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.