The Honeywood Files (15 page)

By Sir Leslie Brash’s instructions I enclose complete particulars of water supply from spring. I am to await your approval of these proposals before putting the work in hand.

Yours faithfully,

RUSS & CO
.
TO SPINLOVE

Dear Sir, 14.4.25.

We return particulars for drawing water from spring at Honeywood. We see no objection to these proposals so long as the pure natural flow of the spring is not interfered with injuriously to the owner’s interest by any act or omission in the carrying out of the works or in subsequently withdrawing and pumping the water.

Yours faithfully,

The charge for this letter will be, we may suppose, 13s. 4d.

SPINLOVE TO RUSS & CO
.

Dear Sirs, 15.4.25.

I have duly received your letter and enclosures, but you have not answered the question I had to refer to you. I am aware of the stipulation you describe, and what I want to know is whether my proposals infringe those stipulations.

Yours faithfully,

Spinlove’s unappeasable tenacity is here very much to the point. Brash’s solicitors have burked the question partly because of their habit, as lawyers, of using extreme caution, and partly because they cannot say whether the installation and operation of the ram may, or may not, impress the House of Lords as an infringement of the covenants, the House of Lords being the only decisive tribunal for the interpretation of these covenants.

RUSS & CO
.
TO SPINLOVE

Dear Sir, 17.4.25.

In reply to your letter on the subject of Honeywood spring, we see no objection to the proposal providing that the restrictions of the covenant of conveyance are not infringed.

Yours faithfully,

“Say 6s. 8d.”

SPINLOVE TO BRASH

Dear Sir Leslie Brash, 18.4.25.

In accordance with your instructions I referred proposal for installing ram to Messrs. Russ & Co. and enclose copy of correspondence. Will you please let me know what action I should now take?

Yours faithfully,

Spinlove is handling this matter creditably. For this occasion at least we may say that no flies are settling on him.

BRASH TO SPINLOVE

Dear Mr. Spinlove, 22.4.25.

I conferred with Mr. Russ to-day and he signified to me that he perceives no objection to the contemplated ram proposal if carefully executed; and he advises me that the chance of the probability of Mr. Rallingbourne taking action is extremely remote, and that if he were so ill-advised as to do so he would certainly not succeed. Will you, therefore, be so obliging as to ensure that the work shall be carried out at night with as little ostentation as possible.

Yours faithfully,

It will be noted that Mr. Russ can give an opinion in conversation that he will not embody in a letter. This is perfectly understandable: the risk of being proceeded against is one for Brash’s shoulders alone; Russ can only accept official responsibility for advising what those risks are. The temper of the adjoining owner; his health and sanity; his attitude towards his rights in general; whether he is easy-going and generously minded, or jealous of his rights and grasping; and also the actual nature of his interest in the property, which may be entailed or held in trust; all are vital considerations of which Russ knows nothing. His judgment, however, as a man of the world, which he puts at the disposal of his client in conversation, is entirely a different matter.

SPINLOVE TO GRIGBLAY

Dear Sir, 25.4.25.

I enclose Thumper’s estimate, specification, etc., of work in connection with ram and piping to house. The cover of chamber enclosing the spring should be kept a few inches below surface of ground and well banked in and covered over and turfed so as to be inconspicuous.

Will you please carry out your work at the spring head at night. To be done day-work and set against provision for pump.

Yours faithfully,

GRIGBLAY TO SPINLOVE

(
Personal
)

Sir, 27.4.25.

I have seen your letter on the subject of spring head and venture to write to you privately as I gather that your instructions to do the work at night is to keep it secret.

You will pardon me pointing out, with all respect for your superior judgment, that to have men up in Honeywood all night with lights visible from road and for miles round to the south and west, is not the best way to keep it secret. Down there they wouldn’t have any excitements if they did not all look sharp after other people’s business, and the whole country will be in a buzz. Some of my men are sure to mix it up with a drop of beer at the public, and we shall have the New River Company and the London Water Board and Thames Conservancy round to have a look at us, and “Mystery of Honeywood Spinney” on the evening papers.

