used for the storage of the wood required for immediate use, and which must be dry; and beyond that the kitchen where the fire is still upon the hearth, though coal is mixed with the logs and faggots. Along the whole length of this side of the house there is a paved or pitched courtyard enclosed by a low brick wall, with one or two gates opening upon the paths which lead to the rickyards and the stalls. The buttermilk and refuse from the dairy runs by a channel cut in the stone across the court into a vault or well sunk in the ground, from whence it is dipped for the pigs. The vault is closed at the mouth by a heavy wooden lid. There is a well and pump for water here; sometimes with a windlass when the well is deep. If the water be low or out of condition it is fetched in yokes from the nearest running stream. The acid or 'eating' power of the buttermilk, &c., may be noted in the stones, which in many places are scooped or hollowed out. A portion of the court is roofed in and is called the 'skilling.' It is merely covered in without walls, the roof supported upon oaken posts. Under this the buckets are placed to dry after being cleaned, and here the churn may often be seen. A separate staircase, rising from the dairy, gives access to the cheese-loft. It is an immense apartment, reaching from one end of the house to the other, and as lofty as the roof will permit, for it is not ceiled. The windows are like those of the dairy. Down the centre are long double shelves sustained upon strong upright beams, tier upon tier from the floor as high as the arms can conveniently reach. Upon these shelves the cheese is stored, each lying upon its side; and, as no two cheeses are placed one upon the other until quite ready for eating, a ton or two occupies a considerable space while in process of drying. They are also placed in rows upon the floor, which is made exceptionally strong, and supported upon great beams to bear the weight. The scales used to be hung from a beam overhead, and consisted of an iron bar, at each end of which a square board was slung with ropes-one board to pile up the cheese on, and the other for the counterpoise of weights. These rude and primitive scales are now generally superseded by modern and more accurate instruments, weighing to a much smaller frac tion. Stone half-hundredweights and stone quarters were in common use not long since. A cheese-loft, when full, is a noble sight of its kind, and represents no little labour and skill, When sold, the cheese is carefully packed in the cart with straw to prevent its being injured. The oil or grease from the cheese gradually works its way into the shelves and floor, and even into the staircase, till the woodwork seems saturated with it. Rats and mice are the pests of the loft; and so great is their passion for cheese that neither cats, traps, nor poison can wholly repress these invaders, against whom unceasing war is waged. The starlings-who, if the roof be of thatch, as it is in many farmhouses, make their nests in it-occasionally carry their holes right through, and are unmercifully exterminated when they venture within reach, or they would quickly let the rain and the daylight in. As the dairy and offices face the north, so the front of the house the portion used for domestic purposes-has a southern aspect which experience has proved to be healthy. But at the same time, despite its compactness and general convenience, there are many defects in the building-defects chiefly of a sanitary character. It is very doubtful if there are any drains at all. though the soil be naturally dry, the ground floor is almost always cold and damp. The stone flags Even concerned. A foolish custom was observed in the building of many old farmhouses, i.e. of carrying beams of wood across the chimneya practice that has led to disastrous fires. The soot accumulates. These huge cavernous chimneys are rarely swept, and at last catch alight and smoulder for many days: presently fire breaks out in the middle of a room under which the beam passes. are themselves cold enough, and are a buttress. The great difference often placed upon the bare earth. in the temperature of a drained soil The threshold is on a level with the and an undrained one has often ground outside, and sometimes a been observed, amounting somestep lower, and in wet weather the times to as much as twenty degreeswater penetrates to the hall. There a serious matter where health is is another disadvantage. If the door be left open, which it usually is, frogs, toads, and creeping things generally, sometimes make their way in though ruthlessly swept ont again; and an occasional suake from the long grass at the very door is an unpleasant, though perfectly harmless, visitor. The floor should be raised a foot or so above the level of the earth, and some provision made against the damp by a layer of concrete or something of the the kind. If not, even if boards be substituted for the flags, they will soon decay. It often happens that farmhouses upon meadow land are situated on low ground, which in winter is saturated with water which stands in the furrows, and makes the footpaths leading to the house impassable except to water-tight boots. This must, and undoubtedly does, affect the health of the inmates, and hence probably the prevalence of rheumatism. The site upon which the house stands should be so drained as to carry off the water. Some soils contract to an appreciable extent in