ed supply can be found on the
beaches of seaside resorts--and seaweed, boiled into a jelly, allowed to
solidify, and then frozen hard in cold storage. "Posh" is not only (1)
impenetrable but also (2) hygienic, the iodine in the seaweed lending it
a peculiarly antiseptic quality, and (3) picturesque, the colour of the
compound being a dark purple, which is exceedingly pleasing to the eye.
Lastly, the cost of production is slight, as the raw material can be
obtained for nothing, and the compound can be sawn into blocks or bricks
to suit the taste of the tenant. I am convinced that cottages of "posh"
could be built for less than a hundred pounds a-piece; and at that
figure cheap housing becomes a practical proposition.

I am, Sir, yours faithfully,

Decimus Dexter.

"Stooting" and "Marmash."

DEAR SIR,--The choice of material matters little so long as it is
properly treated. Any sort of earth will do, or, failing earth, a
mixture of ashes with a little mustard and marmalade, the waste of which
in most households is prodigious. But it must be properly pounded and
allowed to set in a frame. For the former process there is no better
implement than the old Gloucestershire stoot, or stooting-mallot, or in
the alternative a disused niblick. The earth, or the "marmash" mixture,
as I have christened it, should be poured into a bantle-frame--which can
be made by any village carpenter--and vigorously pounded for about three
hours. Then another bantle-frame is placed on the first, and the process
is repeated. No foundation is required for walls erected by the plan of
stooting, but a damp-course of mulpin is advisable, and it is always
best to pingle the door-jambs, and binge up the rafters with a
crumping-block.

I am, Sir, yours obediently,

Mungo Stallibrass.

The Beauty of "Bap."

DEAR SIR,--When I was an under-graduate at Balliol more years ago than I
care to remember, I not only took part in the road-making experiment
carried out under RUSKIN's supervision, but assisted in the erection of
a model cottage, the walls of which were made of "bap," a compound which
is still used in parts of Worcestershire. The receipt is very simple.
You mix clinkers, wampum and spelf in equal quantities and condense the
compound by hydraulic pressure. I have a well-trained hydraulic ram who
is capable of condensing enough "bap" in twenty-four hours to provide
the materials for building six four-roomed cottages. I am sorry to say
that