PISE IN THE PAST.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIE,—Sir Frederick Maurice writes that he has completed the first " two-storey " cottage of Pied de Terre ever built in Eng- land. In 1858 my mother built such a house, with six bedrooms and a dressing-room upstairs, three sitting-rooms and usual offices downstairs. It is built on the cliff to the east of Sid mouth and fully exposed to gales from the south-west. It stands there firm and strong, and has always been a favourite. I cannot think why Pied has been so little used. I was a girl of seventeen in 1858 and much interested in our new home. I can give you my recollections. It was built Of Pise and caused much talk and amusement. It was made of dry earth beaten between two planks. I remember that the rule was to beat the earth till it rang almost like metal. Another rule was that the building was not to be done in wet .weather, and there were little rooflets made of straw to protect the walls. It was a very dry summer and they were hardly ever used. Mr. White, a well-known architect, made the plans, and saw to the good damp course being made before the dry earth began. I remem- ber his coming down from London and finding that there was an error in one of the window openings which had to be corrected. It was so hard that the tools were blunted and a flint stone which had got in was cut in half, and not knocked out as you might expect. I tried at Mr. White's death to get hold of some papers about it, but they had all been destroyed. The only thing I know is that it cost I:700. Family reasons made it needful for us to leave Sidniouth soon after the house " Beat- lands" was built, and it was let. One tenant, I believe, added to it, but not in Pisti work. It is a curious thing how people distrust anything new. Our old kitchen garden wall was of cob, but I never sate any new cob being built. I think the walls of the houee were eighteen inches thick and the outside was rough cast.—! am, Sir, Se., ALICE H. Du BOULAY. [This is a most interesting record. No doubt there are hundreds of other Pied houses in England concealed under various aliases, and no unable to testify that Pine is as perma- nent a form of building as brick or stone.—ED. Spectator.]
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