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                    EARLY RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE

                              IN ENGLAND.




                          BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

                          ARCHITECTURE OF THE
                        RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND.

                   ILLUSTRATED BY A SERIES OF VIEWS
                  AND DETAILS FROM BUILDINGS ERECTED
                 BETWEEN THE YEARS 1560 and 1635, WITH
                   HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL TEXT....

   The Illustrations comprise 145 Folio Plates, 118 being reproduced
          from Photographs taken expressly for the work, and
                        180 Blocks in the Text.

      2 vols., large folio, in cloth portfolios      £7 7s. Net.
                 or half morocco, gilt    £8 8s. Net.

  [Illustration: PLATE I.

  HENRY VII.'S CHAPEL, WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

  INTERIOR VIEW, SHOWING VAULTING AND SCREEN.]




                           EARLY RENAISSANCE
                             ARCHITECTURE
                              IN ENGLAND

               A HISTORICAL & DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF THE
                TUDOR, ELIZABETHAN, & JACOBEAN PERIODS,
                               1500-1625

                  FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS AND OTHERS

                                  BY

                        J. ALFRED GOTCH, F.S.A.

                    AUTHOR OF "ARCHITECTURE OF THE
                     RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND," ETC.

           WITH EIGHTY-SEVEN COLLOTYPE AND OTHER PLATES AND
           TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT

                                LONDON
                    B. T. BATSFORD, 94 HIGH HOLBORN
                                MDCCCCI




                 BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO. LD., PRINTERS,
                         LONDON AND TONBRIDGE.




                               PREFACE.


It should, perhaps, be observed that although this book is entitled
_Early Renaissance Architecture in England_, it deals with much the
same period as that covered by my former work _The Architecture of the
Renaissance in England_, but with the addition of the first half of
the sixteenth century. The two books, however, have nothing in common
beyond the fact that they both illustrate the work of a particular
period. The former book exhibits a series of examples, to a large
scale, of Elizabethan and Jacobean buildings, with a brief account
of each: whereas this one takes the form of a handbook in which the
endeavour is made to trace in a systematic manner the development of
style from the close of the Gothic period down to the advent of Inigo
Jones.

It is not the inclusion of the first half of the sixteenth century
which alone has led to the adoption of the title _Early Renaissance_:
the limitation of period which these words indicate appeared
particularly necessary in consequence of the recent publication of
two other books, one being the important work of Mr. Belcher and Mr.
Macartney, illustrating buildings of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, under the title of _Later Renaissance Architecture in
England_; and the other being Mr. Reginald Blomfield's scholarly book,
_A History of Renaissance Architecture in England_, which, although
it starts with the beginning of the sixteenth century, does not dwell
at any length upon the earlier work, but is chiefly devoted to an
exhaustive survey of that of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The value of a work on Architecture is greatly enhanced by
illustrations, and I am much indebted to the numerous gentlemen who,
with great courtesy, have placed the fruits of their pencil, brush, or
camera at my disposal: their names are given in the Lists of Plates and
Illustrations. More particularly I desire to acknowledge the kindness
of the Committee of that very useful publication _The Architectural
Association Sketch Book_, in giving permission for some of their plates
to be reproduced; and among other contributors I have especially to
thank Colonel Gale, Mr. W. Haywood, and Mr. Harold Brakspear; while
to Mr. Ryland Adkins I am indebted for several valuable suggestions
in connection with the text of the Introductory chapter. Mr. Bradley
Batsford has rendered ungrudging assistance at every stage of the
undertaking, which has particularly benefited from his broad and
liberal views in regard to the illustrations. My thanks are also due to
those ladies and gentlemen who allowed me to examine, and sometimes to
measure and photograph their houses; and I am indebted to Mr. Chart,
the Clerk of Works at Hampton Court Palace, for much useful information
imparted during my investigations there.

Each illustration is utilized to explain some point in the text, but
in many cases the reference is purposely made short, the illustration
being left to tell its own story.

                                                       J. ALFRED GOTCH.

    WEST HILL, KETTERING.
     _August, 1901._




                               CONTENTS.


  CHAP.                                                        PAGE

       I.--INTRODUCTORY                                           1

      II.--THE INVASION OF THE FOREIGN STYLE                     10

     III.--THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HOUSE PLAN
         FROM ABOUT 1450 TO 1635                                 41

      IV.--EXTERIOR FEATURES--THE LAY-OUT OF HOUSES,
             LODGES AND GATEWAYS, DOORWAYS AND PORCHES           73

       V.--EXTERIOR FEATURES--GENERAL ASPECT, EXTERNAL
             APPEARANCE, WINDOWS OF VARIOUS KINDS                94

      VI.--EXTERIOR FEATURES--GABLES, FINIALS, PARAPETS
             CHIMNEYS, RAIN-WATER HEADS, GARDENS                116

     VII.--INTERIOR FEATURES--ROYAL PROGRESSES, THE MANNER
             OF DECORATING ROOMS, WOOD-PANELLING                138

    VIII.--INTERIOR FEATURES--TREATMENT OF THE HALL,
             OPEN ROOFS, THE SMALLER ROOMS, DOORS AND DOOR
             FURNITURE, CHIMNEY-PIECES, CEILINGS, PENDANTS,
             FRIEZES                                            159

      IX.--INTERIOR FEATURES--STAIRCASES, THE GREAT CHAMBER,
             THE LONG GALLERY, GLAZING, &c.                     184

       X.--MISCELLANEOUS WORK--STREET HOUSES, MARKET
             HOUSES, ALMSHOUSES, TOWN HALLS, VILLAGE CROSSES,
             SCHOOLS, CHURCHES AND THEIR FITTINGS, &c.          200

      XI.--SIXTEENTH CENTURY HOUSE-PLANNING--ILLUSTRATED
             FROM THE COLLECTION OF JOHN THORPE'S
             DRAWINGS                                           226

     XII.--ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNERS OF THE SIXTEENTH
             CENTURY                                            253

    LIST OF WORKS ON EARLY RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE             267

    INDEX                                                       271




                            LIST OF PLATES.

NOTE.--The letters "A.A.S.B." denote that the subject is
reproduced from _The Architectural Association Sketch Book_, with
authority of the Draughtsman and by permission of the Committee.


        PLATE
          I.--HENRY VII.'S CHAPEL, WESTMINSTER ABBEY, INTERIOR
                VIEW                                      _Frontispiece._
                                         S. B. Bolas, London, photo.
                                                                   FACING
         II.--HENRY VII.'S TOMB IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY        PAGE
                                               H. O. Cresswell, del.   14

        III.--DETAILS FROM THE TOMB OF HENRY, LORD MARNEY,
                LAYER MARNEY CHURCH       Fred Chancellor, del.        18

            { FAN VAULTING, CHAPEL OF THE REDMOUNT, KING'S LYNN     }
            {                            W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.}
         IV.{                                                       }  19
            { VAULTING OF PORCH, COWDRAY HOUSE, SUSSEX              }
            {                                       J. A. G., photo.}

          V.--THE COUNTESS OF SALISBURY'S CHANTRY, CHRISTCHURCH;
                VIEW FROM CHOIR                                        20

         VI.--THE COUNTESS OF SALISBURY'S CHANTRY, CHRISTCHURCH;
                DETAIL OF NICHES ON NORTH SIDE                         22

            { PART OF SCREEN, ST. CROSS, WINCHESTER                 }
        VII.{                            W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.}  26
            { PAULET TOMB, BASING CHURCH   J. A. G., photo.         }

       VIII.--SCREEN IN THE CHAPEL, KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE          28

            { TITLE PAVING FROM LACOCK ABBEY                        }
            {                                 Harold Brakspear, del.}
         IX.{                                                       }  38
            { SINGLE TILES FROM THE SAME PAVEMENT                   }
            {                                       W. Haywood, del.}

          X.--CHEST FROM ST. MARY OVERIE, SOUTHWARK
                                    Victor T. Jones, del. [A.A.S.B.]   40

         XI.--COMPTON WINYATES; GENERAL VIEW                           47

        XII.--COMPTON WINYATES; THE ENTRANCE PORCH
                                                 C. E. Mallows, del.   48

       XIII. (DOUBLE)--DETAILS FROM LAYER MARNEY TOWER
                                            Arnold B. Mitchell, del. 52-3

        XIV.--THE ENTRANCE GATEWAY, HENGRAVE HALL
                         J. Palmer Clarke, Bury St. Edmund's, photo.   56

         XV.--THE ENTRANCE PORCH, MORETON OLD HALL
                                                Maxwell Ayrton, del.   58

        XVI.--A GABLE FROM THE FRONT, MORETON OLD HALL
                                                Maxwell Ayrton, del.   58

       XVII.--SOUTH SIDE OF COURTYARD, KIRBY HALL
                                               M. Starmer Hack, del.   60

      XVIII.--JOHN THORPE'S GROUND PLAN FOR KIRBY HALL
                                   From the Soane Museum Collection.   62

        XIX. (DOUBLE)--DETAILS OF PORCH IN COURT, KIRBY HALL
                                            Arthur G. Leighton, del. 64-5

         XX.--THE ENTRANCE PORCH, MONTACUTE HOUSE
                                  From a water-colour by W. Haywood.   66

        XXI.--THE ENTRANCE FRONT AND GATEHOUSE, DODDINGTON
                HALL. By permission from Rev. R. E. G. Cole's
                _History of Doddington_                                69

       XXII.--THE GATEHOUSE AT STANWAY                                 78

      XXIII.--THE GATEHOUSE AT WESTWOOD                                79

            { DOORWAY AT CHIPCHASE CASTLE                           }
            {                           J. P. Gibson, Hexham, photo.}
       XXIV.{                                                       }  85
            { PORCH OF THE MANOR HOUSE, UPPER SLAUGHTER             }
            {                            W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.}

            { THE GRAND STAIRCASE, WARDOUR CASTLE                   }
            {                         G. W. Wilson, Aberdeen, photo.}
        XXV.{                                                       }  86
            { DOORWAY IN COURT, HATFIELD HOUSE                      }
            {                                      Col. Gale, photo.}

       XXVI.--ARCADED PORCH AT CRANBORNE MANOR HOUSE                   91

      XXVII.--WOLLATON HALL; GENERAL VIEW                              97

     XXVIII.--BURGHLEY HOUSE; GENERAL VIEW
                                      G. W. Wilson, Aberdeen, photo.   98

            { EXTON OLD HALL, RUTLAND  }
       XXIX.{                          }            J. A. G., photo.  100
            { THE MANOR HOUSE, GLINTON }

        XXX.--MOUNT GRACE PRIORY, YORKSHIRE                           106

       XXXI.--VIEW OF FRONT, SPEKE HALL                               107

      XXXII.--PART OF THE FRONT, BARRINGTON COURT
                                     Kotaro Sakurai, del. [A.A.S.B.]  110

            { ASTLEY HALL                                           }
     XXXIII.{                         Bedford Lemere, London, photo.} 112
            { KIRBY HALL; THE BAY WINDOWS Col. Gale, photo.         }

      XXXIV.--GABLES AT LILFORD HALL                                  112

            { HOLMSHURST, BURWASH       }
       XXXV.{                           }W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.  118
            { TUDOR HOUSE, BROADWAY     }

      XXXVI.--CHIMNEY-STACK AND WINDOW FROM LACOCK ABBEY
                                              Harold Brakspear, del.  128

     XXXVII.--BLICKLING HALL; PART OF ENTRANCE FRONT                  130

            { STEPS TO TERRACE, HADDON HALL                         }
    XXXVIII.{ TERRACE WALL, CLAVERTON HOUSE                         } 133
            {                                 J. L. Robinson, photo.}

            { GATEWAY, HIGHLOW HALL, NEAR          }
      XXXIX.{   HATHERSAGE                         }J. A. G., photo.  136
            { TERRACE STEPS, EYAM HALL             }

            { SIDE OF BAY IN THE DINING ROOM,      }
         XL.{   HADDON HALL                        }
            { PANELLING IN THE DINING ROOM,        }J. A. G., PHOTO.  153
            {   HADDON HALL                        }

            { WOODWORK IN CHAPEL, HADDON HALL      }
        XLI.{ BAY WINDOW IN THE DRAWING            }J. A. G., PHOTO.  154
            {   ROOM, HADDON HALL                  }

       XLII.--AN INTERIOR FROM CARBROOK HALL, NEAR
                SHEFFIELD                                             157

      XLIII.--SIDE OF ROOM AT BENTHALL HALL
                                                B. J. Fletcher, del.  156

       XLIV.--SCREEN IN THE HALL, WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD              159

        XLV.--SCREEN IN THE HALL, TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE          160

       XLVI.--SCREEN IN THE HALL, WOOLLAS HALL
                                    Harold Baker, Birmingham, photo.  160

      XLVII.--THE GREAT CHAMBER, SOUTH WRAXALL MANOR HOUSE
                                              Ernest W. Gimson, del.  162

     XLVIII.--FIREPLACE AND PANELLING IN THE MAYOR'S ROOM,
                OLD TOWN HALL, LEICESTER                              162

       XLIX.--SIDE OF A ROOM, THE "REINDEER" INN, BANBURY
                                                  John Stewart, del.  162

          L.--DETAILS OF PANELLING FROM SIZERGH HALL
                                               F. Dare Clapham, del.  163

         LI.--INTERIOR PORCH, BROUGHTON CASTLE                        163

        LII.--THE PRESENCE CHAMBER AT HARDWICK HALL
                                     A. Seaman, Chesterfield, photo.  164

       LIII.--DOORWAY IN A HOUSE AT BRISTOL                           164

        LIV.--A DOORWAY FROM LEVENS HALL
                                   F. B. Turner, Flamborough, photo.  165

            { DOORWAY, GAYTON MANOR HOUSE             J. A. G., del.}
         LV.{ DOORWAY, ST. PETER'S HOSPITAL, BRISTOL                } 166
            {                  T. Locke Worthington, del. [A.A.S.B.]}

        LVI.--CHIMNEY-PIECE FROM BOUGHTON HOUSE                       168

       LVII.--CHIMNEY-PIECE FROM LACOCK ABBEY
                                              Harold Brakspear, del.  168

      LVIII.--A CHIMNEY-PIECE FROM BARLBOROUGH HALL
                                                   Col. Gale, photo.  168

        LIX.--CHIMNEY-PIECE IN KING JAMES'S ROOM, HATFIELD
                HOUSE                              Col. Gale, photo.  169

         LX.--CHIMNEY-PIECE IN THE GREAT CHAMBER, SOUTH
                WRAXALL MANOR HOUSE                 W. Haywood, del.  169

        LXI.--CHIMNEY-PIECE FROM HARDWICK HALL
                                              J. L. Robinson, photo.  169

       LXII.--CHIMNEY-PIECE FROM FORD HOUSE, NEWTON ABBOT
                                                      J. A. G., del.  170

      LXIII.--CHIMNEY-PIECE AT WHISTON, SUSSEX
                                                   Col. Gale, photo.  171

       LXIV.--TWO CHIMNEY-PIECES FROM BOLSOVER CASTLE
                                                   Col. Gale, photo.  171

        LXV.--CHIMNEY-PIECE AT BROMLEY-BY-BOW PALACE                  172

       LXVI.--CHIMNEY-PIECE FROM CASTLE ASHBY
                                      Bedford Lemere, London, photo.  172

      LXVII.--CEILING AND FRIEZE FROM CARDINAL WOLSEY'S
                CLOSET, HAMPTON COURT PALACE        J. A. G., photo.  175

     LXVIII.--CEILING AT DEENE HALL                 J. A. G., photo.  177

       LXIX.--CEILING FROM THE "REINDEER" INN, BANBURY
                                                    J. A. G., photo.  178

        LXX.--CEILING OF THE GREAT CHAMBER, ASTON HALL
                            From W. Niven's _Account of Aston Hall_.  180

       LXXI.--CEILING OF KING CHARLES' BEDROOM, ASTON HALL
                            From W. Niven's _Account of Aston Hall_.  180

      LXXII.--STAIRCASE FROM BURGHLEY HOUSE, STAMFORD
                                                   After Richardson.  187

     LXXIII.--PLANS OF STAIRCASES FROM JOHN THORPE'S DRAWINGS
                                     In the Soane Museum Collection.  189

      LXXIV.--STAIRCASE, AUDLEY END           C. J. Richardson, del.  194

       LXXV.--THE LONG GALLERY, HADDON HALL
                                      G. W. Wilson, Aberdeen, photo.  196

      LXXVI.--THE LONG GALLERY, ASTON HALL
                                                Harold Baker, photo.  196

     LXXVII.--GLASS PANEL FROM MORETON OLD HALL
                                                     John West, del.  198

    LXXVIII.--FOUR EXAMPLES OF LEAD GLAZING FROM W. GEDDE'S
                "BOOKE OF SUNDRY DRAUGHTES," 1611                     199

      LXXIX.--TWO STREET HOUSES FROM OXFORD AND
                STRATFORD-ON-AVON                                     202

       LXXX.--THE VILLAGE CROSS, BRIGSTOCK Miss Dryden, photo.        211

      LXXXI.--DETAILS OF THE CHICHESTER TOMB, PILTON CHURCH           218

     LXXXII.--CHOIR SCREEN FROM ALL SAINTS' CHURCH, TILNEY
                                               C. A. Nicholson, del.  219

    LXXXIII.--PULPIT IN EDINGTON CHURCH
                                          R. Shekleton Balfour, del.  221

     LXXXIV.--JOHN THORPE'S DRAWING FOR SIR JARVIS CLIFTON'S
                HOUSE              From the Soane Museum Collection.  231

      LXXXV.--UN-NAMED PLAN AND ELEVATION                John Thorpe. 234

     LXXXVI.--PLAN "FOR SIR Wm. HASERIDGE"              John Thorpe.  235

    LXXXVII.--ELEVATION OF PLAN ENTITLED "FOR SIR Wm.
                HASERIDGE"                              John Thorpe.  235




                        LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

    NOTE.--The letters "A.A.S.B." denote that the subject is
    reproduced from _The Architectural Association Sketch Book_, with
    authority of the Draughtsman and by permission of the Committee.


    ILLUSTRATION                                                     PAGE

      1.  Tomb of Prince Arthur in Worcester Cathedral
                                              J. L. Robinson, photo.   10

      2.  Tomb of one of the Cokayne Family, Ashbourne Church.
                                                    J. A. G., photo.   11

      3.  Henry VII.'s Tomb; Detail of Ornament
                                               H. O. Cresswell, del.   12

      4.  Tomb of John Harrington, Exton Church      J. A. G., photo   13

      5.  Tomb of Thomas Cave, Stanford Church       J. A. G., photo   13

      6.    "       "     "    End Panel             J. A. G., photo.  14

      7.  Tomb of Sir George Vernon, Bakewell Church
                                                    J. A. G., photo.   14

      8.  Tomb of Sir Thomas Andrew, Charwelton Church
                                                 Miss Dryden, photo.   15

      9.  Tomb of ---- Bradbourne, Ashbourne Church  J. A. G., photo   16

     10.  Panel from the Tomb of Elizabeth Drury, Hawstead Church.
                                                      J. A. G., del.   17

     11.  Tomb of Henry, Lord Marney, Layer Marney Church
                                               Fred Chancellor, del.   18

     12.  Carving from the Sedilia, Wymondham Church. J. A. G., del.   19

     13.  Cowdray House, Sussex; Vaulting Rib of Porch.
                                                      J. A. G., del.   19

     14.  Chantry of the Countess of Salisbury, Christchurch, from the
                North Aisle                                            20

     15.  The Salisbury Chantry, Christchurch; Detail of Carving.
                                                    J. A. G., photo.   21

     16.  Prior Draper's Chantry, Christchurch; Head of Doorway.       21

     17.  Christchurch; Divisions between Miserere Seats
                                                    J. A. G., photo.   22

     18.       "        Bench-end in Choir          J. A. G., photo.   23

     19. Doorway and Panelling in the Gallery at the Vyne, near
            Basingstoke                             J. A. G., photo.   24

     20. Screen on the North Side of Choir, Winchester Cathedral
            (with Mortuary Chest)                                      25

     21. Canopy of Stalls, Henry VII.'s Chapel, Westminster
                                                   A. W. Pugin, del.   26

     22. Detail from Stalls, Henry VII.'s Chapel, Westminster
                                    G. G. Woodward, del. [A.A.S.B.].   27

     23. The Spring Pew, Lavenham Church      J. L. Robinson, photo.   27

     24. Detail from the Spring Pew, Lavenham Church
                                                    C. R. Pink, del.   28

     25. Roof of the Hall, Eltham Palace
                                         E. and S. H. Barnsley, del.   29

     26. Roof of the Great Hall, Hampton Court Palace
                                                   A. W. Pugin, del.   30

     27. Details from the Roof of the Great Hall, Hampton Court.
                                                   A. W. Pugin, del.   31

     28. Hampton Court; Head of Door to Great Hall. J. A. G., photo.   32

     29. Lacock Abbey; Tower at South-east Corner
                                                    W. Haywood, del.   36

     30.   "      "    Stone Table in Tower
                                            Sidney Brakspear, photo.   37

     31.   "      "    Stone Table in Tower
                                            Sidney Brakspear, photo.   38

     32.   "      "    The Stables                  W. Haywood, del.   39

     32A. Panel from the Sedilia, Wymondham Church    J. A. G., del.   40

     33. Great Chalfield House; Plan             After T. L. Walker.   43

     34. Oxburgh Hall; Ground Plan                 After J. Britton.   44

     35.    "      "   Entrance Tower         J. L. Robinson, photo.   45

     36. East Barsham House; Ground Plan          After A. W. Pugin.   46

     37. Compton Winyates; Ground Plan           After Heber Rimmer.   48

     38. Sutton Place, near Guildford; Ground Plan
                                            S. Forster Hayward, del.   49

     39.    "     "    Details      A. C. Gladding, del. [A.A.S.B.].   50

     40.    "     "    Part Elevation of Courtyard
                                    A. C. Gladding, del. [A.A.S.B.].   51

     41. Layer Marney Tower; Entrance Tower
                                            Arnold B. Mitchell, del.   53

     42. Hengrave Hall; Ground Plan                After J. Britton.   54

     43.    "       "   West Front            J. L. Robinson, photo.   55

     44.    "       "   Corbelling of Bay Window over Entrance
            Archway                                   J. A. G., del.   56

     45.  Moreton Old Hall; Ground Plan             After J. Strong.   57

     46.  Kirby Hall; Ground Plan               A. G. Leighton, del.   61

     47.  Montacute House; Ground Plan         After J. N. Johnston.   65

     48.      "       "    West Front, with Court and Garden-houses
                                              J. L. Robinson, photo.   66

     49.  Barlborough Hall; Plan of Principal Floor   J. A. G., del.   67

     50.       "       "    Entrance Front         Col. Gale, photo.   68

     51.  Doddington Hall; Ground Plan                J. A. G., del.   69

     52.  Burton Agnes Hall; Ground Plan              J. A. G., del.   70

     53.  Aston Hall, near Birmingham; Ground Plan   After W. Niven.   71

     54.    "    "          "          North Wing
                                                Harold Baker, photo.   72

     55.  Holdenby House; Plan of Lay-out        From an old Survey.   75

     56.  Doddington Hall; Block Plan                 J. A. G., del.   77

     57.  Stokesay Castle; The Gatehouse           Col. Gale, photo.   78

     58.  Cold Ashton Manor House; Entrance Gateway
                                                    J. A. G., photo.   79

     59.  Winwick; Gateway to Manor House           J. A. G., photo.   79

     60.  Gateway to Almshouses, Oundle             J. A. G., photo.   80

     61.  Holdenby House; Gateways to Base-court
                                                 Miss Dryden, photo.   80

     62.  Kenyon Peel Hall; Gateway at Side of Court
                                                    J. A. G., photo.   81

     63.  Doddington Hall; Entrance Doorway           J. A. G., del.   82

     64.  Porch at Chelvey Court, Somerset          J. A. G., photo.   83

     65.  Doorway at Nailsea Court, Somerset        J. A. G., photo.   84

     66.  Doorway at Gayhurst Manor House           J. A. G., photo.   85

     67.  Doorway at Cold Ashton Manor House        J. A. G., photo.   86

     68.  Doorway at Cheney Court                   J. A. G., photo.   86

     69.  Woollas Hall; Part of Entrance Front  Harold Baker, photo.   87

     70.  Porch at Gorhambury, near St. Albans (photo.)                88

     71.  Hambleton Old Hall (photo.)                                  89

     72.  Chastleton House; Ground Plan         After J. A. Cossins.   90

     73.  Doorway at Lyddington                    John Bilson, del.   91

     74.  Doorway at Broadway                         J. A. G., del.   92

     75.  Doorway at Aylesford Hall            W. Talbot Brown, del.   93

     76.  Kirby Hall; South Side of Court         F. W. Bull, photo.   95

     77.    "    "    West Front                    J. A. G., photo.   96

     78.  Longleat House, Wiltshire (photo.)                           96

     79.  Wollaton Hall; Plan of Principal Floor  After P. K. Allen.   97

     80.  Charlton House, Wiltshire (photo.)                           98

     81.  Aston Hall; The South Front           Harold Baker, photo.   99

     82.  Corsham Court, Wiltshire            J. L. Robinson, photo.  100

     83.  Kentwell Hall                       J. L. Robinson, photo.  100

     84.  Cheney Court                              J. A. G., photo.  101

     85.  The Manor House, Cold Ashton              J. A. G., photo.  102

     86.       "      "     "     "    Ground Plan    J. A. G., del.  102

     87.  Bolsover Castle                           J. A. G., photo.  103

     88.      "      "    Ground Plan                 J. A. G., del.  104

     89.  Condover Hall; The Garden Front     J. L. Robinson, photo.  105

     90.  Clegg Hall, near Rochdale                   W. Riley, del.  106

     91.  Courtyard, Ingelby Manor (photo.)                           107

     92.  House at Mayfield              W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.  108

     93.  Cowdray House; Part of Court              J. A. G., photo.  109

     94.  Hoghton Tower; Bay of Hall                J. A. G., photo.  110

     95.  Burton Agnes Hall; Bay Windows      Frith, Reigate, photo.  111

     96.  House at Bourton-on-the-Water
                                         W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.  112

     97.  Cottage at Steventon                     Col. Gale, photo.  113

     98.  Sections of Various Window Jambs and Mullions
                                                      J. A. G., del.  114

     99.  Window Sill at Wollaton Hall         W. Talbot Brown, del.  114

     99A. Head of Window from Hatfield House          J. A. G., del.  115

    100.  A Northamptonshire Cottage             Miss Dryden, photo.  116

    101.  Stone Finials and Kneelers                  J. A. G., del.  117

    102.  The Manor House, Finstock     W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.   117

    103.  Cottage at Rothwell                         J. A. G., del.  118

    104.  Cottage at Treeton, near Sheffield       C. Hadfield, del.  119

    105.  Cottage at Steventon                     Col. Gale, photo.  120

    106.  Wollaton Hall; One of Corner Towers (photo.)                 121

    107.  Kirby Hall; Part of West Front           Col. Gale, photo.  122

    108.  Gable in the Court, Rushton Hall            J. A. G., del.  123

    109.  Gable in the Court, Apethorpe Hall          J. A. G., del.  123

    110.  Exton Old Hall; Stone Parapet               J. A. G., del.  124

    111.  Bramshill House; Stone Parapet              After H. Shaw.  124

    112.  Audley End; Stone Parapet          After C. J. Richardson.  124

    113.  Rushton Hall; Gable on East Front        Col. Gale, photo.  125

    114.  Chimney at Droitwich                    W. Habershon, del.  126

    115.  Brick Chimney from Huddington Court House   J. A. G., del.  127

    116.  Brick Chimney from Bardwell Manor House     J. A. G., del.  127

    117.  Chimney at Toller Fratrum                   J. A. G., del.  127

    118.  Chimney at Kirby Hall                       J. A. G., del.  127

    119.  Typical Chimney in the Midlands             J. A. G., del.  129

    120.  Chimney at Chipping Campden                 J. A. G., del.  129

    121.  Chimney at Drayton House                    J. A. G., del.  129

    122.  Chimney at Triangular Lodge, Rushton        J. A. G., del.  129

    123.  Bean Lodge, near Petworth      W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.  130

    124.  Lead Rain-water Head from Haddon Hall
            From Mr. W. R. Lethaby's _Leadwork_, by permission of
                                                     Macmillan & Co.  131

    125.  Lead Rain-water Head from Haddon Hall
            From Mr. W. R. Lethaby's _Leadwork_, by permission of
                                                     Macmillan & Co.  131

    126.  Lead Rain-water Head from Haddon Hall
            From Mr. W. R. Lethaby's _Leadwork_, by permission of
                                                     Macmillan & Co.  131

    127.  Pipe Head from Sherborne                  Henry Shaw, del.  131

    128.  Lead Pipe Head from Knole House
                                               W. Talbot Brown, del.  132

    129.  Lead Pipe Head from Bramshill House
                                               W. Talbot Brown, del.  132

    130.  Gayhurst; Stone Pillar in Garden          J. A. G., photo.  133

    131.  Gateway in a House at Lindfield        Arthur Ardron, del.  134

    132.  Chipping Campden; The Garden-house    Percy D. Smith, del.  136

    133.  Eyam Hall; Plan of Lay-out                  J. A. G., del.  137

    134.  Bedroom in Deene Hall; Plaster Ceiling; Tapestry on Walls.
                                                    J. A. G., photo.  147

    135.  Haddon Hall; A Corner of the Great Hall   J. A. G., photo.  149

    136.  Panelling of the Time of Henry VIII.      J. A. G., photo.  150

    137.  Example of Linen Panelling, Stanford Church
                                                    J. A. G., photo.  151

    138.  A Panel of the Time of Henry VIII.        J. A. G., photo.  152

    139.  Door at Castle Rising          W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.  153

    140.  Panelling of Door at Beckington Abbey     J. A. G., photo.  154

    141.  Door at Nailsea Court                     J. A. G., photo.  155

    142.  Part of Reredos (removed) at Stowe-Nine-Churches
                                                    J. A. G., photo.  156

    143.  Part of the Court Pew, Chelvey Church     J. A. G., photo.  157

    144.  Part of Screen (removed), Stowe-Nine-Churches
                                                     J. A. G., photo  158

    145.  The Hall, Knole House (photo.)                              159

    146.  Wollaton Hall; The Roof of the Great Hall
                                                Percy K. Allen, del.  160

    147.  Roof of Great Hall, Kirby        George P. Bankart, photo.  161

    148.  Panelling from Sizergh Hall (now in South Kensington
          Museum)                              F. Dare Clapham, del.  163

    149.  Doorway, Abbott's Hospital, Guildford     J. A. G., photo.  164

    150.  Latch from Abbott's Hospital, Guildford
                                    E. A. Rickards, del. [A.A.S.B.].  165

    151.  Latch from Haddon Hall        R. S. Dods, del. [A.A.S.B.].  165

    152.  Lock-plates, Latches, &c.          After C. J. Richardson.  166

    153.  Casement Fastener from Haddon Hall
                                        R. S. Dods, del. [A.A.S.B.].  166

    154.  Key-plate from Abbott's Hospital, Guildford
                                    E. A. Rickards, del. [A.A.S.B.].  167

    155.  A Knocker                          After C. J. Richardson.  167

    156.  Wood Chimney-piece, Benthall Hall     B. J. Fletcher, del.  170

    157.  Stone Chimney-piece, Bolsover Castle.
                                              J. L. Robinson, photo.  171

    158.  Ceiling of the Presence Chamber, Hampton Court.
                                                         After Nash.  173

    159.  Bosses from Ceilings at Hampton Court      J. A. G., photo. 174

    160.  Patera to a Ceiling at Hampton Court        J. A. G., del.  175

    161.  Part of the Ceiling in the Long Gallery, Haddon Hall.
                                                    J. A. G., photo.  176

    162.  Part of a Coved Ceiling at Beckington Abbey
                                                    J. A. G., photo.  177

    163.  Coved Ceiling, Beckington Abbey           J. A. G., photo.  177

    164.  Part of a Ceiling from Sizergh Hall (now in South Kensington
              Museum)                          F. Dare Clapham, del.  178

    165.  Ceiling from Benthall Hall            B. J. Fletcher, del.  179

    166.  Ceiling in Gatehouse, Haddon Hall
                                        R. S. Dods, del. [A.A.S.B.].  180

    167.  Pendants of Plaster Ceilings       After C. J. Richardson.  181

    168.  Examples of Plaster Friezes from Montacute, Audley End, and
              Charlton House                 After C. J. Richardson.  182

    169.  Plaster Frieze from Montacute House
                                               C.J. Richardson, del.  183

    170.  Part of Plaster Frieze, Carbrook Hall
                                               W. Talbot Brown, del.  184

    171.  Ceiling of a Triangular Bay Window at Little Charlton House
                                            After C. J. Richardson.   184

    172.  Staircase at Lyveden Old Building           J. A. G., del.  186

    173.  Details of Staircase, Hambleton Old Hall
                                               W. Talbot Brown, del.  187

    174.  Staircase from East Quantockshead           J. A. G., del.  187

    175.  Details of Staircase, Lyveden Old Building  J. A. G., del.  188

    176.  Pierced Baluster                            J. A. G., del.  189

    177.  Staircase at Ockwells Manor House       H. C. Pullin, del.  189

    178.       "          "       "     "   Plans and Details
                                                 H.  C. Pullin, del.  190

    179.  Staircase at Benthall Hall, Shropshire
                                              J. L. Robinson, photo.  191

    180.  Staircase at a House at Warwick             J. A. G., del.  192

    181.  Staircase at the Charterhouse         Roland W. Paul, del.  193

    182.  Portion of Glazing from Ightham Church      J. A. G., del.  197

    183.  Glass Panel from one of the Windows at Gilling Castle.
                                                      J. A. G., del.  198

    184.  House formerly in North Street, Exeter
                                     W. R. Lethaby, del. [A.A.S.B.].  200

    185.  House in the High Street, Canterbury
                                         W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.  201

    186.  Old House, High Town, Hereford.  Valentine, Dundee, photo.  202

    187.  Corbels, "King's Arms," Sandwich
                                         W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.  204

    188.  Corbel at Canterbury                 W. Talbot Brown, del.  205

    189.  Corbel at Canterbury                 W. Talbot Brown, del.  205

    190.  Corbel at Orton Waterville           W. Talbot Brown, del.  205

    191.  The "Swan" Inn, Lechlade       W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.  206

    192.  Desk in Almshouses, Corsham               W. Haywood, del.  207

    193.  Almshouses, Chipping Campden.  W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.  208

    194.  Market House, Shrewsbury (photo.)                           208

    195.  Market House, Wymondham (photo.)                            209

    196.  Market House, Chipping Campden
                                         W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.  210

    197.  School at Burton Latimer               Miss Dryden, photo.  211

    198.  Mill at Bourne Pond, Colchester          Col. Gale, photo.  212

    199.  Hawking-tower, Althorp Park (photo.)                        213

    200.  Plan of Hawking-tower, Althorp Park         J. A. G., del.  213

    201.  The Sign of the "White Hart" Inn, formerly at Scole
                                                  E. A. Heffer, del.  214

    202.  The Chichester Tomb, Pilton Church
                                Vickery Brothers, Barnstaple, photo.  215

    203.  Alabaster Frieze from one of the Foljambe Tombs,
              Chesterfield Church              W. Talbot Brown, del.  216

    204.  Tomb of G. Reed, Bredon Church        Harold Baker, photo.  217

    205.  Tomb of Sir Wm. Spencer, Yarnton Church
                                                Harold Baker, photo.  218

    206.  The Pulpit, Worth Church       W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.  219

    207.  The Pulpit, Blythborough Church
                                         W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.  220

    208.  The Pulpit, Chesterfield Church           J. A. G., photo.  221

    209.  Font Cover and Canopy, Pilton Church
                                         W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.  222

    210.  Window of North Aisle, Kelmarsh Church    J. A. G., photo.  223

    211.  Keystones from Compton Winyates Church
                                               W. Talbot Brown, del.  223

    212.  Door in the Screen of the Chapel, Peterhouse College,
              Cambridge                 R. S. Dods, del. [A.A.S.B.].  224

    213.  Plan of the Château of Anssi-le-Franc copied from
              Du Cerceau                                John Thorpe.  227

    214.  Part Elevation of the Château of Anssi-le-Franc, with three
              Turrets added                             John Thorpe.  228

    215.  Elevation copied from De Vries                John Thorpe.  229

    216.  An Unnamed Plan                               John Thorpe.  232

    217.  An Unnamed Ground Plan                        John Thorpe.  236

    218.  Upper Plan of Fig. 217                        John Thorpe.  237

    219.  Elevation of Figs. 217, 218                   John Thorpe.  238

    220.  An Unnamed Plan                               John Thorpe.  239

    221.  Ground and Upper Plans, Unnamed               John Thorpe.  240

    222.  Elevations of Plans in Fig. 221               John Thorpe.  241

    223.  Unnamed Plan and Elevation                    John Thorpe.  242

    224.  Plan and Elevation of House for Mr. Wm. Powell
                                                        John Thorpe.  243

    225.  Plan of House for Mr. Johnson ye Druggist     John Thorpe.  244

    226.  An Unnamed Plan                               John Thorpe.  245

    227.  Ground Plan of House for Sir Jo. Danvers, Chelsey
                                                        John Thorpe.  246

    228.  Upper Plan and Elevation for Sir Jo. Danvers, Chelsey
                                                        John Thorpe.  247

    229.  An Unnamed Elevation                          John Thorpe.  248

    230.       "         "                              John Thorpe.  249

    231.       "     Plan (Circular)                    John Thorpe.  250




                           EARLY RENAISSANCE
                             ARCHITECTURE
                              IN ENGLAND




                              CHAPTER I.

                             INTRODUCTORY.


The progress of style in the mediæval architecture of England was
regular and continuous: so much so, that any one thoroughly acquainted
with its various phases can tell the date of a building within
some ten years by merely examining the mouldings which embellish
it. These successive phases, moreover, merge into one another so
gradually, that although it has been possible to divide them into
four great periods--called Norman, Early English, Decorated, and
Perpendicular--yet the transition from one to the other is unbroken,
and the whole course of development can be traced as regularly as the
change from the simplicity of the trunk of a tree to the multiplicity
of its leaves. For about four centuries (A.D. 1100-1500) this
growth continued, English architecture finding within itself the power
of progression. But about the beginning of the sixteenth century it
began to feel the influence of an outside power--that of Italy--which
acted upon it with increasing force until, after two centuries, its
native characteristics had nearly disappeared, and Italian buildings
were copied in England almost line for line.

The object of the following pages is to display the effect of this
foreign influence upon our native architecture up to the point when it
became predominant, and stamped our buildings with a character more
Classic than Gothic. But it will be desirable first of all to glance
shortly at the causes which led to Italy having this extraordinary
influence, and at the general effect which that influence produced upon
England.

England, in common with the rest of North-western Europe, was the home
of Gothic architecture, instinct with the mystery and romantic spirit
of the Middle Ages. Italy was the home of Classic architecture, which
it had cherished since the great days of Rome. The Gothic manner was
never thoroughly acquired in Italy, even in those parts which lay
nearest to France and Germany, although it affected their buildings to
a certain extent. The best examples of Italian Gothic hold a low rank
in comparison with the masterpieces of the northern style. Classic
forms were those in which the Italian designer naturally expressed
himself, and it was these which he employed when that great revival of
the Arts which took place in the fifteenth century, set him building.
The earlier Renaissance in letters "the spring before the spring," of
which the great figures are Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, heralded
a great awakening of architectural energy, and Italian architects,
in solving their new problems, mingled the results of a deep study
of ancient examples with much of mediæval spirit and tendency. They
set themselves resolutely to revive the architecture which had been
one of the glories of ancient Rome; but they could not, even had they
wished it, free themselves from the spirit of their own age, and the
result was the development of a kind of architecture which used old
forms in new ways, and which has gained the distinguishing title of the
Renaissance style.

But the awakening in architecture was only one manifestation of the
spirit which was abroad: in painting, sculpture, and all the applied
arts, as well as in literature, the same vivifying tendency was at
work. With the fall of Constantinople in 1453, an event which flooded
Western Europe with Greek scholars and Greek literature, a tremendous
impulse was given to the new aspirations. A new world of history and
poetry had been discovered, just as, forty years afterwards, a new
world of fact and reality was discovered by Columbus and Cabot. The
two events combined to excite men's imagination to an extraordinary
degree, and their stimulating effect was visible in all branches of
mental activity. There was a marvellous mingling of the old and the
new. In the past there was an inexhaustible well of knowledge and
suggestion; in the present a boundless opening for enterprise and
fresh experiences. Just at this juncture the invention of printing
was being perfected, and it came at the precise time to help the
dissemination of the new ideas. The result was that great movement
of the human mind known as the Renaissance, which in the space of a
century altered the life of Western Europe. In politics it shattered
the international fabric of the Middle Ages; in religion it brought
about the momentous change which we call the Reformation; in art it
wedded faultless execution with an extraordinary fecundity of design.
There followed an age richer, perhaps, than any other in original
genius and fertility of mental products. Italy was at the centre of
this upheaval. To her were attracted students from all parts of Europe,
not excepting England. She herself was teeming with men of talent in
all branches of learning and the arts. It was inevitable that she
should part with some of her superfluous energy to the surrounding
lands, touched as they were, though less intensely, with the new
spirit. So general was the enthusiasm that her neighbours were only
too glad to welcome whatever Italy could send, even if not of her
very best. The new movement eventually reached the distant shores
of England, but as the stream flowed across Europe it became tinged
with the peculiarities of the various lands over which it passed, and
each country can show its own version of the Italian Renaissance in
architecture as well as in other matters. Spain has one version, France
another, Germany another, and England yet another; and there is this
peculiarity about the English version--that it is  by the two
channels through which it came, France and the Netherlands.

The whole circumstances of the time being conducive to the spread of
Italian ideas and forms (which are only the embodiment of ideas), how
did they affect English architecture? They found in England a style
long established, and still endowed with considerable vigour. At no
period of its history had this style been so peculiarly English in its
more elaborate efforts, the special development known as fan-vaulting,
for instance--of which the finest examples are to be seen in the chapel
at King's College, Cambridge, and Henry VII.'s chapel at Westminster
(see Plate I.)--being found only in this country.

The Gothic style of England and the Classic style of Italy had next
to nothing in common. Their modes of expression were essentially
different. The former was elastic, informal, readily adapted to
different needs. Like Cleopatra, it was of infinite variety; its
component parts were small and manifold, its tendency was towards
well-marked vertical lines. Its outward appearance expressed its
inward arrangement: a window more or less, a buttress here, a chimney
there--so long as they were wanted--offered no difficulty to the
designer. Classic architecture, on the other hand, was formal and
restricted by considerations of symmetry; its component parts were
simple and less mobile than those of Gothic; its tendency was towards
strong horizontal lines. The Gothic string-course, for instance, could
jump up and down to adapt itself to a door or window; it broke round
projecting piers or buttresses without hesitation. But the classic
cornice continued in the same straight line, neither rising nor
falling, and only breaking forward round a pier or column after due
deliberation. Its projection was far greater than that of any similar
feature in Gothic work: it was consequently much less ductile. Compared
to Gothic detail, Classic was unwieldy, even that more pliant version
of it which had recently been evolved in Italy. The ornament, however,
with which the Italian designers so freely adorned their architectural
work, unlike that of the ancients, was generally small in scale and
elastic in character. Here, therefore, was a feature common to both
styles, and we shall find that it is in the ornament of buildings
that the change first took place. It will be seen that the progress
of the new style was very gradual: it showed itself first in small
objects, such as tombs and chantries, and in the unimportant detail of
larger buildings; then it affected the more significant detail; and
ultimately, after many years, it controlled the organic conception and
expression: but this final development did not take place till after
the close of the period which we are to consider. That which we are to
watch is the struggle of the old and the new: the encounter of the new
spirit steeped in classical learning, with the old Gothic traditions
and methods.

The great monuments of English Gothic architecture are to be found in
ecclesiastical buildings; those of the succeeding phase are domestic
in character. The change of thought in religious matters, which was
proceeding all through the sixteenth century, was not favourable to
church building, and after the dissolution of the monasteries by
Henry VIII. no more churches were built. But the new nobility, rich
with the spoils of the dissolved houses and the traffic of the Indies,
had acquired a taste for grandeur and dignity in outward life that
required great mansions for its display. It is therefore primarily
in the Elizabethan mansion that we must watch the contest between
the old style and the new--a contest rendered more piquant by the
fact that the new style had no experience of this particular kind of
building in the land of its origin. The English house had developed on
lines widely different from the Italian; it had to meet other wants,
it had to contend with a different climate, it was subject to other
traditions. The new style when it came, had to harmonize these strange
traditions as well as its own, derived from a far distant past, with
the original and fertile spirit of the age. The result is one of
abiding interest. Almost any of the great houses built in the reign
of Elizabeth will show to the casual spectator examples of crudity in
detail and imperfect classical proportion, mingled with reminiscences
of Gothic notions; but a deeper scrutiny will disclose the fact that
in spite of these shortcomings there is a national individuality and
sense of genius in the handling of materials sufficient to raise the
result to the dignity of a distinct style. Just as the "Faërie Queen"
shows a jumble of heathen gods and cardinal virtues, Christian knights
and Pagan nymphs, and yet withal is a consummate work of art, so the
buildings of the period--

    "With many towers, and terrace mounted high,
    And all their tops bright glistering with gold,"

in spite of their inconsistencies, have a fertility of fancy, a wealth
of ornament, and a simplicity of treatment which raise them to a
similar high plane. And just as the literature of the period, as it
became more in accordance with rule, lost half its originality and more
than half its fascination, so Renaissance Architecture, as it passed
from the Elizabethan to the Jacobean, and so to the succeeding phases,
became more homogeneous, more scholarly, more true to its classical
origin, and yet withal lost vitality in the process. The full meaning
of that great century which stretched from the divorce of Henry VIII.
to the accession of Charles I. cannot be grasped unless it is always
borne in mind that not only was a new style supplanting an old one,
but that it was doing so at a time when the originality and richness of
men's minds were at their height.

But while in England the new style was winning its way, in Italy it
was passing the zenith of its vigour. The continued study of ancient
monuments enabled architects to reduce the old methods of design to
a system which could be acquired with ease, and architectural design
became less a matter of invention than a capacity for adapting new
buildings to old rules. In course of time the same state of things
established itself in England. The invention of printing brought to
the eye of English craftsmen not only plans and pictures of buildings
recently erected in foreign lands, but also the rules which celebrated
Italian architects had laid down for the proportion of buildings
generally--rules founded partly on the study of ancient fabrics and
partly on the august authority of Vitruvius. The application of these
rules to circumstances and needs which had never been contemplated by
their authors was the problem which English designers set themselves
to solve. During the earlier years of their attempt they were almost
baffled. Then came Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren, and by
their commanding genius they made the rules bend to their will; but
in the eighteenth century the rules triumphed completely, and, as
already said, Italian buildings were copied in England almost line
for line. It is the work of the men who were baffled that we are now
to examine: work which, judged from the standpoint of their better
tutored successors, may almost be regarded as a failure, but work which
exhibits a vitality, a fancy, and a sense of romance for which we look
in vain in the more correct architecture of the eighteenth century.

It is not surprising that England, in common with the rest of Europe,
should have felt the influence of Italy. It is, perhaps, rather a
matter for wonder that she should not have felt it earlier; that
the architectural Renaissance should have continued for more than a
century, and have reached its prime in Italy before it landed on our
shores and began to touch the more susceptible places of our English
stonework. But Brunelleschi, who crowned the cathedral of Florence with
its dome, and reared the Pitti Palace, had been dead seventy years;
the delicate sculpture on the façade of the Certosa of Pavia was
five-and-twenty years old; and Venice was busy lining her canals with
palaces, when Torrigiano brought the first Italian forms to England and
applied them to the tomb of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey.

But the way had been paved beforehand. For some fifty years it had
been the custom of English scholars to repair to Italy to learn the
humanities. They returned home familiar, if not in love, with Italian
ideas and methods of expression, and if they themselves did nothing
outwardly to hasten the impending change, it was their poverty and not
their will which consented to inaction. Fine building requires money,
and accordingly it is in the work of monarchs, noblemen, and great
dignitaries of the Church that we find the first evidences of the
Italian invasion. Henry VIII. was the outward and visible, although
unconscious, agent who guided the new movement to our shores. His
great Cardinal, Wolsey, was not less active in building, but Henry was
the royal patron, vying with other monarchs in obtaining the services
of distinguished artists to adorn his surroundings. Now most of the
distinguished artists at that time were foreigners, hailing chiefly
from Italy. There were plenty of excellent English workmen it is true,
but it was the fashion to employ Italians. Henry's rival, Francis I. of
France, had secured the services of several such men; why not he? So
his efforts were frequent, although they met with comparatively small
success. Italians were loth to leave their own sunny surroundings,
where all men were in sympathy with them and their ways, for the chilly
fogs and the barbarous manners of those "beasts of English," as Cellini
called them. A few men complied with his requests; of these, Torrigiano
was the most celebrated. To him Henry entrusted the making of his
father's tomb, discarding the design approved by the dead monarch, and
taking the work out of the English hands already engaged upon it. None
of the other Italians whose names have been preserved have left any
great or permanent mark in the country to which they came unwillingly,
and which they left gladly. The other great foreign figure which stands
out among those of minor importance is that of a German, Holbein. But
though Holbein did much work in England in different branches of art,
he left no school, nor can the influence of his manner be traced far,
if at all, beyond his death. Names of Italians appear occasionally
as being employed by the King, and among them John of Padua occurs
most frequently; but no one knows who he was, nor what work he left
behind him. His name has often been attached to different buildings,
and he has been confused with John Thorpe, but no evidence has yet
been adduced actually connecting him with work that still survives.
One of the curious and provoking facts about the early years of the
Renaissance manner in England is the way in which Italian names elude
pursuit. Work which looks as though it must have been done by a
foreigner has no name that can be attached to it. Other work, which is
almost as foreign in appearance, is found on investigation to be that
of an Englishman.

Henry's rivalry with Francis I., his friendship and his feuds with that
monarch, seem to have had some effect on architectural ornament, for
much that was executed during Henry's lifetime has a French flavour
about it. It is curious, indeed, to observe how little hold actual
Italian detail obtained upon the fancy of English workmen. It was
not direct from Italy that they would take it. The Italians were not
liked by the English people at large; protests were raised by the
more thoughtful against the Italianizing of our young nobles. The
popular conception of the subtle Italian was embodied by Shakespeare
in Iachimo and the more infernal Iago. What Italian detail we find
in Henry VIII.'s time is chiefly superficial ornament, and even that
is by no means of universal application. It is to be found up and
down the country in considerable quantity, but side by side with work
which is still thoroughly Gothic in character. Islip, the Abbot of
Westminster, who laid the foundation stone of Henry VII.'s chapel, and
who saw the erection of that monarch's tomb--the great central feature
for which the chapel was built--was not sufficiently enamoured of the
new ornament to cause his own tomb to be of the same character. On the
contrary, the screen which encloses his chapel is free from any touch
of actual Renaissance detail, although erected some fifteen years after
Henry VII.'s tomb.

It was through Dutch and German channels that the Italian manner came
to stay. This was the result partly of ties of race and religion,
partly of commercial intercourse, and partly of the general imitation
of Dutch methods which prevailed in England during the latter half of
the sixteenth century. In commercial and political as well as naval
and military matters this imitation is well known to students of that
period. The character of Renaissance work in England during Henry
VIII.'s time inclined to Italian and the French version of Italian.
After his death it inclined towards the Dutch version. In both cases
it was strongly infused with English feeling; but there is this
difference, that whereas the earlier phase ended abruptly, no merging
of it into the latter being traceable, the second phase can be followed
step by step into the pronounced Italian of Inigo Jones's mature
manner. We can see how some features were dropped and others acquired,
until, by the double process of shedding and assimilation, the style of
Burghley House glides imperceptibly into that of the Banqueting Hall at
Whitehall.




                              CHAPTER II.

                  THE INVASION OF THE FOREIGN STYLE.


In order properly to understand the position of the Elizabethan mansion
in the story of architectural development, it is necessary to examine
the work which intervenes between it and the last of the Gothic period.

  [Illustration: 1.--TOMB OF PRINCE ARTHUR (D. 1502) IN WORCESTER
  CATHEDRAL.]

The first work with Renaissance detail that was done in England was the
tomb of King Henry VII.--the actual altar-tomb, not the metal screen
enclosing it. There is no foreign influence to be detected either in
the screen or in the wonderful fan-tracery vault that spreads itself
above (Plate I). These are essentially English productions, and yet
there are certain parts of them which would lend themselves readily to
the new-fashioned detail which was about to invade our shores; parts
which in subsequent buildings were actually affected by it. But so
far, that is up to the year 1509, when the king died, the chapel being
still unfinished, there is no Renaissance detail. Nor is there any in
the fine chantry in Worcester Cathedral, wherein King Henry's eldest
son, Prince Arthur, who died in 1502, lies buried (Fig. 1). The utmost
that can be said is that here, as in the chapel at Westminster, the
Gothic work is preparing to succumb to the new influence. It has been
suggested that the king's own tomb was erected subsequently to that of
his mother, the Countess of Richmond, who also lies in the Abbey. But
the question is one of little importance; no long period can separate
the two, and the important point is that the actual invasion of the
foreign style is a well-marked event, the circumstances attending it
are on record, its results still survive in an excellent state of
preservation.

  [Illustration: 2.--TOMB OF ONE OF THE COKAYNE FAMILY, ASHBOURNE
  CHURCH, DERBYSHIRE. FIFTEENTH CENTURY.]

