January 9.J 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
233 
i 
“ murgin; ” this marl, as was said in a former notice, con¬ 
sists almost entirely of pulverized chalk. This mixture of 
clay and murgin, with the addition of cut barley straw, must 
be well tempered; it therefore ought to be trodden about 
four hours, and the stones and large pieces of chalk should 
be picked out of it, as well as from that in which the lumps 
are laid. Barley straw is used, because, being softer and 
more flexible than that of wheat or oats, it will yield more 
readily to the trowel; and, therefore, the surface of the plais- 
ter will be much smoother than it would’be if any other kind 
of straw were used. Sometimes a second coating of fine 
mortar is used in the inside. The outer coating may be 
washed with white-wash made of lime. Before the coatings 
are laid on, the surface of the walls should be moistened. 
The spring and the autumn are the seasons most favourable 
for coating the outside of the walls; for if the plaister is 
frozen while wet, it will be defaced, or perhaps detached 
from the walls; and if it dries too quickly, it will crack. 
That part of the chimneys which is above the roof must be 
built with brick. 
Clay buildings are very durable, provided the tops of the 
walls are protected from the wet; they are also very dry and 
warm. Most of the cottages, and some very respectable 
farm houses, together with barns, stables, and other out- j 
buildings are thus constructed of clay; and they are very j 
neat indeed. Where the house is built with other materials, I 
the out-buildings are usually of clay. 
The advantage of clay lumps over brick is their cheapness. 
The whole cost of a wall built of clay, is about one-fourtli 
that of one built of brick and mortar. 
In districts in which the clay of the eastern counties is 
not found, I think that some other descriptions of marl, or 
brick-earth, might be used for the same purpose. 
Bricks very like those here described were in use at a very 
early period,—certainly more than three thousand years ago. 
In the book of Exodus, we read that Pharaoh reduced the 
Israelites to slavery, and compelled them to make bricks. 
At length, with the design of rendering their drudgery more 
severe, and of setting them a task which they could not 
possibly perform, he ordered that straw should no more be 
given them, but obliged them to gather straw or stubble 
themselves, at the same time requiring them to make every 
day as many brides as they had been used to make, when 
they were supplied with straw. Some of the readers of The 
Cottage Gardener may perhaps wonder, as I remember I 
once did, how it was that bricks could not be made without 
straw. These bricks were like clay lumps, evidently made 
of some kind of tenacious earth, and not burned, but dried 
in the sun, and therefore could not be properly made with¬ 
out a mixture of straw. It is probable that such bricks were 
extensively used in Egypt; for if durable buildings can be 
constructed with lumps or sun-dried bricks in the rainy 
climate of England, they are plainly still more suitable to 
the climate of Egypt, where rain is almost unknown. 
I hope I may be here allowed to remark, that some are per¬ 
plexed with passages which they meet with in the Bible, 
because tliey do not consider that the events recorded in 
Scripture took place in remote ages, and in countries the 
climate, and productions, and customs, and manners of 
which were very different from those of our own country. 
Of this we have an instance in the circumstance just re¬ 
ferred to; for though bricks very similar to those which the 
Israelites were compelled to make in Egypt are very com¬ 
monly made in Norfolk and Suffolk, and perhaps in some 
other parts of the United Kingdom, yet I think it not im¬ 
probable that tlris notice may meet the eyes of some who 
have never seen or heard of a sun-dried brick or clay lump, 
and therefore cannot conceive that there is a description of 
brick that cannot be made without straw. It is admitted 
that a knowledge of such tilings is by no means essential to 
a right understanding and a cordial reception of the great 
truths of revelation, yet we think that no kind of knowledge 
is quite useless which tends in any way to throw light 
upon the Holy Scriptures. I will venture to add another 
remark, which I hope will not be deemed out of its place in 
The Cottage Gardener. There is another kind of know¬ 
ledge which is most essential, and for want of which, we fear 
that the Scriptures are a sealed book to many who are j 
“ expert in all customs and questions which were among the j 
Jews ” and other ancient people : this knowledge God alone 1 
can give, and we trust He will give it to all who pray for it; 
and the most unlearned reader of the Scriptures, even the 
most unlearned hearer, though unable to read a word, will, 
if ho obtains it, be made “wise unto salvation, through 
faith which is in Christ Jesus.” Rev. E. Simons. 
