WCP40

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

Feb[ruar].^y 2nd. 1902

My dear Will

I now write to report another week’s progress. The chief work has consisted in getting at the mains foundations on the altered plan. There have been two labourers, & the two gardeners at work & they have only just finished it yesterday. Now they will go on getting out the cellars, which will take I dare say most of next week. The gardeners have to be at work there to save all the turf and the top soil wherever it is good. This has to be all wheeled to the top of [the] fruit garden. Then all the lumps of stiff loam are wheeled to the North hedge to make a bank there, two or three feet high, on [2] which to plant trees & shrubs to form a shelter. Then the regular stiff clay, of which there seems to be a good deal, is wheeled to another place (where the gorse hedge was cut down) to be burnt into ballast. Percy Curtis knows how to do this, & it forms good stuff for paths, & the hardest parts for concrete, or to put on the beds to make the loam more porous.

Last Wednesday I found two of Mr. Barnes’ men digging a trench to bring the water pipes up to our boundary, but quite in the wrong place, to the west of the house instead of the East, where I had marked it on the Map for the Conveyance. The men said they had been ordered [3] by Mr. Barnes to dig it there and must have his orders to alter it. So I went off to the P[ost]. office & wired to Barnes, reply paid, & got for answer "Will write this evening". That was no satisfaction either to me or the men, so Percy offered to go to Poole on his bike & see Barnes & ascertain if it could be altered. The pipes would not matter much but they follow the road & give me access to L[or]^d. Wimborne’s new road (proposed) and that would not do at all. P[ercy]. came up in the evening to report. Barnes had said, "It could not be altered", & he would write to me in the evening. So I wrote to Barnes at once, sending a rough copy of the plan I had sent to Paterson for the Conveyance ^{signed by me as he required} showing the [4] Road coming in close to the gorse hedge, so as to come straight up to our front door. Next morning I got his letter, saying he had cut the trench for the pipes where I had showed him! (This was not the case) but if I wished it altered it could be done! Then I went to Poole to get his orders to the men to cut a new trench. He was out. So I went to Broadstone & found the men had finished the old & with no orders to make a new one. Next I showed them where I wanted the road & pipe— & next morning got a letter from Barnes saying he was going to "set out" the new line. This he did & ordered the pipe to be laid along the line I had shown the men. And all [5] this bother, & trouble, & correspondence &c. because he had not the sense to consult me before marking the road! On the Wednesday I had to go to Broadstone from the Orchard¹ & back 3 times, & was very tired, & caught a severe cold in the head (having had my hair cut recently) but have I think got rid of it by two hot baths & staying in the house. Now it is very cold again with wind & snow, and I shall not go again till the weather is milder or with less wind.

At last Mr. Donkin has sent the working plans, but not the drawings for windows &c. or the Specification. The North & West fronts are far less picturesque than the S[outh]. & E[ast]. which you have. The large Gable on the South is repeated on the North, & there [6] is no other gable there except a small low one over the Offices.

In the West front there is one small gable over my bedroom window (in the servants’ room). In the large S[outh]. bed room over the study there is only one window (to south) & Ma wants a west window, so we must have a dormer-window over my west window which will greatly improve that front.

There is no balcony over my Study window, but a flat skylight, & the rest of the Verandah tiled throughout except a bit glazed over [the] Dining-room window. This I shall have altered to my original plan. In place of glass flat there shall be a balcony, and the whole of the [7] verandahs except the upper foot shall be ribbed glass.

The chimneys have some good bold characters & will look well. Mr D[onkin]. is coming on Monday to discuss these alternatives.

We have been getting prices for bricks, cement & lime— which seem all quite cheap.

Sand is our next essential. If we do not find any in the cellar we must dig near the gate where I am sure there is some. The whole[sic] can be sloped off afterward, & made picturesque.

I have fixed a beautiful place for two ponds where they will look quite natural & can be seen from the house. As the gardening books say that the clay puddling must be 2 feet thick, I think it will be best to concrete the bottom [8] 3 or 4 inches thick, then cement on this, and then about 6 inches of clay. On this clay there must be about 6 inches or a foot of good loamy soil for the water lilies &c. to root in, & all round the sides the bottom can be covered with clean gravel. If the cement should crack which it hardly could on concrete, the clay covering would prevent any serious leakage. It is curious that the top tank here on which I put the grass-seed stopped leaking soon ^{about a month I think} after you left in the summer, & remained full till about a ‘Xmas or a little before, & it has now sunk about 2 feet. But I shall not trouble much more about it.

It is the worms that cause clay bottoms to leak if thin, but the concrete would stop them.²

I think I must put in pipes for Acetelyne[sic], but you have not sent me the independent opinion of the man who had formerly worked at it.

Your affectionate Pa | A. R. Wallace [signature]