Henry VII. says in his will, dated 31st March, 1509, that he had
arranged for his tomb to be made in a certain manner,[1] and from other
sources we gather that the men who were to do the work were certain
English craftsmen, of whom Lawrence Imber, carver; Drawswerd, sheriff
of York; Humphrey Walker, founder; Nicholas Ewen, coppersmith; Robert
Virtue, Robert Jenins, and John Lebons, master masons, were the chief.
The last name is the only one with a foreign appearance, but it is a
curious and rather significant fact that the design had been made by
one "Master Pageny," as he was called by his English acquaintances,
but whom his own countrymen called Paganino. No other work of Master
Pageny's is known in England, but it seems tolerably clear that he is
the same Paganino who designed the tomb of the French King Charles
VIII. at St. Denis, and that Henry's tomb was to have been like it.[2]
The project, however, fell through in consequence of the death of the
king, and the passing of the control of affairs into the hands of his
son, Henry VIII. The new monarch discarded the old design entirely,
and entrusted the work to Pietro Torrigiano, or Peter Torrisany, as
he became on English lips. Torrigiano's design departed widely from
English traditions. The leading idea of recumbent figures upon an
altar-tomb was retained--this idea indeed held the field for another
three-quarters of a century--but the old practice of adorning the sides
of the tomb with cusped panels, or figures of saints in niches, or
angels holding shields of arms (Fig. 2), was abandoned; and instead of
the restrained architectural treatment of the English tradition, where
the figures were solitary, and every fold of drapery harmonised with
the main architectural members, Torrigiano gave us the free treatment
of the Italian sculptors. The general arrangement of the panels is
simple enough (Plate II.). There are three circular wreaths on each
of the longer sides of the tomb, divided by Italian pilasters adorned
with arabesques, into which the rose and portcullis of the Tudors
are introduced. A rose also fills each of the four spandrils formed
by the circular wreaths. These wreaths were new to English eyes; so,
too, was the treatment of the spandrils, where the flower is simply
applied to the triangular space, instead of appearing to be a growth
on the structure itself in the old Gothic way (Fig. 3). The panels
themselves contain figures in action, figures which have cast away
conventional attitudes and stiffness of attire, and comport themselves
in the most natural way imaginable. Henry's patron saints are there to
the number of ten, but instead of standing in niches, statuesque and
motionless, they are grouped in pairs, every pair seeming interested
in a common subject, instead of each individual being rapt in solitary
contemplation. As there are six panels, the ten patron saints are
supplemented by two other figures--the Virgin with the Child, and
St. Christopher. Another novelty appears in the shape of the four
cherubs poised at each corner of the tomb; they have no niches or
other architectural background; they are detached pieces of sculpture,
self-reliant; their purpose, which they no longer fulfil, was to hold
banners, but these have long disappeared.

[1] Britton's _Architectural Antiquities_, Vol. II.

[2] _Archæological Journal_, 1894, "On the work of Florentine Sculptors
in England," by Alfred Higgins, F.S.A.

  [Illustration: 3.--HENRY VII.'S TOMB. DETAIL.]

  [Illustration: 4.--TOMB OF JOHN HARRINGTON (D. 1524), EXTON CHURCH,
  RUTLAND.]

  [Illustration: 5.--TOMB OF THOMAS CAVE (D. 1558), STANFORD CHURCH,
  NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 6.--TOMB OF THOMAS CAVE (D. 1558). END PANEL.]

  [Illustration: 7.--TOMB OF SIR GEORGE VERNON (D. 1567), BAKEWELL
  CHURCH, DERBYSHIRE.]

The change of idea is complete, but it is a change that never took
hold of English craftsmen. They adopted the circular wreaths and the
arabesqued pilasters, and so far as those features are concerned
we see in this tomb the prototype of many that followed after. But
the figures in action do not appear again. English tradition was too
strong for the Italian influence to overcome it, and the principal way
in which it was affected was that the panels became frequently divided
by pilasters instead of by moulded members; and that the angels, which
had hitherto been solitary and devout, took on the attitude of heraldic
supporters, and assumed a more mundane appearance, or endeavoured to
imitate the amorini of Italian craftsmen--an effort for which they
were, as a rule, too elderly.

  [Illustration: PLATE II.HENRY VII.'S TOMB IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
  SOUTH SIDE (1516).]

  [Illustration: 8.--TOMB OF SIR THOMAS ANDREW (D. 1563), CHARWELTON
  CHURCH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.]

The dividing pilasters were sometimes nothing more than spiral columns,
and such a column is occasionally the only sign of the new feeling. In
the tomb of John Harrington, who died in 1524 (Fig. 4), a spiral column
at the angles and a certain stiffness in the cusped panels indicate
the impending change. This change is still more marked in the Cave
tomb (Fig. 5) at Stanford Church, where (in 1558) the sides have three
circular panels containing, however, shields of arms, not figures,
and the upper end exhibits the family shield supported by two angels.
On the other hand, the opposite end (Fig. 6) shows the family of the
deceased gentleman in a number of figures treated with a stiffness of
pose and a conventionality of attire that still belong to the ancient
style. There is a very similar tomb at Charwelton to Sir Thomas
Andrew, who died in 1563 (Fig. 8). In the tomb of Sir George Vernon
(Fig. 7), who died in 1567, the angle pilasters, with their vases and
portcullises in low relief, recall those on Henry VII.'s tomb. The
middle shield on the end is surrounded by a circular wreath, while the
shape of the shield and the strange form of the dividing pilasters show
a still further departure from the old detail. In the Bradbourne tomb
of 1581 (Fig. 9) panels have disappeared altogether, and the sides of
the tomb are occupied by figures of the children, who hold in a stiff
and tiring manner, shields setting forth their marriages. There is a
rather curious survival in the tomb of Elizabeth Drury at Hawstead
Church, in Suffolk, where, as late as 1610, a shield of arms is
supported by two amorini (Fig. 10). All these examples, selected from
the tombs to be found in village churches, and covering a period of
three-quarters of a century, tend to show that the Italianizing of the
English workman, in this branch of art at any rate, was as incomplete
as it was slow. The craftsman was, however, aware that a new influence
was at work, and he was prepared to succumb to it where circumstances
were favourable. In certain districts circumstances were favourable,
and accordingly in parts of the eastern and southern counties, notably
at Layer Marney, in Essex, there are tombs in which the detail is
more decidedly wrought after Italian models (Fig. 11 and Plate III.),
although even here the difference is so great that any of them would
look strangely out of place if transported to a church in Italy.

  [Illustration: 9.--TOMB OF BRADBOURNE (D. 1581), ASHBOURNE
  CHURCH, DERBYSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 10.--FROM THE TOMB OF ELIZABETH DRURY (D. 1610),
  HAWSTEAD CHURCH, SUFFOLK.]

The eastern and southern counties appear to have been specially
affected by the new movement, for we find considerable traces of it
scattered over wide areas, and affecting not only small objects like
tombs, but permanent structures. We shall presently see it at Layer
Marney Tower, and among other places at East Barsham and Great Snoring
in Suffolk; while in Wymondham Church, in Norfolk, the sedilia is made
of what appear to be fragments of a tomb much resembling those at
Layer Marney in character (Fig. 12). In the southern counties, Sutton
Place, near Guildford, abounds in Anglo-Italian detail; some of the
woodwork at the Vyne, in Hampshire, is also affected by it. There is
some very interesting work of the same nature at the Chapel of the
Holy Ghost, at Basingstoke; while at Christchurch, in the same county,
the chantry of the Countess of Salisbury is strongly touched with the
Italian influence, and at St. Cross, near Winchester, are the very
beautiful fragments of a Renaissance screen (Plate VII.). Winchester
itself has some good work in the choir of the Cathedral; and still
further west, at Bingham Melcombe, in Dorset, there is a charming gable
of mixed English and Italian detail. At Lacock Abbey, in Wiltshire,
there is a considerable amount of Renaissance work, wrought when the
abbey buildings were converted into a dwelling-house soon after the
dissolution of the monasteries.

  [Illustration: 11.--TOMB OF HENRY, LORD MARNEY (D. 1523), LAYER
  MARNEY CHURCH, ESSEX.]

  [Illustration: PLATE III.

  DETAILS FROM THE TOMB OF HENRY, LORD MARNEY.]

Some of this work is in stone and some in wood, but some of it is in
terra-cotta, and it would be an interesting task to ascertain why this
pronounced detail should have been largely confined to these particular
districts. The stone and woodwork might have been carved by itinerant
Italians wandering some distance from their ports of debarkation; but
the terra-cotta must have been cast, and need not have been cast
close to where it was fixed, but abroad, and thence conveyed to almost
any part of the country. Nevertheless, none of the work entirely loses
its English character, whether it was done abroad or not. Some of it
must certainly have been wrought by Italians, but about much of it the
general impression produced is that it was done by Englishmen with
Italian proclivities, rather than by Italians under English orders.

  [Illustration: PLATE IV.

      CHAPEL OF THE RED MOUNT, KING'S LYNN.
      FAN-VAULTING.

      COWDRAY HOUSE, SUSSEX.
      FAN-VAULTING OF PORCH.]

  [Illustration: 12.--FROM THE SEDILIA, WYMONDHAM CHURCH,
  NORFOLK.]

  [Illustration: 13.--COWDRAY HOUSE, SUSSEX. VAULTING RIB TO PORCH
  (CIR. 1540).]

Nor was the foreign detail on the stone simply added to the English
work after the native craftsmen had finished. It was not that the
Englishman completed his work and then invited the Italian to come
and do the carving after his own manner, but the two influences are
curiously mixed. Take the fan-vaulting of the porch at Cowdray (Plate
IV.), for instance. In general appearance it is of the same family as
other fan-vaulting, of which the roof of the Chapel of the Red Mount
at King's Lynn may be taken as a specimen. But, as might be expected,
it is in the susceptible parts of the stonework that the foreign
influence first shows itself,--not in the construction, but in the
ornament. The spandrils at Cowdray are filled with carving; some of it
is foliage, treated in the Late Gothic manner, but in one appears the
head of a winged cherub, clearly not of English but Italian descent.
The main ribs of the vaulting, too, have an Italian arabesque worked
on them, and the point to be observed here is that the section of the
rib is not of the usual type, but is expressly designed to receive the
arabesque (Fig. 13).

  [Illustration: 14.--CHANTRY OF THE COUNTESS OF SALISBURY,
  CHRISTCHURCH, HAMPSHIRE, FROM THE NORTH AISLE (CIR. 1529).]

  [Illustration: PLATE V.

  THE SALISBURY CHANTRY, CHRISTCHURCH.

  VIEW FROM THE CHOIR.]

  [Illustration: 15.--THE SALISBURY CHANTRY, CHRISTCHURCH. DETAIL OF
  CARVING.]

  [Illustration: 16.--PRIOR DRAPER'S CHANTRY, CHRISTCHURCH. HEAD OF
  DOORWAY (1529).]

  [Illustration: 17.--CHRISTCHURCH, HAMPSHIRE. MISERERE SEATS.]

In the Countess of Salisbury's chantry at Christchurch it is much
easier to imagine the Italian carver following the English mason, and
adding his ornament to the other's work, for nearly all of it lies
in sunk panels, the highest parts of the carving being on the same
face as the surrounding margin: that is to say, the Italian found
plain surfaces between the moulded members left for him to carve, and
one set of these plain surfaces, on the side next to the choir, he
did not carve--they still remain bare. Take away the ornament, and
the chantry in general design and treatment is Late English-Gothic
(Fig. 14), such as no Italian would have produced, if we except the
topmost stage on the choir side, where there are two domed pinnacles
of rather clumsy and unintelligible design (Plate V.). One of these
has a curious feature--the somewhat vulgar product of the later
Italian carvers--namely, the lower drapery and the feet of a figure
ascending into clouds, all executed in complete relief. On the north
side, next to the aisle, are some shields in the spandrils between
the niches (Plate VI.), carved in the Italian spirit, and these can
hardly have been added afterwards, but must have been an integral
part of the design. The arabesques on the vertical shafts and in the
horizontal bands might very well have been carved by a man put on for
that purpose only (Fig. 15). Altogether, it is difficult to adjust
with any accuracy the claims of the English and Italian workmen; it
would almost seem as though they worked together, or at any rate with a
cordial understanding between them. The same may be said of the screen
to Prior Draper's chantry (dated 1529) in the same church. The general
design is Gothic, and while the arabesque enrichments may have been
added afterwards, and the spandrils of the flat-pointed door, the same
can hardly be said of the corbels to the niches over it (Fig. 16). The
cresting along the top of this screen exactly resembles that over the
screens at the sides of the choir at Winchester Cathedral, except
that the latter has not a battlemented finish (Fig. 20).

  [Illustration: PLATE VI.

  THE SALISBURY CHANTRY, CHRISTCHURCH.

  DETAIL OF NICHES ON NORTH SIDE.]

Although it is not difficult to imagine an Italian carving this
stonework at Christchurch, it is not quite so easy to attribute the
interesting choir-stalls to him or a compatriot, for the Gothic feeling
is too pronounced, and the angel and cherubs are not lissom and
graceful enough to have descended from an Italian sky.

The divisions between the miserere seats (Fig. 17) are thoroughly
Gothic in general treatment and in their mouldings, but in the
carving the Italian hand shows itself, although subdued to the Gothic
surroundings in which it worked. Some of the desk ends are traceried
and cusped, and some have vases and foliage after the Italian
manner. But here again the two _putti_ which turn their backs in so
unceremonious a way (Fig. 18) can hardly be the work of Italian chisels.

  [Illustration: 18.--CHRISTCHURCH, HAMPSHIRE. BENCH-END IN CHOIR.]

It is equally difficult to assign the beautiful panelling in the long
gallery at the Vyne to a foreigner (Fig. 19); there is so much English
feeling about it. The work conveys the impression that the carver was
more at home with his linen panels than with the Italian flourishes
with which he supplemented them; but the single panel over the door
is evidently the work of a hand thoroughly familiar with the Italian
method. We see the same mixed character wherever we look; we can point
to no work--not even Henry VII.'s tomb--and say, "This is wholly
Italian." There is always a strong English feeling, and sometimes it is
only a touch here and there which shows the foreign influence.

  [Illustration: 19.--DOORWAY AND PANELLING IN THE GALLERY AT THE
  VYNE, HAMPSHIRE (BEFORE 1530).]

  [Illustration: 20.--SCREEN ON NORTH SIDE OF CHOIR, WINCHESTER
  CATHEDRAL (WITH MORTUARY CHEST), 1525.]

The same remark applies to the stone screens at the sides of the choir
at Winchester (Fig. 20). They are Gothic in general treatment, but a
little Italian carving is introduced in the cresting along the top.
They were the work of Bishop Fox in 1525, who evidently had a hankering
after the foreign ornament in his life, although his own chantry,
in which he lies buried, is free from it; for in the neighbouring
church at St. Cross are the fragments of some very beautiful screens
containing charming Italian work (Plate VII.). The history of these
fragments is not known, but from the occurrence in them of the pelican,
which was Bishop Fox's badge, they seem to be due to him, and they
may possibly have come from the cathedral itself. They do not belong
to their present situation, and one of the main posts is worked with
a return at a very obtuse angle, indicating some such polygonal
disposition as the east end of the cathedral has. On the top of the
choir-screens in the cathedral are placed six oak chests, called
mortuary chests, procured by Fox, in which are deposited the bones of
various benefactors. They are of Italian workmanship (except two which
replaced the old ones in the seventeenth century), and are suggestive
as being one of the sources of inspiration to native carvers. One of
them is shown in Fig. 20, and just behind it can be seen the cornice
of the chantry of Bishop Gardiner, who died in 1555. The portion
visible is of well-developed classic character, and indicates how the
use of the foreign forms had progressed during the thirty years that
had elapsed since Fox's time. Even here, however, the pinnacle at the
corner--the head of a heraldic animal on a pedestal--shows how the
designer was unwilling or unable to shake off all the trammels of his
native style.

  [Illustration: 21.--CANOPY OF STALLS, HENRY VII.'S CHAPEL,
  WESTMINSTER.]

At Basing Church, in Hampshire, there is yet another example of the
same limited use of Italian detail in the Paulet tombs, which are
constructed in the thickness of the side-walls of the chancel (Plate
VII.). The arches over the tombs and the doorway in the wall are all
flat-pointed, and the spandrils are filled with Renaissance carving,
which, in the case of the large arches, surrounds the arms of the
founder. Except for these touches, and for the cresting along the top,
which recalls that at Winchester, the detail is all Gothic. The large
panel in the wall over the doorway seems to be of later date.

  [Illustration: PLATE VII.

  PART OF SCREEN, ST. CROSS, WINCHESTER (PROBABLY DUE TO BISHOP FOX, WHO
  DIED 1528.)

  PAULET TOMB, BASING CHURCH, HAMPSHIRE.]

Another interesting piece of work of this period is found in the stalls
of Henry VII.'s chapel at Westminster. The canopies (Fig. 21) are quite
Gothic in character, but of a rather florid description, and although
there is no actual Renaissance detail, there is a tendency towards
it. The caps of the pilasters are also Late Gothic, while the columns
are of that honeycomb pattern which is a sign of change towards the new
fashion (Fig. 22). There is woodwork of a somewhat similar character at
Winchester in Langton's chapel, and in Prior Silkstede's pulpit (1520).
The Spring pew in Lavenham Church, Suffolk, is another instance of the
late treatment of woodwork. There are niches, canopies, fan-vaulting,
and cusped tracery (Fig. 23), but a closer inspection shows that the
tracery has completely departed from the simple lines of Gothic work,
and has assumed fantastic forms combined of twisted strands and foliage
(Fig. 24), while the columns are honeycombed or twisted into spirals.

  [Illustration: 22.--DETAIL FROM STALLS, HENRY VII.'S CHAPEL,
  WESTMINSTER.]

  [Illustration: 23.--THE SPRING PEW, LAVENHAM CHURCH, SUFFOLK.]

These examples all tend to show that the old traditions died hard.
The new ideas were cautiously accepted, and were utilised to help
the existing methods rather than to supplant them. Hitherto it
has been fittings, or chantries, or tombs which have furnished
examples--comparatively small and isolated pieces of work which
naturally lent themselves to experiments. But we find the same general
treatment in larger and more important efforts; the native tradition
still holds the field, but traces of the new manner are to be found in
the spandril of an archway, the termination of a label, or the pendants
of a roof. Compare the roof of the hall at Eltham Palace (Fig. 25)
with that of the great hall at Hampton Court (1534-35). The roof at
Eltham is still Gothic, without a touch of the Renaissance; the roof
at Hampton Court is also still Gothic in conception and construction,
but in the most susceptible parts--the pendants, the spandrils, and the
corbels--the new influence makes itself felt (Fig. 26). These pendants
are quite in the new style, and yet were carved by an Englishman, named
Richard Rydge, of London.[3] The spandrils likewise are filled with
Renaissance ornaments carved by Michael Joyner, among which the King's
Arms and the "King's beasts" appear, treated in the manner customary in
Late Gothic work; the Tudor badges are also carved on the pendants and
corbels, amid the cherubs and balusters and foliage which go to compose
the Italian ornament (Fig. 27).

  [Illustration: 24.--DETAIL FROM THE SPRING PEW, LAVENHAM CHURCH,
  SUFFOLK.]

  [Illustration: PLATE VIII.

  KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

  SCREEN IN THE CHAPEL (1532-6).]

Another fine piece of woodwork, which was being executed
contemporaneously with the hall roof at Hampton, was the magnificent
rood screen in King's College Chapel, Cambridge (Plate VIII.). There
is no record as to who did this work, nor when it was done; but the
evidence of the arms, initials, and badges upon it, which are those of
Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, fixes its date between 1532 and 1536. It
has been called the finest piece of woodwork this side the Alps, and
its exquisite design and workmanship quite justify the description,
and even incline one to omit the limiting line. It is more completely
Italian in treatment than any other work of the time, and there is
very little trace of Gothic influence. All the mouldings are classic,
whereas in the roof at Hampton Court even the Italian pendants have a
Gothic feeling in their mouldings. There is, however, a considerable
similarity in feeling between the pendants in both cases, and it should
be borne in mind that the work at the two places was being carried on
simultaneously. Richard Rydge, of London, who carved the pendants at
Hampton Court, may have had a hand in the King's College screen; but
it is practically certain that the general design and most of the work
must have been done by Italians, and the whole screen must be regarded
as an isolated example, complete in itself, not growing out of anything
that went before it, nor developing into anything afterwards.

[3] _History of Hampton Court Palace_, by Ernest Law, Vol. I.

  [Illustration: 25.--ROOF OF HALL, ELTHAM PALACE, KENT.]

  [Illustration: 26.--ROOF OF THE GREAT HALL, HAMPTON COURT
  (1534-35).]

  [Illustration: 27.--DETAILS FROM THE ROOF OF THE GREAT HALL,
  HAMPTON COURT.]

  [Illustration: 28.--HAMPTON COURT. HEAD OF DOOR TO GREAT HALL.]

The early work at Hampton Court, that is, the work of Wolsey and Henry
VIII., executed between 1514 and 1540, is typical of the prevailing
manner. This building was the most important one of its time. It was
built by the magnificent Cardinal as his principal residence, where he
could live amid quiet and healthy surroundings, and yet be in close
touch with London, which was the centre of political activity. Wolsey
lived in more than regal state, and the enormous size and extraordinary
splendour of his palace is testified to by many foreigners of
distinction who resorted to him on some of the innumerable matters in
which he was the controlling spirit. This great palace he presented
to the king some time before his fall, and the king altered and
enlarged it still further, and made it, as was to be expected, one
of his chief residences. Here, then, we may expect to find the best
work that wealth and skill could produce; here we may fairly look for
typical work of the time. What is the character of the work that was
being executed between 1514 and 1540? In its essentials it is Gothic
of a late type, with just such touches of Italian detail as have been
already mentioned. The structure is of dark red brick, with stone
dressings; the detail is of the simplest; the windows are generally
small, and have flat-pointed heads. Whatever elaboration there is, is
chiefly confined to central features, such as the gateways on the great
axial line. The chimneys are of cut and moulded brick; the archways are
vaulted with fan tracery vaulting; the large windows of the hall are
traceried and cusped; everything in its main outline is Gothic. But in
certain parts the ornament is of Renaissance character. There are a
number of terra-cotta roundels built into the walls, which came from
Italy, and were made to the Cardinal's order. There is a terra-cotta
tablet of his arms supported by _putti_ beautifully modelled--this was
also probably an importation; it has no essential connection with its
surroundings. The same may also be said of the more roughly modelled
panels on either side of the doorway to the chapel, which contain
the royal arms impaling those of Henry's third queen, Jane Seymour,
supported by very mundane angels. But there is also, in other parts of
the building, a little Renaissance detail, which is an essential part
of the design, and could not have been brought from elsewhere and built
in. Such is the carving in the spandrils of doorways (Fig. 28), the
pendants of the hall roof, and the ceiling decoration of certain rooms.
This must all have been wrought on the spot, but it forms an extremely
small part of the whole. While the spandrils of three or four doorways
are carved with Renaissance detail, the doorways themselves are in
other respects quite Gothic. The hall roof, as already said, is Gothic
in conception, although much of its ornament is of the newer fashion.
The same may be said of the chapel roof, which is an imitation in oak
of some of the stone vaulting and pendants of the period. The ceilings
will be referred to later, but it may here be said that most of them
are derived from the wood-ribbed ceilings of Late Gothic work, and that
only in the small room called Wolsey's Closet does the design decidedly
follow Italian models. It will thus be seen that Hampton Court is
essentially Gothic in style, and that only in its susceptible places
has it been affected by the foreign fashion.

What happened at Hampton Court happened elsewhere, and in all the
examples which have come down to us the same thing is to be seen--a
Gothic structure with more or less of Italian ornament: more in such
places as Sutton Court and Layer Marney Tower, less at Compton Winyates
and Hengrave.

There was, however, one building, which has not come down to us,
in which the Italian manner must have been much more in evidence,
judging by such accounts as we have of the place. This was the palace
of Nonesuch, in Surrey. It was built by Henry VIII. as a retreat,
according to Paul Hentzner, the tutor of a young German nobleman who
visited England in 1598.[4] It was in "a very healthful situation,"
he says, "chosen by King Henry VIII. for his pleasure and retirement,
and built by him with an excess of magnificence and elegance, even to
ostentation; one would imagine that everything that architecture can
perform to have been employed in this one work; there are everywhere
so many statues that seem to breathe, so many miracles of consummate
art, so many casts that rival even the perfection of Roman antiquity,
that it may well claim and justify its name of Nonesuch." The site
was acquired by the king in 1538,[5] and as he died in 1547, he must
have begun to build almost immediately. According to a statement in
Braun's _Civitates_ (1582), he "procured many excellent artificers,
architects, sculptors, and statuaries, as well Italians, French, and
Dutch as natives, who all applied to the ornament of this mansion the
finest and most curious skill they possessed in these several arts,
embellishing it within and without with many magnificent statues, some
of which vividly represent the antiquities of Rome, and some surpass
them."[6] About eight years after Henry's death the house was alienated
from the Crown to the Earl of Arundel, and was thereby saved from the
destruction contemplated by Queen Mary, who found it too costly to
finish. The Earl, however, "for the love and honour he bare to his old
master," completed the building and left it to his son-in-law, Lord
Lumley, who added a second court. In 1591 it again came into possession
of the Crown, and so continued until it was presented by Charles II.
to his favourite, Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine, who pulled it down
to help towards paying her debts. A few years before this happened
Evelyn notes in his diary under date 3rd January, 1666: "I supp'd in
Nonesuch House, whither the office of the Exchequer was transferr'd
during the plague, at my good friend's Mr. Packer's, and tooke an exact
view of the plaster statues and bass relievos inserted 'twixt the
timbers and punchions of the outside walles of the Court; which must
needs have ben the work of some celebrated Italian. I much admir'd how
it had lasted so well and intire since the time of Hen. VIII., expos'd
as they are to the aire; and pitty it is they are not taken out and
preserv'd in some drie place; a gallerie would become them. There are
some mezzo-relievos as big as the life, the storie is of the Heathen
Gods, emblems, compartments, etc. The Palace consists of two courts,
of which the first is of stone, castle-like, by the Lo. Lumlies (of
whom 'twas purchas'd), the other of timber, a Gotic fabric, but these
walls incomparably beautified. I observ'd that the appearing timber
punchions, entrelices, &c., were all so cover'd with scales of slate,
that it seem'd carv'd in the wood and painted, the slate fastened
on the timber in pretty figures, that has, like a coate of armour,
preserv'd it from rotting." Some two and a half years before this visit
of Evelyn's, his lively contemporary, Mr. Pepys, had gone through the
park to the house and, as he says, "there viewed as much as we could
of the outside, and looked through the great gates, and found a noble
court." In September, 1665, he was again there, and while waiting about
he examined the house, which was, he says, "on the outside filled with
figures of stories, and good painting of Rubens' or Holben's doing. And
one great thing is, that most of the house is covered, I mean the post
and quarters in the walls, with lead, and gilded."

[4] _Hentzner's Travels_, ed. by Horace Walpole

[5] _Gentleman's Magazine_, August, 1837.

[6] _Archæologia_, Vol. XXXIX., p. 32. Toto del Nunziata was probably
one of the Italians.


Of all this beautiful work nothing has survived, except a painted panel
or two preserved at Loseley, in Surrey, and possibly other fragments in
other houses of the district. According to a statement of John Aubrey,
the antiquary, some of the materials of Nonesuch went to the building
of The Durdans near Epsom. Evelyn calls it a Gothic building, and we
shall probably not be far wrong in placing it in the same category
as other buildings of the time--English in conception, but adorned
with foreign ornament, which in this case was of greater extent and
better workmanship than that on any other contemporary house. It seems
clear, however, that the work, important as it was, did not have any
permanent effect upon English architecture. It was the culmination
of the Italian movement prevalent throughout Henry VIII.'s reign;
after his death, and before the newness of Nonesuch had worn off, the
Italian influence gave way to the Dutch. Nonesuch was a large building,
especially after Lord Lumley had added the second court; but it would
seem that Henry VIII. actually built but one court, measuring 116 feet
long by 137 feet wide.[7] Hampton Court had four large courts besides
half-a-dozen smaller ones; the largest or Base Court, measuring 167
feet by 142 feet, still remains; so also do the Clock Court, measuring
160 feet by 91 feet, and the Chapel Court; the fourth, measuring 116
feet by 108 feet, has given way to Wren's buildings. Hampton Court,
therefore, stood without a rival in point of size, but Nonesuch was
more magnificently decorated, and we can but echo Evelyn's lament
that the beautiful panels were "not taken out and preserv'd in
some drie place."

[7] _Archæologia_, Vol. V., p. 429.

  [Illustration: 29.--LACOCK ABBEY, WILTSHIRE. TOWER AT SOUTH-EAST
  CORNER (BETWEEN 1540 AND 1553).]

Just about the time that Nonesuch was being built, Lacock Abbey in
Wiltshire was being converted into a residence by William Sharington,
who had bought it on the dissolution of the monasteries. He was lord of
the manor in 1540, and he died in 1553,[8] so that all the work which
he did must be comprised between those dates. One important part of his
work is the octagonal tower at the south-east corner of the house (Fig.
29). The detail of the stonework is simple, and, except for certain
brackets, does not show much foreign influence, but in the tower are
two stone tables (Figs. 30 and 31), evidently made for their situation,
which strongly display the new spirit. That one of them was expressly
made for William Sharington is proved by his initials and crest being
part of its ornamentation; and as a skilful mason named Chapman was
working on the new buildings, it is just possible that he may have
carved one or both of these tables. It is the table on the middle floor
which has its base ornamented with Sharington's initials and crest;
from this base rises a central pillar, against which squat four figures
of satyrs carrying baskets of fruit and foliage upon which rests the
table-top. The satyrs have that curious resemblance about their heads
to North American Indians which characterises a number of such figures
carved during the latter half of the sixteenth century. The second
table (on the top floor) has nothing about it directly connecting it
with Sharington. It was evidently intended for a banqueting house,
as it is adorned with figures of Apicius, the first authority on the
pleasures of the table, Ceres, Bacchus, and an unnamed personage of the
same hierarchy.

[8] "Notes on Lacock Abbey," by C. H. Talbot, _Wilts. Archæolog. and
Nat. Hist. Mag._ Vol. XXVI.

  [Illustration: 30.--LACOCK ABBEY, WILTSHIRE. STONE TABLE IN TOWER.]

Sharington's work is of considerable interest, and includes, in
addition to minor matters such as a chimney-piece, chimney-stacks, and
panelling, a fine range of stabling (Fig. 32), of which the detail
is tolerably simple, and of a character closely resembling that which
prevailed twenty years later, although here and there, in a chimney
or a bracket, we get a touch more in keeping with what is usually
associated with Sharington's own time. In addition to the Renaissance
work in the tables there is some tile paving (Plate IX.) which
displays, amid the foliage, the vases and the dolphins that form the
staple of Italian ornament, the initials of Sharington and his third
wife, Grace, his arms (gu., between two flaunches arg. and az., two
crosses formée, in pale), and his crest, a scorpion. As Sir William
Sharington died in 1553, and it was during the life of his third wife
that these tiles were made, they may fairly be dated about 1550.

  [Illustration: 31.--LACOCK ABBEY, WILTSHIRE. STONE TABLE IN TOWER.]

  [Illustration: PLATE IX.

  LACOCK ABBEY, WILTSHIRE. TILE PAVING (ABOUT 1550).

  SEPARATE TILES FROM THE SAME PAVEMENT.]

With the close of the first half of the century we come to the end
of pronounced Italian detail such as pervades the tiles at Lacock,
and characterises other isolated features in different parts of
the country. The nature of the detail in the second half of the
century is different; it no longer comprises the dainty cherubs, the
elegant balusters, vases and candelabra, the buoyant dolphins, and
delicately modelled foliage which are associated with Italian and
French Renaissance work, but it indulges freely in strap work, curled
and interlaced, in fruit and foliage, in cartouches, and in caryatides,
half human beings, half pedestals, such as were the delight of the
Dutchman of the time. But the extreme heaviness of the Dutch work was
lightened in its passage across the water, and the English workmen seem
to have improved upon their later models as much as they fell short
of their earlier. There is a fine carved and inlaid chest in St. Mary
Overie, Southwark, which shows this change in detail (Plate X.), but it
is treated with more restraint than the woodwork of later years. It was
the gift of Hugh Offley, and bears his initials and marks, as well as
his arms and those of his wife's family: he was Lord Mayor in 1556, and
is not unlikely to have given the chest in that year.

  [Illustration: 32.--LACOCK ABBEY, WILTSHIRE. THE STABLES (BETWEEN 1540
  AND 1553).]

In addition to the change in the character of the detail, we find a
classic rendering of strings and cornices more prevalent; doorways
became frequently round-headed instead of flat-pointed, windows became
square-headed, and all accessories parted with what remains of Gothic
character they may have possessed in favour of a classic treatment. But
the general body of a building was less susceptible of change than were
its particular features, and how the general body of such buildings as
houses developed will be seen in the next chapter.

  [Illustration: 32A.--FROM THE SEDILIA, WYMONDHAM CHURCH, NORFOLK.]

  [Illustration: PLATE X.

  CHEST FROM ST. MARY OVERIE, SOUTHWARK (DATED 1556).]




                             CHAPTER III.

      THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HOUSE-PLAN FROM ABOUT 1450 TO 1635.

NOTE.--The plans are drawn to a uniform scale of 50 feet to the inch.


The principal buildings erected during the sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries were houses, and it is mainly in connection with
domestic architecture that we must seek to trace the development of the
new style. There were but few churches built after the dissolution of
the monasteries, and we have no examples of sufficient importance to
show how ecclesiastical architecture would have been affected. There
are chapels, chantries, and fittings, such as screens, pews, pulpits,
and fonts, but nothing on a large scale. We have already seen how
such comparatively small and isolated features were affected. It is
necessary, therefore, to look to the numerous houses that were built in
order to see what progress the new ideas made.

The character of a house is largely determined by its plan, and
the plan is the expression of the wants and habits of the inmates.
Accordingly we find that the wants and habits of English people,
being far less susceptible of change than their taste in ornament
and decoration, caused the plan of their houses to follow the old
lines long after the superficial decoration had taken on itself the
foreign fashion. The one quality which the Italian influence gradually
introduced into the plan was symmetry, and this could be obtained
without sacrificing the arrangements which seemed essential to English
habits. In later days an Italian feature, the open loggia, was often
made use of in the form of an arcade, but even this had its English
precedent in the cloisters of the monks.

What were the essential points about the plan of an English house? The
most important place was the hall, which was the nucleus of the whole
series of apartments. Then there was the kitchen with its adjuncts; and
there were the private apartments for the family, of which the chief
was the "parlour." The arrangement which naturally established itself
was that the kitchen should be located at one end of the hall and the
parlour at the other. This relation of rooms had existed from a very
early period, and it is in the developing of this idea with more or
less elaboration and skill that house-planning consisted down to the
time of Inigo Jones, when the hall gradually ceased to be the centre of
household life, and became merely an entrance.

To the central group of hall, kitchen and parlour were added what
other rooms were required for convenience or defence; but in regard
to the latter, precautions against attack had already become less
necessary in Henry VIII.'s time, and they were practically disregarded
in Elizabeth's, when considerations of stateliness and display chiefly
influenced the design, at any rate as far as the larger houses were
concerned.

Nothing will help to show how the central idea of an English house
developed, while tenaciously adhering to its essence, so much as
a comparison of the plans of a number of houses built during the
sixteenth century and the early part of the seventeenth. But in order
to bring them into relation with what preceded them, the series
commences with the plans of two houses that were built in the fifteenth
century, before there was a trace of Italian influence to be found in
English work. All the plans are those of fair-sized houses, chiefly of
the manor-house class, and they are from examples scattered up and down
the country; therefore whatever characteristics they possess may be
taken to have been of fairly wide distribution.

  [Illustration: 33.--GREAT CHALFIELD, WILTSHIRE. PLAN (TEMP. HENRY
  VI.).]

The first example is Great Chalfield, in Wiltshire (Fig. 33), where
the work is all of good Perpendicular character. The house was built
towards the end of the reign of Henry VI., at a time when precautions
against attack were still necessary; it was therefore surrounded by
a moat. Much of the work has disappeared, and alterations have been
made in what is left, but the arrangement of the hall is still plain,
although the kitchen is not recognisable. The almost invariable
disposition of the hall was as follows: it was an oblong apartment
with one end cut off by a screen, which formed the entrance passage
called "the screens." From this passage the hall was entered on one
side, while from the other side access was obtained to the kitchen,
the buttery, the pantry, and the rest of the servants' department.
This arrangement may still be seen in use at many of the colleges in
Oxford and Cambridge. The hall itself was usually lighted from both
sides, and was a lofty apartment with an open roof, that is, with all
the timbers showing. The effect of this disposition was that the hall
divided the house into two separate portions; there was no thoroughfare
above it or around it, but only through it. At the end opposite to
the screens was the daïs, a platform raised some few inches above the
general floor level, where the family sat at meals, in the same way as
the dons sit in many colleges at the present day. The daïs was usually
lighted by a bay window, which formed a convenient recess for a serving
table. There are still a few houses where the daïs survives, but in
most cases it has been cleared away and the floor has been lowered to
the general level. That it was of universal adoption is proved by its
being shown on practically all contemporary plans. The fireplace was
placed in one of the side walls, and was generally somewhat nearer to
the daïs end than the other. It obviously could not be placed at the
screen end, because the screen itself did not go up to the roof, but
was covered by a gallery, usually known as the minstrels' gallery,
though it may be doubted whether in many instances it was used by the
votaries of the _gaie science_. Nor could the fireplace be conveniently
set in the end wall on the daïs, since it would have interfered with
the table; it was necessarily placed therefore in one of the side walls.

These features, then, may be looked for in every hall of the time--the
screen, the daïs, the bay window, and the fireplace--and in some cases
a good deal of ingenuity was displayed in contriving to obtain them in
their due relation to each other.

From the daïs end of the hall access was obtained to the family
apartments, which were few in number at first, but gradually increased
with the ever-growing desire for comfort and refinement.

At Great Chalfield the hall conforms to the dispositions detailed
above, but the bay windows serve rather as means of communication with
other rooms than merely as windows.

  [Illustration: 34.--OXBURGH HALL, NORFOLK. GROUND PLAN (1482).]

  [Illustration: 35.--OXBURGH HALL, NORFOLK. ENTRANCE TOWER (1482).]

At Oxburgh Hall, in Norfolk (1482), we have another type of defensive
house (Fig. 34). It was built round a court, as well as being
surrounded by a moat. The entrance was through a lofty tower into the
court, on the opposite side of which was the hall of the usual type.
The kitchen was to the right on entering, in the extreme south-west
corner of the building--not exactly the aspect we should choose in the
present day. So many changes have been made in the use to which the
rooms in these old houses have been put, and in the way of approaching
them, that too much stress must not be laid upon the details of the
plan, but the relation of the hall and kitchen at Oxburgh must have
been always the same. The rest of the building is made up of small
rooms surrounding the court, not arranged on any elaborate plan, but
put to whatever use was required. It will be seen that although there
is a considerable amount of uniformity in the arrangement of Oxburgh
Hall, there is no strict symmetry. The entrance tower is in the centre
of the front, but the windows on either side of it do not tally with
each other. The entrance to the hall is not on the axial line of the
tower, nor is the setting of the windows and doors in the court by any
means regular. As we advance in time, we shall find that all these
points were very carefully attended to, especially towards the end of
the sixteenth century. The plan here illustrated was made in 1774, and
a few years subsequently the south side of the court, containing the
hall and kitchen, was pulled down. Other alterations have been made
since then, but there is still much of the original work left. The
great entrance tower (Fig. 35) shows still a certain hankering after
defensive features; there is a curtain arch thrown across between
the turrets, from behind which missiles could be hurled upon unwelcome
visitors, and the openings in the turrets are of the smallest. The
windows generally are of few lights, the heads are pointed and cusped,
the parapets are corbelled out and battlemented, and the whole work
is of Late Gothic character without any trace of the new style in its
decoration.

  [Illustration: 36.--EAST BARSHAM, NORFOLK. GROUND PLAN (CIR. 1500-15).]

At East Barsham (about 1500-15) we get indications of the new style in
the treatment of parts of the ornament. The general feeling, however,
is still Gothic. There is not much of the plan to be made out, but
what there is shows a large entrance tower, with the porch of the hall
exactly opposite to it (Fig. 36). The hall has a bay window at the daïs
end, and, contrary to custom, a fireplace in the end wall. The kitchen
is to the right on entering, and is approached by a passage from the
middle of the screens. The whole arrangement is in the main of the
usual type, so far as it can be traced. The new feeling is indicated in
one or two panels which bear a head, but most of the ornament is still
of the Gothic type with cuspings, etc. At the neighbouring parsonage
of Great Snoring, which resembles East Barsham in general treatment,
some of the ornament is more decidedly Italian, with the characteristic
balusters and foliage.

  [Illustration: PLATE XI.

  COMPTON WINYATES, WARWICKSHIRE (ABOUT 1520).

  GENERAL VIEW.]

Compton Winyates, in Warwickshire (about 1520), is a very complete and
charming example of its period. The plan conforms in its main features
to the ordinary type (Fig. 37). A certain amount of regularity is
imparted to it by reason of its being built round a rectangular court,
but of symmetry in it there is hardly a trace, and there is still
less in the grouping of the structure. Everything is as irregular
and picturesque as the most romantic could desire; the mixture of
materials--stone, brick, wood, and plaster--lends a delightful variety
of texture, tone, and colour, and makes the house, next to Haddon,
one of the most alluring in the country (Plate XI.). But our concern
at present is more particularly with the plan. This shows a courtyard
entered through a gateway which is opposite, though not exactly
opposite, to the door of the screens. On the left of the screens are
the buttery, the kitchen passage, and a staircase; on the right, of
course, the hall, from the upper end of which access is obtained to the
family rooms, the chapel, and--what previous plans have not shown--the
grand staircase. Of course, with the lofty hall cutting the building
in two halves, at least two staircases were necessary to get to the
upper rooms; as a matter of fact there were usually more than two, as
there are here: difficulties of planning being often removed, or at
any rate lessened, by this rather costly expedient. It will be seen
that the hall has a range of rooms at the back of it, and that its two
side walls are not, as usual, both external. The sides of the court
are formed, as they were at Oxburgh, of a number of small rooms, which
originally (in all probability) led into one another, the passage being
a later addition. The ornament, in which the house abounds, is all of
Late Gothic character (Plate XII.). There is no actual Renaissance
detail in the external work, although much of it looks as though it
were quite ready for the change.

  [Illustration: 37.--COMPTON WINYATES, WARWICKSHIRE. GROUND PLAN
  (CIR. 1520).]

  [Illustration: PLATE XII.

  COMPTON WINYATES, WARWICKSHIRE

  THE ENTRANCE PORCH]

  [Illustration: 38.--SUTTON PLACE, NEAR GUILDFORD. GROUND PLAN
  (1523-25).]

  [Illustration: 39.--SUTTON PLACE, SURREY. DETAILS (1523-25).]

So far, although we have come to nearly the close of the first quarter
of the century, we have seen but little effect from the new style.
Just a suggestion in the ornament at East Barsham, and a slight
tendency towards a symmetrical treatment of the plan; yet whatever
symmetry there may have been at East Barsham was thrown to the winds at
Compton Winyates. In the next example, Sutton Place, near Guildford,
only a few years later in date (1523-25),[9] we find symmetry in plan
and elevation, and ornament which is strongly marked with Italian
character. The entrance was as usual through a tower, and faced the
hall door exactly opposite, on the axial line (Fig. 38). Such accuracy
of alignment was so infrequent at this date, and it results in the hall
door being placed so far from the end wall where the screens ought to
be, that a feeling of doubt creeps in as to whether we see here the
original arrangement unaltered. The hall, too, is of such a height as
to embrace two tiers of windows, another most unusual treatment. In the
ordinary way the windows would have been made lofty in proportion to
the hall. If the existing dispositions have come down unaltered, they
are a striking testimony to the manner in which routine of design was
broken in order to obtain external symmetry. Apart from this point,
the plan adheres to the usual lines. The hall connects the two wings,
and the sides of the court are formed by a series of small chambers
approached either through each other or from the outer air. The
internal walls have either been removed or altered, but the external
walls remain to show that the wings enclosing the court were only one
room thick, and not of sufficient width to allow of a corridor.

[9] _Annals of an Old Manor House_, by Frederic Harrison.

There is, however, an important point to be noticed, and that is the
symmetrical treatment of the court. Not only is there a little bay
window halfway along each side, but the bay window of the hall, which
comes in the angle of the court, is balanced by another bay in the
other angle, although there is no important room to be lighted by it.
Such an arrangement was often adopted in subsequent plans, but this is
the first instance which we have seen of it.

  [Illustration: 40.--SUTTON PLACE, SURREY. PART ELEVATION OF
  COURTYARD (1523-25).]

While the plan adheres in the main to the customary lines, the
ornamentation has taken quite a new departure. The windows are of
Perpendicular type, and have the old-fashioned cusping in the heads,
but the hollow of the moulding is occupied with ornament drawn from
Italian, or perhaps Franco-Italian, sources (Fig. 39). The house was
built by Sir Richard Weston, and, in accordance with the custom of the
preceding half century, his rebus, or an attempt at it in the shape
of a tun, appears as a diaper in various places and in the horizontal
string-course; but instead of being shrouded in vine leaves or other
old and well-established devices, it occurs among ornament of the
new type. This is a point worth noticing, inasmuch as it shows that
this ornament was made for the place, and was not purchased out of
ready-made stock. The amorini which are introduced over the doors have
not the same individuality, nor have the half-balusters which divide
them into their panels, but they were no doubt made by the same men
who did the tuns and Sir Richard's initials, which also help to form a
diaper in places. All this ornamental work is in terra-cotta, but there
is nothing to show where the patterns were cast, whether in England
or abroad. The battlemented parapet is not yet discarded (Fig. 40),
and the large octagonal shafts are crowned with a variation of the
dome. Some of the panels are Gothic quatrefoils, and in the parapet
of the central block over the front door the Italian amorini disport
themselves (a little clumsily) in panels with Gothic cusping. The whole
of the ornament is a curious and interesting mixture of the old and new
forms.

Another house with many of the same characteristics is Layer Marney
Tower, in Essex (1500-25). There is not enough left of the plan to
enable us to draw any deductions from it, but the character of the
work is very similar to that at Sutton, only a little more pronounced
in its Renaissance feeling. The lofty entrance tower recalls that at
Oxburgh; its general appearance, its pointed doorway and windows with
their mouldings, and also the cusped panels of its string-courses are
all distinctly Gothic (Fig. 41). But closely associated with the Gothic
panelling is the classic egg and dart enrichment. The large mullioned
windows, though of Gothic descent, are Renaissance in detail, while the
parapets, with their egg and dart strings, and their dolphins climbing
over semicircular panels filled with radiating ornament, are thoroughly
Renaissance of the French type (Plate XIII.). In the moulded chimneys
we go back to the ordinary patterns in vogue in nearly all houses
of the time, whether touched with the foreign influence or not. The
decorative detail here, as at Sutton Place, is in terra-cotta.

  [Illustration: Plate XIII.

  DETAILS FROM LAYER MARNEY TOWER, ESSEX.]

  [Illustration: 41.--LAYER MARNEY, ESSEX. ENTRANCE TOWER (1500-25).]

Both these houses were built by men who had spent some time in France.
Sir Richard Weston was there more than once, and was among those who
were present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Sir Henry Marney, who
built Layer Marney Tower, was one of those attending upon Charles
Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, when he took a great army to France in
1522.[10] But whether they took advantage of these journeys to bring
back French or Italian workmen with them is not known. Unfortunately
there is no documentary evidence to produce, and any opinion that may
be formed can only be speculative. One thing is clear; namely, that no
school was established over here of men working in the new style. The
instances of its use are too few and isolated for that.

[10] "Architectural Notes on Layer Marney Hall, Essex," by C. Forster
Hayward. _Trans. Essex Archæolog. Soc._ Vol. III. pt. I.

  [Illustration: 42.--HENGRAVE HALL, SUFFOLK. GROUND PLAN (1538).]

At Hengrave Hall, in Suffolk (1538), the main dispositions conform to
the usual type, but without any attempt at exact symmetry (Fig. 42).
The entrance leads into a court, round which a corridor is taken. This
feature adds much to the comfort and convenience of the house, but it
is a refinement in planning which was very seldom introduced. On the
opposite side from the entrance is the hall, with the old position
of the screens still preserved; to the right of the screens lies the
kitchen wing. There is the usual bay window at the daïs end of the
hall, and the family apartments are on the left. Owing to alterations
the minutiæ of the original plan cannot now be traced; the general
disposition alone can be recognised. The accompanying plan is from
one made in 1775, since which time the whole of the kitchen wing has
been pulled down and other alterations have been made. The general
disposition shown on it may be taken as being like the original, and we
see that the entrance is not in the middle of the side of the court,
and that in order to obtain a symmetrical façade a wing was carried
out to the right, whereby the entrance comes nearly in the centre,
though not quite, and is balanced on either hand by projecting turrets
corresponding one with the other.

  [Illustration: 43.--HENGRAVE HALL, SUFFOLK. WEST FRONT (1538).]

The house was originally moated, and beyond the moat was an outer
court, surrounded by low buildings, used as offices and stables. It was
entered through a gateway or lodge, where the keepers and falconers had
their quarters. The general treatment of the architecture still follows
the old lines (Fig. 43). The windows, as a rule, have few lights, they
have flat-pointed heads, and their total area is relatively small in
proportion to the plain surface of brick wall. The chimneys are of cut
and moulded brickwork of the prevailing type; the turrets are crowned
with a dome-like finish, similar to that which had been used at Henry
VII.'s chapel thirty years before. The parapets are battlemented, and
the strings are narrow and not of classic profile. In the entrance
gateway we find the new note struck (Plate XIV.). The archway is
Perpendicular in character, but above it is a triple bay window,
supported on corbelling, full of Renaissance detail, while amorini in
Roman armour carry long scrolls in their hands, and serve as supporters
to a shield of arms (Fig. 44). The whole of the corbelling terminates
at the bottom in a foliated pendant. This inextricable mixture of the
old-fashioned Perpendicular detail with the new-fashioned Renaissance
ornament is quite characteristic of the period, and shows that the
masons, while clinging to the style with which they had been familiar
since their youth, were endeavouring to make closer acquaintance with
the foreign forms so much in demand. The names of the masons who did
this work are on record: they were John Eastawe and John Sparke,
evidently Englishmen.[11]

[11] _Hist. and Antiq. of Hengrave_, by John Gage.

  [Illustration: 44.--HENGRAVE HALL, SUFFOLK.

CORBELLING OF BAY WINDOW OVER ENTRANCE ARCHWAY.]

Of the houses so far mentioned, Oxburgh Hall, East Barsham, Sutton
Place, Layer Marney, and Hengrave are all built of brick. On the other
side of the country, and in a house constructed of entirely different
materials, we get--at Moreton Old Hall in Cheshire (1559)--the same
kind of plan with which we have now become familiar (Fig. 45). This
house is of timber and plaster, as many of the old houses in that
district are. It is surrounded by a moat, and has--at any rate on the
ground floor--but few windows looking out over the country; they face
into the court where possible. The relative positions of the hall, the
kitchen, and the private apartments are here more clearly discernible
than in some of the preceding plans, inasmuch as the family rooms have
undergone but little serious alteration. The proximity of the two large
bays of the hall and parlour is curious, and was the factor which
caused the hall bay to be placed so far away from the daïs end.

  [Illustration: PLATE XIV.

  HENGRAVE HALL, SUFFOLK (1538).

  ENTRANCE GATEWAY.]

The observations of contemporary writers are of much value when
considering subjects of historical interest. It is therefore worth
while to reproduce the advice of a certain Andrew Boorde, Doctor of
Physicke, in regard to the arrangements of a house, which he offers
in the fourth chapter of his _Compendyous Regyment, or a Dyetary of
Helth_, published in 1542. In this chapter he proceeds to "shewe under
what maner and fasshon a man shulde buylde his howse or mansyon in
exchewyng thynges the whiche shulde shorten the lyfe of man." He dwells
upon the necessity of a good soil and good prospect, which latter
advice was frequently neglected, a great number of houses in those
times being built in a hole. The air, he says, must be pure, frisky,
and clean, the foundations on gravel mixed with clay, or else on rock
or on a hill. The chief prospects are to be east and west, especially
north-east, south-east, and south-west; never south, for the south wind
"doth corrupte and doth make evyll vapoures." He holds it better that
the windows should open plain north than plain south, in spite, he
says, of Jeremiah's saying that "from the north dependeth all evil."

  [Illustration: 45.--MORETON OLD HALL, CHESHIRE. GROUND PLAN (1559).]

He then enters upon particulars of the plan, and it will be observed
how exactly his suggestions, so far as they go, agree with the plans we
are examining. "Make the hall," he says, "under such a fashion that the
parlour be annexed to the head of the hall, and the buttery and pantry
be at the lower end of the hall; the cellar under the pantry, set
somewhat abase from the buttery and pantry, coming with an entry by the
wall of the buttery; the pastry-house and the larder-house annexed to
the kitchen. Then divide the lodgings by the circuit of the quadrivial
court, and let the gatehouse be opposite or against the hall door (not
directly), but the hall door standing abase, and the gatehouse in the
middle of the front entering into the place. Let the privy chamber be
annexed to the great chamber of estate, with other chambers necessary
for the building, so that many of the chambers may have a prospect into
the chapel." The necessity for these particular arrangements, so far
as health is concerned, does not seem quite obvious, especially the
directions not to have the hall door exactly opposite to the entrance
gateway; and it may be supposed that this particular passage in his
treatise was suggested by what he had frequently seen rather than by
what science led him to prescribe. When he goes on to dwell upon the
necessity for removing "fylth," he was probably taking a more original
attitude, as also when he recommended the stables, slaughter-house,
and dairy to be kept a quarter of a mile away from the house. The
bakehouse and brewhouse should also be isolated, he thinks; but in all
these respects his advice was not universally followed, for the whole
of these particular places are to be found attached to the house on one
or other of contemporary house plans. His next advice is applicable to
Moreton Old Hall. "When all the mansion is edified and built, if there
be a moat made about it, there should be some fresh spring come to it,
and divers times the moat ought to be scoured and kept clean from mud
and weeds. And in no wise let not the filth of the kitchen descend into
the moat." Most of Dr. Andrew Boorde's advice is practical and to the
point, and he is not so much in bondage to ancient authorities as many
of his contemporaries were, in spite of his reference to Jeremiah. The
rest of his chapter refers to the gardens and other surroundings of the
house, which need not now be dealt with.

  [Illustration: PLATE XV.

  MORETON OLD HALL, CHESHIRE.

  ELEVATION OF ENTRANCE GABLE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE XVI.

  MORETON OLD HALL, CHESHIRE.

  ELEVATION OF GABLE ON FRONT.]

The prevailing treatment of the ornament at Moreton is still Gothic
(Plates XV., XVI.), in spite of its date being beyond the middle of
the century. Nevertheless the influence of the new style is seen here
and there, especially in the carved pendants of the overhanging work.
The fine bay windows were made, as an inscription tells us, by Richard
Dale, carpenter, in 1559, a further testimony to the fact that it was
English workmen who did most of the work of the time, even when it
shows signs of foreign ornament. Although the bulk of the house was
built in 1559, considerable alterations were made nearly half a century
later, in 1602; and to this date may be assigned the long gallery,
with its continuous row of mullioned windows reaching from end to end
almost without a break. The effect is very quaint, but the room must
always have been uncomfortable, whether in summer by reason of the
heat, or in winter by reason of the cold; and as a comment upon the
effect of time on the stability of these timber houses, nothing can be
more striking than an attempt to walk quickly down the seventy feet of
billowy floor which the gallery presents.

