OLD WEST SURREY 



CHAPTER I 



COTTAGES AND FARMS 



The changes that have taken place in rural ways of living 

 within the last fifty years have necessitated alterations in 

 many a humble country dwelling. Many have been swept 

 away altogether ; others have been altered in a manner that 

 has destroyed their older character. 



It is true that a good many of the older cottages were 

 damp, or in other ways insanitary ; but it is to be regretted 

 that, where alteration or rebuilding became a necessity, it 

 should not have been done in a way that agrees with the best 

 traditions of the district. 



No attempt is made in these pages to give anything more 

 than a sketch of the general aspect and construction of the 

 old cottages and farms, as an introduction to such a descrip- 

 tion of their older furniture and general equipment, and to 

 some of the ways of their inmates, as has come within the 

 writer's observation. 



The older cottages of the district are, for the most part, 



built of brick-noggin — that is to say, a framing of oak filled in 



with brick. Sometimes the bricks were set back so as to 



allow of a coating of plaster. The brick surface, whether 



plastered or not, was usually lime-whitened, the white of the 



A 



