_ VOL. XXX.—NO, LXXXIX. B 
} 
By C. H. Talbot. 17 
Architecture of the Middle Ages, many years ago,! it is curious 
that the owner should, quite recently, have been unaware of the 
interest of the building. 
At Easton, in the parish of Corsham, there is a house which 
retains a chimney of the fifteenth century, and has a wing which 
was untouched sixteenth century work, and apparently perfectly 
sound. ‘lo my sorrow, one day, I observed the lower windows of 
this Elizabethan part cut out, and windows with wooden frames 
substituted. I could not help mentioning it to the owner, who was 
much annoyed at what had been done, and proposed to have the 
mullioned windows replaced. I advised against that, as it would 
_ not be the same thing, and would probably displease his tenant. 
Just before the late Meeting of our Society at Corsham, in 1895, 
a range of old building, in that town, of the seventeenth century, 
that I had been in the habit of looking at with interest, for years, 
every time I passed, was modernised, with wholesale destruction of 
the ancient features. This was on the same estate, but not in the 
lifetime of the same owner. I very much doubt, however, whether 
the present owner would have approved of the proceedings, if his 
attention had been called to them. This suggests the reflection 
that it would be an advantage, if agents and sub-agents were 
required to have some knowledge of the value of old work. 
The explanation of the unnecessary destruction that goes on is 
mainly ignorance, of one kind or another, and herein such a society 
as ours may be of considerable.use, by diffusing information. We 
have done an appreciable amount of good already, and we might 
do a good deal more. A great deal of personal supervision is 
necessary, in building operations, in order to save all that can be 
saved. Workmen can be got to be very careful, when they know 
that is what the employer wants. 
There was formerly in the village of Lacock, but not on my own 
property, an old thatched house, used as a farm house, which re- 
tained a fifteenth century chimney. This was not visible from the 
"In 1859, Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages, vol. iii., p. 332. 
