COUNTRY LIFE
IN a charming old village very familiar to me a native protest wad aroused by an agent's proposal to substitute corrugated iron for thatchj in some cottages under repair ; and there has been in evidence a tendency to regard thatch as a picturesque survival only favoured by the sentimental. Today the short supply of tiles, or even slates, much more of iron, has, I am credibly informed, helped to persuade even architects that thatch after all is an excellent roofing, warm in winter, cool in summer, cheap and even lasting. So popular is a return to thatch becoming that fears are entertained that the art is being forgotten and it is proposed to start schools of instruction. The best example that I know of modern thatching is to be seen at Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk, where a number of new buildings were roofed with reed thatch. I was privileged to sea such work being done in a village near Holt, and the chief thatcher claimed a business heredity of 500 years or so. In all local craftsmanship the danger is that the hereditary link is broken.
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