Mud cottages
Sir: If anyone can persuade me to cough up £35 for Dr Robinson's Georgian Model Farms, it's Gavin Stamp (Books, 11 Au- gust). But is he really so sure 'no pise cottages survive in Britain today'? Wouldn't their walls be hidden under plaster, or thick limewash? As he probably knows, many good cottages of clay lump survive, in the few remaining uncock- neyfied corners of East Anglia. They are mostly comfortably overcoated in this way, but not always: the main need is a good roof, and good footings.
Recommending that little classic, Build- ing in Cob, Pise and Stabilized Earth, by Williams-Ellis and Eastwick-Field, W.G. Hoskins once remarked, characteristically: `You probably thought only the politicians were expert at working in mud.'
Norman Scarfe
The Garden Cottage, 3 Burkitt Road, Woodbridge, Suffolk
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