Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 http://archive.org/details/someaccountofdom01 park 
 
SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 OF 
 
 Bomtsttc &rci)ttecture 
 
 IN 
 
 ENGLAND, 
 
 FROM RICHARD IT, TO HENRY VIII. 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS OF EXISTING REMAINS 
 FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE EDITOR OF « THE GLOSSARY OF ARCHITECTURE." 
 
 PART I. 
 
 OXFORD, 
 
 AND 377, STRAND, LONDON : 
 JOHN HENRY and JAMES PARKER. 
 
 M DCCCLIX. 
 
PRINTED BY MESSRS. PARKER, CORN MARKET, OXFORD. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 More than twenty years have elapsed since the Editor 
 of the present work first put forth the " Glossary of 
 Architecture." One object of that work was to awaken 
 the attention of the clergy and the educated classes gene- 
 rally to the merits and beauties of Medieval ecclesias- 
 tical architecture by numerous pictorial representations 
 of the characteristic details of the buildings of each 
 succeeding century, and to afford such information as 
 would facilitate the study of the true principles of 
 the Gothic style. 
 
 The object of the present work is also in part to do 
 for the houses of our ancestors what the " Glossary" has 
 done for their churches, — to awaken the attention of their 
 owners and of all who are concerned in them, to the 
 value and importance of those remains which are daily 
 disappearing from our eyes, — to bring public opinion to 
 bear upon the subject, — and to cry shame upon the noble- 
 men and gentlemen who wantonly destroy, or allow their 
 agents to destroy, valuable relics of ancient art, or his- 
 torical memorials of the highest interest and value. 
 
 But if these works have had any practical effect it has 
 been in a great degree incidental ; their primary object 
 was historical, to accustom people to remember the dates 
 of the different styles, and to connect them with the 
 history of their respective periods. The " Glossary" 
 was the first work in which an attempt was made to 
 apply Kickman's system and assign dates to several 
 hundred examples by the style only, where historical 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 dates were not forthcoming. Many of these dates have 
 been confirmed by subsequent investigation, and very 
 few have been found to be erroneous. 
 
 At the present time, also, there seems a desire among 
 the more educated classes of the country to enquire for 
 themselves into the claims which different styles of 
 architecture have upon us ; and there is no doubt the 
 more the architectural history of the country is studied, 
 the more it will become apparent not only that English 
 Gothic was a style by itself, and most suitable for the 
 requirements of this climate and this country in the 
 Middle Ages; but also that with fair and proper de- 
 velopment and adaptation it is still the most suited 
 to meet the various requirements of the present time. 
 
 The Editor has endeavoured to obtain as much infor- 
 mation from personal observation as possible, because ex- 
 perience and the habit of comparing one building with 
 another have enabled him to see and understand the 
 meaning and use of fragments which others might per- 
 haps overlook. But he has not scrupled to avail himself 
 of every other means in his power of obtaining such in- 
 formation as he required, either by the help of friends or 
 of books ; and he has made free use of the various county 
 histories in endeavouring to ascertain what remains 
 there are of the various houses or castles for which 
 the " licences to crenellate" are recorded. This part of 
 his work has been the most difficult and the least satis- 
 factory, for the authors of those works were seldom pos- 
 sessed of the simple key to the dates of buildings which 
 is now possessed by every one who has enjoyed a liberal 
 education, and as they often made no distinction between 
 the remains of a building of the twelfth century and 
 one of the fifteenth, their information cannot always be 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 relied upon. In this manner the Editor was led into a 
 few mistakes in the notices of existing remains in the 
 second volume, and he can hardly expect to have es- 
 caped altogether in the present one, although his ex- 
 perience has led him to use greater caution in dealing 
 with the works of authors of the last generation. 
 
 The first volume of this work bore the name of the 
 late Mr. Hudson Turner, who had been employed to 
 search the Eecords which were indispensable for the 
 proper understanding of that early period. His thorough 
 acquaintance with these documents rendered his services 
 invaluable, and it was felt to be a fitting compliment to 
 place his name in the title-page, although he was, in fact, 
 only one of several persons employed upon the work, 
 and the present Editor is responsible for the architec- 
 tural portion of that volume also. 
 
 In the second volume, which was printed after the 
 death of Mr. Turner, the Editor was responsible not only 
 for the architectural portion, but for much of the docu- 
 mentary information, which was collected in order to 
 throw light upon the manners and customs of the Middle 
 Ages, as explanatory of the uses to which the different 
 parts of the buildings were applied. The materials which 
 Mr. Turner left behind were far from sufficient for this 
 purpose, and he had therefore to take a far more pro- 
 minent part in the production of the work than he had 
 originally intended. He was, however, ably assisted by 
 numerous friends on whose knowledge of these subjects 
 he could rely. 
 
 For the present volume he is obliged to accept a still 
 greater share of the responsibility : nearly the whole of 
 the documentary portion has been collected by himself, 
 assisted by his son and by friends. He has to record his 
 
vi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 obligations to E. A. Freeman, Esq., for many archi- 
 tectural notes ; to George Ormerod, Esq., the venerable 
 and respected historian of Cheshire, for useful historical 
 information ; to the Messrs. Buckler for the free use of 
 their valuable collection of drawings, and for many no- 
 tices of existing remains which had escaped other ob- 
 servers ; and most of the friends whose names have been 
 mentioned in the previous volumes have again assisted 
 him. Visits to Scotland in the summer of 1857, and 
 to Ireland in 1858, have enabled him to add chapters 
 on the chief peculiarities of the Domestic Architecture 
 of those countries, which were omitted in the previous 
 volumes. 
 
 The number of houses of the fifteenth century which 
 remain in all parts of Europe, and the different character 
 of them in each country and each province, renders it 
 impossible to include those of Foreign countries in the 
 present volume, which has already exceeded the limits 
 prescribed for it, and the Editor has been reluctantly 
 compelled to omit the numerous Foreign examples which 
 he had collected. 
 
 France alone affords ample materials for a separate 
 work on the subject, but this want has been in some 
 degree supplied both by the excellent work of M. Ver- 
 dier, and the concise popular volume of M. de Caumont, 
 both of which have appeared since the present under- 
 taking was commenced. Germany, Italy, and Belgium 
 would each afford materials for a similar work. 
 
 He is indebted to M. Viollet-le-Duc of Paris for the 
 following interesting letter on the subject of the Do- 
 mestic Architecture of France in the fifteenth century, 
 which affords so much information in a short space, 
 and gives the result of so much experience and ob- 
 
FREFACE. Vii 
 
 servation in an unpretending form, that he cannot re- 
 frain from giving it publicity here, although it may be 
 considered somewhat out of place : — 
 
 11 Paris, 31 Mars, 1859. 
 
 " Cher Monsieur, 
 
 u Vous savez que les deux premiers tiers du xv e . siecle ont ete, chez 
 nous, employes a nous battre tantot contre les Bourguignons tantot contre 
 les Anglais, tantot contre Bourguignons et Anglais reunis. Les bourgeois 
 des villes, dans ces temps des miseres publiques, n'ont eu ni le loisir, 
 ni F argent necessaire pour rebatir des maisons neuves. lis avaient 
 leur affaire de conserver celles qui leur restaient ; aussi n'est-ce guere 
 qu' a dater du regne de Louis xi. que nous voyons des maisons neuves 
 s'elever dans les villes du nord et du centre de la France. C'est a dire 
 a partir de la 2 e . moitie du xv e . siecle. 
 
 11 II existe encore a Chartres quelques morceaux des maisons de cette 
 epoque. II en existaient autres a Tours et a Angers. 
 
 "Vous connaissez l'hotel de ville d'Orleans bati sous le regne de 
 Charles vn. et qui presente cette particularite curieuse d'une construc- 
 tion du milieu du xv e . siecle dans laquelle on trouve deja tous les 
 elements de F architecture de notre Renaissance developpee sous Louis 
 xii. : c'est aujourd'hui le musee d'Orleans. 
 
 " A Rouen beaucoup de maisons de la fin du xv e . siecle existent 
 encore, mais ces maisons sont fort mutiles. Cependant elles donnent 
 une haute idee de Fart appliquee aux habitations de cette epoque. 
 
 "A Gallardon, sur Fancienne route de Chartres, il existait encore 
 il y a quelques annees, dans la grande rue, une belle maison du xv e . 
 siecle en bois; je ne sais si elle est conservee aujourd'hui. 
 
 "A Eeims, sur Fancienne grande place, on voit encore deux jolies 
 maisons en bois du xv e . siecle (1470 environ). 
 
 " A Paris nous possedons encore l'hotel de Sens, qui date du regne 
 de Louis xi. mais fort mutile. 
 
 " A Beauvais, une grande partie de Fancien eveche (palais de justice 
 aujourd'hui) date de cette epoque. 
 
 " A Severs, vous voyez l'ancien palais des Dues, qui vient d'etre 
 restaure et qui date des dernieres annees du xv e . siecle. 
 
 " Je n'ai pas besoin de vous citer la maison de Jacques Cceur a 
 Bourges qui donne un magnifique specimen de Farchitecture privee du 
 milieu du xv e . siecle. 
 
 "Dans le midi, a Cordes il existe encore dans la grande rue, des 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 maisons du xv e . siecle; on en trouve des restes a Saint Antonin, a 
 Caylus, a Caussade, a Toulouse, a, Alby. Mais tout cela est fort gate. 
 Quelques restes assez curietix a Montferrand pres Clermont, au P113 
 en Velay, a, Issoire. * * * * 
 
 " Tout a vous comme toujours si vous avez besoin de moi 
 
 " Et niille amities. 
 
 " E. VlOLLET-LE-DuC." 
 
 In conclusion, the Editor can only hope that the" pre - 
 sent work will in some measure assist towards the at- 
 tainment of his object, and that in future the remains 
 of the houses of our ancestors will be as well looked 
 after and as carefully studied as our ancient churches 
 have recently been. Several of the fine structures en- 
 graved in this work have actually been destroyed during 
 its progress through the press : so marked and so dis- 
 astrous in its results has been the general apathy on the 
 subject. He trusts that the rest may be spared, and that 
 as monuments of our national history, if on no other 
 grounds, we may hand them down in at least as perfect 
 a state as we received them. He will hope, also, that 
 the same improvement will take place in the erection 
 of new houses and public buildings during the next 
 tAventy-five years that may be observed in the churches 
 built during the last quarter of a century. 
 
 The Tuel, Oxford, 
 July 20, 1859. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. Genekal Remakes. 
 
 The houses of the fifteenth century well adapted to their purpose. 
 — The arrangement not the work of one mind, but the growth of 
 centuries. — The architecture kept pace with the change in manners 
 and customs. — The development of the castle : first the Norman 
 keep, then outworks gradually extended. — The different chambers 
 and buildings brought together in one block. — Kenilworth Castle a 
 good example. — Development shewn. — In the beginning of the fif- 
 teenth century the type of the fortified castle dies out, and the 
 domestic house comes into existence. — Warwick Castle an example 
 of transition. — Berkeley Castle a similar example. — In this century 
 the large body of retainers no longer needed. — The old modes of 
 defence rendered useless by the introduction of gunpowder. — Aln- 
 wick Castle an example of the developed type of the fourteenth 
 century. — Survey temp. Queen Elizabeth. — Linlithgow Palace part 
 domestic, part military. — Peles, or fortified tower-built houses. — In 
 Scotland and in the border counties. — In Ireland tower-built houses 
 very numerous. — The manor-houses in the interior of England. — 
 Houses similar to tower-houses. — Parsonage houses. — Town houses. 
 — London houses. — Progress of English luxury. — The decline of the 
 Common Dining Hall, and the causes. — The rise of the Middle Classes. 
 — Yassalage. — Increase of number of separate chambers. — The draw- 
 ing-room. — College halls Houses of the peasantry. — Cottages in 
 
 Kent. — Materials for building houses. — Use of brick. — Plint used 
 in chalk districts. — Stone used in Ireland. — Timber and half- timber 
 houses. — Overhanging stories. pp. 1 — 24 
 
 CHAPTER, II. Towns and Town Houses. 
 
 Extension of cities by suburbs.— City fortifications.— Buildings 
 outside the walls separately fortified. — Arrangement of streets mee*- 
 
 b 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 ing in a centre. — Market crosses, wells, and cisterns — Noblemen's 
 houses fortified. — Houses of merchant princes. — Guild-halls — City- 
 walls rebuilt. — Houses, lower part of brick, and upper part of 
 wood. — The corner post. — Doorways of timber-houses. — Windows. — 
 ornamental plaster. — Pauelled fronts. — London mansions. — The 
 shops.— Signs.— Bedrooms, kitchen, cellar, garret, &c, in small town 
 houses. — Documentary evidence. — Illuminations. — Extracts from Ro- 
 mances. — Paving of the streets. — Bridges. — Repair of bridges men- 
 tioned in wills. — Abingdon bridge. — Bridges with towers. — Cele- 
 brated bridges. — Almshouses. — Hospitals. — Inns and taverns. 
 
 pp. 25—48 
 
 CHAPTER III. The Hall. 
 
 The arrangements of the hall same as in previous centuries. — 
 The entrance porch. — Squints, or openings. — Internal porch. — The 
 screens. — Buttery-hatches. — Lavatory. — Music -gallery. — The dais. 
 — Furniture of the hall. — The bay-window. — The cupboard and 
 buffet. — Inventory of a hall. — The brazier. — The fireplace. — Timber 
 roofs. — Gable window. — Ceilings. — External covering by tiles — 
 Decorations of the hall. — Arras and hangings. — Tapestry. — Linen 
 panel. — Flooring of the hall. — Inventories of furniture and utensils. 
 — Chairs. — Tables and table linen. — Almeries and lockers. — Lavers. 
 — Lavatory. — Water-drain. — Decline of the custom of dining in the 
 hall.— Eating in chambers. — Great chamber. — Dining parlour. — 
 Reception room. — Banqueting room in Wanswell Court and at 
 Hampton Court. —Rooms over the hall introduced. — Customs at 
 Feasts. — Ewerer. — Borde cloths. — Panterer. — Carver. — Butler. — 
 Almoner. — Etiquette. — Furniture of the hall. pp. 49—87 
 
 CHAPTER IY. The Chambers and Offices. 
 
 General arrangement. — Usual plan. — Bridge. — Gate-house. — Outer 
 bailey, or farm-yard. — Inner bailey, or principal court.— Servants' 
 court. — Yaulted substructures, or cellars. — Arrangement of chief 
 apartments. — Warwick. — Chepstow. — Chalfield. — Fawsley. — Coven- 
 try Aula. — Camera. — Inventories of Furniture. — Bed-chambers. 
 
 — Wardrobe. — Dormitory. — Furniture. — Beds. — Hangings. — Bed of 
 Henry v. — Beds in the Priory of Durham in 1446. — Tapestry of 
 Bed-chamber. — Bed of Henry vm. — Cradles. — Apparel of State 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chamber of silk and arras. — Panels. — Scrolls. — Ornaments. — Wains- 
 cot. — Linen pattern. — Cornice. — Carpets. — The conch. — The bench. 
 The settle. — Chests. — Standards. — Inventory of Eeginald de la Pole. 
 — Chairs. — Tables. — Buffet-stool. — Chimney-piece. — Chimney- shafts. 
 — Class windows. — Casements moveable. — Painted Glass. — Ceil- 
 ings. — Articles of glass. — Water-drains. — Wash-hand stands. — Cup- 
 boards. — Almery. — Dressor. — Paintings. — Books. — Letterns. — Stair- 
 cases. — The porch. — Doorways and doors. — Passages and corridors. 
 — Projections. — Bartizans. — Garderobes, as at Compton Castle and 
 Conway. — Covered ways. — Wells. — Cisterns. — Water-pipes. — Gur- 
 goyles. — Kitchens at Stanton Harcourt, Oxford, Hampton Court, and 
 Warwick. — Inventories of kitchen furniture. — Andyrons. — Pantry. 
 — Buttery. — Cellar. — Furniture of offices. — Larder. — Provisions. — 
 Ewery. — Salsarium. — Bakehouse. — Brewhouse. — Dairy. — Granary. 
 — Mill. — Stables. —Barns.— Granges. pp. 88 — 172 
 
 CHAPTER V. The Domestic Chapel. 
 
 Usually placed near the upper end of the hall, with a passage 
 from the dais, but in various situations, as at Kidwelly, St. David's, 
 Raglan, Ightham, Haddon, Linlithgow, Hawarden, Warwick, Stanton 
 Harcourt, Cothele, Berkeley, Trelawney. — Over the gateway, as at 
 Prudhoe. — Detached. — Sacrarium the whole height. — Western part 
 in two stories. — East Hendred. — Berkeley. — Trecarrel. — Godstow. — 
 Sherborne. — Alnwick Oratory. — Chepstow. — Brougham. — Linlith- 
 gow. — Beverstone. — Squints. — Illustrations from Romances. — Inven- 
 tories of chapel furniture. — Oriel window. pp. 173 — 185 
 
 CHAPTER VI. Medieval Gatehouses. 
 
 Infinite variety. — But two great divisions. — Detached, and attached 
 to, or forming part of, other buildings, as castles, colleges. — Gate- 
 house with flanking towers. — The military type. — Rhuddlan. — 
 Tunbridge. — Chepstow.— -Pennard. — Penrice. — Denbigh. — Rye. — Ca- 
 risbrooke. — Llawhaden. — Allington. — Llandaff. — Raglan. — Wells. — 
 Change from military to domestic. — Herstmonceux. — Cowdray. — 
 Oxburgh. — Layer Marney. — Cambridge. — St. Pierre. — Norwich. — 
 Without corner turrets. — Colleges at Oxford. — Wykeham's towers. 
 — Winchester. — Windsor. — St. Cross. — Crickhowell. — Itton. — Tre- 
 
CONTENT B. 
 
 tower Bosbury Anomalous, as at Mack worth. — Detached. — At 
 
 Saltwood. — Athelhampton. — Of monasteries and cathedral closes, as 
 Bury St. Edmund's, West Walton, Malvern, Castle Acre, Leicester, 
 Chichester, Mailing, Thornton, Maidstone, St. Ethelbert's, Nor- 
 wich, Kingswood, Bayham, Battle, Montacute, Canterbury, Con- 
 gleton, South "Wraxhall. pp. 186—200 
 
LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. General Remarks. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 Hall of Eltham Palace, Kent 
 
 Frontispiece. 
 
 General plan of Warwick Castle 
 
 . 5 
 
 (See also p. 92.) 
 
 
 Hurstmonceux, or Herstmonceux Castle, Sussex . 
 
 . 7 
 
 Pele tower, Kirk-Andrews-on-Eske, Cumberland . 
 
 9 
 
 Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire . 
 
 . 10 
 
 Rectory farm, Chesterton, Cambridgeshire 
 
 . 12 
 
 (See also p. 298.) 
 
 
 Parapet of moulded brick, Layer Marney, Essex 
 
 . 23 
 
 (See also pp. 67, 118, 300.) 
 
 
 Agecroft Hall, Lancashire, (a timber-house) 
 
 . 24 
 
 (See also p. 213.) 
 
 Chatter II. Towns and Town Houses. 
 
 Corner-post, Great Chesterford, Essex .... 
 
 Bracket, pavement, York ..... 
 
 Corner-post, Salisbury ...... 
 
 Part of a house in Eastgate-street, Bury St. Edmund's, Suffolk 
 Timber-house in St. Mildred's, Canterbury 
 
 Panelled house in Small-street, Bristol .... 
 Timber-house, from a MS. in Douce' s Collection 
 Shops in the Butcher-row, Shrewsbury .... 
 Inn, Norton St. Philip's, Somersetshire .... 
 
 CHAPTER III. The Hall. 
 
 Hall of Westminster School, with the brazier (or reredos) and 
 
 louvre . . . . . . .49 
 
 Niche and iron hook in the hall, Little Wenham . .51 
 
 Exterior of the hall, &c, Great Chalfield, Wiltshire . . 52 
 
 29 
 ib. 
 30 
 ib. 
 33 
 35 
 36 
 36 
 47 
 
LIST OP ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Bay-window, Thornbury Castle, Gloucestershire . . 54 
 
 Enamelled burette, from a MS. in the Bibl. Paris . . 56 
 
 Fireplace, Southwell Palace, Notts. . . . .58 
 
 Interior of hall, Great Chalfield, Wiltshire . . .60 
 
 Openings or masks in ditto . . . . . ib. 
 
 Wainscot with the linen panel, Layer Harney . . .67 
 
 Interior of the hall, Yanwath, Westmoreland . . .68 
 
 (See also p. 122.) 
 
 Locker in a house in the Close, Lincoln . . .73 
 
 Water- drain, Moat-house, Appleby, Leicestershire * . ib. 
 
 Interior of a hall, shewing the dais, the plate cupboard, the min- 
 strels' gallery, &c. from a MS. of the fifteenth century of 
 Quintus Curtius in the Bodleian Library . . .77 
 
 Interior of the hall, Wanswell Court, Gloucestershire . . 78 
 
 (See also p. 267.) 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. The Chambers and Offices. 
 Porch of the hall and window of the chapel ? and gateway of the 
 
 inner court, with turrets, manor-house, South Wingfield, 
 
 Derbyshire . . . . . .89 
 
 Plans of ground-floor and first story of the domestic buildings in 
 
 Warwick Castle . . . . . .92 
 
 Plan of Haddon Hall, Derbyshire . . . .97 
 
 Dormitory, Layer Marney, Essex . . . .98 
 
 Beds from MSS. of the fifteenth century in the Bodleian . 103 
 
 Cradles from MSS. in Douce's Collection . . .106 
 
 Wooden panels from Syon House, Middlesex, and Colchester, 
 
 Essex . . . . . . .107 
 
 Panelled chamber, Thame Park, Oxon. . . . .109 
 
 Cornices and barge-boards from Rochester, Winchester, and the 
 
 Mote, Ightham, Kent . . . . .110 
 
 Wooden bench, from a MS. in Douce's Collection . .112 
 
 Wooden settle at Combe St. Nicholas, Somerset . . ib. 
 
 Long settle and money-chest, from a MS. in the Bodleian . 114 
 
 Standard chest, Rockingham Castle, Northants. . . . ib. 
 
 Chairs from MSS. in Douce's Collection . . .115 
 
 Chimney-pieces, Sherborne, Salisbury, and Cerne Abbas . .116 
 Chimney- shafts, Mellingham, Suffolk ; St. Osyth, Essex ; Droit- 
 
 wich, Worcestershire ; Layer Marney, Essex . .118 
 
LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chimney-shafts, Maxstoke Castle, Warwickshire ; Aslackby, Lin- 
 colnshire; Thornbury Castle, Gloucestershire; Tonbridge 
 School, Kent . . . . . . .120 
 
 Windows and iron grating, Yanwath, Westmoreland . .122 
 Windows carved in oak, Coventry, and Smithell's Hall, Lan- 
 cashire ....... 125 
 
 Ditto, at Lewes, Sussex . . . . .126 
 
 Ditto, at Wingham, Kent . . . . .127 
 
 Plaster ceiling and inner porch, with panelling, Thame Park, 
 
 Oxon . . . . . . .128 
 
 Water-drain, Abbot's House, Wenlock . . . .129 
 
 Ditto, Warwick Castle . . . . .130 
 
 Wash-hand stand, with basins, soap-dish and towel; seat, distaff, 
 
 spindle and reel; from MSS. in Douce's Collection . ib. 
 
 Pottery and glass, and cupboard, from ditto . . . 1 32 
 
 Purniture, reading-desks, blacksmith's forge, sculptor's bench 
 
 and tools, from ditto . . . . .141 
 
 External staircase, Archbishop's Palace, Maidstone, Kent . 142 
 
 Porch, doorways, and doors, Weobley, Herefordshire ; Sherborne, 
 
 Dorsetshire; and Norwich . . . . .143 
 
 Double cloister, front of Abbot's House, Wenlock, Shropshire . 145 
 Plan of a room and window, with doorway in the jamb, 
 
 Wetherall Priory, Cumberland . . . .146 
 
 Compton Castle, Devonshire, with bartizans . . .148 
 
 Corbel-table and water-spouts, Kirk- Andre ws-on-Eske, Cumber- 
 land . . . . . . .150 
 
 Interior of kitchen, Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire . .151 
 Kitchen fireplace and furniture, from MSS. in Bodleian . .155 
 Mill, with sluice and overshot- wheel, from ditto . .166 
 
 Bakehouse, fireplaces, tables, and seats, from ditto . .171 
 
 CHAPTER Y. The Domestic Chapel. 
 The Mote, Ightham, Kent .... 
 
 Stanton Harcourt, Oxon. .... 
 
 Plan of Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire 
 Section and plan, East Hendred, Berks. . 
 Oriel in chapel, Berkeley Castle 
 Almshouse with chapel, Sherborne, Dorset 
 Plans of chapel and oratory, Beverstone Castle, Gloucestershire 
 Section of ditto ...... 
 
 Oriel window, Sherborne, Dorset 
 
 . 173 
 . 175 
 . ib. 
 . 177 
 . 178 
 . 179 
 . 181 
 . 182 
 . 185 
 
LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. Medieval Gatehouses. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Layer Marney, Essex . . . . . .187 
 
 Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk . . . . . .189 
 
 Jesus College, Cambridge . . . . .191 
 
 Uackworth Castle, Derbyshire . . . . .193 
 
 Athelhampton, Dorsetshire . . . . .194 
 
 Thornton Abbey, Lincolnshire . . . . .197 
 
 South Wraxhall, Wiltshire . . . . .199 
 
DOMESTIC ABCHITECTUBE OF THE 
 FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 The houses of the middle ages were always well 
 adapted for the purposes for which they were intended, 
 and so long as it was necessary to support a large body 
 of retainers to defend the building, or to maintain the 
 dignity of the family, it would be difficult to contrive a 
 more convenient arrangement than that which we find 
 adopted by our ancestors at the commencement of the 
 fifteenth century. 
 
 This arrangement was not, however, the result of the 
 working of any one powerful mind ; it was not the de- 
 sign of some one great architect who gave the key-note 
 which other builders followed ; it was not even the work 
 of one generation ; but it was the growth of centuries. 
 Side by side with the gradual development of the civili- 
 zation, wealth, and power of England, grew the domestic 
 habitations of the country; in each age reflecting not 
 only the manners and customs of the people, but the 
 position and prosperity of the English as a nation : each 
 progressive step in the gradual development of the style 
 and plan, down to the time of which we are now treat- 
 ing, is but an illustration to a page of history. 
 
 This is most apparent in the Castle, properly so called. 
 The small unfortified manor-houses of the earlier cen- 
 turies retained, to a great extent, their original plan and 
 
 B 
 
2 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 arrangements throughout ; as also the border-towers, 
 usually known by the name of Peles or Pele-towers, 
 which, intended but for resisting encroachments, as long 
 as they were necessary at all, so long were built in strict 
 accordance with the object in view, and thus retained a 
 military aspect to the last. Some of the houses in con- 
 nection with monastic institutions, and houses in towns, 
 would naturally fall beneath another category ; but the 
 history of the plan of our English castles, which, after 
 all, were but the dwelling-places of the principal land- 
 owners in the kingdom, is much as follows : — 
 
 First, we find the plain square keep-tower of the Nor- 
 mans, protected both by moats and earth-work, and by 
 the essential thickness of its own walls, defying every 
 battering-ram and other engine of war. These moats 
 and earth-works gradually gave place to walls of en- 
 ceinte, or, at most, took the inferior position of only an 
 outer line of defence. These walls, however, enclosed a 
 much larger space than the old moat, leaving court-yards 
 round the centre fortress ; and were provided with towers 
 and bastions, in which probably, in times of peace, at 
 least, the internal arrangements were far more of a do- 
 mestic character than the military aspect of the exterior 
 would lead one to suppose. Added to this, on the inner 
 side of this wall were erected sheds or other wooden 
 buildings, accommodating the serfs and lower orders of 
 domestics, while the bastion-towers were probably occu- 
 pied by the officers or warders of the castle. This was 
 the first step towards forming, or rather congregating, a 
 household ; and these wooden buildings for a long time 
 held their ground, partly because of the ease with which 
 they were erected, and partly because, in the case of an 
 attack, their destruction was not of consequence, and 
 they could easily be removed in those places where their 
 
/ 
 
 GENERAL HE MARKS. 3 
 
 presence might have afforded facilities to the enemy for 
 entering the castle. But in process of time the wood 
 made way for stone, and different apartments were 
 built along the line of the fortification wall, which were 
 often inhabited by the owner of the castle himself, when 
 fear of an approaching enemy did not deter him from 
 consulting his own will and convenience. 
 
 This arrangement brings us into the middle of the 
 thirteenth century; and the next development may be 
 said to consist in the gathering together of these different 
 chambers into one whole, in some part of the ground 
 within the fortification. In this block of buildings the 
 hall was the chief feature ; and round the hall the other 
 chambers, offices, &c, were grouped. Gradually divest 
 the building of the military character, take away the 
 wall of enceinte, and we find, with but few modifica- 
 tions, the arrangement which existed down to the time 
 of Elizabeth. 
 
 To make our remarks better understood, we may, 
 perhaps, take an example, — such a one as Kenilworth, 
 which is well known, and easy of access ; though, per- 
 haps, few may have ever taken the trouble to examine the 
 different changes in plan and extent which it has at dif- 
 ferent periods undergone. It is also an important ex- 
 ample, inasmuch as there is sufficient evidence to be de- 
 rived from the documents which exist, scattered here and 
 there, and treating of different periods, to fix the exact 
 date to a great portion of the walls which remain stand- 
 ing to tell of its ancient splendour. 
 
 In the centre we find the first type, which has been 
 mentioned above, the large square tower. All traces of 
 the early moat have, naturally, long been swept away, 
 but it could not have been far distant from this tower. 
 From 1180 to 1187 are entries for building and repairing 
 
4 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE I FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 walls and fortifications; bnt in the beginning of the 
 thirteenth century, from 1212 to 1216, very large sums 
 were expended; one of these sums is especially men- 
 tioned as being for the king's chamber and garderobe. 
 This king's chamber remains, and is identified by the 
 description; close to it are the two towers known as 
 Lunn's Tower and the Water Tower, all on the line of 
 the fortifications. Many buildings continued still, no 
 doubt, of wood, on the inner side of the wall; and al- 
 though, perhaps, the retainers at this time may scarcely 
 have increased at all, accommodation for them must have 
 increased tenfold. 
 
 Again we turn to Kenilworth for the third develop- 
 ment, namely, the great hall, which, next to the old 
 keep, still left standing throughout all the changes, is 
 the great object of attraction there. Near to this can 
 be traced the remains of many buildings of the same 
 period, — the chapel, the kitchen, the cellars, and other 
 rooms. The old thirteenth century buildings were left 
 standing. They may have been used as servants' apart- 
 ments, or as stables, but there is little doubt that 
 the chief household took up its abode far away in 
 the later group of which we have been speaking. From 
 time to time also it seems clear that the walls of 
 enceinte were extended, and a larger space thus en- 
 closed. This development might easily be traced in 
 other castles where the architecture of successive pe- 
 riods appears; and from the massive character of that 
 Norman keep, the centre round which the later build- 
 ings turned, we believe that there is no castle originally 
 built in the twelfth century which does not to this day 
 retain this keep within its walls of enceinte, and in al- 
 most all cases as perfect as any of the other parts of the 
 buildings. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that 
 
I 
 
 C i 
 
 as 
 
/ 
 
 GENERAL REMARKS. 5 
 
 throughout these periods the type of the newly-built castle 
 seems to be nearly the same with that found in the gra- 
 dually developed example. The principal buildings were 
 mainly scattered along the whole wall of enceinte in the 
 thirteenth century, and seem to be, as a rule, gathered 
 up much more compactly together as we progress in the 
 fourteenth ; gradually preparing, as it were, for the time 
 when the wall of enceinte would be dismissed altogether. 
 
 At the time, then, of which the volume before us 
 treats, we find the house and castle, so to speak, com- 
 bined, — the type of the castle gently dying out, the 
 type of the domestic house breaking forth into exist- 
 ence. The military character has not yet left, and the 
 civil is perhaps, to a great extent, made subordinate to 
 it. We open our volume upon a transitional state of 
 plan, like as we find in the designs of Gothic archi- 
 tecture a transitional period was clearly marked, as one 
 style made way for another. 
 
 Warwick Castle is an excellent example of this tran- 
 sition, and in remarkably perfect preservation ; built 
 partly at the end of the fourteenth century, but not 
 finished until the fifteenth. Externally it is a strong 
 fortress, and before the use of gunpowder must have 
 been almost impregnable. The walls of enceinte, with 
 the towers, the battlements, the alures behind them, the 
 covered ways, the bastions carried upon corbels, with 
 open intervals between them for throwing down stones 
 or other missiles, and commonly know T n by the name of 
 machecoulis, are still so perfect that they might be used 
 at any time, and the portcullis is still actually used, being 
 let down every night, more perhaps to keep up a stately 
 tradition than for actual use. Within these walls, and 
 gathered up, as we have shewn, on one side, where the 
 river protects it externally, is the dwelling-house, the 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE I FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 upper part of which, occupied by the family, is modern- 
 ised according to the requirements of modern life, and 
 affords a splendid suite of apartments, with a stately 
 entrance-hall, still occasionally used as a dining-hall 
 when the tenantry are assembled, or any large party. 
 Beneath these are the servants' apartments, almost an 
 equally fine suite in their way, and in a more original 
 state, with their stone-vaulted ceilings, Gothic doorways 
 and windows, the corridor or passage from one end to the 
 other, with the kitchen, offices, and cellars opening out 
 of it. (See the ground-plan.) Berkeley Castle is another 
 fine example of the same period, almost equally perfect, 
 but not exactly on the same plan, the buildings there 
 forming two sides of a quadrangle, with the chapel at the 
 angle. In both cases the hall, although an important 
 feature, has ceased to have such a decided prominence ; 
 there is a separate dining-room, and a withdrawing- 
 room of considerable importance, and the bed-chambers 
 are numerous. 
 
 But during the fifteenth century the necessity of con- 
 tinuing to support a large body of retainers ceased in 
 many instances, and the castles were modified accord- 
 ingly ; some built on one plan, and some on another, ac- 
 cording to the wants of the owners. Again, the intro- 
 duction of the use of gunpowder in warfare had rendered 
 the old mode of fortification in a great degree useless, 
 except to protect the house against any sudden attack of 
 a party of marauders ; and the builders became gradually 
 aware of the fact, so that the gatehouse and the walls, 
 and battlements and towers, began to be considered more 
 in the light of ornaments, and indications of state and 
 grandeur, than as actually necessary for defence against 
 an enemy, and the more palace -like character of the 
 building was gradually developed. The more peaceful 
 
GENERAL REMARKS. 7 
 
 and civilized state of the country also had its effect ; and 
 notwithstanding the wars of the Boses, England appears 
 to have made more rapid progress in the peaceful arts 
 during this century than any other country. In Thorn- 
 bury Castle and Cowdray House, the fortifications appear 
 to be intended more for show than for use; in Hurst- 
 monceux Castle, perhaps as much for one as the other. 
 
 Before quitting the larger castles, an example should 
 be mentioned which, while reflecting faithfully the pic- 
 ture which has been drawn of the developed castle of 
 the fourteenth century, underwent few material changes 
 afterwards. The reason for this is evident. That peace 
 which the rest of England enjoyed seems never to 
 have exercised its civilizing influence over those parts 
 where Alnwick Castle was situated ; and thus we find, 
 from a survey of the time of Queen Elizabeth, that 
 the castle down to that date still retained the same 
 military character which it possessed in earlier ages : — 
 
 " The keep or donjon, as Clarkson calls it, formed a polygon, with a 
 court-yard in the centre, which was encircled by seven round towers 
 and one square tower, under which was the gateway. The approach 
 was by a drawbridge over the moat, and on either side in advance semi- 
 octagonal towers, added by the second Lord Percy, about 1350, to the 
 original square Norman tower. These semi-octagonal towers rise four 
 stories high, and contain on the entrance-floor accommodation for a 
 porter, and under the chamber, to the right, is a deep dungeon- 
 prison, the only access to which is through the bottle-shaped ceiling by 
 a trap in the floor, and there are loopholes in the walls. The outer 
 face of the archway next the court consists of a noble series of Norman 
 mouldings, carved with enrichments, and there were originally two 
 columns with their capitals on each side. "Within the court, to the 
 right, is a draw-well in the thickness of the wall, with three pointed 
 arches, surmounted by one large discharging arch, forming a very pic- 
 turesque object ; beyond which is a doorway, leading into a vaulted 
 chamber, called by Clarkson ' a fayre vaulte, which is the buttereye, 
 in length xvii yards, in breadth vi.' Above this ' fayre vaulte' was 
 the hall, approached by an external flight of steps, and over the hall 
 
8 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 was the peculiar feature of two chambers. In the tower next that of 
 the hall were contained the kitchen, sculleries, buttery, larder, &c. 
 The lord's and lady's lodging was over the gatehouse. 
 
 "The other towers contained the accommodation for the household. 
 They were all detached, except in one case, forming separate dwellings, 
 united by curtain- walls for the purposes of defence. And again, to use 
 Clarkson's own words, 'uppon the sayde lead ys a trimme walk and a 
 fayre prospect.' ' There is raysed on the west side of the said don- 
 jeone one lyttle square tower, called y e watche tower, above the lead 
 xiv yeard, wherein ys place for a watchman to be, and a beaken to be 
 sett or hung.' 
 
 " Between the constable's tower and the postern tower was a brew- 
 house, with all proper plant and fittings, and adjoining the postern 
 tower a bakehouse ; and near to them two houses, one for a slaughter- 
 house, the other for stores; and there was a chancery -house, and a 
 wood-garth attached to the middle ward ; in fact, a complete series of 
 domestic offices close in upon the keep. The keep itself was surrounded 
 by a deep moat, which was dry ; and the recent works have brought to 
 light the retaining wall of the sloping ground next the keep-towers." 
 
 Now this retaining of the military character being 
 especially remarkable in border comities, or near the sea- 
 coast, — in a word, in all disturbed districts, — it is not to 
 be wondered at that in these parts, when new houses 
 or castles were erected, they should have followed also 
 rather the old and fortified plan than the modern de- 
 velopment which had taken its place in the other parts 
 of England. In Linlithgow Palace, Scotland, for in- 
 stance, although the buildings towards the court are 
 quite of a domestic character, yet on the exterior and in 
 the gatehouse the embrasures for cannon, as well as the 
 loopholes and machecoulis, shew that it was well calcu- 
 lated to resist a siege for a considerable time. And it 
 is according to the same principle that we find, especially 
 in the north, the Border manor-house, or Pele- tower, 
 built in the fifteenth, or even sixteenth century, exactly 
 after the original models which had existed from the 
 earliest times. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 North. 
 
 TOWER KIRK ANDREWS ON ESKE CUMBERLAND 
 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 9 
 
 These peles, or tower-built houses fortified, may still 
 be found in great numbers in Scotland and the border 
 counties, and in Ireland. In Scotland they are frequently 
 as late as the sixteenth century, built in close imitation 
 of a Norman keep, and with a singular fondness for 
 Norman ornaments, often very closely imitated, parti- 
 cularly the billet and the cable. The most characteristic 
 and best-preserved feature is generally the parapet, with 
 its cornice, or corbel -table, or machecoulis, and water- 
 spouts : these are generally very numerous, not more 
 than six feet apart, and often made like stone cannons 
 projecting from the cornice under the battlement. The 
 lower part of these peles is generally quite plain, and the 
 original small windows, or loopholes, have commonly been 
 replaced by larger modern windows. The tower of Kirk- 
 Andre ws-on-Eske, in Cumberland, is a fair average ex- 
 ample, and shews the parapet and cornice, with the 
 waterspouts, or gurgoyles, very distinctly. 
 
 In Ireland these tower-houses are extremely numerous 
 in all parts of the country : in some parts they are called 
 the Irish towers, in others merely the towers : they were, 
 in fact, the manor-houses throughout the middle ages. 
 From the fighting character of the people, every house 
 was obliged to be fortified, even the abbeys. These towers 
 are usually despised by the local antiquaries, and passed 
 over as unworthy of notice, but they are really very in- 
 teresting. They are of all periods, from the twelfth cen- 
 tury to the seventeenth, and generally in good preser- 
 vation so far as the stone-work is concerned ; every scrap 
 of wood has long been burnt. They are generally ex- 
 tremely plain and rude, and the windows in the lower 
 part mere loopholes, but at the top of each is the state 
 apartment, which generally has some pretension to orna- 
 ment and comfort, and every dwelling-room has a fire- 
 
 c 
 
10 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 place and a garderobe. They differ from similar tower- 
 liouscs in England and Scotland in several particulars, 
 and have a distinct national character of their own. 
 They almost always have bartizans projecting boldly 
 out from the corners, carried on corbels forming mache- 
 coulis. These towers continued to be the usual dwell- 
 ing-houses of the gentry, whether English or Irish, until 
 the seventeenth century, when Cromwell shewed that 
 these ancient defences were of no use against gunpowder ; 
 since which they have been deserted, but the walls and 
 vaults left standing. 
 
 But of the Manor-houses in the interior of England — 
 houses scarcely aspiring to the name of castle, although 
 often fortified to a considerable extent — a few words must 
 be said. It is impossible, however, in them to discover 
 the same development as in the castles ; the same rules 
 and circumstances which governed their plans and de- 
 signs from the earliest period of their existence appear 
 to have influenced them now. We cannot discover, it is 
 true, in the majority of instances, from the total absence 
 of documents, the reasons for any particular design or 
 plan ; we can only suppose generally that the chances of 
 attack weighed with the builder in deciding between 
 civil and military arrangement, although, in some cases, 
 other circumstances must have influenced the plans ; for 
 we sometimes find in the same district, and within a 
 few miles of each other, one house bearing the stamp 
 of the fortress, and another bearing that of the domestic 
 mansion. 
 
 Besides the peles of Scotland and the border counties, 
 and the towers of Ireland, in the more peaceful districts 
 of England many houses were also built after the fashion 
 of these towers. Square in plan and lofty, with turrets at 
 the angles, machecoulis and battlements, and surrounded 
 
TATTER SHALL CASTLE, LINCOLNSHIRE. 
 
GENERAL REMARKS. 11 
 
 by a moat, tliey were well calculated to resist any 
 sudden attack of marauders, but the large size of the 
 windows shews that they were not intended for serious 
 warfare. Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire, is a fine ex- 
 ample of this class of house : it is built of brick, and 
 is a very noble and commanding structure. Middleton 
 Tower, Norfolk, is another good house of the same class, 
 not so lofty nor so rich, with smaller windows and more 
 calculated for defence, but also of brick, and belonging 
 to the same type, 
 
 In the peaceful districts the manor-houses, such as 
 Great Chalfield and South Wraxall, in Wiltshire, are 
 merely convenient dwelling-houses, with scarcely any 
 attempt at fortifications ; as also Ockwells, in Berkshire, 
 and numerous others of the same class. 
 
 On the other hand, St. Donat's, on the borders of 
 Wales, and therefore in a precarious, if not actually dis- 
 turbed, district, is strongly fortified, with its moat and 
 gatehouses, and outer and inner bailey, although of quite 
 as late, if not of later, date than the other examples men- 
 tioned, and at the same time perfectly manorial in its 
 character and purposes. 
 
 In Wingfield manor-house, Derbyshire, the massive 
 turrets for defending the passage from the outer bailey 
 to the inner court shew an intention of serious de- 
 fence, while the more ornamental work in the porch to 
 the hall, and the chapel window in the inner court, shew 
 that it was not thought probable that an enemy would 
 penetrate to that part of the building. Compton Castle, 
 Devonshire, is a singular mixture of the two ideas : the 
 large size of the windows shews that domestic comfort 
 was not neglected, and that no great danger was appre- 
 hended ; on the other hand, the parapets, and the num- 
 ber of bartizans, or projections for defending the walls, 
 
12 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE *. FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 slicw that it was intended to be able to resist any sud- 
 den attack. 
 
 Of Parsonage-houses the same remarks will apply as 
 those on the manor-houses. They partook more of the 
 civil character than of the military ; and as we have in 
 this century many more examples, they assume a greater 
 importance than they have previously done. In them- 
 selves, however, there is scarcely a sufficient distinction 
 of character from other buildings of the period to de- 
 mand any notice in this introductory chapter. 
 
 The old Eectory -house at Chesterton, Cambridgeshire, 
 is a good example of a parsonage-house of this period, 
 partaking of the character of a tower, with a vaulted 
 lower chamber, turrets at the angles, and a bartizan on 
 one of them, while the windows are more of a domestic 
 than of a warlike character. 
 
 The Town-houses at this period, no doubt, as the 
 wealth of the country increased, underwent great im- 
 provement, but as far as we can judge, wood was still the 
 chief material used in building them : for this reason es- 
 pecially we have few examples remaining ; and it is only 
 to some of the unfrequented streets of Coventry and the 
 Butcher-row at Shrewsbury, that we can turn to gain 
 any idea of the architectural details generally of the 
 town-houses. 
 
 Doorways of the fifteenth and beginning of the six- 
 teenth century, more especially of the Tudor era, have, 
 however, been preserved in many of our older towns, 
 of which a fine example remains in London-street, Nor- 
 wich. Archways for horses to go into the court-yards, 
 more frequently remain than the smaller doorways, and 
 the spandrels are often ornamented with roses, or foli- 
 age, or other characteristic ornament. In the interior 
 of town-houses the old fireplaces are often preserved, 
 
f 
 
 GENERAL EEMAEKS. 13 
 
 and sometimes other ancient features, when the front 
 has been entirely modernised. 
 
