MODEL £110 COTTAGE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I think it may interest the readers of the Spectator to know that a cottage exactly the same in design and con. struction as that produced by Mr. Mitchell, and described in Mr. St. Loe Strachey's letter in your issue of October 18th, was erected eight years ago and has been reproduced fron time to time since that date. It was a cottage of my design. which gained the £50 prize for a timber • building at the
Cheap Cottage Exhibition at Letchworth in 1905. I enclose a rough plan of my cottage and of Mr. Mitchell's, placed side by side for comparison. It will be seen that they correspond in all points except size, the cubic contents of my cottage being 7,980 cubic feet and Mr. Mitchell's 5,040 cubic feet. I may add that in the construction of the roof, on which stress is laid, my design anticipated his in every detail, and where I reproduced the same design in brick I have used the hollow plinth as a precaution against damp. The original cottage at Letchworth was built of timberframing and covered with black weather-boarding like Mr. Strachey's own 2150 cottage at Merrow. I have built cottages of exactly the same design near the New Forest in timberframing covered externally with plaster ; at Lingfield, Surrey, in brick ; and at the present moment a replica of this last is being erected near Reading. In other cases I have followed the same design and construction, but modified it to suit the special requirements of each case. The cost of the cottage at Letchworth, built in timber, was 2150, and the cost per foot cube 4Ad. The cost of the cottage in Hampshire, built in timber and finished outside with plaster, was 2150, and the cost per cube foot 4td. The cost of the cottage at Lingfield, built in brick and a foot or two longer, was 2199, and the cost per cube foot 51d. The plans of my cottages were illustrated and described in the catalogue of the Cheap Cottage Exhibition, and have appeared in other publications. Other architects have also used the same plan.—I am, Sir, &c.
F. W. TnOuP.
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