_Apropos_ of the elusive universality and yet non-existence of Pise
work, the following personal anecdote or footnote to compressed earth
may amuse my readers. Happening to be sleeping in a bedroom at Brooks's
Club in 1916, I noticed a charming Regency bookcase full of old books.
Among them was a copy of a _Cyclopaedia_ of 1819. I thought it would be
amusing to see whether there was any mention of Pise de terre. What was
my astonishment to find that what I thought was my own special and
peculiar hobby and discovery was treated therein at very great length
and with very great ability, but treated not in the least as anything
new or wonderful, but instead as "this well-known and greatly
appreciated system of building, etc., etc." To complete the irony of the
situation the fact was mentioned that a Mr. Holland had lately sent to
the Board of Agriculture a memorandum as to how to put up houses and
farm-buildings in this form of construction. My hair rose on my head,
for I had just committed a similar official indiscretion myself, and had
been bombarding appropriate authorities with what I thought must be a
complete novelty. Truly one can never be first or do anything new. It is
always "in the Files," as Mr. Kipling says. Even in our most original
moments we only keep on feebly imitating somebody else. The claim to
originality is nothing but a muddy mixture of pride and ignorance. What
did, however, somewhat amaze me was the calm statement of the
_Cyclopaedia_ that this system of building was now well known in the
counties of--and then came the names of practically all the counties of
Southern England. And yet I had been keenly on the look-out for such
buildings for several years. The cynic will say that they had all fallen
down. That only shows the weakness of the cynic's point of view. The
truth is they are often concealed under various disguises of plaster,
paint, and weather tiles. Few people know what their own walls are
really made of till they try to cut a new opening for a door or a window
in them.
[Headnote: Cob and Chalk]