Part 14 (2/2)

”On the downs there is a constant lack of water; that which falls in the shape of rain is therefore very precious, and in soe tank or artificial well is needed to contain it, and the pit fro out can be ht by h water to keep the fah all the dry season

”In another housethe chalk-pit had been utilised to fore and convenient cellar

”Most of thees)are on two floors, with parlour, kitchen, back kitchen and so forth on one, and the bedrooms on the other In the preparation of the chalk, theit into a kind of rubble, and adding a proportion of straw and a small quantity of li Avoided]

”There is a local builder ill run up the shell of a house for ato its sizeMost of the cottages are literally hand-es felt sure that boardsThe chalk is shovelled up and the walls are kept straight without line or plu or machinery is employed Yet the walls co an exquisite soft white They are about 18 in thick, and the slowness of their construction has one good effect, it gives them time to dry No point is of more ih-cast, plaster, or paper for at least twelveOne or two of the little cottages were slightly damp, but the majority were as dry as tinder The thickness of the walls helps to render the cottage more comfortable, to make it cool in suard to soft chalk as a building arden at a few inches depth, and especially where the cottager is his own architect and builder, it can be most heartily recommended, but there are obvious objections to its transportation to districts where it is foreign

”The village itself is a very ho of any pretence The country lying adjacent to Salisbury Plain consists of broken, sparsely peopled downland, and very ornate or finished cottages would be out of keeping, but they would not look so well copied in a very rich, heavily tilomerate chalk is, like cob, vulnerable to the attacks of a really determined rat

The outer defences provided by the exterior rendering can be backed up by the lass or sharp flints with the substance of the wall, where such attacks are likely

[Illustration: +Marsh Court, Hampshi+re+]

[Illustration: +Brick-and-chalk Vaulting at the Deanery Garden, Sonning+]

[Headnote: Block Chalk]

BLOCK CHALK

”Chalk” is a term somewhat loosely used to denote the soft white limestone--the ”_Creta Scriptoria_”--that is cousin to Marl on one side and to Ragstone on the other

In its purest form chalk consists of over 95 per cent of carbonate of liether by a calcareous ce clearly traced in the remains of the minute sea creatures hich it abounds

Hewn blocks of chalk have been used for walling and vaulting from immemorial times, and, where not exposed to direct erosion by the weather, remain to this day as clean-cut as when they were first quarried and a very great deal harder

The filling in of the great vaults at Salisbury Cathedral and in the Bishop's Palace are of chalk, whilst innus of more or less antiquity still remain to us as monuments to the excellence and durability of this stone

Chalk, too, was often used in co chequer-alls that ees

At Medes both old and new of hewn rock chalk, and both the Berks and Bucks banks of the Thas to show of this beautiful st present-day architects Sir Edwin Lutyens was the first to give hewn chalk an opportunity of showing its quality in serious architecture, Marsh Court in Ha an instance of reat walls at the Bishop of Winchester's palace, Farnham Castle in Surrey, the old builders appear to have used bricks, li as the several materials were delivered, quite indifferently, and with results altogether delightful

Not all chalk is suitable for building, that near the surface being often far gone in decay and much too friable for such a purpose

Even when apparently sound blocks have been gotten they are not infrequently found to be crossed in all directions by planes of weakness along which they are apt to fall to pieces in the handling