With our next plan we enter upon the Elizabethan era, an era marked
by an extraordinary amount of house-building, which led to a great
degree of attention being bestowed upon the planning. This attention,
it is true, does not seem to have been directed so much towards comfort
or economy as towards magnificence and display. No doubt comfort of
a kind was aimed at, but people did not then require comfort as we
understand it, and designers were not likely to be much in advance
of their clients. The sacrifices of common sense to architectural
effect were nevertheless few. The relative positions of the principal
apartments were settled by considerations of convenience, not of
external grouping. The kitchens, for instance, were always fairly in
touch with the hall, not, as in later days, when Palladian architecture
was in vogue, located some hundreds of feet away in a detached wing,
connected by a curved colonnade, and balanced on the other extremity by
the stables or the remainder of the servants' rooms, in a similar wing.
Nor were the servants' bedrooms hidden away in the roof with windows
looking out on to the back of a solid pediment, or even looking inwards
and only lighted by borrowed light. It was the architects of a more
strict Italian school who were reduced to such expedients in the early
part of the eighteenth century; but in the late sixteenth the prevalent
style was sufficiently elastic to enable the dictates of common sense
to be obeyed. No doubt bay windows were placed in useless situations in
order to balance others that were useful. Lofty windows were sometimes
divided by floors halfway up their height in order that the uniformity
of the front should not be interrupted; but the rooms themselves
were cheerful enough and had good prospects. The features which the
Elizabethan designer had to marshal were smaller and more manageable
than those which fell to the lot of his successor in the days of Anne
and the Georges; and this was particularly the case with his windows.
In a mullioned window an additional row of lights in the width, or even
the height, can be managed without attracting undue attention, but the
sash window has to conform to the size and situation of its brethren.

Economy of planning, in the sense of avoiding waste spaces, or saving
the footsteps of the inmates, was not much studied. The only evidence
we have of its consideration lies in the occasional lopping off of
extravagant features, or the substitution of a reduced set of plans for
one of more extensive area.

The real aim of the designers seems to have been magnificence and
display--sometimes on a large scale, sometimes on a small. The
principal means used for this end was symmetry--not so much a symmetry
of detail as a symmetry of parts, of large features rather than of
small. We shall find this quality in almost every kind of plan, and an
extremely valuable quality it is if not carried to excess. The symmetry
of the Elizabethans was generally under control. It was sometimes
wasteful and its results were occasionally amusing, but they were never
ridiculous or fatal to the comfort of the house.

Up to the present the plans we have examined have not--with the
exception of Sutton Place--shown any determined attempt at a
symmetrical treatment, only a certain hankering after it. With Kirby
Hall (1570-75) we get a more resolute effort in this direction (Fig.
46). The entrance gateway and the screens are on an axial line running
through the house and its green court. The inner court is quite
symmetrically treated, door answering to door, and window to window;
but the exterior façades were left to take care of themselves, and no
attempt was made to balance one mass by another.

  [Illustration: PLATE XVII.

  KIRBY HALL, NORTHANTS.

  ELEVATION OF SOUTH SIDE OF COURTYARD (1570-75).]

  [Illustration: 46.--KIRBY HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. GROUND PLAN
  (1570-75).]

The symmetry of plan was carried out in the elevations too, at least
so far as the courtyard is concerned. The south side, in which the
projecting porch stands, is quite symmetrical, the great windows of the
hall on the right being exactly balanced by similar windows on the left
(Plate XVII.). The hall reaches from floor to roof, but the left wing
had two storeys, and the floor of the upper one occupied one row of the
glazed lights. This expedient cannot be justified on the principle of
causing the exterior treatment to indicate the internal arrangement;
but it can hardly be denied that the general effect would be marred
were the left-hand windows divided into two tiers. The door below the
windows to the left is a later insertion. A curious fact about this
front is that the two outside gables, which contain much delicate
detail, are partly blocked by the roofs of the side wings, which abut
against them; yet it is quite certain, from the character of the
detail, and from the badges which are used as ornaments in the wings,
that the whole court was built at the same time, ends and sides, and it
is equally certain that the whole building operations were comprised
within the five years 1570 to 1575.

  [Illustration: PLATE XVIII.

  KIRBY HALL. JOHN THORPE'S GROUND PLAN.

                                 _From the Soane Museum Collection._]

Although no attempt seems to have been actually made to carry symmetry
of treatment into the external façades, yet an examination of the plan
made by John Thorpe, the surveyor, at the time that Kirby was built,
shows that such a treatment was contemplated on each of the four faces
(Plate XVIII.). There are other points of interest which Thorpe's
plan elucidates. Having entered through the principal doorway, in
the north or upper side of the plan, and having traversed the length
of the court, we find a projecting porch through which the screens
are reached. The arrangement is the typical one which we have seen
in all the plans yet examined, and which tallies almost exactly with
Dr. Andrew Boorde's advice, already quoted (see page 57), with the
exception that he was opposed to the hall porch being exactly opposite
the entrance gateway. On the right (as the plan lies) are the buttery
and pantry, and the passage leading to the kitchen department; on the
left is the hall. The details of the kitchen department are shown more
clearly than in any of the foregoing houses, which have all undergone
alterations. They comprise the kitchen, with its large fireplace; "the
pastry," where the ovens are; the dry larder under it; the surveying
place; and the wet larder. Close to these, and approached by the
kitchen passage, is the winter parlour, a room which occurs on many
plans of the time in close proximity to the kitchen. This endeavour
to get a living room conveniently situated for winter use is one of
the refinements which were now creeping in. Returning to the screens,
and passing into the hall, we find the daïs marked on the plan, the
fireplace in the side wall, but no bay window: there is one indicated,
but it was not carried out. From the daïs the family apartments are
reached, together with a great staircase. Next to the head of the
hall, as Dr. Andrew Boorde has it, is the parlour (pler); the other
rooms are not named. The division of "the lodgings by the circuit of
the quadrivial court" is shown on Thorpe's plan, but most of the cross
walls are now gone. It will be seen that these lodgings consist of a
number of groups of two or three rooms (which were called "lodgings"),
each group being entered from the court by a door, and each room
communicating with its neighbour, so that the complete circuit of the
building could be made through them. The object of this grouping
was to give a small suite of rooms to every guest, in which he could
establish himself with his principal attendants; in the case of a large
retinue it could overflow into the next group. It was necessary to
traverse the open court to reach the places of general resort, such as
the hall, the "great chamber of estate," and the gallery; but it is
evident that this was not felt to be a drawback, since the practice was
widespread. The next point to notice is that here we have the first
instance of the open terrace, or arcade, or loggia. It occupies the
north side of the court, thus being open to the full midday sun. The
long gallery, which was one of the principal features of an Elizabethan
house, and frequently affected the planning, inasmuch as endeavours
were made to obtain a gallery of the greatest possible length, was over
the western or left-hand side of the court: it was 150 feet long by 16
feet wide. The upper floor was to be reached, according to Thorpe's
plan, by four large internal staircases, and two external ones on
the west front. As a matter of fact, indications actually remain of
five principal staircases, besides a subordinate one, and they are
more conveniently placed than those shown on the old plan. The great
extent of the rooms, and their being placed round a court, necessitated
several means of access, and it must not be forgotten that the upper
part of the hall interposed an impassable barrier between the two sides
of the house on the upper floor. The time was soon to come when the
height of the hall was to be restricted to that of other rooms on the
same floor, but at Kirby the traditional lofty hall was still retained.

The detail at Kirby is thoroughly Elizabethan, but there are a few
windows, dated 1638, 1640, which were inserted by Inigo Jones, and he
remodelled the north wing. His work, however, is easily distinguished
from that of earlier date. The house was built by a Sir Humphrey
Stafford, the head of a family seated at Blatherwyck in the immediate
vicinity. It was begun in 1570, and it bears on the parapet of the
courtyard the dates 1572, 1575; in the latter year Sir Humphrey died,
having practically completed his house, which was then sold by his
heir to Sir Christopher Hatton. Not only are the parapets dated, but
amid the ornament of the various bands which make the circuit of
the courtyard, and in the gable over the porch, occur the Stafford
cognizances. Their presence indicates the extent of the work of
Stafford, and proves that practically the whole place was built between
the years 1570-75, though the Hattons probably made some trifling
alterations during the last ten years of the century, and subsequently
employed Inigo Jones to partly modernise the house fifty years later.
The detail is unusually free and fresh, and has more variety than
Elizabethan masons generally bestowed upon their work. The gable over
the porch in the courtyard has no counterpart in England; the coping
of the parapet round the whole court has an unusual but effective wave
ornament (Plate XIX.).

  [Illustration: Plate XIX. KIRBY HALL, NORTHANTS. DETAIL OF PORCH.]

There are, of course, the usual classic columns applied with a liberal
hand, and all the horizontal string-courses have classic profiles. The
carving of the friezes is interesting, inasmuch as it is somewhat out
of the common in detail, and its component parts were evidently carved
in large numbers, and used as occasion required, for in many places
where the length of a carved stone was too great for its intended
position it was ruthlessly shortened to fit, and the carving was
mutilated.

So far all the plans have shown a courtyard round which the house was
built, first adopted, no doubt, from reasons of defence, and afterwards
retained because it had become customary. We now come to another type
of very frequent occurrence, in which two narrow parallel wings are
connected by a narrow body, thus forming a figure like the letter H.
It is in effect a curtailment of the older plan by leaving out the
"lodgings" which enclosed the court; but there is no change in the
old idea of placing the hall in a central situation and flanking it
at one end by the family apartments and at the other by the kitchen
and servants' rooms. At Montacute, in Somerset (1580), the original
relation of hall and kitchen is preserved, but the intermediate rooms
have been allotted to modern uses (Fig. 47). It should be observed that
the passage at the back of the hall was formed by inserting between the
wings the porch and part of the walls from an earlier house at Clifton
Maubank in the year 1760. This passage, which is a great convenience to
the house, must therefore not be looked upon as part of the original
plan. The detail of the part thus inserted is of Late Tudor character.
The profiles of the mouldings are Gothic, the carving inclines towards
Italian, the parapets have cusped panels, the pinnacles have the
spiral twist so dear to the Tudor mason, and a battlemented moulding
beneath the heraldic animals which they support (Plate XX.). The
treatment is quite different from that of the house itself. Another
point to remark about the plan is that all thoughts of defence are
here abandoned, and the windows look freely out on all sides. Indeed,
far from desiring to exclude people, the builder, Sir Edward Phelips,
wrote up over his door, "_Through this wide-opening gate, none come too
early, none return too late._" It will also be noticed that in order
to get a truly symmetrical disposition of windows, the bay is removed
from the end to the middle of the hall, which is another indication of
a tendency to depart from the ancient arrangements.

  [Illustration: 47.--MONTACUTE HOUSE, SOMERSET. GROUND PLAN (1580).

  1. Hall. 2. Drawing-room. 3. Large Dining-room. 4. Small Dining-room.
  5. Smoking-room. 6. Pantry. 7. Kitchen. 8. Servants' Hall. 9. Porch.
  10. Garden-house.]

It is true that there is a court at Montacute, but it is enclosed by an
open balustrade and not by solid buildings; it is there for delight and
not for defence, and everything in the planning shows that the builder
considered he could occupy his house in security.

  [Illustration: 48.--MONTACUTE HOUSE, SOMERSET. WEST FRONT, WITH COURT
  AND GARDEN-HOUSES (1580).]

On the top floor, over the hall and running from end to end of the
building, is the gallery; it is lighted at each end and down so much of
the side as is not blocked by the wings of the house, which of course
it cuts off from the staircases and the other rooms. The treatment of
the elevations is as symmetrical as that of the plan (Fig. 48). The
area of window space is in excess of that of wall space, the strings
are of some depth and of classic profile, and the whole appearance
contrasts strongly with that of Hengrave. Along the topmost floor in
the spaces between the windows are eight statues, which, with a ninth
in the central gable, are said to represent those Nine Worthies whom
Holofernes and his companions tried to represent in a more dramatic
manner before the Princess of France and her lively attendants.

  [Illustration: PLATE XX.

  MONTACUTE HOUSE, SOMERSET.

  PART OF ENTRANCE FRONT SEEN FROM WING.]

It has already been observed that the plan of Montacute is shaped
roughly like the letter =H=. This type of plan is very frequent,
and is the same in its essence as the [sideways letter] =E= plan, of which many
writers have made more than is needful. The [sideways letter] =E=
plan is in fact the same as the =H= with the side strokes
curtailed. To make a just comparison, either the centre stroke of the
[sideways letter] =E= should be omitted or it should be added to
the cross of the =H,= inasmuch as it represents the projecting
porch, which was present equally in each arrangement. The fact that the
[sideways letter] =E= plan resembles the first letter of Elizabeth
is probably a coincidence merely, and not a compliment to the queen. At
the same time it would have been quite in accordance with the spirit
of the time to have taken such a way of expressing loyalty, only in
that case we should have expected to find fewer plans of the =H=
variety, and more of the other; but as a matter of fact there are few,
if any, houses with a perfectly straight front such as the back of the
[sideways letter] =E= demands.

  [Illustration: 49.--BARLBOROUGH HALL, DERBYSHIRE. PLAN OF PRINCIPAL
  FLOOR (1583).]

At Barlborough, in Derbyshire (1583), we get again a different type.
The house is built round a court, but an extremely small one, now
filled with a modern staircase (Fig. 49). All the windows look out into
the open country. Instead of extending itself along the ground, the
house provides its accommodation by extending itself vertically, and
the kitchen and servants' rooms are placed in the basement. This was an
idea introduced, it is said, from Italy, but it is one which, though
sometimes met with, did not commend itself to Elizabethan builders
when space was plentiful. The hall is on the principal floor, and is
approached from outside up a long flight of steps. The screens led to
the staircase which penetrated to the kitchen in the basement. The
hall had its bay window at the daïs end, from which the great chamber
was approached. We have still, therefore, the old idea of the hall
as a living room, and part of a series of rooms communicating with
each other; not yet as an entrance from which the living rooms are
approached.

  [Illustration: 50.--BARLBOROUGH HALL, DERBYSHIRE. ENTRANCE FRONT
  (1583).]

The detail at Barlborough is of a simple kind; the house was not of a
large size and did not require much elaboration (Fig. 50). The actual
classic treatment is confined to the front door, which is flanked with
columns. The parapet is battlemented, the strings are narrow, and the
windows are not overwhelming in size. The roof is flat, and there
are none of the gables which are so marked a feature of the time.
Picturesqueness of outline, however, which was always sought for, is
here obtained by carrying up the bay windows as turrets, a treatment
which lends much distinction to an otherwise simple exterior.

  [Illustration: PLATE XXI.

  DODDINGTON HALL, LINCOLNSHIRE.

  ENTRANCE FRONT WITH GATEHOUSE (1595).]

Twelve years later than Barlborough we get at Doddington, in
Lincolnshire (1595), a plan which reverts to the type of Montacute
(Fig. 51). It has the usual characteristics of the simplest kind--wings
one room thick; the entrance at the end of the hall, leading on the
left to the buttery, pantry, and kitchens; the parlour at the head of
the hall, and the principal staircase adjacent. Here, however, as at
Montacute, the hall is only one storey in height; it has a room above
it--the great chamber: and on the top floor the gallery extends over
the whole central part from wing to wing.

  [Illustration: 51.--DODDINGTON HALL, LINCOLNSHIRE. GROUND PLAN (1595).]

There is an entrance court in front of the house enclosed by a wall. It
is approached through one of the quaint gatehouses of the time, which
were a reminiscence of a more turbulent state of society, when it was
necessary for all who went to the house to do so under the eye of the
porter, but which in the calmer times of Elizabeth were occupied by
some of the numerous functionaries who ministered to the pleasures of
the rich. The detail at Doddington is of the plainest, the only attempt
at richness being round the front door. The windows are of reasonable
size, the strings are narrow, and are all of the same quasi-classic
profile. The parapet is perfectly plain, and the roof is without
gables, the skyline being broken, as at Barlborough, with turrets,
formed by carrying up the porch and the two projections in the internal
angles of the front (Plate XXI.). The house is an example of a plain
and business-like type, which may be accounted for by the fact that
it was built for a business man, one Thomas Tailor, registrar to the
Bishop of Lincoln.

  [Illustration: 52.--BURTON AGNES, YORKSHIRE. GROUND PLAN (1602-10).]

With the opening of the new century we get at Burton Agnes, in
Yorkshire (1602-10), a repetition of the same leading idea which we
have been following for a hundred and fifty years (Fig. 52). We have
the screens at the end of the hall, the kitchens on the left, and the
bay window, the family rooms and grand staircase at the head of the
hall. The family apartments have increased in number. The tendency was
towards having separate apartments for various uses, and on plans of
the time we not infrequently find a "dining parlour" specially named.
The introduction of this refinement marks the dwindling importance of
the hall. The latter is ceasing to be the centre of family life, and
becoming merely an entrance. The daïs end is no longer the comfortable
place it was, with its bay window and the fireplace close by: it is
becoming pierced with doors, and draughty. The family find it more
comfortable to have a separate room for their meals, and the servants'
quarters are becoming more self-contained. The old usages of the hall
are being discontinued.

  [Illustration: 53.--ASTON HALL, NEAR BIRMINGHAM. GROUND PLAN
  (1618-35).]

  [Illustration: 54.--ASTON HALL, WARWICKSHIRE. NORTH WING.]

This change is quite apparent in the last plan of the series, that of
Aston Hall, in Warwickshire (1618-35). The hall is still central, the
kitchen is in one wing, the family rooms in the other, supplemented by
a row at the back of the hall (Fig. 53). But the hall itself is now
merely an entrance--it has ceased to be a living-room; it is entered
from the middle of the side, no longer at the end, where indeed the
fireplace now finds itself: there is no daïs and no bay window. This
is a revolution which it has taken more than a century to produce,
counting from the first appearance of the Italian influence. The change
no doubt was effected from the inside more than the out: from the
gradual alteration of habits, rather than from the wish to Italianize
our English plans. But the two tendencies co-operated with each other
and combined to lead English designers further and further away from
the old traditions.

Although the hall shows a departure from the old lines of planning,
the general arrangement adheres to them. The symmetrical wings, the
mullioned windows, the turrets (Fig. 54), the forecourt with its lodges
at the corners, and the open arcade on the south front, are all in
keeping with Elizabethan and Jacobean methods, and offer a striking
contrast to the work at Rainham Hall, in Norfolk, which was built by
Inigo Jones in 1630, five years before Aston was finished.

The disappearance of the hall as a living-room, and its adoption as a
vestibule, mark a great change in our domestic architecture. The tie
with the mediæval past is loosened, and with the almost contemporaneous
departure of the mullioned window it is severed altogether; there
is nothing now to prevent English designers from assimilating their
buildings ever more and more to the models which they sought direct in
Italy, without being diverted from their purpose by what they passed in
intermediate countries.




                              CHAPTER IV.

                          EXTERIOR FEATURES.

     LAY-OUT OF HOUSES, LODGES AND GATEWAYS, DOORWAYS AND PORCHES.


There was a very remarkable amount of building done in the last quarter
of the sixteenth century. Plenty of money was available, much of it
acquired from the lands of the dissolved monasteries; the country was
at peace, and the strong rule of Elizabeth gradually produced a state
of prosperity hitherto unknown. Defensive precautions, save such as
seemed necessary against vagrants, were abandoned in all kinds of
houses. The outer courts, the inner courts, and the gatehouses, which
formerly were built for the sake of security, were now retained chiefly
for the sake of appearance, and because they added to the privacy of
the house. The porter at the gate exercised a certain amount of control
over those who wished to enter, and on occasion he closed his gates
against the populace, although sometimes without complete success, as
we learn from a scene in Shakespeare's play of "Henry VIII.," where the
people, in their anxiety to see something of the christening of the
infant Princess Elizabeth, managed to crowd in, in spite of "as much
as one sound cudgel of four foot could distribute" at the hands of the
porter's man.

Everyone who could afford it seems to have built in the time of
Elizabeth and James. The great nobles erected vast palaces like
Theobalds and Holdenby, like Audley End, and Knole and Buckhurst. Men
of smaller wealth built mansions like Kirby and Montacute, Wollaton and
Blickling. Squires built their manor houses in the villages, merchants
their homes in the towns, not infrequently, indeed, leaving the city
for some neighbouring parish, and there ending their days as lords of
the manor. When the condition of an existing house did not warrant
its actual removal, additions in the new style were made; something
had to be done to keep in the fashion. Throughout the length and
breadth of the land the same activity was displayed. From Yorkshire
and Westmorland in the north, to Cornwall and Kent in the south; from
Shropshire in the west to Suffolk in the east, we find work of this
period scattered up and down the country in mansion, manor house,
cottage and church.

A good deal of building was done in Henry VIII.'s time, but vastly
more in Elizabeth's. The examples left to us of the former period
are few compared with those of the latter; but in both cases it must
be remembered that the old gave way to the new. The builders of
Elizabeth's days removed the work of their grandfathers to make room
for their own, only to have this in its turn replaced in the times of
Anne and the Georges. Many as are the houses of the sixteenth century
which remain, we know that many others, of equal interest and beauty,
have been pulled down.


                               LAY-OUT.

It is not always easy in the present day to grasp the system upon which
the larger houses of Elizabeth's time were laid out. Modern methods of
locomotion, and modern ideas of convenience, have in many cases caused
the approach to the houses to be altered. It is the same with regard
to most of our ancient cities. The railway now brings us to a spot
which has no relation to the old landmarks of the place, and instead
of approaching our destination through the ancient arteries, which
were the growth of many years, we slip in through by-ways and slums,
or along a new street made expressly for the purpose. The approach to
one of the larger Elizabethan houses was an affair of time. Roads were
then of a very primitive description, and depended for their condition
upon the nature of the soil. "There is good land where there is foul
way," was a saying of the time; and conversely, where there was a hard
road there was likely to be stony land. From the main road a similar
rough track led, perhaps through an avenue of newly planted trees, in
a straight line towards the house. There was no gate-keeper's lodge at
the end of a finely gravelled road winding through a park. The lodge
was part of the outbuildings of the house, and until you arrived there
the road was generally left to take care of itself. After passing
through the lodge, there were often two courts to traverse before the
hall was reached. The lodge was on the great axial line of the house,
so that as you stood waiting, if all the doors happened to be open, you
could see right through the courts and the screens and get a glimpse of
the garden beyond.

  [Illustration: 55.--HOLDENBY HOUSE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. PLAN OF LAY-OUT.

  FROM A SURVEY MADE IN 1587.

    A A. The Park.
    B. Base-court.
    C. First Court of House.
    D D. Gardens.
    E. Rosery.
    F F. Terraces.
    G G.  Mounts.
    H. Site of Old House.
    K. Church.
    L L. Ponds.
    M. Stables.
    N. Porter's Lodge.]

The accompanying plan of the lay-out of Holdenby (Fig. 55), from a
survey made in 1587, gives a good idea of the surroundings of the
larger Elizabethan houses. The road between two villages ran along
the north side of the park, and from this road branched another one
which led up to the house. While it traversed the park it was allowed
to wind according to the undulations of the ground, but when it came
to within a quarter of a mile of the lodge it was made perfectly
straight, and so ran through the midst of "the green"--"a large, long,
straight, fair way," as Lord Burghley called it. It led directly to
the porter's lodge, which was a building separate from the house, and
self-contained, and it passed the long range of stabling on the right.
The porter's lodge opened into the first court, the "base-court," as
it was called, walled round, and entered on its two sides by large
gateways. At the further end of the base-court stood the house, raised
a few steps above the general level, where Lord Burghley "found a great
magnificence in the front or front pieces of the house, and so every
part answerable to other, to allure liking." The house was built round
two great courts, the first 128 feet by 104 feet, the second 140 feet
by 110 feet, comparable in point of size to those at Hampton Court,
and a good deal more intricate in detail. To the north of the house
itself were two walled gardens, of nearly an acre each, and beyond
these were spinneys, or small woods, and the little village with its
inn. The ground on the south side of the house sloped pretty steeply
away, and was laid out in a series of terraces. At the top of these,
and flanking the whole length of the base-court, the house, and the
orchard beyond, ran a broad straight path. In the midst of the terraces
a great platform was run out at the level of this long path, containing
a rosery laid out with paths in a simple geometrical pattern. At
the extreme end of the long path was a cross-path leading each way
to a prospect mount, up at least one of which wound a spiral path,
ending (in all probability) in a banqueting house, such as Lord Bacon
describes in his essay "Of Gardens," and such as the Parliamentary
Commissioners describe as being at Nonesuch in the year 1650. At the
foot of the terraces lay fishponds amid orchard-trees, and, in a small
enclosure of its own, the church. Close to the church was the site of
the old manor house, the home of Sir Christopher Hatton's fathers, but
which he found far too insignificant a dwelling for the Lord Chancellor.

Such were the surroundings of one of the most splendid palaces of
Elizabeth's splendid courtiers, and an examination of the contemporary
survey shows upon what a large scale the house and its appurtenances
were laid out. The house covered nearly two acres; the base-court
more than one acre; the green more than seventeen. In comparison
with the house the village is a mere collection of outhouses, not so
extensive as the range of stabling. The garden has not acquired all the
architectural adjuncts in the way of stone terraces, and garden-houses,
lead vases, statuary and _jets d'eau_, which became fashionable a
hundred years later; but it has a fine simplicity about it and a
largeness of scale which are in keeping with the house it belongs to.

  [Illustration: 56.--DODDINGTON HALL, LINCOLNSHIRE. BLOCK PLAN.]

Theobalds, in Hertfordshire, was the model upon which Sir Christopher
Hatton professed to have founded his own more magnificent house at
Holdenby, and there is an interesting account, written by John Savile,
of King James's visit to Theobalds on his first coming to London
in 1603.[12] It is an early example of descriptive reporting which
would do credit to one of our great daily papers. Theobalds was the
house of Sir Robert Cecil, afterwards Lord Salisbury, and had been
built and embellished by his father, the great Lord Treasurer. The
writer particularly mentions the approach to the house, which stood
back from the highway, unlike the "manie sumptuous buildings" in the
neighbourhood, most of which belonged "to the cittie marchants." It
was reached by a most stately walk raised above the general level, and
beset about either side with young elm and ash trees extending from the
common street way to the first court belonging to the house. In order
to obtain full particulars of the proceedings, Savile stationed one of
his party at the upper end of the walk, another at the upper end of the
first court, while a third stood at the second court door, and he also
arranged with "a gentleman of good sort" to stand in the court that led
into the hall, and furnish particulars of the ceremonies invisible to
the others. After the king had at length entered the house, the crowd
of sightseers surged even into the uppermost court, apparently without
protest from the porter, and to their view the monarch graciously
displayed himself at his windows for the space of half an hour,
previous to going into the "laberinth-like garden to walke."

[12] _Nichols' Progresses of King James I._, Vol. I. 135.


                         LODGES AND GATEWAYS.

Sometimes the lodge formed part of the buildings enclosing the first
court, in which case one or two rooms or "lodgings" of the wing on
either side of the gateway would be devoted to the porter, in the same
way as the entrance to most of the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge is
still arranged. But very frequently it was separated from the house by
a court enclosed by a wall, as it was at Holdenby, and again at the
much smaller house at Doddington (Fig. 56). This wall was sometimes
high and solid, and sometimes coped "leaning height," as John Thorpe
has it on one of his plans, or sometimes pierced with ornamental
patterns.

  [Illustration: 57.--STOKESAY CASTLE, SHROPSHIRE. THE
  GATEHOUSE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE XXII.

  STANWAY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE (ABOUT 1630).

  THE GATEHOUSE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE XXIII.

  WESTWOOD, WORCESTERSHIRE.

  THE GATEHOUSE.]

The lodge itself was generally large enough to accommodate the
porter and his family, having two rooms downstairs and perhaps three
above, but occasionally there were even three floors, as at Stanway
in Gloucestershire (Plate XXII.), while at Hamstall Ridware, in
Staffordshire, the lodge was merely a gateway between two flanking
turrets only seven feet across inside. At Stokesay Castle, in
Shropshire, is a charming lodge or gatehouse of timber and plaster,
added in Elizabeth's time to the ancient castle (Fig. 57); and at
Westwood in Worcestershire the lodge is formed of two separate brick
buildings connected by an open timber roof and some pierced stonework,
displaying the mullet or five-pointed star of the owner (Plate XXIII.).

  [Illustration: 58.--COLD ASHTON HALL, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. ENTRANCE
  GATEWAY.]

  [Illustration: 59.--WINWICK, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. GATEWAY TO MANOR HOUSE.]

The smaller houses had merely a gateway of more or less pretensions,
such as may be seen at Cold Ashton, near Bath (Fig. 58), a charming
little entrance on the roadside leading straight up by a paved walk
to the front door of the house; or at Winwick, in Northamptonshire
(Fig. 59), the stately remnant of a house now much curtailed in size.
This example is treated in a more important manner than usual, the
masonry flanking the archway on either side being of considerable
width, and elaborately ornamented with sunk patterns and carving. The
well-proportioned columns are disengaged from the wall behind them, and
the whole treatment of the lower part as far as the top of the cornice
calls to mind some of the Roman arches to be met with in Italy. The
pediments above the cornice are hardly equal to the structure upon
which they stand, but they give that variety and piquancy of outline
which was considered indispensable in work of the time; moreover, the
circular gable over the archway affords room for a panel containing the
owner's arms, although, by an irony of fate which would have annoyed
him deeply, the bearings are now indistinguishable. This gateway vies
in importance with those at Holdenby (Fig. 61), but the house at
Warwick could never have been more than a good-sized manor house. At
Cold Ashton the gateway is more in scale with the house, and although
the central feature above the cornice is mutilated, the arms still
remain. The effect of this roadside gateway is heightened by the
circular steps and the mounting-block. At Oundle, in Northamptonshire,
there is an example of a small gateway in the front wall of some
almshouses (Fig. 60) which, in spite of its insignificant size, imparts
considerable interest and even dignity to the group of which it is the
central feature. In large houses the entrance courts not infrequently
had archways in their side walls to afford access to the gardens or
the orchard. The base-court at Holdenby has already been mentioned
as having a gateway in each of its sides, apart altogether from the
gatehouse or porter's lodge. These two gateways still remain (Fig.
61), although most of the house and its adjuncts have disappeared,
leaving them stranded in a position that is hardly intelligible without
the aid of a plan showing the original arrangement. They bear the
date 1585, and a shield of arms containing fourteen quarterings of
the owner, Sir Christopher Hatton. In general treatment they resemble
the similar gateways in the forecourt at Kirby, which also belonged
to Sir Christopher, and they are more remarkable for their size and
stateliness than for the beauty of their detail: but it should not
be forgotten that the walls which supported them on either side,
and which connected them with the great house, are gone, and that,
denuded of their original surroundings, they appear much more heavy
and cumbrous than when they were a small part of a large scheme.
Much smaller than the base-court at Holdenby was the forecourt at
Kenyon Peel, in Lancashire, a half-timber house with a symmetrical E
front, and approached through a two-storey stone gatehouse, joined
to the house itself by stone walls. The gatehouse is rather gaunt,
like many of the stone buildings in that district, but in the little
gateways in the side of the court (Fig. 62) an effort has been made
to produce something less severe. The mixture of the stonework and
the black-and-white work of the house is effective, and the small
court, with its formal paved walks leading from the gatehouse to the
porch, and from one side doorway to the other, is full of interest;
especially as the house lies amid the chimneys of a busy part of
Lancashire, and is surrounded by the abomination of desolation which
accompanies the spread of populous places. The initials G. R. occur in
the topmost step of the coping, and the date 1631 on the lintel of the
doorway.

  [Illustration: 60.--GATEWAY TO ALMSHOUSES, OUNDLE,
  NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 61.--HOLDENBY, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. GATEWAYS TO
  BASE-COURT (1585).]

  [Illustration: 62.--KENYON PEEL, LANCASHIRE. GATEWAY AT SIDE OF COURT
  (1631).]

  [Illustration: 63.--DODDINGTON HALL, LINCOLNSHIRE. ENTRANCE DOORWAY
  (1595).]


                    ENTRANCE DOORWAYS AND PORCHES.

The lodge or the gateway, as the case might be, was generally adorned
in some conspicuous place with the arms of the family, the squires
of the time being as proud of their various cognizances as Justice
Shallow was of his twelve luces. Five out of the eight examples already
illustrated are so adorned. The same shield that appears on the gateway
is also frequently to be seen over the door of the house itself, which
is reached after crossing the court. The doorway generally formed part
of a somewhat elaborate piece of ornament, for, however simple (and
sometimes even monotonous) the general treatment of the house was, the
front door was made handsome. At Doddington, in Lincolnshire, while the
bulk of the house is of plain brickwork, including the parapet, the
doorway is treated with a considerable amount of elaboration (Fig. 63).

  [Illustration: 64.--PORCH AT CHELVEY COURT, SOMERSET (CIR. 1640).]

  [Illustration: 65.--DOORWAY AT NAILSEA COURT, SOMERSET.]

The door stood more often than not in a projecting porch, which,
although sometimes only one storey in height, as at Chelvey Court, in
Somerset (Fig. 64), was usually higher, and was frequently carried
up the full height of the building. It is round these doors that we
find pronounced classic features employed in the shape of pillars and
pilasters, friezes and cornices, and pediments. But it was seldom that
the English mason did not introduce into his design some departure
from strict classic treatment, suggested by his native traditions. At
Chelvey the doorway has a flat-pointed head resting on an impost, such
as usually accompanies a semicircular arch: there is also a keystone
which protrudes from the straight lintel instead of crowning the arch,
which in the ordinary way would be there. The twisted columns support
pilasters of a different scale, which in their turn, however, are
relieved of anything to carry. The broken pediment encloses a shield
of arms, which rests in the usual fashion upon a base carried by the
keystone. Over all is a pierced parapet divided into square panels by
shallow pilasters. The spirit of the whole composition is Jacobean,
but the treatment betokens a late date, with its twisted columns and
broken pediment; and the arms confirm the conjecture prompted by the
character of the work, though the exact date is not recorded. It is
evident, however, that even in Somerset, the home of good masons, the
lesson of making appropriate use of classic features had not yet been
mastered. The treatment of the doorway at the neighbouring house of
Nailsea Court (Fig. 65) is more logical and pleasing. There is a quaint
mixture of pointed arch and classic cornice and corbelled bay-window;
and the manner in which the central projection in the cornice is made
the starting-point of the corbelling to the bay is a happy illustration
of the freedom with which the new features were handled.

  [Illustration: PLATE XXIV.

  DOORWAY AT CHIPCHASE CASTLE, NORTHUMBERLAND.

  PORCH TO THE MANOR HOUSE, UPPER SLAUGHTER, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 66.--DOORWAY AT GAYHURST, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 67.--DOORWAY AT COLD ASHTON, SOMERSET.]

  [Illustration: 68.--DOORWAY AT CHENEY COURT, SOMERSET.]

  [Illustration: PLATE XXV.

  WARDOUR CASTLE, WILTSHIRE. THE GRAND STAIRCASE.

  HATFIELD HOUSE, HERTFORDSHIRE. DOORWAY IN COURT (1611).]

At Chipchase Castle, in Northumberland (Plate XXIV.), a square porch is
combined with a canted bay above it. The doorway follows the more usual
pattern; it has the circular arch resting on imposts, a projecting
keystone carried up to break the lines of the cornice, and is flanked
on either side by a circular column, which endeavours to justify its
presence by carrying an obelisk. The obelisks serve the useful purpose
of breaking the severe line of the splay which joins the octagonal
bay to the square porch below it, and they, together with the shield
of arms and the carving on the columns and the voussoirs of the arch,
impart considerable richness to the whole composition. At Gayhurst, in
Buckinghamshire, the columns, which are primarily introduced for the
sake of ornament, are made to do actual duty by supporting a slight
projection of the storey above them (Fig. 66); and there are two tiers
of them, a fact which helps to increase the importance of the entrance.
In this, as in similar cases, the cornices are continued along the
sides of the projecting porch, and are stopped against the face of the
main building. At Upper Slaughter, in Gloucestershire (Plate XXIV.),
the porch has more of the appearance of being an excrescence, the only
connecting member being the string over the upper windows of the
house, which is returned along the sides of the porch. The cornices
of the porch are in this instance only just returned round its outer
angles, and not carried back to the main building. The pilasters are
merely ornamental adjuncts: there is no pretence about them of doing
any work; the head of the upper window breaks unceremoniously into
the frieze of the cornice, the keystone of the arch is carried up so
that the lines of the lower cornice may break round it, and the whole
treatment shows that the designer was free from any morbid craving
after correctness. In the doorway at Hatfield, in the side of the court
(Plate XXV.), the work is handled in a more formal manner. There is
the semicircular arch, with its impost, and the two flanking pilasters
carried up in order to break the cornice, while a central projection
follows up from the keystone. There is no crowning pediment, but
in its place is a strap-work pattern terminating at the top with a
point which finds itself in the centre of one of the triglyphs in the
entablature which makes the circuit of the whole house at the first
floor level. The archway at the foot of the grand staircase at Wardour
Castle (Plate XXV.) is treated with still greater propriety; the
designer has allowed himself to take no liberties with his copy, but
the severity is relieved by the informal manner in which the steps wind
away to the left. This is an accident arising from the fact that the
staircase is of an older date; it is covered with Gothic vaulting, and
at its upper end the original pointed arch has been made semicircular,
and the stone round it has been recessed so as to surround it with a
square moulded frame in the manner prevalent at the beginning of the
seventeenth century. At Cold Ashton we have a simple pedimented doorway
in a shallow projection between the two wings of the house (Fig. 67),
and at Cheney Court there is another simple form of doorway; it has
no pilasters, but a curved pediment, supported on corbels, forms a
hood (Fig. 68)--a mode of treatment adopted towards the close of the
Jacobean period, and handled here with a pleasant freedom, a panel
being contrived in the middle of the frieze to contain the family
arms. At Woollas Hall (Fig. 69) there is a boldly projecting porch,
thrusting itself out beyond the main face of the house, and giving from
its oriel on the top floor a wide view over the surrounding country.

  [Illustration: 69.--WOOLLAS HALL, WORCESTERSHIRE. PART OF ENTRANCE
  FRONT (1611).]

  [Illustration: 70.--PORCH AT GORHAMBURY, HERTFORDSHIRE (1568).]

  [Illustration: 71.--HAMBLETON HALL, RUTLAND.]

The ruins at Gorhambury, near St. Albans, a house built by Sir
Nicholas Bacon, the father of Lord Bacon, present another treatment,
which can still be made out in spite of the modern brick buttresses,
and the brick arch which has been inserted below the original one of
stone (Fig. 70). There is a projecting porch of two storeys, with
all its three external faces carefully treated, the front being made
rather more elaborate by the introduction of niches with statues. The
employment of statues and busts as decorative features was a favourite
device of the time. They were almost invariably of classic origin, and
attired in classic garb, the most modern personages usually admitted
to this distinction being those three of the Nine Worthies who were
of Christian extraction. In the spandrils of the arch are circular
medallions with busts, and in the parapet are the royal arms. There
was also over the arch (we are told) a grey marble panel with four
Latin verses, stating that the house was finished in the tenth year of
Elizabeth's reign by Nicholas Bacon, whom she made a knight, and Keeper
of her Seal. Below these verses was the aphorism "Mediocria firma,"
that is, "Firm is the middle state." Statues, busts, and inscriptions
are all characteristic of the taste of the period, and will be more
particularly dealt with later on in connection with the design of
chimney-pieces. The house which was thus finished in the tenth year of
Elizabeth, that is in 1568, was begun (according to an account in the
possession of a local antiquary) on the 1st day of March, 1563, thus
taking five years to build. It was not of vast extent, but it comprised
two courts, one for the house, the other for the kitchens. The porch
illustrated was approached in a direct line across the larger of these
courts, and led into the screens in the usual way; the windows visible
to the left of the porch lighted the great hall at the daïs end. There
is very little left of the old walls, but the extent of the hall can
be made out, as well as the position of a clock tower; and at some
little distance there remains another niche with a headless statue in
it, no doubt that of Henry VIII., which we are told was put up on the
occasion of the Queen's second visit to Gorhambury. Her first visit was
paid in 1572, four years after the completion of the house, on which
occasion the Queen told the Lord Keeper that he had made his house too
little for him, whereupon he replied, "Not so, madam, but your Majesty
has made me too big for my house." He was, however, resolved not to be
open to such a reproach again, and on receiving an intimation that the
Queen would visit him a second time (in 1577) he is said to have built
a gallery of lath and plaster 120 feet long by 18 feet wide, beneath
which were cloisters, and in the middle of their length the statue of
King Henry in gilt armour. This enlarging of the house for the express
purpose of receiving the Queen was only one of numerous instances,
which will be referred to in a subsequent chapter, as also will the
proportion of the long galleries so distinctive of the period.

  [Illustration: 72.--CHASTLETON, OXFORDSHIRE. GROUND PLAN (CIR. 1603).

    1. Hall.
    2. Little Parlour.
    3. Great Parlour.
    4. Nursery.
    5. Chamber over Kitchen.
    6. Pantry.
    7. Parlour.]

The gallery, was panelled with oak gilt, and on the panelling were
Latin inscriptions, so aptly selected that it was considered worth
while to collect them in a small volume, illuminated with much
beauty. In the orchard was a banqueting-house, which in its turn was
adorned with busts and inscriptions. These all related to specific
subjects--grammar, arithmetic, logic, music, rhetoric, geometry, and
astrology; and each subject was not only depicted on the walls, but
was further illustrated by appropriate verses and the pictures of such
learned men as had excelled in it.[13] Although most of them were
selected from the ancients, yet Sir Nicholas Bacon was sufficiently
catholic in his taste to admit such modern names as Lilly, the
grammarian, and Copernicus, the "astrologer," the latter of whom had
only been dead some thirty years.

[13] _Nichols' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth_, Vol. II.

  [Illustration: PLATE XXVI.

  CRANBORNE MANOR HOUSE, DORSETSHIRE.

  THE PORCH (ABOUT 1612).]

Another kind of entrance is afforded by the arcaded porch, of which a
simple example is to be seen at Hambleton, in Rutland (Fig. 71), and
a more elaborate one at Cranborne, in Dorset (Plate XXVI.), where it
was added, along with other "modern" features, to an old manor house
dating from the thirteenth century, in order to bring the house into
the prevailing fashion.

  [Illustration: 73.--DOORWAY AT LYDDINGTON, RUTLAND.]

So far all the entrances which have been mentioned were in the main
face of the building, the front doors being in the centre of the
façade. As the front door almost always led into the screens at the end
of the hall, it followed as a matter of course that the hall itself
occupied only a little more than half the length of the façade. In
some instances, however, the hall was made to occupy the centre of it,
and in such cases the porch could no longer be central, but was moved
to one side, and made to balance a corresponding projection which
served as the bay window of the hall: the doorway was then placed, not
in the front face but the side face of the porch, as may be seen at
Chastleton, in Oxfordshire (Fig. 72), and Burton Agnes, in Yorkshire
(Fig. 52). The main approach was therefore still on the axial line, but
on mounting the final steps, instead of going straight forward into the
porch, you turned either to the right or left (in the two instances
illustrated it was to the left) and so through the porch to the
screens. At Chastleton the old arrangement remains perfect; the screen
is there, and also the daïs with the bay window at the end of it. At
Fountains Hall, in Yorkshire, the same idea is carried out, but as the
ground <DW72>s very steeply, the principal floor is some feet above the
ground at the entrance. The doorway is central, and immediately on
entering, a straight flight of steps leads off to the right up to the
main floor, which it gains just in time for a turn to the left to lead
into the screens.

  [Illustration: 74.--DOORWAY AT BROADWAY, WORCESTERSHIRE.]

In situations requiring less ornamental treatment, a very pleasing type
of doorway came into use, and lingered on in remote places far into
the days of regular classic architecture. Such doors abound in the
stone villages of Somerset and thence northwards through the Cotswolds
and Oxfordshire, up to Northamptonshire and Rutland. They are usually
flat-pointed, and the jambs have two moulded orders, the inner one
going round the flat-pointed head, while the outer one forms a square
frame round it, as in the example from Lyddington (Fig. 73). There is
not much of the classic manner about such a door, especially when, as
in this instance, the label is returned down the ends of the head. But
the section of the jamb-mould is an adaptation of the contours found in
classic work, and the label not infrequently was treated in the manner
of a cornice, instead of being returned, as it is in this example and
that from Broadway in Fig. 74. There is a small doorway of this kind
at Aylesford Hall, in Kent (Fig. 75), which shows a curious mixture,
for the head has a fairly high-pointed Gothic arch, while the label
is of classic profile, and is ornamented with dentils: the spandrils
are filled with shields of late design, one of which bears the date
1590, thus showing how long the old traditional forms lingered in
places. The masons of the time made use of a type of door which was
chiefly of Gothic descent, but they varied its features at will. The
head was either high-pointed, flat-pointed, or elliptical, as their
fancy dictated; and the label was either moulded after the fashion of
their youth, or in accordance with the newer forms which they saw in
use around them. It is in such unimportant matters as these, where no
one was particularly concerned about the result, that we see how the
workmen availed themselves indifferently of the old forms or the new.

  [Illustration: 75.--DOORWAY AT AYLESFORD HALL, KENT (1590).]




                              CHAPTER V.

                   EXTERIOR FEATURES (_continued_).

           GENERAL ASPECT, EXTERNAL APPEARANCE, WINDOWS, &c.


Before proceeding to enter one of these doorways and to examine the
interior treatment of an Elizabethan house, it will be well to look
at the exterior more closely. We find that the effect, although
often elaborate and striking, is produced by very simple means. The
picturesque appearance of Haddon and Compton Winyates is chiefly due
to the irregularity of the plan, which in the case of the former was
largely the result of a gradual growth, extending over some centuries.
The stately effect of the Elizabethan house is the result of regularity
and symmetry in the plan, and its picturesqueness springs from its
windows, gables and chimneys. The English designer avoided, as a rule,
very large plain surfaces and long unbroken façades, differing in the
latter respect from his Italian contemporaries. He diversified his
long fronts by throwing out bay-windows; he broke up the skyline with
gables; he grouped his chimneys so as to add emphasis to the design;
and there were always the mullioned windows, of which the relatively
small divisions gave scale and life to the whole. There are many houses
which have no further attempt at ornament than these features, and
these are felt to be quite sufficient; but occasionally, when a great
effort was demanded, the Elizabethan designer borrowed his ornament
from abroad, and added a multiplicity of pilasters and niches to his
walls, extravagant and fantastic curves to his gables, while, in order
to avail himself of classic forms to the full, he turned his chimneys
into the semblance of columns. His zeal was not always accompanied
by knowledge; he sometimes misapplied his borrowed features; he too
frequently regarded a pilaster as in itself an agreeable ornament,
without troubling to bring it into scale with the building or with
his other pilasters used elsewhere, and without providing for it
even a semblance of anything to support. The more ignorant masons
evolved designs which bore but a distant resemblance to the originals
which inspired them. All this is true, and it is so manifest that one
cannot be surprised at the opprobrious epithets bestowed upon work of
this period by purists of other schools. Still, in spite of errors
and ignorance in the application of ornament, there is an exuberant
vitality about the buildings of the time which accords with the
vitality of its literature. Moreover, their character is essentially
English: an Elizabethan house could no more have been designed
by Palladio or Du Cerceau or Vriese than a play like those which
Shakespeare gave us could have been written by one of the novelists,
essayists, or dramatists of Italy, France and Germany, from whom the
Englishman, however, did not hesitate to borrow some of his material.

  [Illustration: 76.--KIRBY HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. SOUTH SIDE OF
  COURT (1570-75).]


                         EXTERNAL APPEARANCE.

The courtyard of Kirby Hall is one of the finest examples that is left
of the period (Fig. 76), and although pilasters of different scale are
employed as ornamental features rather than as constructional, the
whole effect is both dignified and picturesque. The mullioned windows
have a lively simplicity, the large pilasters prevent monotony, and the
small detail about the central porch contrasts happily with the plainer
treatment of the main walls. The external façade on the west, though
not symmetrical, is kept in subjection; the strong horizontal lines of
the strings and cornices bind it together, and the great chimney stacks
are so ordered at regular intervals that they alone would give dignity
and rhythm to the front (Fig. 77). The work on this front is not all
of one time, though the various parts cannot be separated by many
years, and it is quite possible that the curved gables were added by
a somewhat later hand. Sir Christopher Hatton's successor may have
modified this façade towards the end of the century, when he built the
stables, which have now disappeared.

  [Illustration: PLATE XXVII.

  WOLLATON HALL, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 77.--KIRBY HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. WEST FRONT (1570-75,
  PARTS POSSIBLY 1595).]

  [Illustration: 78.--LONGLEAT, WILTSHIRE (1567).]

  [Illustration: 79.--WOLLATON HALL, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. PLAN OF PRINCIPAL
  FLOOR (1580-88).

     1. Hall.
     2. Saloon.
     3. Library.
     4. Dining-room.
     5. Armoury.
     6, 6. Bedrooms.
     7. Boudoir.
     8. Study.
     9. Small Drawing-room.]

Kirby is freer in its treatment than Longleat, in Wiltshire, which has
to submit to a more severe symmetry (Fig. 78). The windows here are
rather overpowering, but the whole effect is restful, owing to the
strong horizontal lines, while the projecting bays entirely relieve
it from monotony. There are no gables, and apparently never were,
which is a somewhat unusual circumstance, considering the date of its
erection, 1567. Wollaton, near Nottingham (Plate XXVII.) bears some
resemblance to Longleat in its detail, but it is far more fantastic in
its treatment, and its plan places it in a category almost by itself.
It cannot be called a typical house either in its arrangement or its
design, although from its striking appearance and excellent state of
preservation it is frequently quoted as such. Its plan shows a central
hall, surrounded by a range of rooms, with a projecting pavilion or
tower at each of the four corners (Fig. 79). The general effect is
undoubtedly impressive, but the ornament is overloaded, and shows a too
careful study of extravagant Dutch models. The work, however, and the
design are those of well-instructed masons, familiar with the features
they were handling. Wollaton is another instance of combining a
central hall with a central doorway. The present flight of steps inside
the front door, together with the doors in the long sides of the hall
immediately opposite, is comparatively modern. The original approach,
after entering the front door, was up a flight of steps to the right,
at the top of which, by turning to the left (as at Fountains Hall), the
screens were gained, and the hall was entered in the usual way.

At Burghley House we revert to a simpler treatment. The main walls
are of plain masonry pierced with windows, and divided by the usual
horizontal cornices (Plate XXVIII.). Diversity is obtained by
projecting turrets, lofty bay windows, and the boldly-curved entrance
porch on the north front. There are no gables, the skyline being
broken by the turrets, the chimneys, and the ornamental parapet. It
is, perhaps, an exaggeration to say there are no gables, but there are
none in the later part built between 1575 and 1587. The great hall has
gables, but that was built some years earlier.

  [Illustration: 80.--CHARLTON HOUSE, WILTSHIRE (1607).]

  [Illustration: PLATE XXVIII.

  BURGHLEY HOUSE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.

  GENERAL VIEW.]

At Charlton, in Wiltshire (Fig. 80), there is an example of the open
arcade, which became rather fashionable, but which later generations
have, in many houses, found unsuitable to our climate, and of which
the arches have in consequence been filled up. The gables here are
ornamented with a kind of filigree, which is more curious than
beautiful. At Aston Hall, near Birmingham, the south front presents
another instance of an open arcade (Fig. 81), and a good deal of
picturesqueness is imparted by the broken outline of the gables.
Corsham Court, in Wiltshire, shows a more restrained treatment (Fig.
82). The animated effect is obtained by a number of plain gables, and
by square projecting windows crowned with flat pediments, the whole
bound together with conspicuous horizontal strings. At Kentwell Hall,
in Suffolk, the dignified effect is produced by the combination of
two turrets with the front gables, by projecting windows carried up
the whole height of the building, and by massive chimney-stacks (Fig.
83). The approach is still on the axial line, although the present low
wall is but a poor substitute for the usual enclosure; but in many of
the examples cited the general effect is decidedly impoverished by the
disappearance of the outer courts.

  [Illustration: 81.--ASTON HALL, WARWICKSHIRE. SOUTH FRONT
  (1618-35).]

  [Illustration: 82.--CORSHAM COURT, WILTSHIRE (1582).]

  [Illustration: 83.--KENTWELL HALL, SUFFOLK.]

  [Illustration: PLATE XXIX.

  EXTON OLD HALL, RUTLAND.

  THE MANOR HOUSE, GLINTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 84.--CHENEY COURT, SOMERSET.]

  [Illustration: 85.--MANOR HOUSE, COLD ASHTON, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 86.--MANOR HOUSE, COLD ASHTON, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.
  GROUND PLAN.]

Coming now to somewhat smaller houses, we find the same simple
materials relied upon, and producing equally good effects. In the ruins
of the old Hall at Exton, in Rutland (Plate XXIX.), the front façade
shows curved gables separated by a length of pierced parapet, and the
side has three straight gables close together, with a huge stack of
chimneys placed irregularly against them. The Manor House at Glinton,
in Northamptonshire (Plate XXIX.), is even simpler; nevertheless, its
curved gables, carefully wrought chimneys, and projecting porch give
it a considerable amount of character. It is not on record when either
of these houses was built, but Exton Hall was probably the work of
John, Lord Harrington of Exton, the tutor of the Princess Elizabeth,
only daughter of James I. There is nothing left inside the house,
which was burnt down in 1810, but enough of the exterior remains to
show that, like most manor houses in the district, it must have been
a fine place in its palmy days. In the church at Exton are a number
of exceptionally good monuments of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, commemorating the Harringtons and their descendants (see
Fig. 6). The manor of Glinton was granted to the Dean and Chapter of
Peterborough at the dissolution of the monasteries, and so remained
till long after the house was built, which may therefore have been used
as a country residence for the Dean. At Cheney Court, near Bath (Fig.
84), another house without a history, the treatment is quite simple,
consisting of nothing more than three evenly placed gables along the
side, and two others, in combination with large chimney-stacks, along
the end. The reason for the sudden jumping up of the strings in the
right-hand gable of the side is not apparent; but as a matter of fact,
at the present time that part of the house is occupied by one tenant,
while the remainder is let to another. This type of manor house,
with its extremely quiet handling of gables, chimneys, and mullioned
windows, is common all over the country, and so far as its exterior is
concerned, it owes little besides its symmetrical disposition to the
Italian spirit. An extra touch is given to the doorway here (Fig. 68),
and the internal fittings show the foreign influence, but otherwise it
is entirely a native production. The same may be said of Cold Ashton
(Fig. 85), another house in the neighbourhood of Bath, but here the
symmetrical treatment is more marked, as will be seen by looking at the
plan (Fig. 86), and the chimneys are gathered into two groups which
serve the whole house. This is an interesting example of the smaller
kind of manor house, and it has been subjected to very few alterations.
Its history is not recorded, but it was evidently built by one of the
numerous squires of the time, who put his arms over the gateway on
the road side (see Fig. 58). Judging by the two doorways remaining in
the screen on the left of the central passage, one of which now leads
into a pantry, the hall has been shortened by the space required for
the pantry, but except for this alteration the plan seems to indicate
the original arrangement, including that of the front garden, with its
gateway and circular steps, its paved walk, and the flight of steps
leading to the terrace in front of the house. The external detail
throughout is of the simplest, but there is a good ceiling in one
of the parlours, and some of the woodwork is of unusual elaboration.
The character of the work points to the early part of the seventeenth
century as the date of erection. In these simpler examples the windows
do not occupy nearly so large a proportion of the wall space as they do
in the more ambitious houses.

