TILE AND THATCHED ROOFS. 45 



CHAPTER VI. 



ROOFS ; SHINGLES ; TILE ; THATCH : THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 



OB EACH. THE USE OF THATCH IN AMERICA. HEREFORD. CHRISTIAN 



HOSPITALITY. A MILK FARM. THE HEREFORDS. A DANGEROUS MAN. 



QOME WHERE in this region, we passed two small 

 ^ churches or chapels with roofs of wooden shingles ; in 

 both cases the pitch of the roof was very steep, and the shin 

 gles old, warped, and mossy. These -were the only shingle 

 roofs I recollect to have seen in England ; but I was told 

 they were not very uncommon upon old farm-buildings in 

 Devonshire. The roofs hereabouts, generally, are of flat tile. 

 In moulding these tile, which are of equal thickness at both 

 ends, a hole is made in the upper .part, by which they are 

 pegged to slats, which run horizontally across the rafters ; 

 (about London a protuberance is moulded upon the tile, by 

 which it is hung.) This peg is covered, as the nails of a 

 shingle are, by the lower part of the tile of the next tier 

 above it. If no precaution to prevent it is taken, there will 

 sometimes be crevices in a tile roof, through which snow will 

 drive ; in dwellings, a thin layer of straw is often laid under 

 the tile, and sometimes they are laid in mortar. Pan-tiles. 

 (common on old houses in New York) are also made tight 

 with mortar. Roofs of this kind will last here about twice as 

 long as shingle roofs with us, without repairs, and are fire 

 proof. Unless laid over straw, they give less protection than 

 shingles against heat and. cold. 



