An Old English Home

in Queen's Square. There was a long room in which we boarders-there were some five-and-twenty of us-

essayed who could throw up his piece of bread and butter highest. Mine w

own: it stuck, and neither the usher nor the ma

bread and butter. It remained unnoticed. That it was also unobserved by the se

on the third day, during prayers, flop!-down it came in front of t

tter is that?" asked the mas

nfess, and

t was not effaced all the while I remained a boarder, and I involuntarily every day, and f

-ROOM, DUNS

be allowed to look at my old school-haunt. And-actually-the bread and butter stain was still there. Like murder-it could not be hi

ys, on entering a room, to direct my eyes to the ceil

s be blank surfaces? We spread carpets of colour on our floors. We decorate richly our walls. Why should the ceiling alone be left in hideous baldness, in fa

d its greatest perfection in that of Elizabeth. At a later

xed with some hair, the lines of the ornamentation were made with ribb

ngs, and which are not of plaster, or plaster only, bu

ency to break down the laths to which they adhere, but these pendents are bolted into the rafters,

flower-work, conventional in character, introduced, and sometimes c

from nature, exquisitely delicate and beautiful; but the imitation was carried some

tiful ceiling of the date of Charles II., the flowers and fruit infinitely varied, and wrought with exqu

he house-this latter was far too small to

e my school treat next Thursday-should rain fa

squire; "but it will be stuff

end of the room to the other, utterly destroying this incomparable work, that must have occupie

genius. It is on a level with that of the chawbacon who, having got hol

o ceilings came in. These were superb-not heavy, but rich with fancy and exquisite in delicacy. This never reached England, or if a foreign workman came here and did a ceiling or two, the art did

h lincrusta, or papier maché, or asbestos "salamander" decoration, applied. This is better than nothing, but, of course, is m

ling I subjoin the follo

t--, who informed him that he had been 'overlooked' by one of his own profession, and that he had applied too late for a cure to be effected. The man

would help me. I am very anxious to have a first-class decorated ceiling to that ball-room, and you know what these Londoners be: they do all by machinery, and you buy a ceiling by the yard-nasty, vulgar stuff I would be ashamed to have seen here. I'll tell you what it is, Thomas, those Londoners come out of town and sail about the country in the h

, 'my heart is brok

, 'not to teach the

it, but never be

begin i

om up and roofed over before winter. Do now lend a hand with building. Then when bad weather comes on you can begin to set up the ceiling.' So all the summer he was building-did not miss a day, and this winter he is hard a

o not over-teach and direct them, give them good examples, show them the principles of construction and decoration, and then, as much as may be, leave them to work the details out by themselves. They become intensely interested and proud of

g down a bit of George Bevan's work is come upon, the masons stand still, shake their heads, and say, "As well blast a rock as put a pick into George

ins to educate their local artisans to do work that is pleasing, they would be elevating them in culture, and, what is more, attaching them to those old homes of theirs that they have helped to make a delight to the eye;