 In a large city like London many houses were, no 
 doubt, built of stone ; but partly from the ravaging 
 effects of the Great Fire, and partly from the fact 
 that wealth and progress are the greatest enemies with 
 which the student of antiquities has to contend, except- 
 ing Crosby Hall, we have not a single example to refer 
 to. The underground warehouse of Gerard's Hall, en- 
 graved in the second volume of this work, has, since 
 the engraving was published, made way for a new 
 street, and buildings more in accordance with the en- 
 lightened notions of the nineteenth century. There is 
 little doubt that many a palace reared lofty walls on 
 the banks of the Thames, where now nothing but coal- 
 wharfs and warehouses overshadow the bed of mud, but 
 not a single stone, that we are aware of, remains to tell 
 the tale. The sources, then, whence the information is 
 to be derived are few and meagre. The hand of the 
 painter in the illuminated romances of the period, and 
 records scattered here and there, must suffice, — existing 
 buildings throwing little light upon the subject. The 
 town-houses, however, are so intimately connected with 
 the general appearance and history of the "towns," that 
 more about them will be found in another chapter. 
 
 The developed type of the medieval mansion which we 
 find existing in the fifteenth century, in its turn gave way 
 to another, and, as many may consider, a more refined 
 type. It would be beside the purpose in the present chap- 
 ter to enter at any length upon the social position of the 
 different classes of the people of England at the period ; 
 but in watching the change in the plans of buildings, the 
 antiquary must to some extent consider the causes. In 
 this way history becomes the key to architecture. 
 
11 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTUKE '. FIFTEENTH CENTUKY. 
 
 The progress of commerce, the success of English 
 arms, and the increasing spirit of national enterprise, 
 opened innumerable channels by which English society 
 was enriched with luxuries, and purified by an acquaint- 
 ance with the more refined manners of the continental 
 nations. Glancing at the gorgeous illuminations with 
 which the manuscripts of the fifteenth century are 
 adorned, we are naturally struck with this evident fact. 
 
 Moreover, the increase of luxury and comfort was not 
 solely confined to the abodes of royalty, but documents 
 illustrative of the domestic manners of the humbler 
 classes of society bear witness that the "hefd house" of 
 the burgher, and the cottage home of the peasant, were 
 alike rendered more cheerful by this national prosperity. 
 Those luxuries which in a former age were found only 
 in the halls of kings, had now become common in the 
 households of the middle classes. Neither the lord nor 
 the franklin now limited the requirements and elegancies 
 of his home to the produce of his own estate. Merchant 
 princes brought from over seas the riches and luxuries 
 of those foreign countries, the names of which many of 
 their fathers had only known in the romances of chivalry. 
 India yielded her treasures, Alexandria her spices, Elan- 
 dors and Brabant their warm cloth, and Arras the rich 
 produce of her looms. 
 
 At home the industrial arts had made rapid progress. 
 The institution of guilds and fraternities among the trades 
 diffused a spirit of emulation into the commercial and 
 working classes. Labour became divided; the " mys- 
 teries" of trade increased, and mechanics were no longer 
 regarded as domestic servants. The sources whence we 
 can readily obtain a clear insight into the every-day life 
 of this century, if not numerous, are at least authentic. 
 The genius of modern archaeology has taught us to re- 
 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 15 
 
 gard with, attention many documents which for ages have 
 been allowed to repose in security. Old wills, letters, 
 wardrobe accounts, and household rolls, are, in. the hands 
 of the antiquary, as the dry bones of a past social being, 
 which by skilful comparison are capable of realizing to 
 the mind a true picture of that life of which they afford 
 evidence. 
 
 Side by side with these we have the remains of the 
 castles and mansions themselves, each illustrating the 
 other : where the record fails, the structure often sup- 
 plies its place, the style of architecture and the internal 
 arrangements shewing the same social progress which 
 the records would lead us to expect. 
 
 The most prominent and distinctive feature in the 
 medieval house was the importance of the Dining-hall. 
 It was the chief room in the mansion, and on it the other 
 buildings seemed mainly to depend, the offices and cham- 
 bers being grouped around it. After the fifteenth cen- 
 tury the great hall was almost lost. In it the lord of 
 the manor had held his court ; there daily his vassals and 
 serfs had joined at the one large table for their evening 
 meal : and with the importance of this hall seemed to 
 decline that state and grandeur which had hitherto sur- 
 rounded the hereditary landowner. It may be inferred 
 that at this time his position was not so high in the 
 social scale of society as it had been ; rich and prosperous 
 merchants were fast springing up in the now flourishing 
 cities ; and thus there was little necessity for his support- 
 ing the same state and dignity with which it had been 
 the custom previously for those of his rank to surround 
 themselves. 
 
 Again, in the decline of the hall may be traced a 
 change in the position of the lower classes of society. 
 Before, more as serfs, his labourers were entirely de- 
 
16 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE I FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 pendent on the lord of the manor for their food, and 
 often shelter; bnt now they seem to have possessed 
 homes for themselves, and to be no longer nnder the 
 necessity of seeking their meals at the board of the 
 lordly mansion. We have already noticed the absence 
 of the band of armed retainers, without which the house- 
 hold of a castle was incomplete ; and part of this band 
 always accompanied their master in the event of a visit 
 to a neighbouring lord. Thus we see that at the meals, 
 when it was the custom for all to assemble together, the 
 large hall was soon filled. But when the vassals and 
 serfs dined at their own houses, when the household 
 consisted but of a few retainers, and when, perhaps, from 
 the better accommodation provided by inns and hostel- 
 ries, it was not often incumbent upon the owner of a 
 castle to entertain any large body of visitors, the hall at 
 meal-time would but present empty benches ; and so by 
 degrees it was diminished in size, and brought more into 
 accordance with the requirements of the proprietor. 
 
 Added to this, the necessity for a large number of 
 dependants had ceased, in consequence of the rise of 
 traders, shopkeepers, and independent workmen, in other 
 words, that large portion of the population which we 
 understand by the name of the " middle classes." It is 
 in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that we trace 
 the rise of this class, and the emerging of the great 
 body of the people from serfdom to a state of compara- 
 tive affluence and political importance. From the house- 
 hold accounts of that period we discover that many of 
 those duties which in the preceding age were fulfilled 
 by domestics, were now performed by traders. Carpenters, 
 upholsterers, tailors, brewers, and bakers, usually formed 
 part of the royal and baronial establishments of the thir- 
 teenth century. But with the increase of refinement 
 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 17 
 
 and the progress of the domestic arts, these occupations 
 ceased to be regarded as household duties. It is inter- 
 esting to trace the cause of this change, and to watch 
 the operation of those events which led to the gradual 
 rise of the trading class. 
 
 It is well known that during the middle ages a great 
 portion of the people existed in a state of vassalage. The 
 stalwart body of English peasantry were slaves, and 
 were so absolutely the property of their lord, that they 
 were bought and sold as the live-stock of an estate. We 
 might produce many instances from ancient records, did 
 the question admit of doubt. Walter de Beauchamp, in 
 the reign of Henry in., in granting certain land, con- 
 veyed with it "Richard and all his offspring a and in 
 1314 Roger Felton assigned certain lands with all the 
 serfs thereon, their chattels and progeny b . The miseries 
 and poverty of these poor serfs is evident from the tes- 
 timony of ancient annalists. They were taxed and im- 
 prisoned without mercy. Gradually and by slow degrees, 
 however, they acquired some few privileges. The ancient 
 custom of extorting from the serf the largest possible 
 amount of manual labour, became from many causes 
 partially relinquished for a stated tax in money. 
 
 The Norman baron was often the lord of several do- 
 mains ; he had castles and estates in many counties of 
 England, all crowded with dependent serfs. It was fre- 
 quently the case that the baron took up his abode in one 
 of his castles, and there remained until he had consumed 
 the fat of the land, and drained all vestiges of riches from 
 his vassals. Power was on the side of the lord, the serf had 
 no appeal. Having exhausted one domain, the lord would 
 take up his abode at another, thus continually moving 
 to collect his revenues in kind. This course was attended 
 
 a Madox, Formul. Angl., p. 188. 
 
 
 
 b Ibid., p. 315. 
 
18 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 with many inconveniences; the baron might possess 
 estates on which he did not care to reside, and thus the 
 personal services which his serfs were bonnd to render, 
 being unrequired, produced no absolute benefit. But by 
 the substitution of a tax in money the revenue could be 
 collected by his bailiff, and transmitted to him to any 
 part at which he pleased to reside. This custom, with- 
 out abolishing slavery, served greatly to modify it. It 
 gave to the serf an independence in the pursuit of his 
 calling; he could amass wealth, and although always 
 liable to the rapacity of his lord, the possession of riches 
 led to a great improvement in his social condition. It 
 infused a spirit of emulation into trade, and developed 
 the industrial talents of the people. 
 
 But this advancement of the commonalty was a w r ork 
 of time, and the social and domestic condition of the 
 peasantry and trading classes for many ages appears to 
 have been at the lowest ebb. National vices helped to 
 retard their progress, and to render their homes barren 
 of all comfort and refinement, making their condition for 
 the moment little better, and in many cases worse, than 
 when subject to serfdom they were dependent for their 
 accommodation upon the will of their lord. 
 
 Chiefly, however, the decreased size of the hall was 
 owing to the increased importance of other rooms in the 
 house. At this time, there is little doubt, a considerable 
 advance was made in the social, as well as in the moral, 
 condition of the English as a nation. The hall, even where 
 it existed, was now no longer employed at night as a 
 general sleeping apartment, as had been the custom pre- 
 viously . Chambers and dormitories were more plentifully 
 
 c The following extract from the Rolls 
 in the time of Henry vin. will illus- 
 trate the rapid change which was taking 
 
 place at that time, but it had begun long 
 before : — 
 
 " Makyng not only of a new wyndow 
 
GENERAL REMARKS. 19 
 
 provided, and at the same time, the old solar was much 
 enlarged, to which the ladies withdrew after dinner ; the 
 withdrawing-room, even in those days, assuming an im- 
 portance scarcely inferior to that which we find attached 
 to it in our own. The offices, perhaps, occupied nearly 
 the same space as before, although they were ordinarily 
 called upon to afford smaller supplies. 
 
 When, therefore, the drawing-room was enlarged, and 
 other similar rooms probably added, such as a study for 
 the lord, after the same manner as the boudoir for the 
 lady; when the kitchen and offices generally occupied 
 the greater part of the lower story of the house, instead 
 of being erected apart, and when, above all, the number 
 of the sleeping apartments was so considerably enlarged 
 — we can easily understand that little room in proportion 
 was left for that large hall which hitherto had been the 
 boast of the country mansion. 
 
 It is true that large halls are found even in the Eliza- 
 bethan period, but they are then rather the exception 
 than the rule, and seldom do they occupy such a dispro- 
 portionate space in regard to the rest of the house as 
 they previously had done. When some landowner had 
 many friends or relations to live with him, or thought it 
 necessary to support a certain degree of state and dig- 
 nity, he built a large dining-chamber ; but though the 
 
 for the kynges chamber of Presence 
 but also framyng and fynyshyng of 
 iij new partysions wythin the galary, 
 makyng of a newe party sion in the 
 great chamber were the kynges warde- 
 robe of bedde and also new makynge of 
 a great long shed in the utter court 
 wyth vij new partycions in it for offycers 
 to lye in, workyng in ye newe plankyng 
 of the quens stabul and repayryng and 
 mendyng of all the planke in the kynges 
 
 stabil, and makyng of a new steer by 
 the butte in the kynges gardyn and 
 breckyng downe of a partycion in the 
 quens warderobe, workynge also in the 
 new makyng of a harber for the kynges 
 grace to dyne and sope in, and makyng 
 of a new seat in the kynges gardyn and 
 makyng also of tabulls, fformes, trestells 
 and cobersse." — Extract from the Ac- 
 counts of the Surveyor General, 34 Hen. 
 vin. MS. Additional, 10,109. 
 
20 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 form was kept, the spirit and meaning of the old hall 
 was lost. 
 
 We in these days find it difficult to picture to our- 
 selves such a remnant of the old feudal times. "We can- 
 not bring before our mind the scene of a large household 
 assembled together at the one common meal, the ser- 
 vants in the body of the hall, the master and his guests 
 on the dais. 
 
 The nearest approach to the arrangement which we 
 have described is to be found in the college-halls of our 
 two Universities, which are left standing to us by the 
 bounty of our ancestors as memorials of past manners 
 and customs. In the hall, for instance, of "William of 
 Wykeham, as well in Winchester as in New College, is 
 exhibited the perfect type : at one end the dais, on which 
 was the high table, (called so to this day,) where the 
 warden and senior fellows dined, while the juniors and 
 scholars took up their position in the body of the hall. 
 In other colleges it is the same — it was so in the first 
 endowed colleges of Balliol and Merton, in Oxford ; and 
 such a hall has been built, within a few years, after the 
 ancient model, in Pembroke College, in the same Uni- 
 versity. But these collegiate halls are, to a great extent, 
 but large chambers arranged simply for the convenience of 
 a large society presided over by superiors, and taking their 
 origin, as is clear, in the earlier monastic institutions. It 
 is true that a close similarity of plan existed in both, but 
 there was a great principle which guided the arrange- 
 ment of the feudal hall, and which was wanting in the 
 other. The spirit of that hall has passed away with the 
 system which gave it birth, never, perhaps, to be again 
 revived. 
 
 At the beginning of the fifteenth century, as in the 
 fourteenth, the Houses of the peasantry were hovels of 
 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 21 
 
 poverty and filth, and the villages were mere clusters of 
 mud-built huts, covered with reeds or straw. They had 
 no second room, and the single apartment served as a 
 chamber in which all the family slept promiscuously, a 
 circumstance which the Norman trouvere did not forget 
 to make the subject of many a licentious jest. Longland, 
 in " Piers the Plowman's Crede," gives us an uninviting 
 description of a peasant's home d . The dank smoke from 
 the turf fire could find no vent but through the window 
 holes and the chinks of the door, and we are not sur- 
 prised that the Plowman should complain that the 
 
 " Smoke and smothre smyt in his eyen." 
 
 The furniture of a medieval cottage was miserably scanty 
 — a cupboard, a bench, and a few wooden platters and 
 utensils for cooking, generally completed the household- 
 stuff of the labouring man. His food was of the coarsest 
 description, and he bitterly experienced the hardships of 
 his condition in those times of scarcity and famine which 
 so frequently occurred during the middle ages. The 
 following lines from the " Nunns Priests Tale," will help 
 us to form an idea of the domestic state of the lower 
 classes in the fourteenth century. Chaucer is describing 
 the lot of the widow : — 
 
 "Three large sowes she had, and no mo; 
 Three kine, and eke a sheep, that highte malle. 
 Full sooty was hire boure, and eke hire halle, 
 In whiche she ete many a slender mele. 
 Of poinant sauce, ne knew she never a dele. 
 No deintee morsel passed throughe hire throte ; 
 Hire diete was accordant to hire cote," — 1. 14,836. 
 
 In the fifteenth century there was a slight improve- 
 ment ; the cottages were somewhat increased in size, but 
 
 d The Irish cabins of the present day 
 are often very much the same as here 
 described, but they more commonly con- 
 sist of two rooms separated by a large 
 
 chimney-stack, and they are commonly 
 built of stone, at least in many parts of 
 the country where stone is abundant. 
 
•2:1 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE I FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 gradually and slowly. That we have hardly any remains 
 of the humble habitations of this period is not surprising, 
 as at best the material was wood. We meet with many 
 small buildings, or remains of larger erections, now in- 
 habited by the agricultural labourer, but in nearly all 
 cases it will be found that the houses had originally been 
 tenanted by those whose social position was far higher. 
 
 The timber-houses of the fifteenth century in the 
 villages of Kent and some other parts are often little 
 more than cottages. The house at Wingham, of which 
 we give a view, is of rather higher pretensions, having 
 an upper story overhanging, as usual, and an ornamented 
 barge-board, and yet it is hardly large enough to have 
 been a farm-house. It may be considered as a successor 
 to the fisherman's house at Meare, in Somersetshire, de- 
 scribed in our last volume. 
 
 The Materials employed for building houses in the 
 middle ages were always those which were cheapest 
 and came most readily to hand ; no money was spent in 
 bringing materials from a distance. In those districts 
 where stone was abundant it was employed in prefer- 
 ence, and when it happened to be of good quality, as in 
 great part of Somersetshire, Wiltshire, and Gloucester- 
 shire, the houses have come down to us in fine preser- 
 vation, and are perhaps our best examples. In other 
 districts, where no stone is to be had, and Brick is the 
 material of the country, as in the Eastern counties, 
 we have very fine mansions of brick- work of the fif- 
 teenth and sixteenth centuries, whatever may have been 
 the case at an earlier period. It is probable, indeed, 
 that brick was never entirely disused from the time of 
 the Eomans downwards; but however that may have 
 been, there is no dispute about the period we are now 
 treating of. Norfolk and Suffolk abound with fine 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 PARAPET. 
 
 LAYER HARNEY, ESSEX. 
 
GENERAL REMARKS. 23 
 
 brick mansions of the time of Henry vii. and Henry 
 Viii., many of them in very perfect preservation, and the 
 brick- work is made so ornamental that it may well be 
 considered as competing with stone. Such houses as 
 Compton Winyates, Warwickshire; Tattershall Castle, 
 Lincolnshire ; Layer Marney, Essex ; Weston Hall, Suf- 
 folk, may well challenge comparison with any others of 
 the same period, whatever the material may be. By 
 using bricks of different colours also, and arranging 
 them in patterns, a very happy effect is often produced, 
 as at Layer Marney, and in the gatehouse of Jesus 
 College, Cambridge. Sutton Place, near Guildford, in 
 Surrey, is a very rich example of moulded brick- work, 
 or terra-cotta, the dressings, and mouldings, and mullions 
 being of a hard white brick, while the walls are of red 
 brick, with patterns in black. 
 
 In the chalk districts the houses are frequently faced 
 with flints, cut, and trimmed, and arranged with great 
 skill and effect, of which there are fine examples at 
 Norwich and Sandwich, and many others in different 
 parts of Kent and Sussex. 
 
 In Ireland, where stone is very abundant and very 
 hard, the houses are all built of that material, generally 
 in its rough state, especially in the earlier houses, but 
 in the fifteenth century they are frequently of cut stone. 
 
 Timber houses and half-timber e houses of this period 
 are to be found everywhere, more or less perfect. Even 
 where other materials were abundant, wood was so much 
 more convenient, especially when a building was wanted 
 to be erected in a hurry, that it was continually em- 
 ployed. It was shewn in a former volume how general 
 
 e Lydgate writes : — 
 " So eqully of tymbre and of stone, 
 Here housis were raised euerich on." 
 
 MS. Reg., 18 D. vi., fo. 18. b. 
 
 In the Romance of Amadas we read : — - 
 " Betwene a forest and a citie, 
 He fonde a chapell of ston and ti e." 
 
 Writer's Metrical Rom., iii. p. 24G. 
 
24 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 the use of wooden houses was even in London in the 
 middle ages, and notwithstanding the danger from fire, 
 hundreds of wooden houses still remain ; and in country 
 places timber houses are perhaps more common still than 
 those of any other material. But the builders and archi- 
 tects of the fifteenth century knew how to make good 
 use of their materials ; and their timber houses are often 
 as picturesque and effective as any others ; such houses 
 as Agecroft Hall, Lancashire, and the timber halls of 
 Cheshire, are familiar to every one as favourite subjects 
 for the artist's pencil. 
 
 The custom of making the upper stories of a house 
 overhang the lower part was usual in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, both in town and in country houses. Sometimes this 
 projecting upper story is carried upon an open arcade of 
 wooden arches, forming a sort of cloister, as at Waltham, 
 Essex. In other instances it is boldly corbelled out, 
 as at Tamworth, and Wingham, Kent; and this occurs 
 equally in towns : there are good examples in a genu- 
 ine state in St. Mildred's, Canterbury, and Harrietsham, 
 Kent. The timbers in the fronts of these wooden houses 
 were often made very ornamental by panelling, either 
 entirely carved on wood, of which there is a very rich 
 example at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, or the spaces be- 
 between the timbers are filled with plaster f , and the 
 timbers left slightly projecting, and often painted black 
 and white for effect, as is the general custom in Lan- 
 cashire and Cheshire. 
 
 f A building scene is represented in a 
 MS. of this century, in which the work- 
 men are mixing mortar, and carrying it 
 in buckets to the masons. One is plas- 
 tering the outside of the walls of a tower 
 with a trowel. MS. Harl. 2,278, fo. 
 28. b. 
 
 The medieval cement and mortar was 
 remarkable for its durable qualities, as 
 an old poet says : — 
 
 " The morter is maked so wel, 
 Se mai no man hit hreke wiz no stele." 
 
 Hart shame's Metrical Tales, p. 91. 
 
2G DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE I FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Norman keep, its walls of enceinte, its gate-houses, its 
 courts or baileys, and streets ; but it is more properly 
 a castle, which has been greatly filled up with subse- 
 quent buildings. This, however, gives a good idea of 
 the process which was going on in many towns silently 
 during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries : as wealth 
 and population increased, the whole available space was 
 gradually built over ; even the market-place, which ori- 
 ginally formed an important feature in the centre of 
 each town, was very much encroached upon, and some- 
 times quite lost. 
 
 The internal arrangement and plan continued the same 
 as before. In most cases the four principal streets meet in 
 the centre of the town, in the market-place, where are 
 situated the town-hall and the market-cross. The former 
 have in almost all instances in England been rebuilt, but 
 many very fine town-halls of this period remain on the 
 Continent, more especially in the Low Countries, as at 
 Bruges, Ghent, Louvain, Brussels, Antwerp, &c. Sin- 
 gularly enough, the market-crosses have more often been 
 preserved in England, and we have many very fine ones 
 remaining of this period, as at Malmesbury, Castle Combe, 
 Chichester, Leighton-Buzzard, Winchester, and Bristol a . 
 A series of engravings of them is given in the first volume 
 of Britton's " Architectural Antiquities," and a complete 
 set of them has been promised by Mr. Le Keux. Some of 
 these market-crosses were carried upon arches and vaults, 
 with a sufficient space under them for a butter-market. In 
 
 a There was the cross at Banbury, west part is a large area invironed with 
 
 for instance, in the centre of the Horse- meetly good buildinges,havinge a goodly 
 
 fair, which gave rise to our nursery crosse with many degrees (steps) about 
 
 rhyme of it. In this area is kept every Thursday 
 
 " Ride a-cockhorse to Banbury cross." a very celebrate markett. There run- 
 
 Leland, in describing " the fayrest neth through this area a purle of fresh 
 
 streete" of that town, says, "In the water." 
 
TOWNS AND TOWN HOUSES. 
 
 27 
 
 some instances there is a fountain or reservoir of water, 
 as at Lincoln ; but fountains were never common in Eng- 
 land. There were wells and cisterns for the supply of 
 water, but these do not appear to have been often made 
 into ornamental structures until a later period. One 
 was erected in Oxford so late as the time of James i. by 
 Otho Nicholson, and water to supply it was conveyed by 
 pipes from Hincksey-hill, a distance of about two miles, 
 where the small building for the conduit-head still re- 
 mains. The conduit itself was removed about the end 
 of the last century to Nuneham-park from its original 
 position at Carfax, where the four streets meet, and 
 where it must have been a considerable obstruction to 
 the traffic when the market-place was built over: this 
 must have occupied originally a considerable space, with 
 St. Martin's Church in the north-west corner, and the old 
 Town-hall in the south-east ; the present Town-hall was 
 built in front of the old one. The plan of Oxford has 
 been already mentioned in our second volume as being 
 that of the old Eoman town, with the four ways meeting 
 in the centre, where was the market-place. The gates 
 are all now destroyed, but their sites are well known, 
 and portions of the walls remain, especially the portion 
 rebuilt by William of Wykeham, which is a very fine 
 example of the walls of a town of the period. 
 
 Any nobleman's house, or monastery, or other esta- 
 blishment of importance, had its own separate forti- 
 fications in addition to those of the town ; many of the 
 cathedral closes still have their walls of enceinte, and 
 their gate-houses remaining, as at Wells, Salisbury, 
 and Canterbury : the bishop's palace also had its sepa- 
 rate wall, and gate-house, and moat, as at Wells. Many 
 noblemen's houses in London were fortified; of these, 
 nothing now remains but the names, unless Northum- 
 
28 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 berland House may be considered as a representation of 
 the old type, being probably rebuilt on the old founda- 
 tions. The houses of the merchant princes vied with 
 those of the nobles, but do not appear to have been gene- 
 rally fortified. Crosby Hall, in Bishopsgate-street, Lon- 
 don, is a very fine and perfect example, now threatened 
 with destruction. The hall of John Halle at Salisbury 
 shews that these merchant princes were not confined to 
 London ; it is as fine a hall as any nobleman's house of 
 the period could exhibit. The guild-halls or club-houses 
 of the fifteenth century were an important feature in the 
 towns of that time. These were often converted into 
 town-halls when the guilds were abolished by Henry 
 viii., as at Coventry and at Boston. St. Mary's Hall at 
 Coventry is one of the most perfect town houses of the 
 middle of the fifteenth century that we have remaining : 
 every part is perfect ; the gate-house, the cellars, the kit- 
 chen, the offices, the chambers, as well as the fine hall. 
 
 Many of the town walls and gates were rebuilt in this 
 century, sometimes merely because the old ones were 
 dilapidated, in other instances, as in London, for the pur- 
 pose of enlargement. There were usually four principal 
 gates at the extremities of the four principal streets, and 
 many of the city gate-houses of this period have been 
 preserved, as at Winchester, Southampton, Warwick, and 
 Bristol ; and many more have been destroyed within the 
 last century, their sites being sometimes marked by 
 their names only, as Ludgate, Bishopsgate, Billingsgate, 
 and Aldgate b . 
 
 b Leland, in describing Banbury, .or likelyhood, that ever the towne was 
 says, " There is another fayre street from diched or walled." These gates were 
 south to north ; and at each end of this built only for collecting tolls, as by 
 street is a stone gate. There be also in themselves they would have been of 
 the towne other gates besides these. little use for defence. 
 Yet is there neither any certaine token 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 CORNER-POST, 
 
 GREAT CHESTERFORD, ESSEX. 
 
 BRACKET, PAVEMENT, 
 
 YORE. 
 
/ 
 
 TOWNS AND TOWN HOUSES. 29 
 
 The principal streets were generally of a tolerable 
 width, but the minor ones extremely narrow, and the 
 houses, overhanging in successive stories, must some- 
 times have nearly met at the top ; but this custom 
 seems to have been carried further in the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries than in the fifteenth. These over- 
 hanging houses were necessarily of timber to a great 
 extent, though instances do occur of stone fronts upon 
 projecting beams, as at Sherborne, Dorsetshire; but in 
 these cases the projection is comparatively slight. The 
 lower story, or ground floor, is often of stone or brick, 
 while the upper stories are of wood, as at Norton St. 
 Philips, on the borders of Somersetshire and Wiltshire ; 
 the ground floor is often half underground, and protected 
 by a vault, as in the previous century. The timber houses 
 of this century have sometimes a very moderate pro- 
 jection, as at Canterbury, and in the Butcher-row at 
 Shrewsbury : the upper projecting story is probably a 
 later addition. The beautiful timber houses and hos- 
 pitals of Coventry belong chiefly to the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries, as in most other towns : at Weo- 
 bley, Herefordshire, there are a few of the fifteenth; 
 the very beautiful and perfect one at Bishops-Cannings, 
 Wiltshire, is probably of the sixteenth. 
 
 One very characteristic and ornamental feature of the 
 timber houses in towns is the corner-post, which is en- 
 riched in various ways, frequently panelled, of which 
 there is a good example in the churchyard of St. Peter's, 
 Derby, the stem of which has a sort of fluted panelling, 
 with a moulded base, and a capital with a row of Tudor 
 flowers ; the spandrel of the arch is carved with a sort of 
 diaper pattern. At Great Chesterford, Essex, is a good 
 one of remarkably square character, each face hollowed 
 out, and the hollows filled at intervals with the square- 
 
30 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 leaved flower ; the capital is also of square panels, en- 
 riched with foliage. At Salisbury is another very rich 
 example, with panelling and mouldings with flowers, and 
 the spandrels filled with flowing patterns ; having, at first 
 sight, an earlier look, but not really anterior to the time 
 of Henry vn. At Bury St. Edmunds is a very curious 
 example. Those in the Butcher-row at Shrewsbury are 
 panelled only. In Northgate-street, Gloucester, is a re- 
 markably rich one, with a figure of an angel in a niche, 
 and smaller niches for other images by the side of it, 
 the canopies richly carved with crockets and finials. 
 Similar images in niches at the corners of streets are 
 still common on the Continent, and were doubtless equally 
 so in England before the Reformation, though they have 
 been very generally destroyed, having been abused for 
 superstitious uses. 
 
 The doorways of timber houses in towns were often 
 richly ornamented with panelled or moulded doorposts, 
 some with, others without capitals and bases, and spurs 
 on each side supporting the overhanging upper story ; of 
 which there are good examples at Weobley, Hereford- 
 shire, a decayed town, full of good old timber houses, 
 and Sherborne, Dorsetshire, which is also rich in old 
 houses both of wood and stone. York was formerly 
 celebrated for its rich timber houses, and though a large 
 part of them have been destroyed within the last few 
 years, there are still many remaining, the doorways and 
 spurs of which are particularly fine. Some of these 
 appear to have been the foot entrances to courts which 
 were in common to several houses. They are chiefly 
 remarkable from the enormous length of the spurs form- 
 ing the two sides of the entrance, and supporting the 
 projecting story, or rather supporting a projection be- 
 yond that projecting story. This taste in York con- 
 
SALISBURY. 
 
PART OF A HOUSE IN EASTGATE STREET, 
 
 BURY ST. EDMUND'S, SUFFOLK. 
 
/ 
 
 TOWNS AND TOWN HOUSES. 31 
 
 tinued until late in the fifteenth century, and the spurs 
 were then very richly carved. 
 
 Besides the corner-posts and doorways, the windows 
 are also frequently enriched with mouldings and panel- 
 ling, as at Saffron Walden, Essex, and the whole front 
 of the house is often a continued series of panelling ; 
 sometimes plain, as at St. Mary le Wigford, Lincoln, and 
 Tamworth, Staffordshire; in other instances the panel- 
 ling is richly carved, of which a good example remains 
 in a portion of a house in Eastgate-street, Bury St. Ed- 
 munds, and another fine one at Dunster, Somersetshire. 
 The front of a house in the market-place at Newark is 
 a mixture of timber and ornamental plaster, with a long 
 series of niches and figures in plaster inserted in wooden 
 panels ; such examples are rare in England, though found 
 in houses of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, of the 
 Flamboyant style in France, as at Caen and Morlaix, 
 and in Germany, as at Halberstadt and Brunswick. The 
 upper part of this house at Newark affords also a good 
 example of the long gallery, which became usual in the 
 time of Elizabeth, but occurs also frequently in the latter 
 part of the fifteenth century, as in the old hall of the 
 De Burghs at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, and is com- 
 mon in the time of Henry vin. 
 
 The fronts of stone houses in towns were also fre- 
 quently enriched with panelling over the whole surface 
 of the wall, as in Colston's house in Small-street, Bristol, 
 where the principal front towards the court is so orna- 
 mented. In London the great fire destroyed nearly every 
 vestige of the houses of the middle ages; the Guild- 
 hall, being of stone, escaped its ravages; and Crosby 
 Hall, being without the walls, and at that time a de- 
 tached building, was not exposed to it. This was built 
 about 1470, by Sir John Crosby, one of the merchant 
 
32 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 princes of his day, and affords us a noble example of 
 the mansions of that period, although only the hall and 
 a chamber adjoining have been preserved. The hall is 
 one of the finest and most perfect that we have remain- 
 ing ; it has a very rich timber roof, and a bay window 
 with a groined vault. The whole has been restored 
 within a few years, but the original character is less 
 damaged than is usually the case under that misnamed 
 process. A fine set of engravings of this hall is given 
 by Britton in the fourth volume of his " Architectural 
 Antiquities," 
 
 Of the numerous other mansions with which London 
 was adorned in the fifteenth century, we have now the 
 names only to mark the sites, and these for the most 
 part outside the walls, especially along the north bank 
 of the Thames westward of the Temple. We may thus 
 trace the sites of the once beautiful gardens and man- 
 sions of the Earls of Essex, Arundel, and Surrey, the 
 Dukes of Norfolk and Somerset ; beyond which we arrive 
 at the Savoy Palace, the remains of which were de- 
 stroyed in 1816 to make an opening to Waterloo-bridge, 
 with the exception of the chapel of the palace, which, 
 having been made parochial, has been preserved, and has 
 a remarkably rich ceiling of the time of Henry vni., 
 worthy of more attention than it usually receives. Near 
 this was the seat of the Duke of Beaufort ; and beyond 
 this those of the Earl of Craven, the Duke of Bucking- 
 ham, and the Duke of Northumberland; this last, al- 
 though rebuilt at a later period, is still continued as 
 the town residence of the Duke, and preserves much of 
 its medieval grandeur and dignity. We now arrive at 
 the royal palaces of Whitehall and Westminster. 
 
 Whitehall was entirely rebuilt by Charles i. Of the 
 palace of Westminster nothing remains but the great 
 
/ 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 HOUSE IN ST. MILDRED'S, CANTERBURY. 
 
TOWNS AND TOWN HOUSES. 
 
 33 
 
 hall : of this the walls belong to the Norman period, but 
 raised, and the character entirely altered, in the time of 
 Eichard n., when the present magnificent roof was put 
 on; which still retains much of its original character, 
 although one end has been destroyed to make way for 
 Sir Charles Barry's improvements, and the louvre had 
 been previously restored by Smirke. 
 
 To return to the more humble dwellings of the citi- 
 zens and shop-keepers. These were, as has been said, 
 chiefly of wood, and therefore have frequently disap- 
 peared ; but in some parts of the country they are still 
 frequently to be met with, as at Tamworth, Coventry, 
 and Weobley. A timber house in St. Mildred's, Canter- 
 bury, is a fair example of a small tradesman's house of 
 this period. In many towns on the Continent whole 
 streets have been preserved of these wooden houses of 
 the fifteenth century, as at Nuremberg, Hanover, Bruns- 
 wick, Halberstadt, and Quedlingburgh, and several other 
 towns in the north of Germany. 
 
 In all large cities some place was set apart as the 
 recognised abode of thieves and other bad characters, and 
 there were usually certain privileges of sanctuary belong- 
 ing to it. In Paris it was called the Cour des Miracles . 
 The Jews also inhabited a separate quarter, and to a 
 great extent still continue to do so, as about Hounds- 
 ditch in London: at Frankfort-on-the- Maine the Jews' 
 quarter is remarkable, the houses having been rebuilt in 
 a regular street in the sixteenth century, and remain 
 nearly intact. 
 
 Each shop was distinguished by a sign d hanging from 
 
 c Sauval, Sistoire et Recherches des tator." Those of Paris in the fifteenth 
 
 Antiquites de la Ville de Paris, vol. i. century are enumerated in a little tract 
 
 pp. 510, 511. published among the notes to the Mys- 
 
 d There is a very amusing paper on teres inedits du quinzieme Steele, (Paris, 
 
 the old signs of London in the " Spec- 1837, 8vo.,) vol. i. pp. 369 — 376. 
 
 P 
 
34 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 a pole, which must have been a great obstruction, but at 
 the same time extremely picturesque, as may be seen in 
 many illuminations in manuscripts of this period. A 
 few of these signs have been retained by particular 
 trades ; for instance, the barber's pole and basin may 
 still be often seen in the back streets ; though the basin 
 is fast disappearing in England, it is still usual in 
 France. The pawnbrokers continue to use the three 
 golden balls, and sometimes the chequers, or money- 
 changer's board. The bush, as the mark of a house of 
 refreshment, may still be met with, though English 
 landlords seem to be generally of opinion that their 
 liquor is so good that it " needs no bush." In Brittany 
 and other parts of France, where a small public-house is 
 called a bouchon, this custom is still usual. Formerly 
 every trade had its well-known signs, and several trades 
 had a separate street or district assigned to each, as 
 the leather-sellers in Leather-lane, the corn-dealers in 
 Cornhill, &c. 
 
 In the principal streets there were shops for the dis- 
 play of goods, but these had not become common. In 
 general there were store-rooms only, and the chief oppor- 
 tunity for displaying the goods was at the fairs, when 
 the principal trade was carried on. The store-rooms 
 were usually half underground, as in the previous cen- 
 tury, (see vol. ii. p. 185,) and were still vaulted with 
 stone, whether the upper structure was of wood or not. 
 
 The bedroom was sometimes at the back of the shop, 
 more often in the upper chambers. The room on the 
 first floor over the store-room was called the solar, and 
 was the chief dwelling-room of the family of the mer- 
 chant. There were also store-rooms in the roof, chiefly 
 for corn and other provisions, which was hoisted up by 
 means of a crane, the penthouse for which often remains, 
 
/ 
 
 TOWNS AND TOWN HOUSES. 35 
 
 and has a picturesque effect. On the Continent these 
 store-rooms in the roof, with their cranes, are still in 
 common use. This formed the whole of the front of the 
 building, as the erections were seldom of more than two 
 stories high. 
 
 The kitchens of houses in the suburbs of London are 
 built very much after the same fashion, half under 
 ground ; and in the same manner the principal floor, or 
 solar, was commonly approached by an external flight of 
 steps. There are several small houses on this plan re- 
 maining perfect at Kidwelly, in South Wales, and at 
 Winchelsea; and a number of the cellars at Chester, 
 where the upper part, having been of wood, has been 
 destroyed by fire. Possibly the celebrated Eows owe 
 their origin to this circumstance : in rebuilding the town 
 after a great fire, it was found more convenient to make 
 a footway and a sort of bazaar for shops upon the top of 
 the vaults of the cellars, and by taking a passage out of 
 the solars, than in the narrow roadway below, where the 
 cellars would not generally make convenient shops ; 
 though some of them have lately been converted into 
 show rooms. The cellars of houses of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury remain in almost all old towns : there are several 
 in Oxford, Shrewsbury, &c. 
 
 When the houses were of brick or stone, the street 
 front did not overhang, but was carried up straight, and 
 ornamented with panelling, as in the house in Small- 
 street, Bristol, the inns at Glastonbury, and Sherborne 
 and Grantham. When the material was wood, the upper 
 story projected on corbels, but to a moderate extent; 
 the custom of building lofty houses of wood with each 
 successive story projecting one over the other, until in 
 the narrow streets the upper windows almost meet, be- 
 longs, as we have said, to a later period, generally 
 
36 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE I FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 to the time of Elizabeth and J ames i. A few instances 
 remain of shops of the fifteenth century; perhaps the 
 most perfect is the Butcher- row at Shrewsbury; but 
 in general, the increase of wealth in England has swept 
 them away, and we must seek in other countries for 
 good examples : they abound in Brittany, and many 
 other parts of France. In England, the general custom 
 of having cellars such as we have described must have 
 interfered with anything like shops, excepting in the 
 market-places and rows specially built for that purpose. 
 There was a butcher-row like that at Shrewsbury e in 
 most towns. 
 
 TIMBER HOUSE. Douce MS 202. 
 
 e For further particulars respecting this butcher-row, see also under Shropshire, 
 in chap. vii. 
 
TOWNS AND TOWN HOUSES. 37 
 
 Numerous surveys ot towns in the time of Elizabeth are 
 extant, and these supply many details which it would lead 
 us too far to enter upon ; several of them are engraved in 
 the maps of Agas and Speed, that of Winchester is also 
 given by Mr. Smirke in the Proceedings of the Archaeo- 
 logical Institute at Winchester, in 1845 ; the walls were 
 perfect when these surveys were made. 
 
 Documentary material is also at hand to give us some 
 idea of the towns and town-houses during the fifteenth 
 century. One instance from a will is sufficient to shew 
 the kind of evidence that is afforded from this source : — 
 
 " Item, I wil that my newe hous with the iij. tunys f of chemeneyis 
 with in the yere aftir my disses be diseverid & partyd froom the hefd 
 place vnder this forme folwyng : I wyl the entre with stoon wal be the 
 strete syde longe to newe hous as ferre as the chymeneys stretchith, 
 and a deseueraunce maad of ston wal ovir the entre to parte the litil 
 botrie undir the gresyss to longe to the parlour wiche is redy maad and 
 also deseverid with a walle of tymbyr fro the hefd place be an entre 
 maad oute of the spynnynge hous. Item to close in a good walle ye 
 dore is oute of ye parlour into ye spynnynge hous, whiche spynnynge 
 hous I wille euer longe to my hefd place and the drawt chambyr above 
 the spynnynge hous therto. Item : I wyl that ye newe prevy hous 
 ovir the synke be the dore in to the yerde ward next the Facoun h wel 
 closid & keverid to serue for the parlour and chambyr a lofte withe ye 
 prevy k the closet a lofte to go overe togidre hool, vndir this forme as 
 folowith in wryting : that is to say, I wille my feffees & my attornies 
 put Seynt Marie priest of Seynt Marie Chirche in possession of my 
 seid hous with the chemene of iij. tunys next the Facon. 
 
 " Item : I wil that Jenete Whitwelle my nece haue hir dwellynge in 
 a part of my hefd place terme of hire lyffe, that is to say, I wil yt she 
 chese if sche will haue the chambyr yt she hath loyn in w* the drawght 
 chambyr therto, or ellys the chambyr abovyn the kechyne, with the 
 draught chambyr longynge therto, with the esement of the prevy long- 
 ynge therto. And I will she haue hire liberte at alle leffull tymes to go 
 to the chapell to seye hire devocyons, in caas be yt she chese the seid 
 
 f Chimney shafts are still called tuns plural of gre, a step. In Norfolk, stairs 
 
 in some districts. are still called grissens. 
 
 & The little buttery under the stairs. h The Falcon inn. 
 Gresys was a term used to signify the 
 
38 
 
 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE ! FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 chambyr aboue the kechene, and if she chese that she to haue the store 
 hous thereto to leye in hire stuffe, and so alle that severall to hire selfe 
 terme of hire liff, and she to leve the chambyr she hath loyn in, wich I 
 wil doo remayne to the hafd place. Item, I wille the seid Janete terme 
 of hire lyff haue hire liberte of fre owet goyng & in comyng at the gate 
 be the strete syde, and as welle at the doore be the lane syde at alle 
 lefull tymes, & easement of the kechene to make in hire mete, and ese- 
 ment of the welle in the yerde, and esement of the preuy in the same 
 yeerd. And she to haue a keye of the grete gardyn gate to go in whan 
 she wyll & hire sauth and what ffrende she wille calle to hire, and a 
 place in the gardyn assigned to hire for herbis and for wood to lye 
 in." — From the will of John Baret of Bury, 1463. 
 
 If, again, we refer to illuminations, we find an interest- 
 ing representation of a town in a beautiful manuscript 
 entitled Le Tresor des Ilistoires^ from which the student 
 may gain some valuable hints on the domestic architec- 
 ture of that time 1 , and in which he will see represented 
 many of those details which we find mentioned by con- 
 temporary writers. Lydgate, in describing the city of 
 Troy, as newly built by Priam, but delineates, in his 
 graphic way, the aspect of the principal European cities 
 of his own age. The " crafte of coryous masonyre" of 
 which he speaks was the delight of the medieval archi- 
 tects, and the 
 
 " Fresche alures withe lusty hye pynacles, 
 And monstrynge outwarde ryche tabernacles, 
 Vouted aboue lyke to reclynatoryes, 
 That called were deambulatoryesJ, 
 Men to walke to geder twayne & twayne, 
 To kepe them drye when it dyde rayne," 
 
 were by no means of rare occurrence. It is curious to 
 notice the sanitary arrangements of this period, and in- 
 
 * MS. Cottonian, Aug. v. fo. 142. parapet on the top of a castle, which 
 
 j Robert of Gloucester speaks of the was frequently covered over, as at War- 
 
 " alures of the castle" where " the laydes wick Castle, though more often with 
 
 thanne stode." Rob. of Glouc, p. 192. wood only : it is called by the French 
 
 The alurc is the passage behind the chemin de ronde. 
 
TOWNS AND TOWN HOUSES. 
 
 39 
 
 teresting to find a reference to a system of drainage 
 which would be creditable to a more enlightened age. 
 Lydgate writes : — 
 
 " And euery hous couerid was with leede, 
 And gargoyle and many hydous heede, 
 Withe spoutes thorugh, and pypes as they aughte, 
 From the stoon werke to the canell rought, 
 Voydynge fylthes lowe into the grounde, 
 Thorugh grates perced of yron perced rounde, 
 The stretes paued bothe in lengthe and brede, 
 In cheker wyse with stones whyte & redeV 
 
 And again, when speaking of the river which ran 
 through the town : — 
 
 " By archis stronge, his cours for to reflecte, 
 Thorugh condyte pypis large and wyde withal, 
 By certeyne meanes artyflciall 
 That it made a ful purgacion, 
 Of al odure and fylthes in the toun, 
 Wasshynge the stretes as they stode arowe, 
 And the gutters in the erthe lowe, 
 That in the citie was no fylthe sene, 
 For the canell scoured was so clene, 
 And deuoyded into secrete wyse, 
 That no man'myght espye nor deuyse 
 By what engyne the fylthes fer nor nere, 
 Were borne awaye by cours of the ryuere . 
 So couertly euery thynge was couered, 
 Whereby the towne was utterly assured, 
 From endengerynge of all corupcion, 
 From wycked ayre and from inffexion 1 ." 
 
