Fads and Fancies .sx by W. J. Dore-Dennis .sx THE gardens , flower and kitchen , had been much neglected .sx The new owner , admitting that he knew practically nothing of horticulture , gave my friend Ole 'Arry 6carte blanche , and I was not surprised that the estate was quickly transformed .sx In the first spring after Harry's appointment he looked me up .sx Did I want any tomato plants ?sx I did , and asked 'How many and how much ?sx ' His reply was staggering :sx ''Underds , an' fer nuffin'' .sx It appeared that he had treated the gardens with manure from the sewage farm .sx The tomato plants were the result , but his employer , when informed as to the origin of the vast crop , had turned 'fair pernickety' , ordering that all the plants were to be destroyed and new ones procured from a local nursery .sx Harry and I did well with our condemned plants , which gave a crop excellent both in quality and quantity .sx Our surplus was gladly taken by the village greengrocer , who in turn supplied Harry's pernickety employer and his family , the nursery-bought plants having failed to come up to expectations .sx Country Scales and Weights .sx by L. Sanders .sx A CENTURY and more ago country people had to rely on improvisation and the local craftsman for most of their essential equipment , including means to weigh their produce .sx The Avery Historical Museum has been collecting old weighing instruments from all over the world for a number of years , during which it has acquired many interesting examples made and used in our own countryside .sx Stone weights are among the simpler of these .sx Some may be three or four hundred years old , made from stones taken from field or hillside .sx When farmers had to weigh produce for market and were unable to obtain foundry-made iron weights locally , they sought stones of suitable size , shape and weight and took them to the smith to be fitted with iron lifting rings .sx Then , by a little chipping or the addition of lead , they were adjusted to compare with a neighbour's weights or with the manorial standards .sx Hard igneous rocks , such as granite , made serviceable weights , reasonably impervious to moisture and capable of withstanding hard wear and exposure .sx Occasionally stone weights of the larger denominations , such as twenty-eight and fifty-six pounds , turn up .sx The large oval one marked '59' , illustrated on the previous page , would have been used to weigh bales of wool , the extra three pounds being an agreed tare allowance for straps or bindings .sx This and the twelve-pound weight came from Jersey and were undoubtedly fashioned from large rounded beach pebbles flattened to form a base .sx The square weight below is from Shropshire and , though figured '56' , weighs only forty-five pounds .sx This is due not to any dishonesty on the part of the original owner , but to the loss of its lead loading from the large cavity on the under side .sx Cart weighbridges and platform-scales , an English invention of the mid eighteenth century , were scarce even in towns and certainly unknown to the farm worker until well into the second half of the nineteenth century .sx The countryman mostly used beam-scales or hanging steelyards made in the towns by small family concerns employing a few craftsmen and apprentices .sx Some surviving examples are as crude as those used by the ancient Egyptians four or five thousand years earlier , but others show some appreciation of the fundamentals of the science .sx Among the cruder examples are the wooden butter-scales shown below ; they are about three hundred years old .sx A central stand or pillar , turned like a chair-leg on a primitive lathe , carries a wooden beam pivoted on a round iron peg :sx two wooden bowls or platters are suspended from the ends of the beam .sx Scales of this type were used in farmhouses up to the end of the last century .sx Larger hanging wooden beam-scales were often part of the equipment of the miller for weighing sacks of grain and flour .sx They were sometimes as much as six feet long and strongly constructed with metal fittings and rudimentary knife-edges , combining the skills of carpenter and smith .sx They could be used to weigh several sacks at a time on scale-plates suspended from the end knives by shackles and chains .sx The wooden beam-scale opposite is a comparatively small one , about two feet in length , and probably two hundred years old .sx In contrast , the professional scale-makers of the town constructed their products entirely of metal .sx Steelyards , based on the principle of the uneven-armed balance used by the Romans and still known by their name , were in common use , for they permitted the weighing of heavy loads without a large number of loose weights .sx As they required greater precision in manufacture than the beam-scales , few home-made examples survive .sx The seventeenth and eighteenth-century farmhouse steelyards of English and Continental origin in the Avery collection are small , as steelyards go , and many have wooden arms with metal fittings , poise and knife-edges .sx Graduation marks are provided by brass pegs driven into the wood at regular intervals .sx Most of them have two fulcrum knives and duplicate suspensions to take either light or heavy goods- a principle used by the Romans .sx An example of a craftsman-made wooden steelyard can be seen in the illustration of the fine Orkney pundler , which is one of the prized exhibits in the collection .sx The oak beam is more than six feet in length , and the stone poise weighs thirty-one pounds .sx Graduation marks correspond to multiples of the Scottish pound .sx All the metal fittings are of wrought iron , including the knives which are now well rounded by wear .sx The instrument is believed to have been in use for several hundred years , for the beam bears the weight-stamp of George =3 obliterating a number of older marks .sx Also from Orkney is a wooden bismar or Danish steelyard , used by sliding a cord fulcrum along the counterweighted lever to balance a load .sx The principle was known to early Aryan tribesmen , who found its simplicity convenient for their nomadic way of life .sx The example illustrated above is three feet long and is thought to