layer became filthy, and one writer attributes the frequent
pestilences which often broke out to the dirtiness of their floors
and the masses of filthy rushes lying upon them. Perhaps some of the
wise folks in Lancashire discovered this, for we find the following
entry in the account books of Kirkham Church, 1631--"Paid for
carrying the rushes out of the Church in the sickness time, 5._s_.
0_d_." Straw was used in winter: it would seem very strange to us to
have our floors covered with straw, like a stable!

In this matter of cleanliness we have certainly improved upon the
habits of our forefathers: dirty cottages are the exception, and not
the rule, as they were in the days of "good Queen Bess"; and the
absence of those terrible plagues which used to devastate our land
in former times is due in a great measure to the improved
cleanliness and more careful regard for sanitation by the people of
England.




CHAPTER VIII.

AUGUST.

"Crowned with the ears of corn, now come,
And to the pipe sing harvest home.
Come forth, my lord, and see the cart
Dressed up with all the country art:
The horses, mares, and frisking fillies
Clad all in linen white as lilies.