The Honeywood Files (4 page)

Yours obediently,

REAKER & SMITH TO SPINLOVE

Sir, 16.4.24.

Re wire duly to hand you did not prepay reply so write informing you same all finished twelve days ago as promised.

Awaiting further esteemed favours,

Yours to oblige,

SPINLOVE TO NIBNOSE & RASPER

Dear Sirs, 17.4.24.

I write to confirm arrangements made with Mr. Rasper on telephone this morning that you will secure stout covers over trial holes dug South of Honeywood Spinney and to thank you for your message this afternoon telling me this work has been completed. I am much obliged for the particular attention you have been so good as to give to this matter.

Yours faithfully,

SPINLOVE TO BRASH

Dear Sir Leslie Brash, 17.4.24.

I need not tell you how concerned I was at the contents of your letter. The holes were securely covered to-day. I telephoned a message to this effect both to your Office and to Zimmon Gardens. I ordered the holes to be dug for the purpose of determining what draining and foundations would be necessary, but the person I employed did not keep me informed, as I asked him, of what he was doing. He should of course have covered the holes. I am more sorry than I can say at this unfortunate accident. I sincerely hope the mare will completely recover.

Believe me,

Yours sincerely,

Spinlove has been “unlucky”; but if he had had the foresight to order the holes to be covered he would have escaped this “ill-luck.” As matters stand, he has not only made himself responsible for paying the cost of the work, but also for vet.’s fees and, perhaps, for the value of an expensive horse. These sorts of dangers, anxieties, and miseries always attend on the employment of builders who are not competent and conscientious; and it is scarcely possible for any architect under the strictest contract conditions to get any kind of work rightly done unless the persons he employs possess those qualities, which, it may be added, are readily found among builders scattered over the length and breadth of the land. Spinlove asks for further trouble by writing the letter which is next on the file.

SPINLOVE TO REAKER & SMITH

Sirs, 17.4.24.

Your letter telling me the trial holes had been finished nearly a fortnight ago reached me only after I had learnt that a valuable horse belonging to the owner of the land had blundered on to one of them and been very badly injured. This as you will realize may be a serious matter for you. My instructions, which you acknowledged, were that I was to be informed directly the holes had been dug, but you neither did this nor replied to subsequent letters and telegram asking for information. Your omission to protect the holes is almost criminal. Children have been seen in the field and the pits are now half filled with water which will have to be pumped out before the bottoms can be seen. Your conduct of this matter in not completing the work and leaving me in ignorance of what was being done is inexcusable.

Yours faithfully,

The probable explanation of this tactless letter is that Spinlove feels he is in some degree responsible and seeks to defend himself by making clear to Reaker and Smith that he holds them liable. What he has, in fact, done is to warn those gentlemen and arm them against him: he has told them his side of the case. If he had merely complained that the holes were left uncovered and that he had not been notified, the ingenious Smith, always hoping for further esteemed favours, would probably have expressed regret for the omission and pleaded a misunderstanding and thus have admitted liability.

BRASH TO SPINLOVE

Dear Mr. Spinlove, 17.4.24.

I note that the holes have now been rendered secure. I apprehend, however, that it is due to myself for me to say that your extreme promptness in getting the covers fitted leaves me at a loss to comprehend why they have been supplied only after the harm is done, instead of previously. I do not consider that it was incumbent on me to direct your attention to this matter in anticipation. I extremely regret to intimate that I have a very bad account of the mare from the veterinary surgeon who is attending her.

Yours truly,

SPINLOVE TO BRASH

Dear Sir Leslie Brash, 19.4.24.

I am very sorry you have so bad an account of your mare. It was of course the clear duty of the builder who dug the holes to protect them, and in employing for this work a firm, Messrs. Reaker and Smith, which had been especially recommended by you as reliable people, I felt that they might be trusted and that your interests would be protected. I did not know that the mare was in the field when the holes were dug so that the need for covering them was perhaps not obvious.

Yours sincerely,

Spinlove appears to be losing his head.

REAKER & SMITH TO SPINLOVE

Sir, 19.4.24.

