Fig. 180. - Seat Side of Octagonal Summer-house.

The almost conical roof is thatched. No other covering is so pleasing as thatch for a rustic building. Its colour and rough texture harmonise well with the natural wood, and all its associations are of a rustic character; no other covering so effectually excludes the summer heat, and nowhere can one find a retreat so suggestive of coolness, quiet, and repose, as under the low eaves of a thatched building. Thatch has, it must be admitted, certain practical disadvantages - birds and winds are apt to scatter fragments from it, and it needs renewing at comparatively short intervals. The common saying is that a thatched roof needs re-coating every ten years. Often, no doubt, this is near the truth, yet really good work will frequently stand for almost twenty years. The materials in use in this country are reeds, straw, and stubble. Reeds make a strong thatch, but are not easily to be procured, except in fenny districts. Stubble, which is the lower and stronger part of the wheat stem, stands better than straw, which is its upper and weaker portion; to last properly, however, stubble should be cut immediately after harvest, and should not be left standing, as it frequently is, till the spring, for then the winter rains, collecting in its hollow stems, cause it to rot before it is cut. On small buildings like summer-houses especially, stubble makes a much more compact and sightly roof than straw.

Thatching is not costly or difficult work. In agricultural districts a load of stubble - sufficient to thatch three such buildings as the one illustrated - costs 30s., and a thatcher expects the wages of a first-class labourer only, not those of a mechanic. He needs an assistant, whose business it is to straighten the material into convenient bundles (called "yelvens"), and to supply him as he requires them. If he is re-thatching an old building, he merely thrusts the ends of his new material into the old thatch with a wooden spud; but if he is covering a new roof he sews down his "yelvens" to the laths and rafters with a huge needle and stout tarred string. He begins at the eaves, laying as wide a breadth as he can conveniently reach on one side of his ladder, this breadth being called a "stelch." He works upwards, each new layer covering the tar-cord which secures that beneath it; and thus he goes on till he has reached the ridge.

In his second "stelch " he is careful to blend together its edge and the edge of that already laid, so that no rain may find its way between them; and in doing this completely lies much of the superiority of good over bad thatching. When laid, the thatch is smoothed down and straightened with a gigantic comb, like the head of a large rake, one end being without teeth, and serving as a handle. In the present instance, the tops of all the stelches meeting in a point arc finished and capped by the little bundle of thatching material forming the pinnacle, which is tightly bound round the rod of wood or iron in its centre.

Fig. 181. - Mosaic Seats for Octagonal Summer-house.

It is usual to bind thatching down with at least two belts of buckles and runners. In the summer-house (Fig. 172) two double belts are shown. The buckles have some resemblance to ladies' hairpins on a colossal scale. They are made of slips of withy, twisted and doubled in their middles and pointed at their ends; the runners are long straight slips of the same. These latter are laid across the thatch, and the buckles, being placed over them, are pushed tightly into it-their points being driven upwards, that wet may not be let into the roof by them. The short diagonal runners seen in the illustration crossing each other between the horizontal lines are used in ornamental thatching only, and are rather for appearance than for use. Lastly, the eaves are cut to shape, and trimmed with paring-knife and shears.

The roof looks most pretty and cosy within if lined with ling. The ling is fixed in a way somewhat akin to thatching. A layer is placed along the bottom opposite to the eaves, and secured by a strip of wood nailed from rafter to rafter; the layer next above hides this strip, and so the work is carried on to the apex, where a knot cut from an apple-tree trunk, a bunch of fir-cones fastened together, or some such matter, finishes the whole. In districts where ling is not to be had, gorse or furze in short pieces may serve instead, but stout gloves are required to handle it; or the ends of fir branches may do, if nothing better offers.

It is not always easy to decide on the best way of forming a floor. Boards may look out of place. A pitching of pebbles is more in character : it is dry and cleanly, and especially if some variety of colour is obtainable, and the stones are arranged in some geometrical design, it may add to the ornamental effect. Pebbles are not, however, pleasing to the feet of those who wear thin shoes. Gravel, where it is always dry, is apt to become dusty, and to disagree with ladies' dresses. If, however, gravel should be used, perhaps the best plan to prevent the rising of damp, and to obviate dust as far as possible, is to asphalt it : on the foundation of broken stones and a layer of coarse gravel to put a course of asphalt or of ordinary gas tar, and on this to sift enough fine washed gravel to hide it. Yet a wood pa,vement of small larch poles, cut into 5- or 6-in. billets, and pitched with some attention to geometrical arrangement, will make the most dry and comfortable of floors, and one which will not harmonise badly with any of the decorative work of our summer-house.

The octagonal house illustrated by Fig. 182 is made up of varnished rustic work. The saplings and twigs should be as straight and as regular as possible, and divested of their bark.