The Honeywood Files (17 page)

Yours humbly,

SPINLOVE TO GRIGBLAY

Dear Sir, 7.7.25.

I yesterday saw first delivery of roofing tiles, which are quite satisfactory, but I noticed no tile-and-half tiles for verges. The tiles are cogged, as well as prepared for nailing and, as on further consideration I do not think it necessary to nail the whole as specified, will you please nail every fourth course on south and west slopes only, and verges and eaves throughout. I have noted this as an omission.

Will you also let me know how you intend to mix the three different colours so as to give the “broken colour” tiling specified? Patches of uniform colour must not show, nor must there be any appearance of arrangement.

I asked your foreman to build a yard run of eaves and verges with one of the kneeler oversails, all as shown on drawing No. 27, for my approval. I also directed that rafters should not be lined up on plate and at ridge, but allowed to range a little unequally so that the finished surface of tiling will show undulations; and directed that the tiling battens should not run truly parallel, but vary ¼ in. each way, and the battens themselves be bent or “sprung” as necessary, so that gauge of tiles will
not
show in rigid parallel courses. Please give these matters particular attention.

Yours faithfully,

We may sympathize with Spinlove’s solicitude and applaud his vision—although Grigblay is unlikely to do either—without necessarily commending the principles of the game he would be at. All architects who have the right salt acquire affections—or affectations—which they afterwards discard in favour of others, and we have no right to decide that Spinlove is either precious or silly because the immediate colour of his architectural creed may not be also ours. Spinlove has, clearly, lifted the idea bodily from a book, for it would scarcely have jumped into his head in such complete detail, and he has never tried to get the thing done before or he would not suppose carpenters and tilers to be ready, at a word, to do haphazard and crookedly the particular work which it is the pride of their skill and experience to perform by a rule of perfect exactness. He would also have known, had he before experimented in this way, that his demands upon the builder in these matters are intolerable.

GRIGBLAY TO SPINLOVE

Dear Sir, 8.7.25.

We note your instructions re nailing tiles. The tile-and-half bonnet and ridge tiles are on order. With regard to mixing tiles, specification calls for “broken colour tiling,” from which we understood they would be supplied ready for hanging as they came to hand. The tilers will want more money, but we will have the three different kinds sent up in equal quantities and the tilers can be trusted to use them haphazard, as you wish, but we must ask you to set off this against omission of nailing.

We have directed our foreman to build sample eaves, etc., as you ask, though we were not prepared for this; and with regard to the other matters you mention, will do our best to meet your wishes, but we must point out that this is special work not covered by the contract, and we may have to claim an extra for it.

Yours faithfully,

If Spinlove had not launched out with his prescription for a sham medieval roof, Grigblay would not have been likely to comment on his other exactions. That comment is made, on principle, to remind his young friend, the architect, that a builder pays for his compliances in hard cash, and that favours should be sought and not demanded. In the circumstances, Grigblay is not unreasonable, and he evidently foresees that the stolid inertia of the carpenters and tilers will put the extinguisher on Spinlove’s crotchety roof. He knows that they will listen respectfully to his directions for battening and tiling, while perhaps sharing a few winks behind his back, and then carry on much as usual. On a later day it will appear that the architect has not been understood; and if he is tenacious in his purpose, he will be asked questions he cannot answer and will be left to surrender the position either before provoking a mutiny, or after doing so. All this Grigblay perfectly understands. It is possible to build such a roof as Spinlove has set his heart on, but only with foresight and after careful preparation and with selected workmen.

SPINLOVE TO GRIGBLAY

Dear Sir, 9.7.25.

I agree to the omission on nailing tiles being set against the extra work you say I have asked for, but the method of roofing I described must be included. I do not agree that it is “special work.” The whole of the work, I may remind you, has to be done “to the architect’s satisfaction.”

