506 



MISCELLAENOUS GARDEN STRUCTURES. 



is the circular ; and the house, when made, 

 appears as I have endeavoured to describe 

 it in fig 



Fig. 722. 



m ng. 722. 

 In fig. 723 a is 

 the centre of a 

 circle, the dia- 

 meter of which 

 is 10 feet, and 

 at this centre 

 you put up a 

 post, to stand 

 15 feet above 

 the level of the 

 ground, which 

 post ought to be about 9 inches through 

 at the bottom, and not a great deal 

 smaller at the 



Fig. 723. 



d c 



top. Great 

 care must be 

 taken that this 

 post be per- 

 fectly perpen- 

 dicular, for if 

 \ .* * it be not, the 



• . " y " . • whole building 



* • ♦ . . • ' will be awry. 



b b b are 28 

 posts, 9 feet high, and 6 inches through 

 at the bottom, without much tapering 

 towards the top. These posts stand about 

 2 feet apart, reckoning from centre to 

 centre — which leaves between each two a 

 space of 18 inches ; c c c c are 38 posts, 

 5 feet high and 5 inches through at the 

 bottom, without much tapering towards 

 the top. These posts stand about 2 feet 

 apart, from centre to centre, which leaves 

 between each two a space of 19 inches. 

 The space between these two rows of 

 posts is 4 feet in width, and, as will be 

 presently seen, is to contain a wall of 

 straw ; e is a passage through this wall ; 

 d is the outside door of the passage ; / is 

 the inside door ; and the inner circle, of 

 which a is the centre, is the place in which 

 the ice is to be deposited." 



The walls are to be formed between the 

 posts, of clean wheat or rye straw, laid 

 closely and smoothly. Plates of wood are 

 to be laid on the top of the two rows of 

 posts for receiving the rafters of the roof. 

 The roof should not be at a lower angle 

 than 45°, and should be covered with 

 strong laths, to which the roof thatch is 

 to be secured. This thatch is to be of 

 wheat or rye straw, and 4 feet thick. The 

 bed for the ice to be laid upon is recom- 



mended to be formed by laying round 

 logs, about 8 inches in diameter, across 

 the area, leaving spaces between them of 

 about a foot. Over these, poles, about 

 half the size of the last, are to be laid 

 across in an opposite direction, and 6 

 inches apart ; over these a third course, 

 2 inches diameter, and 3 inches apart ; 

 upon these, again, a course of still smaller 

 rods 1 inch apart; and, finally, upon 

 these 2 inches of dry twigs and branches, 

 or strong heath free of moss or grass. 

 Upon this bed the ice is put, broken and 

 pummelled and beaten down together in 

 the usual manner. When the house is 

 filled it is shut up in the usual way. 



Such a house would, undoubtedly, keep 

 ice well ; but for a family, of even mode- 

 rate consumption, such a scale would be 

 far too small, for, according to the calcu- 

 lations made by Mr Cobbett, such a house 

 would only contain 375 cubic feet of ice ; 

 not much more than a cubic foot per day 

 throughout the year, admitting that no 

 waste takes place by melting. A difficulty 

 presents itself as regards filling such a 

 house, at least the filling it quite to the 

 top. We are not a little surprised at 

 this omission, particularly in one who was 

 in general so diffuse in his descriptions, 

 and who professed, at least, to study 

 economy in everything. 



An anonymous contributor to "The 

 Gardeners' Chronicle," 1844, p. 572, 

 offers the following 

 Fig. 724. plan, fig. 724, of a 



cheap ice-house, and 

 proposes to have 

 several such, instead 

 of one large one — as, 

 by frequently open- 

 ing the house to take 

 out the supply, "the 

 air," he says, "gets 

 in, and causes the 

 ice to dissolve before 

 a third of it is con- 

 sumed." From the 

 small size of such 

 a house we would 

 be apprehensive that 

 the ice would not 

 keep three months. 

 The drainage below we consider per- 

 fectly inadequate, unless the stratum 

 in which it is sunk is of porous gravel. 

 One new, and we think good, feature in 



