238 MYSELF AND MY FRIEND*

heartened us Raleigh was one of those rare critics
who did know how to praise, and one who, wherever
he went, made men happier by his presence "We
were building a house which would be the most
beautiful of its kind in England," he said Another
came "How do you like it?" we asked "It gives me
the creeps," he replied, "but it may be all right when
the walls are papered " A third set of visitors came
later, relatives of her who had so kindly warned us of
the rotting of the beams in the field As they walked round
the big room, one of the party kept probing with a
penknife into the gaping cracks of the great beams
When he gouged out a little wood dust, he would glance
significantly at his companion I could read his lips
"Worms," they said The foreman on the job who,
like the fine craftsman he was, had grown proud of the
work he was doing, must have been able to read them
too, for he remarked absently, "That's strange there
were none before you came " The penknife was put
away

Th£ great Horsham tiling slabs were put in place

upon^the roof, but time had dealt hardly with many of

them, and the rest of the roof had to be patched with

old red tiles an harmonious patchwork of grey and dull

red which gave us the more pleasure when we discovered

that the same patching had been done hundreds of

years before on the roof of Anne of Cleves* house at

Lewes in Sussex A well was sunk no water came

iThe road began to eat up endless loads of stone, the

terraces and forecourt devoured yet more Wise friends

who came told us of our folly to go on building at such

a time "Gut your losses," the wise ones said We

sunk another well, and at last when we pumped the

pump sucked up some watery mud, and watery mud

it kept on spouting out day after day But my Professor

has streaks of practical genius in him, and Mr Allse-

brook, who was sinking the well, is full of resource, and

so between them they designed a fine wired copper

^ filter, put it down the well and went on pumping