The Honeywood Files (14 page)

SPINLOVE TO THUMPER & CO
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Dear Sirs, 7.3.25.

I write to confirm arrangements made with your manager by telephone to-day for your representative to call here at 1.25 on Tuesday to go with me by road to site near Marlford for the purpose of taking particulars for ram. There is a level and staff on the site.

Yours faithfully,

Spinlove’s action in inviting the representative of another firm of kindred activities to take a seat in the car put at his disposal with such unctuous blandishments by Wreek & Co. is the last thing that Wreek & Co. would expect or desire. Thumper’s man will greatly dilute the personal charm of Wreek’s Mr. Schwarb, and we have to picture James Spinlove beset as by rival beauties, each trying to ingratiate herself and displace the other in his favour.

SPINLOVE TO THUMPER & CO
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Dear Sirs, 11.3.25.

I am obliged for your report with specification and tender for water supply. You say nothing of the guarantee of rate or discharge from the ram, which was promised.

I will write to you further when I have inquired into the rights of the adjoining owner.

Will you please send down and take sample of water and send it to Sir Geoffrey Whittle for analysis. I am writing to him.

Yours faithfully,

SPINLOVE TO SIR GEOFFREY WHITTLE
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Dear Sir, 11.3.25.

I have instructed Messrs. Uriah Thumper & Co. to send you sample of water from spring rising in Honeywood Spinney on high ground at the top of Honeywood Hill, four miles north of Marlford, Kent. The water is wanted for domestic use and is to be pumped by ram to storage tank under roof of house.

I shall be glad if you will make your report cover the question of ram-lining, pipes, and tank.

Yours faithfully,

Spinlove seems to have had experience of water supply, judging from the exactness of his arrangements. He directs the sample to be taken by those who will take it at the source and in a clean flask of ample size, which they will seal and mark. A sample taken from a limey bucket thrust into a ditch below a dead crow and put into an imperfectly washed embrocation bottle, the cork of which has been moistened in the mouth of a labourer who is chewing tobacco, often gives unsatisfactory and perplexing analysis.

Spinlove is evidently aware that pure spring water is not pure, but is a highly diluted chemical; and that pure soft water, i.e. rainwater, will dissolve lead by oxidation. Spring water contains carbonic acid in quantities that sometimes rusts iron so fiercely that galvanized pipes are no protection against stained, iron-smelling water; and there are acids dissolved from heather roots and peat beds which act disastrously in a similar way in hot water service pipes; and various other dangers. These awkward conditions can be met, but they must be first known. Freedom from organic pollution and fitness for drinking has obviously also to be proved. Water analysis is a special subject and the expedients demanded by the analysis are also a matter of special knowledge and practical experience.

GRIGBLAY TO SPINLOVE

Dear Sir, 12.3.25.

We are sorry to have to mention the matter, but Sir Leslie Brash has not yet honoured your certificate of 16.2.25 for £2,000. We wrote him on March 1 calling his attention to same, but have received no reply. If you will mention the matter to him we shall be grateful.

Yours faithfully,

When an architect has drawn a certificate, the owner is bound to honour it within a certain time defined in the contract, and usually thirty days. The architect has a duty to the builder of drawing certificates when due, and to the client of seeing that the amounts certified are, in fact, due. Spinlove ought, however, to have notified Brash that he had drawn a certificate and in a letter somewhat as follows: “The contractor has applied for payment on account. I find that he is entitled to the sum of £2,000, and I have to-day sent him a certificate for that amount.” Such a letter warns the owner and gives him the assurance, otherwise only implied, that the certificate duly conforms to the requirements of the contract.

SPINLOVE TO BRASH

Dear Sir Leslie Brash, 14.3.25.

Mr. Grigblay happened to mention to me that he thought you might not perhaps understand that the payment of instalments is due on presentation of each certificate. I think you will like me to let you know this.

The work, as you will see, is going ahead now. A few days were lost by frost, but progress is good and I think Grigblay is well up to time.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

This letter of Spinlove’s is so extremely circumspect and tactful as to suggest he thinks Brash is trying to avoid payment. It would have been better had he written: “Grigblay seems to want a cheque rather badly. Perhaps I ought to have explained to you that it is customary to honour certificates on presentation.”

We may remember that Brash is by profession an expert economist, and he has perhaps calculated that if he holds back each certificate (and there will be ten of them) for three weeks he will gain the interest on £2,000 for six months. Brash, apparently, is what is known as a “bad payer.” Spinlove, however, is a much younger man than Brash and his sensitiveness is natural. He has probably never had to write such a letter before and will perhaps never have to do so again.

BRASH TO SPINLOVE

Dear Mr. Spinlove, 16.3.25.

I certainly did not comprehend that the builder was to be paid cash immediately. The contract, I may remind you, stipulates that certificates are to be honoured within thirty days, of which twenty-eight have only so far elapsed. I have not, I may inform you, overlooked the matter, and it is unnecessary for Mr. Grigblay to suppose that I shall not complete my obligations, but at the time you drew the certificate there was very little to be perceived of the building.

I shall be visiting the site again shortly and am gratified to know that the progress made meets with your satisfaction.

Yours sincerely,

SPINLOVE TO BRASH

Dear Sir Leslie Brash, 17.3.25.

The stipulation in the contract for payment within thirty days of date fixes the
outside limit
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You will understand, of course, that at the date each certificate is drawn you have security in the work done to the value of 20 percent more than the amount certified. This first certificate included for all the digging and foundations.

Yours faithfully,

SPINLOVE TO TINGE
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QUANTITY SURVEYOR

Dear Mr. Tinge, 18.3.25.

