H ouse and Garden 
plishment. He acquired his skill from his 
sires, and the secret of his art is carefully 
guarded. His work lasts well. Some farm 
buildings at Eyemouth, near Sandy, thatched 
with reed pulled by the hand, are in perfect 
condition. 1'he thatch is as good now as it 
was thirty years ago when the present tenant 
came into the farm; and it has not been re¬ 
paired during that time. Good reed thatch 
lasts from eighty to a hundred years. How 
the encircling arms of a mother, it gives to the 
deep-planted, half-hidden dormer window in 
the middle of the roof, nestling lovingly 
within it, and by its very look inviting to 
peacefulness and repose. Note, too, the 
change of coloring in the work as time goes 
on ; the rich sunset tint, beautiful as the locks 
of Ceres, when the work is just completed ; 
the warm brown of the succeeding years; the 
emerald green, the symptom of advancing 
AN OLD HOUSE AT BURLEY ON THE HILL 
beautiful it is in its youth, maturity and de¬ 
cay! Notice, for instance, the exquisitely 
neat finish of the roof-ridge, the most criti¬ 
cal point of the whole ; the geometrical pat¬ 
terns formed by the spars just below, which 
help, by their grip, to hold it in its place for 
years ; the faultless symmetry of the slopes, 
the clean-cut edges, the gentle curves of the 
upper windows which rise above the “plate”; 
and, better still, the embrace which, as with 
age, when lichens and moss have begun to 
gather thick upon it; and “last scene of all, 
which ends its quiet, uneventful history, 
when winds and rain have done their work 
upon it, the rounded meandering ridges, and 
the sinuous deep-cut furrows, which, like the 
waters of a troubled sea, ruffle its once 
smooth surface. 1 ” 
1 “ The Old thatched Rectory and its Birds (Nineteenth Century),” 
by R. Bosworth Smith. 
1 75 