Yours to hand and re same beg to state no instructions to cover holes were given and we do work we are asked and not work we are not asked and not paid for doing or where would we be, and a nice thing to be told by an architect I must say. I am about attending to my work and no time to waste writing letters and telegrams. I said I would do the job as soon as ever the man cleared up and I done what I said and no one has any cause to complain, and if anyone goes and does a silly thing like putting a horse in a field with a lot of pit-falls to catch him well thats no fault of mine but the fault of them that ordered the pit-falls and put the horse in on top of them and if you are not satisfied I respectfully ask you to settle my account (enclo.) and we will say no more about it.

Soliciting your further esteemed favours,

Yours to oblige,

Spinlove probably considers this letter extremely rude, and is much annoyed; but in point of fact the writer has no intention of being offensive or even disrespectful. He feels, reasonably enough, that he is being got at: he has no arts to hide his indignation and simply states his views. Spinlove invited such a letter and also an inflated bill. It is wise, particularly in dealing with a firm such as Reaker and Smith, to avoid rupture until the account has been delivered. Spinlove shows himself altogether too stiff in the neck in his reply. The bald address “Sirs” instead of “Dear Sirs,” is inappropriate unless used in formal official correspondence on which the applicable subscription is “I am, Sir, your obedient Servant,” or where, as in Smith’s case, the writer feels that “Dear Sir” trespasses on familiarity. Twenty years ago things were perhaps different, but broadly speaking, no British subject has any right to address another in the tone of frigid, contemptuous resentment Spinlove adopts; and if he does so he will rightly suffer.

SPINLOVE TO REAKER & SMITH

Sirs, 22.4.24.

I have received your letter and need only say in reply that your view of the facts is untenable.

The amount of your account, returned herewith, is excessive and out of all reason. When the total has been substantially reduced and is supported by a detailed measured or day-work statement with vouchers I will consider it. The account is to be made out to Sir Leslie Brash, Zimmon Gardens, S.W.3, and not to me.

Yours faithfully,

BRASH TO SPINLOVE

Dear Mr. Spinlove, 22.4.24.

In view of the trend of your communication, and although I am of opinion that your organization should have prevented the accident, I consider it desirable that I should intimate to you that as I have not hitherto put the blame for the damage to my daughter’s mare upon you it was not necessary for you to seek to defend yourself by fixing the responsibility on my shoulders. If, however, it had been necessary, permit me to indicate that in one sentence you asseverate it was the clear duty of the builder to cover the holes, and in the next but one that the obligation to do so did not eventuate.

I suggest to you that this subject should now be permitted to terminate, but I feel it desirable to remind you that I was not previously informed that pits were being dug and that no instructions were given to protectively cover them until after the neglect to do so had involved me—as I regret to fear—in the loss of a valuable hunter; and also to elucidate to you that I regard the proper carrying out of instructions—and not merely the appropriate issuing of them—as the duty of all persons I employ whether as architects or in other capacities. I shall be obliged if you will intimate to me that you accept this interpretation of your obligations.

Believe me,

Yours sincerely,

The stately creature! It is a devastating but not an unfriendly letter. On the contrary, it is evident that Brash likes Spinlove and respects his capacities. Such a letter could only be written, and tolerated, when addressed to a man young in years and experience by one mature in both. We may also imagine that Spinlove’s personality is frank and boyish, and that this and his youth perhaps serve him well at this juncture; for Brash has ample grounds for feeling extremely annoyed and dissatisfied with his architect, and if that architect were not amenable to this kind of discipline, his employer might well decide to be quit of him before worse disasters overtake his house-building adventure. Spinlove ought to have let Brash know that the pits were being dug; he ought to have employed a builder whom he knew to be of good standing, and he ought to have ordered the holes to be covered. If he had taken one only of these proper precautions all might have been well.

SPINLOVE TO BRASH

Dear Sir Leslie Brash, 24.4.24.

I can only thank you for your letter and say that I accept your view of my obligations, fully and without reserve. Permit me, however, in justification of myself to say that I had no intention of “putting the responsibility on your shoulders,” but wished only to explain how it was that I did not take the necessary precautions.

