was originally a simple cottage style. It was here that the influences of the arts and crafts movement became apparent. However, Tudor Revival cannot really be likened to the timber-framed structures of the originals, in which the frame supported the whole weight of the house. Their modern counterparts consist of bricks or blocks of various materials, stucco, or even simple studwall framing, with a lookalike "frame" of thin boards added on the outside to mimic the earlier functional and structural weight-bearing heavy timbers. An example of this is the "simple cottage" style of Ascott House in Buckinghamshire. This was designed by Devey for the Rothschild family, who were among the earliest patrons and promoters of this style. Simon Jenkins suggests that Ascott, "a half-timbered, heavily gabled, overgrown cottage, proves the appeal of Tudor to every era and condition of England". Devey's work at St Alban's Court and elsewhere incorporated other features of the Tudor Revival style such as "hung tiles and patterned brickwork". At St Alban's he also made use of rag-stone footings to create the impression of a Tudor mansion built "on the stone of medieval foundations". Some more enlightened landlords at this time became more aware of the needs for proper sanitation and housing for their employees, and some estate villages were rebuilt to resemble what was thought to be an idyllic Elizabethan village, often grouped around a village green and pond; Mentmore in Buckinghamshire is an example of this, Pevsner noting the "Arts-and-Crafts (and) cottage orné" building styles. The Tudor Revival, though, now concentrated on the picturesque. This combined with a desire for "naturalness", an intention to make buildings appear as if they had developed organically over the centuries, which the architectural historian James Stevens Curl considered "one of the most significant of English contributions to architecture". An example is the "Tudor Village" constructed by Frank Loughborough Pearson for his client William Waldorf Astor at Hever Castle in Kent. Pearson went to considerable lengths to source genuine Elizabethan building materials for the cottages, including stone, tiles and bricks, leading Astor to comment; "I could not believe they had been built a few short months ago, they looked so old and crooked". A very well-known example of the idealised half-timbered style is Liberty & Co. department store in London, which was built in the style of a vast half-timbered Tudor mansion. The store specialised, among other goods, in