THE COTTAGE. 145 



that in France they were endeavouring to secure the accept- 

 ance of the English standard of rent. By that he meant one 

 day's wage out of six. He (the speaker) had never heard 

 before that this was the English standard, but he was told 

 that this idea was largely held by working men in France. 

 Apply that to the 155. a week cottage and it would mean 

 that in 1927 the labourer must be earning 4 los. weekly. 



Much of the discussion referred to the proposals of the 

 Government then current and now out-of-date, but one 

 point arose which is of permanent interest, viz., the " cob " 

 cottage well known in the West country. 



Lady Margaret Boscawen thought that cob building was 

 a lost art. The Tudor period used cob and in many places 

 walls were still sound after this period of time. 



Mr. Lovell said they had a number of cob houses in 

 Somerset, but not built in his time. He never saw them 

 built to-day. In Somerset they had plenty of bricks. He 

 had spoken to the chairman of their council about cob 

 cottages, but the latter's opinion was that they would not 

 add to the beauty of the town. Another point was that 

 with cob cottages the frost was inclined to take off the 

 plaster and the rain seemed to penetrate. 



Mr. (now Sir Lawrence) Weaver remarked that there were 

 certainly no traditional cob workers in existence, but cob 

 building could be done, and from what he had heard he did 

 not take such a gloomy view as the last speaker of the 

 soundness of such work. 



Mr. Gurd said that for fifty out of his sixty years of 

 life he had lived in a cob cottage and his experience had been 

 different from Mr. Lovell's. He had now lived in one 

 cottage for thirty years and it was dry and good in every 

 respect. If built well a cob cottage made a good house, but 

 it wanted the right earth ; provided it had that and good 

 workmanship it was cheaper in some parts of the country 

 than a brick house. 



