"MUD AND STUD" BUILDING
ITO THE EDITOR 07 TUE 'SPECTATOR") Siu,—The "mud and stud" cottages of Lincolnshire, which I do not think I have seen mentioned in your articles and correspondence on pith de terre buildings, strongly support your belief in their durability. Three types occur to my mind over a distance of several years, and all of them built two or three generations ago. The simplest is the pith de terre one-story cottage of two or three small rooms, in many eases now condemned by the local authority for lack of accommodation and standing empty ; but even so the walls remain firm and good without having received any attention since their last ancient coat of limewash. Superior to these is the rough-hewn timber-framed cottage, a square frame with a transverse stay, and the spaces filled in with mud and chopped straw. Lastly, I think of a farmhouse of some size, with four rooms below and an upper story of attics, built at least a hundred years ago. The atrength for a house of this size was obtained by a large central chimney-stack, some nine feet square at the bottom and narrowing to the top. It was against this that the main rafters from the four corners rested, springing from walls of timber-framing and mud. I imagine that the deep eaves of thatch had a good deal to do with the preservation of the mud from weather.—I am, Sir, doe.,
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