Bloggs does not allow any on the site, and there is no one about would be the wiser if you let us do the work all in the ordinary course and get it finished out of hand. You will pardon me addressing you, but I thought best after I got home to-night as it will save a bit of trouble.

Yours faithfully,

This friendly letter reveals Grigblay to us as he is under his skin. He writes privately as he could not well question the order to work at night officially, since the reason is no business of his. He has already prevented Spinlove from hanging up the whole work while the solicitors negotiated permission for the builder to use the spring, and he has again come to the rescue. The letter displays the honest good-nature and practical wisdom of the writer; and we recognize in his kindly, dry, ironical humour the salt of sterling British national character. Spinlove ought long ago to have established friendly personal relations with such a man.

SPINLOVE TO GRIGBLAY

(
Private
)

Dear Mr. Grigblay, 28.4.25.

I am very much obliged for your letter. Of course you are perfectly right. Please act as you suggest. I was on the site yesterday and I wish to tell you that I am entirely satisfied with the brick window cills that I saw. Please work the flat arch heads and weatherings in the same way. I appreciate the attention your foreman has given to this matter and also the way he has managed the gradation from the first lots of facings to those now being sent. This has been done extremely well; no one would notice the change unless his attention was called to it.

Yours truly,

This is a private unofficial letter, and it would not be amiss if Spinlove used it as a model for his official letters to the builder in place of those he is so ill-advised—and ill-mannered—as frequently to write. It is clear he understands that Grigblay takes a pride in his work and wishes to please the architect, and he ought always to keep it in mind.

BRASH TO SPINLOVE

Roselawn,

Dear Mr. Spinlove, Thaddington.

2.5.25.

You will perceive from the above address that we have now gone into residence here until the autumn. I visited the site last evening and am gratified to observe that progress is advancing, but there are several matters which I do not quite comprehend. Could you meet us on Saturday? I shall be travelling by the 12.27 from Cannon Street and we might go down together in concert and visit the site after luncheon.

Yours sincerely,

P.S.—Lady Brash requests me to say that our daughter is expecting some young friends to tennis in the afternoon, and it is desired that you will bring your bat, etc., if you like disporting yourself in that pastime.

We may conclude that Brash has never played lawn tennis.

SPINLOVE TO BRASH

Dear Sir Leslie Brash, 4.5.25.

As the builder’s people will have left in the afternoon and I want to see the foreman, I will go down early on Saturday and come to the house at 1 o’clock.

Yours sincerely,

P.S.—Will you be so obliging as to inform Lady Brash that I shall be charmed to comply with her invitation to tennis.

I detect a touch of east wind here. Spinlove’s postscript—as recorded on the carbon file copy of his letter—is in autograph, as was that to which it replies, and as we know Spinlove well enough to judge that he would not so answer an invitation from a lady without being aware of a gaucherie, we may gather that he has deliberately retaliated on Brash by accepting in the same form and through the same channel as the invitation. His adoption of Brash’s stilted diction and condescending tone cannot possibly be accidental; in fact, we appear to have surprised a bit of the Old Adam in our friend James. It seems clear that he has come to resent the condescending self-sufficiency of Brash (discernible to us only in his letters) and has reasons for being wide awake to social slights. Lady Brash would have written her own invitation had she not felt it incompatible with her social eminence to so condescend to her architect—that, at any rate, is my sense of the matter—and, if I am correct, Spinlove has shown a very proper spirit, although, without knowing what lies in the background, it is impossible either to commend or condemn his manner of showing it.

SPINLOVE TO GRIGBLAY

Dear Sir, 8.5.25.

