OLD TIMBER FARM HOUSE. 107 



Imagine a very large, old-fashioned New England farm- 

 house with the weather-boarding stripped off and all the tim 

 ber exposed. Fill up the intervals with brick, and plaster 

 them over even with the outer surface of the beams; then 

 whitewash this plastered surface and blacken the timber, and 

 you have the walls of the house. A New England house, 

 however, would have three times as many windows. The 



roof is mostly of very small old slates, set with mortar, and 

 capped (ridged) with thick quarried stones. It is repaired 

 with large new slates in several places, and an addition that 

 has been made since the main part was erected, which is 

 entirely of brick in the walls, with no timber, is heavily 

 thatched with straw, as are also all the out-buildings. 



The rear of the farm-house probably contains the dairy, 

 and is covered with thatch to secure a more equable temper 

 ature. 



^All the other buildings in the hamlet were similarly 

 built timber and whitewashed walls, and thatch roofs. 

 While I was sketching, the farmer, a great stout old man, and 

 the first we have seen in top-boots, came out and entered into 



