TJie Thatcher. 109 



He is a very pronounced character in his way, 

 with his leathern pads for the knees that he may be 

 able to bear lengthened contact against the wooden 

 rungs of the ladder, his little club to drive in the 

 stakes, his shears to snip off the edges of the straw 

 round the eaves, his iron needle of gigantic size with 

 which to pass the tar cord through when thatching a 

 shed, and his small sharp billhook to split out his 

 thatching stakes. These are of willow, cut from the 

 pollard trees by the brook, and he sits on a stool in 

 the shed and splits them into three or four with the 

 greatest dexterity, giving his billhook a twist this 

 way and then that, and so guiding the split in the 

 direction required. Then holding it across his knee, 

 he cuts the point with a couple of blows and casts the 

 finished stake aside upon the heap. 



A man of no little consequence is the thatcher, the 

 most important perhaps of the hamlet craftsmen. 

 He ornaments the wheat ricks with curious twisted 

 tufts of straw, standing up not unlike the fantastic 

 ways in which savages are represented doing their 

 hair. But he does not put the thatch on the wheat 

 half so substantially as formerly because now only a 

 few remain the winter the thatch is often hardly on 

 before it is off again for the threshing machine for 

 the ' sheening,' as they call it. On the hayricks, 

 which stand longer, he puts better work, especially 

 on the south and western sides or angles, binding it 

 down with a crosswork of bonds to prevent the gales 

 which blow from those quarters unroofing the rick. 



It is said to be an ill wind that blows nobody any 

 good : now the wind never blew that was strong 

 enough to please the thatcher. If the hurricane 



