few, now in ruins, are well known to most English people. Bolton Abbey, Fountain's Abbey, Furness Abbey, and Kirkstall Abbey have long been favourite places of interest to those who admire beauty in decay. Although most of those are quite in ruins, yet, as we wander about among their stately towers, we cannot but think of their former beauty and greatness.

The abbeys were the religious houses of past ages. There the prayers were said, the hymns sung, the children baptized, and the dead buried. The best workmanship and the highest skill of the times were employed in their erection. Something of this may be seen in the stone carvings which remain. No other buildings at that

time were so beautiful, so ornamental, so spacious, Or so costly.

They were also the seats of learning. Books, music, paintings, and works of art were to be found there. In many parts of the country they were the only schools where people could learn to read and write. In times of war the student could find peace and quiet in the abbey, and follow his studies.

Besides this, they were the almshouses of the land. Here the poor were fed, the stranger lodged, and the outcast sheltered. From time to time large sums of money and gifts of land were left to those abbeys, and they became rich. As long as their wealth was spent in doing good, they must have been a great benefit to this country, and one could wish they had continued to prosper to this day.

But time, which brings changes to all things, brought changes to the abbeys. Churches and schools and poorhouses were scattered over the land in every town and village. Many of the abbeys became too wealthy, and ceased to do their work well. The men who governed them fell into serious errors, and some into vice.

This

brought them under the displeasure of governments and rulers. Their power was taken away, as well as their money, and the abbeys became neglected. Some were entirely overthrown, whilst most of the rest are now in ruins.

badge, sign

42. THE BARBER'S POLE.

lan-cet, a doctor's knife

law-yer

pic-tures sim-i-lar

in-di-ca-ted, showed

sug-gest-ed, hinted, named

gen-er-a-tions neigh-bour-hood ques-tion sur-geons

'I wonder what that pole means which you always see in front of a barber's shop?' said little George to his brother Edward one day as they went home from school.

'I really don't know,' said Edward. 'It can't be the barber's walking-stick, because it is too long and too thick, and besides it is always there. But next time I get my hair cut I'll ask Mr. Clipper, the barber, if it means anything at all.'

A few days after the above conversation, the two little boys had occasion to visit the barber, and failed not to put the question to him about the pole. 'Well now, my lads,' said the smiling barber, 'that pole of mine is as good as a book to me. It speaks to me of ages long gone by, and tells me of real, solid progress that has been made. Yes, it has a strange history, has that pole. A great many years ago it didn't always point the way into a shop like this. Now, I daresay you wonder what is the meaning of those red and white stripes round my pole?'

'Oh yes, we do,' said little George; 'do tell us all about the pole.'

'Well,' said Mr. Clipper, 'I am glad to see you have an inquiring mind, and I'll do my best to

satisfy your curiosity. You are only a little mite of a boy, but you are the first who has ever asked me what the pole on the outside of my shopmeant. As I said before, the pole is a relic of the past, and its history is a strange comment on the manners and customs of our forefathers. It belongs to the times when very few people could read or write. If you want any particular shop now-a-days, you just look at the name above the door, "John Figs, grocer," or "James Yards, tailor," and you know where to go; but in those times the common people could not have read the names, and had to find the shop by means of curious signs or strange pictures.'

'Could they not have told by looking in at the shop windows?' suggested Edward.

'That is true, my man,' said the barber; 'but there were many trades and professions that had nothing to put in the window, and many of the shops had no windows at all. For instance, what could a lawyer or a doctor put in his window to show his calling? In fact, I was just going to explain that to you.

The barbers of past generations were the surgeons and doctors too. The staff or pole was their badge of office, and indicated the street and house where they might be found. They used to travel about from place to place, visiting the hamlets and villages of the neighbourhood, and wherever they lived for the time was known by the pole being fixed in front of the house. You see the pole was easily carried about, and the patients could at once see where a doctor could be found.

'You have often noticed the signs on the public-houses, such as "The Red Lion," "The

Blue Pig," and "The King's Head." In the narrow, crooked streets of our large towns a hundred years ago, you might have seen similar signs creaking and swinging to and fro outside the houses to attract the attention of customers. In the same way the grocers, the drapers, the butchers, the tailors, the shoemakers, and the hatters hung samples of their goods over the door to tempt purchasers. Among all these signs the barber's pole, or, we might almost say, the doctor's pole, was easily found when wanted.

'And now I am coming to the stripes. The chief remedy prescribed by the doctors of those days was bleeding. No matter what the complaint was,-head-ache, face-ache, tooth-ache, fever, asthma, palsy, or gout,-the remedy was bleeding, either by leeches or the lancet. They used to open a vein and take out of the body several ounces of blood. Then the wound was bound up, and the blood ceased to flow. The red and white stripes round the pole are intended to represent the bandages.

'How many lives were lost by people bleeding to death, I cannot tell. Science, however, has wrought a great change. By the discovery of the circulation of the blood, and the spread of knowledge through the land, a change has come over the opinions and habits of the people. Doctors now very seldom bleed their patients; but what concerns me most is, that barbers have very little doctors' work to do now. They have quite enough to do in shaving, wig-making, and hair-dressing. If the pay isn't quite so good, the toil and danger are a good deal less.

'So now, my young friends, I hope you know a little about the meaning of the barber's pole.'