  [Illustration: 87.--BOLSOVER CASTLE, DERBYSHIRE (1613).]

An interesting adaptation of the symmetrical arrangement of the
forecourt and lodges is to be seen at Bolsover Castle (Figs. 87, 88),
where the square house has been built on the site of the ancient keep,
which no doubt largely controlled its size. There are no gables, all
the roofs being flat; that over the house itself is approached by a
staircase in a domed turret, and was intended as a place of resort.
The usual picturesqueness of outline is obtained by various turrets
and chimneys. In the illustration the two chambers in the sides of the
courtyard are hidden behind those which form the entrance to it. It is
not easy to say to what use these chambers were to be put. They are
all furnished with fireplaces, most of which are carefully wrought,
as though for the delight of the owner rather than of his retainers.
The house itself is full of interest; all the rooms on the basement
and principal floor are vaulted, and the vaulting ribs and corbels are
managed with such care as was seldom bestowed upon those features even
in the days of stone vaulting. This method of construction was rapidly
going out of fashion, most of the houses of the sixteenth century
having floors of joists and boards, the underside being ceiled in the
early part of the century with wood, and in the latter with plaster.
But at Bolsover, as late as 1613, we have stone vaulting beautifully
wrought. There is a large amount of good panelling also left, and the
chimney-pieces are unrivalled in any house of the time for their beauty
and variety. Some of these will be illustrated when that subject comes
to be dealt with. This part of Bolsover Castle, although so carefully
built and embellished, is but a small portion of the whole scheme.
There was an immense gallery in close proximity, which, however, has
fallen to ruin. It is in a style somewhat later than its smaller
neighbour, with gigantic doorways and unwieldy mouldings, and forms
a link between Jacobean work and the more fully developed classic
treatment of the close of the seventeenth century.

  [Illustration: 88.--BOLSOVER CASTLE, DERBYSHIRE. GROUND PLAN (1613).

    1. Porch.
    2. Hall.
    3. Pillar-room.
    4. Main Staircase.
    5. Small Staircase.]

At Condover, in Shropshire (Fig. 89), an agreeable variety of treatment
is introduced on the garden front by contriving to get a range of low
rooms over the open arcade, the heads of the windows being at the same
level as those of the principal rooms. The central gable on the same
face is occupied by a bay window, which starts from corbels over the
centre arch of the arcade and is carried up to the topmost storey.
Variations like these serve to relieve the monotony which is sometimes
to be found in the symmetrical houses of the period.

  [Illustration: 89.--CONDOVER HALL, SHROPSHIRE. THE GARDEN FRONT
  (1598).]

  [Illustration: 90.--CLEGG HALL, LANCASHIRE.]

The amount of detail bestowed upon these houses varied according to
their locality and the materials at hand. In Yorkshire, Lancashire,
and Derbyshire, where the stone is hard, great simplicity is the
rule. The entrance doorway usually received some attention, and the
gables often had finials, but otherwise the work was of the plainest
description. The roofs were generally of flatter pitch than in less
boisterous districts, and the whole house gives the impression of rough
sturdiness quite in keeping with the character of the owners. Compared
with the work in Northamptonshire, as exemplified at Kirby, Rushton,
or Apethorpe; in Hampshire at Bramshill; in Sussex at Cowdray; or in
Somerset at Montacute, the work in the north is severe and wanting
in detail. But it has its own charm, just as the rocky "edges" of
Derbyshire, and its wild, boulder-strewn tors, with their memories
of prehistoric tribes perched upon their bleak summits, have a grim
fascination not less powerful than that which hangs over the forest
districts further south, where ancient oaks, so old as to retain
little beyond their huge trunks, call to mind the curious and cruel
laws which once protected the animals that lived beneath their shade.
Haddon Hall is a large house, and was the home of one of the first
families of the county, but its stonework is comparatively plain.
Hoghton Tower, in Lancashire, is another large house, but the detail
is even simpler than at Haddon. Clegg Hall, near Rochdale (Fig. 90),
is a good example of a Lancashire house of medium size, except that,
compared with others to be found on the wolds and in the dales of
that part of the country, it is unusually lofty. Mount Grace Priory,
in Yorkshire (Plate XXX.), is of a more usual type, but even here
there is rather greater liveliness than generally distinguishes the
Yorkshire manor house; the windows are larger, and the dormers are of
steeper pitch than is common. Oakwell Hall, East Ardsley and Swinsty
Old Halls are good examples of their kind, with flat-pitched roofs,
plain gables, and windows of many small lights. The courtyard at
Ingelby Manor (Fig. 91) has an open arcade with some amount of detail
about it, but the effect is grim and chilly, and serves to illustrate
the mistake of transferring a child of the Italian sun to the bleak
regions of Yorkshire. In some parts of Lancashire, in Cheshire,
Staffordshire and Worcestershire, and generally in the west, timber was
much employed. The "black-and-white," or "magpie," or "post-and-pan"
work, as it is variously called, has much charm about it, and appeals
keenly to lovers of the picturesque. The contrast between the dark
framework and the light- plaster, together with the
variety of line consequent upon the constructional necessities of the
framework itself, insure a lively result; and when the straight lines
of the greater part of the framing are relieved by the introduction of
curved braces or more fanciful panels in the gables, the combination
is very attractive. The effect is often enhanced by dainty little
bits of detail in the wood finials and pendants and verge-boards, but
even without these aids the texture of the wood becomes so beautiful
through age and weather as hardly to require the help of a chisel. One
example, Moreton Old Hall, has already been mentioned (Plates XV.,
XVI.); Speke Hall, in Lancashire, near the banks of the Irwell, is
another (Plate XXXI.), and it has at the entrance a certain amount of
stonework which adds considerably to the interest of the house. There
is a fine example at Bramall Hall, near Stockport; a plainer one at
Pitchford Hall, in Shropshire; while, among others, may be mentioned
the Market-house at Ledbury and the Grange at Leominster, both in
Herefordshire. Some examples, although not so many, are to be found
in the southern counties; but all through Kent, Surrey, Sussex and
Hampshire the usual treatment of cottages and small houses was to hang
them with weather-tiling. The ground floor was generally of brick,
the upper one was tile-hung: there was nearly always a good chimney,
sometimes rising out of the roof, but often carried on a massive base
which was continued down to the ground. The rich colours which come
to these bricks and tiles with age tend to spoil those who live in
their midst, and to make them look with a somewhat dull eye upon the
quieter tones prevalent in stone districts. Examples of half-timber or
"magpie" work, however, are not wanting amid the tile and brick, and
one of the most elaborate is to be seen at Mayfield, in Sussex (Fig.
92), but it is far behind similar work in Cheshire and Lancashire in
richness of detail. In the eastern counties, as in the southern, brick
is the chief material, but here, too, plaster played an important part
in clothing the construction. In the west all the detail was put into
the wood; in the east it was put into the plaster, and there are many
examples still left of elaborate modelling in plaster to be found
upon houses and cottages in Essex and Suffolk. Cut flint was also
largely employed for walls, and was used in combination with stone to
produce highly-ornamental designs; but its employment seems to have
largely died out with the Gothic forms in which it was so successfully
manipulated. The brickwork, which in the early part of the century
was very rich and elaborate, became much plainer towards its close,
and indeed the terra-cotta and the wonderful chimney-shafts of Henry
VIII.'s time are hardly to be found in the work of succeeding reigns.
It is not in brickwork that we must look for Elizabethan detail, but
rather in the easily-worked stone which underlies the central district
of England from Devon and Somerset in a north-easterly direction to
Rutland and Lincoln.

  [Illustration: PLATE XXX.

  MOUNT GRACE PRIORY, YORKSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE XXXI.

  SPEKE HALL, LANCASHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 91.--COURTYARD, INGELBY MANOR, YORKSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 92.--HOUSE AT MAYFIELD, SUSSEX.]


                               WINDOWS.

  [Illustration: 93.--COWDRAY HOUSE, SUSSEX. PART OF COURT.]

It has already been said that an Elizabethan house depends for its
picturesqueness chiefly upon its windows, gables, and chimneys. The
mullioned and transomed window is indeed one of the characteristic
features of the Elizabethan style, the openings being all rectangular.
Already during the prevalence of Gothic forms the vertical spaces
formed by the mullions of the windows had been divided horizontally by
transoms, but this treatment was rather the exception than the rule.
In Tudor times the windows were usually small, sometimes consisting
only of one light, but often of two or even three, and occasionally
being two tiers in height. The lights almost always had flat-pointed
heads. The small size resulted from the old wish to have a defensible
house, but as the need for such precaution lessened, the lights
increased in number; the desire for well-lighted rooms led to still
further extension and to doing away with the pointed heads in favour
of straight ones. The gradual changes in the form of windows is well
seen in the courtyard at Cowdray (Fig. 93). The window on the extreme
right of the illustration, with its pointed arch and traceried lights,
is Gothic; next to it comes a Tudor bay window, made up of a number of
flat-pointed lights, which there was no need to restrict in this case,
because the window looked into the court. To the left are two bays of
Elizabeth's time, with rectangular lights three rows in height and
many in width. At Barrington Court (Plate XXXII.) may be seen a more
usual example of Tudor windows, as well as the twisted finials of which
the early sixteenth century was so fond. Another kind of treatment
is occasionally to be found, in which brackets are introduced in the
upper lights, springing from the mullions and supporting the horizontal
head. One version of this method is to be seen at Layer Marney in the
windows over the archway (Plate XIII.), and another at Lacock Abbey
(Plate XXXVI.). In the latter window should also be noticed the circle
introduced at the crossing of the centre mullion and transom, which
resembles the treatment adopted in the screen at King's College
Chapel (Plate VIII.). The date of Layer Marney may be put at 1520,
Lacock Abbey at about 1540, and the screen at 1535. The greatest
development of windows was, however, to be found in the bay. The bay
window is one of the most important features in the architecture of
the time. English designers had always been fond of bay windows:
they put them to the daïs of their halls in quite early times, and
there are many examples of small bays being corbelled out on an upper
floor, where the exigencies of the ground plan did not permit of their
starting from the ground. But as a rule these early bays were only one
storey in height: as time went on, however, they grew to two storeys,
and then to as many as the main building itself had. From being an
adjunct they became a dominating feature, and most of the large houses
of the time derive variety of outline and rhythm of composition from
their bay windows. Hoghton Tower, in Lancashire (Fig. 94), has a fine
bay at the end of the hall. It is only one storey high, but that
storey is the full height of the building in that part. The sill is
brought down lower than those of the other windows in order to enable
the occupants of the daïs to look out into the court. At Astley Hall,
also in Lancashire (Plate XXXIII.), the two bays are the dominating
feature of the front; indeed, the whole architectural interest of this
side of the house lies in the management of the windows, for the
doorway, flanked by double columns which lend their united strength to
supporting a peaceable lion, is hardly worth attention. The long range
of windows which reaches continuously from one end of the building
to the other forms a striking feature, but must be a matter of much
concern to the housewife who has to drape them on the inside, and to
consider the claims of her carpet on sunny days.

  [Illustration: 94.--HOGHTON TOWER, LANCASHIRE. BAY OF HALL.]

  [Illustration: PLATE XXXII.

  BARRINGTON COURT, SOMERSET. (TUDOR.)]

  [Illustration: 95.--BURTON AGNES, YORKSHIRE (1602-10).]

  [Illustration: 96.--HOUSE AT BOURTON-ON-THE-WATER, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.]

At Burton Agnes the grouping of a circular bay in the gable with
an octagonal one just round the corner (Fig. 95) is very effective
pictorially, and makes an interesting plan. The circular bays at
Lilford, in Northamptonshire, set within the curved gables, produce
a pleasing combination (Plate XXXIV.); but of all circular bays the
palm must be assigned to the great twin bays at Kirby (Plate XXXIII.).
It was not only in important houses that these striking features
were introduced; they are to be found in all kinds of dwellings, and
frequently impart interest to small and insignificant cottages, whether
of stone, as at Bourton-on-the-Water (Fig. 96), or of wood and stucco,
as at Steventon, in Berkshire (Fig. 97). In both these examples much
of the pleasant effect is derived from the small size of the windows
and the proportionately large space of plain wall between them; but
the same effect can hardly be obtained in the present day, because the
rooms have to be higher, and toleration is seldom accorded, either by
private taste or public regulations, to windows which start a long
way from the floor and end a long way from the ceiling.

  [Illustration: PLATE XXXIII.

  ASTLEY HALL, LANCASHIRE.

  KIRBY HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. THE BAY WINDOWS.]

  [Illustration: PLATE XXXIV.

  LILFORD HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE (1635).

  CURVED GABLES.]

  [Illustration: 97.--COTTAGE AT STEVENTON, BERKSHIRE.]

There was no great variety in the mouldings of the stonework. Several
sections of jambs and mullions are shown on Fig. 98, of which No. 1
was most frequently used in Elizabethan and Jacobean work. The jambs
and principal mullions had an outer member, slightly splayed, which
formed a frame within which the subsidiary mullions and the transoms
were enclosed, as may be seen by referring to Figs. 71, 96, and 103.
Sometimes this outer member was moulded instead of splayed, as shown in
No. 2 (Fig. 98), and occasionally an extra member was introduced close
to the glazing line, as shown in No. 3. These three examples are all
varieties of the same type. No. 4 shows a type with a hollow moulding,
which was prevalent in Tudor work, as it had been previously in Gothic;
and it remained in use, along with the plain splayed mullion, up to the
time of the sash-window. Although it preceded the type No. 1, and might
therefore be considered to indicate an earlier date, it is not by any
means a safe guide, inasmuch as both forms were in use at the same
time. No. 1, however, was not used before the middle of the sixteenth
century, and may be taken as a fairly safe indication of a date
subsequent to that time. No. 5 shows a sunk splay, and was occasionally
used, but it is not frequently met with. The label shown on No. 4 was
used in late Gothic work, and survived in some instances as long as
the mullioned windows themselves; but in the more ambitious designs
its place was taken by the lower member of a cornice founded on
classic models. No. 6 is an example of a quite different type. In all
the others, the windows were of the ordinary mullioned type, with a
label (or cornice) over them. In No. 6 not only does the shape of the
mullion follow a new idea, but the whole of the mouldings outside of it
are carried round the head and jambs of the window to form a regular
architrave: the effect can be seen in the windows at Wollaton, in Fig.
106. As this architrave projected beyond the face of the wall, the
window-sill was brought forward to receive it, as shown on Fig. 99. The
projecting sill is supported at each end by a quaint corbel, and the
space between the corbels is filled by a projecting panel fashioned
like a piece of fancifully-shaped leather nailed on to the wall, and
having some of its cut ends curled up. This treatment of windows
involved a considerable amount of labour and expense, and accordingly
was not often adopted; but the use of the architrave became general
during the seventeenth century, after the mullioned window had given
way to sashes.

  [Illustration: 98.--SECTION OF WINDOW JAMBS AND MULLIONS.]

  [Illustration: 99.--WINDOW-SILL AT WOLLATON HALL.]

  [Illustration: 99A.--HEAD OF A WINDOW AT HATFIELD HOUSE.]




                              CHAPTER VI.

                   EXTERIOR FEATURES (_continued_).

    GABLES, PARAPETS, FINIALS, CHIMNEYS, RAIN-WATER HEADS, GARDENS.


                                GABLES.

  [Illustration: 100.--A NORTHAMPTONSHIRE COTTAGE.]

The gable is one of the characteristic features of the period. As a
rule it was of steep pitch--indeed, in many thatched barns and cottages
the apex is very acute (Fig. 100). In such cases the cottages generally
had attic-rooms in the roof, which were lighted by dormer windows,
over which the thatch was worked in such a way that they appeared to
be a growth out the main roof rather than an extraneous window applied
to it. In stone and brick houses the gable wall rose above the roof,
and was coped with stone to prevent the wet penetrating into it. The
coping rested at the bottom on a kneeler, which projected sufficiently
to accommodate itself to the projection of the eaves, and at the
apex it was usually crowned by a finial. A considerable amount of
variety was introduced into the design of the kneelers and finials,
and many a small house and cottage is redeemed from insignificance
by the possession of one or two of these features (Fig. 101). Even
where there was no finial, the mere fact of the apex of the coping
projecting above the line of the ridge produced a point that showed
against the sky, and helped towards the general picturesqueness of
effect. In some of the more important houses the finials were worked
with greater elaboration, and were placed not only on the apex of the
gable but on the kneelers at its foot (see Fig. 108, and the dormer on
Fig. 113; also Plate XXX.). The effect of plain gables contrasted with
those having simple finials is shown on Plate XXXV., while examples
of larger and more important finials may be seen at Kirby and Rushton
(Figs. 107, 113), the prevailing forms being some variety of the
obelisk.

  [Illustration: 101.--STONE FINIALS AND KNEELERS.]

  [Illustration: 102.--MANOR HOUSE, FINSTOCK, OXFORDSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 103.--COTTAGE AT ROTHWELL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
  (1660.)]

  [Illustration: PLATE XXXV.

  HOLMSHURST, BURWASH, SUSSEX.

  TUDOR HOUSE, BROADWAY, WORCESTERSHIRE.]

The use of simple gables or their combination with dormer windows and
chimneys, all without elaborate detail, is quite sufficient to impart
interest to a building, which otherwise would have little claim to
attention. Examples of these unpretentious houses are to be met with
in every county; one or two are illustrated here from Finstock, in
Oxfordshire (Fig. 102), Broadway, in Worcestershire (Plate XXXV.), and
Holmshurst, in Sussex (Plate XXXV.). There is very little conscious
effort about the design of either of these, beyond the introduction of
a certain amount of symmetry. At Finstock Manor House there is a range
of three equal gables occupying most of the front, and the door is in
the centre. At Tudor House, Broadway, there are three gables, but they
are detached from each other, and the middle one is rather larger than
its neighbours; a bay window of two storeys occupies the centre of the
front, and the very plainly treated door is at one end. The house at
Holmshurst is, like most of those in the Weald, built of brick: it has
stone windows, but very little detail, its effect depending upon the
two gables, each flanked with a large chimney-stack.

The style which was prevalent at the end of the sixteenth century
lingered on far into the seventeenth in buildings that were not subject
to the passing fashion: indeed, the treatment was hardly adopted
consciously, but was rather the obvious and natural way of building,
otherwise it would not have been applied to such cottages as that at
Rothwell (Fig. 103) and Treeton, near Sheffield (Fig. 104).

  [Illustration: 104.--COTTAGE AT TREETON, NEAR SHEFFIELD.]

In houses which were constructed of timber and plaster it was
impossible to carry up the gables above the roof; the method of
building did not admit of it, and there would have been no adequate
means of covering them from the weather. They were finished, therefore,
with projecting verge-boards, which served to protect the surface of
the walls, and which were often carved or cut and moulded. A simple
instance applied to a cottage is to be found at Steventon (Fig. 105),
but there are plenty to be seen in different parts of the country,
particularly in the west.

  [Illustration: 105.--COTTAGE AT STEVENTON, BERKSHIRE.]

In the more important houses the gables were not infrequently curved,
especially in later times, that is to say, the curved gable is more
frequent in Jacobean work than in Elizabethan. This idea no doubt came
from the Low Countries, where it was very extensively adopted, but
the extravagant and fantastic curves which the Dutchman loved were
much simplified by his English imitator. Some of the more ambitious
efforts, such as Wollaton, went near in their elaborate strap-work
to rival the original models. A study of one of the corner pavilions
(Fig. 106) will show how, not only in the gables but in the whole
treatment, the foreign influence is predominant. The simplicity of the
native type is entirely wanting. There are no plain surfaces of any
extent; the columns are broken by a projecting band; the pedestals on
which they stand are adorned with panels of double projection; not
only are the corner piers of the parapet crowned with an obelisk, but
the pediment at the top of each gable carries a small statue on a
pedestal: everything is done to add to the picturesqueness and richness
of effect. Nevertheless, through all the ornament with which the design
is overloaded, its main ideas are plainly visible: the large and simple
windows, the emphasizing of the angles, the gables of studiously
irregular outline. In some Dutch and German work the designers seemed
to lose sight of their purpose in the exuberance of their ornament,
but here it is not so. It will be seen that the circular niches on the
side faces are filled with busts, although the vertical niches between
the pilasters are empty. The busts, so far as they are named or can
be identified, are those of classic personages--Plato, Aristoteles,
Vergilius--and are said to have been brought over from Italy.

  [Illustration: 106.--WOLLATON HALL, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. ONE OF CORNER
  TOWERS (1588).]

The west front of Kirby (Fig. 107) offers a great contrast to Wollaton.
Here everything up as high as the parapet is as simple as it can well
be; there are no pilasters, no niches, no strap-work panels. The
windows and the cornices which make the circuit of the building are
the only architectural features. The gables have the strap-work, but
it is of a simpler form than that at Wollaton: the irregularity of
their outline, combined with the tapering obelisks, some of which have
open stone bows at the bottom, something after the fashion of a jug
handle, imparts the necessary picturesqueness, without having recourse
to the expensive devices employed at Wollaton. The latter house was
built between the years 1580 and 1588, and the gables may therefore be
taken as dating from 1588: the date of the west front of Kirby is not
recorded, but from the character of the work it may very well have been
subsequent to the main building operations in 1570-75, and, as already
stated, these gables were not improbably added towards the close of the
sixteenth century. One curious point about this front is the care which
was taken to make the quoins perfectly regular in size: in some cases
where the quoin stone was larger than the regulation size, the overplus
was slightly sunk, and then scored with false joint-lines to match
those of the adjacent rubble.

  [Illustration: 107.--KIRBY HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. PART OF WEST FRONT
  (POSSIBLY 1595).]

There was a simpler type of curved gable which was freely used, as in
the courtyard at Rushton (Fig. 108), and it was sometimes combined with
steps, as at Apethorpe (Fig. 109), the result being picturesque without
being fussy. The date of the example at Apethorpe is 1623-24, and that
at Rushton 1627. The curve, instead of being ogee-shaped as in these
instances, was sometimes composed of two curves of similar form, with a
square shoulder between them, like those at Blickling (Plate XXXVII.),
or the sweep of the ogee was broken by the introduction of a vertical
line, such as may be seen in the gables at Lilford (Plate XXXIV.).
Further varieties occur at Montacute (Fig. 48), Stanway (Plate XXII.),
and Westwood (Plate XXIII.).


                               PARAPETS.

The gables and the dormer windows in the larger houses were often
connected by a parapet, broken at intervals by a shallow pilaster
carried up to form the base of a finial or the seat for some heraldic
animal. Sometimes the parapet was solid, as at Apethorpe (Fig. 109),
Doddington (Plate XXI.), and the courtyard at Kirby (Fig. 76);
sometimes it was formed of a series of arches, as at Exton (Fig. 110,
and Plate XXIX.), and at Hambleton (Fig. 71); sometimes of stone
panels pierced with a pattern, as at Bramshill (Fig. 111) and Audley
End (Fig. 112); and sometimes of stone balusters, of which Rushton
Hall offers one example (Fig. 113) and Wollaton Hall (Plate XXVII.)
another. There was a considerable amount of variety, according to the
ability of the mason to design and of the owner to pay. The effect of
the pierced panels carried along a considerable length of parapet is
very rich and lace-like. The stone balusters were occasionally of very
meagre proportion, and used with too sparing a hand, but at Rushton
this is not felt to be the case. The parapet to the main roofs here
is more satisfactory than the rather confused ornament which serves a
similar purpose for the bay. This gable also affords a good example of
the manner in which the lights of the mullioned windows were stepped
up so as to follow roughly the <DW72> of the roof. In one or two houses
(Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire, and Temple Newsam in Yorkshire) the
parapets are formed of stone letters forming a series of legends which
make, more or less, the circuit of the house.

  [Illustration: 108.--GABLE IN COURT, RUSHTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
  (1627).]

  [Illustration: 109.--GABLE IN COURT, APETHORPE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
  (1623-24).]

  [Illustration: 110.--EXTON OLD HALL, RUTLAND. STONE PARAPET.]

  [Illustration: 111.--BRAMSHILL, HAMPSHIRE. STONE PARAPET.]

  [Illustration: 112.--AUDLEY END, ESSEX. STONE PARAPET.]


                               CHIMNEYS.

The chimneys were always dealt with boldly. In many cases, as already
said, they were massed into great stacks at intervals along the
walls, and made the dominating features of the whole design. Wherever
they occurred their presence was frankly accepted, and, as a rule,
much skill and ingenuity were bestowed upon them. In later centuries
chimneys appear to have become a source of considerable annoyance to
architectural designers, and a great deal of misapplied ingenuity was
expended in trying to conceal their existence, owing to the idea that
they interfered with the purity of classic façades. But in the early
days of the introduction of classic features, the problem of making
chimneys harmonize with the rest of the building seems to have been a
source of delight instead of annoyance.

  [Illustration: 113.--RUSHTON HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. GABLE ON EAST
  FRONT (1627).]

  [Illustration: 114.--CHIMNEY AT DROITWICH, WORCESTERSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 115.--BRICK CHIMNEY FROM HUDDINGTON COURT HOUSE,
  WORCESTERSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 116.--BRICK CHIMNEY FROM BARDWELL MANOR HOUSE,
  SUFFOLK.]

  [Illustration: 117.--CHIMNEY AT TOLLER FRATRUM, DORSET.]

  [Illustration: 118.--CHIMNEY AT KIRBY HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.]


The general use of chimneys was at this time rather a novelty. So late
as the time of Henry VII., in the new palace called Richmond Court,
built to replace an older structure destroyed by fire in 1498, the
great hall was warmed by a fire in the middle of the floor with a
lantern in the roof over it. There is a description of the Court in
the return of the Commissioners of Parliament made in 1649, which is
interesting not only as mentioning the fire, but as bearing out what
has already been said of the hall of a large house. The higher storey,
they say,[14] "contains one fayr and large room 100 feet in length and
40 in breadth, called the Great Hall. This room hath a screen at the
lower end thereof, over which is a little gallery, and a fayr foot-pace
in the higher end thereof [the daïs]; the pavement is square tile,
and it is very well lighted and seeled [_i.e._, panelled with wood],
and adorned with eleven statues in the sides thereof; in the midst a
brick hearth for a charcoal fire, having a large lanthorn in the roof
of the hall fitted for that purpose, turreted and covered with lead."
But early in the sixteenth century chimneys came into general use, and
they are one of the most characteristic features of a Tudor house. They
were generally built of moulded brick, and were fashioned in elaborate
and complicated ways. An illustration from Droitwich is given in Fig.
114, in which the moulded bases stand on panelled pedestals; the
shafts also are moulded, each after a different manner, and the caps
are crowned with a battlemented ornament. Some of the simpler forms are
illustrated among the details from Layer Marney (Plate XIII.), also
from Huddington Court House, in Worcestershire (Fig. 115), Bardwell, in
Suffolk (Fig. 116), and a stone example from Toller Fratrum, in Dorset
(Fig. 117). But far richer specimens are to be seen at Compton Winyates
(Plate XI.) or at Hengrave (Fig. 43), besides many other places. With
the death of Henry VIII. this elaboration disappeared, and a plainer
treatment prevailed. In some of the more pretentious edifices the
chimneys were cast into the form of columns, as they were at Wollaton
(Plate XXVII.) and Burghley (Plate XXVIII.), and at Montacute also,
where the column carries a kind of stone cowl. The columnar form had
occasionally been used in earlier days; there is a well-proportioned
and excellently wrought example at Lacock Abbey (Plate XXXVI.), where
the shafts are fashioned into fluted columns, and the cap takes the
shape of a short length of classic entablature with architrave,
frieze, and cornice complete. The columns stand upon a pedestal, the
face of which is occupied with a panel surrounded by strap-work;
and as there seems every reason to suppose the work to be part of
Sharington's prior to his death in 1553, the whole idea and its mode
of execution is unusually early, strap-work being associated as a rule
with a period fifteen or twenty years later. The consoles carrying the
projection of the base are an additional feature, and the whole group
is carefully designed. The notion, however, of making the chimney-flue
into a column and taking a short length of entablature as a cap is
hardly satisfactory, and a more reasonable type was employed at Kirby
(Fig. 118), while throughout the stone district of the Midlands the
usual form is that in Fig. 119, a form which, with modifications, has
lingered on even down to the present day. A somewhat ornamental variety
of the same idea is to be seen at Chipping Campden (Fig. 120), and
another variation at Drayton House, in Northamptonshire (Fig. 121).
The quaint triangular chimney of the Triangular Lodge at Rushton (Fig.
122) is really the same in principle, but its unusual apex and carved
panels place it in a class by itself. The brick chimneys of Elizabeth's
time have straight stalks and an oversailing cap of thin bricks,
occasionally varied with still thinner courses of tiles. The profile
is nearly always the same, but considerable variety is imparted by
varying the plan, and by adding square or triangular projections
to the plain faces of the flues. A simple but effective example may be
seen at Bean Lodge, near Petworth (Fig. 123). More elaborate specimens
are found at Knole House and Cobham Hall, in Kent; Blickling Hall, in
Norfolk (Plate XXXVII.); at Moyns Park, in Essex, and indeed on almost
every brick house of the time.

[14] _Nichols' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth_, Vol. I. (1566).

  [Illustration: PLATE XXXVI.

  LACOCK ABBEY, WILTSHIRE.

  CHIMNEY-STACK AND WINDOW.]

  [Illustration: 119.--TYPICAL CHIMNEY IN THE MIDLANDS.]

  [Illustration: 120.--CHIMNEY AT CHIPPING CAMPDEN,
  GLOUCESTERSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 121.--CHIMNEY AT DRAYTON HOUSE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
  (1584).]

  [Illustration: 122.--CHIMNEY AT TRIANGULAR LODGE, RUSHTON,
  NORTHAMPTONSHIRE (1595).]

Blickling Hall affords examples of many of the features which have been
described. It has fine stacks of chimneys, curved gables, and pierced
parapets over the windows; on each gable is a dainty little statue. The
front doorway is richly embellished, and over it are the owner's arms
set forth with much heraldic display. Classic features are used with
moderation and restraint; a cornice marks the level of the first floor;
other cornices crown the bay windows; and columns flank the archway.
But they are all used because they answered the designer's purpose,
and not because he hoped by loading his building with classic features
to give it a character which, without such help, he was powerless to
impart.

  [Illustration: 123.--BEAN LODGE, PETWORTH, SUSSEX.]


                           RAIN-WATER HEADS.

Attention should be drawn to another feature of which nothing hitherto
has been said, but which was one of the recognized means of obtaining
effect--namely, the rain-water pipes. These necessary adjuncts to a
building have ceased to play the important part which once they did;
they are still tolerated, because they cannot be abolished, but they
are only admitted grudgingly and of necessity. In the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries a large amount of care was bestowed upon their
design, and being made of lead they were susceptible of interesting
treatment. Their use was in the nature of a novelty, since up to this
time the water from the roofs had been allowed to splash on to the
ground from projecting gargoyles. They very frequently carried either
the date or the family crest upon them, and were often ornamented with
pierced work. The examples shown in Figs. 124-126 are from Haddon Hall;
two of them bear the cognizance of the Vernon family (the boar's head),
and one that of the Manners family in addition (the peacock). Haddon
passed into the possession of Sir John Manners, by his marriage with
Dorothy Vernon, in the year 1567, and these lead heads must be ascribed
to a date subsequent to the marriage, otherwise they would not bear the
peacock of the Manners family. They still retain in their ornament some
trace of Gothic feeling, but the topmost moulding, with the dentils
beneath it, is clearly of classic derivation. The third head with the
cresting of fleur-de-lys may well be of rather earlier date, and the
work of Sir George Vernon, the father of Dorothy. Allied to the last
example from Haddon is the rain-water head from Sherborne, Dorset (Fig.
127), dated 1579, also with a battlemented cresting. At Knole, in
Kent, is another good example (Fig. 128) with a pierced front and two
triangular projections ending in a pendant; the top is ornamented with
a battlemented cresting, now mutilated. Another specimen, of somewhat
plainer character, comes from Bramshill (Fig. 129); it is dated
1612, and has its outlet towards one end, so as to bring the water
horizontally along the wall for a short distance in order that the
pipe may not interfere with some feature in the wall below. At Rushton
there are some lead heads bearing the date 1627, which depend for their
effect upon their shape rather than upon their decoration, which is
practically limited to a very simple treatment of the cresting. These
are two or three examples out of a great many that still remain, some
of them being even more ornamental; the greater number, however, were
more nearly allied to the plainer than the richer examples.

  [Illustration: PLATE XXXVII.

  BLICKLING HALL, NORFOLK (1619-20).

  PART OF ENTRANCE FRONT.]

  [Illustration: 124.--LEAD RAIN-WATER HEAD FROM HADDON HALL,
    DERBYSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 125.--LEAD RAIN-WATER HEAD FROM HADDON HALL,
    DERBYSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 126.--LEAD RAIN-WATER HEAD FROM HADDON HALL,
    DERBYSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 127.--PIPE HEAD FROM SHERBORNE, DORSET.]

  [Illustration: 128.--LEAD PIPE HEAD FROM KNOLE, KENT.]

  [Illustration: 129.--LEAD PIPE HEAD FROM BRAMSHILL.]

  [Illustration: PLATE XXXVIII.

  HADDON HALL, DERBYSHIRE. STEPS TO TERRACE.

  CLAVERTON, SOMERSET. TERRACE WALL.]


                               GARDENS.

  [Illustration: 130.--GAYHURST, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. STONE PILLAR IN
  GARDEN.]

This is not the place to enter into an elaborate account of gardens,
but they touch the subject under discussion so far as this--that there
was a certain amount of architectural design bestowed upon them in the
shape of terraces, flights of steps, balustrades and garden-houses. The
view of Montacute shown in Fig. 48 gives a good idea of the manner in
which the house was set off by a formal garden enclosed by stone walls
and balustrades, which were emphasized at the angles by garden-houses,
and along their lengths either by gateways or some kind of special
object, such as the quaint kind of temple, which serves no purpose
but to vary the monotony of the balustrade. The well-known terrace at
Haddon is as good an example as can be found of the fine effect of a
raised walk approached by a broad flight of steps, and protected by
an arcaded balustrade (Plate XXXVIII.). The detail is quite simple,
there is no particular effort visible, every thing seems to be there
because it is wanted, but the whole effect is extremely picturesque.
At Claverton, near Bath, are the remains of a fine house and garden,
of which a long terrace wall is also illustrated on Plate XXXVIII.
Here the straight length is broken by the large gate-piers, which rise
some twelve feet high before tapering off into the universal obelisk.
Claverton must have been a splendid example of Jacobean work, judging
by the illustrations in Richardson's _Elizabethan Architecture_, but
unhappily little of it now remains. At Gayhurst, in Buckinghamshire,
there are a number of quaint stone piers flanking the main approach,
set a few yards apart (Fig. 130), the space between them being filled
in with cut yew hedges. Hedges do not enter into the scope of the
present work, but they were much in vogue, as were also pleached
alleys and the green shaded walks so much desired by the Noble
Gentleman in Beaumont and Fletcher's play of that name. With arches in
walls we have more concern, and have already dealt with them in dealing
with the approaches to the house; but an additional example from a
garden at Lingfield, in Sussex, is illustrated in Fig. 131; and another
from Highlow Hall, in Derbyshire, on Plate XXXIX.

  [Illustration: 131.--GATEWAY IN GARDEN, LINGFIELD, SUSSEX
  (1617).]

The lay-out of a late sixteenth century garden was tolerably simple,
the whole being treated on a definite system, and with straight lines.
The bowling-green was an important adjunct, and the larger houses had
mounts for prospect, and also a "wilderness" of considerable extent.
The description of the gardens at Nonesuch, given by the Parliamentary
Commissioners in their survey of April, 1650[15] (already quoted),
gives a good idea of the gardens attached to the larger sort of houses.
The "frontispiece," or approach, was railed with handsome rails and
balusters of stone; at a distance of eight yards from the house was
the bowling-green, from which a fair and straight path led along an
avenue to the park gate, which (they say) being very high, well-built,
and placed in a direct line opposite to the house, was, in consequence,
a good ornament to it. On three outward sides of the inner court lay
the "Privy Garden," surrounded with a brick wall 14 feet high, and cut
out and divided into various alleys, quarters, and rounds, set about
with thorn hedges. Adjoining this garden was the kitchen garden, also
enclosed by a 14 feet wall: on the west of this lay the wilderness. In
the privy garden was a spiral pyramid of marble, set upon a base of
similar material, "grounded upon a rise of freestone;" and near this
there was a large marble wash basin, over which stood a marble pelican,
fed with water through a lead pipe. There were also two other marble
obelisks, and between them a fountain of white marble, set round with
six lilac trees, "which trees bear no fruit, but only a very pleasant
flower." In the highest part of the park stood the banqueting-house,
a three-storey timber building of quadrangular form, enclosed within
a brick wall. The ground floor was occupied by the hall, the upper
storeys had respectively three and five rooms, and they were all
panelled with oak. In each of the four corners of the whole house
there was a balcony placed for prospect. This is worth remembering,
for the desire to obtain a prospect is generally considered to be of
modern growth; and no doubt until quite recently it was necessary
to a beautiful view that it should be obtained in ease and comfort.
The notion of climbing a wild mountain for the sake of the view was
probably never entertained before the beginning of this century.

[15] _Archæologia_, Vol. V. p. 429.

There is a good example of the lay-out of a forecourt to a small house
at Eyam Hall, in Derbyshire, and although tradition and the only date
to be found about the building (on a spout-head) place the erection
of the house in the latter part of the seventeenth century, it looks
much earlier, and is characteristic of the beginning of the century
rather than of the end. There is very little detail about it; but the
formal disposition and the broad and simple treatment combine (with the
assistance of time) to impart a fine and dignified effect. It will be
seen from the plan (Fig. 133) that the court is nearly square. It is
entered from the road through a pillared gateway up a short flight of
semicircular steps; a broad paved walk leads to another flight which
lands on to a wide paved terrace extending along the whole front of
the house (Plate XXXIX.). Exactly opposite the steps is the front door,
placed centrally in the main face of the house, which is recessed
from the faces of the projecting wings. At either end of the terrace
is a doorway, one leading to the kitchen approach, the other to the
garden, which is reached down another flight of semicircular steps. The
paths in the vicinity of the house are straight, and the rise of the
ground necessitates still more steps, which give access eventually to
a long, straight walk beneath a south-west wall. Away from the house
the treatment has lapsed into less formality; but the house itself,
together with the court, the terraces, and the flights of steps, the
whole gay with flowers, makes a very attractive picture.

  [Illustration: 132.--CHIPPING CAMPDEN, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.
  GARDEN-HOUSE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE XXXIX.

  GATEWAY AT HIGHLOW HALL, NEAR HATHERSAGE, DERBYSHIRE.

  EYAM HALL, DERBYSHIRE. TERRACE STEPS.]

The banqueting-house at Nonesuch was, like the other part of the house
itself, built of timber. So, also, in all probability, was the "goodly
banqueting-house" which the Lord Admiral built for the Queen when she
went to his place in the year 1559 from Hampton Court. It was richly
gilded and painted (we are told), "that lord having for that end
kept a great many painters for a good while there in the country."
But the more usual material was brick or stone, and a fair number of
examples of such buildings still survive. One of the most elaborate is
to be seen at Chipping Campden (Fig. 132), in Gloucestershire, where
the fall of the site enables an under-storey to be obtained without
being buried in the ground. The illustration shows the ground floor
only, but there is a storey below it approached by a substantial
staircase. The work is elaborate, and has lasted well in spite of its
rather unworkmanlike treatment, as for instance in the jointing of
the stone parapets. The detail is too fanciful, and the building is
illustrated not so much for the sake of its design, as to show how much
trouble and expense were lavished upon a structure which could only
have been used a few times during the year. It and its fellow on the
opposite side were, however, important features in the general lay-out.

  [Illustration: 133.--EYAM HALL. PLAN OF LAY-OUT.]




                             CHAPTER VII.

                          INTERIOR FEATURES.


The chief points in the internal arrangement of houses of the period
have already been explained in the third chapter. The hall was the
central feature, entered at one end; next to this end was the kitchen;
next to the other, or daïs end, was the parlour. The kitchen and the
parlour respectively were amplified according to the accommodation
required, and in the larger houses the amplification entailed one or
more courts, but the hall remained the centre of the system. The need
for such great amplification as we find in the larger houses arose
from the fact that large retinues accompanied great personages on
their visits to each other, and that there was always the chance that
the sovereign might have to be entertained upon one of the progresses
which were undertaken three or four times every year. Both Elizabeth
and James adopted this method of keeping in touch with their subjects,
and they must have become tolerably familiar with their dominions,
except, perhaps, the extreme outlying parts in the north and west; and
so far as James was concerned, he made the acquaintance of a good many
houses in the north, on his journey from Scotland when he came to take
possession of the crown.


                           ROYAL PROGRESSES.

When Queen Elizabeth made her progresses, she was frequently
entertained with elaborate shows, which, presumably, must have pleased
her, since they occurred so often, but which afford tedious reading
to the modern inquirer. They were usually cast in an allegorical
form, and had more or less dramatic action. They took place in the
daytime and in the open air: it can hardly be said that they were
performed, for the thread of the plot was so thin, and the stage of
operations so large, that the whole effect must have appeared rather
fortuitous, and wanting in cohesion. At night time and in one of the
great halls, either of a city, a college, or a great house, there
were other performances, in which the interest was more concentrated,
and the characters more varied; these were called plays, of which a
great number were performed, written by all sorts of people, and all
affording (apparently) equal pleasure to the onlookers. The majority
of these pieces have faded into oblivion, but a certain number have
survived, and go to form much of what we know as the Elizabethan drama.

But it is with the entertainments provided in the daytime that we are
more particularly concerned: they were of an ephemeral nature, and have
not, like many of the plays, passed into the literature of the country:
and our concern with them lies in the form in which they were cast and
the spirit which animated them. When Elizabeth made her passage through
the city of London to Westminster the day before her coronation--that
is, on January 13th, 1558--the whole journey was interspersed with
"pageants," as they were called.[16] These consisted of triumphal
arches of various designs, upon which living allegorical figures were
placed: one represented the Queen's immediate ancestors: another
four virtues treading down four contrary vices; another the eight
beatitudes; on another were Time and Truth his daughter; and so forth.
Each of these personages, says the account, according to their proper
names and properties, had not only their names in plain and perfect
writing set upon their breasts easily to be read of all, but also each
of them was aptly and properly apparelled, so that his apparel and name
did agree to express the same person that in title he represented. As
each pageant was reached, there stepped forth a "child" on to some
prominent part of it, who recited a number of verses explanatory of the
device, and a copy of these verses was affixed in a tablet upon the
pageant, balanced by another bearing a Latin version of the same lines.
Besides these, it says, every void place in the pageant was furnished
with sentences touching the matter and ground of the said pageant. We
have here, therefore, on a large scale, the same kind of treatment
which was applied on a small scale to chimney-pieces--allegorical
figures and various inscriptions more or less pithy. It is a matter
for speculation whether either the Queen or the populace at large
thoroughly grasped the full meaning of the several devices upon which
so much ingenuity had been lavished; but certainly to the monarch,
who stopped at every pageant, and received an explanation of it,
the journey must have been extremely tiring, seeing how great were
the number and ingenuity of the pageants. To preserve so much good
work from oblivion, within the next ten days an account of the whole
"passage" was printed, which towards its close gives much credit to the
city, forasmuch as without any foreign person, of itself, it beautified
itself. This casual reference to the foreign person, and to the city
being able to manage without his help, shows that he was a recognized
factor in the production of design.

[16] _Nichols' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth._

When King James made his "memorable Passage from the Tower to
Whitehall," on the 15th March, 1603-4, there were seven triumphal
arches erected, of such importance that they were considered worthy
of being engraved and published. They were designed by an Englishman,
Stephen Harrison, "Joyner and Architect," and their architectural
treatment followed the lines of the more pronounced Anglo-Italian
work of the time, in which classic feeling has superseded Gothic.
They are interesting as showing how completely the English craftsman
had familiarized himself with the foreign methods of design. They
were published by Harrison in 1604, the engravings being by William
Kip.[17] They were built in a substantial manner, nearly six months
being spent upon their erection. Two of them were called respectively
"The Italians' Pegme" and "The Pegme of the Dutchmen," residents of
these two nationalities being responsible for their erection; but it is
curious to see that the Dutchmen's arch is not more Dutch in treatment
than the Italians'. It evidently did not occur to Harrison to emphasize
the character of his designs to suit the two nations, even if he were
aware of the points in which their architecture differed.

[17] The title of the book, which is well worth inspection, is "_The
Archs of Triumph, erected in honor of the High and Mighty Prince James,
the First of that Name King of England, and the Sixt of Scotland, at
his Maiestie's Entrance and Passage through his Honorable Citty and
Chamber of London, upon the 15th day of March, 1603_. Invented and
published by Stephen Harrison, Joyner and Architect; and graven by
William Kip."

It was perhaps natural in those days that when Queen Elizabeth visited
the great seats of learning she should be greeted with a shower
of Latin verses and orations. Pages after pages of these have been
preserved, but it seems extremely doubtful whether the recipient of
them could have found time to master their contents. The orations she
listened to and understood, for the expression of her face is said to
have changed with the subject-matter of the speeches, and some of them
she answered in the same tongue. But it was by no means to Eton or to
Oxford and Cambridge that Latin verses and orations were confined:
obscure parsons in small towns seized their opportunities, and were
often handsomely praised by the Queen for their skill. As to verses,
when she visited Sandwich in 1573, "upon every post and corner, from
her first entry to her lodging, were fixed certain verses, and against
the court gate all these verses put into a table [_i.e._, a frame] and
there hanged up."

The Queen's visit to Kenilworth Castle in July, 1575, is one of the
best known episodes of her Progresses, and the "Princely Pleasures at
Kenilworth Castle," recorded (and largely devised) by George Gascoigne,
consisted of the same kind of entertainments as greeted her at her
coronation. They are too long to quote extensively, but a few of the
principal efforts will serve to show the kind of spirit that was abroad
at the time.

As the Queen approached the castle, Sybilla met her and prophesied
prosperity in a number of verses. On entering the gate Hercules, who
acted as porter, seemed inclined to dispute her entry, but being
overcome by the "rare beauty and princely countenance" of her Majesty,
he gave up his keys, and burst into poetry. In the base-court there
came a lady, attended by two nymphs, and the lady welcomed her Majesty
in another set of verses. A few steps further on came an actor clad
like a poet, who pronounced a number of Latin verses, which were
also fixed over the gate in a frame. After leaving the poet, she was
received into the inner court with sweet music, and then escaped to
her own "lodgings." A day or two after her arrival there met her in
the forest, as she came from hunting, one clad like a Savage man, all
in ivy, who was so much overcome with wonder at the Queen's presence
that he fell to quarrelling with Jupiter, and called upon Echo to
explain who the resplendent personage might be, incidentally contriving
to lavish a number of compliments in the course of the inquiry.
Then Triton came, and the Lady of the Lake, and Proteus sitting on a
dolphin's back, who all delivered themselves of further compliments in
lengthy verses. It is just conceivable that her Majesty grew a little
weary of these pedantic interludes, for one long show was prepared
by Master Gascoigne, in which Diana and her nymphs, Mercury, Iris,
and others were to have acted; but in spite of every actor being
ready in his garment for two or three days together, it never came to
execution, being prevented (its author thought) by lack of opportunity
and seasonable weather. At the Queen's departure, being commanded by
the Earl of Leicester to devise some worthy farewell entertainment,
Master Gascoigne clothed himself as Sylvanus, the god of the woods, and
meeting the Queen as she went hunting, broke out into a long extempore
oration, which her Majesty at length interrupted by proceeding on her
way. Sylvanus, however, kept pace with her, and continued his speech
running at her side, until in very pity for his breathless condition,
the Queen stopped her horse. At Sylvanus's humble request, however,
she continued her ride, and he continued the ceaseless stream of his
oration, until coming to an arbour, a second actor in the tedious
drama, by name Deep Desire, took up his part, spake some verses, and
sang a song. A few more lines from Sylvanus released the Queen from
this very diverting farewell show.

Many other entertainments might be cited to illustrate the direction
which popular taste took in these matters; but to multiply instances
would be as tedious to the reader as (one cannot help thinking) the
shows themselves were to the Queen and her attendants. This, at any
rate, becomes clear--that the favourite themes, personages, and
allusions were of classic origin; the thoughts were clothed in pedantic
language; verses were freely written and hung up for passers-by to
read, and the Latin tongue was employed in preference to the English,
where it was not absolutely necessary that the points should be
understanded of the people. The accounts that have been handed down
of these interludes are, it is true, somewhat tedious reading, but
under the genial satire of Shakespeare they lose their dulness and
become amusing. We do not tire of Holofernes and his party in their
presentation of the Nine Worthies, nor of Bottom and his company in
their great classical interlude of "the tedious brief scene of young
Pyramus and his love Thisbe," nor of Orlando and his verses, which he
hung on every tree.

It was no small matter to entertain royalty in those days. Even in
the present day, when facilities for moving about and for obtaining
provisions are so vastly greater, and when the mode of life in the
Court is so much simpler, it requires a large house and a well-filled
purse. But in the sixteenth century the undertaking was more like
providing for a small army, and it is not surprising to find that
outside the wealthier owners of great mansions, there was a disposition
to evade the honour. Lady Anne Askewe wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton,
about the year 1581, to know if she might be excused on account of the
shortness of the notice and her "unfurnished house."[18] The officials
of the Court so far sympathized with this feeling that we find one of
them writing to a friend who was threatened with the honour, Mr. More,
of Loseley, to say what a "great trouble and hindrance" it would be,
and to advise him to "come and declare unto my lord of Leicester your
estate that majesty might not come unto your house."[19] It is not
clear whether these representations were actually made, and if made
whether they were successful or not; but, however that may be, the
same gentleman (he was now knighted) received an intimation in August,
1583, from Sir Christopher Hatton that the Queen intended in about
ten or twelve days to visit Loseley, and to remain there some four or
five days, and that he had better see everything well ordered and the
"house kept sweet and clean to receive her highness." Three weeks later
Sir William More had another letter from Sir Christopher to say that
on the third day thence the Queen intended to go to bed at Loseley
for one night only, and that he should see that the house was "sweet
and meet to receive her majesty," and should send his family away.
These involuntary hosts were not always consulted beforehand, for one
of them wrote to Sir William More in July, 1577, to say that he found
the lists were issued for a progress into his county, and his house
was one of those to be visited; accordingly he wrote to his loving
friend, Sir William, to beg him, for the sake of old acquaintance
and friendship, to say what order was taken by the Queen's officers
in respect of provisions when her Majesty visited Loseley, as the
writer was altogether unacquainted with the order of procedure. The
lists of places to be visited, or "gests," as they were called, were
carefully prepared beforehand, and gave the names of the houses and
their owners, the number of nights the Court intended to stay, and the
distance between one stopping-place and the next: this distance was on
the average about ten miles, but it varied, according to circumstances,
from five to fourteen, the latter being the longest journey attempted.

[18] Sir Nicholas Harris's _Memorials of Sir Ch. Hatton_, p. 223.

[19] _Loseley MSS._, p. 266.

To entertain the Sovereign and the Court the houses were necessarily
large, indeed we shall not be far wrong in attributing the enormous
size of the largest--such places as Holdenby, Theobalds, and Audley
End--to the express intention of providing suitable accommodation for
Elizabeth and James. Sir Christopher Hatton, in a letter to Sir Thomas
Heneage, in 1580, talks of Holdenby being dedicated to "that holy
Saint," meaning the Queen; and Lord Burghley, in writing to Hatton
about Holdenby and Theobalds, says "God send us both long to enjoy Her,
for whom we both meant to exceed our purses in these."[20] In another
letter (August 14th, 1585) he says, "My house at Theobalds was begun
by me with a mean measure, but increased by occasions of her Majesty's
often coming."[21] These mansions may be regarded almost in the light
of large hotels, with certain common apartments for the guests, a large
kitchen department, and a vast number of rooms arranged in groups of
two or three.

Although notice of the sovereign's intended visit was usually given,
it was not considered necessary for less exalted people to send word.
When James's queen was journeying towards London from Scotland, a
certain Lady Anne Clifford hurried with her mother to meet her. The
lady describes her journey, and how they went without notice to a large
house in Bedfordshire.[22] She says that having killed three horses
that day--it was midsummer--with extreme heat, they came to Wrest, my
Lord of Kent's house, "where we found the doors shut, and none in the
house but one servant, who only had the keys of the hall, so that we
were enforced to lie in the hall all night, till towards morning, at
which time came a man and let us into the higher rooms, where we slept
three or four hours." This artless account quite casually illustrates
the relation of the hall to the rest of the house. It was the room
first entered from the outside, and was shut off by doors from all
the rest of the house. The servant who let the travellers in probably
slept either in the buttery or a "lodging" attached to it, and beyond
those two apartments and the hall neither he nor they could go until
the "man" came who had the keys which gave access to the stairs and the
higher rooms.

[20] _Memorials of Holdenby_, by Miss Hartshorne, p. 16.

[21] _England as seen by Foreigners in the days of Elizabeth and James
I._, by W. B. Rye, p. 213.

[22] _Nichols' Progresses of King James I._, Vol. I., p. 174.


                    THE MANNER OF DECORATING ROOMS.

