Black Jacks and Leather Bottels

The revolution which the 18th and 19th century witnessed in English domestic life has been so complete, the changes so vast and so radical, that it is hard to realise how near the past is to us. The wanderer through this island of ours (so ancient under its veneer of newness) may sometimes encounter in castle, college, or manor-house, certain strange vessels-huge pitchers and corpulent bottles, of leather. So venerable are they, and in their material so unlike any now in use, that one is apt to regard them as belonging of necessity to some foreign land, or to some far distant age.