184 THE HORSE 



saving in the internal walls is effected. This, however, necessitates a 

 northerly or easterly aspect for two out of the four, either of which is 

 objectionable. Two hovels may readily be placed side by side in the most 

 desirable situation, and these may be made to open into separate runs. 

 The walls should be built of brick or stone, whichever is locally the cheaper 

 material, or where gorse is abundant they may be formed from it, being 

 the cheapest of all. In some counties what is called " wattle and dab '' 

 is very generally employed for outbuildings of this kind, and when they 

 are roofed with thatch, which carries the water well off the sides, it answers 

 very well. It is composed of common wood quarterings, with the uprights 

 connected together by transverse bars like the rounds of a ladder, about 

 eight inches apart. When the whole framework is put together thus, 

 some soil, which should be clay or loam, is well worked together with straw 

 and water into a tenacious mixture, which is forked over each transverse 

 bar in succession, and the whole smoothed down till it assumes a regular 

 and even surface. Cottages and outbuildings are put up in this way in 

 Devonshire and Dorsetshire at very little expense, either for walls or roof, 

 wood being also the produce of his own land. The labour, therefore, is 

 the only considerable outlay, and that is not paid for at a very high rate, 

 wages being still very slow. When gorse is used, it is adopted in the 

 following way : The door-posts and uprights are first fixed, and should be 

 either of oak which is best or of good sound Memel fir; they should be 

 about six inches by four, and should be fixed six feet apart, with three feet 

 sunk in the ground. After thus fixing the framework, and putting on the 

 wall-plate and rafters, the whole internal surface is made good by nailing 

 split poles of larch, or other timber, closely together across the uprights, 

 taking especial care to round off the ends when they appear at the door- 

 posts. Thus the whole of the interior is tolerably smooth, and no accident 

 can happen from the foal getting his leg into any crevice between the 

 poles, if care is taken to nail them securely, and to leave no space between 

 them. When this internal framework is finished, the gorse is applied 

 outside, as follows : It is first cut into small branches, leaving a foot-stalk 

 to each, about twelve or fifteen inches in length : these branches are 

 arranged in layers between the uprights, the stalks pointing upwards and 

 inwards, and the prickly ends downwards and outwards. When, by a 

 succession of layers of these brushy stalks, a height of eighteen inches has 

 been raised, a stout and tough pole, about the size of an ordinary broom- 

 stick, and six feet long, is laid upon the middle of the gorse, and so as to 

 confine it against the split poles and between the uprights. The workmen 

 kneel upon this pole, and by its means compress the gorse into the smallest 

 possible compass, and while thus pressed down, and against the internal 

 framework, it is confined to the latter by five or six loops of strong copper 

 wire. When this is properly done, the gorse is so firmly confined, and 

 withal so closely packed, that neither wind nor rain can penetrate, nor 

 can all the mischief-loving powers of the foal withdraw a single stalk. 

 After fixing the first layer, a second is built up in the same way, and when 

 neatly done the exterior is as level as a brick wall ; but if there are any 

 very prominent branches they may be sheared off with the common shears, 

 or taken off with the ordinary hedging bill-hook. When it is desired to 

 make the exterior look very smooth, a hay-trusser's knife is used ; but the 



