CALICO PATROL TENT.
CALICO PATROL TENT.
Our little tent weighed next to nothing; it was seven feet in length, thirty inches high, and nearly thirty inches wide. We rolled our blankets in it, and so kept them clean. The package was carried strapped across the front of the saddle, and the latter, when set in one end of the tent, formed an additional protection to the head, and no rain ever penetrated our little dwelling, unless when a violent side wind would force through the interstices of the calico a slight sprinkling of minute drops, which would lie like dew outside the blanket in the morning. Waterproof material is not required for a tent; oiling the canvas or calico would only rot it; stout well-woven canvas is nearly waterproof in itself, and no matter how porous or open the material, the power of a tent to keep out rain depends more on the “pitch” of its sides or roof than anything else. Let a plate of glass lie in a sloping position, and let a drop of water be touched upon its under surface, if that surface makes an angle of less than 45° with the horizon the water will drop off it, but if the angle be above 45° it will run from top to bottom along the lower side; in like manner if the sides of the tent are pitched at a higher angle than 45° with the horizon, the heaviest shower will run down them instead of penetrating. A piece of waterproof is, however, very convenient to lay upon the ground to spread the blankets on.
Gipsy tent.
Most of our readers who have visited the by-lanes and breezy downs of England, will be familiar with, at least, the exterior of the gipsy’s tent. Its mode of arrangement is both ingenious and thoroughly practical. We know of no plan by which a comparatively comfortable resting place can be extemporised equal to it. Blankets, skins, mats, canvas, or old rugs, serve to form a covering. The thicket furnishes the hazel wands or “benders,” of which there are usually eight, of 7ft. long, and almost any description of tough wood, the “hole piece” and farmer’s gate shivers are not unfrequently purloined by the Romany Rye to be thus utilised. A red hot poker serves to bore the holes. A few pieces of odd cord keep the framework in place, and a set of pegs is readily cut from the nearest hedge.
GIPSY TENT FRAME.
The ends of the benders intended for insertion in the earth are usually fire-hardened, and one set will, with care, last a whole season. The above illustration will better explain the mode by which the contrivance is arranged than would any further description.