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MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
CHAPTER VI. 
Architecture, Arts, and Manufactures. 
E construction of the ornamental architecture of Coomassie 
reminded me forcibly of the ingenious essay of Sir James Hall, (in 
the Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions,) tracing the Gothic 
order to an architectural imitation of wicker work. The drawings 
will serve to shew the various and uncommon character of their 
architectural ornaments, adopted from those of interior countries, 
and, confessedly, in no degree originating with themselves. 
In building a house, a mould was made for receiving the swish 
or clay, by iwo rows of stakes and wattle work, placed at a distance 
equal to the intended thickness of the wall; as two mud walls were 
raised at convenient distances, to receive the plum pudding stone 
which formed the walls of the vitrified fortresses in Scotland. The 
interval was then filled up with a gravelly clay, mixed with water, 
with which the outward surface of the frame or stake work was 
also thickly plastered, so as to iu)pose the appearance of an entire 
thick mud wall. The houses had all gable ends, and three thick 
poles were joined to each ; one from the highest point, forming the 
ridge of the roof, and one on each side, from the base of the tri- 
angular part of the gable ; these supported a frame work of 
bamboo, over which an interwoven thatch of palm leaves was laid, 
and tied with the runners of trees, first to the large poles running 
