House and Garden 
A RESTORED HOUSE AT WELLSBORO, KENT 
or they covered them with deal 
boarding, or hung them with 
tiles. In Surrey, tile-hung 
houses are more common than 
in any other part of the coun¬ 
try. This use of weather-tiles 
is not very ancient, probably 
not earlier than 1750, and 
much of this work was done 
in that century, or early in the 
nineteenth. Many of these 
tile-hung houses are the old 
sixteenth century timber¬ 
framed structures in a new 
shell. Weather-tiles are gen¬ 
erally flatter and thinner than 
those used for roofing, and 
when bedded in mortar make 
a thoroughly weatherproof 
wall. The method of fasten¬ 
ing them was to hang them 
on oak laths nailed to batten, 
bedding them in mortar. 
Sometimes they are nailed to boarding, but The tiles have various shapes, of which the 
the former plan makes the work more dur- commonest is semicircular, resembling a fish- 
able, though the courses are not so regular. scale. The same form with a small, square 
shoulder, is very generally 
used, but there is a great va¬ 
riety, and sometimes those 
with ornamental ends are 
blended with plain ones. Age 
imparts a very beautiful color 
to old tiles, and when covered 
with lichen they assume a 
charming appearance, which 
artists love to depict. 
The making of tiles is an 
ancient handicraft. At one 
time fines were levied in the 
form of tiles. A curious by¬ 
law was made in 1443 hi the 
town of Reading that no barber 
should open any shop or shave 
any man after ten of the clock 
at night, under a penalty of 
paying 300 tiles to the Guild¬ 
hall as oftentimes as he be 
found faulty. Doubtless 
thatch was beginning to be 
superseded by tile roofs in 
towns, on account of the dan¬ 
ger from fire incurred by the 
by the roadside near maidstone former. Hence the Corpora- 