Some idea of what the rooms were like which surrounded a courtyard of
the time may be gathered from the description of the suite allotted to
the Earl of Lincoln when he went to Cassell, in 1596, on an embassage
to the Landgrave of Hesse; and although they were in a German castle
the description would apply almost equally well to those in a large
English house. The rooms were five in number, and they occupied the end
of a goodly quadrangle, like the Louvre at Paris, high and stately.[23]
They consisted of two dining chambers, two drawing chambers, and
between the two latter a bed chamber, so placed "for his more quiet
and private being." His lordship's own dining chamber was panelled
with wood and marble, "with crestings, indentments, and Italian pillar
work;" there were escutcheons with the blazoned arms of the Landgrave's
"friends and allies of the Protestant part," and on the four sides of
the room next the ceiling were carved four stories of the Creation, the
Passion, the Resurrection, and the Judgment; the ceiling was wrought
with knot-work. The next room, where the ambassador's gentlemen dined,
was hung with tapestry. The next "was a fair drawing chamber, seated
round about, and covered with scarlet; above the seats hung round with
a rich small wrought tapestry of an ell broad, of emblem work, and
verses written underneath; over this, upon a ledge of wainscot, were
divers tables [pictures] of sundry devices, well painted, with their
posies to garnish the chamber, and, among all, that was the best which
had this motto: 'Major autem horum est caritas,' for it waxed cold. The
roof was likewise flourished with painting and devices. These rooms
had the through light of four fair windows." The bedroom was decorated
with a painted tree that grew up at the door, the branches spreading
all over the ceiling, full of fruit, and hanging down upon the walls,
with other pictures to fill up empty places; the story taken out of
Daniel. The last room of the suite was "a fair drawing chamber hung
with arras, which parted his Honour's lodging from the other side of
the house, that so he might not any way be disturbed." We get therefore
in this set of rooms an example of the three principal modes of
decorating the walls--by panelling, by hanging with tapestry or arras,
and (more seldom) by painting. At Theobalds the hall was decorated with
trees, and not only were they furnished with leaves and fruit, but,
regardless of the niceties of natural history, with birds' nests too,
and so lifelike was the effect that, according to the testimony of a
German visitor in 1592,[24] when the steward opened the windows the
birds flew in, perched upon the trees, and began to sing--perhaps to
express their surprise at finding fruit and nests on the trees at the
same time. This realistic treatment was, fortunately, not very common,
and it is rather curious that so strong a man as Lord Burghley should
have delighted in such embellishments, and others equally puerile in
conception.

[23] _Nichols' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth_, Vol. II.

[24] The Secretary of Frederick, Duke of Wirtemberg. _England as seen
by Foreigners in the days of Elizabeth and James I._, by W. B. Rye, p.
44.

The more usual way of treating the walls was to cover them either with
hangings or with panelling. There are numberless references to the
former among the poets of the time. Imogen's bedchamber was "hanged
with tapestry of silk and silver"; Falstaff fell asleep behind the
arras when he took his ease in his inn, and had his pocket picked;
Polonius, when he hid himself in order to overhear Hamlet's interview
with his mother, slipped behind the arras, and it was through the arras
that Hamlet subsequently made the fatal pass with his sword. The rooms
in Spencer's Castle Joyous "were round about apparelled with costly
cloths of Arras and of Tours," and the parlour of Alma's castle "was
with royal arras richly dight." These hangings were moved from house
to house when the family migrated from one abode to another, and in
Beaumont and Fletcher's _Wit without Money_ there is a lively scene
in which a great lady suddenly determines to leave her house in town
for the country. Amid the confusion which ensues--servants shouting,
my lady's sister in much anxiety about her dog, her looking-glass, and
her curls--Ralph calls to Roger to help down with the hangings, but
Roger declines, as he is unable to leave the packing of his trunks.
The hangings at Hampton Court were of the most costly description,[25]
Cardinal Wolsey being an ardent collector, and utilizing the services
of his agents in various foreign countries to add to his stores.
Three-quarters of a century later much of this splendour was still
left, and the German visitor whom we have already seen at Theobalds
says of Hampton Court, that "all the apartments and rooms in this
immensely large structure are hung with rich tapestry, of pure gold
and fine silk."[26] From this regal magnificence there were numberless
gradations down to the "smirch'd, worm-eaten tapestry" mentioned in
that conversation between Borachio and Conrade which led to their
arrest by Dogberry. The subjects of these hangings were of extreme
diversity--scriptural, mythological, and allegorical. There were the
stories of Toby, Our Lady, and the Forlorn Son, alongside of those of
Priamus, Venus and Cupid, and Hannibal. The story of Esther balanced
the Romaunt of the Rose. Christian saints and heathen gods were equally
welcome, and always and everywhere, either in foliated borders or
forming the subject-matter itself, were the arms of the owner, with
angels or amorini to support them, and a convoluted scroll to bear the
motto. The allegorical subjects are the most bewildering, and they even
puzzled the people of the time, to whom such trains of thought were
familiar, for it is expressly said of the tapestry in Alma's parlour
that in it there was nothing portrayed nor wrought but what was easy
to understand. Of course much of the tapestry which was so widely used
has now disappeared, or has found its way into the hands of collectors;
very little is left in its original positions, even if it remains in
the houses for which it was first acquired. There is a fair amount,
however, to be found up and down the country, and the effect of
tapestry-hung walls in conjunction with a rich plaster ceiling is shown
in Fig. 134, from a bedroom in Deene Hall, Northamptonshire.

[25] _Law_, Vol. I., p. 57.

[26] _England as seen by Foreigners_, p. 18.

 [Illustration: 134.--BEDROOM IN DEENE HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
 PLASTER CEILING: TAPESTRY ON WALLS.]


                            WOOD PANELLING.

Wood panelling is of a more permanent character than tapestry, or at
least is not so easily removed and adapted to fresh situations; and
there are many examples left of this mode of clothing and decorating
the walls of houses and churches. It was in vogue tolerably early
in the century, and there is a contract, printed in the _History of
Hengrave_, between Sir Thomas Kytson, for whom the house was built, and
Thomas Neker, for "seelyng" the house. This "seelyng" has been mistaken
for plastering, but a perusal of the contract shows that it must have
been panelling, since some of the rooms are to be "seelyd" their whole
height, and others only to the height of the windows, or a certain
number of feet high. Stools, benches, cupboards, and portals are also
mentioned as part of the work, as well as "the gates at the coming in";
and Sir Thomas is to find all manner of timber, hewn and sawn. Among
the rooms to be thus panelled were the hall, the two parlours, the
wardrobe over the cellar, and the two great chambers above the daïs.
Seven lodgings, that is bedchambers, were to have portals only; sixteen
other lodgings were to be "seelyd" to the pendant's foot, and on the
pastry house a wardrobe was to be made, with one close press, and open
presses round about. There was to be a fret on the ceiling of the hall
with hanging pendants, "vault fashion"; no doubt after the manner of
the watching chamber at Hampton Court, which was being built about the
same time. Towards these works Sir Thomas Kytson was to provide the
contractor with "all the old seelyng, and frets of the old work that is
in his keeping."

 [Illustration: 135.--HADDON HALL, DERBYSHIRE. A CORNER OF THE GREAT
 HALL.]

The development of wood panelling is of considerable interest. Previous
to the sixteenth century, that is in the days of the Gothic manner,
the construction was on a substantial scale, the framing being formed
of wood uprights and cross-pieces, measuring, perhaps, four inches by
three in section, the uprights being from eighteen inches to two feet
apart, and strengthened by horizontal cross-pieces at heights of three,
four, or five feet, or thereabouts, according to the height of the
room. The spaces thus formed into panels were filled with one piece of
board let into the surrounding framing, which was sometimes splayed,
but more generally moulded, the mouldings being stopped before they
encountered the cross-pieces. The screen in the hall at Haddon (Fig.
135) illustrates this early method of construction, while against
it, and clothing the wall and the side of the window-opening, is
the seventeenth-century panelling, the development of which will be
presently explained. The panels in Gothic work were ornamented either
with cusping, such as may be seen in the upper part of the screen at
Haddon, behind the antlers, or with paintings, such as still remain
in a number of churches, especially in the eastern and south-western
counties. Gradually, however, the large size of the framework was
reduced: instead of being four or five inches thick by three or four
inches wide, it became only about an inch or so thick by about the same
width as formerly. The panels were made narrower, because it was found
easier to get boards ten or twelve inches wide than of a width twice
those sizes, and gradually the very long proportion of height to width
was lessened, the panels became more nearly square, and eventually they
were made of varying sizes and proportions, but rhythmically arranged.

The old idea of moulding or splaying the wood framework was long
retained, and practical considerations in the framing of it together
gave rise to a particular kind of effect, which is characteristic of
the earlier kind of panelling. The framework is composed of vertical
and horizontal pieces of wood tenoned together and secured by wood
pins. It is obvious that if the edges of all the wood were moulded
before it was framed together, it would be impossible to make a neat
junction where the pieces crossed, because the continuous moulding on
the edge of the one piece would interfere with the proper adjustment
of the end of the other which comes against it at right angles. It
will be seen by referring to Fig. 136, that on the horizontal rails,
which are continuous, the moulding and the splay die out before they
reach the vertical pieces, thus leaving a plain surface sufficiently
wide for the latter to abut against, whereas on the vertical pieces
the mouldings are continued from top to bottom of the panel and stop
abruptly against the horizontal rails. The vertical pieces could
therefore have been worked in one long piece and then cut into lengths,
whereas on the horizontal rails the moulding was worked in lengths to
suit the width of the panels--a more troublesome proceeding, and one
requiring thought and care. The tendency of all change in workmanship
being towards the saving of thought and care on the part of the great
body of workers, the next steps in the development of panelling were in
this direction. But before following these steps, a reference to Fig.
137 will show how in some cases the horizontal rails are continuous,
with the edge-mouldings dying out, while the vertical are in short
lengths with continuous mouldings abutting against the horizontal
rails; and in others the parts played are reversed, and it is the
vertical pieces which run through. It will be noticed that in addition
to the edge-moulding, there are others on the face of the rails which,
not being subject to interference by the abutting of the cross-pieces,
are worked continuously without a break.

  [Illustration: 136.--PANELLING OF THE TIME OF HENRY VIII.]

  [Illustration: 137.--STANFORD CHURCH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. LINEN
  PANELLING.]

  [Illustration: 138.--A PANEL OF THE TIME OF HENRY VIII.]

In both these examples (Figs. 136, 137), and also in Fig. 138, it
will be observed that the panel itself is decorated with some kind of
carving. The English form is shown in Fig. 137, where the panels are
what are known as linen panels, the decoration taking a form something
like folded linen. In the long gallery at the Vyne the walls are
panelled with linen panelling, with the addition of coats of arms, or
badges, or scrolls bearing a motto (Fig. 19). A later form is seen in
Fig. 136, where the design is quite Italian in feeling. The circular
panels containing heads became a favourite feature in English panelling
about the end of Henry VIII.'s reign, and may generally be ascribed
to a date within a few years of 1540. The diamond-shaped panels in
the lower part appear to be horizontal panels standing on their ends,
and are probably not in their original relation to the others. The
two charming dolphins counter-hauriant, if the term may be allowed,
carved at the top of a long panel, leaving the lower part plain, give a
quaint and pleasing effect (Fig. 138). The presence of dolphins rather
points to French influence, for, although no doubt the use of this
form started in Italy, it was eagerly adopted by the French, since the
dolphin was the cognizance of their dauphin. The door at Castle Rising
(Fig. 139) gives another example of the use of heads in circular panels
among Italian foliage; but it will be noticed that the mouldings round
the panels do not conform to the type already explained, but to one
which is a step forwarder in development. Instead of the mouldings of
the continuous horizontal rails being stopped short of the sides of the
panels, they are carried on and intersect with them. This intersection
is called by joiners a mitre, and a mitred moulding is an advance on
a stopped moulding or one that abuts against a cross-piece. It will
be seen that in this example, although the moulding is mitred at the
top of the panel, it still abuts against the bottom rail. In the
panelling from Haddon Hall (Plate XL.) it will be seen that the very
simple moulding mitres all round the panels. But in all these cases the
mouldings are what are called "out of the solid," that is, the actual
framework of the panels is moulded, the consequence being that wherever
a moulding had to be stopped or mitred, thought and care were required,
and a failure of either involved the injury of a fairly large piece of
wood. The next step therefore was to refrain from working a moulding
on the solid wood, but to keep square edges to the framework, and
after framing up all the panelling with these square edges, to insert
round the margin of each panel a small separate moulding planted on to
the recessed panel. This saved much time and labour, and consequently
expense, and is the method pursued in the present day. Its application
may be seen in almost any four-panelled door in an ordinary house.

  [Illustration: 139.--DOOR AT CASTLE RISING, NORFOLK.]

This latest form, the "applied" mitred moulding, hardly came into
general use so early as the time of Elizabeth or James--indeed, the
date of its earliest occurrence is a question of considerable interest.
But mouldings mitred on the solid had almost entirely replaced the
older form of stopped mouldings by the end of the sixteenth century.
By returning to the illustration of the screen at Haddon (Fig. 135),
an example may be seen alongside the heavier Gothic work; and another
example, with a much deeper and broader moulding, may be seen in
an upper room at the same place (Plate XLI.). It is a provoking
characteristic of work of this time that its method of treatment
does not give an infallible clue to its chronological sequence. In
earlier times the mouldings gave this clue: when once a form was
superseded by another, it did not occur again; but in the period now
under consideration fashion was not so accommodating, and though on
the whole the mitred moulding is later than the stopped moulding and
finally superseded it, yet there are early examples of mitring, as in
the panelling at the Vyne, which must have been put up before Wolsey's
death in 1530, and there are late examples of stopped mouldings in such
things as chests, which maybe as late as James I. The pewing and pulpit
at Haddon (Plate XLI.) have them, and they are late Elizabethan, if not
Jacobean, while the panelling in the dining-room, which is dated 1545,
is mitred.

  [Illustration: 140.--DOOR AT BECKINGTON ABBEY, SOMERSET.]

The panels themselves, which in early days were decorated with the
linen pattern, and subsequently with Italian foliage and heads within
circles, became plainer and simpler. In the dining-room at Haddon all
the lower panels are plain, while a kind of frieze of ornament is
carried round in those next to the cornice. The ornament consists for
the most part of coats of arms from the Vernon pedigree, but there
are also heads in circles, linen panels, initials with true lovers'
knots, and other devices. All these are carved in relief, but in later
times carving gave way to patterns formed by sinking the groundwork and
leaving the design on a level with the face of the panel. There was
little or no modelling in the design, and the work could be done by a
less skilful hand than actual carving would require. An example is to
be seen in a door at Beckington Abbey (Fig. 140): the same kind of work
was often applied to the rails of panelling, the face of pilasters, and
other plain surfaces. Another specimen, with a little more modelling in
it, is at Nailsea Court (Fig. 141). The services of the carver were,
however, by no means dispensed with, and there is a vast amount of
richly ornamented panelling up and down the country, both in houses and
churches. The monotony of the constantly repeated oblongs was broken
by the introduction of pilasters, which were themselves fluted or
decorated with patterns.

  [Illustration: 141.--DOOR AT NAILSEA COURT, SOMERSET.]

Carbrook Hall, near Sheffield, which has now fallen from its former
estate, has a very fine panelled room, in which the pilasters are
richly decorated with various simple patterns (Plate XLII.). They
support a carved frieze, above which is a wood cornice, and above this
again is a modelled plaster frieze some two feet deep, forming part of
the handsome ceiling.

  [Illustration: 142.--PART OF REREDOS (REMOVED) AT  STOWE-NINE-CHURCHES,
  NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.]

At Benthall Hall, Shropshire, is another instance where the monotony
of the panels is relieved by the introduction of pilasters, and it
is also lessened by the presence of the large centre panels (Plate
XLIII.) with their greater freedom of treatment. The variation caused
by adapting the same design to the narrower panel of the door in the
middle bay is also a pleasant relief. The intention here was to rely
upon the panelling itself for the decoration of the room; there was
no thought of hanging pictures on it, which, indeed, would be out of
place, and would spoil the effect both of themselves and the panelling.
It may be doubted whether any of the panelling of the time, even the
simplest and the most regularly disposed, was intended as a background
for other ornament. It was itself the decoration, although, when
perfectly simple, it could be used in a restricted way as a background
for pictures. But the fashion of hanging up framed paintings and prints
had not yet arisen; when it did arise it rendered wood panelling
an inappropriate means for the general decoration of rooms. In the
church at Stowe-Nine-Churches, Northamptonshire, are the remains of
some good panelling which once served as a reredos, but which the
reforming and restoring zeal of a late incumbent has now relegated to
the vestry. There are fluted pilasters here, dividing panels which
increase in richness as they ascend, the upper ones containing boldly
projecting heads amid the usual strap-work curls (Fig. 142). Sometimes
the panels were made with semicircular heads, which rested upon
pilasters furnished with imposts and bases, all the margin being highly
ornamented, while the panels themselves were plain, as in the Court pew
at Chelvey, in Somerset (Fig. 143). There are many instances of the use
of these arched panels: the long gallery at Haddon has them in wide
and narrow widths alternately; and there is a room in the Red Lodge at
Bristol where every panel is arched, the effect thus produced being
very rich. At Chelvey the frieze is carved with a continuous pattern,
as it was in very many instances, but sometimes it was decorated in
a more mechanical way with ovals and oblongs, as at Benthall Hall
(Plate XLIII.), and occasionally it was pierced in a very charming
manner into a kind of filigree work, as in the remains of a screen at
Stowe-Nine-Churches, which has shared the fate of the reredos (Fig.
144). The effect of the frieze in this instance is enhanced by its
being slightly curved outwards.

  [Illustration: 143.--PART OF THE COURT PEW, CHELVEY CHURCH SOMERSET.]

In later days, instead of cutting down the substance of the wood
in order to get carving in relief, the projection was obtained by
cutting the ornament out of another piece of wood and applying it
to the surfaces that were to be decorated. Some of the ornament at
Benthall Hall appears to be treated in this manner. But whatever
means were adopted, the end aimed at was the same--namely, an extreme
richness of effect: indeed, in some of the panelling and in many of the
chimney-pieces the result is bewildering in its intricacy of line.

  [Illustration: 144.--PART OF SCREEN (REMOVED), STOWE-NINE-CHURCHES,
  NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE XL.

  HADDON HALL, DERBYSHIRE. A SIDE OF THE BAY-WINDOW IN THE DINING-ROOM
 (1545).

  HADDON HALL, DERBYSHIRE. PANELLING IN THE DINING-ROOM (1545).]

  [Illustration: PLATE XLI.

  HADDON HALL, DERBYSHIRE. BAY-WINDOW IN THE DRAWING-ROOM.

  HADDON HALL, DERBYSHIRE. WOODWORK IN THE CHAPEL.]

  [Illustration: PLATE XLII.

  CARBROOK HALL, NEAR SHEFFIELD.

  INTERIOR.]

  [Illustration: PLATE XLIII.

  SIDE OF ROOM AT BENTHALL HALL, SHROPSHIRE.

  _Scale: 5/16 inch to 1 Foot._]

  [Illustration: PLATE XLIV.

  WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD.

  SCREEN IN THE HALL (1610-13).]




                             CHAPTER VIII.

                   INTERIOR FEATURES (_continued_).

              TREATMENT OF THE HALL, SCREENS, OPEN ROOFS.


  [Illustration: 145.--THE HALL, KNOLE, KENT.]

On entering the hall after leaving the courtyard, it was on such
panelling as this that the eye rested. The screen which divided the
hall from the passage was generally even more richly decorated than
the adjacent panelling. Its two doorways were flanked with columns,
which carried a complete entablature from side to side of the hall;
above this came the panelled front of the gallery, which was surmounted
in its turn perhaps by a series of small arches, perhaps by some of
the fantastic strap-work peculiar to the time. The spaces between the
columns were panelled; every panel here and above was decorated with
carving--usually of shields of arms, but where these were not suitable,
as in halls of colleges, then with foliage or allegorical figures.
Knole House, in Kent, has a good example of a screen with heraldic
decoration (Fig. 145). Wadham College, Oxford (Plate XLIV.), has one
of comparatively simple character; while for sumptuous effect those
at Middle Temple Hall, London, and Trinity College, Cambridge (Plate
XLV.), could hardly be surpassed. Woollas Hall, in Worcestershire,
has a good screen of simple character. The illustration on Plate XLVI.
gives a view of it looking from the hall. The archway leads into the
passage called the "screens," in which can be seen the open door of the
principal entrance. The gallery has a balustraded front; it is carried
out over the entrance porch, and is lighted by a small window, visible
in Fig. 69, just below the oriel. The hall, having a room over it, has
a flat ceiling, and not an open timber roof. The windows of the hall
were usually rather high up, and the walls were panelled up to the
sills, but as a rule the sill of the bay window at the daïs end was
brought down low enough to afford an outlook. Above the panelling the
walls were largely occupied by the windows, the spaces between which
were hung with "pikes, guns, and bows, with old swords and bucklers
that had borne many shrewd blows": or they were filled with pictures,
of which a considerable number, chiefly portraits, began to be found
in large houses. From the top of the windows sprang the roof,
the feet of its principals coming down and occupying part of wall
space between them. The principals were still constructed in the old
hammer-beam manner, even at so late a date as 1604 for Trinity College,
Cambridge, and 1612 for Wadham, but all the ornament is of a late
type, and gives a very rich effect, the light glancing upwards against
the many surfaces of the pendants and the strong lines of the moulded
braces. The roof at Middle Temple Hall, built in 1570, is almost as
elaborate and fine as that of the Great Hall at Hampton Court, built
some forty years before, but the detail is later in character. The roof
of the hall at Wollaton is peculiar in that it is of the hammer-beam
type, although supporting the flat floor of a room over it (Fig.
146). Usually, when there was a room over the hall the ceiling was
treated with ornamental rib-work, in the same manner as the other and
less lofty rooms: the hall at Knole presents an example of this kind
of treatment (Fig. 145). At Kirby there is an unusual form of roof,
neither flat nor open timbered, but a kind of barrel-vault formed of
four straight faces (Fig. 147); each face is divided into large panels
by moulded and cut oak ribs of large size, and each panel has a curved
diagonal rib resembling the wind-braces of a Gothic roof. The panels
are filled with boarding at the back of the ribs.

  [Illustration: 146.--WOLLATON HALL, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. THE ROOF OF THE
  GREAT HALL (1580-88).]

  [Illustration: PLATE XLV.

  TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

  SCREEN IN THE HALL (ABOUT 1604-5).]

  [Illustration: PLATE XLVI.

  WOOLLAS HALL, WORCESTERSHIRE (1611).

  SCREEN IN THE HALL.]

  [Illustration: 147.--ROOF OF GREAT HALL, KIRBY, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
  (1575).]


                          THE SMALLER ROOMS.

Leaving the hall for one of the smaller rooms, we find much the same
kind of treatment, but here the ornamental ceiling plays an important
part in the decoration. The walls were panelled, more or less richly,
from floor to ceiling, and were crowned with a carved frieze and
projecting cornice, above which started the ceiling ribs. The great
chamber at South Wraxall (Plate XLVII.) gives a good idea of the whole
effect, but the coved ceiling is somewhat exceptional, and so also is
the great projection to the left. This is a mass of masonry required
to carry the roofs, but the designer, who found himself obliged to
leave it (for this room was contrived in an old house), resolved to
face the matter boldly and make an ornamental feature of it. It will be
noticed that though the panelling here is quite simple, a good deal of
character is obtained by varying the size of the panels in a systematic
manner.

In the old Town Hall at Leicester there is a good panelled room (Plate
XLVIII.), with a handsome chimney-piece and a special seat for the
mayor. The work, which bears the date 1637, is simple in design, but
is quite as effective and rather more pleasing than many of the more
elaborate effects of the time, in which the impression is conveyed that
the designers over-exerted themselves.

Another good example of rather later date is to be seen at the
"Reindeer" Inn, Banbury (Plate XLIX.); the panelling itself is
simple, but the doorways and chimney-piece are more elaborate, and
the columns which occur at the angles of the window-recess impart
considerable vigour to the whole effect. The restraint exhibited and
the concentration of the ornament on one or two places is a welcome
relief from the superfluity of decoration which not infrequently
distinguishes the woodwork of this period. In the broken and curled
pediments of the doorway and chimney-piece we get a decided indication
that the seventeenth century was well advanced when this work was done.
The ceiling here is very richly wrought, and the whole room comes as a
surprise in its out-of-the-way situation.

  [Illustration: PLATE XLVII.

  THE GREAT CHAMBER, SOUTH WRAXALL MANOR HOUSE, WILTSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE XLVIII.

  THE OLD TOWN HALL, LEICESTER.

  INTERIOR.]

  [Illustration: PLATE XLIX.

  SIDE OF A ROOM, "REINDEER" INN, BANBURY, OXFORDSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE L.

  DETAILS OF PANELLING FROM SIZERGH HALL.

  (NOW IN SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM.)]

  [Illustration: PLATE LI.

  BROUGHTON CASTLE, OXFORDSHIRE.

  INTERIOR PORCH (ABOUT 1599).]

  [Illustration: 148.--PANELLING FROM SIZERGH HALL, WESTMORLAND (NOW
  IN SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM).]

Sizergh Hall, in Westmorland, offered a still more elaborate example,
which has now been erected in South Kensington Museum (Fig. 148 and
Plate L.). The panels here are not carved, but inlaid--a method of
decoration much in vogue in Italy, where some exquisite drawing is
bestowed upon it, but not prevalent in England. There are a number
of instances in different parts of the country, but, compared with
carving, inlay was seldom resorted to. The domed turret in the corner
of the room should be noticed (Fig. 148); it is, in fact, an inside
porch contrived so as to allow access between two other rooms without
having to come through the third. This device in planning is not of
frequent occurrence, but when it was considered necessary much care
was taken to produce an attractive feature. There are several in the
southern counties, notably at Broughton Castle, Oxfordshire (Plate
LI.), at the Red Lodge, in Bristol, and at Bradfield, in Devonshire.
This room at Sizergh presents a fresh type of treatment in the
junction of wall and ceiling. In previous examples the wood panelling
was carried quite up to the ceiling; here it stops short by a foot or
more, and the space thus left is occupied by a modelled plaster frieze
which leads up to the ornamental ceiling. This method was adopted as
frequently as the other; the depth of the plaster frieze varied a
good deal, being in one of the rooms at Hardwick Hall as much as six
or seven feet, and filled with figure subjects modelled in relief and
painted, representing hunting and other woodland scenes: the space
below the frieze is covered with tapestry instead of panelling (Plate
LII.).


                                DOORS.

  [Illustration: 149.--DOORWAY, ABBOTT'S HOSPITAL, GUILDFORD, SURREY
  (1627).]

Doorways presented another opportunity for the display of design. At
Sizergh the door is merely a portion of the panelling on hinges, the
porch in which it is hung gives it the requisite importance; but as a
rule the doorways were surrounded with a large amount of decoration.
In important houses they were flanked with columns or pilasters, were
surmounted with a frieze and cornice, and often with a pediment;
obelisks stood over the pilasters; the frieze was fluted or carved or
adorned at intervals with heads; some convenient panel was filled with
the owner's arms; nothing was omitted that an extravagant fancy could
suggest (Plate LIII.). At Levens Hall, in Westmorland, there is a fine
panelled room with a richly ornamented doorway (Plate LIV.), in which
fantastic figures support a cornice whereon is set up a panel for the
owner's arms, flanked on either hand by a contorted animal.
In the same district, at Conishead Priory, there is a panelled room
of even greater elaboration than this at Levens. Some of the panels
are ornamented with mouldings mitred into various patterns, but most
of them have niches with pediments or raised panels surrounded with
mouldings curved and straight and breaking back in a bewildering
manner, while here, there, and everywhere are cherubs' heads and
bunches of fruit--the whole effect being rather too bizarre.

  [Illustration: PLATE LII.

  HARDWICK HALL, DERBYSHIRE.

  THE PRESENCE-CHAMBER.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LIII.

  DOORWAY IN A HOUSE AT BRISTOL.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LIV.

  LEVENS HALL, WESTMORLAND. A DOORWAY.]

  [Illustration: 150.--LATCH FROM ABBOTT'S HOSPITAL, GUILDFORD.]

  [Illustration: 151.--LATCH FROM HADDON HALL.]

  [Illustration: 152.--LOCK-PLATES, LATCHES, &c.]

  [Illustration: 153.--CASEMENT FASTENER FROM HADDON HALL.]

Sometimes the embellishment surrounding the door was in stone or
even marble, which being less susceptible of minute detail was more
soberly treated. In smaller houses the treatment was naturally less
elaborate, but even in places like St. Peter's Hospital, Bristol,
and Abbott's Hospital at Guildford, the doorways had much attention
bestowed upon them (Fig. 149 and Plate LV.). At Gayton Manor House,
in Northamptonshire, there is a still simpler treatment, the effect
being enhanced by projecting the door some inches into the room (Plate
LV.). The hinges and latches of the doors and the fastenings of the
window casements were of wrought iron, and were always more or less
ornamental. There were invariably skill and ingenuity bestowed upon
even the smallest piece of work. The latch from Abbott's Hospital,
illustrated in Fig. 150, is an example of a spring latch, that is to
say, instead of depending merely upon its weight to keep it in its
place, it is furnished with a spring, and the whole of the simple
mechanism is displayed to view. The plate to which it is fixed is
shaped in suitable places, and the latch and its accessories are also
ornamented to a certain extent. On the other side of the door would be
a handle, something after the fashion of that shown in Fig. 151, which,
however, is at Haddon. It is treated in a similar fashion: the plate
is slightly ornamented, and the handle itself is wrought into a shape
at once convenient to grasp and agreeable to the eye. In the casement
fasteners a little more ornament was sometimes indulged in, advantage
being taken of the fact that the ironwork was outlined against the
light of the window. There are two simple examples shown in Fig. 152,
and a more elaborate one in Fig. 153. The same treatment was applied to
the escutcheons of keyholes, of which examples are shown in Fig. 152
and Fig. 154; the former also exhibits a lock plate and a drop handle
and plate. It will be noticed that the whole of this ornament, although
in some instances it looks rich, is in reality obtained by the simplest
means, which consist in the main of cutting a thin plate of metal into
a variety of shapes; there is hardly any modelling about it. This
method is characteristic of most of the ironwork of the time; it was
only seldom that modelled ornament was indulged in to the extent shown
in the knocker and plate illustrated in Fig. 155.

  [Illustration: PLATE LV.

  DOORWAY, GAYTON MANOR HOUSE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.

  DOORWAY, ST. PETER'S HOSPITAL, BRISTOL.]

  [Illustration: 154.--KEY-PLATE FROM ABBOTT'S HOSPITAL, GUILDFORD.]

  [Illustration: 155.--A KNOCKER (1618).]


                            CHIMNEY-PIECES.

Much elaboration was bestowed upon the chimney-pieces, of which,
indeed, there are very few simple examples to be met with. They were
made of wood, of stone, and of marble. Wood and stone were the more
usual materials employed, and it is difficult to say upon which the
detail was the more minute. The general idea that controlled the
designs was much the same in all cases, but the treatment of it
varied. The idea was to flank the fireplace opening with columns
carrying an entablature consisting of architrave, frieze, and cornice,
the projection of the latter forming a convenient shelf. On the top
of this composition was another of the same kind, but with smaller
columns and of more delicate proportion. The space enclosed between
the columns, which in the lower half was the fireplace, was occupied
in the upper half by some kind of carved subject. This was very
often the arms of the owner, being either those of the family, or
his own special achievement. At Boughton House, in Northamptonshire,
there is an example of this kind (Plate LVI.). It is fairly simple
in design; the centre-piece is the Montagu arms; on the margin of
the panel is the motto adopted by Sir Edward Montagu, who caused the
work to be done; and in the frieze below is one of the innumerable
Latin aphorisms with which houses of this time abound. The fireplace
opening occupies the full width between the sides of the chimney-piece,
and if the grate were removed, would give a tolerable idea of the
appearance of an Elizabethan fireplace, with its cast-iron fire-back
delicately modelled, and the fire-dogs, or andirons, to hold the logs
in place. This particular fire-back, however, is of a later date.
Almost contemporary with this fireplace at Boughton is one at Lacock
Abbey (Plate LVII.), equally simple in design, but executed with
more refinement, and having a very unusual adjunct in the shape of a
hearthstone ornamented with a pattern inlaid with lead. The two works
are likely to be of much the same date, as Sir William Sharington of
Lacock died in 1553, and Sir Edward Montagu of Boughton in 1556. At
Barlborough, in Derbyshire, there is a fine chimney-piece still fairly
simple, in which the upper part is devoted to the owner's personal
history (Plate LVIII.). His name was Francis Rodes, a lawyer, and
subsequently a justice of the Common Pleas. He married twice. These
facts are all set forth on the chimney-piece. His own arms, and those
of his two wives, are carved at large, and the names of his wives are
printed against their shields. The upper cornice is supported by two
caryatides instead of columns, one of whom represents Justice, in
allusion to the calling of the master. At Hatfield House, in a room
called after King James, there is a handsome marble chimney-piece, with
a large statue of the King in his robes as the centre-piece (Plate
LIX.). Here, too, there is an open hearth, with an iron fire-back and
handsome andirons. In the great chamber at South Wraxall is a very
elaborate stone chimney-piece (Plate LX.), in which the prevailing
idea is highly developed. The lower entablature is supported by pairs
of caryatides growing out of pilasters, and adorned with bands and
swags of flowers. Within the main enclosure is a subordinate margin
of mouldings and egg-and-tongue enrichments. The upper part of the
composition, though founded on the same idea of columns supporting a
crowning cornice, is much elaborated with niches and carved panels.
There are no shields of arms, which is rather a curious omission,
but instead there are statues of abstract conceptions--Arithmetica,
Geometria, Prudentia, and Justitia. The whole effect is extremely
handsome, but it is too intricate to be quite satisfactory.

  [Illustration: PLATE LVI.

  STONE CHIMNEY-PIECE FROM BOUGHTON HOUSE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE (BEFORE
  1556).]

  [Illustration: PLATE LVII.

  STONE CHIMNEY-PIECE FROM LACOCK ABBEY, WILTSHIRE. (BEFORE 1553).]

  [Illustration: PLATE LVIII.

  BARLBOROUGH HALL, DERBYSHIRE (1584).

  A CHIMNEY-PIECE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LIX.

  HATFIELD HOUSE, HERTFORDSHIRE.

  CHIMNEY-PIECE IN KING JAMES'S ROOM (ABOUT 1612).]

  [Illustration: PLATE LX.

  STONE CHIMNEY-PIECE IN THE GREAT CHAMBER, SOUTH WRAXALL MANOR HOUSE,
  WILTSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXI.

  HARDWICK HALL, DERBYSHIRE.

  A CHIMNEY-PIECE.]

In contrast to this is an interesting chimney-piece in a bedroom at
Hardwick Hall, in Derbyshire (Plate LXI.). The material is marble, and
the design is unpretending. Its noticeable feature is the panel that
serves as overmantel, carved with much grace and spirit. The subject
seems to be Apollo and the Nine Muses, though some of the latter
appear to have abandoned for the time being the callings over which
they presided, in order to join in concerted music. The period of the
work is put beyond a doubt by the presence of the royal arms with
Elizabeth's supporters, the lion and the dragon, and of the initials E.
R. Panels with figure subjects were not uncommon, although they were
not often so well executed as this. Scriptural themes were frequently
represented, but they did not necessarily imply any special religious
character in the house, and often in some of the other rooms of the
same house would be other themes of quite mundane inspiration. At
East Quantockshead, in Somerset, a house of the Luttrells, one room
has in the overmantel the Descent from the Cross, the next a mermaid
with scrollwork and flowers, the next the Luttrell arms and the date
1614: others have Christ Blessing the Children; the Lamentation
over Jerusalem, with the city in the distance, and a hen in the
foreground gathering her chickens under her wings; and the Agony in
the Garden. Another house in that district has the Affliction of Job,
with the principal figure represented as being in exceedingly poor
case. Occasionally there were no figure subjects, nor even shields,
the panels being quite plain, as in the wood chimney-piece at Ford
House, Newton Abbot (Plate LXII.), where the considerable amount of
enrichment serves as ornament only, and does not lend lustre to the
family arms. The workmanship is not of the best, and the details of
the design are somewhat poor and wanting in imagination, especially
in the treatment of the arched panels; but it is characteristic of a
good deal of work of the time. The chimney-piece at Benthall
Hall (Fig. 156) is far more beautifully conceived. It departs from the
regular treatment in the disposition of the main panels. There is great
freedom about the play of the strap-work and figures surrounding the
cartouches, and if it be compared with the panelling in the same room
(Plate XLIII.), it will be seen that while preserving the same general
idea, there is a special richness about this part of the work which
is quite appropriate to it as being the chief feature of the room. It
will be seen that here, too, the cartouches in the upper panels bear
coats of arms. At Whiston, in Sussex, there is a stone chimney-piece
which has got excluded from the house, and now adorns an outside wall.
It is of unusual design (Plate LXIII.), but the family arms form the
centre-piece, and are flanked by figures of warriors in recesses
divided by small, elegant columns. In the upper part is a circular
panel containing two subjects, of which it is difficult to decipher
the meaning; the figures, however, are in violent action. Bolsover
Castle contains some of the most striking examples of chimney-pieces
to be found in the country. They are all in stone or marble, and have
a variety and originality of design which are quite remarkable. Two of
them are illustrated on Plate LXIV. There are also a number of small
ones fitted into corners of the rooms (Fig. 157), and it will be seen
that the walls against which the chimney-piece is placed are faced with
stone to receive it, and that this plain stonework is surrounded with a
moulding against which the wood panelling stops.

  [Illustration: 156.--WOOD CHIMNEY-PIECE, BENTHALL HALL,
  SHROPSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXII.

  WOOD CHIMNEY-PIECE, FORD HOUSE, NEWTON ABBOT, DEVONSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXIII.

  STONE CHIMNEY-PIECE, WHISTON, SUSSEX.

  (NOW OUT OF DOORS.)]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXIV.

  BOLSOVER CASTLE, DERBYSHIRE.

  TWO CHIMNEY-PIECES.]

  [Illustration: 157.--STONE CHIMNEY-PIECE, BOLSOVER CASTLE, DERBYSHIRE.]

There was a chimney-piece of unusually good design and workmanship
in the palace of Bromley-by-Bow: it is now in the South Kensington
Museum (Plate LXV.). The composition does not quite follow the usual
lines, inasmuch as the upper part, or overmantel, is not a repetition
in idea of the lower. Nor is it divided into panels of equal width
and height; the large central panel, which contains the royal arms,
is the dominating feature, and is flanked on either side by a niche
of much less width and height. The upper half is wedded to the lower
by the bosses on the boldly carved shelf, which carry down the main
lines of the columns. The arms are those of James I., as the second
and third quarters are Scotland and Ireland respectively, and one of
the supporters is the Scottish unicorn. In another house near London,
at Enfield, there was a well-designed chimney-piece, figured in
Richardson's _Studies from Old English Mansions_, in which the royal
arms and badges were the centre-pieces of the composition. The part
above the fireplace was divided by columns into three panels, of which
the middle one was the largest, and contained the arms of Elizabeth
with her red dragon as one of the supporters. Of the side panels,
one was occupied by the rose crowned and the other by the portcullis
crowned. In the smaller panels below these, and between the pedestals
on which the columns rested, were the royal initials E. R., and a Latin
sentence expressing a pious aphorism. It is not certain whether this
house belonged to the Crown, or whether this display of regal heraldry
was a compliment to the Queen on the part of the grateful owner. In
either case the making of arms and badges the chief objects of interest
in the composition, and the introduction of the Latin aphorism on a
conspicuous panel are quite characteristic of the time. At Castle
Ashby, in Northamptonshire, is a chimney-piece (Plate LXVI.) treated
in much the same way as that from Bromley. It was not designed for
the house, and therefore the heraldry is not so apposite as usual.
The central panel contains the arms of the owner set in an elaborate
framework of fanciful carving. On either side is a niche containing a
figure of one of the virtues. The columns which support the cornice
are richly carved in low relief, as also are the mantel-shelf and
the friezes below it. On the lower of the friezes the family arms are
repeated, and in the centre is the crest. The opening of the fireplace
is flanked on either side by a female figure, which changes in a
provoking way into strap-work and the semblance of a pilaster. The
whole effect is rich, and the principles dominating the composition are
at once recognizable, but the details are too fantastic to be quite
agreeable.

  [Illustration: PLATE LXV.

  BROMLEY-BY-BOW PALACE.

  A CHIMNEY-PIECE (AFTER 1603).

    (NOW IN THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM.)]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXVI.

  CASTLE ASHBY, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.

  A CHIMNEY-PIECE.]


                               CEILINGS.

Of all the architectural work of the time of Elizabeth and James,
that which was peculiarly English is to be found in the ceilings. It
was a development of native tradition, and although, like all other
work of the time, it was influenced by Italian models, it retained
its individuality with great tenacity, and in no other country can
the same special development of design be found. The root-idea of an
Elizabethan ceiling is to cover the space with a shallow projecting rib
forming a more or less regular pattern. The ribs varied in section, and
the patterns varied in form. The ribs and the panels they enclosed were
sometimes perfectly plain, sometimes highly decorated with modelled
work; and between these two extremes were infinite gradations--plain
ribs and decorated panels, or plain panels and decorated ribs, the
decoration varying from something quite simple to ornament of much
elaboration. The plainest examples are sufficient to give character
to a room, while the richest are bewildering in the intricacy of the
pattern and the minuteness of the detail.

  [Illustration: 158.--CEILING OF THE PRESENCE CHAMBER, HAMPTON COURT
  (CIR. 1535).]

The origin of the idea is to be found in the treatment adopted by the
late Gothic joiners. When they had a large flat surface to deal with,
they divided it into panels by moulded wood ribs, and they frequently
covered the intersection of the ribs with a carved boss or with carved
foliage. Their main lines, being formed of wood, were straight; their
panels rectilinear and often rectangular, the whole treatment being
suggested by the moulded constructional timber of earlier roofs. At
Hampton Court, in the portions built by Wolsey and Henry VIII., there
are several ceilings of this kind still left. The ribs are arranged
in simple geometrical patterns with straight lines. In the watching
chamber, at the end of the Great Hall, these ribs are of a fair size,
both in width and depth, and at certain intersections they are bent
downwards to form a pendant after the fashion prevalent in the stone
vaulting of the time (Fig. 158). Some of the panels thus enclosed are
adorned with a kind of independent circular boss formed of a wreath
surrounding one of the royal badges, or even the royal arms. These
bosses are not carved, but modelled in _papier mâché_, or some similar
substance, and they, together with the wood ribs, are secured to the
joists above. Two of these bosses are illustrated in Fig. 159, and it
is in the wreaths of these comparatively unimportant adjuncts that the
only touch of the new fashion is to be found.

  [Illustration: 159.--BOSSES FROM CEILINGS AT HAMPTON COURT.]

Other rooms have ceilings of which the ribs are much smaller in depth
and width: the ribs are again arranged in patterns with straight lines,
and at their intersections there are four small leaves of lead nailed
on, the whole junction being covered with a small plain wood boss,
which forms the centre of the flower. At other intersections each
of the four angles of the flat ceiling is occupied with a small
modelled head in foliage, all of _papier mâché_; one of these is also
shown in Fig. 159. The four insertions taken together form a circle,
which is divided into four quadrants by the intersecting ribs (Fig.
160); and the whole arrangement is the first step towards the elaborate
decoration which was afterwards introduced, when the facility with
which plaster can be worked was recognized and acted on.

  [Illustration: PLATE LXVII.

  HAMPTON COURT PALACE.

  CEILING OF CARDINAL WOLSEY'S CLOSET.]

  [Illustration: 160.--PATERA TO A CEILING AT HAMPTON COURT.]

Another, though somewhat similar, type of ceiling is to be found in a
little room called Cardinal Wolsey's Closet; but here the decoration
is more general, and is founded more directly on the Italian manner
(Plate LXVII.). The ceiling is divided by wood ribs into rectilinear
panels of small size and simple design; the intersections of the ribs
are covered, in the manner already mentioned, with a plain wood boss
and lead leaves bent down into the angles; each panel is filled with
Italian decoration modelled in _papier mâché_; the whole is screwed
up to the floor-joists above. The effect is very rich and elaborate.
There is also a frieze on the wall which formed part of the design,
although its precise relation to the ceiling can no longer be detected
owing to modern alterations. The relation was probably something
like what we see to-day (Plate LXVII.), but a close scrutiny shows
that the connecting links between the ceiling and the frieze have
disappeared; there must have been some kind of moulded cornice. There
can be little doubt that the spacing of the panels in the frieze was
made to agree with those of the ceiling, and that it had a moulding
of some importance at the top to connect it with the ceiling, and
corresponding to the border which it still retains at the bottom, on
which is painted repeatedly Wolsey's motto "Dominus mihi adjutor." The
panels in the frieze are ornamented in a manner corresponding with the
ceiling panels, which all contain either a rose or a fleur-de-lys, the
devices of Henry VIII. This ceiling is of great interest, because it
is one of the earliest of a highly decorated kind left to us--for the
Tudor joiners placed little, if any, decoration in their panels; it is
more Italian in manner than any other that survives, and it is formed
of wood ribs and modelled filling, which were made elsewhere and then
brought to the room to be fitted and fixed in position.

From the occurrence of Wolsey's motto in the frieze, it is probable
that this work was done by him; it would consequently date prior to
his death in 1530. Richardson, in his _Architectural Remains of the
Reigns of Elizabeth and James I._, gives a large drawing of a ceiling
in the Chapel Royal, St. James's, dated 1540, which is very similar in
character to Wolsey's. It consists of small geometrical panels formed
by wood ribs, enclosing rich designs in the Italian manner, among which
the King's devices are constantly repeated, together with the date, the
initials of Henry and Anne of Cleves, and such mottoes as "Vivat rex,"
"Stet diu felix." If the latter aspiration were fulfilled, it certainly
was not in conjunction with the wife whose initials are on this ceiling
that the wished-for happiness was attained, for she was divorced in
July, 1540; and we therefore incidentally learn that the ceiling must
have been put up in the first half of that year. In addition to the
ornament already mentioned the King's arms frequently occur. The ribs
in this case are broader than those at Hampton Court, and they are
ornamented with a running pattern cast in lead.

  [Illustration: 161.--PART OF THE CEILING IN THE LONG GALLERY,
  HADDON HALL, DERBYSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXVIII.

  DEENE HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.

  CEILING OF A BEDROOM.]

  [Illustration: 162.--PART OF A COVED CEILING AT BECKINGTON ABBEY,
  SOMERSET.]

  [Illustration: 163.--COVED CEILING, BECKINGTON ABBEY, SOMERSET.]

These two ceilings are the most Italian in character which have
survived. The type does not seem to have been generally adopted; but
it was rather a simpler one, founded more directly on Tudor methods,
which was developed. The wood ribs were replaced by plaster, and in
the more plastic material they were no longer kept in straight lines,
but were curved into an infinite variety of patterns, more or less
intricate. The intersections were sometimes, but not often, covered
with foliage; as a rule they were left bare, but where the pattern left
a salient angle the lower members of the moulding were carried out to
form the stalk of some foliage, as may be seen in the long gallery at
Haddon (Fig. 161), and also at South Wraxall (Plate XLVII.). The ribs,
which at first were of a section similar to that of their predecessors
in wood, soon assumed other proportions: they increased in width and
lessened in depth; they sometimes ceased to have any mouldings, and
became more like ribbons or straps, as in the example from Beckington
Abbey (Fig. 162), but more often they retained their moulded edges,
and were ornamented on the flat face with a minute running pattern,
such as that at Deene Hall (Plate LXVIII.), and the "Reindeer" Inn,
Banbury (Plate LXIX.). The strap-work ribs did not form such regular
set patterns as the others: they enclosed a panel here and there, but
wandered off into spirals and scrolls, and were emphasized at intervals
by little ornamental knobs, such as may be seen in the ceiling of the
gallery at Charlton House, Wiltshire. It was by no means necessary for
the ceilings to be flat. Indeed, this kind of decoration was exactly
suited for application to coved ceilings such as that already seen
at South Wraxall (Plate XLVII.), and that at Beckington Abbey (Fig.
163), where there is not only the main vault of the ceiling, but also
a subsidiary cove at the side, the curved face of which is ornamented
with a variation of the principal pattern. The end wall of the room
is also decorated in a similar way in the upper part where its shape
is controlled by the curves of the ceiling. The example at Beckington
Abbey is among the more formal of those where the strap-work type was
employed; there are panels of regular shape, and the scrolled ends
balance one another. But in some instances the strap-work conformed in
its course to no regular pattern at all; it twisted and interlaced and
bent itself back upon no system whatever, except that of covering the
surface evenly, and of gathering itself into a knot or of surrounding
a pendant at regular intervals, the result being that the most
prominent features stand out in regular array from a mazy background
that requires concentrated attention to follow. There is a ceiling
of this kind among the many beautiful examples at Audley End. These
erratic designs were used simultaneously with others of much severer
character, where the pattern is of the simplest in structure, and
richness of effect is derived from its frequent repetition, and from
the ornament in the panels. Such an example is to be seen at Sizergh
(Fig. 164), and others, slightly more elaborate, at Aston Hall (Plates
LXX., LXXI.), where the modelling is beautifully delicate and varied.
But in both these examples the proportion is so carefully managed that
the shape of the panels, which is the foundation of the design, is
not obscured by the patterns which occupy them. The effect is equally
rich in both, although the width of the rib and the manner of its
decoration are varied. These ceilings are fairly late in date, as Aston
Hall was being built from 1618 to 1635, and comes quite at the end of
the period under discussion, but they retain all the characteristics
of Elizabethan and Jacobean work. Another example of the formal kind
is at Benthall Hall (Fig. 165), where the main panels are all of
oblong rectangular shape, and are filled with strap-work enrichment
surrounding an elliptical boss. The patterns are varied in every case,
and exhibit considerable ingenuity in obtaining the same general effect
with entirely different disposition of lines. It will also be seen,
by comparing this ceiling with the panelling and chimney-piece in the
same room (Plate XLIII. and Fig. 156), that they are all _en suite_,
and not, as is often the case, designed without relation one to the
other. The ceiling at the "Reindeer" Inn, Banbury (Plate LXIX.),
is also thoroughly Jacobean, although, from the style of the wood
panelling, the room must date from well on in the seventeenth century.
Soon after this time the large unbroken space of the ceilings began
to be cut up into large panels by cross-beams: the spaces thus formed
were still of considerable size, and were decorated in the old manner,
as may be seen in a room in the entrance tower at Haddon (Fig. 166),
and at Carbrook Hall, Sheffield (Plate XLII.). But it was an easy step
to omit this surface decoration, and when that was done, the ceilings
became the large coffered ceilings characteristic of the style which
followed the Jacobean.

  [Illustration: 164.--PART OF A CEILING FROM SIZERGH HALL, WESTMORLAND
  (NOW IN SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM).]

  [Illustration: 165.--CEILING FROM BENTHALL HALL, SHROPSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXIX.

  THE REINDEER INN, BANBURY, OXFORDSHIRE.

  CEILING.]

  [Illustration: 166.--CEILING IN GATEHOUSE, HADDON HALL, DERBYSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXX.

  CEILING OF THE GREAT CHAMBER, ASTON HALL, NEAR BIRMINGHAM (CIR. 1635).]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXI.

  CEILING OF KING CHARLES' BEDROOM, ASTON HALL, NEAR BIRMINGHAM (CIR.
  1635.)]

As in the chimney-pieces, so in the ceilings, a favourite method
of ornamentation was to introduce the owner's arms and badges. Of
the examples given here only two, as it happens, illustrate this
custom--the ceilings at Haddon (Fig. 161) and Sizergh (Fig. 164). The
square panel at Haddon encloses a shield surrounded by a delicate
strap-work border, and bearing the arms of Manners impaling Vernon, the
work having been done by the Sir John Manners who came into possession
of Haddon through his marriage with Dorothy Vernon, one of the
co-heiresses of her father, Sir George, called the King of the Peak. At
Sizergh one of the panels encloses a shield of arms, and others a badge.

  [Illustration: 167.--PENDANTS OF PLASTER CEILINGS.]

There is a very splendid ceiling in the gallery at Blickling, in
Norfolk, wherein various badges are introduced, and another at
Apethorpe, in Northamptonshire. Others might be named, but the custom
was not so widespread in the case of ceilings as of chimney-pieces,
perhaps owing to the plasterers having a number of stock designs from
which they worked, and which, of course, would not include the arms
of any special family. There seems no doubt that the plasterers did
have such stock designs, but it is curious how seldom they are found
repeated; hardly anywhere, indeed, can two designs be found which are
exactly alike.

  [Illustration: 168.--EXAMPLES OF PLASTER FRIEZES FROM MONTACUTE,
  AUDLEY END, AND CHARLTON HOUSE, WILTSHIRE.]

Besides heraldic ornament, there was a certain amount of modelled
figure subjects of the usual kind--allegorical, mythological, and
scriptural; but English plasterers were not very good at modelling
the human figure, and it seems to have been generally recognized that
a ceiling is not the most favourable position for a close study of
detail, and the effect aimed at was one of general richness which did
not demand minute investigation--such as, for instance, is necessary to
appreciate one of Verrio's painted ceilings--and yet which repaid such
scrutiny if subjected to it. Most of the ornament was of a kind which
no one would examine unless specially interested--as a draughtsman,
for instance, might be; but in some cases the beautiful modelling
induces even the casual visitor to put his neck to inconvenience,
as he gladly would do to see the Fish ceiling at Audley End, where
the panels enclose a number of excellently modelled fishes and other
denizens, real and imaginary, of the ocean, and where the pendants are
of unusual beauty. Pendants of more or less projection were another
means of adding variety and interest to the design (Fig. 167), and they
varied in size from a mere excrescence to an elaborate shaft, supported
by figures half human, half foliage, which served to hang the lamp
from. This shaft would only occur in the centre of the design, but the
lesser pendants were introduced at regular intervals and accentuated
its salient points. Another kind of ceiling had no considerable ribs at
all, but was covered with a flowing pattern in low relief, so arranged
as to fall into a more or less symmetrical design. This is by no means
a usual form, but there is an example at Burton Agnes, in Yorkshire,
and another, which stands halfway between the two ideas, in the gallery
at Chastleton, in Oxfordshire.

  [Illustration: 169.--PLASTER FRIEZE FROM MONTACUTE HOUSE, SOMERSET.]

