DOI article:
Powell, Alfred: Country building and handicraft in ancient cottages and farmhouses
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41870#0040
COUNTRY BUILDING AND HANDICRAFT
why new work and newbuildings should disgrace the fairest country, nor
can there be any true patriotism in making nice places nasty.
The A B C of patriotism lies in learning the perfect use of England—ma-
terial and other—and the best way to begin would be to go about England
and see it; to walk through it from end to end, by all the pleasant homes
and well-kept farms, to know the big and the little of it, the moorlands in
the sunlight, and the shadowy dingles, the tiny streams and the big rivers,
the cottages, the hedgerows, the queer little paths turning to right and
left, a stile here, stepping-stones there, and understand what it is that has
endeared England to all the generations. Do this in some week or two of
high summer, one of those times when we know our climate—if it would
but last—for the best in the world ! There are ahundredjourneys tomake
between Scotland and Cornwall that should be made for the adventurous
and happy education of all English boys and girls. We might in time see
grow from it a vital custom of the whole people to put and keep their
wonderful island in wise and beautiful use. Some of our great activities
seem too eager,inalopsidedmanner, to considerthesethings,and have be-
come in consequence a constant menace to those true sources of inspira-
tion and imagination tha't underlie natural appearances. And yet com-
merce would be among the first to benefit from cleaner air and water,
tidier towns, lands better tilled, and scenery unblemished.
In older days anew building added beauty to the landscape, and this from
no conscious effort on the builder’s part. He could do no otherwise,
and most of the crimes of overcrowdingandbad sanitation laid at his door
are not really his, but due to our own latter-day carelessness. To appreciate
the work of our forefathers we have to consider the conditions under
which it was carriedout: scantymeans of transit; impossibility of getting
anything done, except in the usual way of “hammer and hand” ; non-
existence of large town areas, as we know them ; entire absence of the
smoke-pall; and,of course, no railways. The most important of all the dif-
ferences was perhaps the local self-sufficiency for the work needed by the
village or other community.
Here and there we yet come across a carpenter, a wheelwright, or other
manual worker, knowing no other way than tradition has taught him—
using tools and selecting materials with precisely similar understanding
to that which produced any ancient building. To watch such men is to
read history, and to understand work there is no better teaching for a
worker than to watch traditional work in the doing. We all of us pro-
bably can do something fairly perfectly, even if it is only writing a letter.
Similarly these men will “write” a piece of carpentry, or a wagon, or
a dry wall by eye, and finish it without a mistake. I have worked with
carpenters who could do most of their work with only three tools, and with
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why new work and newbuildings should disgrace the fairest country, nor
can there be any true patriotism in making nice places nasty.
The A B C of patriotism lies in learning the perfect use of England—ma-
terial and other—and the best way to begin would be to go about England
and see it; to walk through it from end to end, by all the pleasant homes
and well-kept farms, to know the big and the little of it, the moorlands in
the sunlight, and the shadowy dingles, the tiny streams and the big rivers,
the cottages, the hedgerows, the queer little paths turning to right and
left, a stile here, stepping-stones there, and understand what it is that has
endeared England to all the generations. Do this in some week or two of
high summer, one of those times when we know our climate—if it would
but last—for the best in the world ! There are ahundredjourneys tomake
between Scotland and Cornwall that should be made for the adventurous
and happy education of all English boys and girls. We might in time see
grow from it a vital custom of the whole people to put and keep their
wonderful island in wise and beautiful use. Some of our great activities
seem too eager,inalopsidedmanner, to considerthesethings,and have be-
come in consequence a constant menace to those true sources of inspira-
tion and imagination tha't underlie natural appearances. And yet com-
merce would be among the first to benefit from cleaner air and water,
tidier towns, lands better tilled, and scenery unblemished.
In older days anew building added beauty to the landscape, and this from
no conscious effort on the builder’s part. He could do no otherwise,
and most of the crimes of overcrowdingandbad sanitation laid at his door
are not really his, but due to our own latter-day carelessness. To appreciate
the work of our forefathers we have to consider the conditions under
which it was carriedout: scantymeans of transit; impossibility of getting
anything done, except in the usual way of “hammer and hand” ; non-
existence of large town areas, as we know them ; entire absence of the
smoke-pall; and,of course, no railways. The most important of all the dif-
ferences was perhaps the local self-sufficiency for the work needed by the
village or other community.
Here and there we yet come across a carpenter, a wheelwright, or other
manual worker, knowing no other way than tradition has taught him—
using tools and selecting materials with precisely similar understanding
to that which produced any ancient building. To watch such men is to
read history, and to understand work there is no better teaching for a
worker than to watch traditional work in the doing. We all of us pro-
bably can do something fairly perfectly, even if it is only writing a letter.
Similarly these men will “write” a piece of carpentry, or a wagon, or
a dry wall by eye, and finish it without a mistake. I have worked with
carpenters who could do most of their work with only three tools, and with
28