120 THE HORSE. 



ings, 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 

 cJay 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, straw 

 costing the farmer little or nothing, either for the walls or the 

 roof, and the wood being also the produce of his own land. The 

 labor, therefore, is the only part which costs money, and that is 

 not paid for at a very high rate, where wages rarely exceed nine 

 shillings a w^eek. When gorse is used, it is adopted in the follow- 

 ing 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 ofi* the ends when they appear af 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 up- 

 rights, 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 lat- 

 ter by five or six loops of strong copper wire. When this is pro- 

 perly 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 ofi" 

 with the common shears, or taken off" with the ordinary hedging 

 bill-hook. WVn it is desired to make the exterior look very 



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