38 BUILDINGS. i^, 



window-:frames ; alfo for waU.pl,ates and fills 

 pf every kind, and for beams, when it can be 

 had. But in a country where th,e growth of 

 pak is confined, in a great meafure, to the 

 hedgerows, it cannot be expected that a ful^ 

 fupply gan be fpared for building. Aflj, and eln% 

 are ufed as fubftitutes j and, in a maritime 

 country, foreign timber is had at a reafpnable. 

 price. 



4. Cover inqs are principally o^pan.-tik or of 

 reed -^—uridiUY Jlraw roofs remain; but, at pre- 

 fent, few new ones are put on. 



Reed, is, at prefenr, the favourite roof; and, 

 is of all others fgood flate excepted) the moll 

 eligible for farm-buildings. A reed-roof, pro- 

 perly laid, will lie fifty years without touching; 

 and thirty or fprty more, with only adjufting 

 (" driving"- j. it, and levelling the hollows with a 

 little frefh reed. At an hundred }'^ars old it may 

 be relaid ; and will then, if laid upop the up- 

 per parts of the roof, laft through a confider- 

 able part of another century. 



It Is principally cut from the margins of the 

 *' broads -" and is carried, perhaps, forty or 

 fifty miles into the central and northern parts of 

 the county. 



A 



