COTTAGES. 



Ordinary clay, such as is used for clay mortar, 

 will suffice, though a weak mortar of sand and 

 lime, when these articles are cheap, is recom- 

 mended as affording a more adhesive material 

 for the plaster. The wall may safely be car- 

 ried up one story, or two or three stories ; the 

 division walls maybe seven inches, just the 

 width of the brick. The door and window 

 frames being inserted as the wall proceeds, the 

 building is soon raised. The roof may be 

 shingles or thatch. In either case, it should pro- 

 ject aver the sides of the house, and also over the two 

 ends, at least two feet, to guard the walls from verti- 

 cal rains. The exterior wall is plastered with 

 good lime mortar, and then with a second coat 

 pebble-dashed. The inside is plastered without 

 dashing. The floor may be laid with oak 

 boards, slit, five or six inches wide, and laid 

 down without jointing or planing, if they are 

 rubbed over with a rough stone after the rooms 

 are finished. Doors of a cheap and neat ap- 

 pearance may be made by taking two single 

 boards of the length or width of the doors ; 

 placing these vertically, they will fill the space. 

 Put a wide batten on the bottom and a narrow 

 one on the top, with strips on the side, and a 

 strip in the middle. This door will be a batten 

 door, but presenting two long panels on one 

 side and a smooth surface on the other. If a 

 porch or verandah is wanted, it may be roofed 

 with boards laid with light joints and covered 

 with a thick paper dipped in tar, and then add- 

 ing a good coat, after sprinkling it with sand 

 from a sand-box or other dish with small holes. 



" Houses built in this way are dry, warm in 

 winter, and cool in summer, and furnish no re- 

 treat for vermin. Such houses can be made 

 by common labourers, if a little carpenter's work 

 is excepted, in a very short time, with a small 

 outlay for materials, exclusive of floors, win- 

 dows, doors, and roof. 



" The question will naturally arise, will the 

 wall stand against the rain and frost ? I answer, 

 they have stood well in Europe, and the Hon. 

 Mr. Poinsett remarked to me that he had seen 

 them in South America^fter having been erect- 

 ed three hundred years. Whoever has noticed 

 the rapid absorption of water by a brick that has 

 been burned, will not wonder why brick walls 

 are damp. The burning makes the brick po- 

 rous, while the unburnt brick is less absorbent; 

 but it is not proposed to present the unburnt 

 brick to the weather. Whoever has erected a 

 building with merchantable brick will at once 

 perceive the large number of soft and yellow 

 brick, partially burned, that it contains brick 

 that would soon yield to the mouldering influ- 

 ence of frost and storms. Such brick are, 

 however, placed within, beyond the reach of 

 rain, and always kept dry. A good cabin is 

 made by a single room twenty feet square. A 

 better one is eighteen feet wide and twenty-four 

 feet long, cutting off eight feet on one end for 

 two small rooms, eight by nine each. 



" How easily could a settler erect such a cabin 

 on the Western prairie, where clay is usually 

 found about fifteen inches below the surface, 

 and where stone and lime are often both very 

 cheap. The article of brick for chimneys is 

 found to be quite an item of expense in wood- 

 houses. In these mud houses no brick are 



COTTAGES. 



needed, except for the top of the chimneys, the 

 oven, and casing of the fireplace though this 

 last might be well dispensed with. A cement, 

 to put around the chimneys, or to fill any other 

 crack, is easily made by a mixture of one part 

 of sand, two of ashes, and three of clay. This 

 soon hardens, and will resist the weather. A 

 little lard or oil may be added, to make the 

 composition still harder. 



" Such a cottage will be as cheap as a Tog 

 cabin, less expensive than pjne buildings, and 

 durable for centuries. I have tried the experi- 

 ment in this city by erecting a building eighteen 

 by fifty-four feet, two stories high, adopting the 

 different suggestions now made. Although 

 many doubted the success of the undertaking, 

 all now admit it has been very successful, and 

 presents a convenient and comfortable build- 

 ing, that appears well to public view, and offers 

 a residence combining as many advantages as 

 a stone, brisk, or wood house presents. I will 

 add what Loudon says in his most ^excellent 

 work, the Encyclopedia of Agriculture, pp. 74 

 and 75 : 



"'The great art in building an economical 

 cottage is to employ the kind of materials and 

 labour which are cheapest in the given locality. 

 In almost every part of the world the cheapest 

 article of which the walls can be made will In- 

 found to be the earth on which the cottage 

 stands, and to make good walls from the earth 

 is the principal art of the rustic or primitive 

 builder. Soils, with reference to building, may 

 be divided into two classes : clays, loams, and 

 all such soils as can neither be called gravels 

 nor sands, and sands and gravels. The former, 

 whether they are stiff or free, rich or poor, 

 mixed with stones, or free from stones, may 

 be formed into walls in one of these modes, 

 viz., in the pise manner, by lumps moulded in 

 boxes, and by compressed blocks. Sandy and 

 gravelly soils may be always made into excel- 

 lent walls, by forming a frame of boards, leav- 

 ing a space between the boards of the intended 

 thickness of the wall, and filling this with 

 gravel mixed with lime mortar, or, if this 

 cannot be got, with mortar made^ of clay and 

 straw. 



" ' In all cases, when walls, either of this 

 class or the former, are built, the foundations 

 should be of stone or brick, and they should be 

 carried up at least a foot above the upper sur- 

 face of the platform. 



" We shall here commence by giving one 

 of the simplest modes of construction, from a 

 work of a very excellent and highly estimable 

 individual, Mr. Denson, of Waterbeach, Cam- 

 bridgeshire, the author of the Peasant's Voice, 

 who built his own cottage in the manner de- 

 scribed below : 



" 'Mode of building the mud walls of cottages in 

 Cambridgeshire. After a labourer has dug a 

 sufficient quantity of clay for his purpose, he 

 works it up with" straw ; he is then provided 

 with a frame eighteen inches in length, six 

 deep, and from nine to twelve inches in diame- 

 ter. In this frame he forms his lumps, in the 

 same manner that a brickmaker forms his 

 bricks ; they are then packed up to dry by the 

 weather ; that done, they are fit for the use, as 

 a substitute for bricks. On laying the founda- 



359 



