Part 5 (1/2)

The chief desiderata are a plain straightforward plan and broadly treated elevations where voids and solids are carefully disposed with an eye to getting as large unbroken blocks of cob as possible

[Illustration: +Cob House temp Elizabeth, Lewishi+ll+ Walls fro was added in 1618

This farm has been occupied by the family of the present holder between 300 and 400 years]

[Illustration: +Another Devonshi+re (Cob) Farmhouse, Weeke Barton+]

The cracks that are sos are aln in such respects, or to bad foundations

Cob walls built up in the ordinary way are not very suitable for internal partitions on account of their considerable width and the consequent waste of space, though in old work cob was so for stud and lath partitions which were finally plastered over in the usual way

The sun-dried clay-lu in Suffolk would see the partitions in a house of cob

Cob work is usually repaired with rubble, stone, or brick

New openings are easily cut through cob walls, and this fact has occasionally led to the collapse of an old building through the zeal for light and air of so hiard of the laws of gravity

-- III CONCLUSION

AUTHORITIES--ANCIENT AND MODERN

Not by any means was cob exclusively the poor man's material, and several old homes of this sort still survive that are of soh's House]

Ast theh

Writing of Raleigh and his hoh's House_--”He had great affection for his boyhood's home--the old manor-house at Hayes Barton where he was born, and did his best to secure it froive you whatsoever in your conscience you shall deme it worthfor ye naturall disposition I have to that place, being borne in that house, I had rather see myself there than anywhere else' But alas!

it was not to be, and the snug and friendly Tudor homestead passed into other hands The house at Hayes Barton was probably not newly built when Raleigh's parents lived there, and it says ood to-day as ever it was; though for all that it has, to use Mr Eden Phillpotts' words, 'been patched and tinkered through the centuries,' it 'still endures, con, with unspoiled dignity fro description of the house in her _Devon_ She writes: ”In front of the garden, a swirling streaht tiolden-powdered clusters of candytuft, and dark red gillyflowers, and a few flame rose-coloured tulips, proud and erect The house is very picturesque; it has cob walls and a thatched roof, and is built in the shape of the letter +E+; a wing projects at either end, and in the abled; there is a sable over the porch and two dormer ones over the s at each side of it, the s having lattice lights and narrow ainst the cream-coloured walls The heavy door is closely studded with nails, and over it fall the delicate sprays and lilac ”butterfly” blossos of Modelled Plaster from old Cob Houses in Devon+]

[Illustration: +A Cob Garden-ith Thatched Coping+]

_Reed Thatch_--In recent years slates or tiles have replaced thatch for the roofing of cob buildings and walls, owing to the cost of reed (the local narain has been hand-threshed by flail to prevent the straw being broken), and the difficulty of getting good thatchers The opinion is held byquality of thatch has deteriorated since the practice of liiven up

_Pries were all cobbled, but these have, generally speaking, been replaced by lienerations apparently made no use of the square, plumb-line, or level No laths were used for the walls, which were plastered within; outside, rough-cast or ”slap-dash” was laid on

[Headnote: Mr Baring-Gould]

_Mr Baring-Gould's Testi-Gould, in his _Book of the West_, writing on the subject says: ”No house can be considered more warm and cosy than that built of cob, especially when thatched It is warm in winter and cool in summer, and I have known labourers bitterly bewail their fate in being transferred froe into a newly-built stone edifice of theout of warrave”