arts figur'd at every other on
which is shewn the Day of the Month by a Hand from the Dial Plate
as the Hour & Minute is, it also shews the Seconds as common & is
ornamented with curious Engravings in a Most Fashionable Manner.
The case is made of very Good Mohogony with Quarter Collums in the
Body, broke in the Surface with Raised Pannels with Quarter Rounds
burs Bands & Strings. The head is ornamented with Gilded Capitalls
Bases & Frise with New fashion'd Balls compos'd of Mohogony with
Gilt Leaves & Flowers."

I do not quite understand this description, and I know I could never
have told the correct time by this clock, but surely it must have been
very elegant and costly.

The earliest and most natural, as well as most plentiful, illuminating
medium for the colonists was found in pine-knots. Wood says:

"Out of these Pines is gotten the Candlewood that is so much spoke
of which may serve as a shift among poore folks but I cannot
commend it for Singular good because it is something sluttish
dropping a pitchy kind of substance where it stands."

Higginson wrote in 1630, "Though New England has no tallow to make
candles of yet by abundance of fish thereof it can afford oil for
lamps."

Though lamps and "lamp yearne," or wicks, appear in many an early
invoice, I cannot think that they were extensively used. Betty lamps
were the earliest form. They were a shallow receptacle, usually of
pewter, iron, or brass, circular or oval in shape, and occasionally
triangular, and about two or three inches in diameter, with a projecting
nose an inch or two long. When in use they were filled with tallow or
grease, and a wick or piece of twisted rag was placed so that the
lighted end could hang on the nose. Specimens can be seen at Deerfield
Memorial Hall. I have one with a hook and chain by which to hang it up,
and a handled hook attached with which to clean out the grease. These
lamps were sometimes called "brown-bettys," or "kials," or "cruiseys." A
ph[oe]be lamp resembled a betty lamp, but had a shallow cup underneath
to catch the dripping grease.

Soon candles were made by being run in moulds, or by a tedious process
of dipping. The fragrant bayberry furnished a pale green wax, which
Robert Beverly thus described in 1705:

"A pale brittle wax of a curious green color, which by refining
becomes almost transparent. Of this they make candles which are