The New England magazine . re sep-arated by a hinged partition, which, whenraised, was firmly secured to the ceiling bylarge hand-wrought iron hooks. It wasdiscovered one day that the second parti-tion was modern. That, of course, meantits downfall. Without it, we now have aroom between forty-five and fifty feet long,divided in the centre by the swinging par-tition. The fronts of old seats runninground one-half of this room were found fast-ened back against the wall. These wereeasily restored to position, and furnishedwith hinged covers, as were formerly this hall were situated two fir
The New England magazine . re sep-arated by a hinged partition, which, whenraised, was firmly secured to the ceiling bylarge hand-wrought iron hooks. It wasdiscovered one day that the second parti-tion was modern. That, of course, meantits downfall. Without it, we now have aroom between forty-five and fifty feet long,divided in the centre by the swinging par-tition. The fronts of old seats runninground one-half of this room were found fast-ened back against the wall. These wereeasily restored to position, and furnishedwith hinged covers, as were formerly this hall were situated two fireplaces, onesmall and the other of more generous pro-portions, with a fine mantel. This roomcontained nine windows, seven across thefront. These windows, like all the othersin the house, had small, square panes withhand-made sashes. All the woodworkthroughout the house was made and fin-ished by hand. Another problem we had to meet was themethod of lighting the house. Of course wesighed for candle-light, but realized it was. View showing front room, with corner cupboard, folding doors, and one end of the old tap-room i9 NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE impracticable. Lamps were not consid-ered quite safe, for various reasons, whilegas or electricity seemed much too question was definitely settled by a giftold brass brackets of sufficient numberto furnish light for the large upper brackets were antique oil-lamps,with pear-shaped globes, that had alreadybeen changed for electricity. Later, an-other gift of five old brass lamps and twoof bronze reconciled us still more to theuse of electricity. We then found pewterlamps, iron and brass candlesticks, whichwe pressed into service, hanging an old lan-tern from the kitchen rafters, making a verypicturesque appearance. The electriciansfound, when they attempted to wire thehouse, that the walls were literally stuffedwith corn-cobs. Whether placed there byhuman hands or dragged there by ratsnever will be known. After a long sear
Size: 1915px × 1304px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidnewenglandma, bookyear1887
