XXIX 



THE QUAINT AND DURABLE THATCHED 



ROOF 



AN INEXPENSIVE FORM OF GARDEN HANDI- 

 CRAFT THAT IS EASILY EXECUTED 



THERE is a growing appreciation of the softness 

 and picturesqueness of the thatched roofs of English 

 country houses and their garden buildings. Quaint 

 thatching with cedar shingles forms a favorite 

 method of covering the roofs of long, rambling build- 

 ings. These pliable shingles, laid with varying ex- 

 posures to the weather, are particularly well adapted 

 to picturesque spring houses, garages, tea rooms, and 

 summer-houses, with broken eave-lines a,nd decora- 

 tive gables. For the smaller garden houses, the 

 crow's-nest rest rooms built among the trees, the 

 circular and octagonal summer-houses and shelters, 

 thatching with straw or reeds will be more appro- 

 priate, or with palmetto as used in Florida. Japan- 

 ese types are especially desirable in finishing a quaint 

 and picturesque roof of the latter form. The thatch- 

 ing of Holland offers many striking examples of 

 novel roofs. Where the ridge poles are of split rods 

 or bamboo, or curious tiling, and fertile soil-pockets, 

 in the thick straw, support low growths of blooming 



