International studio (36.1908/1909(1909))

portion of the roof has been covered with tiies,
whiist on the iower portion, inciuding the gabied
dormers, stone siates have been used.
Aithough at hrst sight the juxtaposition of two
such dissimiiar materiais seems inappropriate and
likeiy to destroy the repose of the building, it is
probabiy more an objection of the mind than one
of feeling. Moreover, it is evident that the cottage
buiiders in the oid Engiish viiiage found no objection
in simiiar combinations. In the east of Oxfordshire
and on the boundary between it and Buckingham-
shire, some of the viiiages have groups of cottages
roofed with thatch and tiie ; there are aiso exampies
of this use of two very different materiais in Sussex.
Many of the farm-house roofs round Aberdeen, in
Scotiand, are treated in a similar way. In these
instances of the use of tiie and thatch in com-
bination, there is a simple expianation. The
weakest places in a thatch roof are the vaiieys and
next the chimneys and dormers that rise above the
main roof, and it is here that the tiiing has been
introduced. What was at ftrst probabiy oniy a
means of repairing the thatch with a more durabie
material, became a customary, suitabie and effective

method of roohng. The combination of materials
at Abinger somewhat suggests the arrangement of
the roof covering at The Old House, Biandford, in
Dorset. In that case the wide span and steep
pitch of the roof appear to have determined the
use of tiies for about two-hfths of the distance
from the ridge to the eaves, the rest being
compieted with stone siates. The reguiar pro-
gression of stone siates, properiy diminishing from
the top course, wouid have made the iower courses
of an impossibie scale. It may be that in some
equahy sensible reason would be found Mr.
Lutyens' object for his particuiar combination of
material.
In each of Mr. Lutyens' houses one may frnd
some fresh and vital use of materials. At Berry-
down, for instance, tiies are predominant, covering
the whoie of the roofs and wide spaces of the hrst
fioor wails. Of the iilustrations of this house the
view towards the entrance is the most successful,
for although the other eievations are picturesque,
there appears a want of coherence between the
parts and an unusualiy abrupt departure from the
simpie and broad lines ot the front eievation. In