6 



OLD WEST SURREY 



for a loner time, and that no local need or influence can 

 change it for the better, it becomes a style, and remains fixed 

 until other conditions arise to disturb it. 



Within the last fifty years many of these disturbing in- 

 fluences have arisen. Ease of communication has brought 

 slates from Wales and fir from Sweden, displacing, by their 



An Old Cottage, Elstead 



temptation of cheapness, the home-made tiles and honest 



English oak of the ancient dwellings. 



The older cottages usually had two rooms on the ground 

 floor — the living-room-kitchen, and a back kitchen, with a 

 copper and a brick oven — and two, or sometimes three, bed- 

 rooms above. The roof was often brought down on one side 

 to cover a lean-to, which added much to the convenience and 

 greatly to the pictorial value of the building. 