THE BEAN OF MY FLOWER-GARDEN. 
As you lately expressed a wish for patterns of flower-beds, 
I send you a plan of a grass garden, which, though prob¬ 
ably nothing new, yet certainly has a very pretty and gay 
effect from the drawing-room windows, and is much admired 
for being so constantly gay, at so very little trouble or 
expense of labour beyond that of keeping it neat. 
It has often struck me, that there are two serious ob¬ 
jections to the modern “bedding-out” system: first, that 
it involves much labour and consequent expense; and 
secondly that in the interregnum, or “ transition state,” 
the beds are often dull and flowerless, and one’s privacy and 
comfort often disturbed by workmen in the pleasure ground, 
and untidiness before the windows. I have been my own 
head-gardener for the last twenty yeai’s, despite of almost 
constant ill-health (during which time this pursuit has been 
my greatest recreation), and I think I may say, that I 
have succeeded in keeping my garden constantly gay, with¬ 
out the aid of a greenhouse, at a very small expense of labour, 
by the following arrangement 
Around every bed, at about three inches from the grass, 
there is a complete and thick border of crocuses, of all 
colours mixed; the yellow begin in February, and the purple 
and white continue till April, closing over the yellow as they 
wither, and as the beds interlace each other, nothing can be 
more gay or beautiful than this bloom with a number of dif¬ 
ferent hepaticas and early heaths in the beds. At about 
six inches within the crocus hedge, and eight inches from 
each other, are planted double tulips (chiefly Rex ruborum 
and double yellow); like the crocuses, surrounding every bed, 
and being like them, only disturbed every three or four 
years, they form thick clumps, with several flowers on each. 
Between each of these tulip plants, or clumps, and in the 
same line, are plants of anemones or hyacinths. These are 
to succeed the crocuses, and form, with a little help 
from purple primroses, &c., my April bloom. It is not quite 
so brilliant as my March and May bloom, hut still is gay. 
As these fade, the tulip bloom in May comes on and as 
these close over the fading anemones and hyacinths be¬ 
tween them, they seem to form a perfect hedge of mingled 
scarlet and gold, round every bed of which the effect may 
really be termed gorgeous. There are, of course, within 
the beds a few -May flowers to combine with them ; and I 
consider this the most brilliant time. As these fade, all the 
June fibrous rooted plants, beginning with early blue lupines, 
double purple, and double white rockets, peach-leaved cam¬ 
panulas (blue and white, double and single), with small 
purple Siberian larkspurs, scarlet lychnes, and all those 
beautiful, but now much neglected “ border flowers ” come 
into beauty; then roses of all colours, white lilies, Ac., with 
annuals and stocks planted or sown near the edges, so 
as to grow over the vacant space left by the bulbous root 
borders ; then, the autumnal low growing phloxes, lobelias, 
and even in the more distant beds dahlias, with annuals and 
hardy calceolarias, last till the frost sets in; and one feels that 
neatness is now all that can be sought for, till spring restores 
gaiety and beauty once more. 
I cannot admire those masses of colours now so much the 
fashion, unless the flowers themselves are handsome indivi¬ 
dually. A bed of geraniums is always beautiful; but there is 
something so non-interesting in a bed of white, or yellow, or 
lilac candytufts, compared to the beautiful mixture of our 
border flowers of all colours, that it seems to me as if so 
much yellow or white cloth laid on the grass would answer as 
well. I ought to mention, that in my walled-garden I have 
formed beds of ranunculusses, double anemones, auriculas, 
and other florists’ flowers; and. these, too, I think I manage 
to keep more constantly gay than is usual; but I have 
trespassed too long on your time. 
An Invalid Lady Gardener. 