At the junction of the ceiling and the wall was a series of mouldings
forming a cornice: these were sometimes in wood and formed the crowning
member of the oak panelling, and sometimes they were in plaster.
Beneath them on the surface of the wall there was frequently a plaster
frieze of more or less depth. Occasionally it was only a few inches
deep, as in the drawing-room at Haddon (Plate XLI.), but more usually
it was from two to three feet, and in one room at Hardwick it was much
deeper, as already mentioned (see Plate LII.). The narrower friezes
were ornamented with some kind of running pattern, the wider ones
were divided into panels in various ways, and often displayed the
family arms. Examples of the narrower kind in plaster may be seen on
Plates LIII. and LXXVI., while others forming part of the panelling
are shown on Plates XLIII., XLVII., and XLIX. Sizergh Hall (Plate L.)
has a frieze on the wood panelling and another in plaster above it.
Examples of different kinds of friezes are given in Fig. 168, and one
of considerable depth, and adorned with shields set in large panels, is
shown from Montacute (Fig. 169). A fairly deep frieze is to be seen at
Carbrook (Plate XLII.), of which a small part of the detail is shown in
Fig. 170. An example of the way in which a pattern was fitted into an
unusually-shaped space is shown in Fig. 171.

  [Illustration: 170.--PART OF PLASTER FRIEZE, CARBROOK HALL, NEAR
  SHEFFIELD.]

  [Illustration: 171.--CEILING OF A TRIANGULAR BAY WINDOW AT LITTLE
  CHARLTON, KENT.]




                              CHAPTER IX.

                   INTERIOR FEATURES (_continued_).

                    STAIRCASES, GALLERIES, GLAZING.


The staircases of the early part of the sixteenth century followed
the old fashion, and were of the "corkscrew" type, winding round a
central newel. They were built of stone or brick, and were hardly,
if at all, ornamented. Then, quite suddenly, the fashion changed,
and they were constructed of wood in straight, broad flights, with
frequent landings. Everyone who has been up a church tower knows how
tiring it is to climb the winding, never-ending steps, unrelieved by
anything in the shape of a landing. It is somewhat less fatiguing to
mount one of the grand circular staircases of the châteaux on the
Loire, the task being lightened by the greater width of the steps and
the introduction of more frequent landings. But the management of
the landings is one of the great difficulties in a spiral staircase,
because they break the regular sweep of the architectural lines.
Whether English craftsmen recognized this difficulty from what they
saw in France, or whether the idea of improving the circular type did
not occur to them, it is impossible to say; but no attempt in this
direction was made, unless it may have been at Rothwell Market-house
(1577), where a circular staircase of considerable width was intended,
although no remains of the actual stairs exist. There seems to be no
intermediate type between the stone spiral and the straight flight
in wood. In France, and especially in the district of the Loire, the
old narrow, difficult steps were wonderfully improved; from being
merely a means of ascending, they became elaborate pieces of work,
upon which much ingenuity of contrivance and ornament was bestowed.
From being two or three feet wide, they became ten or twelve. Instead
of curling up a narrow turret, they occupied a considerable tower,
and the tower, being one of the chief features of the house, had to
be treated with great care. Much fancy was expended upon the internal
treatment; a handrail was worked upon the newel, and wound round it
in a continuous line; another projection formed a plinth, a third
served as a cornice; another cornice followed the sweep of the steps
where they rested on the outside wall: everything was done to make the
constructional features serve as ornaments, and the results were some
of the most interesting and curious pieces of stonework that can be
seen. But nothing of the kind was attempted in England. The nearest
approach is the stone vaulted staircase at Burghley House (Plate
LXXII.), which resembles some of those in France, where the steps are
carried in straight flights instead of round a central newel. There is
such an instance at the Château de Chenonceau, where the two straight
flights are on either side of a dividing wall, the lower flight merging
into the upper by means of winding stairs. These winding stairs were
eschewed by English designers, who nearly always kept to straight runs,
and at Burghley the two main flights are connected by a shorter one
across the landing. The date of this staircase is not quite certain,
but it probably belongs to the work which was being done about the year
1556. The idea of stone vaulted stairs, however, did not obtain any
hold in England, and there are very few examples to be found. All the
finest staircases are of wood, and they seem to have sprung into being
without any gradual growth; the connecting links between them and the
old corkscrew type, if there were any, have disappeared.

  [Illustration: 172.--STAIRCASE AT LYVEDEN OLD BUILDING,
  NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXII.

  STAIRCASE FROM BURGHLEY HOUSE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 173.--DETAILS OF STAIRCASE, HAMBLETON OLD HALL,
  RUTLAND.]

  [Illustration: 174.--STAIRCASE FROM EAST QUANTOCKSHEAD, SOMERSET.]

  [Illustration: 175.--DETAILS OF STAIRCASE, LYVEDEN OLD BUILDING,
  NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXIII.

  PLANS OF STAIRCASES FROM JOHN THORPE'S DRAWINGS IN THE SOANE MUSEUM.]

  [Illustration: 176.--PIERCED BALUSTER.]

  [Illustration: 177.--STAIRCASE AT OCKWELLS MANOR HOUSE, BERKSHIRE.]

The principle upon which these wood staircases were constructed may
be compared to that of the ladder, where the sides of the ladder
are replaced by deep and comparatively narrow pieces of wood called
"strings," and the rungs are replaced by the treads and risers. One
side of this amplified ladder was placed hard on to the wall, the
foot of the other was secured into a stout upright post, or "newel,"
as also was the top: into the same newel that received the top of the
first string the foot of the second was secured at right angles, and
so onwards and upwards as far as the staircase extended. At about two
feet above the top of the string, and parallel to it, was the handrail,
and between the handrail and the string were fixed the balusters. The
top of the first flight leant against a flat landing, on which also
the foot of the next flight rested. The construction, therefore, was
extremely simple in principle, far simpler than that of the continuous
winding flights of the eighteenth century; but the component parts
were often highly decorated. All the woodwork was of fairly large
dimensions; the newels were six, seven, or eight inches square, the
handrail was generally nearly as wide as the newel, the strings were
three inches thick or even more, the balusters were proportionately
massive. The flights were five or six feet wide, and comprised usually
about six steps, although they were longer when necessity demanded it.
The plans on Plate LXXIII. show various arrangements of staircases
taken from John Thorpe's collection of plans in the Soane Museum.
Nos. 1 and 2 are the most usual types, and of these No. 1 is the more
frequent. The space to be occupied by the stairs is divided into nine
equal squares, of which those in the corners represent the landings,
while the intermediate ones are occupied by the steps; the middle
square is the "well-hole." The staircase at Lyveden Old Building, in
Northamptonshire, is planned on this principle, and the effect can be
seen in the sketch in Fig. 172. The flights in this case consist of
seven steps each. This arrangement is very simple, but it necessitates
the access to the upper rooms being from one of the comparatively small
corner landings. Another plan, giving a larger landing at the top, is
shown in No. 2, and an amplification of the same idea is given in No.
3, where, a larger number of steps being required, the sides have two
flights with an intermediate landing. Sometimes the central square,
instead of being occupied by an open well-hole, was either a solid
block or a shell of masonry, round the four sides of which the steps
ascended. Such an arrangement is shown in No. 5, where also may be
seen some winding steps in one of the corners; but these winders are
not of frequent occurrence, short straight flights being the rule.
These four types are those most frequently adopted. Of the others, No.
4 is an instance of the employment of winders, and shows the somewhat
unusual arrangement of two lower flights combining into one upper
flight; No. 6, being in a turret, consists wholly of winders; and
Nos. 7 and 8 are instances of a rather grander style of planning, in
which it is evident that considerable effect was aimed at. The plans
varied, of course, according to the disposition of the rooms to be
reached; the chief characteristics were simplicity of construction
and massiveness of effect. In the less important houses the work was
fairly plain: the newels were unornamented, except for a shaped top;
the string was moulded at the top and bottom; the balusters were merely
stout turned bars. But there was much variety imparted to the turning,
and while many of the outlines are rather clumsy, many of them also
exhibit considerable subtlety and refinement. To increase the richness
of effect the newels were ornamented either with carving, or with a
pattern contrived by sinking the groundwork, thus leaving the pattern
itself raised and at the same level as the general face of the newel.
The tops of the newel were sometimes little more than round knobs,
as at Hambleton Old Hall (Fig. 173), and a house at Warwick (Fig.
180); but more often they projected far above the handrail and were
shaped in a variety of ways, of which four examples of varying degrees
of elaboration are given from East Quantockshead (Fig. 174), Lyveden
Old Building (Fig. 175), Ockwells Manor House (Figs. 177, 178), and
the Charterhouse (Fig. 181). They were sometimes made the pedestals
upon which figures were placed--such as boys playing instruments, as
at Hatfield; or warriors in various guises, as at Blickling; or the
animal sacred to the particular family concerned, and hallowed in
their sight by being borne in their coat of arms. The newels at the
Charterhouse carry a crest by way of finial (Fig. 181). Then the outer
surface of the outer string would be also carved (Figs. 179 and 181),
or decorated with a pattern; and the balusters would sometimes be flat
pieces of wood shaped and pierced in a variety of patterns (Fig. 176).
Sometimes, instead of balusters there was a series of arches springing
from small columns and following the upward rake of the stairs; as at
Ockwells Manor House (Figs. 177, 178), and the Charterhouse (Fig. 181).
Or, again, the balustrade would consist of woodwork cut and slightly
carved into a version of the favourite strap-work pattern, like that
at Benthall Hall, Shropshire (Fig. 179). Not infrequently the space at
command forbade the arranging of the flights at right angles to each
other; the second flight then returned side by side with the first. In
such cases either the newels were increased in width sufficiently to
take both the handrails, or the handrail and string intersected each
other in the way shown on Fig. 180. Occasionally, when a little space
divided the flights, the great newels were carried up and joined to
each other by wood arches, as in the instance of a staircase at Audley
End (Plate LXXIV.): this kind of treatment occasionally produced a most
intricate result, of which a careful study is required in order to make
out what are its component parts.

  [Illustration: 178.--STAIRCASE AT OCKWELLS MANOR HOUSE, BERKSHIRE.
  PLANS AND DETAILS.]

  [Illustration: 179.--STAIRCASE AT BENTHALL HALL, SHROPSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 180.--STAIRCASE AT WARWICK.]

  [Illustration: 181.--STAIRCASE AT THE CHARTERHOUSE.]

There was no end to the variety which the workmen imparted to the
simple constructional features which were the groundwork of the design.
The points which were always aimed at were breadth of way, ease of
ascent, massive appearance, and very frequently richness of effect.
The series of stout newels going up and up in a long procession, each
crowned with a handsome finial or heraldic animal, alone is enough to
lend stateliness to the staircase; and when these are supplemented
with quaint balusters, or a row of arches, or, as in later days, with
a carved foliated filling, beyond which is seen the highly ornamented
string of the upper flight, the whole effect is particularly striking.
As a rule the flights were short, from six to eight steps being
considered enough between the various landings, but the number varied
according to the height to be attained and the space at command.

These fine staircases were clearly made for show as well as use,
because it not infrequently happens that having reached the first
floor, which was their chief object, they sweep upwards with equal
grandeur to the next, where there are only insignificant attics. The
upper staircase, however, although it leads to no important room,
would be in full view of those who came to the first floor; and it
was on this floor that some rooms were placed which were the resort
of all who were staying in the house--namely, the Great Chamber and
the Long Gallery. The great chamber was, among princes and nobles, the
presence chamber, where they received guests. It was the "Great Chamber
of Estate." In smaller houses it answered much the same end as the
drawing-room of the present day. Even so inconsiderable a person as
Slender, who was a small squire, had a great chamber in his house,
which he took care to mention casually in the course of his controversy
with Falstaff as to the picking of his pocket.

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXIV.

  STAIRCASE AT AUDLEY END, ESSEX.]


                           THE LONG GALLERY.

The Long Gallery is a feature peculiarly characteristic of the times of
Elizabeth and James. Mention has already been made of this apartment,
and of the fact that not a few houses were specially planned so as to
obtain a gallery of great length. Some of them were extravagant in this
respect, the length being as much as eight and ten times the width.
At Buckhurst House the gallery was 254 feet long by 16 feet wide, at
Ampthill 245 feet by 22 feet, but it is not quite certain that these
were not divided into two lengths each. John Thorpe shows the gallery
at Slaugham Place to be 200 feet by 27 feet, Audley End probably 190
feet by 27 feet, Holdenby 140 feet by 22 feet, Aston Hall 140 feet by
18 feet, Copthall 136 feet by 22 feet, Burghley 128 feet by 18 feet,
and Wollaton 100 feet by 18 feet. Others, to which there are no names,
are 200 feet by 20 feet, 150 feet by 25 feet, and 150 feet by 17 feet,
besides many of 80 feet in length by widths varying from 10 feet to
21 feet. The purpose of such a long apartment has never been fully
explained: it may have been for exercise; it may have had its origin
from reasons of display or in imitation of royal palaces, where its
use as an ante-room to the royal closet is easily understood; or it
may have been merely a development in planning dictated by fashion,
each person vying with his neighbour to obtain a long room. But,
however this may be, no Elizabethan or Jacobean house of any size was
without its long gallery, which was ornamented in the same way as
the great chamber, the parlours, and the hall. The walls were either
hung with tapestry or panelled, the ceiling was richly moulded, the
fireplaces, of which there were two or three in the length, were large
and elaborate. The porch of the house was often carried up to form a
bay window in the middle of the length, and advantage was taken of
other opportunities to break up the extreme length by projections
at the side. It was almost always on the topmost floor, where space
was of less importance for other purposes; but as many of the houses
were only two storeys high, it was usually easy of access, and, of
course, it was approached by one, or oftener two, of the principal
staircases. The room at Haddon, now called the ballroom, is in reality
the long gallery (Plate LXXV.). It is 110 feet 6 inches long by 17
feet 4 inches wide, and its extreme length is broken along one side
by three large projecting bays, the middle one of which, measuring 15
feet by 11 feet 6 inches, is itself large enough for a fair-sized room.
The legend of the elopement of Dorothy Vernon from this "ballroom"
is a modern invention which confuses the public mind in regard to
the household arrangements of that period, for Dorothy's father, who
greatly embellished Haddon, lived during the prevalence of the Late
Tudor style, and had no such huge apartment: it was her husband who
fashioned this long gallery in Elizabeth's time, and adorned it in
the manner then prevalent. This may seem a small point to insist on,
and to the general public no doubt it is; but to the student, whose
imagination naturally clings to the picturesque legend, it is important
to realize that the work in the "ballroom" was not done by Dorothy's
father, who belonged to the Tudor era, but by her husband, who belonged
to the Elizabethan. But leaving this point, it may be remarked that
the gallery is panelled with unusual richness, and the ceiling is felt
to be in harmony with the rest of the work, although the moulded rib
is but small, and the pattern it makes is simple. It may also be noted
that there is but one fireplace in the whole length of 110 feet, which
must have been quite inadequate, according to modern ideas.

The gallery at Aston Hall (Plate LXXVI.) is a fine example of its kind.
The walls are panelled from the floor nearly up to the ceiling, only
sufficient space being left above the woodwork for a plaster frieze.
The panels have an arched enrichment in each of them, in accordance
with the fashion prevalent in King James's time, and they are divided
into bays by shallow pilasters, fluted above, and ornamented with
imitation rustic work below. The ceiling is of great richness, and
itself goes a long way towards "furnishing" the room. There is a row of
windows down one side, and a large one at the end. The Hall is now used
as a museum, and the rail, which occupies a conspicuous position in the
illustration, serves to protect the articles exhibited.

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXV.

  HADDON HALL, DERBYSHIRE.

  THE LONG GALLERY.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXVI.

  ASTON HALL, WARWICKSHIRE.

  THE LONG GALLERY (ABOUT 1635).]

Although it is tolerably certain that Sir George Vernon had no such
room as the long gallery, it is not quite clear that houses in
his time were all without them, for at Hampton Court, in the time of
Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour, there was the Queen's long gallery,
which was 180 feet long by 25 feet wide, lighted on both sides, and
having, like Haddon, three bay windows down one side, the middle one
of which was not square but circular.[27] But although the palace had
such an apartment, there is no evidence that the smaller houses in
general possessed them until the time of Elizabeth, when they became of
universal adoption.

[27] _Law_, Vol. I., p. 182.


                               GLAZING.

  [Illustration: 182.--PORTION OF GLAZING FROM IGHTHAM CHURCH, KENT.]

The windows in the gallery at Hampton Court were glazed with heraldic
glass displaying the arms, badges, and mottoes of the King and Queen.
This was in accordance with the custom of the time, the principal
windows being generally more or less filled with heraldic devices
relating to the family who owned the house. Much of this splendid
decoration throughout the country has disappeared, but enough is left
to show that the treatment of the glass followed the same lines as
the carving of stone and wood. In the early part of the century it
consisted of dainty foliage, vases, candelabra, scrolls, and the quaint
animals with attenuated bodies, which are characteristic of Italian
ornament. Toward the end of the century these were replaced with the
strap-work and the great bunches of fruit and flowers which we owe to
Dutch designers. A small part of an early pattern from Ightham Church
is illustrated in Fig. 182; among the Italian vases and flowers is the
English portcullis, the badge of the Tudor family, more particularly
of Henry VII. A good example of the later treatment, when the Dutch
strap-work was in vogue, is given in a panel from Moreton Old Hall on
Plate LXXVII. The strap-work is merely an ornamental border to the
shield bearing the family device, and is treated in the same way as
that which surrounds most of the shields on the tombs of the period.
There is a fair amount of sixteenth century glass to be found up and
down the country, but it is mostly in small pieces, either saved from
the wreck of larger windows, or consisting of detached coats of arms.
The finest display of the later glass that has survived is that in the
dining-room of Gilling Castle, in Yorkshire, where there are several
large windows full of beautiful heraldic glazing. Much of it was the
work of a Dutchman, Bernard Dininckhoff, who signs one of the panels
with the date 1585 (Fig. 183). The hall of the Middle Temple also has
some good heraldic glass which is dated 1570. There were good English
glaziers both before and after Dininckhoff's time. At Hengrave the old
glass, dated 1567, was the work of Robert Wright, who was paid £4
for the "making of all the glasse wyndows of the Manour-place, with the
sodar, and for xiij. skutchens with armes."[28] In the year 1615 one
Walter Gedde published a book of pattern glazing called "A Booke of
Sundry Draughtes. Principally serving for Glasiers; And not Impertinent
for Plasterers and Gardiners: besides sundry other Professions.
Whereunto is annexed the manner how to anniel in Glas; And also the
true forme of the Furnace, and the secretes thereof," in which he gives
103 pages of designs for lead glazing of varying merit, out of which
four have been selected for illustration on Plate LXXVIII. Few, if any,
of these designs have survived in actual execution; such patterns as
are still to be found here and there are somewhat simpler in design.
It is interesting to observe how Walter Gedde considered that his
patterns would be useful to plasterers for the groundwork of their
ceiling-designs, and to gardeners for the ornamental beds and knot-work
with which they embellished their gardens.

[28] _History and Antiquities of Hengrave_, by John Gage.

  [Illustration: 183.--GLASS PANEL FROM ONE OF THE WINDOWS AT GILLING
  CASTLE, YORKSHIRE (1585).]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXVII.

  GLASS PANEL FROM MORETON OLD HALL, CHESHIRE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXVIII.

  PATTERNS FROM "A BOOKE OF SUNDRY DRAUGHTES."

  BY WALTER GEDDE (1615).]

The finest examples of painted glass of the early part of the sixteenth
century are the splendid windows at King's College Chapel, which were
the work of Englishmen. There are also portions of the beautiful
glass from the ruined Chapel of the Holy Ghost at Basingstoke, still
preserved at the church of Basingstoke, and at the Vyne; and there are
three windows in the apse of the chapel of that house. In addition
to these examples, there are several windows at St. Neot's Church in
Cornwall, the character of which inclines more to the Perpendicular
than the Renaissance; there is the east window of St. Margaret's,
Westminster; and there are fragments at Balliol and Queen's Colleges,
Oxford, and at St. James's, Bury St. Edmund's.[29] The ornament forming
the background to the figures in these windows is all similar in
character to that which adorns other work of the same period.

[29] See _The History of Design in Painted Glass_, by N. H. J.
Westlake, 1894, in which are numerous drawings of portions of the glass
mentioned in the text.




                              CHAPTER X.

                          MISCELLANEOUS WORK.

            HOUSES IN STREETS, SCHOOLS, MARKET-HOUSES, &c.


  [Illustration: 184.--HOUSE FORMERLY IN NORTH STREET, EXETER.]

The houses built in towns followed much the same lines as those erected
elsewhere in general treatment, but the plan was of course restricted
by the situation of the house, and by the fact that it could not derive
light from the sides. The fronts were often constructed of wood and
plaster, and the upper floors were corbelled out over those beneath
in the same fashion as had been customary for many years. Owing to
the nature of their materials most of these houses have disappeared
through fire or decay. Others have been swept away in the improvements
which inevitably accompany prosperity in a town; others have been
altered to suit the changes and development of trades. There are not
many examples, therefore, to be found except in out-of-the-way places,
or in districts of large towns from which the main stream of business
has been diverted. There are a few examples in the older parts of
Bristol and York, for instance, but they have been much mutilated
and altered. Some years ago there was an unusually good specimen in
North Street, Exeter (Fig. 184), but it has now disappeared. Here the
columns on the storey above the bays were particularly good both in
proportion and in general effect, and there was an unusual amount of
richness bestowed upon the carving of the corbels and the strings and
cornices. Towns near the coast seem to have been richer in houses of
this kind than those further inland. The Butter-market at Dartmouth is
a good specimen; the first floor is carried on columns, thus forming a
covered walk; the bay windows are supported by boldly-carved corbels
fashioned, some like fabulous animals, some like human figures.
Ipswich has some excellent examples of carved strings and beams; it
was customary to enrich the faces of the large beams which carried
the projecting storeys, and a considerable amount of fancy in design
and dexterity of execution were expended upon them. In the eastern
counties generally there is some capital work to be found, both in wood
and in modelled plaster. Canterbury has a few remains, one of which,
of somewhat late date, is shown in Fig. 185. The general treatment of
the windows on the first floor is in accordance with Jacobean methods,
but the handling of the boldly-modelled plaster-work above them points
towards the latter half of the seventeenth century as the time of its
execution. Two of the objects aimed at in these street fronts seem
to have been to get plenty of light and to introduce bay windows. In
the example from Canterbury, the whole front of the first floor is
occupied with windows, and there are two bays introduced in the range
which serve as large corbels to the straight front above them. Another
example, from Oxford (Plate LXXIX.), also shows the whole front of
two floors occupied by window space. But this front is gabled, and
has one large bay window in the centre, which is covered by a broken
pediment embracing a kind of dormer, all enclosed within the lines of
the gable itself, which, however, has undergone some alteration since
it was first erected. The difference in the treatment of the arched
lights in the several floors should be noticed. Another variety is
to be seen in a house in Stratford-on-Avon (Plate LXXIX.), where the
general disposition is rather simple, but all the woodwork is highly
ornamented. The main beams which carry the projecting storeys are
carved in the manner already mentioned as being prevalent at Ipswich.
Here, again, there is a bay window on the first floor helping to carry
the storey above it, and another projecting window on the top floor,
the upper corners of which are hidden behind the barge-boards. The
same general treatment is to be seen in an old house in the High Town
at Hereford (Fig. 186), where the excellent effect is produced by very
simple means. The woodwork of the framing is all straight, but it
is massive, and not much less in width than the plaster panels. The
upper storey projects far enough to give good shadow, which is varied
by the shallow bays just beneath it. The gables have heavy carved
barge-boards, and in each of them is a bay window, the top of which,
unlike the example from Stratford, is free from interference by the
barge-board. The pendants between the bays on the first floor are of
the ordinary pierced pattern. In considering these specimens from busy
towns, it should be remembered that they have all been more or less
restored.

  [Illustration: 185.--HOUSE IN THE HIGH STREET, CANTERBURY.]

  [Illustration: 186.--OLD HOUSE, HIGH TOWN, HEREFORD.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXIX.

  HOUSE IN THE HIGH STREET, OXFORD.

  HOUSE AT STRATFORD-ON-AVON, WARWICKSHIRE.]

The fashion of building with timber on the narrow streets of the time
was felt to be dangerous, and in the year 1605 a proclamation was made
in London that the fore-front and windows of all new houses within the
city and one mile thereof should be of brick or stone. The old houses,
however, were left until the great fire of 1666 swept them away: it was
these charming half-timbered dwellings which afforded the chief fuel
for that huge bonfire.

In Thorpe's book there are several plans drawn for "London Houses." One
(on page 18) is entitled "Three houses for the city, or for a country
house at 8 parts to the inch." It shows a row of three houses, two of
which have a frontage of 33 feet each, while the third has 24. The
plans are very rough and unfinished, but they show alternative ways
of providing the accommodation. One house has a hall and kitchen on
the front, and a parlour, staircase and buttery at the back, while a
"vault" is contrived in the centre in a most insanitary manner. The
second has the hall and buttery to the front, the stairs at one side,
and the parlour and kitchen to the back. The third (having only 24
feet of frontage) has merely an entrance passage and kitchen to the
front, and a parlour at the back, while the staircase is opposite
the front door--the plan being a forerunner of the type which later
became of universal adoption. The second part of the title, indicating
that the plan might be used for a country house, is rather obscure,
inasmuch as no redistribution of names among the rooms shown could
have converted them into a workable plan for a single house. Another
plan (on pages 135, 136) is called a "London house of 3 breadths of
ordinary tenements." It has a frontage of 51 feet, thus giving 17 feet
as the breadth of an ordinary tenement. With such a frontage, it is of
course a much better house than those already described for the city.
It was entered at one end, the entry communicating with a narrow yard
which gave access to the garden in the rear. The hall looked out into
the street, as also did the parlour and buttery. At the back were the
winter parlour, the kitchen, and the stairs, with the larder under
them. The rooms were not large, the parlour being 18 feet by 13 feet,
and the winter parlour 15 feet by 12 feet: as usual, much space was
occupied by the large fireplaces. The first-floor plan is not given,
but on a higher storey appears an open leaded terrace along the street
front, behind which is a narrow and low gallery (only 5 feet to the
rafters) extending the whole length of the house, and again behind
that there are "sundry lodgings for servants, etc." There are no means
of fixing the date of the plan, but it appears to have been prepared
for Sir Thomas Lake, who was clerk to the signet in 1595, and a
Secretary of State in 1616. If we are to presume that a high official
complied with the proclamation as to houses being of stone or brick,
the date would be prior to 1605, for although the ground floor is shown
with stone walls, those of the upper floor are only of wood and plaster.

  [Illustration: 187.--CORBELS, "KING'S ARMS," SANDWICH, KENT.]

  [Illustration: 188.--CORBEL AT CANTERBURY.]

  [Illustration: 189.--CORBEL AND PENDANT AT CANTERBURY.]

  [Illustration: 190.--CORBEL, ORTON WATERVILLE, HUNTINGDONSHIRE.]

There is one other plan for a town house; it is called "A London house,
Lady Derby, Channell Row" (page 110). It is the plan of a much finer
house than any of the foregoing, and as it is built round a courtyard,
there were no special difficulties in providing light and air. It
follows the usual type of large houses, having a central entrance, from
which a flagged path leads across the court into the screens of the
hall. The staircases, chapel, winter parlour, kitchen and other rooms
are grouped round the court in the ordinary way, the only difference
being that those which occupy the sides of the court have no windows
on their outside walls, but only such as look inwards into the court
itself. The restrictions imposed by the fact of the house being a
"London house" are therefore very slight. The "Channell Row" where this
house was built was probably the street of that name in Westminster.
These plans of Thorpe's are of considerable interest, as they show the
first steps taken towards developing a plan suitable for the confined
spaces available in large towns.

  [Illustration: 191.--THE "SWAN" INN, LECHLADE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.]

Reverting to the smaller examples under consideration, we find that
a great variety was introduced into the corbels which carried the
projecting floors; many of them were grotesques after the fashion of
that on the "King's Arms" at Sandwich, in Kent (Fig. 187), others were
simpler, like the examples from Canterbury (Figs. 188, 189), while
others, like that from Orton Waterville, Huntingdonshire (Fig. 190),
combined both ideas. But the characteristic common to them all is
boldness, both of size and treatment. They generally had a spiral about
them in one form or another, varied by foliage or projecting bosses,
or some variation of the strap-work _motif_. The great corner-posts of
such houses as formed the corner of a street were often wrought with
a remarkable amount of care. They were not only of sufficient size to
make suitable angle-posts, but they were brought out at the top in a
diagonal manner in order to support the storey above, which overhung
the lower one on both faces; an instance of this treatment may be
seen in the example from Sandwich (Fig. 187). In some places it was
customary not only to bring out the face of each storey beyond that of
the one below, but to bring the whole house out over the footwalk. The
Rows at Chester are a well-known example of this practice. The Long Row
on the great market-place of Nottingham is another instance, but here
the arcade has been almost entirely rebuilt, one of the last specimens
of a Jacobean front having recently been removed in the course of
making a new street.

In stone districts the local material was chiefly employed, and
all through the small towns and villages of Somerset, Wiltshire,
Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire charming little
examples, such as the "Swan" Inn at Lechlade (Fig. 191), may be found
here and there. The idea is of the simplest--a door in the middle, with
a bay window on each side, crowned with a gable. But the disposition
of the small windows, the treatment of the door, and the change from
the canted side of the bay to the square base of the gable afforded
opportunities for variety and for careful treatment sufficient to
render these minor examples well worth attention.


                MARKET-HOUSES, SCHOOLS, ALMSHOUSES, &c.

  [Illustration: 192.--DESK IN ALMSHOUSE, CORSHAM, WILTSHIRE.]

Most of the work of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries which
has come down to us is to be found in houses; but there are a certain
number of other buildings left, such as town-halls, market-houses,
schools, and almshouses. Of almshouses, or hospitals, as they are
often called, there are some excellent examples in many parts of the
country. Ford's Hospital, in Coventry, built in 1529, is an extremely
good specimen of Late Gothic woodwork; St. John's Hospital, Rye, is
another. The almshouses at Corsham, in Wiltshire, are not only very
picturesque outside, but contain some capital woodwork inside, of
which a reading-desk is illustrated in Fig. 192. Another set, equally
substantial and of greater extent, is to be found at Chipping Campden,
in Gloucestershire (Fig. 193). The work in these places is simple and
substantial; there is no display of ornament, unless perhaps over the
entrance, where the donor would place his arms with a certain amount
of flourish, partly in carving, partly in inscription; there are no
elaborate ceilings nor chimney-pieces, but tables, desks, and chairs
of careful design and workmanship have survived in places, and these
simple buildings are often valuable in affording examples of plain,
unpretentious work.

  [Illustration: 193.--ALMSHOUSES, CHIPPING CAMPDEN,
  GLOUCESTERSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 194.--MARKET-HOUSE, SHREWSBURY.]

  [Illustration: 195.--MARKET-HOUSE, WYMONDHAM, NORFOLK (1617).]

  [Illustration: 196.--MARKET-HOUSE, CHIPPING CAMPDEN, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.]

There are not many town-halls of this period to be found. Civic life
did not express itself in concrete form in nearly so pronounced a
manner as, for instance, in the Low Countries during the period under
consideration, and as it is doing at home at the present day. The
most striking example of a town-hall of the time is the picturesque
Guildhall at Exeter, which has a richly-ornamented front projecting
over the pavement and carried on arches. But there were a great
many market-houses built. The finest of these, so far as design and
workmanship go, is the well-known Market-house at Rothwell, presented
to the town about the year 1577 by a neighbouring squire, Sir Thomas
Tresham, but left unfinished owing to the donor being harassed on
account of his zeal as a Roman Catholic. Like most market-houses, this
building was to have consisted of an open market-hall on the ground
floor, with a room over it. There is a good example on a larger scale
at Shrewsbury (Fig. 194), substantially built in stone, with mullioned
windows and an ornamental parapet. The ground floor serves as a covered
market, and the upper floor is carried on open arches. At Wymondham,
in Norfolk, is a smaller specimen (dated 1617), serving the same
purposes, but it is built of timber and plaster (Fig. 195). The upper
floor stands on stout posts and brackets, set some two feet within the
outside face, and is approached by a quaint wooden staircase. There
is a one-storey market-house at Chipping Campden (Fig. 196), built
of stone, with arches on each side; the five down the long side are
supported on pillars, and have a gable over every alternate arch, while
the two at each end are divided by a short length of wall and have a
gable over each, thus securing a pleasant variation of treatment: the
detail throughout is quite plain. There were also a few market and
village crosses erected at this time, but there are not many examples
to be found: one of the best is at Brigstock, in Northamptonshire
(Plate LXXX.), where its situation in an open space, and backed by
stone-built and thatched cottages, renders it a quaint and pleasant
feature. The shields at the top bear alternately the royal arms and
Elizabeth's initials, E. R., with the date 1586.

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXX.

  VILLAGE CROSS, BRIGSTOCK, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE (1586).]

  [Illustration: 197.--SCHOOL AT BURTON LATIMER, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
  (1622).]

During the reign of Edward VI. a large number of schools were founded,
and there are numerous examples left of those built during the next
fifty years. There is a good specimen of the late sort at Shrewsbury;
and of the smaller kind, such as were founded in villages, that at
Burton Latimer, in Northamptonshire, is one of the quaintest (Fig.
197). Its features are quite simple; mullioned windows, on which are
inscribed the date 1622, and the names of donors or, as we should now
call them, subscribers; steep gables with finials at the foot; the
ordinary excellent chimney of the district, and a rather elaborate
doorway surmounted by a curved gable; such are the means employed to
produce this attractive little building. Of other kinds of buildings,
which come under no class because there were so few built, may be
mentioned the pretty little mill at Bourne Pond, near Colchester, and
the Hawking-tower in Althorp Park, Northamptonshire. The former (Fig.
198) is built chiefly of flint, but mixed with the flint are bricks,
tiles, and stones. The stone embellishments are somewhat elaborate
and varied, and the curious curved and broken outline of the gables
points to the Low Countries as the source of its birth. The mill is
dated 1591, and bears the arms of its founder, who was a citizen of the
adjacent town of Colchester. The Hawking-tower at Althorp is probably
unique (Fig. 199). It was built by Robert, Lord Spencer, in 1612 and
1613, and is said to have been erected by him as a token of gratitude
for having been raised to the peerage; but if so, the acknowledgment
followed the event at an interval of ten years. There is no suggestion
of the kind in the only inscription upon it, which runs thus, "This
Staninge was made by Robert Lord Spencer 1612 et 1613." It not only
bears the arms of Lord Spencer, but also those of the sovereign, very
cleverly modelled. The plan (Fig. 200) comprises on the ground floor an
entrance, a room with a fireplace, and a staircase, which leads up to
the floor above, where the walls were pierced with a number of arches,
through which the spectators could watch the sport. These arches have
been built up in order to render the place habitable, and one or two
rooms have been added at the back with a like purpose, but a little
care enables the original arrangements to be made out with tolerable
certainty.

  [Illustration: 198.--MILL AT BOURNE POND, COLCHESTER, ESSEX (1591).]

  [Illustration: 199.--HAWKING-TOWER, ALTHORP PARK, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
  (1612-13).]

  [Illustration: 200.--HAWKING-TOWER, ALTHORP PARK, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
  (1612-13).]

At Scole, in Norfolk, a very curious survival of the old classical
_motifs_ was to be seen, till the end of last century, in a great sign
erected in 1655 for the "White Hart" Inn (Fig. 201). The hart itself
lies couchant on the middle of the main beam, beneath a pediment
supported by Justice and Plenty, two qualities for which the host
may be excused if he considered his house noted. On one side of the
centre-piece stands Actæon, about to be torn in pieces by his dogs, to
whom he is supposed to be addressing the Latin legend beneath him:
"I am Actæon, know your master." On the other side stands Diana, and
beyond her is Time, about to devour his child, beginning with its hand;
beneath him his identity is made quite clear by the sentence "Tempus
edax rerum." In the frieze below the beam are two figures representing
(probably) Bacchus and Gambrinus, supported on either side by coats of
arms. Angels and lions hold further coats of arms. There is Cerberus
with his three heads, while numerous bunches of grapes, men blowing
horns, and other devices suitable to the purpose occupy the rest of
the space. The whole design might have come from the fertile brain of
George Gascoigne, who was responsible for most of the entertainments at
Kenilworth when Queen Elizabeth paid her celebrated visit there nearly
eighty years before this sign was erected. The fundamental idea which
underlay all design of the time was to combine strong classic feeling
with picturesqueness of expression.

  [Illustration: 201.--THE SIGN OF THE "WHITE HART" INN, FORMERLY AT
  SCOLE, NORFOLK (1655).]


                           WORK IN CHURCHES.

  [Illustration: 202.--CHICHESTER TOMB, PILTON CHURCH, DEVONSHIRE
  (1566).]

It has already been stated that there is no ecclesiastical architecture
of early Renaissance character in England. There were a number of
churches built during the first thirty years of the sixteenth century,
but they are all Gothic in treatment. The influence of the Renaissance
on certain features to be found in churches, such as chantries and
tombs, has already been dealt with. It remains to glance at the changes
that occurred in church fittings as the century grew older. Although
no churches, or extremely few, were built after the Dissolution of
the Monasteries, still the Elizabethan and Jacobean squires were not
backward in embellishing the ancient structures, and there are plenty
of screens, pulpits, font-covers, and particularly tombs, to be found
all over the country, although it cannot be denied that under the
influence of the revival of Gothic feeling which took place about fifty
years ago, a great deal of Elizabethan and Jacobean work was either
destroyed, or removed to the vestry, into which confined space it was
made to fit by a ruthless exercise of the axe and saw.

  [Illustration: 203.--FROM ONE OF THE FOLJAMBE TOMBS, CHESTERFIELD
  CHURCH, DERBYSHIRE (1592).]

  [Illustration: 204.--TOMB OF G. REED (D. 1610), BREDON CHURCH,
  WORCESTERSHIRE.]

The progress of style in tombs has already been traced to a certain
extent in dealing with the early stages of the Renaissance movement.
It has been shown how the old idea of the altar tomb, with recumbent
figures, lingered on till quite late in the sixteenth century. In the
closing years, however, it became fashionable to place the figure,
still recumbent, beneath an arched canopy, upon which was lavished an
extraordinary amount of ornament. The arch itself was coffered and
adorned with bosses and stiff flowers of various kinds. It was flanked
with columns which carried an entablature, above which again rose a
superstructure displaying the family arms, and so designed that with
its supporting obelisks and detached figures it formed a more or less
pyramidal finish. The back of the tomb above the figures, and enclosed
by the arch, was usually occupied by a tablet setting forth the name
and qualities of the defunct person, together with his alliances, if
they were thought at all worthy of record; and round this tablet was a
frame of strap-work of intricate design filling up the remainder of the
space, and decked with all manner of delicate ribbons and garlands. In
every suitable place appeared the arms of the chief person concerned,
or those of his wife, or some notable family to which they were allied.
The whole monument was brightly , where the use of different
kinds of marble did not render such embellishment unnecessary, and the
effect was striking in the extreme. The nobleman and the squire of
Elizabeth's days had each a very high opinion of his family, and of
his own importance in the scheme of the universe, and nothing would
have pleased him better than to see the monument under which he was
buried. Some of these great tombs are pretentious in idea and poor in
design, but some of them are full of delightful detail, consistent in
scale, varied in treatment, and beautifully modelled. There is a good
example in the Chichester tomb at North Pilton, in Devonshire (Fig.
202), which departs from the usual arched type, and which, if it were
erected soon after the death of those whom it commemorates, in 1566,
is quite an early example of the use of strap-work. The detail of
this monument, shown on Plate LXXXI., is of unusual delicacy, and the
elaborate frame which encloses the black marble panel is handled with
a delicacy and lightness of touch too seldom met with. The Foljambe
tombs in Chesterfield Church, Derbyshire, are treated with considerable
originality. One of them (dated 1592) is in the form of a sarcophagus,
and is adorned with beautifully modelled carving (Fig. 203). These
examples are of unusual excellence. The tomb in Bredon Church (Fig.
204) to G. Reed, who died in 1610, and that in the Spencer aisle at
Yarnton (Fig. 205) to Sir William Spencer, who died in 1609, are
specimens of the ordinary treatment of arched monuments. As time went
on this kind of tomb became much coarser in design. The detail was less
refined, and the recumbent figures were placed no longer in a simple
and dignified attitude, with faces turned towards the sky and with
hands folded in the attitude of prayer; but they were placed awkwardly
on their sides, leaning on their elbows, sometimes lodged in
precarious positions on a kind of shelf, sometimes with cheek resting
on the hand, as though, in the words of Bosola in the _Duchess of
Malfi_, "they had died of the toothache." All dignity and romance were
eliminated from the work, and the Jacobean squire appeared in death
what he frequently was in life--a very commonplace creature.

  [Illustration: 205.--TOMB OF SIR WM. SPENCER (D. 1609), YARNTON CHURCH,
  OXFORDSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXXI.

  PILTON CHURCH, NORTH DEVON.

  DETAIL OF THE CHICHESTER TOMB.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXXII.

  SCREEN AT TILNEY ALL SAINTS, NORFOLK (1618).]

  [Illustration: 206.--PULPIT, WORTH CHURCH, SUSSEX (1577).]

There were many screens erected during the early years of the
seventeenth century. The finest specimens are at St. John's Church,
Leeds, and at Croscombe in Somerset, near Wells, in both of which
churches most of the woodwork is of this period, including the
excellent oak seats. The general effect of the richly ornamented
woodwork at Croscombe, including the pews, the pulpit, and the lofty
screen, is unusually striking. But in many churches in different parts
of the country screens may be found of more or less importance. A
good example is illustrated from Tilney All Saints, in Norfolk, near
King's Lynn (Plate LXXXII.), which bears the date 1618 in a little
panel over the central arch. The design, it will be seen, is somewhat
unconstructional, for the main posts of the lower part are not carried
up to support the crowning cornice, but terminate in obelisks, leaving
the cornice to be carried by turned balusters; the effect being to
render the upper part rather insecure in appearance. There is a screen
at Stonegrave, in Yorkshire, of simple but rather unusual design, in
which the detail is very carefully managed. Although it is dated 1637,
its general character places it in the category of Jacobean work.

Of pulpits there were a large number erected in Elizabeth's time, and
still more in King James's, for in the canons of 1603 a pulpit was
ordered to be placed in every church not previously provided with
one. Many of these have disappeared, through decay or the fury of
Gothic restoration, but there are still plenty left, of which several
types are illustrated. There is the elaborate one at Worth Church, in
Sussex, dated 1577, built up with columns at the angles. The faces are
occupied by niches containing figures of the Evangelists (Fig. 206),
and the frieze above bears an inscription in the Dutch language. On the
panels between the pilasters of the lower stage is some of the applied
carving, previously referred to in treating of panelling.

  [Illustration: 207.--PULPIT, BLYTHBOROUGH CHURCH, SUFFOLK.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXXIII.

  PULPIT, EDINGTON CHURCH, WILTSHIRE.]

There is a simpler form from Blythborough, in Suffolk (Fig. 207),
which consists of panelling framed together, all the framework and the
panels themselves being covered with carving in low relief. The
widely-projecting bookboard is also ornamented on the underside, and
is supported by large carved brackets. The pulpit stands on four short
posts let into a wood sill and supported by brackets. Another type is
to be seen in Edington Church, Wiltshire (Plate LXXXIII.), of simple
and elegant design. The octagonal body of the pulpit consists of plain
moulded panelling without ornament; the bookboard forms a cornice,
which is slightly enriched with dentils and carving. The whole stands
on a single turned stout post, from the upper part of which spring
brackets of simple form. There is a panelled sounding-board with a
carved frieze and an acorn drop at each angle. The whole work exhibits
unusual restraints and refinement both of design and detail. Of
somewhat similar type, but rather more florid in detail, and probably
later in date, is the pulpit at Chesterfield Church (Fig. 208).

  [Illustration: 208.--PULPIT, CHESTERFIELD CHURCH, DERBYSHIRE.]

Font-covers of the seventeenth century are also fairly numerous, and
a few of them still retain the elaborate bracket from which they were
suspended in order to be raised or lowered with little trouble. There
is a good specimen of such a bracket at Pilton Church, in North Devon
(Fig. 209), of which, however, the upper part, above the tilted hood,
is of later date and coarser design: and there is a still finer example
at Astbury Church, near Congleton, in Cheshire.

  [Illustration: 209.--FONT-COVER AND CANOPY, PILTON CHURCH, DEVONSHIRE.]

Of the very few churches which were built during the century that
succeeded the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the most important was
St. John's Church at Leeds. There is nothing particularly striking
in the treatment if we except the beautiful wood fittings. The plan
consists of a double nave, divided by an arcade, and the stonework
details are plain in character and of no great interest. It might
have been expected that window tracery would afford opportunities
to the ingenious masons of the time; but either they clung to the
old traditions, as did the masons employed by Nicholas Wadham on the
chapel of his college at Oxford, where in the years 1610-13, they
produced windows of excellent Perpendicular character: or else they
tried in a half-hearted kind of way to give to the tracery forms in
keeping with those used elsewhere. Such an attempt was made in the
church of Kelmarsh, in Northamptonshire (Fig. 210), but it had not
much to recommend it, nor were other efforts--in the hall at Wadham
and a few other places--of such singular success as to lead further in
this direction; and the call for church windows being very limited,
no development worth mentioning occurred. The most noteworthy attempt
to give a new character to window tracery was made in later years
(subsequent to 1634) at the chapel at Burford Priory, Oxfordshire,
where tracery founded on ancient precedents, but following lines of
its own, was surrounded by a fully-developed classic architrave.
Elizabethan and Jacobean detail lingered on in out-of-the-way places
long into the seventeenth century, and at Compton Winyates, in
Warwickshire, the church, which was rebuilt in 1663, has some quaint
little bits of stone detail (Fig. 211), in which the old forms have
not yet been replaced by the more strictly classic features which were
being more and more generally employed.

  [Illustration: 210.--WINDOW, KELMARSH CHURCH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.]

Another instance of the survival of ancient forms is to be seen in
the woodwork in the chapel at Peterhouse, Cambridge (Fig. 212), where
Jacobean balusters of elegant contour surmount panels treated in
the Gothic manner and finished at the top with cusping and foliated
spandrils. The date of this door is about 1632.

  [Illustration: 211.--FROM COMPTON WINYATES CHURCH, WARWICKSHIRE.]

  [Illustration: 212.--DOOR IN THE SCREEN OF THE CHAPEL, PETERHOUSE,
  CAMBRIDGE (CIR. 1632).]

There are not many specimens of ornamental plaster ceilings to be found
in churches, but at Axbridge, in Somerset, there is such an instance in
the nave, where the ceiling is in the form of a pointed barrel vault,
with plaster ribs springing from a cornice adorned with strap-work. The
ribs form a simple pattern consisting mostly of squares of different
sizes, and there are large Jacobean pendants and bosses at intervals;
but out of deference to ecclesiastical tradition, the square panels are
ornamented with cusps, which give to the whole design a rather feeble
flavour of Gothic; of its kind, however, it is an interesting ceiling,
and is one among many indications of the attention bestowed upon
churches during the early years of the Reformation. Another indication
is the frequent presence of texts upon the walls. They are generally
surrounded with an ornamental strap-work border, such as roused the
admiration of the narrator of an entertainment at Antwerp in honour
of the Duke of Anjou in 1581, when he commended the "compartments of
Phrygian work, very artificially handled." These texts seem to have had
their origin from a singular circumstance. Queen Elizabeth attended
service at St. Paul's on New Year's Day, 1561, and the Dean, thinking
to present her with an acceptable New Year's gift, caused a number of
beautiful pictures representing the stories of the saints and martyrs
to be handsomely bound in a Book of Common Prayer, which he laid upon
the Queen's cushion. On opening it, however, she frowned and blushed,
and calling the verger to her, caused him to bring the old prayer-book
which she had been accustomed to use. At the close of the service she
gave the Dean a very uncomfortable quarter of an hour, for having
thus gone counter to her proclamation against "images, pictures, and
Romish reliques." He excused himself, according to the account, like a
lectured schoolboy, and promised that nothing of the kind should occur
again. In consequence of this incident there was a general searching of
all the churches in and about London, and the clergy and churchwardens
"washed out of the walls all paintings that seemed to be Romish and
idolatrous," and wrote up "in lieu thereof, suitable texts taken out of
the Holy Scriptures."




                              CHAPTER XI.

   SIXTEENTH CENTURY HOUSE-PLANNING AS ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN THORPE'S
                               DRAWINGS.


One of the most valuable sources for obtaining knowledge of the
house-planning of the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. is the
collection of drawings in the Soane Museum, known as John Thorpe's.
This collection has given rise to a certain amount of controversy, and
will probably give rise to more, for there are so many objections to
any theory which can be advanced as to its origin and use. This is not
the place to enter upon the arguments for or against any particular
view; but as it may be advisable to adopt some kind of working
hypothesis, that which best fits the facts seems to be this--that the
drawings were drawn in a large book (with the exception of some few
which were stuck in), and that by far the greatest number, if not
actually all, were drawn by John Thorpe.[30] There were two men of
this name, father and son, and both may have had a hand in it. But
whether this hypothesis be accepted or not, it is certain that all the
drawings were made during the closing years of the sixteenth century
or the opening years of the seventeenth, and that they represent
either surveys of buildings then existing, or designs for new ones,
or exercises in ingenuity of planning. Whatever else we may or may
not have, we have here the Elizabethan and Jacobean ideas of what
houses were or ought to be, what accommodation they should contain,
and how it should be disposed. In this respect the collection is
particularly valuable, because we get everything at first hand; we
see some designs in course of development, and others as they were
finished, and entirely free from the manifold alterations which houses
themselves have necessarily undergone in the course of three centuries.
We also get in the elevations, or "uprights" as they were then called,
the designer's ideas of how the houses were to appear; but in this
respect we do not fare so well as with the plans, since the number of
elevations is far smaller.

[30] The arguments in support of this view are given in a paper by the
author, published in the _Architectural Review_ of February, 1899.

  [Illustration: 213.--THE CHÂTEAU OF ANSSI-LE-FRANC, COPIED FROM DU
  CERCEAU (PAGE 75 OF THORPE'S BOOK).]

There are, further, a few drawings which may be regarded as
studies--studies in perspective, in the five orders, and in the style
of foreign architects. For there is no doubt that Thorpe studied
books on architecture, both Italian, French, and Dutch, of which a
considerable number had been published during the latter half of
the sixteenth century. His exercise in the five orders is evidently
drawn from an Italian publication, which, however, has not yet been
identified. He has copied at least three designs from a French source,
one of Androuet du Cerceau's books, "Les plus excellents bastiments
de France," published in 1576-79. One of these designs is the Château
of Anssi-le-Franc, of which he gives the plan on page 75, and part of
the elevation on page 76. The plan is copied accurately except in one
or two trifling particulars, and so also is the elevation (Figs. 213,
214); but to the latter he has added three sketches of turrets, which
do not appear in the original, and which are designed in the Dutch
rather than the French style. On each side of the plan he has sketched
in pencil the main lines of another plan founded on the original, but
which looks as though it were meant to be adapted to English uses.
Another plan which he copied from Du Cerceau (on pages 77, 78) is the
Château de Madrit in the Bois de Boulogne. This is, with one little
exception, line for line like the original, but, curiously enough, here
again he has made notes in pencil indicating how he would have adapted
it for English habits. The third instance is part of the plan and
elevation of the "theatre" at Saint Germain (on pages 165, 166).

  [Illustration: 214.--THE CHÂTEAU OF ANSSI-LE-FRANC COPIED FROM DU
  CERCEAU, BUT WITH THREE TURRETS ADDED (PAGE 76 OF THORPE'S BOOK).]

Thorpe was also a student of Dutch publications. On page 24 he has a
design entitled "½ a front or a garden syde for a noble man" (Fig.
215), of which the central portion is copied from Plate 20 of Jan
Vredeman de Vries's "Architectura, ou Bastiment prins de Vitruve,"
published at Antwerp in 1577. He has departed from the original in
one or two small particulars; for instance, he has four-light windows
where Vries has two-light; he has mullions to his dormers where Vries
has none; he has added the final flourishes and pinnacle on the top of
the centre gable which Vries leaves plain, and his treatment of the
windows over the middle arch is different from Vries's; but with these
exceptions the original is followed faithfully as far as to the end of
the arcade, to the left of which the design is Thorpe's own. Thorpe has
written on the panel over the entrance "Structum ad impensum Dni Sara
Ao Dni 1600." This is the only drawing of his which has been traced
to Dutch sources, but nearly all his elevations, of which a few are
illustrated in this chapter, show some hankering after Dutch forms in
the gables. On page 60 of his book he has a few sketches, chiefly of
strap-work gables, which look as though they had been either copied
from a Dutch book or inspired by one.

  [Illustration: 215.--ELEVATION COPIED FROM DE VRIES. THE CENTRAL
  PORTION IS COPIED; ALL TO THE LEFT OF THE ARCADE IS ADDED BY THORPE
  (PAGE 24).]

This study of foreign books by one of the designers of the period is
a noteworthy fact, and it is equally worthy of note that the study of
them seems to have set him thinking, and to have suggested ideas to
him, which he jotted down in pencil near the copies which he made from
the foreign books. These are not the only instances of this habit, for
in other parts of his book are to be seen, by the side of carefully
finished plans, hasty sketches of some variation of the same main
ideas. Of the foreign books which he studied, some, therefore, were
Italian, some were French, and others Dutch: and it is curious to see
how the French books seem to have influenced his plans, and the Dutch
books his elevations. The French influence on those plans which, so
far as we know, were actually carried out, was not strong; but among
the plans which may be classed as exercises, are some with towers at
the corners, after the manner of those at Chambord, Chenonceau, and
Azay-le-Rideau, and a number with square turrets such as those of the
Château de Madrit. He may also have derived from the same sources
his extreme love of symmetry, and his adoption of the grand manner
apparent in some of his designs planned round a courtyard. These
French books may, therefore, have influenced his style, but they did
not dominate him so much as to cause him to copy the French type of
plan in designing an English house. The same may be said of the Dutch
influence on his elevations. Only in the one instance already mentioned
did he embody a whole piece of Dutch design into one of his own. But
in his chimneys, his strap-work gables, and his turrets or lanterns he
drew from Dutch sources. And there are two points to notice in this
connection--one is that the strap-work gable occurs much oftener in his
drawings than in houses actually built; the other is that had these
gables been adopted as freely as the elevations would indicate, the
houses would have been more Dutch than the Dutchmen's own buildings,
for in the latter the stepped gable is far more frequent than
strap-work, and produces an entirely different effect.

