Page:Rural Hours.djvu/353

Rh Europe these rag carpets are not seen, at least not on the common track of travellers, and possibly they are an invention of our great-grandmothers after they had crossed the ocean. Or it may be that they are found in English farm-houses off the common route.

Besides excellent flannels and carpeting, we saw very good shawls, stamped table-covers, blankets, shirting and sheeting, towelling and table linen; leather and morocco; woollen stockings, mittens, gloves, and socks; very neat shoes and boots, on Paris patterns; embroidery, and fancy work of several kinds; some very good broadcloth; pretty plaid and striped woollen materials, for dresses; handsome bed-quilts, of unusually pretty patterns, and well quilted, &c., &c. Altogether this was the most creditable part of the in-door exhibition. Every one must feel an interest in these fairs; and it is to be hoped they will become more and more a source of improvement and advantage in everything connected with farming, gardening, dairy-work, manufacturing, mechanical, and household labors.

The butter and cheese of this county ought to be of the very highest quality. That of our best dairies already commands a high price in the large towns; but with plenty of grass, good spring water in abundance, and a comparatively cool summer climate, there ought not to be a pound of bad butter to be found here. Unfortunately, a great deal of a very indifferent kind is made and eaten; and yet bad butter is almost as injurious to health as bad air, of which we hear so much now-a-days. At the taverns it is seldom that one meets with tolerable butter.

Saturday, 30th.—Milder again. There are still many grasshoppers thronging the fields and road-sides of warm days. The