I enclose letter, plan, specification, and drawing of sewage disposal together with Wreek & Co.’s tender. You will see they have connected two of the baths and six of the lavatory wastes to a separate tank, as they say that the considerable flow from baths, which are all used at one time when the house is fully occupied, will flood out the anaerobic tank and put the filter out of operation. If they make the anaerobic tank big enough to deal with this flow it will not operate satisfactorily with the normal flow. This second tank will involve an extra, I am afraid, but their estimate of £525 greatly exceeds the provision you fixed. Will you please examine their estimate and report.

Yours faithfully,

TINGE TO SPINLOVE

Dear Sir, 23.3.25.

Wreek & Co.’s price is at least 30 percent too high; they could also do much less extravagant work. I see no object in bronze bushes to tip, or of grid over the filter; the white glazed outfall channel and fireclay detritus chamber could quite well be replaced by concrete and brick; stone cover to septic tank is all that is wanted.

Why not let Grigblay do the building work under their direction at scheduled rates? The cost ought to be about half of that proposed.

Yours faithfully,

Personal charm seems to extend to the flattery of suggesting that an architect of Spinlove’s distinction and social eminence will require a kingly sewage outfall.

SPINLOVE TO WREEK & CO
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Dear Sirs, 24.3.25.

I have carefully considered your estimate, but your proposal is too extravagant and your prices too high, and I will ask you to send me an amended competitive estimate omitting bronze bushes to tipper, and the grid over filter and substituting brick and concrete for outfall channel and detritus chamber, and excluding building work, which I will arrange for the general contractor to carry out under your direction.

I am not able to invite you to tender for ram and water supply, as you ask. That matter is already arranged for.

Yours faithfully,

Mr. Schwarb has evidently seized the opportunity suggested by meeting Thumper’s man in the motor, to follow the first precept of commercial enterprise and “do the other fellow in the eye.”

WREEK & CO
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TO SPINLOVE

Dear Sir, 27.3.25.

We are gratified to know that our proposal for sewage disposal installation meets with your esteemed satisfaction and only regret that you are not in a position to spend the sum necessary to secure that your client’s drains shall be of the finish now in favour with the leading architects and included in the modern equipment of the great houses recently built.

We may mention that refined and dainty sanitary works are becoming the rule rather than the exception among the nobility and gentry, and we should like to feel that you and your good client will not in the future have to regret that his septic tank and filter will not compare favourably with those possessed by his more distinguished friends and neighbours. We may say that many gentlemen who are our clients take pride in their sewage plant, which they frequently view, as they would their conservatory, and introduce to the notice of their friends.

In order to give your client this satisfaction, and out of consideration for your good self and with a wish to make our super high grade Antystynk plant better known, we will make you the special offer of 12 ½ percent reduction on our previous estimate. In case, however, your client cannot afford our super high grade Antystynk, we enclose specification and estimate for our lower grade plant, such as we instal at police stations, factories, etc. We regret that we always keep the building work in our own hands. We may mention that we absolutely guarantee our effluent, the purity of which is well known. Our Mr. Sinclair Vennom, the celebrated septic tank expert, who lately retired from our board of directors owing to ill-health, frequently demonstrated the fact by drinking a wineglass of it.

Yours faithfully,

The flunkeyism displayed in this letter is the same as that with which certain shops shame the parvenu into buying the most expensive goods by suggesting that if he does not he is ignorant of the correct thing and a stranger to the best circles. Their Mr. Sinclair Vennom seems to have demonstrated the purity of the famous effluent once too often; but as Brash’s enthusiasm for his sewage plant is not likely to lead him to similar exuberances, the effluent may be considered satisfactory.

SPINLOVE TO WREEK & CO
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Dear Sirs, 1.4.25.

I have to acknowledge your amended tender. Your proposal is satisfactory, but your price is not, and I shall be glad if you will see what you can do to reduce it before I invite proposals from other firms.

Yours faithfully,

As different firms of specialists use different methods and different materials, plant, and workmanship, competitive tenders, in the strict sense, are not possible. All the architect can do is to compare the proposals and prices of reputable firms, and choose what best suits the case. Apparently Wreek & Co. do good work, or Spinlove would not take so much trouble to get an acceptable tender from them.

BRASH TO SPINLOVE

Dear Mr. Spinlove, 1.4.25.

I have to-day transmitted cheque to Mr. Grigblay. I was certainly much gratified by the advance progress has made, which I observed when I viewed the operations yesterday.

Yours sincerely,

This letter gives the impression that Brash would not have honoured the certificate had not the appearance of walls above ground satisfied his ideas of “progress.” To the uninitiated there is always dismay at the early stages, delight when the walls rise rapidly, as they do, and final despair at the interminable operations of interior work and finishings.

WREEK & CO
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TO SPINLOVE

Dear Sir, 4.4.25.

In reference to your esteemed request, we have carefully reconsidered our proposal and enclosed revised estimate.

By using less expensive bricks and making other immaterial alterations we are able to reduce our price to a figure which we trust will be acceptable to your good self. The price we are quoting is made specially low in order that we may have the satisfaction of not disappointing you.

We are, dear Sir,

Yours faithfully,

The indications are that Wreeks have stood out for a price much higher than the value of the work justifies, as specialists of high reputation are able to do. Their substitution of a “less expensive brick,” etc., is to “save the face,” as the Chinese say; the real consideration is that if they do not cut down their figure they will lose the job. Spinlove appears to have understood the game they were playing.

SPINLOVE TO WREEK

Dear Sirs, 7.4.25.

I write to accept your amended estimate of £375 for sewage disposal plant. The outfall drain is now in hand, and I shall be glad if you will make arrangements with Mr. Grigblay and get the work started at an early date.

Yours faithfully,

SPINLOVE TO RUSS & CO
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Dear Sirs, 9.4.25.