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXXIV.

  "SIR JARVIS CLIFTON'S HOUSE."

  (PAGES 65, 66.)

     1. Hall.
     2. Vestibule.
     3. Parlour.
     4. Lodging.
     5. Grand Staircase.
     6. Chapel.
     7. Buttery.
     8. Butler's Room.
     9. Back Stairs.
     10. Lodging.
     11. Kitchen.
     12. Dry Larder.
     13. Wet Larder.
     14. Bakehouse.
     15. Open Arcade.
     16. Gatehouse.]

Let us, however, turn from these speculations to the drawings which
compose the great bulk of the book--namely, the plans and (in some
cases) elevations which show what kind of building an English house was
intended to be, and which ought to be compared with the examples
already given in Chapter III. The type of plan made familiar in those
examples is the type on which nine-tenths of Thorpe's plans are based.
The hall is the centre of household life, the parlour and family rooms
are at one end of it, the kitchen and servants' rooms are at the other.
But he has a certain number of plans in which the hall shows more or
less signs of becoming an entrance rather than a living-room; the
following examples show how the old type gradually changed into the new.

The first plan of the series (Plate LXXXIV.) is named "Sir Jarvis
Clifton's House." It shows a large symmetrical house with a forecourt
entered through an imposing gatehouse furnished with a turret at each
corner. Directly opposite to this lodge is the porch of the house,
which gives access in the usual way to the screens, and thence into the
hall, with its daïs shown at the upper end. The bay window at the end
of the daïs leads into a large vestibule from which the great staircase
and the parlour are approached; beyond the parlour, at the corner of
the building, is an isolated room marked "lodging" [_i.e._, bedroom].
The left-hand wing is occupied by the chapel, which is approached
through a vestibule leading out from the foot of the great staircase.
This completes the accommodation for the family so far as the ground
floor is concerned. On the other side of the hall are the servants'
rooms: first, two for the butler with a staircase to the cellar; then
a large vestibule (with a servants' staircase), which leads to another
"lodging"; to the kitchen, with a fine bay window and two fireplaces,
one large and one small, each having a little oven close to it; and
to the dry larder: beyond the kitchen is the wet larder, and beyond
this is the rest of the servants' department, of which the bakehouse
occupies a wing balancing the chapel wing. The mouths of the two ovens
of the bakehouse are shown, but the paper was too small to allow
their full extent to be indicated. There is no upper plan, but from
notes on this one it seems that the long gallery was over the arcade
at the back of the hall, and that the great chamber was over the
parlour and its vestibule. There is an arcade on either side of the
front porch, and another between the wings on the opposite side of the
house. It is worthy of note that although the front and back façades
are of different lengths, each of them is symmetrical in itself. This
variation is the result of considerable ingenuity in planning. The
whole plan is worth attention as a specimen of the usual type treated
in a broad and dignified manner.

  [Illustration: 216--AN UN-NAMED PLAN (PAGES 117, 118).

     1. Hall.
     2. Principal Stairs.
     3. Parlour.
     4. Lodging.
     5. Buttery.
     6. Winter Parlour.
     7. Back Stairs.
     8. Kitchen.
     9. Pastry.
     10. Inner Court.
     11. Open Arcade.
     12. Outer Court.]

The Cliftons had been seated at Clifton, near Nottingham, for some time
prior to the reign of James I.; the family still resides there, but
there is nothing in the existing house to connect it with this plan of
Thorpe's. Sir Gervase Clifton lived from 1586 to 1666, and was created
a baronet in the year 1612. This plan must therefore have been drawn
subsequent to that year, as it is entitled "Sir Jarvis Clifton's."
There is nothing to show whether it is an original design or a survey
of an existing house: the clean way in which it is drawn points to the
latter assumption; but if it is an original design it is interesting as
showing at what a late date the old type of plan was still employed.

The next plan (Fig. 216) has no title. It shows a house with a
courtyard in front and two long wings at the back, forming a nearly
square block. The arrangement follows the established lines: a porch
leads into the screens and thence into the hall, which again has the
daïs indicated. Owing to the exigencies of the external treatment,
the bay window is not placed at the end of the daïs. A door between
the latter and the fireplace leads into a vestibule with the chief
staircase in it; beyond is the parlour, with a bay window looking
into a small courtyard, and beyond the parlour is another room. On
the servants' side is the buttery with its stairs, and then the
winter parlour, of which the bay window balances that of the hall. A
vestibule containing the back staircase separates these rooms from the
kitchen, which has a bay window looking straight across at the bay of
the parlour; beyond the kitchen are two rooms, the first of which is
probably a larder, while the other is certainly, on account of the
ovens, either the bakehouse or "the pastry." There is an arcade at the
back of the front wing, occupying one side of the inner court. The
fourth side of this court is enclosed by a wall, but the draughtsman
has indicated it in two separate positions, thus making it appear as
though there were a solid wing on this side. In this plan, also, the
only indication of the upper floor is given in the note written on the
hall, "Great chamber over this to ye Skryne" (screen).

The plan shown in Plate LXXXV. has no title, but it has the advantage
of having every room named; and its elevation is also drawn, which
was not the case in either of the two preceding examples. The plan
follows the familiar lines; it has a long narrow body, and at each end
a long narrow wing at right angles to it, with a staircase turret at
the internal angles. The porch and screens are in the usual relation
to the hall, beyond which are the parlour and two "lodgings," each of
which has a small inner room attached. The first of these lodgings
is a thoroughfare room, but there is an external door in the passage
connecting the two, which enables the hall to be gained by crossing the
court, thus affording an alternative route of a kind. On the servants'
side of the house are the buttery, the pantry, the winter parlour, the
larder, kitchen, bolting-house, and pastry. The kitchen has the usual
small oven; the pastry has the invariable two, one somewhat larger than
the other. The two wings are treated symmetrically on the principal
sides (towards the court), one incidental result being that the pastry
gets vastly more light than the kitchen. It has already been suggested
that the winter parlour was placed on the servants' side in order to
be near the kitchen. The bolting-house was the room where the meal
was bolted, that is, sifted. The "pastry" was, as its name implies,
the room in which were made pies, "cates," confectionery, and the
"pretty little tiny kickshaws" which Justice Shallow ordered when he
was furnishing his table for the entertainment of Sir John Falstaff.
The housewives of the time were accomplished in the making of such
dainties. The narrator of the _Progress of James I._ in 1603 remarks
upon the delicate fare provided by Sir Anthony Mildmay at Apethorpe,
rendered "more delicate by the art that made it seem beauteous to
the eye; the Lady of the house being one of the most excellent
Confectioners in England, though I confess many honourable women very
expert." When Queen Elizabeth was entertained at Elvetham by the Earl
of Hertford in 1591, a banquet was served in the evening "into the
lower gallery in the garden," when a thousand dishes were served by
two hundred gentlemen, with the light of a hundred torches, and among
the more notable dishes were some _tours de force_ in sugar-work,
representing the royal arms, the arms of all the nobility, figures of
men and women, castles and forts, all kinds of animals, all kinds of
birds, reptiles and "all kind of worms," mermaids, whales, and "all
sorts of fishes": all these, we are told, were standing dishes of
sugar-work. It is not suggested that the lady of the house herself
produced these masterpieces; but ladies were certainly skilful
in the making of cakes, and it was a recommendation in actual life, as
well as in one of the plays of the time, that the heroine could "do
well in the pastry."

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXXV.

  UN-NAMED PLAN AND ELEVATION. (PAGES 89, 90.)

     1. Hall.
     2. Parlour.
     3. Lodging.
     4. Lodging.
     5. Principal Stairs.
     6. Buttery.
     7. Pantry.
     8. Winter Parlour.
     9. Back Stairs.
     10. Kitchen.
     11. Larder.
     12. Bolting house.
     13. Pastry.
     14. Open Arcade.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXXVI.

  "SIR Wm. HASERIDGE."

  (PAGES 147, 148.)

     1. Hall.
     2. Parlour.
     3. Principal Stairs.
     4. Vestibule.
     5. Lodging.
     6. Inner Room.
     7. Buttery.
     8. Lodging.
     9. Winter Parlour.
     10. Back Stairs.
     11. Survaying Place.
     12. Kitchen.
     13. Dry Larder (Wet under).
     14. Pastry.
     15. Courtyard.]

  [Illustration: PLATE LXXXVII.

  ELEVATION OF PLAN ENTITLED "SIR Wm. HASERIDGE."

  (PAGES 147, 148.)]

The elevation is treated, on the whole, in a quiet and dignified
manner, but the handling of it from the parapets upwards shows a
determination to obtain that picturesqueness of outline which was
considered essential. The means to this end are curved gables, quaint
pinnacles, and rather elaborate lanterns, of which there are two
alternative designs provided, as there are also of the small gables or
dormers on the parapet. The type of chimney shown is one of the more
reasonable which were employed.

The plan on Plate LXXXVI. shows a slight variation of the usual type,
inasmuch as the wings, instead of being narrow and only one room thick,
are two rooms thick. In other respects it follows the familiar lines.
On one side is the hall with its daïs and bay window; then the grand
staircase and a vestibule giving access to the parlour and a group
of two lodgings, the remainder of the wing being occupied by a room
which--if the ovens are anything but a repetition of those in the
corresponding wing--must be the bakehouse. On the other side of the
house are the buttery, a lodging, the winter parlour, the back stairs
and vestibule, the kitchen, dry larder, and pastry; the wet larder,
according to a note, is under the dry. There is no arcade here. This
plan is entitled "Sir Wm. Haseridge," and the upright (as the elevation
was called) has on it the initials D. H. and the date 1606 (Plate
LXXXVII.). This is important, as it shows that at that time the old
relation of the hall to the rest of the house was still retained. This
house, in spite of its title, has not been identified with any existing
building. A family of the name of Haselrigge has lived at Noseley,
in Leicestershire, since early in the seventeenth century, but the
existing house has nothing in common with this plan. The elevation is
treated in a simple manner, with very few foreign flourishes.

In the next example (Figs. 217, 218, 219) we have ground plan, upper
plan, and elevation: a valuable example, inasmuch as it is one of
the few cases in which all three drawings are given; the upper plan
is interesting, as it shows the position of the two chief rooms, the
gallery and great chamber. The disposition of the ground floor conforms
to the usual type, but is varied so as to enclose a small central
court, somewhat after the fashion of Barlborough (Fig. 49); but here
all the principal rooms are on one floor, whereas at Barlborough the
kitchens are in the basement. The accommodation here comprises the
hall, grand staircase, and parlour on the one side, and buttery, winter
parlour, back stairs, and kitchen on the other. There is a vestibule
to the kitchen, which probably would have been called the "survaying
place" had it been named, similar rooms being so designated in Figs.
224, 226. The use of the survaying place is not anywhere explained, but
most likely it was a serving room, where the dishes were overlooked
before being taken to the hall or the winter parlour. There is a
staircase from the kitchen which presumably led down to the larders,
pantries, and other subsidiary rooms. The manner in which the middle
bay window on the kitchen side serves to light the vestibule and the
back stairs (through a borrowed light) should be noticed as an instance
of the subordination of the plan to the uniformity of the exterior.
Here, for the first time, occurs an example of the use of sanitary
conveniences: it will be seen that neither downstairs nor up are they
placed in a manner that would be tolerated at the present day. Nor
indeed were they arranged at this period with anything like the same
attention to isolation and means of ventilation which was bestowed upon
such places in mediæval times. The central court is shown with a room
and staircase projecting into it, but this excrescence was very wisely
crossed out, for the court was small enough without it, and could never
have been either cheerful or conducive to health. The upper plan shows
the long gallery, 80 feet long by 20 feet wide, and the great chamber,
45 feet long by 23 feet wide. To these two rooms nearly the whole space
is sacrificed, there being in addition only two fair-sized bedrooms and
two smaller apartments, besides those which may have been contrived
in the roof. Both the gallery, the great chamber, and the parlour are
shown with an inner porch, such as occurs at Sizergh Castle (Fig. 148),
and at Broughton Castle, in Oxfordshire (Plate LI.), Bradfield, in
Devonshire, and a few other houses. The elevation (Fig. 219) resembles
that on Plate LXXXV. It is treated in a simple and unostentatious
way, but the most is made of such features as the bay windows,
chimney-stacks, and gables. The latter have the curly outline which is
prevalent in the Thorpe collection, but which, as already said, does
not appear in the same proportion among such of the actual buildings of
the time as have survived. The front chimneys are of the same pattern
as those on Plate LXXXV.

  [Illustration: 217.--AN UN-NAMED GROUND PLAN (PAGES 217,
  218).[31]

      1. Hall.
      2. Principal Stairs.
      3. Parlour.
      4. Inner Room.
      5. Buttery.
      6. Winter Parlour.
      7. Back Stairs.
      8. Survaying Place (?)
      9. Kitchen.
     10. Inner Court.]

[31] In order to bring this plan within the limits of the page, the
terrace walls on either side have been brought nearer to the house than
they are on the original drawing.

  [Illustration: 218.--UPPER PLAN OF FIG. 217 (PAGES 217, 218).

     11. Great Chamber.
     12. Principal Stairs.
     13. Gallery.
     14, 14. Bedrooms.
     15. Back Stairs.
     16. Inner Court.]

  [Illustration: 219.--ELEVATION OF FIGS. 217, 218.]

The foregoing examples are a few out of a great number which conform
to the traditional arrangement of the hall. The vast majority of the
plans follow this type, but there are some, which we will now proceed
to consider, in which the hall receives a different treatment, thus
indicating that important change which resulted in its becoming a place
of entrance instead of what it had been for four centuries--the centre
of household life.

  [Illustration: 220.--AN UN-NAMED PLAN.

      1. Hall.
      2. Parlour.
      3. Principal Stairs.
      4. Chapel.
      5. Lodging.
      6. Buttery.
      7. Winter Parlour.
      8. Back Stairs.
      9. Survaying Place.
     10. Kitchen.
     11. Pastry.
     12. Courtyard.]

On some of these plans the room which is usually called the parlour is
marked "dy pler" or dining parlour. This shows that even the eating
of meals, one of the functions for which the hall had always been
used, was being transferred from that apartment to smaller and more
comfortable rooms. The heads of the household, more particularly,
sought the quiet of a smaller apartment, and with them they took their
special friends, leaving persons of less importance to dine with the
household in the hall. There is a letter from a Mr. Marlivale, of
Chevington, written to Sir Thomas Kytson, of Hengrave, complaining of
having been placed to dine in the hall with the steward instead of with
the superior persons in the parlour. As Sir Thomas died in 1540, the
practice of withdrawing from the great hall must have begun previous
to that date. On one of Thorpe's plans he has marked a room as the
"Servants' dining-room," which indicates a further desertion of the
hall, and from the other end. The purposes for which the hall had been
used being thus provided for elsewhere, it became no longer necessary
to plan it on the old lines. The first change that took place was at
the end where the screens were. The screens, indeed, disappeared, and
in order to go from the front door to the kitchen department, the
hall itself had to be traversed. The following examples show various
instances of this change, but in the absence of particulars as to the
name and date of most of the plans, it has been impossible to arrange
them chronologically: what sequence there is, is a sequence of stages
in the development of the new idea of using the hall as an entrance.

The example in Fig. 220 has no name nor any writing upon it beyond the
numbers of the stairs. The curious point about it is that the screen is
in the side of the hall instead of at the end; otherwise it preserves
most of the old arrangements. Although the rooms are not named, they
are easy to identify. On the family side are the hall, with its daïs,
the parlour, staircase, chapel and "lodgings." On the servants' side
are the buttery, winter parlour, back stairs, kitchen and pastry. Owing
to the altered arrangement of the screens there is no thoroughfare
leading straight from the front door to the court beyond.

In the next example (Figs. 221, 222) we have a further departure
from the old type. Screens of a kind there are, but the front door
leads only to the hall (through a vestibule), and the hall has to be
traversed to gain the kitchen. The buttery is in an entirely novel
position, and the tendency clearly is to preserve the front door for
the family, and to relegate the servants to their own entrance. A
curious point is that the only way from the kitchen to the buttery,
to the upper floor, or to the outside, is through the hall. In spite
of these changes the daïs still remains, as though the old custom of
dining in the hall survived, notwithstanding the constant traffic which
the service of the kitchen must have entailed. The upper plan shows
the long gallery--apparently 62 feet long by only 10 feet wide--and
the great chamber, 40 feet by 21 feet, which is over the hall. The
draughtsman has apparently been led by the symmetry of his arrangements
into placing the gallery on the wrong façade in his upper plan.
According to a note on the ground plan it should be at the back, and
the elevation confirms this disposition. Owing to the situation of
the hall it can no longer obtain light from the sides, nor can there
be any bay window to the daïs: the only light it receives is from a
large window at one end, which must be greatly darkened by the arcade
in front of it, carrying the gallery. The great chamber is subject in
a less degree to similar disadvantages, receiving light only from one
end. The treatment of the exterior is somewhat after the fashion of
Wollaton, but of a plainer kind; there is a central block surrounded by
rooms roofed at a lower level, and at each corner is a pavilion. It is
quite possible that this is merely an exercise in design, and that it
was never carried out, nor even thoroughly digested.

  [Illustration: 221.--GROUND AND UPPER PLANS, UN-NAMED (PAGE 85).

      1. Hall
      2. Parlour.
      3. Principal Stairs.
      4,4. Lodging.
      5. Kitchen.
      6. Buttery.
      7. Back Stairs.
      8,8. Open Arcade.
      9. Great Chamber.
     10. Gallery.
     11. Stairs.
     Other Rooms on Upper Floor are Lodgings.]

  [Illustration: 222.--ELEVATION OF PLANS IN FIG. 221 (PAGE 85).]

  [Illustration: 223.--UN-NAMED PLAN AND ELEVATION (PAGE 34).

      1. Hall.
      2. Parlour.
      3. Withdrawing Room.
      4. Closet.
      5,5. Lodging.
      6. Principal Stairs.
      7. Buttery.
      8. Back Stairs.
      9. Kitchen.
     10. Larder.
     11. Bolting-house.
     12. Pastry.]

  [Illustration: 224.--"FOR MR. WILLm. POWELL" (PAGES 265, 266).

      1. Hall.
      2. Dining Parlour.
      3. Principal Stairs.
      4. Lodging.
      5. Inner Lodging.
      6. Winter Parlour.
      7. Buttery.
      8. Survaying Place.
      9. Back Stairs.
     10. Kitchen.
     11. Larder.
     12. Court.]

In the next example (Fig. 223) the idea of the entrance hall is
further developed. The front door opens into a passage off which the
hall is approached, but without a dividing wall. There is no daïs,
and the parlour is entered from the passage instead of from the
upper end of the hall. The latter apartment is still central, and
divides the family rooms from those of the servants. There are fresh
designations bestowed upon some of them: the parlour and the lodgings
we know, but in addition to these there is a "closset" and a "wth," or
withdrawing room. The buttery is as near to its old position as the
new arrangement allows, and beyond it is the familiar kitchen, with the
larder, the pastry, and the bolting-house leading out of the latter.
The elevation is again perfectly simple, and calls for no remark beyond
pointing out the alternative methods shown of roofing the two central
turrets. The sketch plan and elevation should be noticed, jotted down
at the side of the main subject, and embodying a smaller version of a
somewhat similar idea.

  [Illustration: 225.--MR. JOHNSON Ye DRUGGIST (PAGE 31).

     1. Hall.
     2. Parlour.
     3. Principal Stairs.
     4. Buttery.
     5. Back Stairs.
     6. Kitchen.
     7. Courtyard.
     8. Open Arcade.]

The plan and elevation entitled "for Mr. Willm Powell" (Fig. 224)
have not been identified with any existing building. The elevation is
treated more after the English manner, particularly in regard to the
gables, than any of the preceding. In the plan the hall is frankly made
an entrance hall, without any attempt at making it a living-room. It
still occupies a central position, but there are no screens, no daïs,
and no bay window. The rooms are all named: the family side includes
the dining parlour--now so named for the first time--a "lodging," and
an "inner lodging." The opposite wing contains the winter parlour,
the buttery, now attached to the servants' entrance, the "survay,"
or serving place, the kitchen, and larder. The house would seem to be
built of wood and plaster, since all the walls are drawn some 6 inches
thick, the fireplaces only being of the ordinary thickness.

The plan for "Mr. Johnson ye Druggyst" (Fig. 225) shows a further
variation of the hall, which here has a screen and passage at each end.
The daïs idea has entirely disappeared, and the bay windows are placed
for effect only: the central position is still retained, as also are
the two wings, divided into the usual rooms. There are two front doors,
one to each passage at the ends of the hall. The buttery occupies the
old relation to one of these passages, while the other takes up the
space which would formerly have been devoted to the daïs. The relation
to each other of the several rooms in the two wings follows the old
lines; it is in the hall that the essential change appears. A note on
the plan says that the gallery, 80 feet long and 15 feet wide, occupies
the whole length of the front façade, in the centre of which is a
turret; there is also a turret in the middle of each side, over the two
staircases. The small sketch at the side of the finished plan should be
noticed, as it is another instance of how the draughtsman jotted down a
rough variation of the same general disposition of rooms. There is also
a sketch for a mullion.

  [Illustration: 226.--AN UN-NAMED PLAN (PAGE 72).

     1. Hall.
     2. Dining Parlour.
     3. Buttery.
     4. Grand Staircase.
     5. Survaying Place.
     6. Kitchen.
     7. Scullery.
     8. Larder.
     9. Back Stairs.]

In Fig. 226 is a yet further variation of the treatment of the hall.
It is no longer in the centre of the building, but becomes an ordinary
thoroughfare room in one corner. The front entrance leads into a
corridor, and immediately opposite to it is the great staircase. This
is an entirely novel treatment, and indicates a complete revolution
in the planning of houses. The hall is no longer the central feature,
but gives place to the staircase. For the rest, the old apartments
remain; there is the buttery lying between the staircase and the hall,
inconveniently mixed up with the family rooms, equally inconveniently
cut off from the kitchens. The dining parlour lies beyond the hall and
far away from the kitchen, and the kitchen is approached through the
"survaying place," and attached to it is a new room, the "scullery." So
far as the main lines go, the house is simple and dignified, but the
plan is neither so striking nor so convenient as those of the old type.

  [Illustration: 227.--"SIR JO. DANVERS, CHELSEY." GROUND PLAN (PAGES
  21, 22).

     1. Waste Hall.
     2. Hall.
     3. Parlour
     4. Chapel.
     5. Kitchen below.]

The last plan of the series is that of a house for "Sir Jo. Danvers,
Chelsey" (Figs. 227, 228), and there are two points to be specially
noticed in it--one is that the kitchen and its offices are all
underground, the other is that the hall is of the type usual in many
Italian houses; it extends right through the house from front to back,
and has smaller rooms opening from it on each side. In Italy, the
hall and the room over it occupy the whole of this space, and the
staircase is among the rooms at the side, but at Sir John Danvers'
house the staircase is in the hall itself, thus dividing it into two
portions, the outer one of which is named "waste hall," and curtailing
the effective space of the chamber over it. The device of placing the
kitchen and offices in a basement was not often adopted in English
houses; space was generally plentiful, and the native taste was rather
in favour of the long and low treatment. But occasionally, where space
was limited, or where some special notion controlled the design, as
at Lyveden New Building, or where the Italian manner was closely
followed, the basement was utilized for the purpose of the kitchens.
The sketch-elevation of Sir John Danvers' house points towards a more
complete acceptance of classic treatment; it is widely different from
the extensive façades and returned wings which are associated with the
idea of an Elizabethan or Jacobean house. Sir John built a house (but
whether to this particular plan, or not, is not certain) at Chelsea,
on the site of one which had been the residence of Sir Thomas More;
and he seems to have done so in the early years of the seventeenth
century. It is more than likely that he was attracted by the Italian
model, since we learn from Aubrey[32] that "'twas Sir John Danvers of
Chelsey who first taught us the way of Italian gardens. He had well
travelled France and Italy, and made good observations.... He had a
very fine fancy, which lay chiefly for gardens and architecture." There
is another rough sketch of an elevation on page 178, accompanied by a
plan, where the Italian treatment is still more marked. The centre of
the façade consists of two rows of columns, superimposed, and forming
an open _loggia_ on each floor; they carry a pediment of flat pitch.
This sketch is of considerable interest, since it connects Thorpe, who
is the representative of Elizabethan and Jacobean design, with the far
more Italianized style of his successors.

[32] John Aubrey's _Natural History of Wiltshire_.

  [Illustration: 228.--SIR JO. DANVERS, CHELSEY. UPPER PLAN AND
  ELEVATION (PAGES 21, 22)..]

  [Illustration: 229.--AN UN-NAMED ELEVATION, "MENT FOR ONE OF THE
  SYDES OF A HOUSE ABOUT A CORT AND MAY BE MADE A FRONT FOR A HOUSE"
  (PAGE 115).]

Two other elevations are illustrated, in addition to those which have
accompanied some of the foregoing plans, in order to show the kind
of feeling which pervades most of the sketches in Thorpe's book. They
are both isolated examples, not attached to any plan, and not named.
Indeed, the first of them (Fig. 229) was probably merely a sketch, as
it bears the note, "ment for one of the sydes of a house about a cort
and may be made a front for a house." It is quite English in character,
and is singularly free from the curly gables and fantastic pinnacles
which appear on most of Thorpe's elevations, and were derived from
Dutch sources. The sections through the wings should be noticed, as
this is the only instance in the whole collection in which anything
like a complete section is given. The section on the right hand is
evidently taken through the hall, and shows its open-timbered roof of
hammer-beam type.

  [Illustration: 230.--AN UN-NAMED ELEVATION, "THE GARDEN SYDE,
  LODGINGS BELOW AND GALLERY ABOVE. J. T." (PAGE 108).]

The second example (Fig. 230) is nearly as simple in its treatment,
but the gables break out into rather extravagant curls. The general
treatment, with the large gables, the dormers, and the projecting
chimney-stacks, is not unlike that of the west front of Kirby (Figs.
77, 107), but this elevation does not tally with the plan of Kirby,
which is not subject to the same accurate symmetry. This drawing bears
the note, "The garden syde, lodgings below and gallery above. J. T.,"
and as it is initialed by Thorpe, it helps to identify as his many of
the other elevations.

  [Illustration: 231.--AN UN-NAMED PLAN (PAGES 145, 146).

      1. Entrance.
      2. Hall (Kitchen below).
      3. Parlour.
      4. Lodging Chamber.
      5. Inner Chamber.
      6. Buttery.
      7. Woodyard.
      8. Closet.
      9. Stairs.
     10. Open Space.
     11. Terrace.]

One other plan is given (Fig. 231) as an example of Thorpe's ingenuity
in planning. It consists of three rooms arranged within a circular
balustrade and surrounded by a circular terrace. The angles formed
where the three rooms join are occupied by three towers, one of which
contains the porch, the other two the staircases. On the ground floor
one of the rooms is the hall, one the parlour, one a bedchamber. The
kitchen was to be under the hall. It should be observed how the large
fireplaces are arranged so as to occupy some of the triangular space
enclosed by the three rooms; and how the odd corners left are devoted
to the buttery, a closet, and a wood store. The bay window is different
in each room, and is so planned as just to extend outwards as far as
the surrounding balustrade. Having thus examined the main features of
the design, observe how a number of alternative sketches have been
made for filling in with cupboards the angles made by the circular
walls of the turrets and the walls of the rooms: observe also that on
one of the circular staircases an equilateral triangle has been drawn,
evidently as an alternative way of treating the turrets, and observe
further how in the parlour and bedchamber a suggestion is made to have
a semicircular recess at one end, such as was not infrequent late in
the seventeenth century, but which never occurs in an Elizabethan
plan. All these points are interesting, because they show how the
draughtsman elaborated his design; and when he had finished this, he
sketched a variation of the same idea at the side, in the upper part
of the sheet. He was also undecided about the position of his steps
on to the terrace, for he drew them first in three sets, opposite to
the three bay windows; afterwards he sketched another set in pencil
(shown by dotted lines on the drawing) in a more convenient situation
just opposite the porch, and wrote on the old set "Stayres heare," and
on the new "or heare." On his main staircases, too, after drawing the
steps, he has crossed out three or four and written "half-pace," which
means "half-landing."

It will not be uninteresting to add to these illustrations of Thorpe's
plans a list of the names of apartments, &c., to be found in his book
appended to one or other of the drawings.

     Hall.
     Parlour.
     Dining parlour.
     Dining chamber above hall.
     The dining chamber.
     Winter parlour.
     An ordinary winter parlour.
     The great parlour with the great chamber over it.
     Great chamber.
     Gallery.
     The long gallery.
     Withdrawing chamber.
     Lodging.
     A nobleman's lodging, _comprising_
       His ante-camera.
       Bedchamber.
       Wood, coal, and privy.
       Servants' lodging.
     Officers' lodgings.
     A bed chamber.
     An inner chamber.
     Chaplin.
     His study.
     Study.
     Chapel.
     Outward chapel.
     Library above.
     Buttery.
     Butler's lodging.
     Pantry.
     Pantler's lodging.
     Breakfast room.
     Kitchen.
     The great kitchen.
     A privy kitchen.
     Dry larder.
     Wet larder.
     Pastry.
     Work room for the pastlers.
     Bakehouse.
     Privy bakehouse.
     Meal house.
     Bolting house.
     Survaying place.
     Scullery.
     Spicery.
     Trencher.
     Pewter.
     Milk house.
     Brew house.
     The boiling house.
     Porter's lodging.
     Hynds' hall.
     Lesser hall for hynds.
     Servants' dining-room.
     Waiters' chamber.
     Waiters' bedchamber.
     Steward's lodging.
     His clerk.
     Brush.
     Wood, coal, and stool.
     Cellar.
     Wine cellar.
     A wine cellar and for beer.
     Privy wine cellar.
     The Queen's wine cellar.
     My lord's wine cellar.
     A cellar for beer.
     Entry.
     An entry through all.
     Lobby.
     Ante-camera.
     Closet.
     A well light.
     A little court for light, &c.
     Common vault.
     Court.
     A tennis court.
     A large terrace.
     Terrace.
     A back walk.
     Garden.
     Orchard.
     Woodyard.
     Kitchen garden.
     Washyard.
     Stable.




                             CHAPTER XII.

           ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNERS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.


In the foregoing pages examples have been given of the architectural
work of the sixteenth century--examples taken from all parts of
England, and illustrating all kinds of features. From these it will
have been gathered that the same general character pervaded the
whole country at any one time, but that there was a great variety
of treatment. This variety arose not merely from a difference in
arrangement of universally accepted features, or from different methods
of handling the same kind of ornament, but from actual differences
between the features themselves and between the kinds of ornament, and
it points to the employment of men who varied to a considerable degree
in the amount of their training as well as in its direction.

It will therefore not be without interest to glance briefly at what
is known of the more prominent men who were employed in producing the
architecture that has been under consideration, and at the methods
which prevailed of supplying designs.

Unfortunately, little detailed information has yet been obtained, or
is obtainable, concerning these men, and what we do know about them
is neither so full nor so clear as to have emerged entirely from the
perplexing mists of controversy and to have attained the serene heights
of incontrovertible fact. We know, for instance, that Henry VIII.
employed many skilled foreign workmen, especially Italians. But very
little work exists at this day which can be pointed out as theirs. We
also know that early in the second half of the sixteenth century many
Dutch artizans found refuge in England from the rigorous measures of
Alva, that licences were given to various towns to receive them, and
that a number of other towns petitioned to have strangers allotted to
them: most of these towns were situated in the counties bordering on
the sea in the East and South. But masons, joiners, and artificers in
the other trades connected with building, do not seem to have been a
large proportion of those immigrating.

The most interesting piece of foreign work, inasmuch as it was the
first done by Italians in England, can, luckily, be identified
in all important particulars, because the contract for it still
exists. It was Henry VII.'s tomb, designed, and largely executed, by
Torrigiano.[33] But beyond this tomb, and probably that of Margaret,
the mother of Henry VII., and possibly that of Dr. Young in the Rolls
Chapel, no English work of Torrigiano's is known. After him came
Benedetto da Rovezzano, who partly executed an even more splendid tomb
for Cardinal Wolsey, which was to have been placed in the specially
erected chapel in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, but which Henry VIII.
took to himself on the Cardinal's fall. Wolsey petitioned the King
for his own figure--which was to have lain upon the tomb, and could
hardly be expected to answer the same purpose for its new owner--and
for such other parts as it might please the King to give him. But
Henry retained the materials and proceeded to adapt them for his
own monument, whereon he and his queen, Jane Seymour, were to have
reposed. His queen, however, was soon replaced, and the tomb was still
unfinished at his death, and was never carried to completion. Its
metal parts were finally melted down by the Parliament Commissioners a
hundred years later, but the marble sarcophagus lingered on, and was
eventually removed to St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and utilized
in the monument of Lord Nelson. Another Italian who was employed by
Wolsey, and subsequently by Henry VIII., was Giovanni da Majano, whose
name appears in accounts of the time as being paid for certain work;
but the work itself has disappeared, except the terra-cotta roundels,
containing busts of Roman emperors, built into the walls of Hampton
Court. Toto del Nunziata was another skilful Italian whose name appears
in accounts, and he is said by Vasari to have built Henry VIII.'s
principal palace. This is generally considered to have been Nonesuch,
in Surrey, of which there is nothing left, but which, as already
stated, must have presented examples of most admirable work in the way
of sculpture and painting.[34] Nicholas of Modena, described as a
carver, also worked for Henry, and remained in England for some years
after his death, but the work attributed to him is only conjectural.
Indeed, the share taken by the Italians of Henry VIII.'s time in the
design of English work, is still a matter of controversy to be waged
by the learned, and has not yet descended to the more certain level
of the text-book. What we do know is, that Torrigiano executed Henry
VII.'s tomb under a contract, and that a few other Italians of eminence
resided for longer or shorter periods in England, together with a
considerable number of their compatriots of less distinction. These
men must have exercised considerable influence upon their English
companions, and although their own style of ornament did not become
universal, they must have prepared the way for the general adoption of
the other versions of Italian detail which marked the second half of
the sixteenth century.

[33] See page 12.

[34] See page 33.

The same remarks apply to Holbein, although the designs which he
executed for work in England are much more numerous than those of any
of his contemporaries, and have been identified beyond doubt as his.
That is to say, in addition to his pictures, a large number of his
drawings remain, principally for articles of goldsmith's work; but the
objects themselves have mostly disappeared. One of the largest of his
drawings, however, is that of a wood chimney-piece, which, from the
initials upon it, was intended for Henry VIII. Some architectural work
has been attributed to Holbein, but only on conjecture. Amongst it may
be mentioned two gateways at Whitehall, now removed; part of a front
at Wilton, in Wiltshire, as well as a little garden-house there; and
the splendid screen at King's College Chapel, Cambridge. But there is
no actual evidence to connect him with these works, and we should be
mistaken in regarding him in any way as an architect in the sense in
which we understand the term.

The architect, indeed, as a distinct individual, does not seem to
have arisen in those early days: the architect, that is, who not only
designed the plan and elevations of the building, but also the details
of its various parts and of its ornament. Inigo Jones may be taken as
the first Englishman who combined the functions of planner and designer
of details; previous to his time the work entailed in the designing of
a house was much subdivided, the plan and elevations being provided
by the surveyor, and each trade producing its own special details as
the work went on. Shakespeare only uses the word "architect" once, and
then not in connection with building operations. He gives us, however,
a sketch of how to set about building, in the Second Part of King Henry
IV. "When we mean to build," says Lord Bardolph, "we first survey the
plot, then draw the model; and when we see the figure of the house,
then must we rate the cost of the erection.... Much more in this great
work ... should we survey the plot of situation, and the model; consent
upon a sure foundation; question surveyors." It was the surveyors, such
as John Thorpe, who drew the model, which comprised the plans and an
elevation, or a perspective view indicating the treatment of more than
one front. These drawings were then carried out by the workmen on the
spot, who provided their own details. In some of the simpler buildings
no surveyor was employed, but rough plans were prepared by the builder
himself, not so much to work from, as to indicate, for the purpose
of a contract, the general extent and appearance of the building.
In others, again, no plans were used, but the work was set out on
the spot, and built to the requisite height under the supervision
of the master mason. It is almost certain that in some cases only
a plan was provided, without elevation; in the Thorpe collection a
large proportion of the plans have no elevation to correspond; and
Henry VII., in his will, orders his tomb to be placed in the midst of
his new chapel at Westminster according to "the plat [_i.e._, plan]
made for the same chapel and signed with our hand." At St. John's
College, Cambridge, the contractors who built the second court were
bound to erect it according to certain "platts and uprights" [_i.e._,
elevations], thus showing that the "plat" did not include elevations as
well as plan.

Such contracts as have been preserved relating to work of the sixteenth
century, go to show either that the various tradesmen provided their
own designs, or that they were to take some already executed work as
a pattern. There were separate contracts for the separate trades, but
most of them were with masons, joiners, and glaziers. The masons who
built the second court at St. John's were to make the windows after the
fashion of those in the court already built. The joiner who fitted up
the chapel was to make his work like that in Jesus College and Pembroke
Hall, "or better in every point." The joiner who executed the stalls
and the fretwork of the ceiling in the chapel at Trinity College, was
to make the stalls like those at King's College, while the frets,
battens, and pendants of the ceiling were to be made "according to the
pattern showed to the master and other of the said College for the said
frets, battens, and pendants." The glazier who provided the windows
of the hall and chapel at St. John's, was to make them of "good and
able Normandy glass of colours and pictures as be in the glass windows
within the College called Christ's College."

These contracts are useful because they state expressly the sources
whence the design was to be taken; but where the work was not done
by contract, such accounts as have been preserved point in the
same direction. After the masons had finished the second court at
St. John's, including the plastering of the walls and ceilings,
there appears an entry in the accounts for the payment of one Cobb
for "frettishing" the gallery and the great chamber--that is, for
working the ornamental plaster ceiling; and another for the payment
of the joiner for the wainscotting of the gallery and for the two
chimney-pieces there. No mention is made of any particular design,
and the presumption is that the workmen supplied their own. This
presumption is stronger in the case of the panelling of the hall at
Queen's College, where every item of cost appears, as well as the names
of the various workmen employed.

It is interesting to see how the names of the workmen gradually
changed. The first entry is on the last day of September, 1531,
when Matthew Blunt and Robert Cave were paid for "working on the
panelling of the College hall." In November they are joined by one
Dyrik Harrison, who does the same kind of work; in December, one
Lambert comes, and Matthew Blunt disappears; a few days afterwards
a certain Arnold joins them, and subsequently a Peter. In January,
Giles Fambeler, carver, is paid for nine capitals, and in February for
thirteen more, and he then disappears. But his place seems to have been
taken by Dyrik Harrison, who thenceforward is paid, not for ordinary
joiner's work, but for carving capitals, shields, arms, and lines of
"antique crest" and "antique border," up to the middle of July, when
he receives his final payment "by order of the President." In the
meantime Robert Cave's name has ceased to be entered, but Arnold,
Lambert, and Peter still continue. After Harrison's departure Lambert
seems to have done the special work, since in August he gets paid for
certain columns and for the "extreme parts of the cresting." His is the
last name of the joiners which appears, and in September the work was
finished. It would almost seem as though Giles Fambeler, whose name
looks anything but English, had been employed for some two months, just
to show how the new carving should be done, and that from him Dyrik
Harrison, whose Christian name suggests a Dutch connection, picked up a
knowledge of the fashionable ornament sufficient to enable him to take
Giles's place; and that Lambert in his turn succeeded Harrison. Even if
this supposition is larger than the facts warrant, it must have been in
some such manner as this that the new forms were disseminated through
the country. It is worthy of note that the joiner employed at Hengrave,
in 1538, six years after this work at Queen's, was named Dyrik, and
it is pleasant to imagine (Hengrave being some five-and-twenty miles
from Cambridge) that it might have been the same Dyrik Harrison who had
picked up his first knowledge from Giles Fambeler.

In such matters as tombs it is beyond question that the workmen
supplied the designs. In the year 1525 there is an entry in the
accounts of St. John's of a small sum "given to the master mason of Ely
for drawing a draught for my lord's tomb," meaning Bishop Fisher's. In
1533 "Mr. Lee the free mason" was paid for making and setting up the
tomb. Upon the Bishop's execution, the monument was taken to pieces
and thrown aside, but towards the end of last century the remains were
discovered during the process of clearing away the rubbish in an "old
disused chapel." A rough drawing was made of them, from which it is
evident that the design was quite in the Italian style. It shows an
altar tomb with a pilaster at each corner, ornamented with arabesques
similar to those on Henry VII.'s tomb. The side is occupied by a
large panel supported by two amorini, and surrounded with foliage and
scrollwork; the end has a shield within a garland. The whole work is
described by an eye-witness as being elegant, neat, and ornamented in
great taste, from which we may gather that both in design and execution
it was a worthy specimen of the style prevalent in Henry VIII.'s time.
We have already seen that it was designed by the master mason at Ely,
and executed by Mr. Lee, the free mason. If these two were not one and
the same man, at any rate there is no reason to suppose that they were
other than Englishmen.[35]

[35] For particulars of these contracts, &c., at Cambridge, see Willis
and Clark's _Architectural History of the University of Cambridge_,
Vol. II.

Some fifty years after Bishop Fisher's tomb was erected, there was
drawn up a contract (in 1581) between the executor of Thomas Fermor,
of Somerton, in Oxfordshire, and Richard and Gabriel Roiley, of
Burton-upon-Trent, "tumbe makers." The latter agree "artificially,
cunningly, decently, and substantially to devise, work, set up,
and perfectly and fully finish" a very fair tomb of very good and
durable alabaster stone and of certain specified dimensions. It is
to have on it "a very fair decent and well-proportioned picture or
portraiture of a gentleman representing the said Thomas Fermor," with
certain specified accessories; and also "a decent and perfect picture
or portraiture of a fair gentlewoman with a French hood, edge and
habiliments, with all other apparel, furniture, jewels, ornaments and
things in all respects usual, decent and seemly for a gentlewoman."
There are also to be the "decent and usual pictures" of a son and two
daughters with escutcheons in their hands--somewhat after the fashion,
no doubt, of those on the Bradbourne tomb in Fig. 9. The son is to
be in armour and as living; one of the daughters is to be "pictured
in decent order and as living," the other "as dying in the cradle
or swathes." There are to be four shields, one containing "the very
true arms" of Thomas Fermor; two others his arms and those of his two
wives, severally; and the fourth the arms of his second wife. They are
all to be placed as most may serve for the "shew and setting forth of
the said tomb." Once again, towards the end, it is stated that all
the "devising, colouring, gilding, garnishing, workmanship, carriage,
conveying, setting up, and full finishing of the said tomb," is to be
done by the Roileys; but the executor will provide "wains, carts and
cattle" to draw the parts of the tomb to Somerton. The price for the
tomb is to be £40.

It is here expressly stated that the workmen are to do the "devising"
as well as the making of the tomb. The features which it is to comprise
are stated, but the designing and arranging of them are left to the
workmen. It is interesting to notice that the male figure is to be
the portraiture of a gentleman representing Thomas Fermor, but it does
not seem to be implied that the likeness was to be very accurate.
In the case of the lady, evidently no resemblance was expected, and
we are left to conjecture whether it was the first or the second
wife who was the more nearly represented. All those who are familiar
with Elizabethan tombs will recognize the son and daughter holding
escutcheons, and the child in "swathes," as well as the four shields
bearing the arms of Thomas Fermor and his two wives. If additional
proof were wanted that the design was left in the hands of the workman,
it is to be found in the stipulation that everything is to be placed so
as best to "set forth" the tomb. This important part of the business is
not to be arranged by the executor or any one acting on his behalf, but
by the contracting tomb-makers.

Tombs are comparatively small structures, and might possibly have
been subjects of special custom; but the same custom prevailed in the
building of large houses like Burghley House and Cobham Hall. When
the latter building was in a suitable condition, the plasterer was
sent for in order that he might submit patterns and models of the
ceilings for Lord Cobham to select from. During a considerable part
of the time occupied in building the earlier portions of Burghley, a
number of letters passed between the foreman and Lord Burghley, in
which the foreman sought instructions from his lordship about many
minute particulars, which would certainly have been settled by the
architect had there been one. Among Lord Burghley's papers is one
showing the plan and elevation of a window, endorsed in Burghley's own
hand "Henryck's platt of my bay window"; suggesting that, as occasion
arose, his lordship applied to some skilful craftsman for drawings. It
is certain that he made a point of studying books on architecture, for
in August, 1568, he wrote to Sir Henry Norris, ambassador in France,
asking him to provide for him "a book concerning architecture, entitled
according to a paper here included, which I saw at Sir Thomas Smith's;
or if you think there is any better of a late making of that argument."
The enclosure containing the title of the book is not in existence, so
we do not know what it was; but from this reference we gather that Sir
Thomas Smith (who was a Secretary of State, and had been ambassador to
France) was interested in architecture as well as Lord Burghley, and
that Sir Henry Norris was sufficiently acquainted with the subject to
be able to recommend the latest work dealing with it. Some years later
Lord Burghley was again asking for a French book on architecture, but
this time he gave the title, in phraseology indicating that he was
something of a student of the subject. "The book I most desire," he
says, "is made by the same author, and is entitled 'Novels institutions
per bien bâster et à petits frais, par Philibert de Lorme,' Paris,
1576." From these instances it would appear not improbable that had
Lord Burghley lived in the days of Pope, he might have shared with
Lord Burlington the reputation of being one of the foremost architects
of the age; but as a matter of fact he did not pretend to that
distinction: all that he did, apparently, was to direct the energies of
others who had received special training in architectural matters.

The Henryk who provided the platt of Lord Burghley's bay window was a
Dutch mason in the employ of Sir Thomas Gresham--who built the first
Royal Exchange, or Bourse, as it was called--and he passed backwards
and forwards between London and Antwerp as occasion demanded. Many
of the materials for Gresham's Bourse came from the Low Countries,
and were shipped thence under the superintendence of Gresham's agent,
Richard Clough. Clough's letters from Antwerp, where he was stationed,
give in quaint phraseology a good deal of information as to the
progress of the work which was being prepared over there both for Sir
Thomas Gresham and the more exalted "Sir William Cecil, the Queen's
Majesty's principal Secretary," afterwards Lord Burghley. In July,
1566, Clough congratulates himself on Gresham's liking Henryk so well,
and on the work being so well forward, that when Henryk returns to
Antwerp he can get on with the rest. By the beginning of August Henryk
had arrived, and "your carpenters also, whom I do mean shortly to
return." In the next few letters he is greatly troubled about "Master
Secretary's" paving stones. On the 29th September, he says that he
calls daily upon Henryk, who is looking daily for them, and he has sent
a man to the place where they are in making in order to hasten their
departure. Notwithstanding this, on the 20th October Master Secretary's
paving stones were not come, "but Henryk saith he knoweth well they
will be here within a day or two," and then he will not fail to send
them away out of hand, even if he has to "hire a small hoy of purpose."
But delays in the delivery of goods vexed the souls of overlookers in
as great a degree then as now, and still on the 10th November "Master's
stones are not come, which maketh Master Henryk almost out of his
wit, for I never fail a day but I am once a day with him, so that
they cannot be long, unless they be drowned by the way." The hopeful
expectation was fulfilled, for a fortnight later Clough writes, "and as
touching Master Secretary's stones, I do not doubt but that you have
received them long since; and that they have been so long--Henryk saith
he could do no more and if his life had been upon the matter." So the
paving stones were sent off at last, and at the same time Henryk sent a
pattern how they should be laid; it was unnecessary to send a man, for
he thought "that him that paved Master Secretary's house can so well
lay those stones as any that he should send from hence."

The trying episode of "those stones" being closed, Clough returns to
the subject of the Bourse, and promises to send off further materials;
on the 5th December he says he has shipped a certain amount "in
Cornelius Janson's sprett," and trusts that before Easter everything
will be despatched. Soon after this, it seems, he went away to get
married, and his letters cease; but in the following April (the 27th)
an apprentice of Gresham's informs him of such matters as had passed in
Antwerp since Clough's departure, among which was the discharge from
the "Prince's men" of two of Gresham's retainers, whom he intended to
send to London "in one of the ships laden with stone for the Bourse,"
of which there were three ready to depart "as to-morrow." As Easter Day
fell on the 30th March in the year 1567, Clough's hope that everything
would be despatched by then was not absolutely fulfilled.

Henryk was now apparently sufficiently at liberty to be allowed to turn
his attention from Gresham's work to Cecil's, and on the 21st August,
1567, the former writes to the latter, "As for Henryk, you shall find
him so reasonable as you shall have good cause to be content, and by
this post I have given order for the making of your gallery, which I
trust shall both like you well in price and workmanship." Four months
later, on the 26th December, it was a door for Cecil which was in
question, and as "Henryk my workman" intended to go over sea after
the Christmas holidays, and to stay till April, Gresham desired to
know whether Cecil would have his "port (door) set up before his
departure, or else at his return." In the following February, Gresham
again writes to Cecil reminding him that "Henryk hath lost the pattern
of the pillars for your gallery in the country, so he can proceed no
further in the working thereof until he have another." He urges Cecil
not to fail to send the pattern at once, as Henryk would be back in
London by the last day of March at the farthest. This inability of
Henryk's to proceed without the "pattern" shows that in this case, at
any rate, he did not supply the design. But already four years earlier
(in January, 1563) there had been some correspondence between Clough
and Cecil about a gallery and a pattern which the latter had sent; and
if the two galleries were one and the same, it was probably the old
pattern which Henryk had to work to, and there was no need for him
to devise a new one. In the case in which Clough was concerned there
was some discrepancy in the pattern or instructions sent by Cecil
for the pillars and arches, which required correction; he therefore
sent back the pattern, so that Cecil might confer with his mason at
home. As to a mason going over from Flanders to England, there was
no need for it, since the work would be so wrought that it could not
be set amiss, besides which a pattern in paper should be sent. The
Dutch mason's advice was that the pillars should be made all of one
stone, and the arches accordingly, "for they must be made, to be well
made, either antique or modern, and this, with the whole pillar, is
antique; wherefore according as I shall hear from your honour, so I
shall proceed therein." The difference intended to be conveyed between
"antique" and "modern" is not very clear, inasmuch as "antique" was
the term generally applied in describing work executed in the style
which we call Renaissance. But this is a detail which does not affect
the general conclusions to be drawn from the whole correspondence,
which are, first, that there is no one concerned in these various
transactions who acts in the capacity of the architect, but that
when instructions are required by the workmen they are sought from
the proprietor himself: second, that Dutch workmanship and design
were procured by men of eminence in England: and third, that English
workmen were thought to be quite as capable of dealing with the worked
materials as any that could be sent from abroad.

The books on Architecture which were published during the sixteenth
century point somewhat in the same direction, namely, that there was
no all-controlling architect, but that buildings were carried out by
co-operation in design as well as execution. At the same time, they
make it evident that the idea of the architect as the person who should
have chief control had arisen: an idea which took more and more hold
until it received its first striking embodiment, so far as England
is concerned, in Inigo Jones. Hans Bluom's book on the Five Orders,
published at Zürich in 1550, is declared on the title-page to be useful
to painters, sculptors, workers in brass and wood, masons, statuaries,
and all who require sure measure; no mention being made of architects.
The same omission occurs in the English translation published in 1608,
which mentions on the title-page free-masons, carpenters, goldsmiths,
painters, carvers, inlayers and Anticke-cutters, who must not be taken
for anything but cutters of "antique" patterns. The address to the
reader professes that the book is offered for the benefit of "Masters,
Builders, Carvers, Masons, Lymners, and all sorts of men that love
beauty and ornament." The publisher of Vries's book of monuments of
1563 exhorts, on his title-page, all painters, statuaries, architects
and masons to inspect, buy and use it; and the same author's book on
Perspective of 1604 is addressed to painters, sculptors, statuaries,
smiths, architects, designers, masons, clerks, woodworkers, and all
lovers of the arts. We have, therefore, the appellation of "architect"
introduced, but it is ranked with the statuaries, masons, and smiths;
and indeed the term was probably used in its original signification of
"master-workman."

There was a book published in 1600, of which the title is interesting,
although the contents do not enlighten us in regard to the subject
under enquiry. It was called "The hospitall of incurable fooles:
erected in English, as near the first Italian modell and platforme,
as the unskillful hand of an ignorant architect could devise"; but
beyond the use of the word "architect," and the deductions to be drawn
from its connection with the "Italian modell," there is no help to be
obtained in this quarter.

Some further light is thrown on the term by John Shute, who published
his book _The Chief Groundes of Architecture_ in 1563. Shute calls
himself a "Paynter and Archytecte," and in the heading of one of his
chapters he speaks of an "Architecte or Mayster of Buyldings." This
is the signification of the term which became gradually accepted, but
there is no evidence that in Shute's time (that is, in 1563) a master
of the buildings was generally employed, or that being employed he was
designated an architect. John Thorpe was called a "surveyor." Robert
Smithson, who died in 1614, fifty years after Shute, is designated in
his epitaph as "architector and surveyor unto the most worthy House of
Wollaton."

All the evidence points therefore to co-operation in design as well as
execution, and while men like Thorpe provided plans and "uprights,"
each trade provided its own details. This view will account for much
of what is otherwise very puzzling--the diversity in character between
buildings supposed to have been the work of the same "architect." The
difficulty largely disappears if we suppose the small scale drawings to
have been supplied by the "surveyor," and then elaborated on the works
by the foreman and the various craftsmen. But that there was a desire
among wealthy patrons to establish an educated class of "architects" is
proved by the Introduction of Shute's book, for he tells us there that
he was sent to Italy by the Duke of Northumberland in the year 1550 for
the express purpose of studying architecture, and that having there
studied it and amassed a number of drawings and designs of sculpture,
painting, and architecture, he thought good on his return to set
forth some part of them for the profit of others, especially touching
architecture. How far Shute himself was able to put his knowledge to
the test of practical experience is not known, for no buildings are
identified as his, and he died in 1563, the same year in which he
published his book. He speaks of his patron having shown the results of
his studies to Edward VI. after his return: Edward died in 1553, and
there were ten years, therefore, during which Shute might have put in
practice what he learned in Italy.

