Such was the simple character of the ordinary corn-kiln in County Down at the beginning of the century. But I have been assured by the old men of the neighborhood that Hugh Bronte's kiln was of a still more primitive structure. The platform, or corn-floor, was constructed by laying iron bars across unhewn stones set up on end. On these bars straw matting was spread, and on the matting the corn was placed to dry. Such a structure was the immediate precursor of the pottery floored kiln. The design was the same in both, but the matting was always liable to catch fire, and required careful attention. The kiln was erected in the part of the Bronte cottage now roofless, and, like the cottage itself, must have been a very humble affair. It has been suggested that the kiln may have stood elsewhere, but it is now established beyond all doubt, on the unanimous testimony of the inhabitants, that the Bronte kiln stood in the ruined room of the Bronte cottage, and, in fact, it is known by the name of "the Brontes' kiln." Within those walls, now roofless, the grandfather of Charlotte Bronte began in 1776 to earn the daily bread of himself and his bride, by roasting his neighbors' oats. His wage was known by the name of "muther," and consisted of so many pounds of fresh oats taken from every hundredweight brought to him to be kiln-dried. The miller, too, was paid in kind, but his muther was taken by measure, after the shelling, or seeds, had been ground off the grain. When Hugh Bronte had accumulated a sackful of muther he dried it on his kiln, took it to the mill, and paid his muther in turn to the miller, to have it ground into meal. The meal, when taken home, was stored in a barrel, and with the produce of the rood of potatoes which Hugh had _sod_ on his brother-in-law's farm, became the food of himself and family. As the Brontes could not consume all the muther themselves, the surplus would be sold to provide clothing and other necessaries, and though there remains no trace of pig-stye or fowl-house, there can be little doubt that Mrs. Bronte would have both pigs and fowl to eke out her husband's earnings. Mrs. Bronte was a famous spinner, and she handed down the art to her daughters. She had always a couple of sheep grazing on her brother's land. She carded and span the wool, her spinning-wheel singing all day beside her husband, as he beeked the kiln. Then, during the long, dark evenings, when they had no light but the red eye of the kiln, she knitted the yarn into hose and vest and shirt, and even head-gear, so that Hugh Bronte, like his sons in after years, was almost wholly clad in "homespun." This, probably, had something to do with the general impression, which still remains in the neighborhood, of the stately and shapely forms of the Bronte men and women. The knitted woollen garments fitted close, unlike the fantastic and shapeless habiliments that came from the hands of local tailors in those days.