 The paving of the streets of London and other large 
 towns was common in the fifteenth century, as is proved 
 by the frequent licenses granted by the crown for collect- 
 ing the tax or rate for that purpose. The same evidence 
 proves that sewers were commonly built and kept in 
 
 k MS. Cottonian, Aug. iv. fo. 28. a. 
 
 1 Ibid., fo. 28. b. 
 
40 
 
 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 repair by public rates at that period. The sewers in 
 towns have often been destroyed in comparatively modern 
 times in digging foundations for new houses, but those 
 which remain of the monasteries, and sometimes other 
 houses or castles of the middle ages, are so fine, large, 
 and well built, that they are continually mistaken for 
 subterraneous passages. 
 
 Bridges were also built and maintained at the public 
 expense by means of rates in towns. These rates were 
 collected by royal authority, and are therefore recorded 
 in the public Eolls. 
 
 There were often sums of money left for the repair of 
 bridges : e. g. in the will of Sir Eobert Ogill, bearing 
 the date of 1410, we find : — 
 
 " Item lego diversis pontibus infra Northumbrian!, et precipue infra 
 dominium meum fractis et emendandis, c. solidos." 
 
 In Count Neville's will, (1440,) we find :— 
 
 " Item do et lego at pontem faciendum apud Wynston, c. marcas ; 
 et ad pontem de Ulshavve juxta Middleham, xxZ." 
 
 John Danby (1444) leaves in his will the following 
 sums : 
 
 " Item lego ad emendacionem vise circa pontem de Warleby. vjs. 
 viijJ. Item lego fabricse pontis de Yagord, xl^. si velit extendere." 
 
 Eoger Thornton, the opulent Newcastle merchant, 
 leaves (1429) one hundred marks to the repairing of the 
 Tyne bridge in that town, on condition the " mair 
 and ye comyns" will release him from certain actions 
 at law. 
 
 In the country, bridges were sometimes built and kept 
 up at the public expense by taxes equivalent to our 
 modern county rates, but they were comparatively rare. 
 Fords were extensively used; and bridges were some- 
 times built by particular noblemen or monasteries. One 
 
BRIDGES. 
 
 41 
 
 at Cnlham, near Abingdon, is an instance of a free town 
 bridge. It was built by the Abbot, and the opening 
 celebrated with much pomp, as recorded in a cotem- 
 porary ballad, the original of which, or a copy, written 
 on parchment in the fifteenth century, is still pre- 
 served in the hall of Christ's Hospital in the church- 
 yard of St. Helen's, Abingdon : — 
 
 " Henrici quinti regis quarto revoluto 
 Anno, rex idem pontem fundavit utrumque, 
 Supra locum binum Borford dictumque Culhamford ; 
 Inter eos namque via regia tendit alta. 
 Annis adjunctis dat inter gradientibus amplum ; 
 Principiuni cujus Abendoniae situatur. 
 Annis tunc donum M. quater C. numeratis, 
 Et sexto deno cum fecit opus pietatis. 
 Vos qui transitis, hujus memores bene sitis, 
 Et vestris precibus fundator sit relevatus. 
 
 " Off alle Werkys in this Worlde that ever were wrought 
 Holy chirche is chefe, there children been chersid". 
 For be baptim these Barnes to blisse been i brought, 
 Thorough the grace of God, and fayre refresshed. 
 Another blissed besines is brigges to make, 
 There that the pepul may not passe after greet showres. 
 Dole it is to drawe a deed body oute of a lake, 
 That was fulled in a fount stoonP, and a Felow of oures. 
 Kyng Herry the fyft in his fourthe Yere, 
 He hathe i founde for his folke a brige in Berkeschire. 
 For cartis with cariage may goo and come clere, 
 That many Wynters afore were mareed in the My re. 
 And som oute of her sadels flette^ to the grounde, 
 Wente forthe in the Water wist no man whare. 
 Fyve Wekys after or they were i founde, 
 Her kyn and her knowlech r caught hem uppe with care. 
 Then the Commons of Abendon cryed on the kynge, 
 Upon Dukes and lordes that were in this londe. 
 The Kynge bad hem begynne apon Goddes blissing, 
 And make it also stronge as they couthe with stone, lyme or sonde. 
 
 n Christened. Grievous. p Washed in the font, i Fell. r Acquaintance. 
 
 Gr 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Apon the day of seynt Albon they began this game, 
 
 And John Huchyns layde the firste stoon in the Kynges name. 
 
 Sir Peris Besillis, knyght curteys and keend, 
 
 For his fadir soule and his frendes he dyd as he scholdc. 
 
 He gaf hem stonys i nowhe into the werkys ende, 
 
 Also mony as they nedid feche hem if they wolde. 
 
 Than crafti men for the querry made crowes of yre, 
 
 Weges, and wayes, and mony harde howys s , 
 
 Jeffray Barbour bad pay hem her hyre. 
 
 Then must they have moolds to make on the bowys*. 
 
 They cockid for cartes, and east for her chisyng. 
 
 They founde oute the fundement, and layde in large stones ; 
 
 They reysid up the archeys be gemeotre in rysyng, 
 
 With xi. laborers lavyng u at onys. 
 
 Ther was water i nowhe, stone, lyme and gravel, 
 
 Werkemen als wise as they coude fynde any. 
 
 And ever bad the barbour pay for her travel, 
 
 Til a M. Marke be spende eche a peny. 
 
 Then the strenghe of the streme astoned hem stronge, 
 
 In labor and lavyng moche money was lore x . 
 
 Ther loved hem a ladde was a water man longe, 
 
 He helpe stop the streme til the werke were a fore. 
 
 It was a solace to see in a somer seson, 
 
 CCC. I wysse workyng at onys. 
 
 iiii. and iiii. reulyd be reson, 
 
 To wete who wrought best were set for the nonce y. 
 
 The peple preved her power with the pecoyse z . 
 
 The Mattok was man handeled right wele a whyle. 
 
 With spades and schovelis they made suche a noyse, 
 
 That men myght here hem thens a myle. 
 
 Wyves went oute to wite a how they wrought : 
 
 V. score in a flok it was a fayre syght. 
 
 In bord clothes bright white brede they brought, 
 
 Chees and chekenes clerelych A dyght b . 
 
 These weren the dyches i diged in ful harde grounde, 
 
 And i cast up to arere with the wey, 
 
 Sethen they were i set with a quyk mownde 
 
 To holde in the bunkes for ever and ay. 
 
 Hoes. * Arch-stones. u Baling. x Lost. 
 
 For tins especial service. z Pickaxe. * Know. b Prepared. 
 
BRIDGES. 
 
 43 
 
 The gode lorde of Abendon left of his londe, 
 
 For the breed c of the brige fote large. 
 
 It was a greet socour of erthe and of sonde, 
 
 And yt he abated the rent of the barge. 
 
 An C. pownde, and xv 11 . was truly payed 
 
 Be the hondes of John Huchyns and Banbery also, 
 
 For the waye and the barge thus it must be sayed. 
 
 Therto witnesse al Abendon, and many oon moo. 
 
 For now is Culham hithe i com to an ende, 
 
 An al the contre the better and no man the worse. 
 
 Few folke there were coude that wey wende, 
 
 But they waged a wed d or payed of her purse. 
 
 And if it were a begger had breed in his bagge, 
 
 He schulde be ryght soone i bid for to goo aboute, 
 
 And of the pore penyles the hiereward e wold habbe 
 
 A hood or a girdel, and let hem goo withoute. 
 
 Many moo myscheves there weren I say. 
 
 Culham hithe hath causid many a curse. 
 
 I blyssed be our helpers we have a better waye, 
 
 Withoute any peny for cart and for horse. 
 
 Thus acordid the kynge and the covent, 
 
 And the commones of Abendon as the Abbot wolde. 
 
 Thus they were cesed and set al in oon assent, 
 
 That al the brekynges of the brige the towne bere schulde. 
 
 This was preved acte also in the Perlement, 
 
 In perpetual pees to have and to holde. 
 
 This tale is i tolde in noon other entent 
 
 But for myrthe and in memory to yonge and to olde. 
 
 Now every good body that gothe on this brige, 
 
 Bid for the Barbour gentil Jeffray, 
 
 That clothed many a pore man to bed and to rige, 
 
 And hathe holpe to rentis to holde up this waye. 
 
 The wiche rentes right trewe men have i take on honde, 
 
 And graciously governed hem now a good while. 
 
 Who so have hem hereafter withe trewthe but he stonde, 
 
 It schal be knowen openly he dothe hymselfe begyle. 
 
 I councel every creature to kepe hym from the curse. 
 
 For of this tretys wil I no more telle. 
 
 And be not to covetous to youre owne purse, 
 
 For peril of the peynes in the pit of helle. 
 
 c Breadth. d Left something as a pledge. e Take for the tolls. 
 
44 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Now God geve us grace to folowe treuthe even, 
 
 That we may have a place in the blysse of II even. AMEN. 
 
 r. A. B. I. N. D. O. N. R. F. L 
 
 " Take the ferst letter of youre foure fader with A, the worker 
 of wex, and I and N, the colore of an assc ; set them togcder, and 
 tel me yf you can what it is than. Richard Fannande Iremonger 
 hathe made this tabul, and set it here in the yere of Kyng Kerry 
 the sexte xxxvi te ." 
 
 In France there was a society of brethren for the ex- 
 press purpose of building bridges, called Fr aires Pontis : 
 they wore a white dress, with the badge of a bridge and 
 a cross on the breast, and they built the bridges at Avig- 
 non and St. Esprit over the Ehone in 147 l f . 
 
 Bridges frequently had gateway towers upon them or 
 at one end of them, to protect the passage, and the room 
 over the gateway was sometimes a chapel, as at the west 
 gate of Canterbury. There were also frequently wayside 
 chapels upon them, for the convenience of pilgrims, who 
 were the chief travellers of those days ; a pilgrimage to 
 "Walsingham from distant parts of the country was as 
 common then as an excursion to a watering-place is now. 
 Many roads were formed for the especial use of pilgrims, 
 and there were chapels at intervals along the way that 
 led to any celebrated place of pilgrimage, as at Litcham, 
 Norfolk, on the way to Walsingham. The ostensible 
 object of these pilgrimages was to worship some particular 
 image of the blessed Yirgin, as the image of our lady 
 of Walsingham, and the image was supposed to pos- 
 sess miraculous powers. The object of the pilgrimages 
 being then considered as a religious one, it was natural 
 to afford resting-places for the pilgrims in the form of 
 
 f Ex sehedis I). Lancelot, ap. Du- 
 cange. 
 
 s The bridge at Cahors, in Aquitaine, 
 is probably the most perfect remaining. 
 
 It has three gateway towers upon it. 
 At Carcassonne there is a chapel on a 
 bridge of the beginning of the fifteenth 
 century. 
 
/ 
 
 BRIDGES. 45 
 
 chapels by the wayside, and on a bridge was a favourite 
 place for one of these chapels. There are still remains 
 of several of them : perhaps the best is that on Wake- 
 field bridge, Yorkshire, which is usually supposed to have 
 been founded to commemorate the battle of Wakefield 
 in 1460, on the spot where the young Earl of Eutland, 
 second son of the Duke of York, was murdered by Lord 
 Clifford 11 , and it is certain that a chantry was then 
 founded and endowed ; but Mr. Buckler has shewn by 
 the architectural character that the original structure of 
 the chapel is as old as the time of Edward n., so that it 
 must have been only altered and adapted for the pur- 
 pose of the royal chantry, though it seems very singular, 
 if the chapel was then standing and in use, that the boy 
 and his tutor did not take shelter in it, and claim the 
 privilege of sanctuary 1 . 
 
 There was a celebrated chapel on the Ouse bridge, at 
 York ; another at Eotherham : the one at Bradford in 
 Wiltshire has been rebuilt in the seventeenth century, 
 or at least the upper part of it, with a sort of stone dome 
 to it, and applied to some secular purpose. There are 
 remains of one at St. Ives in Huntingdonshire 1 '. 
 
 We have before observed that the Almshouses or hos- 
 pitals of the middle ages would alone afford ample mate- 
 rials for a separate work, and that a complete chrono- 
 logical series of them from the twelfth century to the 
 sixteenth might be formed. Those remaining of the 
 fifteenth century are naturally more numerous than at 
 an earlier period, and those of the sixteenth abound 
 everywhere. From the nature of these foundations, 
 they have less frequently been rebuilt or altered than 
 
 h See Hall's " Chronicle." k For further information on this 
 
 1 He was flying from the # battle with subject see Buckler's " Remarks on 
 
 Sir Robert Aspell, his chaplain and Wayside Chapels/' 8vo., Oxfurd, 1813. 
 
 schoolmaster. 
 
46 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 most other domestic buildings, and many remain qnitc 
 intact, as Ford's Hospital at Coventry ; the Alms-honse 
 at Sherborne, Dorsetshire; Ewelme Hospital, Oxford- 
 shire; the Leicester Hospital at Warwick; the lepers' 
 hospital of St. Bartholomew, near Oxford. In many 
 instances, however, when the funds have increased suffi- 
 ciently, they have been rebuilt in modern times. 
 
 There are said to have been upwards of twenty-two 
 thousand hospitals for lepers in Europe, of which above 
 two thousand were in France ; they were of a religious 
 character, and were priories. Since the mode of curing 
 this disease was discovered, these hospitals have been 
 devoted to other purposes, and the buildings have gene- 
 rally disappeared. At Beauvais they remain nearly per- 
 fect, and are very extensive, now used for farm-buildings. 
 There are fine hospitals remaining also at Bourges, at 
 Compiegne, and at Le Mans ; in Belgium at Ghent, 
 and in Rhenish Prussia at Cues ; in the north of Ger- 
 many at Lubeck, and in Italy a very magnificent one at 
 Milan. These few are selected merely because en- 
 gravings of them are readily accessible : to pursue this 
 subject would lead us much too far for our limits. 
 
 Inns and Taverns 1 may claim a venerable antiquity, 
 and are mentioned at a very early period; but when 
 previous to the fifteenth century did they offer to the 
 weary traveller and the pleasure-seeking knight such 
 luxuries and such accommodation as they then afforded ? 
 In 1463 Sir John Howard dined with a friend, and 
 paid six-shillings and eight-pence "for the tondi off 
 
 1 The subject of the inns and taverns Hotelleries, &c, par MM. Francisque- 
 
 of the middle ages is alone sufficient for Michel et Edouard Fournier. Paris, 
 
 a separate work, and in French there is 1854, 2 vols. 8vo. It is impossible in 
 
 such a work by M. Francisque-Micbcl, the present work to do more than indi- 
 
 to whom we have so frequently occasion cate the sources of information on the 
 
 to refer : Histoire des Cabarets et des various subjects connected with it. 
 
INNS AND TAVERNS. 47 
 
 the dynere at the Mermayde m ." At the " Bible" in 
 Fish-street he paid two shillings for his dinner. He 
 drank his wine at the " Sone in Lnmbart Street," and 
 supped with Lord Audley at " Wekesonys" in South- 
 wark. Doubtless the same inconveniences on the road 
 were experienced as had for ages annoyed the traveller. 
 Such oft-repeated entries as "my lord gaf his gudes ijs. 
 iiij^.'' do not indicate much improvement in the public 
 thoroughfares. Four-pence 11 was paid "ffor a horse hyre." 
 This was the usual rate at which hackneys were hired at 
 this period : — 
 
 " ffbr cariage the porter ho-rs schall hyre, 
 ffoure pens a pece withinne the shyre, 
 Be statut he schall take that on ^e day, 
 That is kynges crye in faye °." 
 
 There are many inns of the fifteenth century still re- 
 maining in different parts of England, as at Glastonbury 
 and Norton St. Philip's, Somersetshire. The George Inn 
 at Salisbury remains nearly perfect, and has some good 
 barge-boards in the yard. Chaucer's Pilgrim's Inn, the 
 " Tabard," South wark, was entirely destroyed by a fire in 
 the time of Charles n., but rebuilt on the old plan: the 
 building of that period still exists, and is a curious and 
 interesting example. The Christopher, at Eton, with 
 its open galleries round the court-yard for passages after 
 the ancient fashion, will be remembered by many of our 
 readers, and has only recently been closed. The Star at 
 Oxford has a similar gallery, and had until quite re- 
 cently some very good barge-boards over the coach- office, 
 which were probably of the fifteenth century. 
 
 The Belle Sauvage on Ludgate-hill is mentioned in the 
 
 m Manners and Household Expenccs, p. 151. 
 n Equal to about seven shillings of our money. ° MS. Sloane, 1,986, p. 29. 
 
48 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 31st Henry vi., in the will of John Frensh, gentleman, 
 late citizen and goldsmith of London : — 
 
 " Know ye that I have granted, and by this my present writing 
 confirmed to Joan Frensh, widow, my mother, all that tenement or inn, 
 with its appurtenances, called Savage s Inn, otherwise called the Bell 
 on the hoop, in the parish of St. Bridget, in Fleet Street, London." 
 
 The Bolt-in-ton appears also, from an entry in the Patent 
 Eoll 21 Henry vi., to have been an inn at that time. 
 In a licence of alienation to the Friars Carmelites of 
 London of certain premises in the parish of St. Dunstan, 
 Fleet-street, "Hospicium vocatum le Boltenton" is men- 
 tioned as a boundary p. 
 
 In the Archceologia, vol. xviii. p. 421, is an engraving 
 of two ancient figures in wood, supposed to represent 
 itinerant masons, which were then fixed against a 
 public-house opposite Wooburn Church, Buckingham- 
 shire, in 1804 : the figures were of the size of life. The 
 younger of the persons represented holds in one hand a 
 pair of compasses, and in the other a rule; the elder 
 person has a quadrant in his right hand, and in his left 
 a walking staff. These figures appear from the costume 
 to be of the sixteenth century, and were probably the 
 original sign of a house of call for masons. 
 
 p See Arcliceologia, vol. xviii. p. 197. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 BRAZIER AND LOUVRE, 
 
 B&LL OF WESTMINSTER SCHOOL. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE HALL. 
 
 The Arrangements of the hall were so fully described 
 in our last volume that comparatively little remains to 
 be said here, since there is little change of plan in this 
 respect between the fourteenth and the fifteenth century. 
 When the hall is retained at all, as it most commonly 
 is, the features of it continue the same, the dais at the 
 upper end, the screens at the lower end, a reredos in 
 the centre, with an open louvre over it to carry off the 
 smoke, or sometimes a large fireplace on one side, or two 
 fireplaces if the hall is large. 
 
 The entrance porch of the hall is an important feature. 
 It is usually at the end of the screens, over the state 
 entrance, and has a small room over it connected with 
 the music- gallery. There is often a groined vault over 
 the entrance and under this small chamber, as at Kenil- 
 worth and Penshurst and Wingfield Manor. The porches 
 at South Wraxall, Norrington House, and Woodland, all 
 in Wiltshire, may be mentioned as good examples, but 
 this feature is almost universal. 
 
 At Great Chalfield, and in other instances, there is a 
 sort of squint or oblique opening through a slit in the 
 wall, from the kitchen or some other servants' office to 
 the porch, to enable the servants to see who was at the 
 door. At Wanswell Court there is a small window for 
 the same purpose. There is also frequently a grating 
 provided in the wicket, as at Cothele, Cornwall, and in 
 so many other instances, that this may be considered a 
 
 h 
 
50 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE ! FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 general custom to guard against surprise, and to pre- 
 vent the intrusion of importunate beggars. In the Irish 
 towers there is generally a small inner porch, which 
 formed part of the defences; a person entering would 
 find himself in a small square space, with doors barred 
 on their sides, one in front opening to the lower chamber, 
 on one side to a porter's lodge, or small guard- chamber, 
 and on the other to the staircase ; behind him the port- 
 cullis might be let down, and over his head was a small 
 opening through the vault, for the purpose of throwing 
 down stones or other missiles in case of need : this 
 opening is appropriately called " the murthering hole." 
 These rude and Tough contrivances belong to the same 
 period as the elaborate and handsome porch, with its 
 groined vault, in England, and this difference in the prin- 
 cipal entrance to a manor-house in the two countries 
 strikingly illustrates the different condition and cha- 
 racter of the people. 
 
 To return to our English halls. There is frequently a 
 second porch, of a plainer and smaller kind, over the 
 back door of the hall, in the servants' court, and the 
 staircase to the music-gallery is sometimes placed there 
 in a turret, as at Norton St. Philip, Somersetshire. 
 
 We occasionally meet with a sort of internal porch 
 over the door of a room, especially when the door is in 
 a corner and this porch is placed across the angle, as 
 at Thame Park, Oxfordshire. 
 
 " A porche bylte of square stons, 
 Full myghtly inarched evury owne a ." 
 
 Behind the screens, or in the screens, as it was called, 
 which was the servants' part of the hall, a great deal of 
 work had to be carried on, and various conveniences were 
 required, of which traces often remain in the walls, such 
 
 a Lydgate's Story of Thebes, sign. d. i. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 IRON IN THE NICHE. 
 
 LITTLE WEN HAM BALL, SUFFOLK. 
 
THE HALL. 51 
 
 as a buttery- hatch, still used in our college halls: a 
 similar small opening for passing dishes through from 
 the kitchen, when the situation made it convenient, is 
 frequently met with, as at Canon's Ashby, Northamp- 
 tonshire ; also a lavatory for washing hands and dishes, 
 with a water- drain from it, as at Lincoln, and Appleby, 
 Leicestershire. In the Irish towers, where the state 
 room at the top answered the purpose of a hall, there is 
 usually a water-drain at the servants' end of the room, 
 near the top of the stairs which led from the kitchen. 
 In Little Wenham Hall, Suffolk, there is a remarkable 
 niche of the fifteenth century, with good panelling, and 
 in it is a twisted iron hook, apparently for a towel to 
 hang upon in connection with a lavatory. 
 
 It has been mentioned that at the lower end of the 
 hall, behind the screen, there were usually three door- 
 ways, one to the pantry, one to the buttery, and the 
 central one to a passage between these two apartments 
 leading to the kitchen, whether on a level, as at Pens- 
 hurst, or approached by a straight flight of stairs, when 
 the kitchen is on a lower level, as at Chepstow and 
 Coventry b . But in the smaller houses c there are fre- 
 quently only two doorways, and in some cases there are 
 none, the communication with the offices being by a stair- 
 
 b In an old romance it is said that 
 Fulke Fitz-Warine, an English baron 
 of the thirteenth century, caused the 
 highway to pass through his hall, in 
 order that nobody should escape his hos- 
 pitality. " Cesti Fouke fust bon vian- 
 dour e large; e fesoit turner le real 
 chemin par mi sa sale a soun maner 
 de Alleston, pur ce que nul estrange y 
 dust passer s'il n'avoit viaunde ou her- 
 bergage ou autre honour ou bien du 
 suen." — Histoire de Foulques Fitz- 
 Warin, publ. par Francisque-Michel, 
 
 p. 97. Paris, 1840. 8vo. 
 
 c The hall of the manor-house of the 
 Fettiplace family, at Childrey, Berk- 
 shire, was remaining perfect until the 
 year 1852, and was a curious and valu- 
 able specimen of a timber hall of the 
 fifteenth century ; it was wantonly de- 
 stroyed to make some modern improve- 
 ments. Fortunately, a careful drawing 
 of it has been preserved by the Messrs. 
 Buckler, and an engraving of it ap- 
 peared in the " Illustrated London 
 News" for Feb. 21, 1857. 
 
52 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 case at the opposite end of the screens to the state en- 
 trance, as at the bishop's palace, St. David's, and Lin- 
 lithgow Palace, Scotland. Sometimes the communication 
 is by a back door at the end of the screens across the 
 servants' court, as at Martock, Somersetshire. 
 
 Over the screens was the music-gallery, or loft for the 
 minstrels, which had usually a separate entrance by a 
 small staircase from the porch ; this gallery was an im- 
 portant feature of the hall, and its occupants contributed 
 greatly to the amusement of the guests assembled below : 
 the musicians or minstrels, and the bag-pipers, were here 
 assembled. There is frequently a doorway at the back 
 of the music-gallery opening into a chamber of some im- 
 portance, which seems to have been sometimes called the 
 " oriel," and which has often a rich window at one end 
 of it, as at Great Chalfield, Wiltshire, and South Wing- 
 field Manor-house, Derbyshire; in the latter instance, 
 and some others, it seems to have been the chapel. In 
 other cases it was probably only a room for the use of 
 the minstrels. 
 
 The music-gallery, with the screens and doorways 
 under it, at Great Chalfield, Wilts, was perfect a few 
 years since, when the drawing, of which we give an 
 engraving, was made by Mr. Buckler : it has unfor- 
 tunately since been destroyed. 
 
 In some instances, when the hall was lofty, there was 
 also a gallery round the upper part of the wall, immedi- 
 ately under the roof; this is said to have been a general 
 practice in Scotland, but it is often difficult to decide 
 whether there was a gallery or a low upper chamber 
 separated by a floor; the wood- work has always been 
 destroyed, and the corbels, the upper windows, and 
 doorways, would be the same in either case; in many 
 of the Scotch towers the hall is so small and narrow that 
 
THE HALL. 53 
 
 it does not seem probable there was a gallery ; on the 
 other hand, in the larger castles, where the hall is on a 
 grand scale, it is very probable that there was snch an 
 arrangement. This appears to have been the case in 
 the great hall at Durham, where the roof was evidently 
 intended to be seen from below, while the clerestory 
 windows and corbels seem to shew that there was origi- 
 nally a gallery, where a floor has since been introduced. 
 
 The halls of the different colleges in Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge are among the best-preserved examples of halls 
 of the fifteenth century, and continue in use with the 
 same arrangements as in a nobleman's house of that 
 period, — the dais at the upper end for the high table 
 raised a step or two, with the bay window at the end, 
 in which stands the sideboard, the screen at the lower 
 end, and the offices communicating with it, the open 
 timber roof, and the wainscoting upon the walls. In 
 ~New College and Magdalen College, Oxford, the wain- 
 scoting is ornamented with the linen panel of the time 
 of Henry viii. Christ Church hall is another well- 
 known example of that period, with a fine roof, and a 
 rich piece of fan-tracery vaulting to the recess of the 
 bay window ; the staircase is of the time of Charles i. 
 
 The halls of Hampton Court, Eltham Palace, and 
 Crosby Hall may also be mentioned. The hall of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, with its roof and louvre, is another 
 fine example ; but they are far too numerous to be men- 
 tioned in detail. The hall of St. Mary's Guild at Coven- 
 try is another very fine one, and very perfect, with part 
 of the screen at the lower end, and the tapestry at the 
 upper end, behind the dais, a remarkable specimen of 
 the time of Henry vi., and painted glass over it, con- 
 nected with the same subject. 
 
 The Dais, although a very general feature, is not an 
 
54 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 invariable one. At Hampton Court there is none, and 
 from the levels of the doorways it does not appear that 
 there ever could have been one. There is a large cham- 
 ber behind the upper end of the hall, which is still hung 
 with the original tapestry of the time of Henry vin. ; 
 and though this is called the withdrawing-room, it may 
 have been used as a dining-room for the high table, 
 otherwise there was no distinction for the high table. 
 In smaller halls there was often no dais. 
 
 In the centre of the high table, on the dais, stood the 
 throne or chair of state, with a canopy over it, to which 
 the name of dais is also sometimes applied. 
 
 Furniture of the middle ages, even of the fifteenth 
 century, is extremely scarce, and it is difficult to find 
 enough to describe accurately what it has been ; our 
 chief reliance must therefore be in the illuminations of 
 manuscripts of the period, and in these banquets are 
 often represented, and the state chair is a prominent ob- 
 ject, as in the specimen we have selected from Douce' s 
 Collection of MSS. in the Bodleian Library, Nos. 202 
 and 208. In St. Mary's Hall at Coventry the state chair 
 remains tolerably perfect, and richly panelled, with the 
 back to it, but without the canopy over it. 
 
 In some instances the sideboard, instead of being 
 merely a piece of furniture placed in the recess of the 
 bay window, is placed at the end of the hall, behind 
 the dais, in a recess provided for it in the wall ; these 
 recesses are sometimes plain, merely to receive the 
 wood- work, as in Kidwelly Castle, South Wales; in 
 other cases the stone-work is enriched with ornament, 
 as at Dirleton Castle, Scotland. 
 
 The Bay Window is a very important feature in the 
 hall of the fifteenth century. It seems to have been 
 introduced towards the end of the fourteenth, and rapidly 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 THORNBURY CASTLE GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 
 
THE HALL. 55 
 
 increased in size and importance until the time of Henry 
 vm., when it becomes one of the most conspicuous fea- 
 tures of the house, as at Cowdray and Compton Win- 
 yate. The usual position for it is at one end of the dais, 
 and there are sometimes two, one at each end. In some 
 instances, as at Fawsley, Northants, it is in the middle 
 of one side of the hall, and has a separate raised platform 
 to itself, but this is an exceptional arrangement. It is 
 sometimes formed in the inside of a sort of turret, and 
 has a small chamber over the vaulted ceiling, as at Great 
 Chalfield, Wilts, and Fawsley. 
 
 Sometimes the groined vault over the bay is at a con- 
 siderably lower level than the roof of the hall, the space 
 being divided into two stories, and the bay window is 
 thus made to correspond with the porch and the room 
 over it, as at Kingston Seymour, Somerset. In some 
 of the later houses of the time of Henry vm., where the 
 lofty hall was divided into a dining-room below and a 
 drawing-room above, the grand feature of the bay window 
 could not be dispensed with for external effect, and it 
 was carried up through both stories, as at Thornbury 
 Castle, Gloucestershire. The bay window frequently 
 occupies one corner of the inner court, as in the house at 
 Salisbury, now known as the Work-house, and at Comp- 
 ton Winy ate, Warwickshire. 
 
 In the recess formed by the bay window there was 
 also usually a cupboard for the plate and porcelain, 
 fitted with shelves, and so arranged that the contents 
 could be displayed when the doors were thrown open; 
 this was a piece of furniture, of which numerous ex- 
 amples may be seen in the illuminations of MSS. of 
 this period' 1 . 
 
 d As in Douce's Collection of MSS., we find in the hall " unum copperburd," 
 Nos. 219 and 311. By an inventory at- valued at vis. viiid. 
 tached to the will of this period (1412,) 
 
56 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 It will be seen that the contents of this cupboard 
 were not only gold and silver plate in great profusion, 
 but also ornamental glass and porcelain. These form the 
 subjects for separate works, and can only be mentioned 
 here. Eespecting the pottery and porcelain of the middle 
 ages, a good deal of information will be found in Mr. 
 Marryatt's valuable work, " Collections towards a His- 
 tory of Pottery and Porcelain in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, 
 Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries 6 ." The glass 
 manufacture equally af- 
 fords matter for a separate 
 book, as does the metal- 
 work, especially in the 
 precious metals. There 
 are many scattered notices 
 of these, but we believe 
 they have not been col- 
 lected. Every inventory 
 contains a number of cups 
 and vessels of gold and 
 silver. As shewing the 
 ornamentation of cups, 
 the Testamentum Alani de 
 Neivark mentions : — 
 
 " Item lego Conventui Mo- 
 nast. B. M. Ebor. unum ciphum 
 deauratum, habentem formam 
 calicis coopertum, in cujus suramitate ymago Leonis fixa est, et habet 
 vasas de Leonibus." 
 
 John Baron Graystock leaves the following (1436) : — 
 
 Burette, Bibl. du Rci, Paris. 
 
 e Second Edition, 1858, 8vo. See 
 also Traite des arts ceramiques ou des 
 poteries, &c, by Alexandre Brongniart, 
 (Paris, 1814, 2 vols. 8vo., with an 
 atlas, 4to.) ; Description tnethodique du 
 Mtisee ceramique de la manufacture 
 
 royale de Sevres, by the same and D. 
 Kiocreux, (Paris, 1845, 4to.) ; and " A 
 Guide to the Knowledge of Pottery and 
 Porcelain/' by Henry G. Bohn, 12nio., 
 1857. 
 
I 
 
 THE HALL. 57 
 
 " Maximum ciphum argenti cum coopertorio vocatum Le Chartre de 
 Morpath, — unum ciphum argenti et deauratum cum coopertorio ex 
 dono mihi datum per Rectorem de Weme, vi. ciphos argenti, single, 
 — xii." cocliaria (spoons) argenti, ij. pelves cum duobus lavacris ar- 
 genti, vi. discos, vi. salsaria (salt-cellars) et j. chargior argenti sen* 
 factur'," &c. 
 
 The reredos, or brazier for the fire of logs, in the 
 centre of the hall, continued in use, but in addition to 
 this large fireplaces were introduced into the walls. 
 These became much more common in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury than they had been before ; although fireplaces and 
 chimneys were used at all periods in the other chambers, 
 they were not so common in the hall, where the reredos 
 was probably thought sufficient in earlier days, but at 
 this period the fireplace becomes an important feature in 
 the hall, and one of its chief ornaments ; the hood and 
 mantel-piece being enriched with panelling, and painted 
 with shields of arms and other ornaments, although less 
 elaborate than the sumptuous fireplaces of the time of 
 Elizabeth and James i. 
 
 The situation of the fireplace in the hall varies ex- 
 tremely. In the larger halls there are frequently two, 
 as at Kenilworth, where there is one on each side. The 
 most usual situation is near the steps of the dais, and on 
 the side opposite the bay window, but there is no general 
 rule : at Haddon Hall it is between the windows. More 
 usually, when there are windows on one side only, the 
 fireplace is on the opposite side, in the blank wall, as at 
 the Mote, Ightham, Kent. In Linlithgow Palace the 
 arrangement is peculiar : there are two large fireplaces 
 side by side, occupying the whole of the upper end of 
 the hall ; this was probably as a remedy for the coldness 
 and humidity of the climate. In Yanwath Hall, West- 
 moreland, there is one large fireplace at the end of the 
 hall, and a passage by the side of it leading into a 
 
 i 
 
58 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 tower at the back. The reredos, or large brazier, in 
 the centre of the hall, continued in use in some of 
 the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge nntil within the 
 present century; in Lincoln College the reredos was 
 used within the memory of some of the present Fellows 
 of the college, and the louvre still remains. In the hall 
 of Westminster School it was in use as late as 1850 f . 
 The reredos was always accompanied by dogs, on which 
 to place the logs of wood for the fire. 
 
 The arch of the fireplace is often flat, and formed 
 by joggling the stones in a very ingenious manner : in 
 other instances it is a low Tudor arch. Sometimes there 
 is a projecting hood, but at this period that is frequently 
 dispensed with, and the arch of the fireplace is flush with 
 the face of the wall, which is ornamented with panelling, 
 and a battlement over it, as at Southwell Palace, Notts. 
 The fireplaces in Scotland are generally large and fine, 
 and resemble the French Flamboyant fireplaces, with 
 their magnificent hoods g . 
 
 The open timber Eoofs of the halls of houses of the 
 fifteenth century are often quite as fine and as rich as 
 those of the churches, and with this advantage over 
 them, that there is generally a louvre in the centre, 
 which lights up the hall, and enables the tracery to be 
 seen, which in churches is often lost in the gloom. The 
 hall of Trinity College, Cambridge, is a fine example of 
 this kind. Christ Church hall, in Oxford, has lost its 
 louvre, which is to be regretted. Westminster Hall is 
 celebrated for the wide span of its fine roof, erected in 
 
 f It was only removed during the to our own day. 
 
 improvements in the time of Dean Buck- s Of the finest French fireplaces of 
 
 land, and at his suggestion Mr. Jewitt our neighbours, the reader will find an 
 
 was employed to take a drawing of the account in Sauval's Histoire et Me- 
 
 hall, with the reredos, before it was re- cherches des AntiquiUs de la Ville de 
 
 moved, being, probably, the last instance Paris, vol. ii. p. 279. {Le dedans des 
 
 of this ancient usage being continued niaison royales). 
 
SOUTHWELL PALACE, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 
 
I 
 
 THE HALL. 59 
 
 the time of Kichard n., and taking the place of the 
 nave and two side aisles of the original Norman hall h . 
 The roof, however, has a great thrust against the side 
 walls, and requires enormous buttresses to support it. 
 The hall of Westminster School is a simple and good 
 example, with its louvre perfect. The louvre of the 
 great hall was restored by Smirke, and there is some 
 doubt as to its exact accuracy, although it was intended 
 to be a faithful restoration. It is generally observed 
 that pendants are more commonly used in the roofs of 
 halls than in those of churches \ 
 
 At one end of the hall, over the dais, there is fre- 
 quently a window in the gable, which lights up the roof 
 with great advantage, as in St. Mary's Hall, Coventry, 
 and in most of Wolsey's halls. Sometimes there is a 
 window of this kind at each end, as at Fawsley Court ; 
 this arrangement of course depends on the general plan 
 of the house, and whether the hall roof is sufficiently 
 high to allow of a window over the chambers attached 
 to the end of it. Where the bed-chambers are in several 
 stories in a sort of tower at the end of the hall, there can 
 be no window. There is frequently a small opening 
 for looking into the hall from the solar or lord's chamber 
 over the cellar at the back of the dais, and this opening 
 appears to have been partially concealed. At Great 
 Chalfield there is a chamber of equal importance at the 
 lower end of the hall, over the offices, and behind the 
 music- gallery ; and in this instance there was an open- 
 
 h According to Sauval, the two finest eleve que ceux des eglises de St. Ger- 
 
 halls in France were that of the Petit- vais et de St. Eustache," &c. — Histoire 
 
 Bourhon, at Paris, and that of the castle et Recherches des AntiquiUs de la Ville 
 
 of Montargis. " Sa largeur est," adds de Paris, vol. ii. p. 209. 
 Sauval, speaking of the former, "de ' The roofs of Athelhampton Hall, 
 
 dix-huit pas communs sur trente-cinq Dorsetshire, and Wear Gifford, Devon- 
 
 toises de longueur, et la couverture si shire, engraved in the "Glossary of 
 
 rehaussee, que le comhle parait aussi Architecture," are fine examples. 
 
60 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 ing from each of these chambers at either end of the 
 hall, and they were concealed in the form of stone masks, 
 through the eyes and mouth of which a full view of the 
 hall could be obtained. These masks have been pre- 
 served, although unfortunately removed from their ori- 
 ginal position in some modern improvements. One of 
 them is shewn in its proper position in our view of 
 the interior of this hall, for which we are indebted to 
 Mr. Buckler, who had fortunately made a careful draw- 
 ing of it previous to the recent alterations. 
 
 Openings in the Hall, Great Chalfield. 
 
 In the fifteenth century, and more especially in the 
 beginning of the sixteenth, the ceilings are often very 
 richly ornamented ; the earlier examples are more com- 
 monly of wood only, divided into square panels by ribs 
 of bold projection, and often well moulded ; and at the 
 intersection of these ribs are square bosses, carved with 
 foliage, or with shields of arms, or other ornaments, 
 much in the same manner as we often find in the aisles 
 of churches of the same period. 
 
 In the time of Henry viii. the ceilings are more 
 
HALL, GREAT CHALFIELD, WILTSHIRE. 
 
THE HALL. 61 
 
 commonly of plaster, with a great variety of patterns 
 stamped in them ; sometimes with pendants in the place 
 of the bosses, in other cases merely panelling, of which 
 there is a rich example in the ceiling of the chapel of 
 the Savoy Palace in the Strand. 
 
 As to the external covering of the roof, tiles or slates 
 were made use of, as found convenient, as the following 
 extracts shew. 
 
 In the Household Book of Henry vn. we have these 
 items : — 
 
 " 9 Hen. VII. Carpenter for making the hall roofe xlix u . 
 17 Hen. VII. Item to Adrian Berne for 34000 ardois (slates) 
 xxviii 11 . vj 3 . viij d . k " 
 
 In the Surveyor- General's account in 34 Henry 
 vin. : — ■ 
 
 " Serchyng vnryppyng, new tylyng and poyntyng ouer the west 
 syde of the Quenes pallet chambre 1 ." 
 
 In the Eomance of Sir Degrevant a chamber roof is 
 thus described : — 
 
 " There was a royall roofFe, 
 In a chambre of loffe, 
 Hyt was busked above, 
 With besaunts full bright" 1 ." 
 
 Tiles appear to have been scarce at times. A writer 
 of one of the Paston letters complains that about 1475 
 there "is none to get for no money," and Master Stoley 
 begs the loan or "almes of tylle," to roof one of his 
 "fayrest chambres," which "standyth halfe uncouerd 
 for defaulte of tylle n ." 
 
 Of the Decorations of the hall it will be neces- 
 sary now to speak. Considerable improvements had 
 been made in this respect. The rich displayed their 
 
 k MS. Additional, 7,099 ff. 13, 68. 
 1 Ibid., 10,109, fo. 84. a. 
 
 m Thornton Romances, p. 236. 
 " Paston Letters, vol. v. p. 136. 
 
62 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 wealth, not so much in the acquisition of household 
 comforts as in the splendour and profusion of their 
 plate, and the stuffs with which they decorated their 
 walls. The most lucrative trade of the fifteenth century- 
 was that of a " tapis ter." In old charters of the time 
 he is generally designated as a "Merchaunt de tappi- 
 ccrie." Our own merchant-princes acquired their mar- 
 vellous wealth by their commerce in baudekin and arras. 
 The purchase of a " chamber," or " hailing," that is, the 
 necessary hangings for those apartments , was a trans- 
 action of considerable importance, and usually ratified 
 by a deed, signed and sealed with great formality. They 
 were treasures deemed worthy of being bequeathed by 
 royalty. Heavy subsidies were laid upon its impor- 
 tation. The king, however, sometimes exercised his 
 royal prerogative. In 1441 Henry vn. granted to a 
 mercer of London the privilege of bringing into this 
 country cloth of arras, "suche as that he schal by 
 byonde see for lordes, withoute paying of custome or 
 subsidies" The rich hangings in the great hall of 
 Henry vi. would have exhausted the fortune of a 
 country squire. Among the additional charters in the 
 British Museum are many curious documents illustra- 
 tive of the extravagant prices given for these domestic 
 luxuries. Eight hundred golden francs, francs d^or, 
 were paid by the Due de Touraine for "un tappis sar- 
 razinois," embroidered with the history of Charlemagne, 
 bought for l'Hotel de BeauteX The Due d'Orleans 
 
 The term "hall," "chamber," or ment of 158Z. 6s. 8d. in the wardrobe 
 
 "bed," was often applied to the tapestry. accounts of Henry VII., for "browd- 
 
 A curious document, date 1398, records ryng of two chambres." — MS. Addi- 
 
 the purchase by the Due d'Orleans of a tional, 7,099, fo. 36. 
 
 portable chamber, "une chambre por- p MS. Cotton. Cleopat. F. v. fo. 24 b. 
 
 tative," consisting of a seler, dosser, ■« Additional Chart., No. 2,696. See 
 
 curtains and counterpoint. Additional Francisque-Michel, Eecherches sur . . . 
 
 Chart., No. 2,771. We have also a pay- les etoffes de Soie, &c, vol. ii. p. 391. 
 
THE HALL. 63 
 
 paid 2,220 francs for "a chamber" of three pieces of 
 tapestry r . The interior was thus richly decorated, even 
 when the building itself was poor. When Cardinal Beau- 
 fort, who was sent as ambassador to make peace with 
 France in 1439, arrived in the marshes of Calais, there 
 was a handsome hall erected there, upwards of a hundred 
 feet in length, and made to accommodate three hun- 
 dred persons at table. It contained at the north end all 
 necessary offices — a pantry, buttery, wine and other 
 cellars, and two chambers, and at the south end a 
 passage led into the kitchen. The hall was beautifully 
 hung with crimson tapestry. A short distance from the 
 cardinal's was the hall of the Duchess of Burgundy, 
 which was built of old rotten timber, and covered with 
 dirty sails, but the interior was richly adorned with 
 arras s . 
 
 Edward iv. in 1480 bought of Piers de Yraulx, of 
 Gascoigne, stuffs to the amount of 23 8£. 155. 6<£, a sum 
 which, when compared with its value in modern cur- 
 rency, appears enormous*. Henry vn., however, ex- 
 ceeded him in his taste for such ornaments. We may 
 take as examples three entries from the wardrobe ac- 
 counts of that monarch : — 
 
 " To a merchaunt of Flandres for 52 elles of arras, 2651. 6s. 8d. 
 For a cloth of estate 47 yerds di xili. the yerd, 522/. 10s. 
 To Lewas de ffava for a pece of cloth of gold, and vii. peces of bau- 
 dekyn, 286Z. 9s." u 
 
 These sums in the aggregate would be equivalent to 
 about 12,000/. of our present currency. 
 
 r Ibid., No. 2,733. for Edward rv. at a cost of 984Z. 8s. 8d. 
 
 s Proceedings of the Privy Council, Devon's Issue Rolls of the Exchequer, 
 
 vol. v. p. 341. p. 491. On the arras were representa- 
 
 1 MS. Harl., 4,780, fo. 3. a. Twenty tions of the Passion, and of the history 
 
 pieces of arras, some pieces of velvet, of " Nabugodonoser" and of Alexander, 
 and valances for a bed, were purchased u MS. Additional, 7,099, if. 44, 52, 66. 
 
