ASPLEY COTTAUK. 293 



ASPLEY COTTAGE. 



" It has, of late," says Mr. Repton,* in reference to 

 this subject, " become a common practice to erect 

 Cottages, and small houses, in a style called Gothic, 

 for which there is no authority in the ancient remains 

 of the 1 5th and 16th centuries." As a contrast to these, 

 and for the sake of preserving a genuine specimen of 

 that kind of architecture which prevailed from 1450 

 to 1550, the Timber Cottage, at the extremity of 

 Aspley Wood,, has been erected in the years 1810 and 

 1811; and by order of His Grace the Duke of 

 Bedford, the strictest attention has been given to the 

 detail, as will appear from the authorities subjoined. 



" Few buildings of this early date remain entire ; 

 the general plan of this Cottage is, therefore, not 

 taken from any individual specimen, but the parts 

 are copied from the most perfect fragments of the 

 kind, some of which have since been destroyed. 



" It may, perhaps, be objected, that this Cottage 

 is too small for a Mansion, and too richly orna- 

 mented for the habitation of a Labourer ; but such 

 was often the style of old Manor Houses, whose 

 dimensions did not exceed those of this building, 

 which is quite as large as the old Farm House at 

 Stone Wall, near Penshurst, in Kent, where an 



* From a M.S. Volume, on Improvements Proposed at 

 Woburn Park. 



