consequent on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) added not only to the number engaged in the trade, but to the taste, skill, and enterprise, with which it was conducted. It is not easy to estimate how deeply France wounded herself by the iniquitous persecution of the Protestants,