64 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE '. FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 The use of Tapestry had thus become general among 
 the nobility and gentry, and such entries as "My lorde 
 payd to Capeldyk, mayster Pekerynges man, for iiij. peses 
 of aras of the story of Suzan tedi. iijs. iiij d. x ," are of 
 frequent occurrence. In a splendid manuscript of Frois- 
 sart's Chronicles, written for Philip de Comines y at the 
 latter end of the fifteenth century, we have many views 
 of royal and noble halls. Almost without exception 
 they are represented as being hung with gorgeous 
 tapestry. Scenes of romance and war are skilfully de- 
 picted. In Bradshaw's " Lyfe of Saynt Werburge 2 " we 
 have the following passage : — 
 
 " Clothes of gold and arras were hanged in the hall, 
 Depaynted with pyctures and hystoryes many folde, 
 Well wraughte and craftely with precyous stones all, 
 Glyterynge as Phebus, and the beten golde a ." 
 
 The subjects of tapestry before the Eeformation are 
 more usually historical, after that time generally either 
 scriptural or pagan; the Eenaissance had the same in- 
 fluence on all the arts. In the historical tapestry real 
 events were displayed as accurately as the skill of the 
 artist would allow, and before the general use of oil- 
 paintings the most accurate portraits were executed either 
 in tapestry or in painted glass. The original tapestry 
 of the hall of Hampton Court Palace has been preserved 
 in those parts which are under the music-gallery and in 
 the withdrawing-room at the upper end, and the subjects 
 of these are historical; that in the body of the hall, 
 with Scripture subjects, is Elizabethan, and has been 
 brought from some other place. The very fine original 
 tapestry of the time of Henry vn., preserved in Magda- 
 
 x Howard's Household Book, p. 288. z 8vo., 1521, printed by Pinson. 
 y De Cornines was born 1445, and 8 Chapter xvi. 
 died 1509. 
 
THE HALL. t>o 
 
 lcn College, Oxford b , represents the marriage of Prince 
 Arthur, the elder brother of Henry viii., with Catherine 
 of Arragon, which afterwards formed the pretext for the 
 divorce. 
 
 As an instance of the quantity of tapestry employed, 
 the inventory of St. Mary's Guild at Boston affords the 
 following : — 
 
 "In the Hall. — A hangynge at the deyte (?) [deyse or dais], 11 
 yards long, 2j yards wide. Another steyned hangynge, contaynyng, 
 in lynth 9J yardes, and in deepnes 2 yards and j." 
 
 A great deal of curious information respecting tapestry 
 will be found in the valuable work of M. Francisque- 
 Michel, Recher dies sur le commerce , la fabrication et 
 V usage des Etoffes de soie, d' or et J' argent et autres 
 tissus precieux en Occident, principalement en France, pen- 
 dant le moyen age. As this work occupies two quarto 
 volumes, it is obvious that we can do no more than refer 
 to it here. We observe that he makes frequent mention 
 of damas amongst the -usual fabrics of this period, 
 worked with gold and silver, and woven of various co- 
 lours, red, blue, green, violet, yellow, and grey. This 
 was the same as our word damask, a fabric imported 
 from Damascus, and which when mentioned in English 
 inventories is usually of a red or plum colour. 
 
 There is much more ancient tapestry remaining than 
 is generally supposed ; it has been very often rolled up 
 and put aside as lumber, and forgotten, but is now fre- 
 quently brought to light again. The pegs on which the 
 tapestry was hung often remain where the tapestry 
 
 b This tapestry is now preserved in which it occupies, and one piece is in 
 
 what are called the Founder's Chambers, duplicate; it was probably intended for 
 
 over the principal gateway, hut does not the hall, though perhaps never placed 
 
 seem to have been made for the place there. 
 
 K 
 
66 
 
 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 itself has disappeared, as in the hall of Sudeley, and of 
 the Prior's house at Wenlock c . 
 
 As an instance of the barbarity exercised towards 
 the vestiges of antiquities, a letter printed in the " Gen- 
 tleman's Magazine" in 1784 may be quoted. A " Con- 
 stant Eeader" recommends Mr. Urban' s inspection of 
 an old tapestry that hangs in the shop of Mr. Walker, 
 a broker in Harp Alley. It represented the history of 
 Hainan and Mordecai, expressed in the habits, &c, of 
 the fifteenth or sixteenth century. It formed part of 
 the hangings of the chapel at Somerset House, whence 
 it was sold to Mr. Walker, who " had sold several por- 
 tions, and asked a guinea and a-half for the remainder d ." 
 
 The inscription ran as follows : — 
 
 " Prudome Mcrdoci le roy kaist ceste nuet insompne *|, pour ce 
 fist ses anales lire *i* an naidgers celleu ^? volt cruce Aman demanda. 
 
 " qst sa pensee «i< et ainsi que adventier adoune Jfa ut con'vient on 
 le volt ocire *i« quel due eust hen'e niig'l *i* Aocour celuy qui sancta 
 touma "J" et comment ce fait lui fist dire >%< Merdoce que fust leal »i« son 
 s're et do mirt le garda tjf aman respondit haultemant. 
 
 " povoir nca ^ lement pour le bien luy sire 4< laux demandez nul 
 doy real »J« honeur real servi a ij» le roy dist sai le prestement." 
 
 The walls of the hall were hung with tapestry to the 
 height of eight or ten feet from the ground, above which 
 they were painted. When the nobles travelled from one 
 part of the country to another, they carried their carpets 
 and tapestry with them, and frequently the glass case- 
 ments also. 
 
 The subjects worked in the tapestry, painted on the 
 walls and on the glass, were usually the same, and formed 
 a continuation one of the other ; and when the colours 
 were all fresh, probably one part was nearly as brilliant 
 as the other. These subjects were generally taken from 
 
 c Rudder's " History of Magdalen College, Oxford," p. 85. 
 rI Gent, Mag., vol. liv. p. 268. 
 
THE HALL. 
 
 07 
 
 the popular romances of the day, or hunting-scenes, with 
 abundance of foliage and numerous figures. 
 
 The old castle of Tamworth, described in Dugdale's 
 " Warwickshire," had, according to a correspondent of 
 the " Gentleman's Magazine,'' gigantic figures painted 
 in fresco upon the wall of the hall, with the inscription 
 beneath, — Sir Lancelot cle Lake and Sir Tarquin, — the 
 Morte & Arthur evidently having been the subject of 
 the painter's pencil. 
 
 Historical subjects were also frequently employed : a 
 good example of this remains in the end wall of St. Mary's 
 Hall, Coventry, representing the entry of Henry vi. into 
 that city, the same subject being continued in the tapes- 
 try and in the painted glass over it. 
 
 Towards the close of the 
 fifteenth century tapestry be- 
 gan to be disused, and its 
 place supplied by wainscoting 
 or stamped leather. Wainscot 
 of the time of Henry viii. may 
 generally be distinguished by 
 the pattern called the " linen 
 panel," being an exact imita- 
 tion of the folds of a linen 
 napkin, sometimes with a re- 
 presentation of the fringe, as 
 in the abbot's house at Beau- 
 lieu, Hampshire. 
 
 There is some very rich 
 stamped leather in place of 
 tapestry for hangings in one 
 of the founder's chambers at 
 Magdalen College, Oxford, which have been recently 
 restored in a very careful manner as faithfully as possible 
 
68 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 to what they were originally ; and the effect is extremely 
 rich and gorgeous, without being at all tawdry. The 
 tapestry has been carefully repaired only ; the stamped 
 leather was too far gone, and has been exactly copied. 
 
 The Flooring of the hall was usually paved with tiles 
 of various colours, and so laid down as to form inge- 
 nious patterns 6 . In Piers the Plowman's Crede we 
 read of — 
 
 " Cloisters y paved with poyntile, ich~point after other ;" 
 
 that is, with square tiles one after the other. In the 
 accounts of the Surveyor- General of Henry viii. we 
 find frequent mention of paving tiles 1 ; and about the 
 same time the refectory of Christ Church, Oxford, was 
 paved with green and yellow tiles. The hearths before 
 the chimney were also paved with coloured tiles. A 
 sum of money was paid in the time of Henry viii. to 
 John Brasey of London, for " c. pavyng tyle for pavyng 
 before the chymneys g ;" and on the reparation of the 
 manor of Greenwich, Edmund Cardysh supplied " c. 
 pavyng tiles of kynd gode, for the pavyng of halparys 11 
 before the chymneys 1 ." 
 We also read, — 
 
 " And of this halle forther to diffine, 
 With stons square be level or by line, 
 It paued was at grete diligensV 
 
 The Furniture of the hall was still of the rudest form. 
 In a curious manuscript of this period the duties of the 
 
 e Sec MS. Harleian, No. 4,380. 
 ' MS. Additional, Brit. Mus., No. 
 10,109. 
 
 e Ibid., fo.49. We often find paving 
 tiles mentioned in wills and other docu- 
 ments of the period under the name of 
 " flaundrcstyll," as most of the coloured 
 
 tiles were imported from Flanders at 
 that date, as well as at a later period. 
 
 h Or Halpace, see "Glossary of Ar- 
 chitecture," p. 246. 
 
 1 MS. Additional, 10,109, fo. 89. 
 
 k MS. Reg. 18, D., vol. L fol. 21, a. 
 
ZANWATH HALL, WESTMORELAND. 
 
THE HALL. 
 
 marshal of the hall are thus described. He was to bring 
 in the fuel, and 
 
 " In halle make fyre at eyche a mele, 
 Borde trestuls and formes also ; 
 Ye cupborde in his warde schall go, 
 The desurs, cortines, and henge in halle 1 ." 
 
 These few lines enumerate the usual garniture of the 
 chief apartment in this century. 
 
 The Eefectoey of one of the larger abbeys would con- 
 tain much the same furniture as that of a nobleman's of 
 the same period, and that of one of the smaller religious 
 houses or of the abbot the same as those of the smaller 
 gentry, as may be seen by the following example in the 
 inventory of the priory of Durham, (1446), which is 
 chiefly remarkable for the large quantity of plate care- 
 fully described, and giving an insight into the names 
 and uses of the cups and bowls of the period : — 
 
 " Eefectorium. In Refectorio vj. Pecise planse sine cooperculis, 
 
 sunt, xiij. Cuppae deauratse, 
 quarum, xij. cum cooperculis, et 
 una sine cooperculo. 
 
 ij. Cuppas non deauratae, cum 
 uno cooperculo. 
 
 una Pecia cam pede, habens co- 
 operculum cum aquila in sum- 
 mitate ejusdem. 
 
 j. Pecia cum cooperculo, stans 
 super iiij. angelis deauratis. 
 
 iiij. Peciae planse, quondam Ri- 
 cardi Hessewell, cum cooper- 
 culo habente nodum latum cum 
 nomine ejusdem in eodem in- 
 sculpto. 
 
 ij. Peciae planae cum ij. cooper- 
 culis. 
 
 nuper Johannis Pissheburn. 
 viij. Peciae planse, diversarum 
 
 sectarum. 
 vj.Bikkez m diversarum sectarum. 
 xiij. Bikkes cum ij. cooperculis. 
 j. Pecia magna et profunda, quon- 
 dam Thomse Gretham. 
 xij. Bikkez antiqua in custodia 
 
 Johannis Dale. 
 iij.Nuces 11 cum iij. pedibus ar- 
 
 genteis et deauratis, quarum 
 
 una cum cooperculo. 
 x xx xj. Coclearia argenti diverso- 
 
 rum operum et ponderis. 
 duae Ollae argentese, utraquc 
 
 continente unum potellum. 
 duae Piolae argenteae et dcauratae. 
 
 1 MS. Sloane, No. 1,986, p. 30. 
 m A largo cup called a beaker. 
 n Cocoa-nut cups. 
 
 Ollce, Fiolse, and Murraj are differ- 
 ent kinds of cups and howls, which it 
 is not necessary here to describe. 
 
70 
 
 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE I FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 iij. Salsaria cum cooperculis pro 
 eisdem. 
 
 xj . Salsaria argcntca imius sectco, 
 pro sale. 
 
 iiij. Salsaria argcntca divcrsarum 
 scctarum. 
 
 xij. Disci argcnti cum litcris &e. 
 ff.P supra borduram. 
 
 v. Doblcrs argcnti. 
 
 xj. Salsaria divcrsorum operum. 
 
 xij . Platers et ij . Chargeours ar- 
 gcnti cum Uteris 3ft coronatis et 
 armis Walteri Skirlawe, ex dono 
 Ricardi Hessewcll. 
 
 j . Murra cum pede deaurato, vo- 
 cata ^eifcefonfee, cum cooper- 
 culo. 
 
 alia Murra larga et magna vocata 
 
 Stbdl, sine cooperculo. 
 una alia Murra pro alta mensa in 
 
 Refectorio, cum cooperculo. 
 unus Ciphus vocatus 13ct)a. 
 
 xij. Murrse magnse et largce cum 
 uno cooperculo; quorum iij. 
 cum pedibus. 
 
 xxxiij. Murrse usuales, et una 
 
 Nux cum ij. cooperculis." 
 
 In the hall of the prior's house, at the same date : — 
 
 "In Aula. j. Dorsale continens 
 sex pecias cum Avibus Sancti 
 Cuthberti et armis Ecclesise. 
 iij. PeciaG de blodeo brodrato cum 
 sertis et ^eo gr'aS, et duce Pe- 
 cia3 non brodratse. • 
 
 And in an inventory of 1498, taken in the college at 
 Bishop's Auckland, we read of — 
 
 vi. Qwisshons cum leonibus coro- 
 natis, et scriptura t)e la 2ftot. 
 
 iij. Pelves de auricalco cum iij. 
 lavacris, quorum ij. apud Beare- 
 payr." 
 
 " i. Almery (cupboard), 
 i. Bord with trests (trestles), 
 j. choppy ng knyfe. 
 i. Ymage of o r Ladye. 
 iij. mete bords, remouahle. 
 iij. pay re trests. 
 
 :< iiij. fourmys (forms), 
 j. cobbord. 
 
 i. hangyng of grene say* 1 , 
 iij. old latyne Basyngs. 
 ij. ewers to ye same, 
 x. old standis of tre (wood)." 
 
 The hall of a vicar of this period, we learn by an in- 
 ventory attached to his will (14 L2), contained — 
 
 ij. mensse cum trestellis (sets of 
 
 planks with trestles,) xiis. 
 Duse pelves cum lavacris (basins 
 with jugs), iiij*-" 
 
 <k ij. Dorsoria cum uno Banwher 
 (dorsars and bankers were ex- 
 plained in our last volume), 
 xxiijs. ivd. 
 xii. whysshynes (cushions), xii^. 
 
 p Probably belonging to the refec- 
 torium. 
 
 i "Say" is a kind of cloth, called also 
 
 "sling." It is often found in inven- 
 tories under the Latin de sago. 
 
THE HALL. 71 
 
 Again, in the inventory of John Danby we find he 
 had — 
 
 "Itf culsidr' (in cushions), j. dos et j. bankor (one dorser and 
 banker), iiijj." 
 
 A brass eagle remained till recently in Magdalen Col- 
 lege hall, Oxford, from which Scripture was read during 
 meals. When the custom ceased, the piece of furniture 
 was discarded. 
 
 Although Chairs 1 " and buffet stools were, during this 
 period, in more general use, and were often very beau- 
 tifully decorated with needle- work, benches and forms 
 were still the seats in the hall. The tables were of the 
 rudest make. The poets of the age, faithful in their de- 
 lineations, describe them as mere "bordes" and trestles. 
 The high table at which the lord sat was moveable, but 
 the side tables were generally fixtures of coarse materials 
 and workmanship, and made by carpenters ; these were 
 the tables u dormant." Lydgate writes : — 
 
 " Eke in the halle it was conrnable, 
 On ech party was a dormant table 8 ." 
 
 Even as late as the reign of Henry viii., the great 
 halls in the palaces of that monarch contained little 
 else but " tables dormaunte" and "fformes dormaunteV 
 These were a part of the usual hall " fittings," and were 
 sometimes included in the builder's contract, and re- 
 paired by the landlord. A tenement belonging to Ed- 
 ward iv., and let for the support of the great wardrobe, 
 was repaired in 1480, and "a quarter of tymbre" was 
 
 r The Duchess of Orleans bought of Addit. Chnrt., No. 2,776. MS. illumi- 
 
 Jehan de Troies " a chair for her cham- nations would lead us to the supposition 
 
 her, the four legs of which were painted that the chamber furniture v, as usually 
 
 vermillion, with a cover on which were painted. 
 
 depicted dogs and birds, and other de- s MS. Keg. 18 D. vi. fo. 21. a. 
 
 vices, garnished with a fringe of soy." 1 MS. Karl. 1,419, fo. 417. h. 
 
7:1 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 purchased "for the benches in the allV It was speci- 
 fied in the contract for Hcngrave that " the same hall 
 was to be benched abouteV 
 
 In an inventory of goods belonging to the monastery 
 of Peterborough at the time of the dissolution, we find 
 in the abbot's hall, " Four fixed tables, four forms, one 
 table 7 with two trestles at the high bench, some old 
 tapestry hangings, one cupboard, one chair, and one 
 chaffer 2 ." In the Guildhall of Boston we learn by an in- 
 ventory that there were eight tables on the north side of 
 the hall, joined and nailed to the trestles, and seven on 
 the south side, similarly arranged, with twelve forms 
 placed by the sides of the tables, and three tables and 
 three forms in the chapel chamber. There was also, it 
 seems, a smaller table covered with parchment, " noted 
 with Antems of our Lady, with 3 collecs," and covered 
 with linen cloth. By the same inventory we also learn 
 that the hall was lighted by " five candlestykcs hyngynge 
 like potts," whereof the highest had five branches, and 
 each of the others three. Six table-cloths are stated to 
 have been renewed in the time of Mr. Tomlynson, alder- 
 man. A great quantity of other table-linen is mentioned 
 in this part of the roll: the table-cloths are of great 
 length, — six, seven, and even nine yards long a . 
 
 A manuscript in the British Museum of 13 Henry vi. 
 gives a list of the royal furniture ; we find, however, but 
 little except tables, moveable and " dormant," cupboards, 
 
 u MS. Harl. 4,780, fo. 23. a. z Stevens' Continuation to Dngclale's 
 
 x Gage's Hengrave, p. 42. Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. i. p. 487. 
 
 y The word "table" had then the a It is not certain that all the furni- 
 
 sarae signification as the Latin word ture mentioned was in use in the hall in 
 
 tabula, and did not include the frame the fifteenth century, as the inventory 
 
 and legs on which it rests, as in modern bears the date of 1534, hut it is very 
 
 usage. In most cases, as above, the probable that no material change took 
 
 table, or board, was detached and rested place, 
 on trestles. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 LOCKER. 
 
 HOUSE IN THE CLOSE, LINCOLN. 
 
 WATER-DRAIN. 
 
 MOAT-HOUSE, APPLEBY, LEICESTERSHIRE. 
 
THE HALL. 73 
 
 forms, and stools, but the catalogue is rich in cloth, 
 damask, and satin coverings for these articles 15 . The 
 cupboard was an important item in the furniture of the 
 hall. It was sometimes called an ambry, or almery c , 
 and used for displaying the plate : — 
 
 "The cupborde with plate shynyng fayre and clere d ." 
 
 The almery, however, not being confined to the hall, will 
 be treated of more at length in a subsequent chapter. 
 
 The plate was also frequently kept in a Locker, or 
 cupboard, in the wall, and this was made ornamental, as 
 at Little Wenham Hall. A good example also remained 
 in a house in the close at Lincoln so recently as 1848, 
 but has lately been destroyed. It was ornamented with 
 shields of armorial bearings, the two on the sides repre- 
 sented as hanging from pegs. 
 
 The furniture of the royal manors as late as the reign 
 of Henry vm. was of a meagre description, it required 
 no greater skill than that of a common carpenter to 
 make it e . The high bench or principal seat, however, was 
 sometimes elaborately carved and ornamented, and the 
 dorsers and bankers were exquisitely worked. Interest- 
 ing specimens of state chairs of this period may be seen 
 in a beautiful manuscript in the Cottonian collection^ 
 The common forms upon which the guests sat were also 
 covered with rich bankers : — 
 
 " The bankers on the binkes lay and fayre lordes yfondeS." 
 
 A list of the tapestry and arras belonging to Henry v. 
 is preserved among the Bolls of Parliament; many of 
 
 b MS. Additional, No. 17,721, ff. 45, e Additional MS. 10,109, fo. 83. See 
 
 48. Appendix of Illustrations. 
 
 c Archaeological Journal, vol. v. p. f Marked Aug. A. v. ff. 103, 11G. 
 
 319. s MS. Cottonian Julius v. fo. 175. 
 
 d Lyfe of Saynt Werburge. 
 
 L 
 
74j DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 the pieces intended for the decoration of the hall were 
 worked "with Scriptural and emblematical histories 11 , 
 
 The Layers, lavacra, so frequently mentioned in the 
 inventories, require some further notice. They were small 
 basins of silver or metal richly enamelled, about the 
 size, and not very unlike, a modern soup-plate or hot- 
 water-plate, with a spout to pour the water out of. A 
 very rich one was exhibited in 1857 to the Society of 
 Antiquaries and to the Archaeological Institute by Mr. 
 Franks, and is engraved in the Journal of the Institute : 
 it is now, we believe, preserved in the British Museum. 
 These lavers were used for the guests at the high table 
 only ; the people in the body of the hall were expected 
 to wash at the fixed lavatory near the entrance, usually 
 behind the screen, where they were often attached by 
 means of a chain. In the hall of St. Mary's Guild at 
 Boston, already referred to, the inventory mentions — 
 
 " A laver of laten, hangynge with a chayne of yron." 
 
 Connected with the lavatory there was usually a water- 
 drain behind the screen, near the entrance, remains of 
 which may frequently be found, as at South Wingfield 
 Manor-house, and Dacre Castle. It is often of the same 
 form as the piscina in a church : more frequently it was 
 a plain square block of stone, with a basin hollowed out, 
 and a pipe from it, as at the Moat-house, Appleby, 
 Leicestershire. In the Irish tower-houses the water- 
 drain is near the entrance of the upper room, or principal 
 chamber. Water-drains are also found in other Cham- 
 bers, and will be further described under that head. 
 
 The custom of Dining in the hall, which in the four- 
 teenth century had begun to decline, now became more 
 often relinquished, not, however, without an effort on the 
 
 h Rot. Pari., vol. iv. p. 214. 
 
I 
 
 THE HALL. 75 
 
 part of many lovers of time-honoured customs to retain 
 this usage of a chivalric age. In a curious transcript 
 made in this century of some statutes for the ordering 
 of a family, originally framed by Grosteste, Bishop of 
 Lincoln, the lord is admonished — 
 
 " As muche as may withoute peril of sykenes and weryneys ete 
 ge in the halle afore youre meyny fFor that schal be to youre profyte 
 and worschippe V 
 
 But in spite of this admonition, which it had been found 
 necessary to promulgate, dining in chambers was, to the 
 scandal of all lovers of right government, fast growing 
 into favour with the rich, whose increased luxuries ren- 
 dered a too close sociability with their dependants incon- 
 venient and expensive. In addition to the instances 
 already cited, we find in the rules made for the royal 
 household in 1458, that the marshal of the hall was to 
 see " That the order of settynge in the halle be kepte 
 aftir the olcle custome k and even in the early days of 
 Queen Elizabeth it was considered a good household 
 precept that "all eatinge in chambers should be prohi- 
 bited other than suche as are ordynarely allowed to kepe 
 chambers 1 . " Many years before this, however, we find 
 distinct directions, among " Certen Artycles for Eegu- 
 latyng the Householde" of Henry vn., for the ceremo- 
 nies to be observed in " settyng the kynges borde" in 
 his bed-chamber: — 
 
 " Also if the kyng sytt in the chamber, than the borde must be on 
 the lyft hand ; for ever where as the bedds hede ys, and the chymney, 
 that must be the upper ende off the borde, and at that end must the 
 bisshopp sytt, and the quene on the othyr hand of the kyng : ther ys 
 no odyr choyse, and ther as the bisshoppe sytteth shall he lay the 
 surnap for the kyng to Avasche with m , and hit plese the kyng, he may 
 
 ■ MS. Sloane, 1,986, p. 197. 
 
 k MS. Lansdowne, No. 1, fo. 73, a. 
 
 1 Ibid., No. 86, fo. 102. 
 
 m The surnape appears to have an- 
 swered the purpose of the modern table 
 napkin. Its arrangement on the table 
 
76 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 comand that day, ij persons, that is to say ij lords and ladycs, ij or 
 ellcs a lord and a lady, if so he the roome be large ynough*" 
 
 This must have been an inconvenient custom, and the 
 great chamber became a necessary apartment, not only as 
 a dining-parlour, but as a reception-room in which to 
 entertain guests whilst the tables were being laid in the 
 hall. In an English version of the Eomance of "Melu- 
 sinc," of the fifteenth century, the hall is described as 
 " hanged nobly withe riche clothes;" from the hall the 
 guests were led into another chamber, "moche noble 
 and riche." Here they were entertained until "there 
 came the sty ward and enclyned hym, said, My lady ye 
 may wesche whan it playse ye, for al thyng is redy to 
 dyner. . . . And then they toke eche other by the hand 
 and wesschc ." 
 
 Of the interior, when used for the purpose of receiving 
 
 was attended with much ceremony. See 
 MS. Additional, 4,712, fo. 9, b, and MS. 
 Harl. 305, fo. 3. " The maner of draw- 
 ynge the surnape at the coronacon of 
 Quene Anne" (Boleyn) is minutely de- 
 scribed by John Stevens, "marshal! of 
 the seid halle," in MS. Additional, 
 6,113, fo. 34, a. On that occasion the 
 surnape was carried by the Earl of 
 Rutland. At the royal table it was 
 sometimes placed before the bishop : 
 "The kynge made a bek unto the 
 bysshoppe when he schal wasch." MS. 
 Add. 4,712, fo. 4, a. The surnape was 
 of rich diaper damask, and often hand- 
 somely adorned with a fringe. Among 
 the stuff in the great wardrobe in 
 the Tower in 12 Hen. Till., was "a 
 surnape clothe of launde, embrandered 
 w ithe golde at bothe ends and fringes at 
 endes withe golde," valued at Ixs. MS. 
 Harl. 4,217, sect. 10. They were used 
 when the lavers, filled with rose- 
 water, were brought round after dinner. 
 Although Le Grand d'Aussy affirms that 
 
 the English did not use table-napkins 
 at this period, we find "Napkyns de 
 Reyns," or linen of Reims in Cham- 
 pagne, among the effects of Henry V. 
 Rot. Pari. iv. p. 228. And in a MS. 
 written 1452 we have this line : — 
 
 "Youre sponys and napkyns fay re folde 
 woulde be." 
 
 Also, 
 
 " Lay thy soueraynes napkyn clenely." 
 
 MS. Sloane, 1,315, fo. 5. 
 
 In the sixteenth century notices of them 
 are common enough. They were manu- 
 factured in France and Flanders, with 
 the royal arms and initials for our sove- 
 reigns. See Arclmologia, xxvii. p. 421. 
 
 n MS. Additional, 4,712, fo. 9, a. In 
 an account of the reception of the am- 
 bassador from Charles of Burgoigne by 
 Edward iv. and his Queen, we read, 
 " The quene dyd to be ordeined a grete 
 bankette in her owne chambre." MS. 
 Additional, 6,113, fo. 105, a. 
 
 ° MS. Reg. 18. B. ii. fo. 119, h- 
 Brit. Mus. 
 
/ 
 
DOMKSTIC ARCHITECTURE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM MSS. IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY. 
 
 INTERIOR OF A HALL. 
 Shelving the Dais, the Plate -cupboard, the Minstrels' Gallery, <f-c. 
 
 From a MS. of Quintus Curtius. 
 
I 
 
 THE HALL. 77 
 
 guests, we find a very faithful delineation in a MS. of 
 Quintus Curtius, of the date of the fifteenth century, pre- 
 served in the Bodleian. It will be seen by the engraving 
 that the tables and trestles have been removed. Atten- 
 tion should be paid to the buffet, with the plates, cups, 
 and bowls, &c, on one side of the dais, and the minstrels' 
 gallery at the end of the hall. Many guests have already 
 arrived, and it will be seen that the servants are handing 
 refreshments. The jester, also, occupies a prominent 
 position, and throughout the costumes are very cha- 
 racteristic. 
 
 "No serious innovation took place, however, until the 
 beginning of the sixteenth century, when the introduc- 
 tion of the banqueting-room, or dining-parlour, led the 
 upper classes gradually to abandon the custom of eating 
 with their retainers in the hall, and we find an allusion 
 to it in the Ordinances of Eltham, made in 1526, where 
 it is stated that " Sundrie noblemen and gentlemen and 
 others doe muche delighte and use to dyne in corners 
 and secret places, not repayring to the kinges chamber 
 or halP." This is also evident by the fact that few 
 domestic buildings were without dining-rooms entirely 
 detached from the hall. In the accounts of the Surveyor- 
 General to Henry viii., before referred to, we find a 
 statement of the repairs done to the "kynges dynyng 
 chamber," and also to the " quenys dynyng chamber," 
 at the manor of Greenwich q . 
 
 The partial disuse of the great hall led to many archi- 
 tectural innovations. A good example of this occurs at 
 Wanswell Court, Gloucestershire, where the space that 
 would usually have been allotted for the dais and the 
 high table is parted off from the rest of the hall by a 
 
 p Collection of Ordinances for the 4to., 1790, p. 153. 
 Government of the Royal Household. «* MS. Additional 10,109, fo. 89. 
 
78 
 
 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 solid screen, and so made into a separate dining-room; 
 a lath-and-plaster partition has since been carried from 
 the top of the screen, which was finished with an orna- 
 mental battlement, np to the roof, but it is evident 
 that this upper part was originally open. In Hampton 
 Court Palace there is a dining-chamber at the upper end 
 of the hall, and no dais ; and although the present floor 
 is not original, the levels of the different doors shew that 
 the original arrangement has been followed. 
 
 Chambers were sometimes built above it ; the fine high 
 timber roofs, so characteristic of the old halls, were not 
 now an invariable feature. Instead of the lord's solar or 
 chamber being built over a cellar at one end of the hall, 
 it was sometimes over the hall itself. Among the " rapa- 
 racons maade and doon" in a tenement appertaining to 
 the Great Wardrobe of Edward iv., money was " payd to 
 "William Eorton for borde, naill, and lome, for cering and 
 amendyng of the chambre flore, that duste shoulde not falle 
 downe vppon them that sittes and occupies his halle 1 ' 
 and in the contract for Hengrave the builder was to 
 " seal ye ij. grett chambers above ye deysshe 8 ." Among 
 the Bymer MSS. in the British Museum there is a 
 petition presented to Henry vi. in 14-15, by William 
 Clebe, clerk of the works, which may serve to illustrate 
 the history of the royal hall at Eltham, It is addressed 
 to the king, as follows :— 
 
 " Shewetli unto Your Hyghness youre pouer chapelyn Willy am Clebe, 
 clerk of youre werks, that late of newe hath made by your commaund- 
 ment at your Tour of London a kechen with al other maner of offices, 
 with loggings thereto belonging and a new draght bry gge, and as yet 
 rccyvcd never in money xld., and now late there is appoynted by your 
 counsail to make in all hast possible for the plesir of Your Highnes and 
 necessary resort of straingers to come in likely hast to your manoir of 
 Eltham, for a new halle with a squillery, saucery and surveyng place, 
 
 r MS. Harl. 4,780, fo. 21a. * Gage's Ilengrave, p. 43. 
 
J 
 
 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 THE HALL, 
 
 WAN8WELL COURT, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 
 
THE HALL. 79 
 
 al of new and reformacon honourable for the Queues loggyng there as 
 now desolated, & at Shene the waterbrigge, the great quadrangle with 
 a gatehous, all of new to be made for necessary logging of your worship- 
 full houshould, with closer of brike toured aboute your gardein ther, 
 and at Westminster the Grete chamboure for your graciouse personne, 
 and the Quenes logging, with the Parlement chambre and Payntcd 
 chambre, with reformation of your conduyts there, and ordinance for 
 the scaffold to be made in Westm. Chirch for the estate of the coro- 
 nation. Plese it therefore your highnesse to commaunde youre Tre- 
 sorer onward for puryance & hasty expedition of the necessities afor- 
 saide unto your saide clerk good assignment of sili. to be receyvd of the 
 first payment of the dismes granted vnto your highnes by the clergy, 
 and he therefor to answer you in his account byfore youre barons in 
 your escheker, consideryng that the said Willyam hath & most payne 
 hym for to purvey money the mene v c . marc or more to pay wekely 
 pouer workemen, laborers stuff and cariage, to goddys plesir and profit, 
 as hit shall appeare by Gods grace for Gods love and for pile of your 
 said places V 
 
 The Customs and the etiquette observed at the feasts 
 were similar to those of the previous age. The guests 
 washed before and after meals, but the usage was at- 
 tended with more ceremony than formerly, and when 
 the ewerer brought water 
 
 " He schal knele down upon his kne, 
 Ellys he forgetes his curtaseV 
 
 It was also the duty of the ewerer to lay the cloth 
 upon the table, and " much lore y wys" was required on 
 his part to fulfil this portion of his duty to perfection: — 
 
 " The ewerer schal hele his lordes borde, 
 Withe dowbull napere at on bare worde, 
 The seluage to the lordes syde withe wine, 
 And doune schal henge that other way wynne. 
 The overe nape schal dowbull be layde, 
 To the ottur syde ye seluage brade, 
 The other seluage he schal replye, 
 As towell hit were fayrest in hye x ." 
 
 The " borde clothes" were not always white, but ap- 
 
 1 MS. Additional, 4,609, p. 409. 
 
 u MS. Sloane, 1,986, p. 40. 
 
 x Ibid. 
 
80 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 pear from many passages in old romances to have been 
 embroidered with various materials : — 
 
 " The tables were covered with cloths of dyaper 
 Richly enlarged with siluer and withe golde?." 
 
 The cloth being laid, the panterer brought forth the 
 bread, wrapped in a white napkin, the salt, the knives, 
 and the spoons, all of which were to be placed on the 
 table with much ceremony and form. The 
 
 " Sailer y coveryd and sett in route," 
 
 was placed at the top of the table, and a large loaf at the 
 side of it. This was at the high seat, and it was there 
 that three knives and a spoon were usually laid : — 
 
 " Of the two the haftes schynne outwarde be, 
 Of the thrydde the hafte inwarde lays he, 
 The spony stele therby schall be layde 2 ." 
 
 The carver then entered the hall, and took his place at 
 the table : — 
 
 " Smal towell aboute his neck schall bene 
 To clens his knyfys that ben so kene a ," 
 
 and at once commenced the cautious process of assaying. 
 He cut a slice off the loaf and gave it to the paneter, who, 
 kneeling, immediately tasted it. The squire who hap- 
 pened to perform the office of carver then went to the 
 kitchen, and cutting a piece off the meat, gave it to the 
 master cook, who assayed it in a similar manner. The 
 sewer and his assistants then placed the covers upon the 
 dishes, and as the clarions and trumpets of the waits 
 struck up a joyous tune, they were carried into the great 
 hall b . The men whom the sewer employed to carry the 
 
 y Lyfe of Saynte Werburge. 
 * MS. Sloane, 1,986, fo. 41. 
 a Ibid., p. 42. 
 
 b See a good illustration of the carver 
 and his assistants, from the Luttrell 
 Psalter, in a former part of this work, 
 vol. ii. p. 124. The name of the office 
 
 of sewer is derived from the old French 
 esculier, or the scutellarius, i.e. the per- 
 son who had to arrange the dishes, in 
 the same way as the scutellery (scullery) 
 was by rights the place where the dishes 
 were kept. 
 
THE HALL. 81 
 
 meat were strictly enjoined never to raise the covers, lest 
 they should excite suspicion of treason : — 
 
 " Whosoever he takes that mete to bere 
 Schal not so hardy the coverture rere, 
 ffor colde ne hote I warne you alle, 
 ffor suspecyone of treson as may befalle." 
 
 The process of assaying again commenced : — 
 
 " When the sewer corny s unto the borde, 
 All the mete he sayes at on bare worde, 
 The potage fyrst withe brede ycorvyn, 
 Couerys horn agayn lest they ben storvyn. 
 With fysshe or nesshe yf he be serued, ' 
 A m or sell thereof schall he be kervyd. 
 And touche the messe over alle aboute, 
 The sewer hit etes withouten doubte. 
 Withe baken mete yf he servyd be tho ? 
 The laydes up rered or he fyr go, 
 The paste or pye he sayes'withinne, 
 Dippes brede in grave no more ne myne c ." 
 
 The wines were also tasted in a like manner by the 
 butler, and even a cup of water was not given to the lord 
 without being carefully assayed. The guests, now being 
 satisfied as to the flavour and wholesomeness of the fare, 
 commenced their gastronomic operations, and the carver 
 found ample opportunity for the exercise of his skill. 
 Upon the nature of the entertainment, of the " subtilties" 
 of the "arte of cury" laid before the guests, of the de- 
 licious mortrews, and of the poignant sauces, we have 
 not space to dilate, but must say with Lydgate, in one 
 of his pieces, — 
 
 " The dynere coursis eke at euery feste, 
 The large plente done unto ye leste, 
 The straunge metis ye maner of ye seruyse, 
 Y passe over ffor y was not yere d ." 
 
 Before a trenchour was raised, however, grace was said 
 
 c MS. Sloane, 1,986, p. 44. d MS. Cottonian, Aug. A. iv. fo. 46. a. 
 
 M 
 
82 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 with a loud voice, and the aumenere placed the almsdish 
 upon the board, into which a good " chet lofe" was put 
 before bread was distributed to any of the guests. This 
 was one of those pleasing and benevolent customs which 
 our forefathers of old most readily approved, and which 
 Churchmen loved to introduce into domestic life. The 
 aumenere, or elemosinario, was usually the chaplain of 
 the lord, and by virtue of his office he carried a rod or 
 staff in his hand : — 
 
 " All the broken mete he kepys y wate, 
 To dole to pore men at ye gate. 
 And drynke yt leves serued in halle, 
 Of ryche and pore, bothe grete & smalle, 
 He is sworne to overse the servis well, 
 And dele it to the pore euery dele e ." 
 
 It is to be feared that this good custom, founded in 
 charity and love, was sometimes abused, and that which 
 was designed for the " pore men at ye gate" went too 
 often into the scullery and the kitchen, to form a riot- 
 ous repast for the grooms and knaves of the household. 
 " Commande 3e," says Bishop Grosteste, in his rules for 
 the ordering of a family, " that youre almys be kepyd, 
 and sende not to boys and knafis, nother in the halle, 
 nother outh of ye halle, ne be wasted in soperys ne dyners 
 of gromys, but wysely, temperately, and withoute bate or 
 letyng be hit distributed & deportyd to poure men, beg- 
 gers, syke folke & febullV It was probably in conse- 
 quence of this pilfering of the poor man's fare that Lord 
 Howard was induced in 1482 to pay twopence "for a lok 
 for the alms tobbee." The almsdish was sometimes a 
 beautiful ornament to the table, being enriched with 
 chasings and encircled with mottoes. At the feasts of 
 
 e MS. Sloane, No. 1,986, fo. 43. tubs, but also baskets, were used for 
 
 i Ibid., p. 194. the alms. 
 
 b Household Book, p. 228. Not only 
 
/ 
 
 THE HALL. 83 
 
 Henry vi. a most magnificent almsdish was displayed, 
 which was called the " Tiger;" and an indenture is still 
 in existence testifying that it had been duly received 
 into the custody of the royal treasurer 11 . 
 
 At the conclusion of the meal, the usher brought in 
 the basins and towels, and 
 
 " Whenne they have waschen and grace is sayde, 
 Away he takes at a brade, 
 Awoydes the borde unto the flore, 
 Tase away the trestes that ben so store i ." 
 
 Perhaps there is no class of books more illustrative of 
 domestic manners than those which treat of etiquette. 
 They display the usages of the polite society of their re- 
 spective ages, present to us faithful portraitures of the 
 man of fashion and of the gentleman, and serve as land- 
 marks by which to distinguish the various stages of our 
 social refinement. Several curious and interesting relics 
 of this nature, appertaining to the period we are now 
 considering, have been preserved, and from a comparison 
 of them we are enabled to lay down the rules which " a 
 man of curtasye" was to observe "atte borde," from his 
 first arrival at the gate to the close of the repast : — 
 
 " When thou comes to a lordis gate, 
 The porter thou schall fynde theratte." 
 
 And he was to 
 
 " Aske hym leve in to go 
 To speke with lorde, lady, squyer or grome." 
 
 According to the etiquette of the day, if the party sought 
 or visited " be of logh degre," it was usual for him to 
 leave the hall and meet his visitor, but 
 
 " Yf he be gentylmen of kyn, 
 The porter wille lede the to hym." 
 
 h Ancient Kalenders and Inventories, vol. iii. p. 370. 
 1 MS. Sloane, 1,986, p. 46. 
 
81 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE I FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 On arriving at the hall door he was to take off his 
 hood and gloves, and if the company "be at the first 
 mete," he was to make his obeisance to the host : — 
 
 " And sithen byfore the strene thou stonde 
 In myddys ye halle upon ye flore, 
 Whille marshale or ussher come fro ye dore 
 And bydde the sitt or to the borde the lade." 
 
 Before taking his seat, however, he washed his hands 
 in the lavatory; and whilst "atte borde" he was to be 
 careful of his personal demeanour, above all to be 
 "stabull of chere," and "lyttull of worde." The way 
 he cut and eat his bread was one of the tests and indi- 
 cations of good manners, and the rule of etiquette upon 
 this point is detailed with much minuteness. On sitting 
 down to meat, the man of " curtasy" cut his bread in 
 two, dividing the crumb from the crust : — 
 
 " In forme then kutt the over dole, 
 Sett horn togedur as hit were hole, 
 Sithen kutt the nether crust in thre." 
 
 He was not to bite his bread, for he is told — 
 
 " That is no curtesye to use in toun, 
 But breke as much as thou wylle ete, 
 The remelant to pore thou schalt lete." 
 
 Having achieved this with becoming dexterity, he was 
 to lay his trenchorn before him, to "sitte up ryghte," 
 and to be careful to give no indication of an inordinate 
 appetite. If any spoke to him whilst he was engaged 
 in eating, he was to tarry until he had finished his 
 morsel before he replied. It was a mark of ill-breeding 
 to eat on both sides of the mouth, and was one which 
 was apt to excite the contempt of those better informed 
 in the usages of polite society : — 
 
 " On bothe halfe thy mouthe yf that thou ete, 
 Mony a skorne schall thou gete, 
 
THE HALL. 85 
 
 Thou shalt not laughe, ne speke no thyng, 
 
 While thi mouthe be full of mete ne drinke, 
 
 Ne snipe not with grete sowndyng, 
 
 Nother potage ne other thyng, 
 
 Let not thei spone stond in thy dysshe, 
 
 Whether thou be serued with flesshe or fysshe, 
 
 No lay hit not on thy dysshe syde, 
 
 But clense hit honestly with outen pride." 
 
 He was to look that his fingers disclosed no signs of 
 pollution, and to see that his "nayles were clene and 
 blythe," lest he should foul the white cloth before him. 
 One would have thought an admonition such as this 
 unnecessary to a frequenter of baronial halls, did we 
 not find other indications of a still greater coarseness of 
 manners. " Whoso woulde of curtasye lere" is gravely 
 told that if he spits over the table he will be "holden 
 an uncurtasye man;" and our ideas of the refinement 
 of the manners of the age will not be increased by 
 reading that — 
 
 " Yf thi nose thou clene, as may befalle, 
 Take thy honde thou clene wythalle, 
 Priuely wyth skyrt do hit awaye, 
 Or ellis thrugh thi tepit that is so gaye." 
 
 He was not so far to forget his good breeding as to pick 
 his teeth at meals, — 
 
 "Withe knyfe, ne stre styk, ne wand ;" 
 
 nor to wipe them with the "borde clothe," but observe 
 at all times a becoming delicacy of manners. He was 
 not to lean his elbows on the table, nor u atte wine" to 
 take the principal seat, unless especially invited to do 
 so ; and he was to observe, in quaffing his wine, that he 
 held the cup with due gentility : — 
 
 " Dip not thi thombe thy drinke into, 
 Thou art uncurtasye yf thou hit do." 
 
86 
 
 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 And further on he is warned of losing all claim to good 
 manners if he dipped his food into the salt-cellar : — 
 
 " In salt saler yf that thou pit, 
 Either fysshe or flesshe that men may wyt, 
 Yt is a vyce as men me telles, 
 And gret wonder hit most he ellis." 
 
 In addition to all these rules of etiquette, he was to be 
 careful when he washed after meat, that he did not spit 
 about the floor, or before any one to whom respect was 
 due ; and finally, we are told that — 
 
 " Who so dispyse this lesson ryzt, 
 At borde to sitt he hase no myzt J." 
 