I was on the site on Saturday and was greatly concerned to notice that two of the brighter of the red bricks in the facings are
already beginning to decay
. The surface is coming away in a powdery dust near the edges of the brick. I expressly prohibited the inclusion of these red, under-burnt bricks in facings; you promised that you would throw them out, and I selected and handed to your foreman samples of the bricks which only were to be used. It is really inexcusable that, after my particular and exact directions to the contrary, these soft bricks have been built into faces. Your foreman is going over the work and marking the doubtful bricks, and when I have checked over I must ask you to cut out and replace them with the bricks sent under the new arrangement with Hoochkoft.

It is a great disappointment to me that the frost spoilt so much of the jointing. It is a pity this work was not protected, as the top of the wall was, with sacking. It will be impossible to match the cut-off joint by pointing, so that the whole of the facings will now have to be raked and pointed. I have asked your foreman to have different samples of pointing done so that I can decide which to adopt.

I also had to call your foreman’s attention to the clearing of the battens in the hollow walls.

Yours faithfully,

The battens referred to are those which are hung in the 2 in. space of hollow walls and carried up with the brickwork to prevent mortar falling into the space and collecting at the bottom, where it might conduct damp from the outer to the inner wall and block the ventilation inlets which, by allowing air to circulate, keep the space dry. These battens have to be pulled out and cleared of accumulations of mortar at frequent intervals if they are to serve their purpose thoroughly.

GRIGBLAY TO SPINLOVE

Dear Sir, 9.5.25.

Referring to your remarks re decay of facings, we cannot accept responsibility for same. If this matter had been left to us we should never have accepted such bricks as Hoochkoft first sent, but it was not in our hands as we acted on your orders and were told you had approved the bricks. We picked over the bricks to oblige you without charge, and Bloggs worked to your instructions and you saw what he was doing. It does not seem likely there can be many of the defective bricks and we will arrange to cut out and replace, but shall have to charge men’s time for same and shall be glad of order for extra.

The frost getting at joints is no fault of ours, as faces cannot be protected. We were obliged to take off top course and rebuild, as you know, although that work was protected.

Yours faithfully,

Grigblay is not to blame for frost attacking the green mortar joints; and he is not only entitled to disclaim responsibility for the decaying bricks, but is obliged to do so, for if he agreed, as part of his obligations under the contract, to remedy the defect in only one or two bricks, he would be accepting liability for the soundness of the whole of the facings.

SPINLOVE TO GRIGBLAY

Dear Sir, 12.5.25.

As you are well aware I have all along objected to the red soft bricks and expressly forbidden their use. I actually selected samples of what I did approve, and your foreman had these to guide him. I asked you to pick over the bricks, but you said the bricklayers would throw out the soft bricks as they came to hand. This has not been done and I must call upon you to make good.

Yours faithfully,

Spinlove, we know, is responsible for the bricks supplied. But for his vigilance 15 percent or more of the whole of the facings would be defective; he would not be able to avoid direct responsibility to Brash, and it is very doubtful if he could by any means fix liability on Hoochkoft. Again we see how a small lapse from formal exactness in organization may lead to disastrous consequences.

Under-burnt facings have been known to decay before the roof of a new house was on, so that the whole had to be pulled down and rebuilt with the architect unable to fix responsibility on any one because the samples he had approved had not been marked and could not be identified.

GRIGBLAY TO SPINLOVE

Dear Sir, 16.5.25.

We have to say that we accept no responsibility for defective bricks for reasons given. We note that the bricks delivered under the new arrangement with Hoochkoft meet your approval.

Bloggs tells us that bricklayers threw out all bricks that did not agree with samples. He did not keep samples after work completed as no reason to. He writes that about forty bricks had ought to come out.

Yours faithfully,

It will be noticed that in his first paragraph Grigblay repeats that he accepts no responsibility for the facing bricks, and then records that Spinlove has approved present deliveries. He does this in order to consolidate his position—so to speak—and put on record that he has always disclaimed responsibility.

GRIGBLAY TO SPINLOVE