Not by any means was cob exclusively the poor man's material, and
several old homes of this sort still survive that are of some
consideration.
[Headnote: Raleigh's House]
Amongst them is Hayes Barton, the birthplace of Sir Walter Raleigh.
Writing of Raleigh and his home, Mr. Charles Bernard says:
* * *
_Sir Walter Raleigh's House._--"He had great affection for his boyhood's
home--the old manor-house at Hayes Barton where he was born, and did his
best to secure it from its then owner. 'I will,' he wrote, 'most
willingly give you whatsoever in your conscience you shall deme it worth
. . . for ye naturall disposition I have to that place, being borne in
that house, I had rather see myself there than anywhere else.' But alas!
it was not to be, and the snug and friendly Tudor homestead passed into
other hands. The house at Hayes Barton was probably not newly built when
Raleigh's parents lived there, and it says much for the character of cob
that the house is as good to-day as ever it was; though for all that it
has, to use Mr. Eden Phillpotts' words, 'been patched and tinkered
through the centuries,' it 'still endures, complete and sturdy, in
harmony of old design, with unspoiled dignity from a far past.' Lady
Rosalind Northcote gives the following description of the house in her
_Devon_. She writes: "In front of the garden, a swirling stream crosses
a strip of green; and in the garden, at the right time, one may see the
bees busy among golden-powdered clusters of candytuft, and dark red
gillyflowers, and a few flame rose-coloured tulips, proud and erect. The
house is very picturesque; it has cob walls and a thatched roof, and is
built in the shape of the letter +E+; a wing projects at either
end, and in the middle the porch juts out slightly. The two wings are
gabled; there is a small gable over the porch and two dormer ones over
the windows at each side of it, the windows having lattice lights and
narrow mullions. Dark carved beams above them show up well against the
cream-coloured walls. The heavy door is closely studded with nails, and
over it fall the delicate sprays and lilac "butterfly" blossoms of
wistaria.'"
[Illustration:
+Ceilings of Modelled Plaster from old Cob Houses in Devon.+]
[Illustration:
+A Cob Garden-wall with Thatched Coping.+]
_Reed Thatch._--In recent years slates or tiles have replaced thatch for
the roofing of cob buildings and walls, owing to the cost of reed (the
local name for the straw from which the grain has been hand-threshed by
flail to prevent the straw being broken), and the difficulty of getting
good thatchers. The opinion is held by many that the lasting quality of
thatch has deteriorated since the practice of liming the cornland has
unfortunately been given up.
_Primitive Methods._--Formerly the ground floors of cob cottages were
all cobbled, but these have, generally speaking, been replaced by lime,
ash, or cement floors. The cob builders of past generations apparently
made no use of the square, plumb-line, or level. No laths were used for
the walls, which were plastered within; outside, rough-cast or
"slap-dash" was laid on.
[Headnote: Mr. Baring-Gould]
_Mr. Baring-Gould's Testimony._--Mr. S. Baring-Gould, in his _Book of
the West_, writing on the subject says: "No house can be considered more
warm and cosy than that built of cob, especially when thatched. It is
warm in winter and cool in summer, and I have known labourers bitterly
bewail their fate in being transferred from an old fifteenth or
sixteenth century cob cottage into a newly-built stone edifice of the
most approved style, as they said it was like going out of warm life
into a cold grave."