 The customs of France and England were so much the 
 same, that the following description of a hall in the fif- 
 teenth century is equally applicable to either country. 
 It contains several curious pieces of information relating 
 to the manners of the time : — ■ 
 
 " Dedans la sale du logis (car en avoir deux cela tient du grand) la 
 corne de cerf ferree et attachee au plancher, ou pendoient bonnets, 
 chapeaux, gresliers k , couples 1 et lesses m pour les chiens, et le gros 
 chapelet de patenostres pour le commun. Et sur le dressoiier, ou buffet 
 a deux estages, la saincte Bible de la traduction commandee par le 
 roy Charles le Quint 11 , y a plus de deux cens ans, les quatre Fils Aymon, 
 Oger le Danois, Melusine, le Calendrier des Bergiers, la Legende doree, 
 ou le Romant de la Roze. Derriere la grand' porte, force longues et 
 grandes gaules de gibier , et au bas de la sale, sur bois cousus et 
 entravez dans la muraille, demie-douzaine d'arcs, avec leurs carquois 
 et flesch.es, deux bonnes et grandes rondeles P, avec deux espees courtes 
 et larges, deux halebardes, deux piques de vingt-deux pieds de long, 
 deux ou trois cottes ou chemises de mailles dans le petit coffret plein 
 de son, deux fortes arbalestes de passe, avec leurs bandages et garrots 
 dedens, et en la grand' fenestre, sur la cheminee, trois hacquebutes . . . 
 et au joignant la perche pour l'espervier, et plus bas a coste les ton- 
 
 j MS. Sloane, No. 1,986, p. 21. n Charles V. of France, called "the 
 
 k Hunting-horns. Wise." 
 
 1 Coplings. Pegs to hang game upon. 
 
 m Cords; Fr. laisses. * Bucklers. 
 
THE HALL. 87 
 
 nelles, esclotoueres, rets, filets, pantieres, et autres engins de chasse. 
 Et sous le grand banc de la sale, large de trois pieds, la belle paille 
 fresche pour coucher les chiens, lesquels, pour ouyr et sentir leurs 
 maistre pres d'eux, en sont meilleurs et vigoureux. Au demeurant, 
 deux assez bonnes chambres pour les survenans et estrangers, et, en la 
 cheminee, de beau gros bois verd, larde d'un ou deux fagots sees, qui 
 rendent un feu de longue duree Q." 
 
 There were the stag's antlers for hanging the hats and 
 caps upon, and to which were attached the hunting-horns 
 and the coupling-cords of the dogs, as also the rosaries 
 for the use of the common people. Upon the " dresser, " 
 or sideboard, was placed the translation of the Bible as 
 authorized by Charles v. of France a hundred years pre- 
 viously, beside various " romance" books of the period. 
 Behind the great door were the pegs to hang the game 
 upon. Upon the boarding at the end of the hall, and 
 over the chimney, were hung weapons, both offensive and 
 defensive, while on one side were the nets and other 
 instruments connected with hunting. It is curious to 
 notice, too, that beneath the large bench, which was three 
 feet wide, was strewed fresh straw for the hounds to lie 
 upon, that they might be close to their master; while 
 for strangers and guests two good chambers were pro- 
 vided in addition, and in the fireplace layers of green 
 and dry fagots, by which arrangement the fire burnt 
 more slowly. 
 
 q Les Contes et Discours d'Eutrapel, par Noel du Fail, 1732, 12ino., vol. ii. 
 pp. 45, 46. (Du temps present et passe.) 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. GENERAL ARRANGEMENT. 
 
 The gradual change from the strong castle to the 
 manor-house slightly fortified, and in which the fortifi- 
 cations appear to have been often as much for show as 
 for use, has been already mentioned: but something 
 more should be said about the usual plan and arrange- 
 ment of the house and the outbuildings; for although 
 these present infinite variety, there are still certain 
 general principles of arrangement which were adhered 
 to in all cases where the nature of the ground would 
 admit of it. The space enclosed by the outer wall and 
 surrounded by the moat was frequently of considerable 
 extent, and divided into several courts, corresponding to 
 the baileys of the earlier castles. The entrance was over 
 a bridge, originally a draw-bridge, with an outer forti- 
 fication or barbican ; but as time drew on, and the coun- 
 try became more peaceful, the bridge became generally 
 of stone or brick, and was protected by a gate-house on 
 the inner side only, with, at first, a portcullis, as at 
 Warwick, where it is still continued in use to add to 
 the grandeur of the whole effect ; but in the later houses 
 the portcullis generally disappears, and the gate-house 
 itself assumes a more peaceful and ornamental character, 
 and becomes of more importance a ; sometimes quite a 
 separate dwelling-house, as at Saltwood Castle, Kent, 
 and Athelhampton, Dorsetshire ; and the room over the 
 gateway is sometimes the chapel. 
 
 a See chapter vi. 
 
I 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 GATEWAY OF INNER CODBT, 
 
 WINGF1ELD MANOR, DERBYSHIRE. 
 
I 
 
 THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 89 
 
 Passing through the gateway, we enter the outer 
 court or bailey, which was generally of considerable 
 extent, and contained the farm buildings and the sta- 
 bles, or a part of them, as there were sometimes sta- 
 bles in the inner court also. The large barn and the 
 farm buildings of the fifteenth century often remain 
 nearly perfect, when the house itself has been destroyed ; 
 and in a few instances both have been preserved, as at 
 Place House, Tisbury, Wiltshire, which is one of the 
 most perfect houses of the fifteenth century that we have 
 remaining, and at Great Chalfield manor-house, also in 
 Wiltshire, and St. Donats Castle in Glamorganshire, 
 another very perfect example. At Great Chalfield the 
 outer court or farm-yard is on one side of the principal 
 court, and separated from it by the range of stables : the 
 inner gate-house forms a part of this range, and is not a 
 distinct building ; the outer gate-house has disappeared : 
 at South Wraxall the plan is nearly the same. 
 
 At South Wingfield manor-house the outer and inner 
 courts are also separated by a range of buildings, which are 
 to some extent fortified. The windows of the principal 
 apartments look into the inner court, as usual, and the 
 entrance to the hall is through a porch from this court, 
 with a small room over it, and a richly panelled parapet 
 and battlement. By the side of the porch, as shewn in 
 the upper part of our engraving, is a rich window to an 
 upper chamber, supposed to have been the chapel, as it 
 is the only rich window about the building, and there is 
 no other trace of a chapel: it is, however, an unusual 
 situation for one, being at the lower end of the hall, over 
 the buttery and pantry ; it is called the drawing-room, 
 but apparently without authority. In most of the castles 
 of South Wales there is a large outer bailey, in which the 
 farm buildings are situated ; and in the greater part of 
 
 N 
 
90 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 the castles and houses of this period the principal en- 
 trance must always have been through the farm-yard. 
 
 The inner bailey, or principal court, was also entered 
 by an archway under the inner gate-house, whether this 
 was detached or formed part of a range of buildings. 
 The court was frequently surrounded by buildings on 
 all sides, forming a quadrangle, as in the colleges of 
 Oxford and Cambridge, generally the most perfect types 
 we have remaining of the larger houses of the fifteenth 
 century, and at Penshurst and Knole, Kent. Sometimes 
 this court is of irregular shape, from the nature of the 
 ground, as at St. Donats, which stands upon a cliff over- 
 looking the Bristol Channel. At Cothele House, Corn- 
 wall, the inner quadrangle is perfect, the outer court 
 has almost disappeared, the farm buildings are destroyed, 
 and the gate-house turned into a stable. 
 
 This principal court was, however, not always sur- 
 rounded by buildings on all sides; the side facing the 
 principal front of the house has often a boundary wall 
 only, as at Chalfield, Tisbury, South Wraxall. At Tis- 
 bury, which is a smaller house than the others, the inner 
 gate-house forms one side of the court, the offices the 
 opposite one, with the principal front between them, con- 
 nected at the angles only. 
 
 At the back of the house was the servants' court, the 
 usual entrance to which was by the back door of the 
 hall, at the end of the screens. The kitchen often forms 
 one side of this court, and it is sometimes entirely sur- 
 rounded by the various offices, especially in the larger 
 houses, as at Fawsley, Northamptonshire. Sometimes 
 the courts are surrounded by walls, with detached build- 
 ings at irregular intervals, as at Dudley Castle, Stafford- 
 shire. There were frequently also wooden buildings 
 attached to the inside of the walls, sometimes with a 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 91 
 
 lean-to roof only, of which the corbels often remain, and 
 sometimes the put-log holes, and the weather-moulding ; 
 in other instances they seem to have been of a more im- 
 portant and permanent character, as chimneys are pro- 
 vided for them in the walls; but these wooden struc- 
 tures have almost entirely disappeared. 
 
 Before describing the general arrangement of the inte- 
 rior of the house, it should be observed that it was very 
 common in the fifteenth century, as well as in earlier 
 periods, to raise the whole of the habitable portion of the 
 house upon a Vaulted Substructure, divided into a series 
 of cellars or store-rooms, very substantially built, as a 
 security against fire. These were sometimes half under 
 ground, and in other instances merely built upon the 
 surface, and forming what may be called the ground- 
 floor of the house, although not usually consisting of habit- 
 able rooms, and often used as stables. These vaults often 
 remain when the whole of the superstructure has been 
 swept away, the upper part having frequently been of 
 wood only ; and such vaults are often very puzzling to 
 tyros in the study, who mistake them for the inhabited 
 rooms. Such vaults or cellars occur in houses of all 
 descriptions, in monasteries, in castles, in fortified towns. 
 Nearly the whole city of Chester is built upon a series 
 of them, with the Eows or passages made on the top of 
 the vaults. The whole town of Winchelsea also was 
 built upon them, and the upper parts of the houses were 
 almost entirely of wood\ 
 
 In a few instances the vaults are built on a larger 
 
 b The whole of the habitable apart- often erroneously called dungeons ; they 
 
 ments in the castle of Beaumaris stand are sometimes partially under ground, 
 
 upon such vaults, and a long series of sometimes entirely so: at Beaumaris 
 
 these vaults were only the pits of the they are merely built on the surface, 
 
 garderobes, and had no opening into and the same is the case in several of 
 
 them except from above : such pits are the castles of South Wales. 
 
92 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 scale, and more lofty, and are used for the servants' 
 apartments. Of this arrangement Warwick Castle affords 
 a fine example of the time of Richard II. : the kitchen 
 is one of this series of vaulted chambers, and remains 
 perfect and in use ; the other usual servants' chambers 
 follow in suite, and there are also the wine-cellar, the 
 beer-cellar, and the wood-cellar ; one of these contains a 
 lavatory and water-drain. These chambers are partially 
 under ground on the side next the court, but on the 
 other side, next the river, where the windows are, they 
 are far above it, on the cliff. These apartments remain 
 nearly in their original state, and are the most perfect 
 and interesting part of the house. 
 
 The arrangement of the principal apartments did not 
 differ materially at the beginning of this century from 
 that of the two preceding. The hall continues to occupy 
 the centre of the house, and is lofty, generally reaching 
 from the ground or the top of the vaults to the roof ; but 
 sometimes there was a room over it, as at Chepstow and 
 at Great Chalfield. At the lower end of the hall were 
 the servants' apartments, and at the upper end the family 
 apartments: in these two wings the rooms are com- 
 paratively small and low, each wing being commonly 
 divided into two or three stories ; and sometimes the 
 wings assume the form of towers, and are four or five 
 stories high. In general the number of these small 
 chambers increases as the building gets later in date, 
 and as these were chiefly bed-rooms, they shew an in- 
 creased degree of comfort and refinement; and the 
 custom of sleeping in the hall seems to have been gene- 
 rally discontinued, unless on special occasions when the 
 house was much crowded. The hall is sometimes almost 
 detached from the other buildings, having windows in 
 the gables at each end as well as on both sides, and is 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 93 
 
 connected with the other buildings by low rooms or pas- 
 sages only, as at Fawsley, Northamptonshire, and St. 
 Mary's Hall, Coventry. But in most cases the buildings 
 at either end are two stories high, and the roof is the 
 same height as that of the hall; sometimes the gable end 
 still stands clear above the two low stories attached on 
 the outside of it. — The arrangement of the offices and 
 the position of the kitchen continued much the same as 
 in the previous century, described in our last volume. — 
 The position of the chapel varies extremely, and there 
 seems to be no rule for it, excepting that it is always 
 near to the dais, and connected with it by a short pas- 
 sage or staircase. 
 
 At the upper end of the hall, at the back of the dais, 
 in the earlier period is generally the cellar, with the 
 solar or lord's chamber over it ; in the later period these 
 become the dining-room, and the drawing-room over it. 
 In some cases, as we have mentioned, the dais itself is 
 separated from the hall by a solid wall, and becomes a 
 distinct dining-room. In the time of Henry vn. and 
 viii. in the smaller houses the hall sometimes disap- 
 pears altogether, and its place is supplied by the dining- 
 room and drawing-room ; and this arrangement became 
 almost universal in the time of Elizabeth. The old halls 
 have also very frequently been divided by a floor into 
 two low rooms at a later time, while the old roof is still 
 preserved. 
 
 It is exceedingly difficult to apply the names of the 
 chambers which are entered in the inventories to the 
 different parts of a house, because as the change in the 
 arrangements of the rooms took place, sometimes new 
 names were adopted, at others the old names were re- 
 tained with a different signification. The Aula may, per- 
 haps, to the end of the century be considered as the chief 
 
94 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE ! FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 or largest room in the building, but while at the com- 
 mencement of the century it was more especially the 
 dining-chamber, towards the end, when the habit of 
 dining in separate rooms crept in, it was more frequently 
 employed as an audience-chamber, perhaps serving for 
 the dinner only on a few state occasions. The name of 
 most frequent occurrence is the camera. We find, for 
 instance, the " camera superior" and the " camera in- 
 ferior" in the inventories, but as the contents of the 
 one resemble exactly the contents of the other, we must 
 apply the superior and inferior simply to their position, 
 and take "camera" as the generic term for any apartment 
 of the house excepting the hall, chapel, and offices. 
 
 In the will of William Esyngton of Newcastle, (1415,) 
 we find the apartments summed up as follows : — 
 
 " Item do et lego omnia principalia mea tarn in camera, aula, pe- 
 nore c , coquina, brasiatorio (brewhouse), pandoxatorio (malthouse), 
 stabulo," &c. 
 
 We have thus his chamber, hall, cellar, kitchen, malt- 
 house, brewhouse, and stable. 
 
 Robert Conyers of Sockburn describes his goods in his 
 
 will thus, (1431) : — 
 
 " Omnia utensilia tarn in camera, quam in aula, pincerna d , (another 
 name for the cellarium or buttery), panetria (pantry), pistrina (bake- 
 house), una cum plaustris et carucis (waggons and carts), cum toto 
 apparatu," &c. 
 
 The camera usually contained a bed, and the ordinary 
 furniture of a bed-chamber ; but it must be remembered 
 
 c Penore, from penus. Probably the bat et Monachos Crassenses, anno 1351, 
 
 " cellar " where the wine is kept, not ap. du Cange. 
 
 the place where it is decanted, which d Pincerna is derived from the Greek 
 
 is the " buttery." The word cellarium iriveiv Kipva, and is rather the place 
 
 is applied both to buttery and cellar. where the wine was mixed or decanted, 
 
 " Quod vinum refectorarius dicti monas- not the place where it was stored, which 
 
 terii recipere debet et tenetur in penore is our meaning of the word cellar, 
 domini ahbatis." — Transactio inter Ab- 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 
 
 95 
 
 that it still answered the purpose of a parlour or sitting- 
 room, the bed being covered over during the daytime 
 with a handsome coverlid, as is still the custom in France 
 and other foreign countries to this day. 
 
 The following inventory of the goods belonging to the 
 Yicar of Gainford, and attached to his will made in 1412, 
 shews the usual amount of furniture in the chambers at 
 the period : — 
 
 " Duo lecti rubei coloris, viz. 
 cooperti cum tapetiis, xxs. 
 
 Duo lecti de blodio (blood-co- 
 lour), xs. e 
 
 Unus parvus lectus de blodio 
 worstett, vis. viii^. 
 
 Unus lectus albus, iiis. iiijc?. 
 
 Duo coopercla (coverlids), vis. 
 
 Unum whylt (quilt) cum iiij. ma- 
 tresse, vis. xiiid. 
 
 xiiij. Lodices (blankets f ), xivs. 
 
 xix. paria Linthiaminum (pairs 
 of sheets), xxxjs. \iiid. 
 
 Unum mantellum de rubeo fresed 
 (a coarse kind of cloth), xxxs. 
 
 In the inventory of his goods taken on the death of 
 John Danby, (1444,) are found : — 
 
 " In Camera. — x. coopertoria 
 (coverlets), xjs. 
 
 Tres Toga? furrurata? (lined with 
 fur), xls. 
 
 Unum pylchee de stranlion, xxs. 
 
 Tres Toga? singula?, xiijs. iiiiJ. 
 
 Quatuor ulna? panni lanei de sen- 
 dry coloris (colour of ashes ?) 
 cum una tela (web) de russet, 
 xxvis. viii^. 
 
 Armatura (armour, &c), xxvis. 
 viij d. 
 
 viij. Libra? cera? (candles), iiijs. 
 Unum par de Trussyngcofers h 
 
 (packing-chests ?) iiijc?. 
 Unum wyrehatte ( ) vs." 
 
 j. fed-bed (feather-bed) et iij. 
 
 materes, vijs. 
 iij. lodices (blankets), iijs. 
 v. Linthiamina, iijs. iiiiJ. 
 j. web de sac, xxd. 
 
 e Blodius is considered by the best 
 antiquaries to be " blood" colour, (Sax., 
 blot.) At the same time, we have seen 
 it translated in some works as if for 
 bloius, i, e. blue colour. 
 
 f The " lodex" was not made of the 
 same material as our modern blanket, 
 but it answered the same purpose in the 
 bed-coverings. 
 
 v. bowsturs (bolsters), xxd. 
 v. ulni de russet, iijs. ixd. 
 In mappis et manutergiis (in 
 
 cloths and towels), x\d. 
 j. magna cista (chest), x\d. 
 Alia parva cista, xij d. 
 Alia? dua? cista?, ijs." 
 
 £ Pylcli is given by Bailey as a flannel 
 night-garment or clout for an infant. 
 What material stranlion was we can- 
 not tell, there is probably some error 
 of the scribe. 
 
 h To truss is to pack up ; hence, 
 probably, trussing cofers were boxes 
 for packing up chattels for travelling. 
 Similar to our word 'trunk.' 
 
96 
 
 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 While, however, the camera in the private house served 
 the purpose of a bed-chamber, there were also other 
 names in use, such as the cubiculum, dormitorium, &c. ; the 
 latter more especially when any large number of persons 
 slept in the same room. 
 
 There was often a smaller room attached to the larger, 
 which served as a closet for keeping clothes, &c, which 
 went by the name of wardrobe. Thus we find in the 
 inventory of the Prior of Durham, (1446) : — 
 
 " Gaederoba. — In prirais j. par blodio (striped alternately with 
 
 de Gardevyaunce 1 , cum Armis green and red), cum diversis 
 
 Thomae Langton. animalibus intextis in eisdem, 
 
 ij. Clothesekkez (clothes-horse?). pro aula de Pyttyngton. 
 
 j. mantica (mantle). iij. paria del Cofors (chests). 
 
 Una larga Cista (chest) de opere ij. Barehidez" (bearskins, used 
 
 Flaundrensi k . probably as saddle-cloths.) 
 
 iiij. Costei ae paleatse de viridi et 
 
 The inventory taken at Ewelme in 1466, after men- 
 tioning the great chamber, containing the bed and the 
 coverings belonging to it, goes on to mention the hang- 
 ings, &c, in "my lady's closet," and in "the gentle- 
 woman's closet." And further on we read of " tapits of 
 red worsted" distributed in "the lord's chamber," "in 
 my lord's outer closet," in the chamber of the " e weary e" 
 (washing-closet), and in " the norserye." 
 
 The names of the lower rooms of the house and the 
 offices are in general more carefully expressed. As we 
 have shewn in the previous volume, the pantry and the 
 buttery may be clearly defined, though their use now was 
 gradually changed, one room at the end of the century 
 serving much the purposes which originally required two 
 chambers. The panetrium in some instances was used as 
 
 i Literally, we expect, meat safes j and imported from Flanders, though 
 
 afterwards safes or cupboards of any perhaps in some cases the Flemish work 
 
 description. was imitated in England. 
 
 k These chests were generally of wood, 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 97 
 
 the larder (lardarium salsarium), and the botellarium, or 
 pincema, as a cellar (celarium or penus). The kitchen 
 (coquina) remained the same. The scutellarium (scullery) 
 in a few instances is noticed, as also the minor offices of 
 bakehouse (pistrina), brewhouse and malthouse (brassi- 
 nium and pandoxatorium). We might increase the list by 
 adding the stables, granaries, and such like, but the 
 above catalogue is sufficient to shew the usual require- 
 ments which the architect took into consideration when 
 erecting a fifteenth-century house 1 . 
 
 Considerable obscurity still exists concerning the habi- 
 tual Sleeping Apartments of the middle ages. There is 
 no doubt that the domestics and retainers occasionally 
 slept upon straw laid down for the purpose in the hall, 
 but this was on particular occasions, when the house or 
 castle was over-crowded, and does not appear to have 
 been the usual habit for any part of the establishment, 
 at least not in the fifteenth century, when the chambers 
 had become much more numerous, both at the higher 
 end of the hall for the family and guests, and at the 
 lower end for the domestics. The usual sleeping apart- 
 ment for the lord and lady, or master and mistress of the 
 family, appears to have been on the ground floor, either 
 in the withdrawing-room behind the dais, which seems 
 to have been the case in the smaller houses, or in other 
 apartments further removed from the hall, when space 
 
 1 On the continent at the same pe- 2 pieds et demi de longueur ; les cham- 
 
 riod the following list serves as an bres, tant du due que de la duchesse 
 
 illustration of the usual arrangement of (d'Orleans), avoient six toises de long, 
 
 a house : — " Chacun (etage de l'hotel de et trois de large ; les autres, 7 et demi 
 
 Soissons) consistoit en une grande salle, en quarre ; le tout eclair de croisees lon- 
 
 une chambre de parade, une grande gues, etroites et fermees de fil d'archal, 
 
 chambre, une garde-robe, des cabinets avec un treillis de fer perce, de lambris 
 
 et une chapelle; les salles recevoient et de plat-fonds de bois d'Irlande, ouvre 
 
 jour par des croisees hautes de 13 pieds de la meme facon que j'ai decrit en par- 
 
 et demi, et larges de 4 et demi; les lant des appartemens du roi et de la 
 
 chambres de parade portoient 8 toises reine au Louvre." — Sauval. 
 
 
 
98 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 allowed. There is often a tower near the end of the 
 hall, as at Lympne, Kent, containing a nnmber of cham- 
 bers, many of which were bed-rooms. Chaucer's " Mil- 
 ler's Tale" shews that the chief bed-room in a house in 
 the street of a town was on the ground-floor, or probably 
 a little above the level of the street, over the cellar, 
 which was half underground, according to the usual 
 fashion of town-houses of the period. 
 
 In monastic establishments it was usual for the monks 
 to sleep in a common dormitory m , which was divided into 
 a number of small cells ranged down both sides, separated 
 either by boarded partitions or by curtains, but open at 
 the top, with a small window at one end of each cell, 
 and a door at the other opening into a central passage, 
 at one end of which was the bed of the abbot, or other 
 chief officer. Each cell contained a bed, and a shelf for 
 books over the head of it. 
 
 There is reason to believe that in the larger houses 
 and castles there was commonly a chamber at the top of 
 the house, near the roof, which served for a dormitory 111 , 
 very much after the same fashion as in the monasteries, 
 or the long room at Eton College. There is a room of 
 this kind, called the dormitory, at Layer Marney, Essex. 
 In some cases the dormitory seems to have been over the 
 hall, and it is not improbable that the upper range of 
 smaller windows over the large windows of the hall at 
 Chepstow may have belonged to a dormitory. The cor- 
 
 m " Upon the west syde of the cloyster 
 there was a faire large house called the 
 Dorter, where all the monnks and the 
 novices did lye, every monncke having 
 a litle chamber of waiuscott, verie close, 
 severall by themselves, and their wyn- 
 dowes towards the cloyster, every win- 
 dowe servinge for one chambre, by rea- 
 sonne the partition betwixt every cham- 
 ber was close wainseotted, one from an- 
 
 other, and in every of their windowes a 
 deske to supporte there bookes for there 
 studdie. In the west syde of the said 
 dorter was the like chambers, and in 
 like sorte placed, with there wyndowes 
 and desks towardes the Fermery and 
 the water, the chambers beinge all well 
 boarded under foute." — Antient Rites 
 of Durham. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 DORMITORY, LATER HARNEY, ESSEX. 
 
 W. Tnopeny, del. 
 
 O. Jewitt, sc. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 99 
 
 bels in the upper part of the walls of several halls in 
 Scotland have been already mentioned as rather indi- 
 cating a floor than a gallery, and this upper room was 
 probably appropriated to the purpose of a sleeping apart- 
 ment. In the later houses, in which the hall becomes 
 a less important feature, the bed-chambers become more 
 numerous and more important in proportion, marking 
 the gradual progress of civilization, until in Elizabethan 
 houses they become almost as numerous and as impor- 
 tant as in modern times. 
 
 The Furniture of the sleeping apartments was also 
 during this century considerably improved. The rude 
 wooden bench was discarded for a bedstead of somewhat 
 elegant construction, and the legs and cornices displayed 
 the ingenuity of the carver, whose craft was now in 
 much request. Four-post bedsteads were first introduced 
 in this century. Eichard, Earl of Arundel, left to his 
 son Eichard a standing bed (estandard), that is, one the 
 tester of which was supported by pillars 11 . As in the 
 previous century, the bed-hangings were of the richest 
 texture. Thomas de Mussendum, in 1402, bequeathed 
 to his wife a bed and coverlet made of velvet and satin . 
 Sentences and mottos were often embroidered upon the 
 coverlids : thus the Duke of Exeter, in 1447, bequeathed 
 to "Anne my wyff yat now is, a bed of arras, with the 
 scriptur of honnor, with all the costers p ." The beds 
 were well supplied with linen and pillows. In 1434, 
 Joan Eergavenny left by will — 
 
 " A bed of gold swans, the tapestry of green, with bunches of flowers 
 of divers kinds, two pairs of sheets of Raynes^, a pair of fustaynes, six 
 
 n Nichols' Royal Wills, p. 131. the bed-hangings, answering to our bed- 
 
 ° Ibid. curtains. 
 
 p Ibid., p. 284. The costers (cos- q Reims in Champagne, where there 
 
 terys — costerce) were the side pieces of was a celebrated manufactory. 
 
100 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 pair of other sheets, six pair of blankets, six mattresses, six pillows, 
 and the cushions and bancoves that belonged to the bed 1 "." 
 
 The bedchamber of the English yeoman was furnished 
 with a proportionate degree of comfort. John Baret 
 left his niece his 
 
 " Grene hangyd bedde steyned with my armys therin that hanggith 
 in the chambyr ovir the kechene, with the cortynes ; the grene kever- 
 ing longgyng therto, another coverlyte, ij. blankets, ij. pere of good 
 shets, the transpson (?), the costerys (curtains) of the chambyr and of 
 ye draugh chambyr that be of the same sorte, a gret piloe and a 
 smaU piloe— the federbed is her owne, y l hire maistresse gaf hire at 
 London 3 ." 
 
 An inventory made in 30 Henry vm., of "Suche 
 warderobe stuffe of the beddis as remayneth within the 
 standyng warderobe in "Wyndsour Castell," contains the 
 particulars of eight beds, some of which are described 
 as " sore worne," or " nede to be amended." They 
 were of satin, Tartar hanging, crape, tawney silk, and 
 silk of baudekyn*. 
 
 In houses of a less important class the bed was made 
 up on the floor, the chambers were seldom furnished 
 with bedsteads, except perhaps of the commonest de- 
 scription. In the regulations of Bishop Waynflete for 
 the lodging of the scholars, it was ordered that each of 
 the rooms on the ground floor should hold two prin- 
 cipal beds and one truckle bed; the chambers over 
 them each two truckle beds : and even when Waynflete 
 entertained royalty, the nobles slept on truckle beds, 
 two or three in a room u . It was usual, on engaging a 
 servant, to stipulate that he was to find his own bed. 
 
 r Test. Vetusta. 
 
 8 Wills and Inventories of the Regis- 
 ter of Bury St. Edmunds, 4to., p. 22. 
 
 » MS. Additional in Brit. Mus., No. 
 10,G02, fo. 2. The word "baudekyn" 
 is offom met with in inventories, signify- 
 
 ing some kind of material. It was pro- 
 bably the stuff of which a "baldrquin," 
 or canopy that was carried over kings 
 and bishops on state occasions, was made, 
 and hence the origin of the term. 
 u Chandler's Life of Waynflete, p. 201. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 101 
 
 In 1465, Sir John Howard engaged a servant who agreed 
 to find himself in bedding \ 
 
 The sleeping apartments y were given in. charge of the 
 usher of the bedchamber, whose duty it was to see to 
 the providing of all things necessary for comfort and 
 convenience, and under his orders, in royal households 
 at least, were usually two grooms and a page. It was 
 the duty of the grooms of the chamber to procure a 
 regular supply of tallwood 2 and fuel for the fire : — 
 
 " And fuel to chymne hym falles to gete, 
 And strens in cros to seue the hete." 
 
 They were also to provide clean rushes and straw for 
 the floors and palets. According to the Household Book 
 of Edward iv., the groom of the chamber was to bring 
 daily " rushes and litter for the paylettes all the yere ; 
 of the sergeaunts of the hall and this yeoman or this 
 groom berith up nyghtly stuffe for the kynges bed, and 
 bydeth therby till it be made, and on the mornynge 
 they sette it doun to their office ageyne saufly and 
 clenely that no stranger schall touche it a ." In the sum- 
 mer season they were to gather sweet herbs and flowers 
 
 x Manners and Household Expenses, 
 p. 204. 
 
 y In a manuscript in the British 
 Museum, (MS. Harleian, No. 4,431, fo. 
 2,) of the early part of the fifteenth 
 century, there is a beautiful represen- 
 tation of the interior of a bedroom. 
 The illuminated drawing is interesting, 
 as shewing the architectural and do- 
 mestic arrangements of a chamber of 
 this period. The apartment is high 
 and spacious. A large window at the 
 end is approached by stone steps, which 
 form capacious seats at the side. In 
 addition to the lattice-work, there are 
 inside shutters for the purpose of keep- 
 ing out the wind and rain. The walls 
 
 are covered with richly embroidered 
 tapestry hung upon tenter-hooks. The 
 bedstead has a tester, and the rich arras 
 hangings are worked with fieur de lis. 
 A chair, displaying much taste in its 
 construction, with the back and cushions 
 embroidered, is at the bedside, and a 
 couch well cushioned and covered with 
 arras gives an air of comfort and re- 
 finement to the chamber. 
 
 z " A long sort of shive (splinter) riven 
 out of trees, which is cut shorter into 
 billets."— Bailey. 
 
 a Liber Niger, Domus Regis Aug. 
 Ed. iv., printed by the Society of Anti- 
 quaries, p. 40. 
 
102 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE '. FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 with which to decorate and perfume the royal chamber. 
 "The gromes schall gadyr for the kinges gowns and 
 shetes and othyr cloths the swete floures, herbis, rotes, 
 and thynges to make them breathe most holesomely and 
 delectable V In the Sloane manuscript the office of the 
 groom is set forth in detail. We give the following 
 curious passage, descriptive of the art of bed-making in 
 the early part of the fifteenth century : — 
 
 " Gromes paletts shyn fyle and make litter, 
 Six fote on lengthe withouten diswer, 
 Un fote y wys hit schall be brode, 
 Wele watered y wythen be craft y trode, 
 Uyspes drawen oat at fote and syde, 
 Wele wrethyn and thyd agame that tyde." 
 
 The arrangement of the bed-clothes and hangings are 
 next described : — 
 
 " To the grosdyl stode hegh on lengthe and brade, 
 ffor lordys two beddys schall be made, 
 Bothe utter and inner so God me glade. 
 That henges shall be with hole sylor, 
 Wyth crochetts and loupys set on lyver. 
 The valance on sylour shall henge withinne, 
 That reche schall even to grounde aboute, 
 Nother more nother less with outen doute. 
 He strykes horn up with forket wande, 
 And lappes up faste aboute the lyfte hande. 
 The knop up turnes and closes on sy?t, 
 As holde by nek that henges full ly?t. 
 The counterpynt he lays on beddys fete, 
 And wysshenes on sydes shyn lye full mete c ." 
 
 As the progress of refinement and morals in domestic 
 life is evidenced by minute details, we may look with 
 interest to points of household economy and manners 
 which otherwise might appear trifling. During the mid- 
 dle ages it was the prevailing custom to sleep entirely 
 
 b Ibid. out en diswere, without doubt; uyspes, 
 
 c MS. Sloane, No. 1,986, fo. 32. With- wisps of straw ; wrethyn, wreathed. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 BEDS, FROM MSS. IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY. 
 
 CODCH, OR BED. Douce. 195. 
 
 O.JCwi rt.se 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 103 
 
 naked, and it would be difficult to refer to manuscript 
 illuminations previous to the fifteenth century in which 
 persons are depicted in bed as wearing night-dresses. 
 In the fifteenth century, however, it became the custom 
 to wear night-gowns, and in the curious manuscript to 
 which we have often referred, we read : — 
 
 " The lorde schall shyft his gowne at ny^t, 
 Syttand on fote shete tyl he be dy?t d ." 
 
 Before we proceed to speak of the other chambers, it 
 may not be out of place to say a few more words on the 
 Beds, as documentary evidence on this subject is very 
 abundant. Of these there are different kinds 6 , and they 
 were generally supplied with very rich coverings, as the 
 inventories following testify. 
 
 A curious document is preserved f , illustrating, not 
 only the material of which the beds of this period were 
 made, but as shewing the value attached to this ar- 
 ticle of domestic furniture. It is a writ of 1 Henry vi., 
 (1423,) to the keeper of the royal wardrobe, for the de- 
 livery of a complete "bed of hawkyng" to the Duke of 
 Exeter, which the "late king" (Henry v.) had given to 
 him, with a proviso that he died possessed of sufficient 
 property to fulfil all the bequests of his will without it, 
 but if his executors found that there was not sufficient, 
 the Duke was to have it in preference to others on pay- 
 ing its value. A schedule attached gives a minute de- 
 scription of the various pieces which formed the "bed;" 
 
 d MS. Sloane, No. 1,986, p. 33. on les appeloit des couches. Toutes au 
 
 e " Les lits, que l'on nomiiioit couches reste etoient montees sur des marches 
 
 et couchettes, etoient extraordinaire- qui avoient deux pieds de largeur plus 
 
 nient grands ; quand ils ne portoient que les couches. On paroit les marches 
 
 que 6 pieds de long sur autant de large, des plus beaux tapis, et les lits d'etoffes 
 
 ou leur dormoit simplement le nom de les plus exquises," &c. — Sauval, Hist, et 
 
 couchettes; mais lorsqu'ils etoint de 8 Reck, des Antiquites de la Ville de 
 
 pieds et demi sur 7 et demi, ou bien de Paris. 
 
 11 sur 10, ou de 12 sur 11, en ce cas-lii f MS. Additional, No. 4,603, fo. 337. 
 
104 domestic architecture: fifteenth century. 
 
 it consisted of a selour, a testor, a counterpoint, six 
 tapits of arras, with figures of hunting and hawking 
 worked in gold, two curtains, and one traverse of "tar- 
 taryn." The whole was estimated at 139/. lis. 8d s . 
 
 In the inventory of the prior of Durham (1446), we 
 have the furniture of the bed very minutely described; 
 and the extract is also interesting as shewing the usual 
 contents of the bed-chambers of a house : — 
 
 " Camera Superior. — TJnus Lec- 
 tus pendens cum riddellis (cur- 
 tains), tapeta (quilt), silours 
 (valance?) et ij. coopertoriis 
 de blodio sago h ejusdem colo- 
 ns, et costeraB paleatae (striped 
 curtains) pro ornatu muroruni 
 ejusdem Camerse, paleatse de 
 blodio sago intenso et remisso* : 
 j. Canobium (counterpane k ?) ; 
 j. Dormonde (pillow ?) cujus su- 
 perior pars de blodio, cum ro- 
 sis in corneris ; j. par Lodicum 
 (blankets) novorum ; j. par Lin- 
 theaminum (sheets) ; j. Culci- 
 trum 1 (bolster ?) cum iiij. Evan- 
 gelistis in corneris ; j . Lectus 
 blodius cum tapeta cum leo- 
 pardis et pellicanis ac arboribus 
 in eodem intextis. 
 Duo panni de blodio pro sedili 
 sive cancello. 
 
 s Equal to about 2,800?. of modern 
 money. 
 
 h Saye, a stuff made of silk and wool 
 mixed. See F. Michel, JEtoffes de Soie, 
 ii. 216. 
 
 ' " De blodio intenso et remisso" pro- 
 bably refers to the red being alternately 
 light and dark. It occurs constantly in 
 the same inventory. 
 
 k Chalons is also a word used for bed- 
 
 iij. Bankquerez paleat, de blodio 
 intenso et remisso. 
 
 x. Quisshons (cushions) de blo- 
 dio sago. 
 
 j. par (sel) Cultellorum magno- 
 rum continens iiij. pecias, quo- 
 rum manubria (handles) sunt 
 argentea et deaurata. 
 
 Aliud par continens tres Cultel- 
 los, quorum Manubria de ebore 
 et in parte argentea et deaurata. 
 
 Camera Inferior. — Lectus 
 pendens, de blodio sago intenso 
 et remisso, cum riddellis tapeta, 
 silour et coopertorio paleato, 
 ejusdem sectaB ; iiij Costerse pro 
 ornatu murorum, de blodio, in- 
 tenso et remisso. 
 
 j. Canobium, j. Dormonde no- 
 vum et largum cum tJ)C in- 
 sculpt' in corneris. 
 
 j. par Lodicum de fustian. 
 
 coverings, though it does not appear of 
 what precise use. " Pannos pictos qui 
 vocantur Chaluns" occur in an inventory, 
 Mon. Ang. ii. 720. The word may, per- 
 haps, only refer to the material, and 
 that it was made at Chalons. 
 
 1 Culcitrum literally is nothing more 
 than a cushion, but here it seems to be 
 used as a pillow or bolster. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 
 
 105 
 
 Aliud par Lodicum. 
 
 j. par Lintheaminimi. 
 
 Unum Culcitrum cujus superior 
 
 pars de glauco serico. 
 Aliud culcitrum cum aquila duo 
 
 habente capita. 
 Unus Lectus bonus, blodeus, 
 
 cum tapeta cum arboribus et 
 
 pellicanis diversorum colorum 
 
 intextis. 
 v. Qwysshons de blodio sago. 
 Unus blodeus Pannus pro Cupp- 
 
 borde, de sago. 
 Una Mensa de Prusia cum foliis. 
 
 Pro alio Lecto ibidem, imprimis, 
 j. fethirbede, j dormonde, j. 
 par lodicum, j. par lintheami- 
 num, j . lectus albus cum tapeta 
 cum arboribus et sertis in- 
 textis. 
 
 j. Coopertorium de blodio sago. 
 
 In Camera sub Volta j. cano- 
 bium, j. dormonde, j. par lodi- 
 cum, j. par lintheaminum, j. 
 culcitrum, j. lectus cum papi- 
 lionibus intextis. 
 
 j. Pannus blodeus pro cooper- 
 torio Cathedrse." 
 
 Count Ealph de Neville, in his will, leaves to his son, 
 among other goods, — 
 
 " Unum lectum de arras, cum costeris paled de colore rubeo, viridi 
 et albo qui solebant penderere in magna Camera infra Castrum de 
 Sherefhoton." 
 
 This piece of tapestry, therefore, it seems, with its edges 
 striped with red, green, and white, had once hung in the 
 principal chamber of another castle, but had been trans- 
 ferred thence for a covering to his bed. We conclude 
 with one more document relating to the king's bed : — 
 
 " Herafter folowith the reckenyng of the Kinges greate bedde of 
 Walnutte tree at Yorke place, and of the stuf provided for the same. 
 
 " ffirst. Received of the Master For cariage of the same, xjd. 
 
 of the Horse twoo peces of 
 Walnuttree whiche he gave 
 unto the Kinges grace, and 
 never had more stuf. 
 
 Also I, . William Kendall, paide 
 for the cariage thereof from 
 Croydon to London, iijs. iiijd. 
 
 And also provided xviij. waynes- 
 cottes at xd. the pece, xvs. 
 
 Provided for the bottom of the 
 bedde iij. deale bordes, at iijs. 
 iiijrf. the pece, sum xs. 
 
 For iron worke to the same, 
 
 iijs. iiijW. 
 For glewe, xx tl d. 
 For lye to season the walnuttree, 
 
 xs. 
 
 For vj. men, being carvers, for 
 tenne monethes, at xxs. every 
 moneth, fyndyng theym self, 
 \xli. 
 
 . . . . monethes, at xxs. the 
 moneth, vjfo 
 
 .... rewe wryght for gilding of 
 
106 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 the .... (whcrof I have a ac- Laurence pounteny in London 
 
 quytauncc), xvjft. for the hire of a house wheryn 
 
 Paide to the Master of Saint the same was wrought, sis. 
 " Sunima totalis, lxxxvj//. iijs. xd. 
 
 " Wherof I have received of Mr. Alford at iij. sundry tymes, xxx n li., 
 as apperith by his boke, that is to sey, vli. at one tyme ; and by Mr. 
 Hennages letter, xli. ; and by the Kinges coniniaundement, xyU., all the 
 residue of the said xxxli. 
 
 " And where as I the said William for the devise and also embocyng 
 and clensyng of a quarter of every piece of theyre worke, for the better 
 instruccions of theym, and for provision of money, besides daily attend- 
 aunce (as alwaies I have ben redy by commaundment) as yet never 
 had no peny nor none other rewarde; Whiche I wille submytte to 
 youre wysedom and discission." 
 
 (Endorsed) " The charge of the Kynges bedd made of Walnottree." 
 (temp. Henry viii.) 
 
 Cradles also were not 
 things unknown, as the 
 annexed illustration, from 
 one of the Douce MSS. of 
 the period, testifies. We 
 see that they were made for rocking, much 
 the same as in modern days. They are also 
 mentioned in inventories of this period, as 
 in that of Eeginald cle la Pole : after men- 
 tioning " berying shetes and mantells of fyne larone and 
 gold tissu," and other rich cloths, we find — 
 
 " Item, a pane m and a head-shete for y e Cradeli of the same sute, 
 bothe furred with mynever." 
 
 The Apparel of the state chamber, or " Chamber of 
 Pleasaunce," was in keeping with the splendour of the 
 bedding, and surpassed in richness of texture and gor- 
 gcousness of colouring anything that had been produced 
 in the preceding century. When the ambassador from 
 
 m A piece of cloth. We still retain the word in " counter -pane." 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE: FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 107 
 
 Charles of Burgundy was entertained by Edward rv., 
 there were prepared for his reception — 
 
 " iij. chambres of Pleasaunce, all hanged with whyte silke and lynnen 
 clothe, and all the floures covered withe carpettes. There was ordeined 
 a bedde for hym selue of as good doune as coulde be gotton, the shetes 
 of Raynys, also fyne fustyns, the counterpoynte clothe of golde furred 
 w* armyn, the tester and the celer also shyninge clothe of golde, the 
 curteyns of whyte Sarcenette, as for his hede sute and pillowes were of 
 the Quenes owne ordonnanceV 
 
 When Philip of Castile was entertained by Henry vn. at 
 Windsor, the apartments appropriated for his use are thus 
 described in one of the Paston letters : — 
 
 " They were the rychestly hanged that ewer I sawe, vii. chambers 
 togeder hangyd withe clothe of Arras wroght with gold as thyk as cowd 
 be, and as for iij. beddes of astate, no kyng crystyned can shewe 
 sych iij. " 
 
 It is difficult to outstep by any conception of the imagi- 
 nation an idea of decorative splendour of silk and arras, 
 that is not warranted by the historic evidences of the 
 time. 
 
 Unfortunately, as we have before had occasion to ob- 
 serve in describing the hall, these hangings have almost 
 entirely disappeared, and very frequently nothing re- 
 mains but the pegs that they hung upon. The wooden 
 panels which formed the usual decoration of the lower 
 part of the walls more frequently remain, and being en- 
 riched with carving, give some idea of the lavish expen- 
 diture bestowed upon such decorations. We must bear 
 in mind that in these, as in all other decorations in the 
 work of the middle ages, colour was an essential feature ; 
 the carver and the colourer were called upon to assist 
 each other, and each to heighten the effect of the other's 
 work in producing the richest and most splendid orna- 
 
 " MS. Additional, No. 6,113, fo. 106. a. ° Paston Letters, vol. v. p. 448. 
 
108 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 mentation that their skill and their means wonld allow. 
 Such panels as those at Colchester, when further enriched 
 by painting and gilding, must have been very beautiful 
 articles of decoration, and when these were accompanied 
 by equally rich hangings, and the windows filled with 
 painted glass, the magnificence of these Gothic cham- 
 bers could hardly be surpassed by the height of modern 
 luxury. 
 
 The panels, whether of stone, wood, or plaster, were 
 often ornamented with scrolls bearing inscriptions, or 
 with inscriptions or the initials of the owners without 
 any scroll. At first these had an heraldic character, and 
 the inscription was often the motto of the family, as the 
 word lEsperance on a panel at Sion House, Middlesex. 
 The initials of husband and wife united by a true-lover's 
 knot frequently occur, as at South . Wraxall, Wilts, or 
 ornamented by the crest or badge of the family. These 
 inscriptions commonly occur over the fireplace, but are 
 not at all confined to that situation. They occur also in 
 external work, as in the front of an oriel window, or on 
 the spandrels of the arch of a doorway, or over the en- 
 trance gateway. This custom was continued in Eliza- 
 bethan and Jacobean work, and is then frequently accom- 
 panied by the date. Texts of Scripture or moral axioms 
 were often used in the later examples, a custom still 
 continued in parts of Switzerland. 
 
