as much as they cost me. With the money thus received in my pocket I
went to a neighbouring market town where there happened to be a shop
that dealt in old furniture. For less than ten pounds I bought an
excellent oaken gate-table, half a dozen serviceable oak chairs, a
couple of fine carved chests, and a corner cupboard. My oak dresser
and settle, each good specimens of serviceable cottage furniture, cost
me thirty-seven shillings at a country auction. I found that even at
these modest prices I had paid too much. Oaken furniture was common in
these parts, and had little value. When a church was restored, or an
old house re-constructed, large quantities of old oak were literally
thrown away. Thus, at a merely nominal expense I acquired enough
carved oak to fit together into a handsome fireplace, and later on the
pews of a church came in for oak panelling.

Let me now picture my living-room as it was about four months after I
took possession. It was entirely oak panelled to a height of nine
feet, above which about a foot of white-washed wall showed, forming a
plain frieze. The fireplace at one end of the room was built in with
carved oak; what had been the corresponding fireplace at the other end
of the room was turned into a cupboard, with plain oak doors. The room
had three old-fashioned leaded windows opening outward. Two were
original, one had been added--the centre window taking the place of the
gap left by the destroyed partition wall. My oak chests, dresser and
cupboard, constituted the furniture of the room. The library,
curtained off with a plain curtain of crimson plush, adjoined; the
kitchen door opened at the east corner of the room. The windows faced
due south. The room therefore was always sunny. The floor-boards were
stained, and covered by two or three cheap rugs. Flowers were at the
windows, a vase of flowers always on the table. The fireplace was
open, for I had removed the ugly modern grate, substituting for it a