(feint pencil) bar scale of 1/5 in to 1 ft (approximately)

Wash-- (indecipherable) , Bed (twice), door, dimensions given and calculations

Brown pen and wash, hatching, pencil on laid paper (340 x 227)

Soane

J Bigg

Set among trees, the picturesque building has a portico made of (?) tree trunks in a primitive Tuscan manner and the roof may be thatched. The building is 21 feet 3 inches wide and 24 feet 3 inches deep. On the right hand side are two bedrooms and on the opposite side are two rooms of which the back one is labelled 'Wash' and has a circular boiler while the remaining room has the only fireplace. Pencil amendments chamfer the front corners of the building.
The function of this small building is not clear. Perhaps it is an estate cottage or a lodge house that takes in washing. See the following drawing (42/138) for a related design and for both these drawings see also (in Sketchbooks catalogue): 'Miscellaneous Sketches 1777', largely by Henry Holland (SM volume 38, 12-13) for a design by Soane for a 'Porters Lodge' on an octagon within a square plan, and with an adjacent 'Washouse' containing a copper, sink and pump made in about 1777 for a 'Mr Brand'.
See also (Soane's early works, 1770-1785): Hammels Park, Hertfordshire: designs for a dairy in a primitive, rustic style for Mrs Yorke, 1783 (7)

P.du Prey, John Soane: the making of an architect, 1982, chapter 12, "In the Primitive Manner of Building", pp.245-64

Drawing

Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation

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