 In a descriptive passage belonging to the earlier part 
 of this century, we have an allusion to the decoration of 
 walls with statuettes, and gable-shaped canopies over 
 them : — 
 
 " All the wallus of geete, 
 Withe gaye gablettus and grete, 
 Kyngges settyng in ther setei\" 
 
 p Romance of Sir Degrevant, Thornton Romances, p. 238. 
 
I 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 
 
 109 
 
 TKe walls of the principal apartments were usually 
 cased with wainscot to the height of about eight feet, 
 above which were sometimes hangings of tapestry, or 
 other cloth, as at the upper end of St. Mary's Hall, 
 Coventry. In a letter written by Sir John Howard to 
 one of his bailiffs in 1469, we have the following in- 
 teresting passage : — 
 
 " I pray you take the measure of the hall, and of the length and 
 of the deepness as much as must be hanged, and likewise of the parlor, 
 and the chamber over the parlor, and the chamber where that I lay 
 in, and of the chamber over the pantry and buttery ; of all these I pray 
 you send me the measure in haste, and I trust before long ye shall see 
 the chambers better hanged than ever ye saw them^." 
 
 In the time of Henry viii. the most common pattern 
 for the wainscot was an imitation of folds of linen, called 
 the " linen pattern," as in Thame Park, Oxfordshire, and 
 in the hall of Magdalen College, Oxford. This last is 
 said to have been brought from Eeading Abbey; it is, 
 however, a good example of this style of ornament, 
 which abounds everywhere in houses of this period. 
 Over the wainscot at this time also it was usual to in- 
 troduce ornamental plaster- work, called u pargetting," 
 in place of the tapestry, especially where the room was 
 low and afforded little space between the wainscot and 
 the ceiling. Of this kind of ornament the room in Thame 
 Park affords also a good example, of which an engraving 
 is annexed from a drawing by Mr. Twopeny. 
 
 The Cornice of the chamber is often enriched with 
 the usual ornaments of the period, most commonly ex- 
 ecuted in plaster only, but sometimes of wood. The 
 ornaments of the latest Gothic period, in the beginning 
 
 i Manners and Household Expences of England in the Thirteenth and Fifteenth 
 Centuries, p. xci. 
 
110 domestic architecture: fifteenth century. 
 
 of the seventeenth century, are often imitations of the 
 earlier styles, such as the zigzag at Bochester and the 
 billet at the Mote, Ightham, Kent. The barge -boards, 
 or verge-boards, on the exterior often have a similar cha- 
 racter to a cornice, as at the Mote, Ightham, and at 
 Winchester. In the later examples of the time of Henry 
 viii. the heads of the Caesars and other heads are fre- 
 quently introduced in panelling, either on the exterior 
 in terra-cotta, or in the interior in the plaster -work 
 either of the cornice or on the surface of the wall imme- 
 diately under the cornice, as in the illustration already 
 referred to from Thame Park. At this period other 
 classical ornaments began to be used, such as small 
 figures of Cupids or other allegorical figures intermixed 
 with foliage, this being the last period of Gothic art, and 
 the transition to the Eoman or Italian. The struggle 
 was of long continuance ; throughout the reign of Eliza- 
 beth there was a constant mixture of Gothic and Italian 
 details. In the time of James i. a strong effort was made 
 to revive the pure Gothic, but under Charles i. it entirely 
 succumbed to its rival, the Italian, under the influence 
 of the genius of Inigo Jones, although a few instances 
 are met with of very good Gothic style even at this late 
 period, as the celebrated staircase to the hall at Christ 
 Church, Oxford, which is of later date than the hand- 
 some Jacobean staircase at Crewe Hall, Cheshire. In 
 the specimens we have given in the accompanying en- 
 graving this mixture of styles will be observed. 
 
 The parlours of the fifteenth century were sometimes 
 carpeted. In an inventory of the wardrobe of Henry v. 
 we find carpets enumerated r . These carpets, however, 
 were ever regarded as indications of luxury and pomp. 
 Thus we read of — 
 
 r Rot. Pail., vol. iv. p. 214. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 THE MOTE, IGHTHAM, KENT. 
 
 THE MOTE, IGHTHAM, KENT, WINCHEfcTER, 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. Ill 
 
 " Tapets of Spayne on flor by syde, 
 That sprad shyn be for pompe & pryde, 
 The chamber sydes ryzt to the dore, 
 He henges with tapets that ben ful store s ." 
 
 In the " Story of Thebes" we have also the following 
 allusion to the use of carpets :— 
 
 " To a chamber she led him vp alofte 
 Ful wel beseine, there in a bed rygt softe 
 Rychly abouten apparrailed 
 Withe clotlie of golde all thefloure trailed 
 Of the same, bothe in lengthe & bredeV 
 
 But these were luxuries by no means in general use ; 
 rushes were still employed as the usual covering of the 
 floors. In 1464 Sir John Howard paid sixteen-pence " to 
 the gromys off chambre ffor rushis" for his parlour 11 . 
 In the household of Edward iv. the serjeant of the hall 
 was to see that sufficient quantity of rushes were pro- 
 vided for the royal apartments \ Straw and rushes were 
 used for covering the floors as late as the time of Henry 
 vin. y Matting was also sometimes used for that pur- 
 pose. One of the items in the accounts of the Surveyor- 
 General of Henry vin. was for " workyng in the newe 
 mattyng of the quens bed chamber, and newe mattynge 
 of the quens closet & the galary by the kynges closet, & 
 mendyng of the mattyng in the kynges closettV 
 
 The Couch appears to have been an elegant introduc- 
 tion of this period. It is of foreign origin, and was in 
 use on the Continent at the beginning of the fifteenth, 
 if not at the end of the preceding century. "We have 
 representations of it in MSS. a Early examples were 
 but an improvement upon the primitive bench, or form 
 
 * MS. Sloane, No. 1,986, p. 33. 
 
 1 Wel beseine, very becoming ; Jloure 
 irailed, floor spread or covered. 
 
 u Manners and Household Expences, 
 p. 155. 
 
 * Liber Niger, p. 22. 
 
 y Archceologia, vol. iv. p. 312. 
 
 * MS. Additional, No. 10,109, fo. 196. 
 a MS. Additional, 12,228, fo. 140, 
 
 142; MS. Harl., 4,431. 
 
112 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 with a "bink b ." According to Les Honneurs de la Cour 
 of Alienor de Poitiers, the position of a conch in the 
 chamber of a lady was a matter of conrtly privilege. 
 None bnt a royal lady onght to place her conch opposite 
 the fire ; the place for the conch of one of inferior rank 
 was in the corner of the room. The Lady Alienor is 
 shocked at the conduct of some of the ladies of Flanders, 
 who had so disregarded the rnles of etiquette as to place 
 their conches before the fire ; bnt " deqnoy Ton s'est bien 
 mocque," says onr fair authority c . 
 
 The bench, bank, or bink, was distinguished from the 
 form by having a back d , <a 
 
 dows or at the sides of the recess, formed both a chest 
 and a seat. In a mansion of the sixteenth centnry, 
 "tilles," or settles, are described in almost every room 6 . 
 A good example remains at Combe St. Nicholas, Somer- 
 setshire. 
 
 The plate, dresses, and linen in the royal wardrobes were 
 kept in large chests, called standards. In 1421, Sir Henry 
 Moon petitioned to be allowed iron-bonnd " standardes" 
 and sackclothes for keeping the necessary articles be- 
 longing to his office f . In the reign of Henry viii. carts 
 
 b See example in MS. Cottonian, Aug. Mappleton, in 1534, we find "a fyrme 
 
 v. fo. 334. b. with a byn7c bord;" also a "cupbord w' 
 
 c St. Palaye, Memoires sur Vanciewne a dysbink." Swtees* Wills and Invent. 
 
 Chevalerie, torn. ii. p. 242. e Rot. Add., 16,128. 
 
 d Among the goods of John Baron of 1 MS. Cottonian, Vesp., F. xiii. fo. 30. 
 
 over which a banker was 
 thrown when the room was 
 "kept." Sometimes these 
 benches were supplied with 
 lockers, and the table-linen, 
 &c, was kept in them. 
 Lockers and settles, gene- 
 rally placed under the win- 
 
 BENCH. Douce MS., 202. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 COMBE ST. NICHOLAS, SOMERSETSHIRE. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 
 
 113 
 
 were hired to convey the standards when the king moved 
 from one palace to another. On two occasions carts were 
 hired " to bring the greate standards, w* the riche cootes 
 of the garde, from london to hampton courte." The king 
 hired a house in London "for the standyng of the greate 
 standardes, withe the riche cootes of the garde," at a 
 rental of one pound fourteen shillings and eight-pence 
 per annum s . 
 
 In fact, the standard was employed simply as a large 
 packing chest, and when families were moving once or 
 twice each year from one estate to another, they were 
 brought into constant requisition. For instance, in the 
 inventories of the family of Eeginald de la Pole, Dukr - 
 of Suffolk, relating to their journeys between Wingfi eh ! 
 Manor in Suffolk, and Ewelme in Oxfordshire, the 
 standards are frequently mentioned : — 
 
 " A square standarde, and covered 
 with blaakletheir, and bowden 
 with yrne (iron), with 2 lokys, 
 the oon lokke broken, and the 
 key with my lady. 
 A grete red standerd full of 
 
 stuff, locked with 2 lockes, and 
 sealed with Stanley's seall, ye 
 keyes in my ladies keping. 
 A gret standard of the Chapell 
 bounde wth ierne with 2 lokks." 
 
 In another part we find a list of the 
 
 " Stuff brought from Wingefeld to Ewelme in a standard," 
 
 which consists chiefly of the hangings of the altar, 
 tapestry, vestments, cushions, &c. 
 
 As an instance of elaborate ornament, we may give 
 the accompanying chest from Eockingham Castle, North- 
 amptonshire, which is enriched with sunk panels, painted 
 with the shields of arms of the royal family of Eng- 
 land, and of Lord Hastings, Constable of the castle in 
 
 s MS. Arundel, No. 97. fo. 169, 176. 
 
114 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 the time of Edward rv., together with foliage and 
 other ornament. 
 
 Treasure-Chest, Douce, 37 
 
 Staudard-Chest, Koekingham Cast'e, Norihante. 
 
 Smaller Chests were used for preserving treasure. 
 We meet with these constantly delineated in the illu- 
 minated manuscripts of this period. An 
 engraving is given from a manuscript 
 in the Bodleian Library, which shews 
 not only the money-chest, but affords 
 a good example of the settle also. An- 
 other treasure- chest is here engraved 
 from the Douce collection. 
 
 Such small chests or coffins, both of iron and of wood, 
 may frequently be met with belonging to this period. 
 Those of iron are commonly round at the top, with bands 
 round them, and richly worked locks. 
 
 A few words should also be added on the Chairs in 
 use in the chambers, which do not appear to have been 
 very commonly used, as we find frequent mention in the 
 old romances of sitting on beds or couches. Most of the 
 chairs which we have remaining, and they are very rare, 
 belong rather to state occasions and to the hall than to 
 ordinary use in the chambers. A fine series of bishops' 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 FURNITURE, &C, FROM MSS. IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY. 
 
 Bodley, 283 . "Avarice. 1 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 
 
 115 
 
 chairs or thrones might be formed from the twelfth 
 century downwards, and the coronation chair has been 
 described in a former volume. The chief seat on the 
 dais had usually a canopy over it, as shewn in the ac- 
 companying illustration 
 from the illuminations in 
 manuscripts from Douce' s 
 collection, now in the 
 Bodleian. These canopies 
 were often richly orna- 
 mented with panelling 
 and pinnacles, and the 
 backs of the seats were 
 carved. Cushions were 
 placed on the seats, and 
 dorsers at the back. In 
 the inventory taken at 
 Ewelme in 1466 we find — 
 
 " A chaire of tynibre of astate, 2 long cushions stuffd of fethers, 
 covered w* blu clotli of gold, covered with lether, each 1 
 and 4 pomells of coper, and yard 1 quarter long, and 3 
 gilt, enamyled with 99 K. h quarters brode. 
 
 A case of lether thereto. A square cushon stuffed of fe- 
 
 A chaire of astate of yren*, co- thers, covered wt lether of 3 
 vered with purpell satyn fur d , quarters square." 
 and a case of lether therto. 
 
 " On the 16th of July, a.d. 1444, Henry gave audience to the 
 ambassadors of France and Sicily, at Westminster Palace, seated on 
 a very high chair of state, called a salette k , covered with tapestry of 
 blue diaper, the livery of Henry the fifth. . . . The following day the 
 king gave them an audience in his privy chamber 1 ." 
 
 John Baret of Bury, in 1463, left to his niece "a 
 
 h A state chair of wood. k In French they have retained the 
 
 1 An iron chair, probably similar to word sellette for the judge's seat. 
 
 the one called Queen Mary's chair in 1 Strickland's Queens of England, 
 
 Winchester cathedral. vol. iii. p. 203. 
 
 Deuce, 371. 
 
IK) DOMESTIC A 11CHIT KCTU RE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 chayer, iij. footys-stolys, iij. cusshonges," in his par- 
 lour, and among other things " a rounde 
 table m ." 
 
 We find entries also of the "bofet- or 
 bufTett-stool n ." This probably referred 
 to a small stool which was usually placed 
 beneath the buffet or sideboard; pro- ^9 ||f 
 bably in many cases used for standing Table i Douce > 271 - 
 upon to reach the vessels or platters which were lodged 
 upon the uppermost shelves". 
 
 The Chimney-piece was not always a fixture, but 
 merely screwed or hung over the fireplace, and, like the 
 hangings of the Avails, taken down when the owner was 
 absent from the mansion. It was sometimes a tablet of 
 wood, upon which some fabulous scene or armorial in- 
 signia was carved or painted . Mottoes were frequently 
 introduced, alluding to the builder or owner of the man- 
 sion. A curious chimney-piece, probably of this cen- 
 tury, was found in an old mansion in Kent. It had the 
 words "Wass heil," and "Dine hule," carved on it, 
 with a wassail bowl in the centre, on which were two 
 hawks, intended as a rebus of the builder's name, Henry 
 Hawkes p . In a beautifully illuminated copy of Lyd- 
 gate's "Life of St. Edmund," we have a representation 
 of a fireplace with little recesses above it, (instead of an 
 ornamental chimney-piece,) in which cups are arranged 01 . 
 In 1482, Lord Howard "paid to Burton of Cornhill at 
 
 m Wills and Inventories from the Re- "buffed stool," which is explained to 
 gisters of Bury St. Edmunds. — See MS. be an oval stool without a back, and 
 Harleian, No. 4,431, fo. 60 and 181 for having a hole in the seat for the con- 
 circular chairs. Also for a large Gothic venience of lifting it. 
 chair see MS. Cottonian, A. v. fo. 94. A painting in MS. Harl., 4,380, re- 
 For stools and couches see Additional presents a chimney-piece decorated with 
 MSS., No. 12,228, fo. 140, 142, 147. a shield with a fleur-de-lis. 
 
 " In Sir John Cullum's History of i 1 Antiq. Repertory, vol. iii. p. 155. 
 
 Hanstead, a bequest occurs (1553) of a q MS. Harl., 2,278, fo. 13. b. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 FIREPLACE, 
 
 SHERBORNE ABBEY. 
 
 FIREPLACR, 
 
 BARRACKS, SALISBURY 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 * 
 
 CERNE ABBAS, DORSETSHIRE. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 117 
 
 London for the apparayll of a chymeny, cont. xi. pesis, 
 whiche was sent to Stoke and paid be T. Seynelow, xxvis. 
 viii^. r Now that chimneys were generally introduced, 
 the mantel-piece became a principal ornament, especially 
 in the banqueting-room or great chamber. Henry vm. 
 expended large sums on this feature of the royal apart- 
 ments, and we find in an undated roll of that monarch an 
 entry, "to certain ffrenche men workynge vpon the ffrontes 
 of chemneys for the prevye chambre, xjs. xjc? 8 ." The 
 chimney-piece was sometimes of tapestry. Among the 
 furniture belonging to Henry vm. at Wanstead, in 
 Essex, was "an olde chymney piece of tapestrye*;" and 
 "a hanging clothe of tapestry e for the chimneys, of the 
 story e of Danea," was at Hengrave Hall u . Over the 
 chimney-piece, or at the sides, were usually affixed 
 cressets, or candelabra, for the Paris wax and sizes, by 
 the aid of which its adornments were fully displayed. 
 
 The chimney-piece was, however, frequently of stone, 
 and formed part of the structure, as is evident from many 
 existing examples. Sometimes it consists of a hood, with 
 a bold projection ; in other instances it is flat, and nearly 
 flush with the surface of the wall, and ornamented with 
 panelling, the opening being square, as at Cerne Abbas, 
 Dorsetshire, where the opening is well moulded; there 
 is a rich cornice above, and panelling between the cornice 
 and the mouldings : the panelling in this instance is 
 diamond-shaped, with cusps and foliage, and in the centre 
 panel the initials of the abbot who built it. This custom 
 of introducing the initials of the person who built this 
 part of the house in the panels over the fireplace was 
 
 r Collier's Household Expenses of on the same day. 
 
 Lord Howard, page 285. Two other s Rot. Reg., 14 B. iv. a. 
 
 "aparyalls for chymenys," and "a 1 MS. Harl., 1,419, fo. 18. a. 
 
 tonne of Cane ston," were paid for u Gage's H ngrave, p. 27. 
 
118 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 common in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In 
 Sherborne Abbey, Dorset, there is a good fireplace, with 
 the usual Perpendicular panelling of the period, sur- 
 mounted by a cornice and a battlemented moulding, after 
 the fashion of that age, when battlements being less re- 
 quired for actual use, became a favourite ornament in all 
 parts of the building, however inappropriate, such as the 
 sills and transoms of windows, and, as in this instance, 
 over the mantel-piece. 
 
 In the old house called "the Barracks" at Salisbury, 
 there is a fine specimen of the fireplaces of this style, with 
 a low square-topped opening, and an arch introduced in 
 the panelling, as if to deceive the eye, and make the 
 opening appear considerably higher than it really is. 
 Shields are introduced in the spandrels and in the cor- 
 nice, which have originally been painted with coats of 
 arms, instead of inscribing the name or initials of the 
 owner who built it. 
 
 Clustered Chimney-shafts were of frequent occur- 
 rence about this time, yet Harison, writing at a much 
 later period, says that the old men in his day noted how 
 marvellously things were altered in England, especially 
 in the multitude of chimneys which had been lately 
 erected, whereas in their young days there were only 
 two or three, if so many, to be found in the cities and 
 towns of England. This account was probably somewhat 
 exaggerated, and chimneys, even long before the fifteenth 
 century, were more common than is usually imagined, 
 as we have shewn in our previous volumes. Erom 
 the Household-book of Sir John Howard, we learn that 
 the cost of a chimney in 1465 was about twenty-six 
 shillings x . 
 
 x Household Manners and Expenses of the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Cen- 
 turies, 4 to. p. 261. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 119 
 
 In the will of John Baret of Bury we have a curious 
 and interesting description of his house in 1463. A 
 short time previous to making his will, he appears to 
 have enlarged his family residence, or " hefd place," by 
 building a new house " with iij. tunys of chemeneyes" 
 adjoining, and by his will he directs that this house 
 should be formed into two tenements y . It is evident 
 from the records of household expences of this century, 
 that such alterations were frequently found necessary to 
 meet the growing spirit of improvement. 
 
 Chimney-shafts, whether single or clustered, form one 
 of the most ornamental features of the houses of the 
 latter part of the fifteenth century and beginning of the 
 sixteenth. In the earlier periods they are generally of 
 stone, and frequently enriched with battlemented mould- 
 ings, as at Maxstoke Castle, Warwickshire : in the time 
 of Henry vn. and viii. they are commonly of brick, 
 and richly moulded, and this fashion continued through- 
 out the reign of Elizabeth. Very fine examples remain 
 at Thornbury Castle, Gloucestershire ; on the school- 
 house at Tonbridge, Kent; at St. Osyth Priory, and 
 Layer Marney Hall, Essex ; at Droitwich, Worcester- 
 shire ; on the town-hall at Wokingham, Berkshire, and 
 in very many other places. In fact, no feature is more 
 common or more picturesque in the landscape of many 
 parts of England than these fine brick chimneys. 
 
 These details would appear trivial, were it not that 
 all appertaining to the history of domestic architecture 
 and manners derives additional importance from the fact 
 that the tangible illustrations of this interesting subject 
 are fast disappearing before modern utilitarianism. Many 
 who cannot afford, or who have not the taste, to preserve 
 
 y Wills and Inventories from the Registers of Bury St. Edmunds, printed by 
 the Camden Society, 4to., p. 22. 
 
120 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 these architectural remains, find it convenient to rebuild, 
 or to so alter them, that they lose their original charac- 
 ter, and are no longer historical monuments by which 
 the student can trace the history of his favourite science. 
 Antiquaries have long had reason to deplore the van- 
 dalism and whitewash of churchwardens, and as to do- 
 mestic antiquities, how numerous are the richly carved 
 chimney-pieces, the quaint cupboards, and rare old fur- 
 niture that have rotted in neglect, or been discarded as 
 lumber. That which is recorded of Haddon Hall might 
 be recorded of many mansions of the olden time. We 
 are told that such of "the furniture of this mansion as 
 was thought valuable was removed to Bel voir Castle, 
 and at the same time, that which was not wanted was 
 lodged in a barn on the north side of the hall, one end of 
 which extended into what is provincially called 6 a bye 
 water,' being a branch of the river Wye 4 The whole 
 quantity consigned to this miserable repository amounted 
 to ten waggon loads. Here the furniture was kept till 
 the moisture arising from floods and rain reduced the 
 wood-work to a state of rottenness and decay, and then it 
 was ordered to be used for fuel. Fifteen bedsteads were 
 put into a long room near the house, which had been a 
 granary, and after being left for a time to fall in pieces, 
 they likewise were ordered to be cut up and burnt 2 ." 
 
 As we have seen, the private room, whether used only 
 as a dining-chamber, or for a parlour and bed-chamber, 
 was handsomely furnished. The fine fireplace, and 
 chimney-piece, the walls covered with wainscot, or richly 
 painted and gilded, were further adorned by the windows 
 being filled with painted glass, sometimes with figures 
 taken from some popular romance, more often with 
 shields of arms and diaper patterns. 
 
 2 Rayner's Hist, and Antiq. of Haddon Hall, p. 51. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 121 
 
 Glass Windows were a luxury now fully appre- 
 ciated, and casements were framed and fitted in the 
 apertures hitherto protected with lattice-work and wooden 
 shutters. We find in old domestic accounts several 
 allusions to the cost of such alterations. Lord Howard, 
 at Colchester, had to send to London for his glazier, who 
 received four shillings and eightpence for fourteen days' 
 labour; and at another time he was paid three shil- 
 lings and fourpence " for werkynge on my lady Bernys 
 chambre wyndow a ," and my lady graciously gave the 
 men two shillings to defray " theyr costes to London." 
 For the glass the glazier was paid fourpence or fivepence 
 per foot : — " For the glasyere for xiij. fote of glasse, the 
 fote v<£ b " Nevertheless glass windows, even at this 
 period, were by no means common, but were regarded 
 as objects of importance and value. Beryl and horn 
 were still used : — 
 
 " The worke of wyndowe & eke fenestrall 
 "Wrou^te of beryle c ." 
 
 We learn from the Household Book of the Duke of 
 Northumberland, that when that nobleman left his town 
 residence the glass windows were taken out and care- 
 fully laid by. In the inventory of goods belonging to 
 Contarini, a Venetian merchant, who resided in St. Bo- 
 tolph's-lane in the sixteenth century, the glass windows 
 of his house are mentioned as moveable furniture d . In 
 the time of Henry vm. the royal palaces and manors 
 were furnished with glass casements, and in the accounts 
 of the Surveyor- General we find minute descriptions of 
 the cost of altering, glazing, and framing in new case- 
 ments to the windows. The usual price of the glass was 
 
 * Howard's Household Book, edited Ibid., p. 467. 
 
 by Collier for the Roxburgh Club, p. c MS. Cottonian, Aug. iv. fo. 29. 
 
 188> d Nichols' Illustrations, p. 118. 
 
 R 
 
122 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE [ FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 still about fourpence-halfpenny the foot 6 . But the quan- 
 tities used for repairing some of the frames indicate that 
 the panes were of small size. It is curious to read that 
 in the king's chamber a broken pane was mended with a 
 small piece of glass. Seventeen feet of glass was about 
 the quantity used for a chamber window. The fre- 
 quent repetition of such entries shews that glass win- 
 dows were becoming common in the higher class of 
 domestic buildings f . 
 
 " And because thro we extreame wind the glase of the windowes of 
 this and other my lord's Castells and houses here in this countrie 
 doothe decaye and waste y* were goode the whole height of everie 
 windowe, at the departure of his Lordship from lyinge at any of his 
 said Castells and houses, and deuringe the time of his Lordship's ab- 
 sence or others lying in them, were taken down and lade appart in 
 safetie ; and at such time as either his Lordship or any other shoulde 
 lie at any of the said places, the same might then be sette up of newe, 
 with small charge to his Lordship when now the decaye thereof shalle 
 be very costlie and chargeable to be repayreds." 
 
 The casements were usually made square or oblong, 
 not arched or cuspated, but fitted within the frame of the 
 window, whether that was of stone or wood, and secured 
 by iron bars or bolts, of which the holes often remain, to 
 shew exactly where the casements were fixed. They 
 were also protected on the outside by iron stancheons and 
 bars, which often remain, as at Yanwath Hall, West- 
 moreland. The windows were divided by mullions and 
 transoms into several lights, each of which had its sepa- 
 rate casement ; and it was generally so contrived that all 
 the casements might be of the same size, and might fit 
 different windows, not only in the same house, but in 
 
 e Equal to about seven shillings of 
 our money. 
 
 f See the curious volume of the Ac- 
 counts of the Surveyor- General for 34 
 Henry vin. among the Additional 
 
 MSS. in the British Museum, 10,109, 
 fo. 88, 114. 
 
 « Clarkson's Survey of Alnwick Castle, 
 A.D. 1556. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 IRON GKATIMG T.O WINDOW OP STABLE, 
 
 YANWATH-HiLL, WESTMORELAND. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 
 
 123 
 
 different houses also, so that when a noble family re- 
 moved from one seat or manor-house to another with all 
 their household stuff and furniture, the glass casements 
 formed part of the moveable chattels, until the time of 
 Henry viii., when they were ruled by the judges to be 
 fixtures. In the stables and offices the windows were 
 often not glazed, but protected by iron gratings or grilles 
 only. Some good examples of these remain, as at Yan- 
 wath, but they are more common and more ornamental 
 in France and in Belgium than in England. 
 
 Windows of churches of the fifteenth century were 
 generally square-headed, and in the southern parts of 
 England generally have dripstones or corbels over them ; 
 in the northern counties this feature is commonly omit- 
 ted, which, to eyes accustomed to the relief of the drip- 
 stone, analogous to the eyebrow over the eye, gives a 
 singularly bald and meagre appearance to the northern 
 buildings. Hall windows, we need scarcely observe, have 
 usually pointed arches, and at first sight appear exactly 
 like church windows. 
 
 The use of painted glass was by no means confined to 
 the hall or the chapel, or even to the principal chambers ; 
 the small private oratory was generally so ornamented, 
 and casements for the bed-room windows were often also 
 of painted glass \ The following extract shews that the 
 windows of a small turret were so furnished : — 
 
 " Un jour estoie apres diner 
 Alez, pour moi esbanoier, 
 Du paveillon haut a poier, 
 
 h " Les poutres et les solives des barreaux de fer, d'ailleurs obscurcies de 
 
 chanibres du roi et de la reine etoient vitres pleines damages de saints et de 
 
 rehaussees de fleurs-de-lis d'etain dore, saintes, ou bien des devises et des armes 
 
 et les entre-voues de couleur en de- du roi et de la reine, dont le pan- 
 
 trempe. Pour les murailles, elles etoient neau revenait a 22 sols." — Sauval, 
 
 peintes en maniere de brique ; les croi- t. ii. p. 279. 
 sees treillissees de fil d'archal et de 
 
J 21 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 En une tourele petite 
 De verrieres painte et escripte, 
 Bele et geute et de riche atour. 
 Si vi j. tornoi tout entour 
 Pourtrait et paint en la verriere : 
 Dont j'oi merveille moult tres-fiere, 
 Combienque li veoir fist biaus 1 ," &c. 
 
 In the romances the windows are now commonly men- 
 tioned as of glass : — 
 
 " Square wyndowus of glas, 
 The rychest that euer was, 
 The moynelus was of bras, 
 
 Made with manne handusV 
 
 Indeed, the comparative cheapness of this material led to 
 many alterations in old buildings. In place of the less 
 commodious, but more elegantly designed, windows of the 
 fourteenth century, new and larger ones were introduced, 
 sometimes without much regard to the consistency of 
 architectural design. Bay windows were a common 
 feature in the chambers, and generally at one end of the 
 dais in the hall 1 . In the household books of the period 
 we often find incidental allusions to these alterations : — 
 
 " Item, to William Este, mason, 
 for makyng of a Bay Window 
 in the quenes chamber, xvi&'. m 
 To Bauf Vnderwood, wyre draw- 
 er, for iij .lb. & a quarter of 
 wyre of iren, for to hang w l 
 verdours ayenst the grete Baye 
 windowe 11 . 
 
 1 Les Paraboles de Verite, &e, par 
 Watriquet, quoted by Francisque -Michel 
 in his edition of Anelier's Histoire de la 
 Guerre de Navarre, p. 496. 
 
 k Romance of Sir Degrevaut, Thorn- 
 ton Romances, p. 238. 
 
 1 At Sizergh Hall, in 1569, there 
 was in the hall " a cupborde in ye baye 
 wyndowe." Wills and Inventories, pub- 
 
 Item, in rewarde to the werk- 
 man whiche made the wyndowe 
 in my ladys chambre, vs. 
 
 Payntyng of the grete wyndow 
 in the closett and of wyndows 
 in the gallerys of the corona- 
 syon, lxxvi^'. viis. iiijeJ.P 
 
 lished by the Surtees Society, vol. iii. 
 p. 221. 
 
 m Household Book of Henry vu., 
 MS. Additional, 7,099, fo. 57. 
 
 n Wardrobe Account of Edward IV., 
 MS. Harleian, 4,780, fo. 20. a. 
 
 MS. Reg. 17 B. xxviii. fo. 10. a. 
 
 p An undated roll, about 1500, in 
 the Museum. Rot. Reg. 14 B. iv. 
 
I 
 
 THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 
 
 125 
 
 Lydgate describes the casements as having flowers 
 trained over them : — 
 
 " And the housing full of habewynes, 
 The ryche coynyng of ryche tablementis, 
 Vinetis reunyng in ye casementisV 
 
 We must not omit to mention that large class of win- 
 dows which are constructed entirely of wood, not only 
 the framework, but the mullions and tracery, being cut 
 out of that material, and these are often quite as rich as 
 those executed in stone. A few examples of wooden 
 windows of the fourteenth century may still be met with, 
 as at Baggeley Hall, Cheshire, described in our last 
 volume. The hall of Smithell's Hall, Lancashire, bears 
 
 SMITHELL'S HALL, LANCASHIRE. 
 
 so close a resemblance to this, that it is generally con- 
 sidered to have been copied from it very soon afterwards, 
 
 i MS. Reg. 18 D. vi. fo. 22. b. 
 
126 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 or erected by the same architect. The windows are very 
 good examples, with ogee heads to the lights, and the 
 mouldings are considered by Mr. Buckler (to whom we 
 are indebted for the drawing of this remarkable window) 
 to belong to the fourteenth century, but this is doubted by 
 some other architects and antiquaries of equal eminence, 
 and in such very plain work it is often difficult to de- 
 cide the age of particular details, more especially as the 
 mouldings of the fourteenth century were certainly con- 
 tinued or copied in late woodwork of the time of Henry 
 vin. and Elizabeth. Another example from Lewes, 
 
 HIGH-STREET, LEWES, SUSSEX. 
 
 Sussex, also drawn by Mr. Buckler, appears to have most 
 distinctly the usual mouldings of the fourteenth century, 
 but this also is doubted by some high authorities. 
 
 The city of Coventry abounds with timber-houses, 
 many of which have very good Gothic windows, most of 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 ROOM IN A HOUSE AT WING-HAM, KENT. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 
 
 127 
 
 which are of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but 
 one in the West Orchard is believed by Mr. Buckler to 
 be of the fourteenth, and the forms of the tracery would 
 agree very well with the time of Eichard n. ; but, as we 
 have said, these forms were so often imitated in wood- 
 work of a later period, that some doubt may reasonably 
 be entertained on the subject. 
 
 In later examples in timber-houses the windows of 
 the chambers, especially of the withdrawing-room, are 
 often continued along the whole of one side of the room, 
 as at Wingham, Kent, in this respect resembling the 
 galleries or corridors which were frequent in the fifteenth 
 century, and became extremely common in the sixteenth. 
 The room at "Wingham, of which we give an engraving, 
 also affords a good specimen of the wooden panelled 
 Ceilings of the period. 
 
 It will be observed that this ceiling is divided into 
 square panels by moulded ribs, with carved bosses at the 
 intersections. Such ceilings were very common, and the 
 effect of them is extremely good : they were enriched 
 with painting and gilding. A good example of a ceiling 
 of this kind occurs in the library of Merton College, Ox- 
 ford, inserted by Warden Fitzjames late in the fifteenth 
 century. A similar ceiling in the chapel has unfortunately 
 been destroyed within the last few years. Ceilings of 
 this kind continued in use for a long period, as might be 
 expected from their manifest convenience. They are 
 very common in the time of Henry viii. and Elizabeth, 
 but at that time the rich plaster ceilings were introduced, 
 with pendants, and sometimes the two are combined, as 
 in the drawing-room at Thame Park, Oxfordshire, where 
 the cornices and the principal timbers of the ceiling are 
 ornamented in plaster, with pendants at the intersections, 
 while the panels are divided by wooden ribs. The walls, 
 
128 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 also, are chiefly of wooden panelling, but the upper part 
 of plaster. 
 
 From the fourteenth to the end of the fifteenth century 
 Articles of Glass are seldom mentioned in inventories, 
 unless indeed we are to regard of this material those 
 described as of crystal, many of which are noticed in 
 memoranda and inventories of the Exchequer r . It was 
 long, however, esteemed as valuable as plate, and a single 
 glass or cup is sometimes estimated at an extravagant 
 rate. To serve wine in a glass was more complimentary 
 than in silver. Perfumed water was a frequent pre- 
 sentation to royalty, and it was generally offered in a 
 glass. In the wardrobe accounts of Edward iv. the only 
 article of this material among his treasures was "a 
 standynge glas s ." Half a century later, and we find in 
 the royal glass-house at "Westminster an extensive col- 
 lection of cups, bottles, ewers, lavers, and basins of glass. 
 They were probably all importations from France and 
 Venice. They are described as of various colours, some 
 gilt with cyphers and the royal arms*. The manufacture 
 of glass was not followed in England, although in a 
 manuscript of the fifteenth century we have a receipt for 
 softening glass, that it may "be cast ageyneV 
 
 Among the glass of Henry vin, was an "Hally water 
 stoppe of glasse withe a bailie," and also u one rounde 
 hollowe sesterne of glass, partilie guilte w* the kynges 
 armes x ." These in former times were generally of gold 
 and silver. Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, in 1426, be- 
 queathed a great " holiwater stoppe" of silver, with a 
 sprinkler (aspersorio) of silver 7 . In 1449 William Burges, 
 
 r Palgrave's Ancient Kalenders and In- 
 ventories of the Exchequer, vol. ii. p. 87. 
 * MS. Harl., 4,780, fo. 28. b. 
 1 Ibid., 1,419, fo. 61, 62, 143, 146. 
 
 u "For to make glas nesche," MS. 
 Sloane, No. 73, fo. 215. 
 * MS. Harl., 1,419, fo. 146, 148. 
 y Nichols' Royal Wills, p. 253. 
 
\ 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 
 
 129 
 
 Garter King of Arms, left " a gret haly water scoppe of 
 silver with a staff 2 .' 7 They were often mentioned among 
 articles of domestic use, and the supply of holy water is 
 often alluded to in old household accounts. It was used 
 for various purposes in the homes of our forefathers, who 
 were taught to regard it as a specific in bodily disease, 
 and a preservative against the machinations of witch- 
 craft. Lord Howard paid to the " Aly water clarke for 
 seruyng of my lordes place in London, xvi<£ a " It was 
 sprinkled over the apartments, and cast upon the bed. 
 In " cert en artycles" for the household of Henry vn. in 
 1493, the usher of the chamber, after making the bed, 
 was to "knytt togedyr the corteynes, & a squyer of the 
 body to cast holly water on the beddeV The piscina 
 in Dacre Castle, Cumberland, mentioned in the second 
 volume , was probably the stoup for containing it, and 
 the drain which probably led beneath the hall was in 
 accordance with the feeling of the age that the holy 
 water should be thus allowed to escape to prevent its 
 application to any profane use. 
 
 In describing the hall we have mentioned the cus- 
 tom of washing the : 
 
 hands, and the la- 
 vat ories provided 
 for that purpose, 
 with their water- 
 drains ; the same 
 customs were, of 
 course, observed 
 when the family 
 
 z Nicholas, Test. Vetusta, p. 266. 
 The sprinkler was a brush with a metal 
 or ivory handle. One is represented in 
 the hand of a monk, who is sprinkling 
 the corpse of St. Edmund, in MS. Harl., 
 
 Water drain, Abbot's House, Wenlock. 
 
 2,278, fo. 22. b. 
 
 a Household Book of the Howards, 
 p. 425. 
 
 b MS. Additional, 4,712, fo. 11. b. 
 c Vol. ii. p. 44. 
 
130 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 dined in their chambers or dining-rooms, and water- 
 drains often remain to shew where a lavatory has been, 
 as in the Abbot's honse at Wenlock, Shropshire, which 
 is a very perfect example, having the basin or sink 
 within, and terminating in a water-spont with a head 
 at the end, like a gnrgoyle ; in onr engraving we have 
 shewn the section through the wall in order to make 
 this more clear. Similar drains occur also in the offices, 
 for the use of the ser- 
 vants, as in Warwick 
 Castle, where the ex- 
 ample given is now in 
 a cellar, but this was 
 probably originally the 
 scullery; it is one of 
 the range of offices 
 connected with the 
 kitchen. 
 
 The lavatories and 
 wash - hand - stands in 
 the chambers are repre- 
 sented in manuscripts 
 of the fifteenth century, 
 as in Douce, 208 and 
 371 ; in the latter the 
 arrangement is very complete, with ewer and basin and 
 the towel all placed in the most convenient manner. 
 These articles of furniture also shew the use of the turn- 
 ing-lathe, and that the work of the joiner was far from 
 contemptible ; this is further illustrated in 195, where a 
 table is shewn ornamented with a band of pierced quatre- 
 foils, on which stands a reel of thread, and a woman with 
 a spindle stands near, with a man seated in an arm-chair 
 at the other end. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 SEAT, DISTAFF, SPINDLE, AND REEL. 
 Douce, 195. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 131 
 
 In the fifteenth centnry we observe the almost uni- 
 versal introduction of Cupboards, in addition to the 
 simple chest and locker of earlier times. The history of 
 this article of domestic furniture is interesting, and is 
 associated with some curious customs. The distinction 
 between the cupboard, the dressor, and the almery, has 
 not been accurately defined, and the following remarks 
 may not be altogether uninteresting. Cupboards were 
 in use among the Saxons, and in our first volume we 
 have engraved a representation of a long cupboard with 
 doors, hung on foliated hinges, and enclosing a series of 
 shelves, upon which pitchers are ranged d . Treasures 
 were kept in such cupboards, and in the assessment made 
 in 1300 all the valuables of Eoger the Dyer and William 
 the Miller were in their treasuries or cupboards e . They 
 were also used in the days of chivalry for the safe keep- 
 ing of the armour: among the Additional Charters in 
 the British Museum there is a receipt of Geofry Poulin, 
 for money for repairing, in 1419, the cupboard (armoire) 
 of the Comte de Vertus, with a new key for the better 
 security of the armour of the said Count f . During the 
 fifteenth century the term cupboard was also applied to 
 what we now call a sideboard or buffet g , and stood in a 
 conspicuous place : upon it were arranged the flagons, 
 cups h , and spice plate. 
 
 d MS. Cottonian, Nero, C. iv. fo. 17. 
 
 « Rot. Pari., vol. i. 243. 
 
 { Add. Char. No. 2,806. 
 
 s In old French the buffet and dres- 
 soir were synonymous. 
 
 h For a list of various cups, &c , 
 usually found in the hall, see p. 69. 
 We should also add the mazer bowl, 
 and take the opportunity of inserting 
 the following note : — An account is 
 given of one of these maple, or mazer 
 
 bowls, in the " Gentleman's Magazine," 
 belonging to the Hospital at Herbal- 
 down, near Canterbury, where it was 
 used on all great occasions. The rims 
 were of silver gilt, and in the bottom 
 was a medallion representing Guy, Earl 
 of Warwick, killing the dragon. An 
 engraving is given in the Magazine, 
 and the inscription made out to be — 
 
 " G-Y DE WARWYC : AD A NOUN : 
 ICCI OCCIS : LE DB A GOUN." 
 
132 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 "The cupboarde w* coppys of golde & siluerV 
 
 and 
 
 " The cupborde with plate shynynge fayre & clere k ," 
 
 are the descriptions generally given by old poets. It was 
 the most important piece of furniture in the hall and 
 great chamber. To serve at the cupboard was a post of 
 honour. It was often an object of envy from the wealth 
 displayed upon its shelves, and its peculiar make and 
 adornment denoted to those initiated in the etiquette of 
 the court the rank and privileges of its owner. Alienor 
 de Poitiers, a lady of the court of Burgoigne, has re- 
 corded with scrupulous accuracy the mysteries of this 
 knightly office in Les Honneurs de la Cour 1 . Persons of 
 high estate served spice and wine from the cupboards of 
 royalty. The number of shelves in a buffet was a mark 
 of distinction : two were allowed to the wife of a ban- 
 neret, a countess claimed three in right of her superior 
 rank, the buffet of a princess had four, and that of a 
 queen had five shelves. This was a point of etiquette 
 that does not appear to have prevailed in England, for 
 the royal cupboards are generally described and repre- 
 sented as having but three shelves. According to the 
 Lady Alienor, the canopy which adorned the buffet was 
 to be made in accordance with certain rules of the court. 
 Crimson cloth of gold was a luxury reserved for a queen ; 
 a countess might indulge her taste for display in a canopy 
 of velvet, if it was not bordered with a different colour. 
 The sanctuary laws of the age provided for the most 
 minute details ; even the texture and fineness of the nap- 
 kins and cupboard-cloths were jealously defined accord- 
 ing to the " estates." In the earlier ages the cup- 
 board-cloths were generally of rich stuff, elaborately em- 
 
 1 MS. Sloane, 1,315, fo. 6. 1848, Sign. E. viii. a. 
 
 k Bradshawe's Lyfe of St. Werbergc, 1 Printed in St. Palaye's Memoires 
 published by the Chetbam Society, 4to. sur I'Ancienne Chevalrie, torn. ii. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 POTTERY AND GLASS, FROM MSS. IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY. 
 
 Douce, 219. 
 
 Douce, 219. 
 
 GLASS JUG. 
 Douce, 219. 
 
 Douce, 219. 
 
 FRUIT DISHES. 
 Douce, 219. 
 
 Deuce, 219. 
 
 SAUCER. 
 Douc, 219. 
 
 FLOW Gi K-VASE. 
 Louce, 311, 
 
 PLATE. 
 Douce, 219. 
 
 Douce, 219. 
 
 GLASSES. 
 
 Douce, 219. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 133 
 
 broidered, but in the fifteenth century the usual cover- 
 ing was a cloth of white diaper or damask" 1 . In a 
 beautifully illuminated manuscript of this century the 
 cupboards are similar to a modern whatnot, entirely open, 
 and the shelves supported by a light framework : they 
 are covered with white cloths 11 . The under shelf of the 
 cupboard was generally carpeted, and from the size of 
 the carpet we gain a knowledge of the dimensions of the 
 cupboard. The carpets were of rich material : those of 
 frame-work and " turkeye worke" frequently occur . 
 
 The Almery derives its name from being originally a 
 receptacle for that portion of the provisions which, being 
 left after the feast, was reserved for alms. It is evident 
 from many passages in old writings that the viands once 
 dedicated to that purpose were looked upon as sacred. 
 The almery, or aumery, and also the alms-dish, were in 
 ancient times in the charge of an officer called the 
 aumerer : — - 
 
 " The aumere a rod schall haue in honde/ 
 As offyce of almes y understondeP." 
 
 Lydgate, too, in describing the charitable disposition of 
 St. Edmund, says :— 
 
 " And humble compassion was his awmerer V 
 
 In an inventory of furniture in the Marshalsea in 1483, 
 we find " a litell olde Almery in the logge at the gate r ," 
 probably for the deposit of broken meat for the prisoners 
 
 m In the Household Roll of the Duke 
 of Buckingham for 1444 we find the 
 "cuppeborde clothes and portpayns" 
 among the linen. Add. Charters in 
 Brit. Mus., 5,962. 
 
