COTTAGE WALLS. 241 



where it would form the cheapest and most comfortable, and 

 much the most picturesque and appropriate, roof. 



The cost of the thatched roof of a double cottage, fifty by fif- 

 teen feet, is estimated at one hundred and forty dollars, of which 

 about forty dollars is for straw, forty dollars for thatcher's work, 

 and the remainder for the frame, lath, etc. 



The walls of laborer's cottages are of stone, or brick and tim- 

 ber, or of clay. In making the latter, which travelers frequently 

 describe as "mud walls," and which are very common, the clay, 

 having been well forked over and cleaned of stones, is sprinkled 

 with water, and has short straw mixed with it, and is then trod- 

 den with horses and worked over until it becomes a plastic mass. 

 The more it is trodden the better. A foundation of stone is first 

 made ; one man forms the prepared clay into balls, or lumps as 

 large as bricks, and passes these to another, who lays and packs 

 them well and firmly together, dressing off smooth and straight 

 with a trowel. After the height desired for the wall is attained, 

 it is commonly plastered over inside and out with a thin coat of 

 more carefully prepared clay, and whitewashed. This makes an 

 excellent non-conducting wall, equal, in every respect, except in 

 permanence, and almost in that, to stone or brick. Very respect- 

 able houses, as villas and parsonages, are sometimes built in this 

 way. The cost is about 30 cts. a square yard. 



I once or twice saw the walls of cottages made of or covered 

 with thatch, and have no doubt, as long as vermin were kept out 

 of them, that they were, as was asserted, exceedingly comfortable. 

 These were gentlemen's country boxes, not laborers' cottages. 



On reaching Hereford, a city of 10,000 inhabitants, we were 

 met by a gentleman to whom it seemed that word had been sent 

 by some of the "Brethren" at Ludlow, who begged us all to 

 come to his house, and, upon reaching it, we found rooms pre- 

 pared for us, and his family expecting us. 

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