Yours faithfully,

Spinlove has once already tried to bludgeon Grigblay with this God-given power conferred upon him by the contract, and his second attempt will probably be as futile as was the first, for Grigblay’s claim is sound: the field of the architect’s satisfaction is, of course, limited to the work described in the contract.

GRIGBLAY TO SPINLOVE

Dear Sir, 10.7.25.

We regret we cannot accept your view that the special work in roofing you have called upon us to do is included in the contract, and we must respectfully ask you to note that we can undertake it only on the clear understanding that it is an extra. We will ask you to give directions to the carpenters and tilers on the spot, so that your exact wishes may be understood as these are not clear, and to note that we cannot accept responsibility for the soundness of this method of work, which is new to us. When we know exactly what is required we will give you estimate of the extra value of carpenters’ work, and subsequently of the tiling,

Yours faithfully,

This stiff letter is not remarkable if we consider the extremely provocative one to which it replies. We notice Grigblay’s assumption of authority. We have before observed this, and found the explanation in Grigblay’s sense of Spinlove’s practical inefficiency. If Spinlove had the gumption to treat Grigblay as a colleague, the interchange of such unpleasant letters would be avoided. Another builder might well have taken Spinlove’s orders; made a dreadful botch of the roof, and brought in a heavy claim for extra at settlement; and Spinlove ought to be grateful to Grigblay for his plain speaking.

BRASH TO SPINLOVE

Dear Mr. Spinlove, 7.7.25.

I enclose specification anent inserting pipes in ditch from Mr. Rallingbourne’s surveyor. I understand you have signified your approval of the proposition and shall be obliged if you will direct Mr. Grigblay to proceed with the operations.

Lady Brash and myself are much gratified with the advance in progress and anticipate eventually moving into the house considerably in advance of the expiration of the contract period, as the chimneys are now completed and the roof commenced and little remains but the interior work. I inquired of Mr. Bloggs as to the signification of the flag I observed to be affixed to a staff on one of the chimneys, and as I ascertained that many of the workmen were addicted to total abstinence from alcoholic liquor, we arranged for a picnic tea to be served to them on Friday. Our hospitality, I gather, was greatly appreciated, and the event will, I trust, serve still further to expedite progress.

All our friends join with us in admiring the fine appearance the edifice is assuming. The effect promises a very pretty and charming residence when complete.

I beg the pleasure to enclose cheque for £250 on account of your fees.

Believe me,

Yours sincerely,

P.S.—I am requested to remind you that your anticipated presence for lawn-tennis is expected on next Saturday prox. Jump in to eats and toe the line at 2 before the patters scrum starts, Woggles and Biff will be here. Snooty tried the tea-tray toboggan stunt backwards and is nursing her bumps, poor dear.

The last lines are in a hurried, bulgy hand so different from the body of the letter, that we may decide Sir Leslie Brash did not write them.

The pleasure Brash begs will find Spinlove begging. On May 25 Spinlove applied for £400 on account of fees, and now, after an interval of six weeks, Brash sends his architect £250 as a mark of approval and by way of encouragement. It will probably be a very long time, indeed, before Spinlove again has such an experience; but if he continues long in practice he will learn that the reaction of the private client to claims for architect’s fees—knit up, as it is, with personal relations and respective social standings and financial circumstances—is as varied as any other of the characteristics of which every individual is compacted. Broadly speaking, an architect who is reasonably competent and conscientious may, saving disasters, expect not only to have his bill paid in full, but to be thanked for his services; yet he may not always be paid as and when he expects. There are also sensitively honourable men and women who confuse the architect with the commercial agent, and who are taken aback at being charged for services which they have not made use of—such as advice, sketch plans, or even contract particulars; and there are others who feel that they should not be called upon to pay for advice which has misled them, e.g. where contract particulars have been authorized under the architect’s estimate and no tender near to his figure is obtainable. There are also men and women who are not sensitively honourable and who resist on principle all obligations, and will make unjust quibbling objections to the amount of both builders’ and architects’ accounts in confidence that the matter will be settled to their own advantage without recourse to lawyers. It is impossible to instance all the different kinds of treatment an architect may receive from private clients in the article of fees; they cover every degree of meanness and of generosity which human nature knows. It is a fact that will appear odd only to those whose experience of men and affairs is slight, that trouble over payment of fees is most to be expected when the scale or amount of them has been particularly and exactly agreed beforehand. The sort of man who bargains with his architect on the point of fees is precisely the sort who boggles at paying anything, and who will seek to interpret the understanding unfairly against the architect. This is the “shrewd, hard-headed” principle which is better admired at a distance than near at hand, although most architects obtain a close view of it sooner or later.