 » MS. HarL, 2,278, ff. 13. b, 74. a. 
 
 ° MS. Harl., 1,419, fo. 194. " Item, 
 one olde cuppbord carpett of frame work, 
 sore worne and moth eten, in length ij. 
 
 yerds & iij. nayles, and in bredth iij. 
 quarters of a yerde." In the inventory 
 of Hengrave Hall we have " a large cup- 
 board carpett for the cobarde of Turkeye 
 worke," p. 26. 
 
 p MS. Sloane, No. 1,986, fo. 42. 
 
 i MS. Harl., 2,278, fo. 38. a. 
 
 r Additional Charters, No. 5,835, in 
 Brit. Mus. 
 
131 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 confined there. A passage in the statutes of El th am 
 shews that the same meaning was sometimes attached to 
 this term in the reign of Henry viii. : — 
 
 " And because hertofore relicts and fragments of meate and drinke 
 haue not been duly distributed vnto poore folke by waie of almes, it 
 is therfore the kinges pleasure that from hence forth speciall regard 
 be had, that all the relicts and fragments be gathered by the officer of 
 the Ahnery, and to be given to the poore people at the vtter courte 
 gate by ouersight of the under Almerer 8 ." 
 
 In old glossaries the almery is described as " a safe for 
 meate," a " gardiviance*," a definition which is warranted 
 from the fact that in old inventories of household goods 
 under "The Buttery," we generally find an almery, or 
 aumery, in addition to cupboards u . The original purpose 
 of the almery was disregarded at the end of the fifteenth 
 century, and the distinction between it and the cupboard 
 appears to have been, that the former implied a cupboard 
 secured by more than ordinary means, a secret recep- 
 tacle, or little cupboard. In the " Antiquities of Durham 
 Abbey" we have a description of one so contrived that 
 " none could perceive that there was any almery at 
 all x ." This is the idea conveyed in the satirical allu- 
 sion of Piers Plowman, who says : — 
 
 " Ther avarice hath almeries 
 And yren^bounden cofres." 
 
 In an inventory of the fifteenth century we find " a close 
 
 8 MS. Cottonian, Vesp. c. xiv. fo. 
 231. b. 
 
 * Among the goods of Sir John Fas- 
 tolfe we find "i. gardevyant" in a 
 chamber. Arch., vol. xxi. 
 
 u Wills and Inventories published by 
 the Surtees Society, vol. iii. pp. 42, 92, 
 134, 135. 
 
 x See Glossary of Architecture. In 
 the " Ancient Rites &c. of Durham," 
 
 mention is made of various almeries, 
 from the description of which we learn 
 that they were all enclosed and well 
 secured ; they were, in fact, the recep- 
 tacles for the treasures of the monks. 
 They are spoken of as " close" almeries, 
 t; safely enclosed," or "with locks and 
 keys." See Reprint by Surtees So- 
 ciety, pp. 4, 11, &c. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 135 
 
 almeryy and in the privy purse expenses of Elizabeth 
 of York we have an entry of a payment for making " of 
 almerys" in the queen's council-chamber, " for to put in 
 the bokes V Thus sometimes the buffet which stood in 
 the hall or great chamber combined both the cupboard 
 and the more secure almery. In 1530 Henry viii. paid 
 forty-three shillings " to a joyner for viii. cupbourds, 
 some with ambreys and some without*." We also find 
 similar articles described in the inventories of the furni- 
 ture of that monarch ; thus, — 
 
 "Twoo cuppbordes wyth ambries." 
 
 " A cupporde of waynscote w rt ambries." 
 
 " A cupborde w* ij. smale ambries in yt b ." 
 
 And in a roll containing an inventory of goods belonging 
 to Sir Kichard Newport in L571, we find " a cupboarde 
 with a closet in his painted chamber ." 
 
 This combination of both cupboard and ambry in one 
 piece of furniture was probably introduced in the begin- 
 ning of the fifteenth century. In a manuscript in the 
 British Museum we have two beautiful representations 
 of buffets or cupboards, with ambries in the middle, and 
 a shelf above and below for the plate; the " leaves" of 
 the ambries are carved, and secured with locks d . A 
 passage in " Certen Artycles for the Eegulatyng of the 
 Housholde of Henry vn.," in 1493, illustrates the uses 
 to which these three divisions of the buffet were ap- 
 plied : — 
 
 " Then schall the steward and the chambelayn come afor the cham- 
 
 y New Retrosp. Review, i. 102. In 20,030, fo. 49. a. 
 
 the accounts of the churchwardens of b MS. HarL, 1,419, fo. 56. b, 370. a. 
 
 St. Michael's, York, in 1518, an entry Cupboards with " tilles and drawers" 
 
 occurs of " ijd. for payr of joutters to a are also described, fo. 139. 
 
 ambre." Nichols' Illustr., p. 308. c MS. Additional, No. 10,128. 
 
 * Page 96. d MS. Cottonian, Aug. A. v. ff. 59. b, 
 
 a MS. Additional, Brit. Mus., No. 334. b. 
 
136 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE I FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 ber dore, and demande of the usher yff the spyce and wyne be redy 
 for the kyng. Then they schall come into the chamber all togeder & 
 go to the coppard. Then schal the usher take the kynges spyce plate 
 and cuppe, and let them stande aboue the coppard. Then the usher 
 and seruant of the seller schal sett the cuppes and wyne in the coppord, 
 and all other spyce plates to stande beneathe the cuppord in order, 
 after the estate be in degrees e ." 
 
 In the fifteenth centnry cupboards that did not possess 
 these little ambries or safes were termed livery cup- 
 boards, or dressors, and instead of being used like the 
 court cupboard or buffet, for the display of plate, were 
 for placing the dishes upon as they were brought into 
 the hall. In the contract for building Hengrave it was 
 specified that the hall was — 
 
 " To have ij. coberds, one beneath at the sper with a tremor, and 
 another at the higher tables ende withoute a tremor, and y e cobards, 
 they be made y e facyon of liuery y* is w^ute doorsV 
 
 This was the dressor on which the meat was placed by 
 the server before it was taken to the high board by those 
 of greater estate : — 
 
 " And if it be a day of estate ij. squyres for the body schal go to 
 the Dressor, and bere ij. of the fyrst dysshes both att the fyrst course 
 and the seconded." 
 
 The Dressor, especially in the preceding century, was 
 often placed behind the screen, or in the passage leading 
 from the hall into the kitchen h . At Haddon Hall, in the 
 middle of the passage leading into the kitchen, is a half 
 door or hatch, with a broad shelf on the top of it, whereon 
 to place dishes 1 . The term dressor, as applied to an 
 article of kitchen furniture, occurs in the time of Henry 
 viii., when it was discarded from the principal apart- 
 
 e MS. Additional, 4,712, fo. 3. a. 
 f Gage's Hengrave, p. 42. 
 b MS. Additional, 4,712, fo. 9. b. 
 u In a Household Roll of the time we 
 
 read of "j. dressorio et penticia" standing 
 against the wall from the kitchen door. 
 
 * Rayner's Antiq. of Haddon Hall, 
 p. 45. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 137 
 
 ment. In the following extract the shelves in the 
 scullery are called dressors : — 
 
 " Pullyng downe the rouf of the skowlery, with newe makynge of a 
 rouf agayne for the same, laying in of a new grownsell pec there, and 
 makyng of a new partycion within the same, selling and laying of 
 newe dressors and shelves there, reparying and mendynge and makyng 
 of diuerse weys in the kyngs privy kytchin k ." 
 
 In the sixteenth century the term cupboard was applied 
 to any enclosed recess ; they were still regarded as move- 
 able articles of furniture. In 1571 we find one or two 
 cupboards in every room of an extensive mansion 1 * The 
 only distinction between the chamber cupboards and 
 those in the hall was that the latter were sometimes 
 called standing cupboards. In the Surveyor General's 
 accounts for 38 Henry viii. we find specified the cost of 
 making " standyng cupbords" in the "Bankest house m ." 
 
 The cupboards were generally made of oak, or "es- 
 trichborde." The richly carved panels and back of the 
 court cupboard or buffet denoted its foreign workman- 
 ship. The chests and cupboards used in England in 
 the fifteenth century were imported from Flanders : this, 
 in the reign of Eichard in., was considered to act so 
 prejudicially to the interests of English workmen, that 
 a law was made " agaynst straunger artificiers," pro- 
 hibiting, among other articles of furniture, the importa- 
 tion of cupboards 11 . 
 
 In the domestic annals of this period we find allusions 
 to many luxuries not found in those of a previous age, 
 and many indications of a more refined and cultivated 
 taste having been encouraged among the nobles. Inci- 
 dental allusions to the fine arts and to literature are 
 
 k MS. Additional, 10,109, fo. 51. a. 1 Ibid., 10,128, in Brit. Mus. 
 
 m Ibid., 10,109, fo. 83. a. n 1 Rich. m. ch. 12. Statutes, vol. ii. p, 495, 
 
 T 
 
138 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 more frequent than we might be disposed to imagine, 
 and the effect of this improved taste is observable in the 
 decorative arrangements of domestic life. The walls and 
 ceilings of the apartments were more often painted with 
 scenes from classical and romantic lore, and the books 
 written for the use of the baron and his chaplain were 
 more gorgeously illuminated. The most sumptuous vo- 
 lumes of this epoch, which adorn our national libra- 
 ries, were transcribed for distinguished laymen. In the 
 twelfth and thirteenth centuries we rarely meet with 
 any indications of a literary taste among the laity ; the 
 books they purchased were more for ornament than use ; 
 but in the fifteenth century we find books mentioned in 
 a manner which would seem to indicate that the laity 
 were enabled to use them with pleasure, and that they 
 were enabled to carry on their private correspondence 
 without the learned aid of their chaplain. We have a 
 private English letter preserved, of a date as early as 
 1399, written by the lady of Sir John Pelham ; this is, 
 probably, the oldest in existence. The large collection 
 of letters belonging to the Paston family prove that a 
 correspondence could be kept up with considerable viva- 
 city and learning. Such items in household accounts as 
 "Payd for paper, ynke and wax, Id. , 5 ' are significant; 
 and numerous sums paid to messengers for the convey- 
 ance of letters shew to what extent an epistolary corre- 
 spondence was carried in private life. The charms of 
 literature, too, were beginning to be appreciated : in 
 times of peace the baron sought the solace of a book. 
 In the year 1395, Alice, Lady West, left to Joan, her 
 son's wife, " all her books of Latin, English and French p ," 
 terms which seem to denote no trifling collection. 
 Books, indeed, were no longer buried in monasteries, 
 
 ° Howard's Household Book, p. 131. >' Test. Vetusta, p. 137. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 
 
 139 
 
 but became household comforts among the laity : many 
 of the barons became as rich in literary treasures as the 
 Oxford Student, who gloried in his 
 
 " Twenty bokes clothed in blacke and red." 
 
 Thus, from the Memoranda of Sir John Howard, we 
 learn that that worthy knight could read at his leisure 
 "an Englyshe boke callyd Dives et Pauper," for which 
 and a " Frenshe boke," in 1464, he paid thirteen shillings 
 and fourpence q . The library of this nobleman was suf- 
 ficiently extensive to enable him to select therefrom, on 
 the occasion of his going into Scotland, thirteen volumes 
 for his solace and amusement on the voyage. A curious 
 list of these has been preserved r . A member of the 
 Paston family has left a little catalogue of his library 8 . 
 Indeed, so important did the family collection of books 
 in some cases become, that a little shelf or casket was 
 insufficient to contain them, and an apartment became 
 appropriated as a library. Such collections were not to 
 be found in the mansions of a former age. 
 
 In the will of the wife of William Bowes, bearing 
 date 1420, we find that she was possessed of the follow- 
 ing books, which she bequeaths in these terms : — 
 
 " Lego Matildi filise Baronis de syngton, ye boke with ye 
 
 Hilton filiolae mese, j. romance knotts. 
 
 boke [that] is called ye Gos- Lego Elizabethse filise Whitches- 
 
 pelles. ter, unum librum yat is called 
 
 Lego Matildi Rob. de Hilton Trystram. 
 
 Chev r , unum romance boke. Do et lego Elizabethse filiae meae, 
 
 Lego Dame Elinorse de Wes- j. blak primer." 
 
 The legacy to the daughter of the baron is expressed 
 singularly. In all probability it was an illuminated copy 
 of the Gospels, which, as she could not read, she placed in 
 
 i Manners and Household Expenses, r Howard's Household Book, p. 277. 
 p- 260. * Fenn's Paston Letters. 
 
140 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE I FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 the same category with the well-known Sir Trystram, as a 
 " romaunce boke," a common name at the period. This 
 is more probable from the circumstance of her descrip- 
 tion of a book as "ye boke with ye knotts," shewing 
 that she knew more of the exterior than of the interior 
 of her literary treasures. 
 
 The widow of Lord Fitzhugh leaves behind her an- 
 other kind of books, (1427) : — 
 
 " And so I wyl yat my son Robert have a Sauter (Psalter) couered 
 with rede velvvet, and my doghter Mariory a Primer cou'd in rede, and 
 my doghter Darcy a sauter cou'ed in blew, and my doghter Malde 
 Eure a prim'r cou'ed in blew." 
 
 In the will of John Newton, Eector of Houghton-le- 
 Spring, (1427), some curious books are bequeathed : — 
 
 " Lego . . . unum librum voca- . . . unum librum vocatum Be- 
 
 tum Crisostimum super Ma- Hall. 
 
 theum. . . . unum librum vocatum Vita 
 
 . . . unum librum de duodecim Christiana." 
 capitulis ricardi Ermes. 
 
 In the will of Thomas Hebbeden, Eector of Meldon, 
 we find the following books bequeathed, (1435) : — 
 
 " Lego Librarise ecclesiae Dunel- Lego Magistro Artays unum 
 
 mensis unum librum vocatum librum voc. Guydo de Colump- 
 
 Catho*, alias Speculum Virtutis, na cum contends in eodem. 
 
 ita quod dominus prior jam ex- Lego Isabella Eure unum li- 
 
 istens habeat usum illius libri brum gallicum vocatum Laun- 
 
 durante vita sua. celot." 
 
 In the parlour of St. Mary's Guild at Boston are men- 
 tioned the following : — 
 
 " A Bylill prynted ; the gyfte of Sir Robert "Wyte. — A booke in 
 prynt, called Sermones. — An old Antiphoner. — A booke called Legenda 
 Sanctorum, wrytten. — A bigger Antiphoner. — An old buffet stoole u . 
 A fyre-forke. A payre of tonges, and a fyre-stommer, 3 racons, with 
 a payre of galows of yron." 
 
 * A book of metrical ethics attri- ages. It is mentioned frequently by 
 buted to Magnus Cato, or Dionysius Chaucer. 
 Cato, much in vogue daring the middle a See page 116. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 BLACKSJAJTH'd FOKGE. Douce, 371. 
 
THE CHAMBEKS AND OFFICES. 141 
 
 As these books were frequently of considerable size, 
 a reading-desk or lettern became necessary in order to 
 use them conveniently, and we accordingly find such 
 articles of furniture frequently represented in the illu- 
 minations of manuscripts of this period, and they seem 
 to have been equally convenient with any modern pieces 
 of furniture of the same description. They were some- 
 times of wood, in other instances of metal ; brass reading- 
 desks of this century may frequently be met with, and 
 these are richly ornamented, the forger and the sculptor 
 in metal exerted his utmost skill in the ornamenting of 
 the lettern. Good examples of letterns occur in Douce' s 
 Manuscripts, 195, 202, and 283, and of the forger and 
 sculptor's bench and tools in 371. It will be observed 
 that the forger used the double bellows for keeping up a 
 continuous draught, and that the tools of the sculptor 
 were very similar to those now in use. 
 
 It has been already mentioned that the hall was fre- 
 quently on the first floor, with cellars or other vaulted 
 apartments under it, and that the entrance from the 
 court-yard was by an external staircase, or rather a 
 flight of steps ; in other instances it was by a winding 
 stair round a newel in one of the turrets, but when this 
 was the state entrance, it was by no means narrow and 
 confined, on the contrary, it. was a wide commodious 
 staircase, as at Langley Castle, Northumberland. The 
 other staircases were, however, much smaller, and often 
 very narrow winding stairs, though even these were not 
 practically so inconvenient as is commonly supposed. 
 Besides the principal entrance to the hall at one end of the 
 passage called "the Screens," there was usually another at 
 the opposite end, leading by a staircase from the servants' 
 court, and another short staircase led up into the music- 
 
142 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE I FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 gallery ; this was usually close to the principal entrance. 
 There was also frequently a straight flight of stairs 
 down to the kitchen from the middle of " the Screens," 
 passing between the buttery and the pantry, as in the 
 hall of St. Mary's Guild at Coventry, where the whole 
 of the original arrangements are still perfect, and in 
 many of the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, though 
 the situation of the kitchen staircase of course varies 
 with that of the kitchen itself, which is not always at 
 the end of the hall, but rather at the back of it, and 
 the staircase is then at the end of the Screens. 
 
 The primitive ladders by which formerly the solars, or 
 upper chambers v , were approached, were now discarded 
 for Staircases of a goodly size, flanked with curiously 
 carved banisters of oak. External staircases were also 
 frequently used ; these are boldly corbelled out from the 
 face of the wall, and covered with a pent-house roof, as 
 in the Archbishop's Palace at Maidstone, Kent, in a part 
 of the building now converted into stables, but probably 
 of more importance originally: similar staircases occur 
 in Berkeley Castle and many other instances, especially 
 in the roof of a tower leading up to the watch- turret*. 
 The steps leading out of the hall were sometimes of 
 marble. In a manuscript of Lydgate's "Book of Troy" 
 we have the following passage : — 
 
 " Tho-rugh many halle and many ryche toure, 
 By many tourne and many dyvers waye, 
 By many gree made of marbyl greye, 
 Hathe them conueyed a ful esy pas. 
 
 v Sometimes called a solier. In seria, (from the French aguet,) belong 
 
 Caxton's " Golden Legend," fo. xxviii. rather to the fortifications than to the 
 
 edit. 1483, we read of " the solier where domestic arrangements of a house. Still 
 
 ye souper of Jhesu Cryst and of ye on all fortified houses of consequence 
 
 appostles was made." they are to be found. See more than 
 
 x These watch-towers, called aguas- one illustration in the previous volume. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
CO 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 
 
 143 
 
 # # # # # 
 
 And in his chambre englasid brizt and clere, 
 That schone ful schene withe golde and azure, 
 Of many ymage that was there in pycturey." 
 
 The porch to the hall has been already mentioned as 
 the principal entrance to the house, but besides this 
 there were numerous other doorways and doors, both 
 external and internal, and so important a feature of the 
 house was not likely to be left without ornament. The 
 external doorway was frequently protected by a pent- 
 house over it, or the pro- 
 jecting upper story served 
 the same purpose, the door 
 having the side- posts orna- 
 mented and carried up on 
 spurs to support the over- 
 hanging beam, as at Sher- 
 borne, Dorsetshire, and Weo- 
 bley, Herefordshire, and 
 some rich examples at York 
 have been already cited. 
 The doorways also some- 
 times had canopies over 
 them, with crockets and 
 finials, like niches in a 
 church, and ' the spandrels 
 also filled with ornament, 
 amongst which shields of 
 arms were introduced, of 
 which a very rich example remains in the doorway of 
 a merchant's house in London-street, Norwich. There 
 are several rich doorways of this class at Gal way, of the 
 time of Henry viii. and Elizabeth, the ornament of which 
 
 Doorway, London-street, Norwich. 
 
 y MS. Cotton. Augustus, iv. fo. 9, a. 
 
144 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 is cut in the hard limestone with great skill. The wooden 
 doors themselves are often worthy of notice as specimens 
 of panelling or other ornament, although the rich iron- 
 work of the earlier centuries has disappeared. 
 
 There is sometimes a sort of triangular Porch on the 
 outside of the door of the principal apartment, with two 
 other doors opening from it, one to the bed-room in the 
 turret, the other to the garderobe in a small turret in 
 the angle, as at Saltwood Castle, Kent. 
 
 In the time of Henry vm. a fashion was introduced of 
 having an inner porch over the door of a principal apart- 
 ment, such as the drawing-room at Thame Park, Oxon, 
 an illustration of which has already been given : and this 
 porch is often triangular also, that is, carried across the 
 angle of the room over the entrance, and enriched with 
 panelling and shields of arms, the same as the walls of the 
 room. This fashion is common in Elizabethan houses, 
 but it began earlier. In France we find the same fashion 
 beginning at the end of the fifteenth century, and the 
 porches of the Flamboyant style, both external and in- 
 ternal, are often very rich and elegant. The following 
 extract from Sauval affords a good description of such a 
 porch, and although he lived in the seventeenth century, 
 he often describes buildings of earlier date : — 
 
 " On entroit dans les chambres et les salles, aussi bien que dans les 
 chapelles, les galleries et autres lieux seniblables, par un porche de 
 menuiserie a trois, quatre ou cinq faces, haut de neuf et de douze 
 pieds; d'ordinaire on le faisoit de bois d'Irlande ; ils etoient couverts 
 d'ornemens, et termines de figures et autres enrichissemens gothiques ; 
 ils s'ouvroient de toutes parts, afin de pouvoir entrer et sortir plus 
 commodement. Encore ils ressembloient a ces vieilles fausses portes 
 de bois qui se voyent encore en quantite de vieux logis, et quoiqu'ils 
 d^figurent et embarrassent les lieux, nos vieillards pourtant ne s'en 
 veulent point defaire et les conservent en depit d'un chacun 2 ." 
 
 1 Sauval, t. ii. p. 278. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 145 
 
 The Passages and Coheidors are generally formed in 
 the thickness of the walls, lighted sometimes by loop- 
 holes only, in others by windows, and in some cases, 
 especially in timber honses, they are external, forming 
 a sort of donble cloister, one oyer the other. Of this 
 latter arrangement perhaps the best example we have 
 remaining is the Prior's Honse at Wenlock in Shropshire, 
 which, although of a semi- ecclesiastical character, may 
 still be taken as a fair example of a dwelling-house of 
 the latter part of the fifteenth century of a person in a 
 good position and a certain rank, as there is very little 
 that is peculiarly ecclesiastical about it : the double 
 cloister for the passages is by no means necessarily of 
 that character; it never extended round the court, but 
 was on one side only. A similar arrangement was con- 
 tinued very commonly in Elizabethan houses, and long 
 afterwards, and even to our own day in country inns. 
 Although the chief use of the corridors was for pas- 
 sages of communication, they were also used for other 
 purposes. They often served as a sort of aisles or 
 galleries to the chapel, as in Linlithgow Palace, where 
 openings are provided from the passage into the chapel 
 to enable persons placed there to join in the service, 
 and in Hawarden Castle, where an upper passage has 
 a sort of squint provided at the end of it opening 
 into a small chapel in the thickness of the wall, which 
 also had a door or arch with a screen into one of the 
 principal chambers, where the family and guests might 
 be assembled to hear mass and see the elevation of the 
 Host, while the servants were enabled to attend in the 
 corridor. In some cases there were curtains thrown 
 across. In one of the inventories at Ewelme, already 
 alluded to, we meet with 
 
 " A travas of purple tartren.— 3 curteyns of green and blu paled 
 tartran," &c. 
 
 U 
 
146 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 This hanging across the passage is probably alluded 
 to in Chaucer's "Merchant's Tale:" — 
 
 " Men drinken, and the travers draw anon." 
 
 The passages in the thickness of the wall often have 
 the entrances to them in the recess of a window, as at 
 Wetherall Priory, Cumberland. Such passages commonly 
 lead to a garderobe only, with loopholes to give light, 
 but in castles these also served to assist in the defence. 
 Sometimes such an opening and passage leads to a bed- 
 room in a corner turret, or to a staircase up to the roof; 
 occasionally, and this especially in Ireland, by a de- 
 scending stair to a small chamber, which seems to have 
 been the dungeon or place of security for a prisoner 
 of importance, the top of the tower-house being con- 
 sidered more secure than the bottom ; and the only en- 
 trance to this chamber being from the principal state 
 apartment at the top of the house, escape was almost 
 impossible. 
 
 It was necessary to have a Projection from the face of 
 the wall, either a stone gallery at the top carried on a 
 row of boldly projecting corbels, or a temporary wooden 
 gallery thrown out from the face of the wall, for which 
 corbels were often provided half-way up the wall, or 
 merely supported on projecting timbers, for which the 
 put-log holes often remain. The object of these pro- 
 jections was to enable the defendants to throw down 
 missiles on the heads of the assailants, or to pour water 
 on the faggots if they attempted to apply fire, and for 
 this purpose the shaft from the well is often continued 
 through the thickness of the wall up to the battlement. 
 Sometimes, instead of a continuous gallery, small stone 
 closets, called Bartizans or machicoulis, are thrown out on 
 corbels immediately over the doorway, as in some of the 
 pele-towers in Scotland. Similar projections also served 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE: FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 147 
 
 to protect the foot of the walls wherever they were liable 
 to be attacked, and not the doorways only. At Conway 
 there is a remarkable row of twelve of these closets, pro- 
 jecting from the parapet at the top of the wall, in one 
 bay only, between two towers, of the town wall, and not 
 in any other part. This arrangement is very singular, 
 as the particular bay selected does not appear to be more 
 exposed to danger than any other. It has been con- 
 jectured that these were merely garderobes for the use 
 of the garrison, and it is observed that there is a re- 
 markable absence of these conveniences in the other parts 
 of the walls, both of the town and of the castle. It would 
 appear that such projecting closets were used for both 
 purposes, for defence when necessary, for convenience 
 only at other times, and sometimes they appear to have 
 been provided for convenience only, in situations where 
 they could not have been wanted for defence. 
 
 In Ireland the bartizans are a prominent feature in 
 most of the tower-built houses ; they are usually round, 
 and clasp one angle at the top of the tower, projecting 
 from the battlement, but in some cases they project from 
 the face of the wall about half-way up. 
 
 In Compton Castle, Devonshire, they are a very re- 
 markable feature, from their extraordinary number ; this 
 appears to arise from there being no moat to protect the 
 foot of the wall, which rendered this other mode of de- 
 fending it the more necessary. They were clearly not 
 garderobes, as there are garderobe turrets quite inde- 
 pendent of them, and belonging to the same chambers 
 as some of the bartizans, the opening of which is covered 
 over by a wooden flap, making a seat in the sill of the 
 window, and this appears to be an old arrangement. 
 
 The name of bartizan is commonly applied to these 
 projections in England and in Ireland, and the corbels 
 
148 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 on which they are carried are called machicoulis ; in 
 Trance that name is applied to the whole structure : 
 strictly speaking, it applies to the opening between the 
 corbels which serves as a cordis, or gutter, or groove foi 
 throwing down stones and guiding them. 
 
 It seems probable, however, that the name of machi- 
 coulis was applied in the middle ages to the whole 
 structure, as a part of the necessary fortifications, as 
 appears from the following passages : — 
 
 "... quousque dicta villa perfecte fossatis et muris cum turribus et 
 machicolamentis et barbacanis clausa pretit a ." 
 
 The usual form of the royal license to fortify a house 
 was : — 
 
 " Imbattellandi kernillandi, machicollandi," etc. 
 
 " Turris de mercato dicta S. Ludovici habet de alto computata 
 fundamenta usque ad machacolladuram xi. cannas cadratas et 11 
 palmos b ," etc. 
 
 Another mode of defending the foot of the wall from 
 being undermined, when there was no moat, was by a 
 covered way round the base of the tower exposed to 
 danger. On the top of this covered way was a walk 
 protected by a battlement, which served also to protect 
 the entrance, which was from this walk ; this served the 
 purpose of a gallery, and an additional station for archers 
 besides those on the top ; and if the outer wall was un- 
 dermined, the safety of the tower itself would not there- 
 by be affected. A good example of this kind occurs at 
 Rudesheim, on the Ehine, where the lofty round tower 
 of the fifteenth century, with its very elegant battlement 
 and cornice of Flamboyant work, has the base protected 
 by a covered way of this kind, which remains perfect. 
 One of the gatehouses of the small town of Tenby in 
 South "Wales has the covered way at the top quite per- 
 
 a Charta ann. 1346, ex Cod. Reg. 8,387. b Charta ann. 1382, ap. Ducange. 
 
I 
 
 THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 149 
 
 feet, and there are remains of it in several of the castles 
 of that district. 
 
 A full supply of water was as necessary in the middle 
 ages as it is now, and as well provided ; the deep wells 
 which they made in those days often remain in use to the 
 present day. There was often also a shaft over the well 
 through every story of the house up to the battlements 
 at the top, with openings on each story, so that the 
 bucket might be stopped wherever it was wanted. Good 
 examples of wells with their shafts of this description 
 remain in Eochester Castle, at Eed Castle, in Shrop- 
 shire, Carisbrook Castle, and numerous other places. 
 At Dirleton Castle, Scotland, there are two such wells, 
 one for the use of the kitchen, which was at the top of 
 the house, the other for the more convenient use of the 
 garrison in case of attack. 
 
 In other instances, when good water could not be ob- 
 tained by digging wells, it was brought in pipes from some 
 neighbouring hill, very much as in modern days. The 
 very perfect system of pipes for the conveyance of water 
 to every part of the great monastery at Canterbury so 
 early as the twelfth century, is well known from the cir- 
 cumstance that the original plan, with all the water- 
 courses drawn out in colours by a monk of the town, has 
 been preserved in the library of Trinity College, Cam- 
 bridge, and has been frequently engraved, though not 
 very carefully. Professor Willis has thoroughly inves- 
 tigated the matter with his usual acumen, and has traced 
 out the water-courses in the existing remains. It would 
 be difficult to meet with another example equally per- 
 fect, but traces of similar arrangements may frequently 
 be found. 
 
 In other instances, where the nature of the soil and 
 the situation did not admit either of wells or of a supply 
 
150 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 of water by means of pipes, arrangements were made to 
 catch all the water which fell on the roof of the house 
 or castle, and preserve it in a large reservoir provided for 
 that purpose. A very fine and perfect example of a re- 
 servoir of this period has been preserved at Hawarden 
 Castle, Flintshire, which stands on the summit of a hill 
 of limestone. A large and deep reservoir is cut out of 
 the rock, with a drain from it to the moat in case it 
 should be ever full, and there are steps leading down to 
 it on both sides, for the convenience of the servants, as 
 it had offices on both sides protected by a sort of out- 
 work of the fortifications. In early times, a frequent 
 mode of taking a castle was by cutting off the supply of 
 water, thereby compelling the garrison to surrender, and 
 precautions to guard against this danger were after- 
 wards adopted : there is a good original reservoir or cis- 
 tern at Canon's Ashby, Northamptonshire. 
 
 Although it was sometimes necessary to catch all the 
 water which fell on the roofs and convey it by pipes to 
 
 Water spouts, Kirk-Andrewa-on-Eske, Cumberland. 
 
 the reservoir, it was more often necessary to throw it off 
 as speedily as possible, and for this purpose gurgoyles or 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 KITCHEN, 
 
 STANTON HARCOURT, OXFORDSHIRE. 
 
J 
 
 THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 
 
 151 
 
 water-spouts are abundantly provided ; these are some- 
 times ornamented with heads, as in churches, more often 
 they are plain, and in disturbed districts they are made 
 to resemble small cannons. In South Wales, especially in 
 Bishop Gower's work, as at the bishop's palace, St. David's, 
 large openings are left in the parapet at very short in- 
 tervals, to allow the water to run off freely. In Ireland 
 a similar plan is commonly adopted, but the openings are 
 smaller and not so conspicuous ; sometimes the projecting 
 spouts like small stone cannons are used, as is also com- 
 monly the case in Scotland and in the north of England. 
 A good example occurs at Kirk- Andre ws-on-Eske, Cum- 
 berland, of which we have already given a general view, 
 and here repeat the gurgoyles or spouts more at large. 
 
 The Kitchens and Minor Offices were usually in the 
 preceding age detached from the main building, but they 
 appear now to have been generally connected with it, and 
 were frequently built with solars above. In a will bear- 
 ing date 1463, we read of the " chambyr abovyn the 
 kechene, with the draughth chambyr longyng therto c ;" 
 and in a letter of Sir John Howard reference is made to 
 the chambers " over the pantry and buttery." 
 
 There are many fine examples of kitchens of the fif- 
 teenth century remaining, either as distinct buildings or 
 under other parts of the house. Of the former class, 
 perhaps one of the finest is at the manor-house of Stanton- 
 Harcourt, Oxfordshire : this is a square tower-like build- 
 ing, very lofty, with a fine open timber-roof, with luffer- 
 boards in the side windows at the springing of the 
 roof, instead of the louvre at the top. The fireplaces 
 and ovens remain, the roof is pyramidal, and surmounted 
 by the family crest as a vane. It has an alure at the 
 springing of the roof, protected by a parapet wall and 
 
 « Wills of the Register of St. Edmund's Bury, p. 22. 
 
152 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE '. FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 battlement, and approached by a newel staircase in a 
 square stair- turret at one corner. Wykeham's kitchen 
 at New College, Oxford, and Wolsey's kitchens at Christ 
 Church and Hampton Court, are also of this class. When 
 the kitchen is under other apartments it is usually 
 vaulted for security, as at Warwick Castle, where it is 
 under the principal state apartment, and forms one of 
 a very fine suite of vaulted chambers, already alluded to : 
 this is also the case in the Prior's House at Wenlock, 
 Shropshire. In Berkeley Castle it is an hexagonal vaulted 
 chamber, not detached, but forming part of the suite of 
 buildings with the other offices connected with the lower 
 end of the hall. 
 
 In the inventories of the period the kitchen is con- 
 stantly mentioned: for instance, by the will of Eoger 
 Kyrkby (1412) we find that there were in his kitchen — 
 
 " vii. ollse senese, \\js. 8- duodena? vasorum de electro, 
 
 xxxij. lagenas (gallons) cum Unum fry ingpan ferri, vj<*. 
 tribus parvis plumbis, viij*. TJnum rostyng-iryn, iiijj." 
 
 From an inventory at Boston, Lincolnshire, we find 
 that there were — 
 
 " In the Kechyn — A hen cage, with a shelfe withyn. 2 tubs. 
 2 sowes, [large tubs]. A great boll & a lesser boll. A hogs-hed to 
 put in salte. A market maunde (basket) with a coveringe. 12 brass 
 pots, kettles, &c, weighynge together 167 lbs. A great yron spyt, 
 weighynge 14 lbs. A payre of cobbards of yron, weighynge 23 lbs. 
 Other spytts, droppyng-pans, frynge-pans, brandreths, &c, weighynge 
 86 lbs." 
 
 In the inventory of the Priory of Finchall (1411), in 
 addition to articles mentioned above, we find — 
 
 iv. patellae, ijs. Yid. 
 Unum veru (spit) ferreum. 
 ij. dresshyng-knives, vije?. 
 Unum plumbum continens 
 
 (a mixed metal), xxs. 
 Una duodena? vasorum veterum, 
 
 vjs. viijrf. 
 v. parapsides (dishes), x. disci 
 (plates), ijs. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 
 
 153 
 
 ' ii. posnetts (pipkins). 
 
 iii. zetlings (pans), videlicet ii. 
 
 pro piscibus coquendis, et j. pro 
 
 frixis (frying-pan), 
 xiii. salsaria antiqua. 
 xij. parapsides cum totidem sal- 
 
 sariis novis. 
 j. machera pro carnibus levandis 
 
 (probably the large iron fork 
 
 for lifting the meat from the 
 
 pot). 
 
 Unum mortariolum eneum cum 
 
 pilo ferreo. 
 j. craticula ferrea (gridiron), 
 j. brandeyrne (probably a large 
 
 gridiron or roasting bars for 
 
 placing either on or in front of 
 the fire). 
 
 j. potclames (pothooks or chains 
 from which the pot was sus- 
 pended). 
 
 j. por (poker). 
 
 j. falanga (a thick sort of pole, 
 which men laid across their 
 shoulders for carrying heavy 
 goods, probably something like 
 brewers use to this day). 
 
 ij. tubbs. 
 
 ij. calathae (baskets) pro piscibus 
 cariandis,et ij. minores pro ovis, 
 et piscibus cariandis et aliis, ij. 
 rakks (rakes) ferri debiles." 
 
 In the same kitchen, at a later date (1465), we fine] 
 the same with some additions, such as — 
 
 "j. hausorium (bucket), 
 j. scommer. 
 ij. mortar lapedei. 
 j. par cleppis (pot-hooks?), 
 j. fleshaxs. 
 
 j. fleshcroyk. 
 
 j. dressyng knyff. 
 
 iiij. bus. farinsB avenarum. 
 
 vi. et dim lagense mellis. 
 
 Et j. qu. salis." 
 
 In royal and noble palaces the furniture of the kitchen 
 was sometimes costly, as we read by the will of Eichard, 
 Earl of Arundel (1387), who leaves — 
 
 " Pur la cusyne trois dozeins des esquelx (dishes), deux dozeins des 
 saucers, et quartre chargeours, tout d'argent." 
 
 The kitchen gear was sometimes of a more homely de- 
 scription, for my Lord Howard paid only eleven-pence 
 "for two bolles for the kechyne, ij. rounde dysches, and 
 xj. platers of tre to serve werkemen, and other gere d ." In 
 1482, twopence was paid for "ij. erthen pannys." The 
 use of pottery, however, even at this period, was not 
 general. In 1463, John Earet of Bury by his will left to 
 
 d Howard's Household Book, p. 325. 
 X 
 
1 5 I DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE I FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 his niece "a greet erthin potte that was my moderis 6 ," 
 but we do not find such household utensils often men- 
 tioned. In a manuscript entitled Liber de Coquina we 
 read : — ■ 
 
 " Take pejous and heu horn in vessel smalle, 
 Put horn in a erthyn pot thou schalleV 
 
 Bottles and pots were made of leather. In the ex- 
 pences of the Howards several items occur for leathern 
 pots and bottles, and at one time as much as seven shil- 
 lings and eightpence was paid for " viii. leder pottes, vj. of 
 a sorte, and ij. of a grettur sorte." 
 
 Perhaps the inventory of the goods of Sir John Fas- 
 tolfe, taken about 1455, gives the best list of the usual 
 contents of a kitchen of a large country-house : — 
 
 " j. gret bras pote. ij. grete square spittys. 
 
 vi. cours pottys of brasse. ij. square spittys cocnos (?) 
 
 iiij. lytyll brasse pottis. ij. lytyll brochys rounde. 
 
 iiij. grete brasse pottis. j. sars (sieve or cullender of 
 
 iij. pike pannys of brasse (pans brass). 
 
 for dressing the fish of that j. brasyn morter cum j. pestell. 
 
 name). j. grate, 
 ij. ladels and ij. skymers of j. sarche of tre (cullender of 
 
 brasse. wood), 
 
 j. caudron. i. flessche hoke. 
 
 j. dytyn panne of brasse. ij. potte hokys. 
 
 j. droppyng panne. j. payr tongys. 
 
 j. gredyren. j. dressyng knyfe. 
 
 iiij. rakkis. j. fyre schowle. 
 
 iij. cobardys. ij. treys, 
 
 iij. trevitts. j. streynour. 
 
 j. fry eying panne. j. vinegre botell." 
 j. sclyse (large knife ?). 
 
 A much longer and more varied list of articles of fur- 
 niture in the kitchen occurring in the inventories might 
 be made, but enough has been given to shew that a 
 
 e Wills from the Register of St. Edmund's Bury, p. 23. 
 f MS. Sloane, 1,986, p. 60. 
 
DOMKSTIC ARCHITECTURE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 FURNITURE, &C, FROM MSS. IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY. 
 
 INTERIOR OF KITCDF.N. 
 Canon. I iturg. 99. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 155 
 
 kitchen was as well furnished with all necessary articles 
 then as at the present day. 
 
 Before, however, concluding the list, a few words 
 should be said about the Andirons, or Fire-dogs (che- 
 nets B ), which were originally used for the reredos or 
 brasier in the middle of the hall, but afterwards were 
 equally common in fireplaces. " A pair of andyrnes" is 
 of constant occurrence in the inventories of the period, 
 and although they have now been generally discarded 
 from use in consequence of the introduction of coal, they 
 may still be often found in old-fashioned houses, espe- 
 cially in districts where wood is abundant. Their use 
 was not at all confined to the hall, they were equally 
 convenient in the fireplaces of the chambers and kitchens 
 before grates were introduced : representations of them 
 are very common in the illuminations of manuscripts of 
 this period, as in Douce's MSS. 99 and 195. Pokers and 
 tongs are also frequently mentioned and represented. 
 Thus we find in the Prior's chamber at Finchall, (1411) : — 
 
 "ij. porrs (pokers) et forcipes (tongs) pro igne, videlicet j. pro 
 camera Domini et j. pro camera ludenciumV 
 
 The large Fireplace is the usual mark by which to 
 distinguish the kitchen ; it generally, but by no means 
 always, has a projecting hood over it : such fireplaces are 
 constantly represented in the illuminations of manu- 
 scripts. They are also perhaps the most common feature 
 to find remaining in the ruins of houses of the middle 
 
 s " Les chenets (des chambres royales) 
 etoient de fer ouvre ; en 1367, on en fit 
 quatre paires pour les chambres de la 
 reine an Louvre; la plus petite pesoit 
 42 livres, l'autre 60, l'autre 100, la plus 
 grosse 198, et couterent 26 livres, ] 3 sols 
 quatre deniers Parisis, a raison de 16 
 deniers la livre de fer. Les soufflets 
 
 etoient tons charges d'ornements. Les 
 tenailles, les pincettes, les pelles et le 
 traifen .... etoient de fer ouvre." — 
 Sauval, Ville de Paris, p. 280. 
 
 h The chamber of the players, i. e. a 
 chamber in the priory appropriated to 
 the performance of mysteries and other 
 dramatic entertainments. 
 
156 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 ages of all periods, more particularly of the fifteenth 
 century. 
 
 There is frequently a back kitchen situated at the 
 back of the chimney-stack, with a doorway or small arch 
 opening into it by the side of the kitchen fireplace. This 
 seems to have been also used as the scullery, at least in 
 some instances, as at Fawsley. The scullery is some- 
 times mentioned as a separate office, but less frequently 
 than most of the others. 
 
 The Pantry and the Buttery have been already de- 
 scribed as the small chambers adjoining to the lower end 
 of the hall, intervening between that and the kitchen \ 
 The pantry, as we have said, was usually for the distri- 
 bution of the bread, and the buttery of the liquors k . 
 But these distinctions were not always strictly preserved, 
 in the smaller houses one chamber often served both 
 purposes, and the names of offices which were originally 
 distinct are often confounded and mixed up together in 
 the inventories of this period. The buttery (bo tellurium) 
 and the cellar (celarium) became one. For instance, in 
 the Finchall accounts, referred to in our last volume, 
 we find first of all the inventories of the pantry and 
 buttery separate; but when we come to the fifteenth 
 century, on examining the details we find the cups, bowls, 
 vessels, bread- chest, saltcellars, candlesticks, tankards, 
 table-cloths, hand-towels, and knife for cutting the bread, 
 all thrown together in one account, as if in one and the 
 same chamber, and under the description of pantaria et 
 botellaria. 
 
 Still later in the century (1465), and in the same series 
 
 ' See vol. ii. p. 135. 
 
 k In the description of Durham Ab- 
 bey the writer says : — " The victualls 
 that served the 3aid gessts came from 
 
 the great kitching of the Prior, the 
 bread and beare from his pantrie and 
 seller." — Ancient Rites of Durham. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 157 
 
 of accounts, we find the words pantry and buttery aban- 
 doned, and promptuariam supplying their place. The 
 contents are now not so varied, consisting chiefly of 
 table-cloths, jars, cups, spoons, and drinking vessels. 
 
 For the most part, the inventories are chiefly a repe- 
 tition of those given in the last volume, but of course the 
 utensils and implements are more numerous. A few, 
 perhaps, may now be added of this century, which will 
 exhibit the progress which had been made in household 
 economy. From the will of Eichard, Earl of Arundel, 
 we learn — 
 
 " Je devise qe ma dite compaigne Philippe eit pur le botellerye et celer 
 deux pottes d'argent, chescun contenaunt un potel (pint) ij. hanappes 
 (bowls) d'argent, enorrez, enarme (emblazoned), outre sa propre hanap 
 appelle ' Bealchier,' un dozein de peces 1 d'argent, les deux salers 
 (salt-cellars) d'argent enarrez, queux ma dite compaigne moy dona a 
 moun aun doun (as my new year's gift) un chastel ' Philipp' et deux 
 autres meindres salers d'argent, Tun ove coverture, et l'autre sans 
 coverer. Deux chaundelers d'argent pur soper en yverne (two silver 
 candlesticks for use during dinner in winter), ove haut pees, et mees 
 eschochouns pendantz ove trois quartres sur meomes les chandelers 
 et les suages (?) enbataillez et enorrez." 
 
 In the cellar proper of Sir John Fastolfe (1455), there 
 is not much to be found, as far as appears by the roll : — 
 
 " In the Seler, certayn vessell whiche John Ouresby is chargid 
 withe by an endenture, wherof the copy is annexed to this lese. — ij. 
 pypes of rede wyne." 
 
 But in " the Bottre" we have a very complete list, 
 which is worth noting : — 
 
 " ij. kerving knyves. j. payre galon bottels of one 
 
 iij. kneyves in a schethe, the sorte. 
 
 haftys of every (ivory), withe j. payre of potell bottellys of one 
 
 naylys gilt. sorte. 
 