The history of architectural design during the sixteenth century
cannot, therefore, be written round the names of great men in England
as it can in Italy, and in a less degree in France. Those who do most
towards giving character to a building are those who determine its plan
and general outlines; and the men who did this to our English houses
were the surveyors. Of these John Thorpe is the only one about whom
anything much is known; but enough is known to place him in a high
rank as a designer. There must have been many others, but their names
have disappeared and their fame has evaporated. A list of all those
who could be considered architects has been drawn up by Mr. Wyatt
Papworth,[36] but the names of those prior to Inigo Jones include
patrons, masons, and carpenters as well as surveyors, and the task
still remains to assign to each his proper share in the production of
the architecture of his day. This architecture was not the work of a
single class of men, but resulted from the joint efforts of many minds
directing many different tools. High and low, rich and poor, gentle and
simple, cultured and uncultured, all combined to the same end, and the
authors of the architectural books of the period knew their business
when they appealed on their title-pages to so many different artificers.

[36] _The Renaissance and Italian Styles of Architecture in Great
Britain_, 1883.




                      A LIST OF SELECTED WORKS ON
              EARLY RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND.


I. WORKS ON THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE TUDOR PERIOD, &c.

   DOLLMAN (F. T.).--An Analysis of Ancient Domestic
   Architecture in Great Britain. 2 vols. 4to. 1864.

   HUNT (T. F.).--Exemplars of Tudor Architecture. 8vo. 1836.

   LAMB (E. B.).--Studies of Ancient Domestic Architecture. 4to.
   1846.

   PUGIN (A.).--Specimens of Gothic Architecture in England. 2
   vols. 4to. 1821.

   PUGIN (A. and A. W.).--Examples of Gothic Architecture in
   England. 3 vols. 4to. 1831.

   TURNER (T. H.) and PARKER (J. H.).--Some Account of
   Domestic Architecture in England during the Middle Ages. 3 vols. 8vo.
   1859-1877.


II. GENERAL WORKS ON THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN
   PERIOD; ALSO BOOKS OF REFERENCE, &c.

   ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION SKETCH BOOK, THE.

    Old Series. 12 vols. Folio. 1868-1880.

    New Series. 12 vols. Folio. 1881-1892.

    Third Series. Folio. 1893--and in progress.

   BLOMFIELD (R. T.).--A History of Renaissance Architecture in
   England. 2 vols. Imp. 8vo. 1897.

   CLAYTON (J.).--Ancient Timber Edifices of England. Folio. 1846.

   GOTCH (J. A.).--Architecture of the Renaissance in England. 2
   vols. Folio. 1891-1894.

   HABERSHON (M.).--Ancient Half-Timbered Edifices of England.
   4to. 1836.

   HAKEWILL (F.).--An Attempt to Determine the Exact Character of
   Elizabethan Architecture. 8vo. 1835.

   HALL (S. C.).--Baronial Halls and Ancient Edifices of England.
   2 vols. 4to. 1850.

   NASH (J.).--Mansions of England in the Olden Time. 4 vols.
   Folio. 1839-1849.

   NASH (J.).--Mansions of England in the Olden Time. 4 vols.
   4to. 1869.

   PAPWORTH (W.).--The Renaissance and Italian Styles of
   Architecture in Great Britain: A Chronological List of Examples,
   1450-1700. 8vo. 1883.

   RICHARDSON (C. J.).--Architectural Remains of the Reigns of
   Elizabeth and James I. Folio. 1840.

   RICHARDSON (C. J.).--Specimens of the Architecture of the
   Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I. 4to. 1837.

   RICHARDSON (C. J.).--Studies from Old English Mansions. 4
   vols. Folio. 1841-1848.

   SHAW (H.).--Details of Elizabethan Architecture. 4to. 1834.


III. WORKS ON THE ARCHITECTURE OF PARTICULAR DISTRICTS, MONOGRAPHS, &c.

   COLE (REV. R. E. G.).--History of the Manor and Township of
   Doddington. 8vo. 1897.

   COPE (SIR W. H.).--Bramshill; its History and Architecture. 4to.

   DAVIE (W. GALSWORTHY) and E. GUY DAWBER.--Old Cottages and Farm
   Houses in Kent and Sussex. 4to. 1900.

   ELYARD (S. J.).--Some Old Wiltshire Homes. Folio. 1894.

   GAGE (J.).--History and Antiquities of Hengrave. 4to. 1822.

   GOTCH (J. A.).--The Buildings Erected in Northamptonshire by
   Sir Thomas Tresham. Folio. 1883.

   HARRISON (F.).--Annals of an Old Manor House. 4to. 1893.

   NEVILL (R.).--Old Cottage of Domestic Architecture in South-West
   Surrey. 4to. 1890.

   NIVEN (W.).--Monograph of Aston Hall, Warwickshire. 4to. 1881.

    Illustrations of Old Staffordshire Houses. 4to. 1882.

    Illustrations of Old Warwickshire Houses. 4to. 1878.

    Illustrations of Old Worcestershire Houses. 4to. (?)

   PALMER (C. J.).--Illustrations of An Old House at Great Yarmouth.
   4to. 1838.

   ROUNDELL (MRS. CHARLES) COWDRAY.--The History of a Great
   English House. 4to. 1884.

   TAYLOR (H.).--Old Halls in Lancashire and Cheshire. 4to. 1882.

   WILLINS (E. P.).--Some Old Halls and Manor Houses in Norfolk.
   4to. 1890.


IV. HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS CONSULTED IN THE PREPARATION OF
THIS WORK.

   ARCHÆLOGIA: or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity,
   published by the Society of Antiquaries.

   ARCHÆOLOGICAL JOURNAL, Vol. VIII. for Contract for Thos.
   Fermor's Tomb in Somerton Church; Vols. V. and XXXIX. for Nonesuch
   Palace.

   ARCHÆOLOGICAL JOURNAL, Vol. LI. 1894. "On the Work of
   Florentine Sculptors in England in the Early Part of the Sixteenth
   Century," &c., by Alfred Higgins, F.S.A.

   THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, August, 1837, for Nonesuch Palace.

   JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS, April 24, 1891. "Decorative
   Plaster Work," by G. T. Robinson, F.S.A.

   TRANSACTIONS OF THE ESSEX ARCHÆOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

   TRANSACTIONS OF THE R. I. B. A., May 18, June 8, 1868. "On
   the Foreign Artists employed in England during the Sixteenth Century,
   and their Influence on British Art," by M. Digby Wyatt.

   WILTSHIRE ARCHÆOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE.

          *       *       *       *       *

   ANDROUT DU CERCEAU (JACQUES).--Les plus excellents
   bastiments de France. Folio. 1576-1579.

   ANDROUT DU CERCEAU (JACQUES).--De architectura opus.
   Folio. 1559.

   AUBREY (J.).--Wiltshire Topographical Collections, 1659-1670.
   4to. 1862.

   BLOOME (H.).--The Book of Five Columnes of Architecture, &c.
   Translated by I. T. Folio. 1608.

   BLUOM (JOANNES, _same as Hans Bloome_).--Quinque
   Columnarum Exacta Descriptio. Folio. 1550.

   BOORDE (A.).--Compendyous Regyment, or a Dyetary of Helth.
   12mo. 1542.

   BRAUN (GEORGE).--Urbium præcipuarum mundi theatrum
   quintum. 1582. (For Nonesuch Palace.)

   BRITTON (J.).--Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain. 5
   vols. 4to. 1807-1826.

   BURGON (J. W.).--Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham. 1839.

   CABALA.--Sive scrinia sacra. Folio. 1691.

   DALLAWAY (REV. JAMES).--A Series of Discourses upon
   Architecture in England. 8vo. 1833.

   DIETTERLEIN (WENDEL).--Architectura und Austheilung
   der V. Seulen. Folio. 1593.

   DOLLMAN (F. T.).--The Priory of St. Mary Overie, Southwark.
   4to. 1881.

   EVELYN (J.).--Memoirs and Correspondence, 1641-1706.

   GEDDE (W.).--A Booke of Sundry Draughtes. 8vo. 1612; reissued
   1898.

   HARRIS (SIR N.).--Memoirs of the Life and Times of
   Sir Christopher Hatton. 8vo. 1847.

   HARTSHORNE (MISS).--Memorials of Holdenby. 1868.

   HENTZNER (P.).--Journey into England in 1598. Edited by
   Horace Walpole. 1797.

   KIP (W.) and HARRISON (S.).--The Archs of Triumph,
   erected in honour of James I. Folio. 1604.

   LAW (E.).--History of Hampton Court Palace. 3 vols. 8vo.
   1888-1891.

   LETHABY (W. R.).--Leadwork, Old and Ornamental. 8vo. 1893.

   NICHOLS (J.).--Progresses, Festivities, and Pageants of Queen
   Elizabeth. 3 vols. 4to. 1823.

   NICHOLS (J.).--Progresses, Processions, Festivities, and
   Pageants of King James I. 4 vols. 1828.

   L'ORME (PHILIBERT DE).--Nouvelles Inventions pour
   bien bâstir. Folio. 1561.

   PEPYS (S.).--Diary, 1659-1669; Memoirs and Private
   Correspondence.

   RYE (W. B.).--England as seen by Foreigners in the Days of
   Elizabeth and James I. 4to. 1865.

   SCOTT (SIR GEORGE GILBERT).--Gleanings from
   Westminster Abbey. 8vo. 1863.

   SHUTE (JOHN).--The Chief Groundes of Architecture.
   Folio. 1563.

   STATE PAPERS.--Domestic Series. Elizabeth and James.

   TWYCROSS (EDWARD).--The Mansions of England and
   Wales. Folio. 1847-1850.

   VRIES (JAN VREDEMAN DE).--Book of Monuments. 4to.
   1563.

   VRIES (JAN VREDEMAN DE).--Architectura, ou bastiment
   prins de Vitruve, &c. Folio. 1577.

   VRIES (JAN VREDEMAN DE).--Perspective. Oblong 4to.
   1604.

   WESTLAKE.--A History of Design in Painted Glass. 4 vols. 4to.
   1881-1894.

   WILLIS (J.) and CLARK (J. W.).--The Architectural
   History of the University of Cambridge. 4 vols. 8vo. 1886.




                                INDEX.

   NOTE.--=The ordinary figures denote references to pages of
   text, those in black type denote references to illustrations in the
   text, and the Roman numerals are for plates.=


     ABBOTT'S Hospital, Guildford, 166
        "        "      doorway, =149=
        "        "      key-plate, =154=
        "        "      latch, =150=

     ADDITIONS to existing houses, 73

     ALMSHOUSES, 210

     ALTHORPE, Hawking-tower, 212, =199=, =200=

     ALVA, 253

     AMPTHILL, long gallery, 195

     ANDREW, Sir Thomas, tomb of, 16, =8=

     ANSSI-LE-FRANC, plan and elevation copied by John Thorpe, 227, 213,
                                                                   =214=

     APARTMENTS on John Thorpe's plans, list of, 251

     APETHORPE Hall, 105
         "      "   ceiling, 181
         "      "   confectionery, 234
         "      "   curved gables, 122, =109=
         "      "   parapet, 123

     ARCADE, the open, 63

     ARCHITECT, his position in 16th century, 255-266

     ARNOLD, a joiner, 257

     ARTHUR, Prince, chantry in Worcester Cathedral, 11, =1=

     ARUNDEL, Earl of, 34

     ASHBOURNE Church, tombs, 13, 16, =2=, =9=

     ASKEWE, Lady Anne, 143

     ASTBURY Church, font cover, 221

     ASTLEY Hall, 111, XXXIII.

     ASTON Hall, 70-72, 98, 99
       "    "   ceilings, 179, LXX., LXXI.
       "    "   long gallery, 195, 196, LXXVI.
       "    "   north wing, =54=
       "    "   plan, =53=
       "    "   south front, =81=

     AUBREY, John, 35

     AUDLEY End, 73, 144
       "     "   ceilings, 179, 182
       "     "   frieze, 182, =168=
       "     "   long gallery, 195
       "     "   parapet, 123, =112=
       "     "   staircase, 193, LXXIV.

     AXBRIDGE Church, ceiling, 223

     AYLESFORD Hall, doorway, 93, =75=

     AZAY-LE-RIDEAU, Château de, 230


     BACON, Lord, 76, 88
       "    Sir Nicholas, 88, 89, 90

     BAKEWELL Church, tomb in, =7=

     BALLIOL College, Oxford, glazing, 199

     BALUSTER, pierced, =176=

     BANBURY, "Reindeer" Inn, 162, 177, 181
        "         "           ceiling, LXIX.
        "         "           side of room, LXIX.

     BANQUETING Hall at Whitehall, 9
         "      house, 136
         "        "    at Gorhambury, 90
         "        "    at Chipping Campden, =132=

     BARDWELL Manor House, chimney, 128, =116=

     BARLBOROUGH Hall, 67-68, 235
          "       "    chimney-piece, 168, LVIII.
          "       "    entrance front, =50=
          "       "    plan, =49=

     BARRINGTON Court, 110, XXXII.

     BARSHAM, East. _See_ East Barsham.

     BASING Church, Paulet tombs, 26, VII.

     BASINGSTOKE, Chapel of Holy Ghost, 17
          "       glazing, 199

     BAY windows, 111

     BEAN Lodge, Petworth, chimney, 130, =123=

     BECKINGTON Abbey, ceiling, 177, 178, =162=, =163=
         "        "    door, 155, =140=

     BENEDETTO da Rovezzano, 254

     BENTHALL Hall, 156
        "      "    ceiling, 180, =165=
        "      "    chimney-piece, 171, =156=
        "      "    panelling, 156, 157, 158, XLIII.
        "      "    staircase, 193, =179=

     BINGHAM Melcombe, 17

     BLACK and white houses, 106

     BLICKLING, 73
         "      ceiling, 181
         "      chimney, 130
         "      curved gables, 122
         "      part of entrance front, XXXVII.
         "      staircase, 192

     BLUNT, Matthew, a joiner, 257

     BLUOM, Hans, his book on the Five Orders, 264

     BLYTHBOROUGH Church, pulpit, 220, =207=

     BOCCACCIO, 2

     BOLEYN, Anne, 28

     BOLSOVER Castle, 103, =87=
        "       "     chimney-pieces, 171, 157, LXIV.
        "       "     plan, 104, =88=

     BOOKS on Architecture published during the 16th century, 264

     BOORDE, Dr. Andrew, 56, 62
       "     his _Dyetary of Helth_ quoted, 57

     BOUGHTON House, chimney-piece, 168, LVI.

     BOURNE Pond, Colchester, mill, 212, =204=

     BOURTON-ON-THE-WATER, cottage, 112, =96=

     BRADBOURNE, tomb of, 16, =9=

     BRADFIELD, 163, 238

     BRAMALL Hall, 107

     BRAMSHILL, 105
         "      parapet, 123, =111=
         "      rain-water head, 131, =129=

     BRANDON, Charles, Duke of Suffolk, 53

     BREDON Church, Reed tomb, 218, =204=

     BRIGSTOCK, village cross, 211, LXXX.

     BRISTOL, door in a house at, 164, LIII.
        "      "   in St. Peter's hospital, 166, LV.
        "     old houses at, 201

     BRISTOL, Red Lodge, 157, 163

     BROADWAY, doorway at, 92, =74=
        "      Tudor House, 118, XXXV.

     BROMLEY-BY-BOW, chimney-piece, 172, LXV.

     BROUGHTON Castle, inner porch, 163, 238, LI.

     BRUNELLESCHI, 6

     BUCKHURST House, 73
         "       "    the long gallery, 195

     BURFORD Priory, window tracery, 223

     BURGHLEY House, 9, 98, 128, 260
        "       "    general view, XXVIII.
        "       "    long gallery, 195
        "       "    staircase, 187, LXXII.

     BURGHLEY, Lord, 75, 76, 144, 146
        "      letters to (and from), 260, 261, 262

     BURLINGTON, Lord, 261

     BURTON Agnes, 70, 91
       "      "    bay windows, 112, =95=
       "      "    ceiling, 183
       "      "    plan, =52=

     BURTON Latimer, school, 211, =197=

     BURY St. Edmund's, glazing at Church of St. James, 199

     BUSTS on houses, 120


     CABOT, 2

     CAMBRIDGE,
         "      King's College, fan-vaulting in chapel, 3
         "        "       "     glazing, =199=
         "        "       "     screen in chapel, 28, 111, 255, VIII.
         "      Peterhouse, woodwork in chapel, 223, =212=
         "      Queen's College, panelling, 257
         "      St. John's College, contracts, 256
         "      Trinity College, contract for woodwork, 256
         "        "        "    the hall, 159, XLV.

     CANTERBURY, corbels, 206, =188=, =189=
         "       house in High Street, 202, 185

     CARBROOK Hall, Sheffield, 155
         "      "   ceiling, 181
         "      "   frieze, 184, =170=
         "      "   panelling, 155, XLII.

     CASEMENT fasteners, 166

     CASSELL, 145

     CASTLE Ashby, chimney-piece,172, LXVI.
        "     "    parapet, 124

     CASTLEMAINE, Countess of, 34

     CASTLE Rising, door at, 152, =139=

     CAVE, Robert, a joiner, 257
       "   Thomas, tomb of, 15, =5=, =6=

     CECIL, Sir William. _See_ Lord Burghley.

     CEILINGS in houses, 173-184
        "     in churches, 223

     CELLINI, Benvenuto, 7

     CHALFIELD, Great, 42
        "         "    hall, 45
        "         "    plan, 43, =33=

     CHAMBORD, Château de, 230

     CHANGE of detail from Italian to Dutch, 39

     CHANNEL Row, house for Lady Derby, 205

     CHAPEL Royal, St. James's, ceiling, 176

     CHAPMAN, a mason, 36

     CHARLES I., 5

     CHARLES II., 34

     CHARLES VIII. (of France) tomb at St. Denis, 12

     CHARLTON, Wiltshire, 98, =80=
        "      ceiling, 178
        "      frieze, 182, =168=

     CHARTERHOUSE, The, staircase at, 192, =181=

     CHARWELTON Church, tomb in, 16, =8=

     CHASTLETON, ceiling, 183
         "       plan, 90, 91, 92, =72=

     CHELVEY Court, pew, 157, =143=
        "      "    porch, 83, 84, =64=

     CHENEY Court, 101, =84=
        "     "    doorway, 87, =68=

     CHENONCEAU, Château de, 230

     CHEST at St. Mary Overie, Southwark, 39, X.

     CHESTER, the Rows at, 207

     CHESTERFIELD Church, Foljambe tombs, 218, =203=
           "        "     pulpit, 221, =208=

     CHEVINGTON, 239

     CHICHESTER tomb, North Pilton, 218, =202=, LXXXI.

     CHIMNEY-PIECES, 167-173

     CHIMNEYS, 125-130
         "     typical chimney of the Midlands, =119=

     CHIPCHASE Castle, porch, 85, XXIV.

     CHIPPING Campden almshouses, 208, =193=
         "       "    banqueting house, 137, =132=
         "       "    chimney, 128, =120=
         "       "    market-house, 211, =196=

     CHRISTCHURCH, Hampshire, choir stalls, 23, 17, =18=
          "        Draper's chantry, 22, =16=
          "        Salisbury chantry, 17, 20-22, =14=, =15=, V., VI.

     CHURCHES, work in, 215

     CLAVERTON, terrace, 133, XXXVIII.

     CLEGG Hall, 106, =90=

     CLIFFORD, Lady Anne, 144

     CLIFTON Maubank, 64

     CLIFTON, Sir Jarvis (or Gervase), John Thorpe's plan of house, 231,
                                                                 LXXXIV.

     CLOUGH, Richard, 260, 261, 262

     COBB, a plasterer, 257

     COBHAM Hall, Kent, 130, 260

     COBHAM, Lord, 260

     COKAYNE, tomb of, 11, 2

     COLD Ashton, 102
       "    "     doorway, 86, 87, =67=
       "    "     general view, =85=
       "    "     gateway, 79, 81, =58=
       "    "     plan, 102, =86=

     COLUMBUS, 2

     COMPTON Winyates, 33, 47-49, 94, 128
        "       "      details from church, 223, =211=
        "       "      entrance porch, XII.
        "       "      general view, XI.
        "       "      plan, =37=

     CONDOVER Hall, 104, 105, =89=

     CONFECTIONERY, remarkable, 234

     CONISHEAD Priory, 165

     CONSTANTINOPLE, fall of, 2

     CONTRACT for glazing at St. John's College, Cambridge, 257
        "      "  panelling at Hengrave Hall, 148
        "      "  second court at St. John's College, Cambridge, 256
        "      "  tomb for Thomas Fermor, 259
        "      "  woodwork at Trinity College, Cambridge, 257

     COPERNICUS, 91

     COPT Hall, the long gallery, 195

     CORBELS to overhanging storeys, 206

     CORSHAM Court, 99, 100, =82=
        "    almshouses, 208
        "         "      reading-desk, =192=

     COVENTRY, Ford's Hospital, 207

     COWDRAY House, 105
        "      "    vaulting of porch, 19, =13=, IV.
        "      "    windows, 109, 110, =93=

     CRAFTSMEN provide their own designs, 256

     CRANBORNE, porch, 91, XXVI.

     CROSCOMBE Church, woodwork, 219

     CROSSES, market and village, 211

     CROSS, St., Winchester, screen, 17, 24, VII.


     DAÏS, the, 43

     DALE, Richard, 58

     DANTE, 2

     DANVERS, Sir John; plans and elevation of his house by
                                         John Thorpe, 246, =227=, =228=

     DARTMOUTH, butter-market, 201

     DECORATION of rooms, 145

     DEENE Hall, 148
       "    "    ceiling, 177, =134=, LXVIII.

     DEFENSIVE precautions abandoned, 73

     DERBY, Lady, house for, 205

     DESIGNS, the providers of, 256

     DININCKHOFF, Bernard, 198

     DISSOLUTION of the Monasteries, 5

     DODDINGTON Hall, 69
         "       "    entrance front with gatehouse, XXI.
         "       "    lay-out, 77, 78, =56=
         "       "    parapet, 123
         "       "    plan, =51=
         "       "    porch, 82, 83, =63=

     DOOR furniture, 165, 166, =150=-=155=

     DOORS, 164

     DOORWAYS (entrance) and porches, 83-93

     DRAMATIC entertainments, 138

     DRAPER'S chantry, Christchurch, 22, =16=

     DRAWSWERD, Sheriff of York, 11

     DRAYTON House, chimney, 128, =121=

     DROITWICH, chimney at, 126, =114=

     DRURY, Elizabeth, tomb of, 16, =10=

     DU CERCEAU, 95
         "       copied by John Thorpe, 227

     DURDANS, The, 35

     DUTCH character of detail, 39

     DUTCH, imitation of the, 8
       "    influence on English architecture, 9, 120
       "    influence on John Thorpe, 230
       "    refugees, 253

     DYRIK, a joiner, 258


     EAST Ardsley Old Hall, 106

     EASTAWE, John, 56

     EAST Barsham, 17, 47
       "     "   plan, =36=

     EAST Quantockshead, 169
       "        "        staircase, 192, =174=

     EDINGTON Church, pulpit, 221, LXXXIII.

     ELEVATIONS by John Thorpe, LXXXVII., =214=, =215=, =219=, =222=,
                                   =223=, =224=, =228=, =229=, =230=

     ELIZABETHAN mansion, new style to be found in, 5

     ELIZABETH, Queen, 138, 140

     ELTHAM Palace, roof, 28, =25=

     ELVETHAM, 234

     ENFIELD, chimney-piece at, 172

     ENGLISH workmen, character of their work, 95
        "       "     Italianizing of, 16

     EVELYN, John, his notes on Nonesuch Palace, 34

     EWEN, Nicholas, 11

     EXETER, Guildhall, 210
        "    house formerly in North Street, 201, =184=

     EXTERNAL appearance of an Elizabethan house, 95

     EXTON Church, tomb, =4=
       "   Hall, 99, 123, XXIX.
       "    "    parapet, =110=

     EYAM Hall, garden, 135, =133=
       "    "   terrace steps, XXXIX.


     FAËRIE Queen, the, 5

     FAMBELER, Giles, wood-carver, =257=

     FAN-VAULTING, 3, 10, 19, pl. I., IV.

     FERMOR, Thomas, =258=
        "       "    contract for his tomb, 259

     FINIALS, 117, =101=

     FINSTOCK Manor House, 118, =102=

     FISHER, Bishop, his tomb, 258

     FLORENCE Cathedral, 6

     FOLJAMBE tombs, Chesterfield, 218, =203=

     FONT covers, 221

     FORD House, Newton Abbot, chimney-piece, 170, LXII.

     FOUNTAINS Hall, 92

     FOX, Bishop of Winchester, 24, 25

     FRANCE, Renaissance in, 3

     FRANCIS I. of France, 7, 8

     FRENCH influence on English Architecture, 8, 152
        "       "     on John Thorpe, 230


     GABLES, 116
       "     of timber houses, 119
       "     curved, 120

     GALLERY, at Gorhambury, 90
        "     minstrels', 43
        "     the long, 63, 195-197, LXXV., LXXVI.

     GARDEN at Holdenby, 76

     GARDENS, 133

     Gardiner's chantry, Winchester Cathedral, 25

     GASCOIGNE, George, 141, 142, 214

     GATEHOUSES and lodges, 78-83

     GAYHURST, pillars in garden, 133, =130=
         "     porch of house, 85, =66=

     GAYTON Manor House, door, 166, LV.

     GEDDE, Walter, glazier, 199
       "      "   patterns from his "Booke of Sundry Draughtes", LXXVIII.

     GENERAL aspect of an Elizabethan house, 94

     GERMANY, Renaissance in, 3

     GESTS, 143

     GILES Fambeler, wood-carver, 257

     GILLING Castle, glass at, 198, =183=

     GIOVANNI da Majano, 254

     GLAZING, 197-199

     GLINTON Manor House, 100, XXIX.

     GORHAMBURY, 88-91
         "       porch, =70=

     GOTHIC and Classic detail mixed, 17-33
        "   Architecture contrasted with Classic, 2, 4

     GREAT chamber, the, 194

     GREAT Snoring, 17, 47

     GREEK literature, 2

     GRESHAM, Sir Thomas, 260, 261

     GUILDFORD, Abbott's Hospital. _See_ Abbott's Hospital.


     HADDON Hall, 47, 94, 105
       "     "    ceilings, 177, 181, =161=, =166=
       "     "    door furniture, 167, =151=, =153=
       "     "    frieze, 184
       "     "    long gallery, 195, LXXV.
       "     "    panelling, 153, 154, =135=, XL., XLI.
       "     "    rain-water heads, 131, =124=, =125=, =126=
       "     "    screen, 149, =135=
       "     "    terrace, 133, XXXVIII.

     HALF-TIMBER houses, 56

     HALL, the chief apartment, 41
       "   its treatment, 159
       "   its decay, 72

     HAMBLETON Old Hall, =71=
         "      "   "    parapet, 123
         "      "   "    porch, 89, 91
         "      "   "    staircase, 192, =173=

     HAMPTON Court, 29
        "      "    ceilings, 33, 149, 174-176, =158=, =159=, =160=,
                              LXVII.
        "      "    chapel roof, 33
        "      "    door to great hall, =28=
        "      "    early work at, 29
        "      "    glazing, 197
        "      "    long gallery, 197
        "      "    roof of great hall, 28, 30, 161, =26=, =27=
        "      "    roundels, 254
        "      "    size of courts, 35, 76
        "      "    tapestry, 147

     HAMSTALL Ridware, lodge, 79

     HARDWICK Hall, chimney-piece, 169, LXI.,
        "      "    plaster frieze, 164, 184, LII.

     HARRINGTON, John, Lord, 100

     HARRINGTON, John, tomb of, 15, =4=

     HARRISON, Dyrik, a joiner, 257, 258

     HARRISON, Stephen, joiner and architect, 140

     HASELRIGGE, 235

     HASERIDGE, Sir Wm., plan and elevation for his house by John
                                          Thorpe, 235, LXXXVI., LXXXVII.

     HATFIELD House chimney-piece, 169, LIX.
        "       "   doorway, 86, XXV.
        "       "   staircase, 192
        "       "   window-head, =99A=

     HATTON, Sir Christopher, 63, 76, 77, 81, 96, 143, 144

     HAWKING-TOWER at Althorpe, 212, =199=, =200=

     HAWSTEAD Church, tomb in, 16, =10=

     HENEAGE, Sir Thomas, 144

     HENGRAVE HALL, 33, 54-56, 128, 258
       "       "    contract for panelling, 148
       "       "    corbelling of bay, =44=
       "       "    entrance gateway, XIV.
       "       "    glazing, 198
       "       "    plan, =42=
       "       "    west front, =43=

     HENRICK, or Henryck, 260

     HENRY VII.'S Chapel, Westminster, 3, 10, pl. I.
       "    "       "     stalls, 26, =21=, =22=
       "    "     tomb, 7, 10-15, 253, pl. II., =3=
       "    "     will, 256

     HENRY VIII., his influence on architecture, 7
       "    "     he annexes Wolsey's tomb, 254

     HENTZNER, Paul, 33

     HEREFORD, house in High Town, 203, =186=

     HERTFORD, Earl of, 234

     HESSE, Landgrave of, 145

     HIGHLOW Hall, gateway, 134, XXXIX.

     HOGHTON Tower, 105
       "       "    bay window of hall, 111, =94=

     HOLBEIN, 7
       "      his work in England, 255

     HOLDENBY House, 144
       "        "    court, 78
       "        "    gateways, 80, 81, =61=
       "        "    lay-out, 75, =55=
       "        "    long gallery, 195

     HOLMSHURST, 118, XXXV.

     HOLY Ghost Chapel, Basingstoke, 17
       "    "     "     glazing, 199

     HOSPITALL of Incurable Fooles, the, 264

     HOUSES enlarged to receive royalty, 144
       "    in streets, 200
       "         "      proclamation as to materials, 203

     HUDDINGTON Court House, chimney, 127, =115=


     IGHTHAM Church, glazing from, 197, =182=

     IMBER, Lawrence, 11

     INGELBY Manor, 106, =91=

     INNER porch to rooms, 163, LI.

     INTERIOR features of houses, 138

     INVASION of the foreign style, 10

     IPSWICH, old houses at, 201

     ISLIP, Abbot of Westminster, 8

     ITALIAN detail in tombs, 10-26
        "    workmen, 18-24, 253

     ITALY, its influence on architecture, 1-9


     JAMES I., King, 140

     JANSON, Cornelius, 261

     JENINS, Robert, 11

     JOHN of Padua, 8

     JOHNSON the druggist, Mr., plan of his house by John Thorpe, 245,
                                                                =225=

     JONES, Inigo, 6, 9, 42, 63, 64, 72, 263

     JOYNER, Michael, 28


     KELMARSH Church, window tracery, 222, =210=

     KENILWORTH Castle, princely pleasures, 141

     KENTWELL Hall, 99, =83=

     KENYON Peel, gateway, 82, =62=

     KING'S College, Cambridge. _See_ Cambridge.

     KING'S Lynn, Chapel of the Red Mount, 19, IV.

     KIP, William, 140

     KIRBY Hall, 60-64, 73, 81, 95, 96, 105
       "    "    bay windows, 112, XXXIII.
       "    "    chimney, 128, =118=
       "    "    courtyard, south side of, XVII., =76=
       "    "    finials, 118
       "    "    gables, 121
       "    "    hall, roof of, 161, =147=
       "    "    parapet, 123
       "    "    plan, =46=
       "    "    plan by John Thorpe, XVIII.
       "    "    porch, detail of, XIX.
       "    "    west front, =77=, =107=

     KITCHEN, the, 41

     KNEELERS, 117, =101=

     KNOCKERS, 167, =155=

     KNOLE House, 73, 130, 131
       "     "    hall, 159, =145=
       "     "    lead rain-water head, =128=

     KYTSON, Sir Thomas, 148, 149, 239


     LACOCK Abbey, 17, 36-38, 110
       "      "    chimney, 128, XXXVI.
       "      "    chimney-piece, 168, LVII.
       "      "    stables, =32=
       "      "    stone tables, =30=, =31=
       "      "    tile paving, IX.
       "      "    tower at S.E. corner, =29=

     LAMBERT, a joiner, 257

     LANDGRAVE of Hesse, 145

     LANGTON Chapel, Winchester Cathedral, 27

     LAVENHAM Church, the Spring pew, 27, =23=, =24=

     LAYER Marney, tombs at, 17, =11=, III.

     LAYER Marney Tower, 17, 33, 52-54, 110, 128
       "     "    details, XIII.
       "     "    entrance tower, =41=

     LAY-OUT of houses, 74

     LEBONS, John, 11

     LECHLADE, "Swan" Inn, 207, =191=

     LEDBURY Market-house, 107

     LEE, Mr., free mason, 258

     LEEDS, St. John's Church, 222
       "     "    "      "     screen, 219

     LEICESTER, Earl of, 142

     LEICESTER, Old Town Hall, 162, XLVIII.

     LEOMINSTER, The Grange, 107

     LEVENS Hall, door, 164, LIV.

     LILFORD Hall, bay window, 112, XXXIV.
        "     "    curved gables, 123, XXXIV.

     LILLY the Grammarian, 91

     LINCOLN, Earl of, 145

     LINGFIELD, gateway, 134, =131=

     LITTLE Charlton, ceiling, 184, =171=

     LOCK-PLATES, =152=

     LODGE, the, 74

     LODGES and gateways, 78-83

     LOGGIA, the Italian, 41, 63

     LONGLEAT, 97, =78=

     LORME, Philibert de, 261

     LOSELEY, 35, 143

     LOUVRE, the, 145

     LUMLEY, Lord, 34

     LYDDINGTON, doorway at, 92, =73=

     LYVEDEN Old Building, staircase, 192, =172=, =175=
        "    New Building, 247


     MADRIT, Château de, 228, 230

     MAJANO, Giovanni da, 254

     MANNERS, Sir John, 131, 181

     MARGARET, mother of Henry VII., her tomb, 11, 253

     MARKET-HOUSES, 207, 210

     MARLIVALE, Mr., letter of, 239

     MARNEY, Sir Henry, 53

     MARNEY, Henry, Lord, his tomb, =11=, pl. III.

     MARY, Queen, 34

     MARY, St., Overie, chest at, 39, X.

     MAYFIELD, house at, 108, =92=

     MICHAEL Joyner, 28

     MIDDLE Temple Hall, 159, 161
       "      "     "    glazing, 198

     MILDMAY, Sir Anthony, 234

     MILL at Bourne Pond, 212, =198=

     MINSTRELS' Gallery, 43

     MODENA, Nicholas of, 255

     MONASTERIES, dissolution of, 5

     MONTACUTE House, 64-67, 73, 105, 123, 128, 133, 184
         "       "    part of entrance front, XX.
         "       "    plan, =47=
         "       "    plaster frieze, =168=, =169=
         "       "    west front, =48=

     MONTAGU, Sir Edward, 168

     MORE, Sir Thomas, 247

     MORE, Sir William, of Loseley, 143

     MORETON Old Hall, 56-59, 107
        "     "   "    entrance porch, XV.
        "     "   "    gable, XVI.
        "     "   "    glazing, 197, LXXVII.
        "     "   "    plan, =45=

     MOUNT Grace Priory, 106, XXX.

     MOYNS Park, 130


     NAILSEA Court, door, 155, =141=
        "      "    porch, 85, =65=

     NEKER, Thomas, 148

     NELSON, Lord, 254

     NICHOLAS of Modena, 255

     NINE Worthies, the, 66, 88, 142

     NONESUCH Palace, 33-36, 76
        "       "     banqueting house, 136
        "       "     garden, 134

     NORRIS, Sir Henry, 260, 261

     NORTHAMPTONSHIRE cottage, a, =100=

     NORTH Pilton, Chichester tomb, 218, =202=, LXXXI.

     NORTHUMBERLAND, Duke of, 265

     NOSELEY, 235

     NOTTINGHAM, houses on the Long Row, 207

     NUNZIATA, Toto del, 34 _note_, 254


     OAKWELL Hall, 106

     OCKWELLS Manor House, staircase, 192, =177=, =178=

     OFFLEY, Hugh, 39

     ORATIONS, Latin, 141

     ORTON Waterville, corbel, 206, =190=

     OUNDLE, gateway of almshouses, 81, =60=

     OXBURGH Hall, described, 45
        "     "    entrance tower, =35=
        "     "    plan, 44, =34=

     OXFORD, Baliol College, glazing, 199
       "     house in the High Street, 202, LXXIX.
       "     Queen's College, glazing, 199
       "     Wadham College, screen in hall, 159, 161, XLIV.
       "     Wadham College, window tracery, 222


     PAGANINO, 12

     PAGEANTS, 139

     PAGENY, Master (Paganino), 12

     PALLADIO, 95

     PANELLING of the time of Henry VIII., =136=, =138=

     PAPWORTH, Mr. Wyatt, 265

     PARAPETS, 123, =110=, =111=, =112=

     PARLOUR, the, 41

     PAULET tombs in Basing Church, 26, VII.

     PAVIA, Certosa of, 6

     PEGME, or triumphal arch, 140

     PENDANTS of ceilings, =167=

     PEPYS, notes on Nonesuch Palace, 35

     PETER, a joiner, 257

     PETERHOUSE, Cambridge, woodwork in chapel, 223, =212=

     PETRARCH, 2

     PHELIPS, Sir Edward, 65

     PILTON Church, font cover, 221, =209=

     PITCHFORD Hall, 107

     PITTI Palace, 6

     PLAN: development of house plan, 41-72
       "   Elizabethan house plan, 59
       "   =E= type of plan, 67
       "   =H= type of plan, 64
       "   old type still preserved at Oxford and Cambridge, 42

     PLAN of Althorpe Hawking-tower, =200=
       "  "  Anssi-le-Franc, =213=
       "  "  Aston Hall, =53=
       "  "  Barlborough Hall, =49=
       "  "  Bolsover Castle, =88=
       "  "  Burton Agnes, =52=
       "  "  Chalfield, Great, =33=
       "  "  Chastleton, =72=
       "  "  Clifton, Sir Jarvis, his house, =86=
       "  "  Cold Ashton, =86=
       "  "  Compton Winyates, =37=
       "  "  Danvers, Sir John, his house, =227=, =228=
       "  "  Doddington Hall, =51=
       "  "  East Barsham, =36=
       "  "  Eyam Hall, garden, =133=
       "  "  Hengrave Hall, =42=
       "  "  Holdenby, lay-out, =55=
       "  "  Johnson the druggist, his house, =225=
       "  "  Kirby Hall, =46=
       "  "    "    "    by John Thorpe, XVIII.
       "  "  Montacute House, =47=
       "  "  Moreton Old Hall, =45=
       "  "  Oxburgh Hall, =34=
       "  "  Powell, Mr. Wm., his house, =224=
       "  "  Sutton Place, =38=
       "  "  Wollaton Hall, =79=

     PLANS from John Thorpe's book, 226-252, LXXXIV., LXXXV., LXXXVI.,
                      =213=, =216=, =217=, =218=, =220=, =221=, =223=,
                             =224=, =225=, =226=, =227=, =228=, =231=

     PLATTS, or plans, 256

     PORCHES, 83-93

     PORTER, the, 73, 79

     POWELL, Mr. Wm., plan and elevation for his house, by John Thorpe,
                                                            244, =224=

     PRINTING, invention of, 3, 6

     PROGRESSES of the Sovereign, 138

     PULPIT in Winchester Cathedral, 27

     PULPITS, 220


     QUANSTOCKSHEAD, East, 169
           "         staircase, 192, =174=

     QUEEN'S College, Oxford, glazing, 199


     RAINHAM Hall, 72

     RAIN-WATER heads, 130

     RED LODGE, Bristol, panelling, 157
         "      inner porch, 163

     RED Mount, Chapel of, King's Lynn, 19

     REED tomb, Bredon Church, 218, =204=

     REFORMATION, the, 3

     "REINDEER" Inn, Banbury, 162
         "           ceiling, 177, 181, LXIX.
         "           panelled room, 162, LXIX.

     RENAISSANCE in letters, 2
          "      style, 2, 3

     RICHMOND, Countess of, tomb, 11, 253

     RICHMOND Court, 126

     RODES, Francis, 168

     ROILEY, Richard and Gabriel, tomb makers, 258, 259

     ROTHWELL, cottage at, 119, =103=
        "      market-house, 185, 210

     ROVEZZANO, Benedetto da, 254

     ROYAL Exchange, Gresham's, 261, 262

     RULES of architecture, 6

     RUSHTON Hall, 105
        "     "    chimney of Triangular Lodge, =122=
        "     "    curved gables, 122, =108=, =113=
        "     "    finials, 118
        "     "    parapet, 123
        "     "    rain-water head, 131

     RYDGE, Richard, 28, 29

     RYE, St. John's Hospital, 208


     SAINT Germain, plan copied by John Thorpe, 228

     SALISBURY Chantry, the, at Christchurch. _See_ Christchurch.

     SANDWICH, corbels on "King's Arms", 206, =187=
        "      Queen Elizabeth's visit to, 141

     SAVILE, John, describes visit of James I. to Theobalds, 77

     SCHOOLS, 211

     SCOLE, sign of the "White Hart", 213, =201=

     SCREEN at Tilney All Saints, 219, LXXXII.
       "    at St. Cross, 25, VII.
       "    at Winchester Cathedral, 24, =20=
       "    of churches, 219
       "    of hall in houses and colleges, 159

     SCREENS, "the screens" in a house, 42, 160

     SEYMOUR, Jane, arms, 33
        "      "    tomb, 254

     SHARINGTON, William, 36-38, 128, 168
         "       Grace (his wife), 38

     SHERBORNE, rain-water head, 131, =127=

     SHREWSBURY, market-house, 210, =194=
         "       school, 211

     SHUTE, John, his _Chief Groundes of Architecture_, 263

     SILKSTEDE, Prior, his pulpit, 27

     SIZERGH Hall, ceiling, 179, 181, =164=
        "     "    door, 164
        "     "    frieze, 184, L.
        "     "    inner porch, 163, 283
        "     "    panelling  163, 164, L., =148=

     SLAUGHAM Place, the long gallery, 195

     SMALLER rooms, the treatment of, 162

     SMITH, Sir Thomas, 260

     SMITHSON, Robert, 265

     SNORING, Great, 17, 47

     SOUTH Wraxall, ceiling, 177, 178
       "      "     chimney-piece, 169, LX.
       "      "     great chamber, 162, XLVII.

     SPAIN, Renaissance in, 3

     SPARKE, John, 56

     SPEKE Hall, 107, XXXI.

     SPENCER, Robert, Lord, 212
        "     Sir William, tomb at Yarnton, 218, =205=

     SPRING Pew, Lavenham Church, 27, =23=, =24=

     STAFFORD, Sir Humphrey, 63

     STAIRCASE, the grand, 47
         "      at Benthall Hall, 193, =179=
         "      at Kirby, 63

     STAIRCASES, 185-194
         "       examples from John Thorpe's drawings, 189, 190, LXXIII.
         "       in France, 185

     STANFORD Church, panelling, 151, =137=
        "        "    tomb in, 15, =5=, =6=

     STANNINGE, or Hawking-tower, 212

     STANWAY, gatehouse, 79, XXII.
        "     curved gables, 123

     ST. CROSS, Winchester, screen, 25, VII.
         "      James, Chapel Royal, ceiling, 176
         "      Margaret's Westminster, glazing, 199
         "      Mary Overie, Southwark, chest, 39, X.
         "      Neot's Church, Cornwall, glazing, 199

     STEVENTON, cottage at, 112, 119, =97=, =105=

     STOKESAY Castle, gatehouse, 79, =57=

     STONEGRAVE Church, screen, 220

     STOWE-NINE-CHURCHES, reredos and screen, 157, =142=, =144=

     STRATFORD-ON-AVON, house at, 202, LXXIX.

     SUTTON Court, near Guildford, 33

     SUTTON Place (or Court) near Guildford, 17, 49-52
       "      "   details, =39=
       "      "   part elevation of courtyard, =40=
       "      "   plan, =38=

     SWINSTY Old Hall, 106

     SYMMETRY in plan, 41, 49, 60


     TAILOR, Thomas, 70

     TAPESTRY, 146, =134=

     TEMPLE Newsam, 125

     TERRA-COTTA detail, 18

     TEXTS on walls of churches, 224

     THEOBALDS, 73, 77, 144, 146

     THORPE, John, 8, 78, 195, 256, 264
       "      "    his book of drawings, 226
       "      "    his plan of Kirby Hall, 62, XVIII.
       "      "    his plans for London houses, 203
       "      "    his study of foreign books, 227

     TILNEY All Saints, screen, 219, LXXXII.

     TOLLER Fratrum, chimney, 127, =117=

     TOMB, contract for, 259

     TOMBS, development of style in, 10-26, 216
       "    Andrew, Sir Thomas, 16, =8=
       "    Bradbourne, 16, =9=
       "    Cave, Thomas, 15, =5=, =6=
       "    Chichester, 218, =202=, LXXXI.
       "    Cokayne, 11, =2=
       "    Drury, Elizabeth, 16, =10=
       "    Foljambe, 218, =203=
       "    Harrington, John, 15, =4=
       "    Henry VII., 7, 10-15, 253, =3=, II.
       "    Marney, Henry, Lord, 11, III.
       "    Paulet, 26, VII.
       "    Reed, 218, =204=
       "    Spencer, Sir Wm., 218, =205=
       "    Vernon, Sir George, 16, =8=

     TORRIGIANO, 7, 13
         "       employed on Henry VII.'s tomb, 12, 254

     TORRISANY, Peter (same as Torrigiano), 12

     TOTO del Nunziata, 34 _note_, 254

     TOWN-HALLS, 209

     TREETON, cottage at, 119, =104=

     TRESHAM, Sir Thomas, 210

     TRIANGULAR Lodge, Rushton, chimney, 128, =122=

     TRINITY College, Cambridge, the hall, 159, 161, XLV.


     UPPER Slaughter, porch, 85, XXIV.

     UPRIGHTS, or elevations, 226, 256


     VENICE, palaces at, 7

     VERNON, Dorothy, 131, 181
       "     her legend, 196

     VERNON, Sir George, 131, 181, 196
       "     tomb of, 16, =8=

     VERRIO'S ceilings, 181

     VERSES, Latin, 141

     VIRTUE, Robert, 11

     VITRUVIUS, 6

     VRIES, or Vriese, 95
       "    his books on architecture, 264
       "    copied by John Thorpe, 228, =215=

     VYNE, the, Hampshire, 17
       "   glazing, 199
       "   panelling, 23, 152, =19=


     WADHAM College, Oxford. _See_ Oxford.

     WALKER, Humphrey, 11

     WARDOUR Castle, archway to stairs, 87, XXV.

     WARWICK, house at, staircase, 192, =180=

     WESTMINSTER, Henry VII.'s chapel, 3, 10, pl. I.
          "         "    "     tomb, 7, 10-15, 253, =3=, pl. II.
          "         "    "     stalls, 26, =21=, =22=

     WESTON, Sir Richard, 52, 53

     WESTWOOD, curved gables, 123
        "      gatehouse, 79, XXIII.

     WHISTON, chimney-piece, 171, LXIII.

     WHITEHALL, gateways at, 255

     WILTON House, work at, 255

     WINCHESTER Cathedral, 17
         "         "       Gardiner's chantry, 25
         "         "       Langton's chapel, 27
         "         "       Prior Silkstede's pulpit, 27
         "         "       screen in choir, 23, 25, =20=
         "         "       St. Cross, screen, 25, VII.

     WINDOWS, 100-115
        "     sections of jambs, etc., =98=

     WINDOW tracery, 222, =210=

     WINWICK, gateway, 79, =59=

     WOLLATON Hall, 73
        "      "    chimneys, 128
        "      "    corner tower, =106=
        "      "    curved gables, 120, 122
        "      "    general view, XXVII.
        "      "    long gallery, 195
        "      "    parapet, 123
        "      "    plan, 97, =79=
        "      "    roof of hall, 161, 146
        "      "    window-sill, 114, =99=

     WOLSEY, Cardinal, 7, 147, 154
       "        "     his tomb, 254
       "        "     his work at Hampton Court, 29

     WOOD panelling, development of, 148

     WOOLLAS Hall, porch, 87, =69=
        "     "    screen, 160, XLVI.

     WORTH Church, Sussex, pulpit, 220, =206=

     WREN, Sir Christopher, 6, 35

     WREST, 144

     WRIGHT, Robert, glazier, 198

     WYMONDHAM Church, sedilia, 17, =12=, =32A=
         "     market-house, 210, =195=


     YARNTON, Spencer tomb, 218, =205=

     YORK, old houses at, 201

     YOUNG, Dr., his tomb, 254


                               THE END.


BRADBURY, AGNEW & CO. LD., PRINTERS, LONDON AND TONBRIDGE.




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A HANDBOOK OF ORNAMENT. With 300 Plates, containing about 3,000
Illustrations of the Elements and Application of Decoration to
Objects. By F. S. MEYER, Professor at the School of
Applied Art, Karlsruhe. Third English Edition, revised by HUGH
STANNUS, Lecturer on Applied Art at the Royal College of Art,
South Kensington. Thick 8vo, cloth gilt, gilt top. Price 12s. 6d. Net
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A MANUAL OF HISTORIC ORNAMENT, being an Account of the Development
of Architecture and the Historic Arts. By RICHARD GLAZIER,
A.R.I.B.A. Containing 500 Illustrations, drawn by the Author. Demy
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EXAMPLES OF OLD FURNITURE, ENGLISH AND FOREIGN. Drawn and described
by ALFRED ERNEST CHANCELLOR. Containing 40 Plates exhibiting 100
Examples of Elizabethan, Stuart, Queen Anne, and Chippendale Furniture;
and an interesting variety of Continental work. With Historical and
Descriptive Notes. Large 4to, gilt. Price £1 5s. Net £1 1s.

HEPPLEWHITE'S CABINET-MAKER AND UPHOLSTERER'S GUIDE. A facsimile
reproduction of this rare work, containing 300 charming Designs on 128
Plates. Small folio, speckled cloth, old style. Price £2 10s. net.
(1794.) _Original copies fetch from £17 to £18 when met with._

FRENCH WOOD CARVINGS FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUMS. A Series of Examples
from Photographs specially taken for the work. Edited by ELEANOR ROWE.
The Three Series Complete, each containing 18 large folio Plates, with
Historical and Descriptive Letterpress. Folio, in portfolios. Price
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                           _Just Published._

DECORATIVE FLOWER-STUDIES FOR THE USE OF ARTISTS, DESIGNERS, STUDENTS
AND OTHERS. A Series of 40  Plates, printed in Facsimile of
the Original Drawings. With upwards of 350 Diagrams illustrating
Plant Detail and Structure, and Descriptive Notes. By J. FOORD.
Imperial 4to, handsomely bound from a special design by the Author.
Price 25s. net.

     _Extract from an Article by Mr. Lewis F. Day in the_ "ART
     JOURNAL."--"'Decorative Flower Studies' go very far indeed towards
     satisfying at once the Decorator, Designer, or Student who wants
     trustworthy data upon which to found his work, and the lover of
     nature who delights to see deft and delicate rendering of the
     thing he knows. The author is duly regardful of the designer's
     wants, and supplements the  pages by outline drawings of
     details likely to be of use to him.... The author's drawing is
     always delicate, her treatment of the flower is tasteful, and she
     preserves the refinement of natural form. In colour she is content
     with a few flat tints, but the drawing, firm and sure if at times
     a trifle too thin in line, is instinct with life."

OLD CLOCKS AND WATCHES AND THEIR MAKERS. By F. J. BRITTEN. Being an
account of the History of Clocks and Watches, their Ornamentation
and Mechanism, with a List of 8,000 Old Makers. Containing over 400
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cloth gilt. Price 10s. net.

          MR. LEWIS F. DAY'S TEXT-BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.

SOME PRINCIPLES OF EVERY-DAY ART.--INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS ON THE ARTS
NOT FINE.--Second Edition, revised, containing 70 Illustrations. Crown
8vo, art linen. Price 3s. 6d. Net 3s.

THE ANATOMY OF PATTERN.--Fourth Edition, revised, with 41 full-page
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THE PLANNING OF ORNAMENT.--Third Edition, further revised, with 41
full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo, art linen. Price 3s. 6d. Net 3s.

THE APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT.--Third Edition, further revised, with 48
full-page Illustrations and 7 Woodcuts in the text. Crown 8vo, art
linen. Price 3s. 6d. Net 3s. */

     _An invaluable Review of the Art and Practice of Embroidery._

ART IN NEEDLEWORK: A BOOK ABOUT EMBROIDERY. By LEWIS F. DAY and =Mary
Buckle=. Containing 80 Plates from Photographs (taken for the work),
and 45 Illustrations, of Historical Examples, and Reproductions of
specially worked Samplers, showing executed work in various stitch
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     "'Art in Needlework' is literally enriched with photographic
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     No worker's table can be considered complete without a
     copy."--_Home Art Work._

   _The most handy, useful, and comprehensive work on the subject._

ALPHABETS, OLD AND NEW. Containing 150 complete Alphabets, 30 Series
of Numerals, Numerous Facsimiles of Ancient Dates, and Modern Examples
by WALTER CRANE, A. BERESFORD PITE, the AUTHOR, and others. Selected
and arranged by LEWIS F. DAY. With an Account of the Development of the
Alphabet. Crown 8vo, art linen. Price 3s. 6d. net.

     "Mr. Day's explanation of the growth of form in letters is
     particularly valuable.... Many excellent alphabets are given in
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NATURE IN ORNAMENT. By LEWIS F. DAY. With 123 full-page Plates and 192
Illustrations in the text. Third Edition (Fifth Thousand). Thick crown
8vo, in handsome cloth binding, richly gilt. Price 12s. 6d. Net 10s.

ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. By LEWIS F. DAY. Comprising the Three Books,
"ANATOMY OF PATTERN," "PLANNING OF ORNAMENT," and "APPLICATION OF
ORNAMENT," handsomely bound in 1 Volume, cloth gilt. Price 10s. 6d. Net
8s. 6d.

                            B. T. BATSFORD,
                _ARCHITECTURAL AND ART PUBLISHER_,
                    94, HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C.



Transcriber's Notes:

1. There is inconsistency in the book re the abbreviations for William.
These have been kept as in the original.

2. Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
form was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.

3. Hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have been
made consistent, eg. gatehouse, handbook.

4. The different spelling for Henryk, Henryck and Henrick has been
retained as per the original.

5. Printers errors have been corrected.

6. The name Evelyn has been corrected from Eelvyn.

7. The spelling of "hospitall" has been retained as it is in Old
English.

8. The [sideways] E can also be described as a symmetrical M.

9. In the original there is a printing error in the index. For Plan
of Althorpe "Clifton, Sir Jarvis, his house," it reads <b>86</b> this
should be LXXXIV.

10. Italicized words are surrounded by underline characters, _like
this_. Words in bold characters are surrounded by equal signs, =like
this=.





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Early Renaissance Architecture in
England, by J. Alfred Gotch

*** 