particular pitch. In one quarter were piles of books, brown, musty
volumes of all shapes and sizes, also tattered magazines, and of
theological works a great host. Farther on the explorers came to a
vast collection of old iron. It was as if numbers of travelling
tinkers had here discharged their stock; fenders, gasoliers,
stair-rods, tin-cans, officers' swords--yes, at least a dozen--frying
pans and saucepans. Old clothes were needless to say, a prominent
feature. Here you might suit yourself with a bald-looking sealskin, a
red flannel petticoat, a soiled evening gown on graceful lines, or a
widow's bonnet. Here also were black costumes (dripping beads), broken
feathers, and hopeless hats. Old furniture had several stands and was
an important department. Grandfather clocks, sideboards, chairs
(Chippendale or otherwise), chairs in horsehair or upholstered in
wool-work, and framed family portraits solicited notice. Should anyone
marvel as to what becomes of the rubbish and relics belonging to houses
whose contents have been scattered, after several generations--trifles
that survived wrecked fortunes, odds and ends which, for sacred
reasons, people had clung to till the last, let them repair to the
"Market"--the relics are there, lying on unresponsive cobble stones, a
pitiful spectacle, handled, despised, and cast aside--the precious
hoarded treasures of a bygone age.

Delicately worked samplers, faded water-colours, portraits, old seals,
snuff-boxes, and lockets, attract the curio-hunter. Here is a Prayer
Book with massive silver clasps, inscribed, "Dearest Mary, on our
wedding day, June 4th, 1847, from Gilbert." There, in a red morocco
case, is a miniature of a handsome naval officer. At the back, under
glass, are two locks of hair, joined by a true lover's knot in seed
pearls. Some ruthless hand will pick out those pearls and throw the
hair away.