In rough carpentry there is no more pretty or interesting work than these mosaics. The backs of the seats ([Fig. 180]), and the seats themselves ([Fig. 181]), are decorated in this way. On the seats themselves, as on the table top, hazel and withy are contrasted, and form a design in alternate triangles; the separating bands, it may be noticed, have a light strip against the dark, and a dark strip against the light, triangle. Along the edge of the seats one or two strips merely are nailed lengthwise. In such a situation an ornamental edging like that round the table would be too liable to be broken. It is recommended that the back of the seats should be in dark bark-covered woods only, for the mosaic in that position will look better without any mixture of the light-coloured withy.
The upper compartments of the sides with which the backs of those sitting down will not come in contact may be more quickly and yet pleasingly covered with sheets of bark. Elm bark is good for the purpose. It may be peeled in large sheets from the trunks of trees felled in spring, when the sap is rising; and whilst it is drying should have bricks or stones laid on it to press it flat. When dried, it is nailed to the walls, and any cracks which appear can be neatly filled with moss. The space beneath the seats is also shown as roughly covered with bark.
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 are 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.
