678 Notes on Gardens and Cmmtry Seats : — 



pletely naturalised by the birds as the bird-cherry, being 

 equally hardy with that tree. A summer-house of hazel rods 

 is in the course of erection here, which is quite unique in its 

 way. A skeleton of quartering is covered with heath outside, 

 and the roof is thatched : the interior is then inlaid with hazel 

 rods ; not merely disposed in contrasted compartments, as at 

 White Knights, Dropmore, Bagshot Park, and other places, 

 but arranged as landscapes and buildings in perspective, which 

 is done by browning the wood something in the same way as 

 figures are produced by cabinet-makers and joiners on tea- 

 caddies. The ingenious inventor is Mr. Mathews of Frimley, 

 near Blackwater, Berkshire (see p. 615.) ; and we are informed 

 that a fac-simile of this structure, by him, is intended to be 

 placed in Knight's exotic nursery, King's Road. Chelsea, for 

 the inspection of those who may wish to avail themselves of 

 Mr. Mathews's talents. In the farm-yard at Swallowfield 

 there is an octagon granary, surmounted by a pigeon-house, 

 and surrounded by a rack for fodder, covered with a shed, in 

 the manner of a veranda : a handsome object, and, at the 

 same time, an economical mode of sheltering and feeding 

 cattle or young horses. 



Aug. 8. — Reading to Bear Wood. We passed Maiden 

 Early, the boundary plantations of which are so thick of 

 trees, that their naked stems are seen through. Opposite, on 

 the Woodley Lodge estate, the proprietor, Mr. Wheeble, has 

 built some comfortable cottages, in the place of some very 

 wretched mud huts which stood there in 1818. These cot- 

 tages are in pairs ; and each consists of three rooms, with a 

 large lean-to pantry, a shed for wood, and a privy. The 

 centre room is a kitchen, 12 ft. by 12 ft., and 8 ft. high ; the 

 bed-room to the left is 12 ft, by 10 ft. ; and that to the right 

 is 1 2 ft. by 9 ft. The floor of the kitchen is one step above 

 the exterior surface, and is paved with brick : those of the 

 bed-rooms are one step above the kitchen floor, and are 

 boarded. All the three rooms have plastered walls and ceil- 

 ings : the door to the pantry is from the kitchen. Some of the 

 cottages have only one fireplace, in the middle room ; others 

 have a second, behind the first. The cottagers did not appear 

 to set much value on the second fireplace; and if that in the 

 kitchen had had a cast-iron back (see Encijc. ofCott. Arch., 

 $ 2>\^.), the second would have been quite unnecessary. 

 The walls of the cottages are of brick, 4 in. thick, with 9-in. 

 piers at the doors and windows ; and the roofs are thatched 

 on poles formed from young trees, the thinnings of the plant- 

 ations. The windows are of latticework, and the doors are 

 ledgecL The symmetry of the elevation of the two cottages 