Yours sincerely,

This justification of himself by Spinlove is a lame business. He has already said: (1) that it was the clear duty of the builder to protect the holes; (2) that the obligation to do so scarcely arose; (3) that responsibility lies with Brash, since the builder was employed on his recommendation; and now (4) he acknowledges that he himself did not take the precautions which he admits to have been “necessary.” Spinlove’s “case”—as the lawyers call it— would not have been a bad one had he held his tongue, but he has gone far to make it hopeless. However, there is not, apparently, going to be any “case” unless Reaker and Smith take action. Spinlove would, this time, be right in deeming the letter which follows to be a rude one. Mr. Smith intends to be saucy and mildly sarcastic. Spinlove could only expect some such reply to his letter from such a man, and deserves no sympathy.

REAKER & SMITH TO SPINLOVE

Sir, 24.4.24.

Yours to hand, but unfortunately we have your letters to prove it so I am afraid it will come a bit thin for Mr. James Spinlove, Esq., p.r.i.b.a., r.a., k.c.b. The account must be made out to Sir Leslie Brash, must it? Well it’s not, nor yet to Dempsey nor Madame Tussaud. It is going to be made out the same as it is made out to the fellow who ordered the work and has got to pay for it.

No my lord; we humbly regret account (enclo.) is not going to be substantially reduced nor yet reduced at all and have not got clerks to waste time copying out the men’s day sheets, so will thank you to send cheque per return as work has now been completed four weeks.

Yours to oblige,

SPINLOVE TO SNARTY BOLT & CO
.

Dear Sirs, 25.4.24.

I should be glad if you would make an appointment for your representative to call and see me here on the subject of a heating lay-out.

Yours faithfully,

There are letters of a similar kind to various other contracting specialists from which we may deduce that Spinlove is up to his chin in the contract drawings.

SPINLOVE TO BRASH

Dear Sir Leslie Brash, 28.4.24.

Reaker and Smith have sent me their account for digging trial holes, ￡37 2s. 6d. This, in my opinion, is nearly twice as much as the work is worth. They also ask for immediate payment, have refused to make any reduction, and refused also to give details showing how the charge is arrived at. I think they feel they have put themselves in our black books and have nothing more to lose, and that they mean to make the most of the claim. They have written in such terms that I cannot continue negotiations. I should mention that after I had entrusted them with this work I made confidential inquiries, and had a very bad account of both Mr. Reaker and Mr. Smith. I am afraid it will be necessary to let your solicitors take charge of the matter. I know of no circumstances that could justify any such claim.

I enclose Messrs. Nibnose & Rasper’s account for covering the holes and pumping out water so that the bottoms could be seen. I think ￡4 5s. a moderate charge for this work.

Yours sincerely,

It is most unfortunate that Spinlove should bring solicitors on the scenes at this early stage and in such a trivial matter. With his enormous advantage in education and social standing, he should have no difficulty in coming to terms with Smith if he swallowed his humiliation, taught himself to be amused at Smith’s letter, and realized that he should not have written that to which it is a reply. It is, however, a failing of our friend Spinlove to be inordinately stiff in the neck, and, as we have already observed, his sense of humour is far to seek. If he approached Smith with diplomatic overtures designed to save his own bacon he might well fail; but if he sincerely tried to do the man justice by putting himself in his place and regarding him as a human being reacting to vanity and self-preservation in the same way as himself, the thing would probably be settled in ten minutes, leaving good feeling instead of bitterness on both sides. Whether such action is in this case worthwhile is, however, another matter. It would probably best fit Spinlove’s idea and serve his ends if he sent Smith say, ￡25, with a gesture signifying he could go to the devil, and later on charged Brash fifteen or twenty as a disbursement. That, however, is not Spinlove’s way of handling the matter. I respect Spinlove, but that does not prevent my observing him to be a devoted ass. He has no lightness of touch. He goes boring down into the dregs of every misery. We may see Brash squirming in his chair as he writes his reply, which is in autograph.