be of wych-elm .sx For some two thousand years the bismar , dhari or Danish steelyard , as it is variously called , has been widely used throughout the Indian sub-continent and the eastern and northern countries of Europe ; but in England it was made illegal in the reign of Edward =3 in favour of the equal-armed beam and Roman-pattern steelyard .sx New Books about the Country .sx Read not to contradict and confute , nor to believe and take for granted , nor to find talk and discourse ; but to weigh and consider- Bacon Escapists or Realists ?sx .sx WHEN anyone decides to stop earning a living in the town and tries to earn it in the country , he is dubbed an escapist , as though he were somehow avoiding the responsibilities of civilisation .sx But when a young couple , a successful journalist married to an attractive hotel publicity officer , leave the West End to brave all weathers in a primitive cottage on the Cornish cliffs , working with their hands to grow potatoes and flowers for a livelihood , they are surely realists in the truest sense .sx For ten years the Tangyes have struggled against frost and gales , blight and disease , to supply the fickle markets of the industrial cities with early violets , daffodils , anemones and potatoes .sx When they were nearly ruined fresh hope appeared in the form of A GULL ON THE ROOF ( Joseph , 18s ) , which they called Hubert .sx Derek Tangye describes the whole endeavour , and his wife Jean provides small sketches as illustrations .sx He writes well enough to sustain interest through all the setbacks , encounters with local characters , economics of market gardening and breezy comments from city friends .sx It is also delightful to see the townsman's sentimental feeling for animals and hatred of traps enduring even in the 'peasant life' ; Monty the cat is treated with as much understanding as if all three had stayed in the Mortlake flat and never passed through Lamorna to find Minack .sx Also a grower and journalist , Frederick Street has fought hard to make a living out of rhododendrons and azaleas and now finds his experience has been a FOOL'S MISTRESS ( Parrish , 17s 6d) .sx His anger , first at his relatives who disappointed him over his inheritance , a market garden near Woking , then at the difficulties of trying to make fertile 12 acres of derelict land , and finally at the battle between commuter and countryman in his subtopia with its fun-farming and half-way-back-to-the-land movement , makes a provocative autobiography .sx I enjoyed the table showing the relationship between the type of farming a man does and his weekday train to London , from the 8.45 chicken farmer to the 10.30 ( three days a week only ) owner of a pedigree herd of Jerseys .sx A more light-hearted realism comes from R. M. Dashwood , the PROVINCIAL DAUGHTER ( Chatto , 16s ) of the Provincial Lady , E. M. Delafield .sx She lives in the country near Oxford , bringing up three small boys with the occasional aid of a doctor husband and a German help .sx Her diary is written in the style her mother made famous and should have the same general appeal .sx But the last war drove many women straight from the university to household drudgery with only a sense of humour and a ready pen to see them through , so the theme is not quite as fresh as it used to be , though an ability to laugh at one's self and at domestic difficulties is always well worth sharing .sx Believing that 'we are all countrymen at heart' , John Baker also wants to share his rural experiences in the COTTAGE BY THE SPRINGS ( Phoenix , 10s 6d ) , His is a short book , chiefly concerned with water , with the pond by the Wiltshire cottage he converted , with springs , water-weeds , irises and lilies , and eventually with piped water for the whole village .sx Edmund Cooper's MEN OF SWALEDALE ( Dalesman , Clapham , via Lancaster , 6s ) , another small volume , is a neat slice of social history , mostly 19th-century , taken from contemporary diaries .sx The old farming practices , the crops grown , sheep bred , fertilisers used , bridges built , the amusements of singing , reading , dancing and playing whist , the food and clothes are all mentioned , together with the mining which went hand in hand with the farming , the accidents and fights , and the names of those who emigrated to America when the farming became less arable and the mines closed down .sx Even if you do not know Crackpot Gill or Silkwood Bridge , you will enjoy following briefly the activities of these families in Yorkshire or America .sx Equally easy to follow , though of very different material , is Dennis Wheatley's SATURDAYS WITH BRICKS ( Hutchinson , 18s) .sx It has nothing to do with international intrigue but is a mixture of anecdotes about the 1914-18 war and sound advice about building brick walls .sx The author himself is the link ; he laid his first bricks during hostilities and has gone on ever since , so that he can now recommend all the essential tools and clothes , the necessary drink , the way to lay foundations , mix mortar , choose scaffolding and finally lay the actual bricks .sx Compared with this constructive work the war was a chaotic nightmare to which he keeps harking back .sx The artist Edward Wakeford found the 1939-45 war a different sort of nightmare , which he describes logically after his childhood and student days .sx In A PRIZE FOR ART ( Macmillan 25s ) he relives his boyhood in the Isle of Man , walking with his clergyman father , watching the people in church , remembering clearly the things he saw and the way he felt when the bishop visited the family , when a small wild rabbit died or he went down the wrong stairs at the school prize-giving .sx I felt impelled to read on and share his experiences .sx Finally , a peaceful book :sx PARSON'S EVENSONG , by 'Pilgrim' ( Skeffington , 15s) .sx In it a retired Church of England clergyman , who prefers to remain anonymous , ruminates over his past life and work , the people , books and places he has known , those he still meets and the faith that has sustained him .sx - Margaret Campbell Isca to Thule .sx 'BARTHOLOMEW STREET was called Britayne for many centuries , being the area occupied by the British during Saxon times .sx '