a continuance of drought, and expand in an equal degree with wet a fact apparent to anyone who walks across a field where the soil is clay in a dry time, when the deep, wide cracks cannot be overlooked. Alternate swelling and contraction of the earth under the foundations of a house produce a partial dislocation of the brickwork, and hence it is common enough to see cracks running up the walls. Had the site been properly drained, and the earth consequently always dry, this would not have happened; and it is a matter of consideration for the landlord, who in time may find it necessary to shore up a wall with Houses erected in blocks or in towns do not encounter the full force of the storms of winter to the same degree as a solitary farmhouse, standing a quarter or half a mile from any other dwelling. This is the reason why the old farmers planted elm-trees and encouraged the growth of thick hawthorn hedges close to the homestead. The north-east and the south-west are the quarters from whence most is to be dreaded the north-east for the bitter wind which sweeps along and grows colder from the damp, wet meadows it passes over; and the south-west for the driving rain, lasting sometimes for days and weeks together. Trees and hedges break the force of the gales, and in summer shelter from the glaring sun. The architectural arrangement of the farmhouse just described gives almost perfect privacy. Except visitors no one comes to the front door or passes unpleasantly close to the windows. Labourers and others all go to the courtyard at the back. The other plans upon which farmsteads are built are far from affording similar privacy. There are some which, in fact, are nothing but an enlarged and somewhat elongated cottage, with the dwelling-rooms at one end and the dairy and offices at the other, and the bedrooms over both. Everybody and everything brought to or taken from the place has to pass before the dwelling-room windows -a most unpleasant arrangement. Another style is square, with low stone walls whitewashed, and thatched roof of immense height. Against it is a lean-to, the eaves of the roof of which are hardly three feet from the ground. So highpitched a roof necessitates the employment of a great amount of woodwork, and the upper rooms have sloping ceilings. They may look picturesque from a distance, but are inconvenient and uncouth within, and admirably calculated for burning. A somewhat superior description is built in the shape of a carpenter's square.' The dwelling-rooms form, as it were, one house, and the offices, dairy, and cheese-loft are added on at one end at right angles. The courtyard is in the triangular space between. For some things this is a convenient arrangement; but there still re mains the disagreeableness of the noise, and, at times, strong odours from the courtyard under the windows of the dwelling-house. Nearly all farmsteads have awkwardly low ceilings, which in a town would cause a close atmosphere, but are not so injurious in the open country with doors constantly ajar. In erecting a modern house this defect would, of course, be avoided. The great thickness of the walls is sometimes a deception; for in pulling down old buildings it is occasionally found that the interior of the wall is nothing but loose broken stones and bricks enclosed or rammed in between two walls. The staircases are generally one of the worst features of the old houses, being between a wall and a partition-narrow, dark, steep, and awkwardly placed, and without windows or handrails. These houses were obviously built for a people living much out of doors. RICHARD JEFFERIES. THE STOCK EXCHANGE AGAIN. TO THE EDITOR OF FRASER'S MAGAZINE. IR,-In one sense I feel flattered by the notice which my paper on Stockbroking has apparently elicited. Not only does it seem to have been read by at least certain members of a class of men not given to read much beyond the Share-list and sensational telegrams in the newspapers, but it has actually stirred up a champion of broking ways, and has put that champion in a rage. This last is indeed a triumph. In discussion I always hold it a prime mark of success to be able to put an adversary beside himself with passion. Not only will he then reveal himself according to his true nature, but in his heat he will usually betray on all sides the weak parts of his case for your more easy victory. Mr. Branch has, in my humble estimation, done both to perfection. His rage possesses him so that he boils over continually into all sorts of personalities and spleens against the writer whom he belabours. No sooner has he fairly settled to any point worth discussing than his passion masters him. He is up and off with a monotonous buzz of fury. I could not wish a better foe. In order to find vent for his ill humour over the audacity of the unknown person who dared to attack the sacred haunts of Mammon and the modes by which modern stockbrokers busily turn the honest pennies of their neighbours into their own own pockets, Mr. Branch supposes all sorts of things about me, and then knocks over the fancies of his own creation with immense gusto. I cannot consent, however, to be drawn into recrimination by any such means -it would be ungrateful in me. I confess, too, being reasonably selfish, that on that tack I should only in all probability court defeat. I yield the palm at once. Only on one little matter would I wish to assert myself. Mr. Branch emphatically denies that