SPINLOVE TO BRASH

Dear Sir Leslie Brash, 8.7.25.

Thank you for cheque, I enclose form of receipt.

There is a misunderstanding for which I may possibly be responsible. I gather from the amount of your cheque (£250) that you suppose I asked for payment on account of £400 fees, whereas I asked for £400 on account.

Please do not trouble to rectify. It will prevent all chance of confusion in future if I follow the established business custom and invoice architect’s charges as they fall due for payment. I will take an early opportunity to get things straightened out on this footing.

Yours sincerely,

Spinlove is always at his best when his resentment is awakened and he forgets himself. He was evidently hurt, and composed his letter with the care which the task of being decorously venomous deserves. He pays Brash the compliment of assuming that the thing Brash has done is so unthinkable that a clear impossibility can alone be the explanation. Unless Brash has forgotten how to blush—and in view of his self-conscious aspirations to the genteel this is not unlikely—we may imagine him as growing pink when he reads his architect’s letter. He will probably be thankful to avail himself of the fantastic excuse offered him, and it is difficult to see how, in the future, he is to avoid completing with reluctant cheque book the “formal business arrangement” which the solicitous Spinlove, entirely for his client’s convenience, has promised to adopt. We need not, however, be hard on Brash: he means well. He sent his cheque, in fact, on an impulse of generous appreciation; but his activities have left him aware of little but his own importance and his own gain, and he knows no better than to behave in this way. Spinlove has taken a strong line, but, from what we know of Brash, it is justified and will be unlikely to do any harm. He was not merely entitled to make protest, but it was so necessary for him to do so as to be almost a duty.

SPINLOVE TO BRASH

Dear Sir Leslie Brash, 9.7.25.

It gave me great pleasure to know that you are so well satisfied with the work that has been done, but I think I ought to tell you that you must not expect to get into the house before the contract date. There has been delay from frost and bad weather and also that arising from alterations in the plans, and this lost time will unavoidably delay completion. The interior represents the greater part of the work, but I am satisfied with the progress Grigblay is making.

I enclose list of grates and sanitary fittings. Will you let me know, when I see you, whether you would like to choose any of these? The prices are those included for in the contract.

Yours sincerely,

BRASH TO SPINLOVE

Dear Mr. Spinlove, 13.7.25.

I was extremely disappointed to conclude from your last communication that our residence will not be completed till subsequently to the expiration of the contract date. I clearly comprehended that the contractor was under penalty to complete the house previously to the day designated. Surely the vagaries of our climate are an eventuality which the contractor must risk, and an alteration does not necessarily involve elaboration! I desire to be informed when the house will be completed for occupation so that we may make necessary arrangements.

I am obliged for the list of grates and conveniences. I will purchase them myself through the intermediary of an acquaintance who is in a position to secure them at wholesale trade discount prices.

Yours sincerely,

SPINLOVE TO BRASH

Dear Sir Leslie Brash, 15.7.25.

The whole question of delay in building contracts is intricate and not readily to be explained in a letter, I fear, but the root of the whole matter is that, as the contract allows consideration for bad weather, extra work, strikes, etc., time is not of the essence of the contract. As a practical fact, the only security for prompt completion you have is the builder’s care for his reputation, and you could not be in safer hands than Grigblay’s.