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citizen is presumed to know the law, everyone should know the law on this point. Does he?

Buckinghamshire Bobbins.-Collectors have found much to interest them in the English peasantmade laces, and there is something in the bobbin of pillow lace which appeals to the lovers of unconsidered trifles. Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Devon, have all had their centres of hand-made lace before the Nottingham looms with machine-made lace drove cottage industries to the wall, although to-day there is a revival of the old methods which promises permanent success. Then there is Limerick, with its hand-made lace made in the convents, still a green spot in modern lace making, and very delicate and beautiful are its designs.

The object of the bobbin, indeed its very origin, is to be unique. Every bobbin should be different from its fellow. As each bobbin is moved by the worker on the pillow to form the design, the eye must readily differentiate between one and another. To help out this idea some are thick, some are thin, and the turning varies in each, and to accentuate the intended differences a wire is affixed to the end with different coloured beads of various shapes and sizes. The group illustrated (p. 133) is of wood specimens. The little reel at the end to hold the thread is seen at the top of the bobbin. Many examples are of bone. These are not so commonly found, and they exhibit more intricate carving and decoration. Some of them are inlaid

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Formerly used in game preserves, and buried beneath turf and concealed by brushwood to trap poachers. Their use made illegal in 1861, under a penalty

of penal servitude for three years.

(At Leicester Museum.)

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE LACE BOBBINS.

Turned in wood and having glass beads wired to the ends.

(In collection of Author.)

with pewter and bound with metal. Sometimes a fine small row of beads is wound around the bobbin in addition to those at the end. The Devonshire bobbins are rare. They have no beads, and are pointed in shape with stained mottled decorations.

Carved bobbins are not confined to England: there are French, mostly from Normandy, Brussels, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Maltese examples, which collectors have secured. Regarded from a collector's point of view, these English bobbins are poor relations of the Jacobean turned leg or the brass turned candlestick, the charm of which is that each individual turner followed his own fancy, and thus no two are exactly alike. He did this from caprice, but the bobbin turner did it aforethought, for a very definite purpose.

Old Brass Amulets on Horse Harness.-The designs on the old brass ornaments worn by draught horses have an archæological interest not generally known. Among the devices may be traced some which are associated with old religions and pagan practices long before the Christian era. The old brasses treasured by English carters are heavy in weight and are of cast brass hand wrought. A set consists of a face brass hanging over the forehead, two ear brasses to hang behind the ears, three brasses each side of runners at shoulders, and from six to ten brasses affixed to the martingale which hangs down the front of the breast. Only a cart horse

could bear the weight, some six pounds, and only on gala days, such as May Day or at a fair or show or horse parade, does the carter use these ornaments in their entirety. It is curious that they are, and many have been for generations, the property of the "carter," and not of the farmer or employer.

Country farm horses going to market to the country towns were dressed with these "face metals," and a team had "latten bells," three or four bells in a set. These were affixed in a leather hood above the collar. Their use was to notify their approach in a narrow lane, where there was only room for a single team.

Above the horse's head is a small brass ornament called a "flyer "; these are replicas in miniature of the larger brasses, and swing to and fro glittering in the sun. In Denmark this ornament above the horse's head is called a " blinker," as it twinkled and glittered, and is usually silver. Its use was confined to the nobility, persons of lesser degree were not allowed to use it. Here is an instance of horse ornament indicating the rank of the owner; possibly the usage grew into the additional decoration of a cockade for the coachman as a mark of distinction.

In regard to the collection of brass amulets, it is useless to pay much attention to modern thin brasses stamped out by the dozen. More often than not they have the trade symbol of some brewery company or some hackneyed design which has nothing to do with the archæological

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