my description of the purlieus and habitués of the Stock Exchange is correct; says there are no broken betting-men in it, and comparatively few Jews. He knows better than I do, of course; yet I have the testimony of men likely to know, whom, without offence, I should consider as trustworthy as himself, that broken racing-men were on its roll. Whether the smash-up in foreign loan swindles cleared them off or not I cannot now say. And as to the appearance of those who loaf round the doors of the Stock Exchange, I have had the evidence of my own eyes. In this sense I have stood at its entrances, and I must say that a stranger crowd than is to be seen buzzing about them of an afternoon could not be found anywhere. All are not loafing rascals; the majority may not be; but here, as in many other matters, it is the lowest that gives the standard, and the lowest of those that congregate round the pandemonium in Capel Court cannot be outfaced anywhere. I wish Mr. Branch all joy of them, Jews, Levantines, Greeks, Spaniards, Dutch, Yankees, and the rest, and sincerely trust that they will not too much curtail his profits by their eager gambling. Sure enough, whatever they do, there they are. With this by way of preface, I will now proceed to treat those points of Mr. Branch's letter where he sets himself to justify the ways of stockbrokers to the fleecy lambs. of humanity outside, and I must do him the credit of having the skill, wrath notwithstanding, to conduct his defence with vigour and adroitness. At the very first onslaught, for example, he deftly slips by what is in reality the backbone of the argument in my paper. He has quoted a paragraph from that paper which he is pleased to say, though that is not strictly true, contains the substance of the writer's indictment of the Stock Exchange,' and where I expressly charge Stock Exchange business usages with being at the root of the mischief. 'Never mind these usages,' says Mr. Branch in effect, let us talk of something else'-or take the passage in his letter verbatim : We will, if you please, leave the modus operandi alone, as being difficult of explanation to your general readers, and impossible to discuss with anyone so evidently ignorant of business as the writer in Fraser. There is the less need to go into any particulars of our method of buying and selling stocks and shares, because I am ready to admit that the writer's charge against us, as I have put it, is substantially true. Undoubtedly our rules, regulations, and methods of transacting business, do facili tate the introduction and the sale of bad securities. So far from feeling this a reproach against the Stock Exchange as an institution, it seems to me nothing more than the proof that it answers its purpose. The Stock Exchange was instituted and is kept up for the exchange of stocks against money. Swept of all needless particulars it will be found that the principle of its existence is precisely the same as that of any other market. A. has money and wants stock; B. has stock and wants money. The stockbroker steps in, and, for a consideration, exchanges B.'s stock for A.'s money. All the parties to this transaction have done what they wished to do, and, by the machinery of the Stock Exchange, have done it readily. A. has got rid of his money and owns B.'s stock. B. has got rid of his stock and possesses A.'s money. The broker has his commission. But now, when the purchase, let us suppose, proves to be not so good a one as the buyer expected, he turns round and asks the public to join him in a chorus of indignant reproach against the Stock Exchange, its committee, rules, and members. And why? Be cause,' he says, 'you have sold me a rotten security.' Here there are two exceedingly neat doublings. First, Mr. Branch waives, as I said, all discussion of the modus operandi on the plea that the ordinary reader could not understand it. 'That fool of a writer did not, neither would you, my good friend, so let us say nothing about it.' I admire that double very much, because Mr. Branch thus neatly slips past the point of my 'indictment." If I strove to make anything plain, it was this that the modes of doing business pursued on the Stock Exchange tended to make it, in the words of a highly reputable and, alas! old-fashioned broker, ‘a gambling hell from the top to the bottom.' Nothing could be plainer than that. I produced fac-similes of brokers' accounts, showing that the business of the House is based on the practice of fortnightly time bargains, which are nearly always a pure gam ble, and on a diseased system of credits attached thereto, and that these lay at the root of the whole mischief, rendering all rules and all safeguards entirely nugatory. Mr. Branch did well to slip past that, for it was something he could not get over. Specious generalities are much I do not know anything about the more easy to handle than facts here. business, of course, so there is no use discussing it. It is a fact none the less that at present time-bargains of the sort. I described in my paper are the bulk of the business of the Stock Exchange, and that out of them the brokers and jobbers make the larger part of their profits, either in the shape of ' commissions,' turns of the market, or by lending money at usury to the people who are fools enough to embark on such gambles. On this system loans are easily floated, dupes caught, and all kinds of cheating managed, and through it bad business is not |