4o6 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



were taken in plaster of Paris in the usual way, and, these 

 moulds being oiled, paper was pressed into them by the direct 

 process, care being taken that the edges of the paper models 

 should represent the thickness of the original slates. The 

 bricks and ridge -tiles were, however, made in a different 

 manner. A number of bricks were procured — the older the 

 better, — and, when oiled, their surfaces were pasted over, except 

 on one side, with paper, which, being made of sufficient thick- 

 ness, was allowed to dry, and the brick withdrawn from that 

 side left open, the corners at one end being slit where necessary, 

 to facilitate its removal ; the open part was then made up by 

 pasting paper over it. In some cases, however, the bricks had 

 paper pasted over the whole of their surfaces, and the corners at 

 one end of the model were slit to extract the brick. The ridge- 

 tiles were treated in the same way, with the exception that 

 their under surfaces were left open, the paper being brought over 

 their edges to the underneath to show their thickness. When 

 the models were coloured from the actual specimens the effect 

 was very good — all looking solid and weighty, although really 

 of extreme lightness. Around and about the model were 

 perched eighteen starlings in various attitudes, and in the 

 model, as representing part of a very old house, spaces were 

 left here and there where the slates were disarranged, to 

 allow for the apparent passage of birds into the roof to their 

 nests. 



The Frontispiece has been casually mentioned at p. 78, 

 but, beyond stating the fact of the modelling of the grotesque 

 face in glued wool, nothing has been said concerning the 

 remainder of the model, the substructure of which is composed 

 merely of a strip or two of thin wood, over which cardboard and 

 brown paper have been tacked and glued, the mouldings and 

 other parts of the " stonework," etc., being modelled with glued 

 wool, the whole heavily sanded, glued and sanded again, coloured 



