Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/371

 FURNITURE FOR COTTAGE DWELLINGS. 347 easy chaiis with hoods, like porter's chairs in gentlemen's halls, are constructed of straw matting on a frame of wooden rods, or of stout iron wire ; and chairs like fig. 718 are made entirely of straw in different parts of England, in the same way as the common beehives. Matting of this sort might in some cases be employed as partitions, and is extensively used in the more miserable of the cottages both in France and Scotland. Russian matting, or bast, made from the inner bark of the lime tree, is very cheap, and might be useful to the cottager in many ways : the walls and partitions might be lined with it, and temporary ceilings formed of it in hovels where there were none. There are various other applications of Russian matting, which will readily occur. Indian matting, when bound with black or coloured ferreting, is a very neat article, and may be used either for walls or floors. 689. Duor Mats may be made of basketwork, straw, rope, hair, wool, sheepskin. Sec. A very good outside mat, or rather perhaps scraper, is formed by a piece of flat wicker- work, somewhat coarser than that of a common hamper ; it takes the dirt effectually from the soles of the shoes, and as it falls down in the interstices between the rods, the wicker- work has only to be lifted up now and then, and the dirt swept away. A mat which operates like this wicker mat has been formed in Germany of flat tarred rope, in the following manner: — The breadth of the rope, fig. 719 «, full size, is about three quarters of an inch, and it is something more than a quarter of an inch thick. The out- line of the mat is first formed by setting the rope on edge on the floor, or on a piece of board, in the manner of a frame, and attaching it in two or three places with nails or pegs ; the rope is next returned on itself in zigzag lines within the frame, either by continually going round it till it ends in the centre, or by going backwards and forwards from one end to the other, till it finishes on one side. This being done, all the parts which touch are sewed together, and the result is a mat like fig. 719, b (to the scale of half an inch to a foot). These mats are imported from Ger- many ; and, when used as shop-door mats in London, they art found to be more durable than any other kind that has yet been tried. One of the commonest and most useful out-door mats is made of untwisted rope yarn, woven into very coarse canvass, and then cut, so as to present a brush-like surface, on which, not only the soles of the shoes may be cleaned, as in the wicker and rope mats, but also the sides. In-door mats are made of hair, tow, or wool, in various modes. One of the best for a cottager's bed-room door is a black or grey sheepskin, with all the wool on. A black or dark goatskin makes also a very handsome mat. Skins with white or other light-coloured hair or wool niake very handsome mats, but are hardly advisable for a cottager, as they require frequent washing. 690. Scrapers for the feet may be let into the wall of the cottage, on each side of the door, a cavity being left over the scraper for the foot, and one under it for the dirt. There are various forms of scrapers for building into walls, which may be had of every ironmonger ; and all that the cottager has to do is to choose one analogous to the style of his house. There are detached scrapers in endless variety ; the most complete arc those which have brushes fixed on edge, on each side of the scraper, which, with other forms, we shall describe and figure under VUla Fin-niture. Scrapers are so essential to cleanliness, that, where the cottager can get no better, he may drive two short stakes into the ground, about a foot apart and half a foot high, and let into them a piece of iron liooping edgewise ; or he may sink the blade of an old spade, with its edge upwards* The last two scrapers are very suitable for gardens ; and, unless the cottager keep his garden walks perfectly clean, or at least free from the clods of earth which will stick to his feet when working in the compartments, he cannot expect to have the gravel of his platform in nice order, or his entrance-porch clean. A dirty entrance is a sure sample of an untidy housewife ; and little comfort can be expected in a cottage the floor of which is soiled with filth brought into it from without. Those cottagers who can afford it may purchase the portable scraper, fig. 720, which costs, in London, only Is. 6d., or fig. 721, which costs 2s. ; both of which will answer either for the entrance door or the garden walks : or they may take the dibber scraper, fig. 722, which costs only 2s. 6d., and may be stuck into the garden anywhere, and pulled out again to remove it, at pleasure. 719