108 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



conversation with us. He was much amused that I should 

 think his house worth sketching, and told us it had been long 

 (rented) in his family. He had no idea how old it was. He 

 described the cottages, which were certainly very pretty to 

 look at, as exceedingly uncomfortable and unhealthy the 

 floors, which were of clay, being generally lower than the 

 road and the surrounding land, and often w r et, and always 

 damp, while the roofs and w^alls were old and leaky, and full 

 of vermin. The walls of these cottages were all made by 

 interlacing twigs (called wattles) between the timbers, and 

 then plashing these with mud (noggin), inside and out, one 

 layer over another as they dried, until it was as thick as was 

 desired ; then the surface was made smooth with a trowel and 

 whitewashed. 



A few miles further on we came to a large, park-like pas 

 ture, bounded by a neatly trimmed hedge, and entered by a 

 simple gate, from which a private road ran curving among a 

 few clumps of trees to a mansion about a furlong distant. 

 We entered, and rested ourselves awhile at the foot of some 

 large oaks. The house was nearly hidden among trees, and 

 these, seen across the clear grass land, were the finest groups 

 of foliage we had ever seen. A peculiar character was given 

 it by one or two copper-leaved beeches large, tall trees, 

 thickly branched from the very surface of the ground. (These 

 trees, which are frequently used with great good effect in 

 landscape gardening in England, are rare in America, though 

 they may be had at the nurseries. There are two sorts, one 

 much less red than the other.) The cattle in this pasture- 

 lawn were small and black, brisk and wild-looking, but so 

 tame in reality, that as we lay under the tree, they came up 

 and licked our hands like dogs. The whole picture com 

 pletely realized Willis s beautiful ideal, &quot; The Cottage Insou- 

 cieuse&quot; 





