Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/375

 FURNITURE FOR COTTAGE DWELLINGS. 351 a half in diameter, with the pith burnt out with a redliot jjoker, or other h-on ; nine rails ahout a foot long, with a round hole at each extremity, h ; a bottom board a foot square, with a round hole in each corner, c ; and four sash lines or cords about a quarter of an inch in diameter, and of sufficient length to reach from the ceiling of the room in which the chair is to be hung. Knots being made on the ends of the lines, the tubes and rails are strung on as in the figure, and the other ends of the cords tied together and suspended from a hook in the ceiling. By omitting four of the cylinders and four of the rails, a chair may be made for an infant of the earliest age. A cushion may be put in the bottom, or the bottom may be stuffed. Fig. 735 is a go-gin for a child who can stand, to teach liim to walk. It consists of a jierpendicular shaft, long enough to reach from the floor to the ceiling, which turns in a hole in a brick or stone of the floor, and witiiin a staple di'iven into the side of one of the ceiling joists, or by any similar means. The piece d, about eighteen inches long, is mortised into the upright shaft, about eighteen inches from the ground ; and the wooden ring, e, about seven or eight inches in diameter, has a piece about six inches long, which is hinged at one end, and fastened with a hook and eye at the other. This opens, and the child being put in is enclosed at the height of the waist. The ring taking part of the child's weight, he cannot fall, and he soon learns to walk. Frequently this ring is made of twisted withy, fig. 736, with an eye at one extremity and a hook at tlie other : or each extremity is made to terminate in a loop, and when the child is put into the ring one of these is slipped over the other, and a hooked wooden pin serves to keep them together : in both cases the hinge is made like that of the handle of a basket. I5oth these pieces of furniture are made in England by every cottager for himself. Fig 737 is a hollow cylinder, nothing more than the section of the trunk of an old pollard tree, commonly to be met with in England ; the inside and upper edge are smoothed, and a Child just able to stand is put into it, while its mother is at work by its side, or going after the business of the house. Fig. 738 is a go-cart which is frequently made of willow rods without castors, but is here shown as a piece of carpentry, standing on castors. The ring, /', opens with a hinge, and shuts, and is made fast like e in fig. 735. Children readily learn to walk by these machines, without the danger of falling. Fig. 739 is a pierced chair, made entirely of wickerwork, which costs, complete, about London, only 4s. 6d., while there is a cheaper sort, with a rush bottom, at 2s. 6d. Every one who can make a basket can make a chair of this descrip- tion. First form the skeleton frame, fig. 740 ; then commence round the circular hole in the centi'c, and work in either willow rods or rushes towards the extrexnitics, according 734 736 739 740 to the kind of chair it may be wished to produce. The cover of the vase in the seat, ff, is lifted off by two thumb holes, so as to be quite flat for the child to sit upon when the vase is not in use. There are two holes in the elbows of the chair, through which may be placed either simply a rod to keep the child from falling out, or a table flap, h, with two pins at the ends to fit into the holes ; the table being also sup- ported by a movable leg in front, and having a ledge round it for holding the child's playthings ; its pins being kept in their holes by the elasticity of the sides of the chair. In England the cottager's child is placed on a chair of this sort after he is a week old ; but in Scotland there is neither this chair, nor any substitute for it. In both, coiuitries there are small chairs with long feet, for elevating childi-en to the height of an>