 1 Pecia. This word, as we have be- 
 fore mentioned, is used to denote any 
 object made of precious metal. It 
 
 answers to our expression, " a piece 
 of plate." 
 
158 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE '. FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 j. nother potell bottell. 
 j. pay re quartletts of one sorte. 
 iiij. galon pottis of lether. 
 iij. pottelers of lether. 
 j. trencher knyfe. 
 j. grete tankard. 
 
 Then we have an account 
 buttery : — 
 
 " In primis iij. chargeres argenti 
 de parvo sorte. 
 
 v. platers argenti. 
 xij. dissches argenti unius sort'. 
 \ iij . dissches argenti minoris 
 
 sortes. 
 
 xi. sawseris argenti unius sortis. 
 iij. crateras argenti quarum. 
 j. dat' Margarete Hoddsone. 
 iij. covertories argenti enaraelid 
 
 and borage flours in les botimes 
 
 (the knobs ?). 
 
 vi. chacyd pecys gilte bi the 
 bordurys with the touche of 
 Paryce m . 
 
 ij. pottis argenti potlers, percell 
 
 gilte and enameled with violetts 
 
 and dayseys. 
 ij. pottis of sylver, of the facion 
 
 In the inventory before alluded to, at Boston, and at 
 a later date, we find — 
 
 "In the Buttre. — A playne armory, with three little chambers. 
 A sprewce cheste. A dressynge-borde, with a pryck to hang clothes 
 on. A brake to make vergys withall. A lyttell forme, and a bynke 
 to sett ale potts on. A salt of tyn with a cover. 2 bell candelstyks. 
 A quantitye of tabill linen, marked with this letter M, crowned. 
 2 dozen trenchers. Pewter plates, dishes and sawcers, amounting in 
 weight to 114f lbs." 
 
 ij. grete and hoge botellis. 
 xiiij. candy lokys of laton (latten 
 metal). 
 
 Certayn pecys of napre (table 
 linen, &c), according to a bylle 
 endentyd annexed to this lese." 
 
 of the plate in the same 
 
 of goods enamelyd on the 
 
 toppys withe hys armys. 
 j. quarteler argenti percel gilt, 
 
 with j. chase a bough of rosys 
 
 and levys (leaves), 
 j. rounde salt seler, gylt and 
 
 covered with a wrethe toppe, 
 
 with this wordys wreten ' Me 
 
 faunt fere' abowght. 
 j. salt seler, pacell of the same 
 
 fassion sengle. 
 ij. salt selers of silver, playne 
 
 and small, with a double rose 
 
 graven withthe armys. 
 j. basyn of silver, percell gylte, 
 
 with a dowble rose, his armis 
 
 enamelid in the bottom, bevvith 
 
 his helme and his crest." 
 
 m Query the "handle of Parisian (workmanship)" — or (carved with the sub- 
 ject of) " the Choice of Paris." 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 
 
 159 
 
 In an inventory of the period (1412), we find that a 
 clergyman's celarium (buttery) contained — 
 " Una mappa (cloth) cum uno iij. paria cultellorum (knives) 
 
 xxxviii. ulni panni linei, xis. jJ. ij. barels et iiij. standes, ijs." 
 (probably used as table-cloths). 
 
 In the inventory of the Prior of Durham, (1446) : — 
 
 " In Promptuario (pantry) sunt ij. coclearia argentea et deaurata, 
 unius, sectse, cum ymaginibus BeataB Marise in fine eorundem. — 
 xij. coclearia argentea cum glandibus in nodis, unius sectse. — vij. 
 coclearia argentea cum nodis deauratis. — ij. coclearia argentea cum 
 %of). insculptis cum longis stalkez (stems). — iij. murrse (murrain 
 cups) cum cooperculis. 
 
 " Unum salsarium (saltcellar) rotundum, cum cooperculo deaurato 
 habente floridam circumferenciam cum 9 flo de luce (fleurs-de-lys). — 
 Unum salsarium quadratum, cum cooperculo argenteo et deaurato cum 
 armis, Johannis Wessyngton nuper prioris in summitate ejusdem. — 
 Unum salsarium argenteum et deauratum longum cum nodo recurvo. — 
 viij. salsaria argentea cum circumferentiis deauratis. 
 
 " Duo candelabra argentea concava oblonga, et deaurata in circum- 
 ferenciis. — xij. candelabra de auricalco, quorum ij. cum ij. floribus." 
 
 A great proportion of the provisions were still pur- 
 chased at fairs, although the increase of trade and general 
 commerce had much encroached upon this custom. Lord 
 Howard gave to Master Daniel money " to buy clothe at 
 the fayre 11 ." A glass, it does not say of what kind, 
 was purchased for one penny, and in 1465 sixpence was 
 paid " for a botelle of glasse bout at Ypswyche ." Uten- 
 sils of glass, however, were still scarce and expensive. 
 Earthenware is sometimes, although rarely, mentioned, 
 the garniture of the table being principally composed 
 
 manutergio (towel) de novo 
 factis, iij*. 
 x. mappa veteres cum iij. manu- 
 tergiis, ijs. \id. 
 
 argenti, vis. viij c?. 
 ix. ulni panni linei de lake 
 (lake, i. e. crimson colour), iiijs. 
 yid. 
 
 n Howard's Household Book, p. 99. 
 
 Manners and Household Exponces, p. 303. 
 
160 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 of vessels of pewter. Many "a garnysshe of counterfet 
 vesselys" were bought or exchanged with the pewterer 
 of Colchester, at the usual rate of fourpence the pound p . 
 
 In general, as we have before said, the place for wash- 
 ing the hands was behind the screen, but there was 
 sometimes a separate office appropriated for this pur- 
 pose, called the lavatorium, or Ewerye. Thus the Earl 
 of Arundel leaves — 
 
 " Pur V ewerye un paire basyns d" argent ennorrez de mes armes deux 
 bassyns, deux ewers sengles d'argent et un paire bassyns, desquex ete 
 est acustume a laver devant niaunge et soper." 
 
 The Lardarium was the place for storing the potted 
 meat which was preserved for winter use, the mouths of 
 the pots being covered over with lard, as in the present 
 day. Such preserved meats were extensively used in the 
 middle ages, and the lardarium, or larder, was an im- 
 portant office, usually near to the kitchen. 
 
 It was in most cases the same as the Salsarium, 
 in which salted provisions were stored, when it was 
 necessary to provide so large a stock of provisions, both 
 in castles in case of a siege, and in the manor-houses 
 on account of the difficulty of obtaining a regular sup- 
 ply, from the badness of the roads and the scarcity of 
 carts or wheel-carriages of any kind. Even in quite re- 
 cent times it was customary in large establishments to 
 lay in a stock of salted provisions for the winter supply. 
 
 The contents of the larder or salting- house, as given 
 in inventories, will best explain the purpose of the 
 building ; and for this purpose reference is made to those 
 already quoted. 
 
 " Tn the Lardyr-house. — A bultynge pype, covered with a yarde 
 of canvesse. 2 bultynge cloths. A knedynge sheit of canvesse, con- 
 
 * Manners and Household Expences, pp. 279, 317. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 
 
 161 
 
 teynynge 3 elles. A knedynge tubbe with a coverynge. 2 vergys 
 barrels. A skeppe." 
 
 In Sir John Fastolfe's larder there were — 
 
 By this it will be seen that the larder contained chiefly 
 salted fish for the observance of fast days. The ling, 
 haddock, white herring, and eel seem to be the favourite 
 fish. Similar to this are the contents of the Fynchall 
 larder, during the different inventories which were 
 taken. 
 
 Indications of progress are, however, observable in the 
 provisions of the larder and store-chambers. Many deli- 
 cacies were procured from foreign climes by the London 
 merchants. Choice spices and fruits were obtained at 
 moderate cost. Lord Howard sends to London for " a 
 toppet of fnggs q ," and he is able to purchase a hundred 
 and ten oranges at twopence the score. Twelve pence 
 were paid to the " caryer for brengyng of prunys;" 
 and almonds, raisins, currants, and cinnamon are sup- 
 plied by " Sandys the grocer" in large quantities. 
 
 The Bakehouse is generally situated near the kitchen. 
 Sometimes the ovens are in the back kitchen, as at Had- 
 don Hall ; more frequently it is a separate chamber, and, 
 having also the arch of a large fireplace in it, is fre- 
 quently called a second kitchen, but the pair of ovens 
 were usually placed under an arch of this kind. At 
 Fawsley the whole arrangement is complete, the chimney- 
 arch has the two ovens under it, all being original. In 
 
 " iij. grete standere pannes, 
 j. bocher's (butcher's) axe. 
 ij. saltyng tubbes. 
 viii. lynges. 
 
 viii. mulwellfyche (haddock?) 
 j. barell dim alec alb. 
 
 j. barell anguill unde car. cc. an- 
 guill. 
 
 j. ferkyn anguill hoole. 
 j. barell. 
 
 j. buschell salt albi. 
 j. quart alb. sal." 
 
 i Howard's Household Book, p. 22. 
 
 Y 
 
162 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE I FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 this instance the bakehouse is separated from the kitchen 
 by the back kitchen or scullery. 
 
 The Brewhouse was an office of considerable import- 
 ance and extent, which we commonly find among the 
 outbuildings of houses, from the days of our Saxon 
 ancestors to the present time. Brasenose College in 
 Oxford, originally Brasenose Hall, owes its name to its 
 having been built on the site of an ancient brewhouse, 
 in Anglo-Saxon brasen-huis, just as the palace of the 
 Tuileries owes its name to having been built on the 
 site of a tile manufactory. 
 
 In the fifteenth century the brewhouse was not less 
 important than at other periods. It is commonly joined 
 on to the other offices, or forms part of the offices sur- 
 rounding the servants' court, as at Fawsley, Haddon 
 Hall, and Hurstmonceux. At New College, Oxford, the 
 brewhouse is outside the walls of the college, but flanks 
 the approach to it, from which it would appear not to 
 have formed part of the original buildings of Wykeham, 
 but to have been added soon afterwards. It is a large 
 range of building, of the fifteenth century, and is con- 
 nected with the other buildings of the college by a room 
 over the street, which rests on an askew arch, of clever 
 construction, built long before the difficulties of railway 
 engineers were dreamed of. 
 
 At Merton College also the founder appears not to 
 have supplied a brewhouse, and the college, in a sub- 
 sequent age, to make amends for this deficiency, turned 
 the sacristy of the chapel into a brewhouse, to which 
 purpose it is still applied. 
 
 A malt-house seems to have been generally a neces- 
 sary appendage to a brewhouse. But beer was not 
 always brewed at home : the trade of a brewer had 
 become one of importance. Hops were generally used. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 163 
 
 Such items as "payd for ij. C. and xxi. lbs. of hoppes," 
 at eight shillings the hundred-weight, are several times 
 recorded. 
 
 In some instances the bakehouse and brewhouse are 
 included under an inventory, as if the same chamber 
 served for each, as in the Fynchall accounts we find — 
 
 " Pistrinum et Pandoxato- 
 kium. — Imprimis, iij. lebetes 
 (cauldrons) magna?. 
 
 Et iiij. parvse in gylnghouse. 
 
 j. masfatt novum. 
 
 ij. saas (kind of tubs). 
 
 ij. fattis (vats). 
 
 ij. frogons ferri (forks used in 
 raking the fire in the oven). 
 
 j. securis (axe) pro lignis se- 
 
 candis. 
 x. sacci ibidem et alibi, 
 ij. bulting-claythis (bowlting or 
 
 sifting cloths), 
 j. temes (sieve) novum, 
 i. bulting ark (chest), 
 j. trow pro past (paste-trough) 
 
 novum, et j. trow antiquum. 
 
 The kitchens, brewhouses, and bakehouses were no 
 doubt supplied chiefly with wood for some time, but now 
 Coal had become a large item in household expendi- 
 ture. Eoberd Gryrlynghouse was paid four shillings 
 and twopence " for x. seme and a combe of coliis r ," 
 and at a subsequent period twenty-four quarters of coal 
 were bought at fourpence-halfpenny the quarter 8 . This 
 did not include the cartage, for various sums were paid 
 to the carters " ffor fettyng of coles from Wevenhoo." 
 Coal-houses became necessary additions to the out-build- 
 ings, and we find an entry of fourpence being paid "ffor 
 a locke for the cole hows doreV 
 
 The trade in that useful article, coal, which we have 
 already treated of, rose into importance only as chimneys 
 became common. The citizens of London began to use coal 
 in the reign of Edward i., but several of the nobility com- 
 plained of it as a nuisance, and, after a commission of in- 
 quiry, a proclamation was issued, prohibiting the use of 
 
 r Howard's Household Book, p. 326. 8 Ibid., p. 472. 1 Ibid., p. 465. 
 
164 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 sea coal". But in spite of this royal interference the 
 trade gradually increased, and we find that coal was used 
 at the coronation feast of Edward n. Eichard del Hurst 
 petitions for the payment of ten shillings for sea coal 
 supplied on that occasion \ On the 8th of January, 1308, 
 John Fairhod, Thomas de Hales, Thomas Wastel, Eoger 
 le White, and John de Talworth, wood-merchants, re- 
 ceived fifty pounds from the Exchequer, to provide wood 
 and coal for the king's coronation 7 . The price of coal in 
 the reign of Edward in. was six shillings and fourpence 
 a chaldron. In the 38th year of the reign of that king 
 31/. 135. kd. was paid to John de Assehurst, for one hun- 
 dred chaldrons of coals supplied for the king's use 2 . But 
 charcoal, wood, and turf was the fuel most generally used 
 for domestic purposes. The scholars of Magdalen Col- 
 lege, Oxford, were allowed a certain time after meals to 
 tarry round the charcoal fire a . 
 
 In the romance of "William and the Werwolf" wo 
 have the following allusion to colliers : — 
 
 " And erliche on the morwe er the sunne gan shine, 
 Choliers that cart/ redon col come there bi side b ." 
 
 The Dairy may be mentioned, as it occurs in the old 
 records, though the origin of the word may be open to 
 dispute. We find the word mentioned in the account 
 
 u Pat. 35 Ed. i. m. 4. dorso. A 
 grant of 34 Ed. I., printed by Hearne 
 in Liber Niger Scaccarii, p. 480, illus- 
 trates this subject. The mayor and 
 citizens of London were allowed to levy 
 a toll of sixpence upon every shipload 
 of sea coal passing under London-bridge. 
 In the valuation made at Colchester, be- 
 fore referred to, a few of the tradesmen 
 are mentioned as having a stock of tal- 
 wood and sea coal, carbon' marin', but 
 it 3eems to have been used by black- 
 
 smiths, and not for domestic purposes. 
 Rot. Pari., vol. i. p. 228. 
 
 x Rot. Pari., 15 and 16 Ed. II., vol. i. 
 p. 405. 
 
 y Issue Rolls, Excheq. 1 Ed. II. Sea 
 coal was used by David Atte Hope, the 
 king's smith. Issue Rolls, Mich. 9 
 Ed. II. 
 
 z Issue Rolls, Excheq. Mich. 38 
 Ed. in. 
 
 a Chandler's Life of Waynflete, p. 205. 
 b fo. 37. a. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 165 
 
 delivered to the prior and canons of Burcester (1407) by 
 their dairy-man and dairy-maid : — 
 
 " Compotus Henrici Deye, et Johannse uxoris suae de omnibus 
 exitibus et proventibus de "Dayri" domini prioris de Buru- 
 cestre," &c. c 
 
 There are retnrns from selling cows, calves, hides, &c, 
 bnt we find the chief to be — 
 
 " Venditio casei, et ob. receptis de caseo et butiro." 
 
 The Granary was another important office, in which 
 the corn was kept after it was thrashed, and distinct 
 from the barn in which it was thrashed. 
 
 The granary seems to have been often the same as the 
 malt-house, one building serving for both purposes, as 
 in the inventory of Eoger de Kyrkby, 1412, we find, in 
 Granaria : — 
 
 " x. quart, brasii (malt) mixti, nondum trituratis, viij7. 
 
 xxxiijs. iiij^. x. petrse ferri, vs. 
 
 In frumento, ordeo (barley), Alia utensilia, xs." 
 avena (oats), et pisis (pease), 
 
 In the inventory of the Prior of Durham, (1446) : — 
 
 " Gkanarium. In granario sunt quorum aliqua sunt sufficiencia 
 lx. quarteria frumenti et extra et aliqua debilia. 
 lx. quarteria frumenti ; precium Unus equus pro frumento et 
 qu. vjs., xxxvjZ. braseo cariando, et apparatus 
 
 In braseo et ordeo ccc. qu., pr. competens pro eodem. 
 qu. iijs., Ixxiiij7. in prebenda videlicet pisis, fabis, 
 
 In pandoxina pistrina et ustrina et avenis xl. quarteria." 
 sunt diversa vasa et utensilia 
 
 The Mill was almost a necessary appendage to the 
 manor-house at a time when the corn grown on the 
 
 c Some years after (1425) we find in that the same name, " Deye," is re- 
 
 the accounts, " De xxxvs. receptis de tained, i. e. the name of the officer, as 
 
 ' Dayeria' de la Breche ut patet per ro- Hugo Dapifer, Henry Butler, and so 
 
 tulum compoti. Johannis Deye et Mar- John Day, i. e. the dairy-man. 
 geria uxoris suse," It will be noticed 
 
ICO DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 estate was habitually consumed on the spot, the want of 
 roads making it difficult to convey such a bulky article 
 to any considerable distance. The same stream which 
 formed the moat turned the mill, which was within the 
 outworks. Such mills often remain still in use, though 
 mutilated and altered in modern days, as at Great Chal- 
 fleld, Wilts. 
 
 In other cases the ruins of them only are left, as at 
 South Wingfield, Derbyshire, and Leeds Castle, Kent. 
 Drawings of them may often be met with in the illu- 
 minations of manuscripts of this period, as in a manu- 
 script of Quintus Curtius, 46, in the Bodleian Library. 
 
 Mill, with Sluice ana Overshot Wheel. Quintus Curtius, 46. 
 
 The Stables, as we have mentioned, formed a very 
 important part of the offices of a house in the middle 
 ages. In the small tower-built houses, or peles, in dis- 
 turbed districts, they usually form part of the house it- 
 self, occupying the whole or part of the vaulted lower 
 chamber or substructure. In the larger manor-houses 
 the stables are sometimes in the inner court, as at South 
 Wraxall, more often in the outer court, as at Tisbury, 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 FURNITURE, &C, FROM MSS. IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY. 
 
 MILT,, WITH SLUICE AND OVERSBOT WHEEL. 
 Quintus Curtius, 46. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 167 
 
 and frequently the stables and stable-yard are detached 
 on the outside of the moat, as at Ightham, Kent. At 
 Hampton Court the stables are banished to the opposite 
 side of the green, where, however, they remain in nearly 
 a perfect state, and of the same age as the palace itself. 
 At Hurley Bottom, Berkshire, the stables are very re- 
 markable, having stalls and woodwork of handsomely 
 carved work of Jacobean character, but probably con- 
 tinuing an older fashion. At Yanwath, Westmoreland, 
 the stable is on the opposite side of the court-yard to 
 the house, and the window is furnished with a good iron 
 grating of the fifteenth century. 
 
 Farm Buildings and Barns of the fifteenth century 
 may frequently be met with in those parts of the country 
 where the building- stone is of good quality, and the barns 
 sometimes have fine timber roofs, as at Harmondsworth 
 in Middlesex. 
 
 In general they differ little from modern barns, ex- 
 cepting that they usually have buttresses of Gothic cha- 
 racter, and are cruciform, sometimes with two transepts, 
 at the ends of each of which are the large folding doors 
 with a four-centred arch over them, and generally a 
 finial of the style of foliage used at this period, square 
 leaved and angular, not so free or such flowing lines as 
 on the barns described in our previous volumes. 
 
 At Place House, Tisbury, Wiltshire, the whole of the 
 farm buildings are of the fifteenth century, and remark- 
 ably perfect. 
 
 The Granges belonging to the different abbeys were 
 something more than farm-houses, they belong rather to 
 the class of manor-houses, and have more often been 
 preserved than most others, on account of the tenure of 
 Church property by leasehold only. 
 
 It would be increasing the size of the present work 
 
1GS DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 needlessly to minutely describe the usual contents of all 
 the outer offices which were at this time common in the 
 larger houses. It would be possible to find, from the 
 inventories which are accessible to us, the contents of 
 nearly all the various outbuildings which are found in a 
 gentleman's mansion of the present day. The por carta 
 (pig-styes), pidtaria (poultry-yards), the domus fabri (the 
 smith's shop), domus ortulani (garden tool-house), besides 
 the various storehouses in which were kept timber, gar- 
 dening and agricultural implements, and means for re- 
 pairing their carriages and waggons should any accidents 
 befall them. It would not, at the same time, be an un- 
 interesting study to trace the progress of agriculture 
 through the middle ages, and a few extracts from the 
 inventory attached to the will of the Prior of Durham, 
 already so frequently mentioned, will exhibit in some 
 degree the resources of a farmer of this period. In most 
 cases, as throughout the inventories, the probable inter- 
 pretation is appended to difficult passages. The name 
 of the estate is attached to each portion, but in no case 
 is the inventory given entire : — 
 
 " "Wyvestowe. ij. equi pro carectis, xxs. — ij. arata cum toto appa- 
 ratu tarn ligneo quam ferreo pro xij. bobus et iiij. equis. — iij. harpicse 
 (harrows), pr. viij<?. 
 
 " ij. carucse cum toto apparatu videlicet jugis, tracez, et aliis neces- 
 sariis, xiiij.?. — j. plaustrum novum cum wholnwhelez et cum iiij. hoopez 
 de ferro, pr. vjs. \iujd— j. coupwayn (long cart) cum waynstryngez, 
 pr. iijs. — j. carecta cum rotis iiij. hopis et viij. cartecloutcz, pr. viiijs. 
 
 " j. whetridell (wheat riddler), j. bigridell, j. cribrum (sieve), j. mo- 
 dius, j. hopper (seed basket), j. barnshoile (barn shovel), ij. rastra, 
 ij. yoke wymbils, j. restwymbyll, ij. grapez, j. shole (shovel) ligat' 
 cum ferro, et xv. nekbandez, pr. iijs. vj d. 
 
 " Pittingdon. j. ventilabrum (winnow T ing fan) ; iiij. sacci pro 
 semine ; j. gret fatt pro granis conservandis.^-iii. fattes minores ; 
 ij. reyngesevez (ring-sieves?); j. cribrum pro frumento; ij. cribra pro 
 a vend; ij. cribra pro ordeo mundando. — ij. hookes; ij. sholez (shovels) 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 169 
 
 pro orreo ; ij. funes pro plaustris ; ij. sholez; iij. grapez (dung-forks) ; 
 j. securis ; j. longa cista; ij. aratra cum toto apparatu pro xxiiij. bo- 
 bus; vij. shakels (chains) ferri, unde ij. sine skakelpynnez (shackle- 
 pins) et v. cum shakylpynnez ferri. 
 
 " iiij. juga capitalia ; ij. mukrakkez; j. mukforke (dung-fork); 
 ij. magnse ligaturee ferri pro ostio cum iiij. crokez (crooks) de ferro. 
 
 " j. magna securis (axe); iij. yrinforkez; ii. wedehokez (weed- 
 hoe?); j. hambyr; v. rastra; j. hopper; j. modius ; ij. langwaynez 
 (long carts) ; ij. plaustra pro fimo cariando ; iij. paria harpicarum et 
 vj. axiltrenalez (axle-tree nails or bolts), &c. 
 
 " Beatjlieu. Una carecta ferro ligata cum toto apparatu pro iiij. 
 equis trahentibus. — Una caruca cum toto apparatu pro viij. bobus; 
 iij. harpicae cum iij. tracez. 
 
 " Fery. Inter alia, ij. plaustra longa cum ij. rotis j. coupwayne 
 sine rotis ; iij. carucae cum toto apparatu pro xxiiij. bobus ; v. sevez ; 
 ij. scotelez (coal-scuttles); j. wyndow-cloth (winnowing-cloth) ; ij. 
 yrnforkez; iiij. rakez; vj. wedehokes ; iiij. grapez; ij. sholez; vj. har- 
 picae; vj. tracez cum j. hoper (basket)." 
 
 In the larger houses, as we have shewn, the number 
 of offices was much greater, and it is not always easy to 
 identify them. In the ground-plan of Haddon Hall, 
 which we have given, a very good set of offices is 
 exhibited, and the description of them, which we have 
 copied from Lysons, is sufficient to enable the reader to 
 distinguish them easily. 
 
 The following extract from SauvaPs u Antiquities of 
 Paris" shews, by the great number of names given to 
 different offices according to their respective uses, that 
 the French d were not behind us in the progress of social 
 improvements, and may be useful for comparison with 
 those already enumerated from English houses of the 
 same period : — 
 
 d In France there are many examples and Ardennes, near Caen. Several others, 
 
 of farm buildings of this period, some of in the department of Eure only, are 
 
 them very perfect and interesting. The described by M. Lemaitre, in M. de 
 
 abbey granges are often remarkably fine Caumont's Bulletin Monumental, vol. 
 
 and on a large scale, as at Maubuisson, xv. 
 
 Z 
 
170 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 " Dans la plupart des basses-cours avoient ete pratiquees la mar£- 
 chaussee, la conciergerie, la fourille, la lingerie, la pelleterie, la bou- 
 teillerie, la sausserie, le garde-manger, la maison du four, la faucon- 
 nerie, la lavanderie, la fruiterie, reschanconnerie, la panneterie, l'hypo- 
 cras, la patisserie, le bucher, la taillerie, la cave oil Ton met le vin des 
 maisons du roi. De plus, quantite de cuisines, quelques jeux de 
 paumes, celliers, colombiers, galliniers, c'est-a-dire poulailliers ; car 
 nos rois, qui vivoient alors en bons bourgeois, tenoient leurs menages, 
 et pour cela obligeoient les fermiers de leurs terres et de leurs domaines, 
 a leur fournir poulets, chapons, pigeons, bled, vin, charbon . . . et enfin 
 ces pigeons et ces poulets etoient eleves et nourris dans leur basse- 
 court, de meme que cliez les gentilshommes de campagne e ." 
 
 Throughout what has been said it will be observed 
 that considerable progress was made during the fifteenth 
 century. In the previous centuries not only is the anti- 
 quary at fault whence to derive his information and 
 where to find his examples, but there are clear indi- 
 cations that many of the luxuries which are in this 
 century common were in the previous most rare, if in- 
 deed known at all. Many indications of new trades and 
 callings are shadowed forth in the accounts of the period. 
 Stationers, of whom parchment, ink, paper, wafers, &c, 
 are bought, are mentioned more than once f . Sums 
 were paid to plumbers, glaziers, and bed-makers, and 
 we have an interesting notice of the " clokke maker of 
 Kolchester," who was paid two shillings and fourpence 
 "ffor mendyng of the clokke g ." 
 
 In the fifteenth century not only the remains of the 
 buildings are more frequently remaining and the in- 
 ventories . more numerous, but a large number of illu- 
 minated manuscripts throw much light upon the manners 
 and customs of the period. For instance, in a manu- 
 
 e Sauval, liv. vii. t. ii. p. 279. 
 f Howard's Household Book, pp. 196, 
 352. 
 
 « Ibid., p. 167. Clocks are men- 
 
 tioned as part of the furniture belong- 
 ing to Henry vin. at his palace at 
 Greenwich, MS. Harleian, No. 1,419, 
 p. 58. 
 
/ 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM MSS. IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY. 
 
 FlRtL.PL.ACE, SEAT, AMD TABLE. Canoe. Liturg. 99. 
 
 TABLE AND SEAT. Canon. Liturg. 99. 
 
 BAKRRODSK. Canon. Liturft. 99. 
 
THE CHAMBERS AND OFFICES. 171 
 
 script in the Bodleian Library, Canon Litnrg. 90, is an 
 excellent representation of the bakehouse with the baker 
 at work, taking the loaves out of the oven ; the one 
 which he holds in his pan is smoking hot. In the 
 same manuscript is a man dining in the kitchen, with 
 his back to the fire, and two servants waiting upon 
 him ; and above this is a chamber in which some person 
 is warming his feet at the fire while the servant is pre- 
 paring the table. Many others might be found, but one 
 plate is sufficient to shew the information to be derived 
 from this source. 
 
 In concluding this chapter on the Chambers and 
 Offices, it may be remarked that there are few apartments 
 in a modern house which cannot trace their existence to 
 this century. It is true the purposes for which they 
 were employed may have been somewhat changed, and 
 their proportionate extent and importance altered, as 
 years rolled on and requirements differed, but substan- 
 tially they are the same. The dining-room is but a 
 smaller hall, the withdra wing-room but a larger " solar;'' 
 the "lord's chamber" exists in the modern " study," 
 the " lady's chamber" in the " boudoir." The sleeping 
 apartments are scarcely more numerous in respect of the 
 occupants of a house than they were, if we only allow 
 for the difference that in the habitable room the bed was 
 not an uncommon piece of furniture, as we meet with 
 abroad at the present time ; during the day-time it was 
 covered with handsome tapestry, but at night was occu- 
 pied, and so saved the necessity of another apartment. 
 The " buttery and pantry" are now rolled into one, the 
 latter name being used to designate the office in our 
 large houses, the former being employed in colleges ; but 
 at the same time, the officer of the former, viz., the but- 
 ler, is retained, and that of pannetier lost. The " cellars" 
 
172 domestic architecture: fifteenth century. 
 
 existed as they do now, but by the introduction of glass 
 bottles the space required for decanting the wines before 
 they are brought to table is more limited. The cup- 
 boards in our houses for keeping linen and such like 
 were in those days more extensive, as the stock was 
 much greater and required separate chambers, called the 
 " garderobe," but in many large houses a room is still set 
 apart for this purpose. Of the " kitchen" we have said 
 enough to shew that its importance was not less in those 
 days than it is in these. As the trades of baker and 
 brewer have sprung up, the " bakehouse" and " brew- 
 house," except in large establishments, are less frequent. 
 The " butcher," too, now does away with the necessity 
 of the large lardarium and salsarium, as a small room 
 serves the purpose for the daily consumption, there being 
 no need to lay in stores for months. The conveniences 
 also, to which we have not alluded in this volume, but 
 on which information will be found in the previous 
 volume under the head of " garderobes," were not want- 
 ing in this century; indeed, it may be said that greater 
 care was bestowed upon matters connected with the 
 drainage of large houses then, than at the present 
 time. Stables and farm buildings it was not necessary 
 to speak of more than we have done, as, having been 
 generally built of wood, nearly every trace of them 
 has been swept away. 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE DOMESTIC CHAPEL. 
 
 No particular variation of plan as to the situation of 
 the Domestic Chapel has been observed between build- 
 ings of the fifteenth century and those of earlier periods. 
 The observation that "it was generally near to the hall, 
 and connected with it by a short passage leading from the 
 dais or upper end of the hall," which was made in our 
 second volume (p. 79), holds good equally in the fifteenth 
 century. It may be added, that it was frequently, at all 
 periods, on a different level from the hall, and connected 
 with it not only by a short passage, but by a staircase 
 also, often in a corner turret, and leading up from one 
 corner of the dais, or of the withdrawing-room behind 
 the dais, to about half the height of the hall, which was 
 usually of the height of two other chambers. The chapel 
 sometimes formed the upper chamber in a separate tower, 
 standing out at a right angle from the corner of the hall, 
 sometimes only connected with it by the corner stair- 
 turret, as at Kidwelly Castle, and the bishop's palace, 
 St. David's. In other instances it is placed against one 
 side of the hall, and separated from it by the wall 
 only, as at Eaglan Castle. 
 
 At the Mote, Ightham, Kent, the chapel of the time 
 of Henry vn. is remarkably perfect, with its cradle roof, 
 its screen, and stall-desks with their poppies. It forms 
 part of the range of buildings round the court, by the 
 side of the entrance, and is not immediately connected 
 with the hall. 
 
174 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE I FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 At H addon Hall it forms one corner of the buildings 
 of the outer ward, but here it was a parish church, and 
 consists of nave and aisles, of earlier date, as well as 
 chancel, the latter being, properly speaking, the chapel, 
 and was connected with the hall by a passage, the hall 
 itself standing between the outer and inner wards, and 
 at right angles to the chapel, but at a short distance 
 from it. 
 
 In Linlithgow Palace, Scotland, the chapel is separated 
 from the hall by one of the corner towers : it is a room 
 of considerable importance, and of good height, with a 
 fine range of windows ; on one side are two passages in 
 the thickness of the wall, one oyer the other, and from 
 the upper one are openings into the chapel, probably to 
 enable the servants to see the elevation of the Host ; but 
 one of these openings led into the oriel or wooden 
 gallery at the west end of the chapel, of which the 
 corbels only remain. 
 
 In Hawarden Castle, Flintshire, the chapel is very 
 small, and must have been either merely a private 
 oratory, or, as seems more probable, the chancel or sacra- 
 rium only, separated by a screen from the principal cham- 
 ber in the keep, and with also a " squint" or opening 
 from the passage in the thickness of the wall, to enable 
 persons thus placed to see the elevation of the Host. 
 The piscina remains, which would hardly be required 
 for a mere oratory. 
 
 In Warwick Castle the chapel is on a level with the 
 hall, and connected with it by a groined passage: its 
 situation is in a building projecting into the court, by 
 the side of the withdrawing-room or state apartment, 
 and it is connected by the passage not only with the 
 hall, but with the whole suite of state apartments. 
 
 At Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, the chapel forms 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE: FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 E Staircase. G Stair-turret. H Closet-turret. I Sedtiia. 
 
 J Piscina. K Gallery or Oriel. L The Dais. 
 
 PLAN OF CEAPSL, SOLAR, Sec. 
 
 BERKELEY CASTLE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 
 
THE DOMESTIC CHAPEL. 
 
 175 
 
 the ground floor of a corner tower, and has a good 
 groined vault, and a solid stone altar ; but the latter 
 
 Domestic Cbapel, Stanton Harcourt, Oxon 
 
 does not appear to be original, and probably belongs 
 to the other furniture, which is modern. 
 
 At Cothele, Cornwall, the chapel is near the upper 
 end of the hall, but separated from it by the dining- 
 room, from one corner of which is a passage into the 
 chapel, which is a good example of a late Gothic chapel, 
 remaining perfect, but does not appear to have had any 
 gallery or upper chamber. 
 
 The chapel often forms a separate wing of the house, 
 joining on to the hall at one corner only, as at Lyte's 
 Cary, Somersetshire ; Bradley Manor-house, Devonshire ; 
 and in numerous other instances. 
 
 In Berkeley Castle it is placed at an angle with the 
 hall, or at least it is not in a line with it, but forms one 
 
]7G domestic architecture: fifteenth century. 
 
 angle of the buildings in continuation of it round the 
 court or inner ward. 
 
 In Trelawney House, Cornwall, it is at the lower end 
 of the hall, behind the passage or screens, occupying the 
 place usually assigned to the buttery and pantry, which 
 are thrown to the back at the end of the passage. In 
 this singular instance the chapel is the whole height of 
 the house, and forms one wing of it. 
 
 Another situation in which we occasionally find the 
 chapel is in the room over the entrance gateway, with an 
 oriel window for the altar thrown out at one end, as at 
 Prudhoe Castle, Northumberland, described in vol. ii. 
 This appears to have been the case at Place House, Tis- 
 bury, Wiltshire, where there is an external stone stair- 
 case at the west end. 
 
 The chapel is sometimes a detached building standing 
 in the centre of the principal court, as was the case with 
 the Sainte Chapelle in the Palace a at Paris, and St. 
 George's Chapel, Windsor. , St. Stephen's Chapel, West- 
 minster, was of two stories, like the Sainte Chapelle, but 
 was connected with the upper end of the hall by a pas- 
 sage. It sometimes forms part of the range of buildings 
 round the court, without any immediate connection with 
 the hall, as in the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. 
 
 In our second volume, pp. 79 — 81, it was shewn by 
 several extracts from the Liberate Polls, and by existing 
 remains, that the chapel consisted usually of two parts ; 
 the sacrarium, in which the altar was placed, with its 
 usual adjuncts, the Piscina and Locker ; and the nave, or 
 western portion, where the people assembled, and this 
 was frequently divided into two stories or chambers by 
 a floor, and separated from the sacrarium by a screen, 
 which was the whole height of the chapel, and extended 
 
 :t Now the Pnlais de Justice, but once the royal residence. 
 
THE DOMESTIC CHAPEL. 
 
 177 
 
 in front of both the upper and lower chambers. The 
 same arrangement was continned in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, and examples of it are more numerous and more 
 perfect : the only example that has been noticed in 
 which this arrangement is quite complete, with the screen 
 remaining above and below, is at East Hendred, Berk- 
 shire; this is a plain and poor building, standing al- 
 
 Section and Plan of Chapel, East Hendred, Berks. 
 
 a a 
 
178 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 most detached in the court-yard, close to the entrance, 
 and had no internal communication with the house; 
 there is a plain rude staircase from the lower chamber 
 to the upper one, the windows are small and square- 
 headed, and late in the fifteenth century. A cottage 
 has been added on the north side, but it must have 
 been originally a detached building, having windows 
 on all four sides. Although this is the only instance 
 known in which the screen remains perfect in front 
 of both the upper and lower chambers, there are many 
 examples in which it is evident that the same arrange- 
 ment has existed, and in which the floor still exists. 
 In Berkeley Castle the floor remains, and the screen in 
 front of the upper chamber is slightly altered ; the lower 
 part is modern. There is a fireplace in the upper cham- 
 ber, shewing that it was used for domestic purposes also, 
 and it has a separate entrance from the lord's chamber or 
 drawing-room, while the lower chamber is entered from 
 a passage leading from the hall. The one at Chibburn, 
 Northumberland, where the floor and the fireplace re- 
 main, and the windows clearly shew that this arrange- 
 ment is original, was described and engraved in our last 
 volume, p. 198. At Trecarrel House, Cornwall, the 
 chapel stands in the courtyard, entirely detached from 
 the house. Yet the western half is divided into two 
 stories, with a fireplace and a garderobe to the upper 
 chamber, clearly proving that it was used for domestic 
 purposes as a habitation, and not merely a gallery to 
 the chapel, although the east side of the chamber doubt- 
 less consisted of a screen and tapestry only, opening into 
 the sacrarium. 
 
 In the ruins of Godstow Nunnery, near Oxford, the 
 chapel is the most perfect part ; and although the floors 
 have been destroyed, the plastering on the walls clearly 
 
THE DOMESTIC CHAPEL. 
 
 179 
 
 shews this arrangement of the sacrarium having been 
 the whole height of the building, and the western part 
 divided into two chambers by a floor. In Wigston Hos- 
 pital, Leicester, and St. Thomas's, Northampton, the ar- 
 rangement appears to have been the same. 
 
 At Sherborne, Dorsetshire, is an Almshouse or Hos- 
 pital, founded by Bishop Neville in the reign of Henry 
 vi., a.d. 1448, in which this old arrangement of the 
 chapel is remarkably clear, from the construction of the 
 building, although it has been entirely lost sight of in 
 modern times. The sacrarium is the whole height of 
 the building, with an east window high from the ground, 
 and a window on each side at a lower level \ 
 
 The Almshouse, Sherborne, Dorset. -A.D. 1448. 
 
 This is still used as the chapel, hut tirely the old arrangement by removing 
 
 the chancel-arch is filled up with a mo- the floor in the western part, although 
 
 dern partition, and the small size of the it is evidently original, and the double 
 
 chapel bfing complained of, it is now range of windows in this part clearly 
 
 proposed as a great improvement, under shews that this was the original con- 
 
 the name of restoration, to destroy en- struction. A second floor has been in- 
 
180 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 In the following passage the word oriel is evidently 
 used in the sense of a gallery, and there are other in- 
 stances of the word being used in this sense, as we have 
 shewn : — 
 
 " He dwellyd in a brewe house in St. Chadde's church-yorde, which 
 afterwards was, and nowe of late dayes ys callyd the Colledge, and was 
 burieed in St. Chadd's churche : who laf behynde hym a dough ter of 
 hys named Blase Tuptun, who cam by chance to be a leeper, and made 
 the oryall to which she cam aloft to heare serveys throughe a doore 
 made in the churche wall, and so passyd usually uppon the leades 
 unto a glasse wyndowe, throughe which she dayly sawe & harde dayly 
 serveys as longe as she lyvyd d ." 
 
 Unfortunately there are no remains of this structure, 
 but there are several instances of a projecting window, 
 like what is usually called an oriel window, in the 
 interior of a church, commanding a view of an altar, 
 and it seems very probable that such windows were pro- 
 vided for the use of lepers, who were by no means al- 
 ways confined to hospitals nor belonging exclusively to 
 the lower orders ; as in the instance before us, a wealthy 
 leper built a gallery, or family pew, with a window from 
 it, and an external communication. 
 
 In Corpus Christi College, Oxford, the east end of the 
 library opens by an arch into a sort of gallery at the west 
 end of the chapel. In Magdalen College chapel there is 
 an original opening through the south wall of the ante- 
 chapel from a room in the bursar's tower. In Erance 
 there are examples of oriel windows at the west end of 
 churches at Harfleur, and Montivilliers, near Havre, in 
 Belgium in Antwerp Cathedral, and there are many 
 others both in England and on the continent. 
 
 troduced in the roof to form garrets, original arrangement, 
 
 which ought to be removed, and if c Vol. ii. p. 82. 
 
 the chancel-arch was again opened d The History of Shrewsbury, by 
 
 a very commodious chapel would be Owen and Blakeway, &c, vol. ii. p. 257. 
 
 formed by a real restoration of the London, 1825, 4to. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 F Parlour. G Chapel. 
 
 FIRST FLOOR, 
 
 BEVERSTONE CASTLE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 
 
THE DOMESTIC CHAPEL. 181 
 
 In Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, — 
 
 " Between the Constable's Tower and the Ravine Tower, was a 
 faire chappell, of vii. yeards height of the wail, in length xix. yeards 
 and vii. yeards of breadth, covered with slate, the windows well glazed, 
 in all things well repaired (the seyling thereof onely excepted) ; be- 
 twixt the said chappel and the said curteyne wall ys builded one lytell 
 house of two house height, of length viii. yeard ; the nether part thereof 
 called the revestry, the over part thereof a chamber w th a stone chim- 
 ney, wherein the lord and ladie w th their children commonly used to 
 hear the service (the oriel ?). The same ys covered with slate, y e 
 loft thereof would (should) be repayred. 
 
 " And before the said chapel door was a conduit, built of stone, and 
 a cistern supplied with tryme and sweete water from one well called 
 howlinge well, in pipes of lead e ." 
 
 There was often a private oratory distinct from and in 
 addition to the chapel, and often called the Lord's Ora- 
 tory, as in Chepstow Castle, Monmouthshire, Brougham 
 Castle, Westmoreland, and many others. It is usually 
 at the top of a turret. In Linlithgow Palace, Scotland, 
 the Queen's Oratory forms the interior of the upper floor 
 of one of the octagonal turrets, and has a vault of rich 
 fan-tracery on the exterior; it forms a sort of oriel 
 window. 
 
 In Beverstone Castle, Gloucestershire, the oratory is in 
 the upper part of the tower, immediately over the chapel, 
 as shewn in the section annexed. The chapel itself is on 
 the first floor, having a chamber with a stone vault under 
 it, and is considerably larger than the oratory, or upper 
 chapel ; it has also a good groined vault and two elegant 
 sedilia. In the oratory there is a piscina, which is rather 
 unusual ; but the chief peculiarity of the oratory con- 
 sists in the remarkable squints, or hagioscopes, these 
 are oblique openings, scarcely more than slits in the side 
 walls which separate the oratory from the two adjoining 
 
 e Clarkson's Surrey, a.d. 1566. 
 
182 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE I FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 bedchambers, probably to enable invalids in bed to see 
 the elevation of the Host and join in the service. These 
 openings are common in churches, and are always di- 
 rected towards an altar, usually towards the high altar, 
 but in domestic chapels they are rarely met with. Perhaps 
 the opening through the wall at the side of the chapel 
 in Broughton Castle, Oxfordshire, may be considered as 
 belonging to this class. 
 
 Eeference is constantly made to the Oratory in the 
 romances of the period. In the romance of "Parys and 
 Vyenne," printed by Caxton in 1485, we find an inte- 
 resting passage illustrative of a castle of this period, in 
 which the private oratory is mentioned. Vyenne visits 
 the parents of her lover, and — 
 
 " After all thys, the moder of Parys prayed hyr, that it myght playse 
 hyr to come see the castell ; and she answerd that she moche desyred 
 it. Thenne the moder of parys shewed hir al the castel, and ledde hir 
 in to an halle, al ful of armes and abylemens of warre for to fyght in 
 battayll. After she ladde hyr to another halle, where was many hawkes, 
 falcons, and many other fowles of chace. And after in to many other 
 halls and chambers, rychely arayed, whyche were ouer longe to re- 
 herce. And after the moder of Parys shewed vnto hyr the chambre 
 of Parys where that he slept, wherein were many abylments, whyche 
 shold wel sufFyse ye chambre of a grete prynce. And in the sayd 
 chambre were two grete standardes couerde after the guyse of Fraunce. 
 That one, was ful of clothe of gold and sylke, and that other, of har- 
 noys f and of many other things." 
 
 The fair Vyenne searched this chamber, and 
 
 " Com on a syde of the chambre where they fonde a lytel dore, of 
 whyche henge a lytel key by a thwonge, and anon they opened the 
 dore and entred therin. And there was a lytel chambre whyche was 
 xij. fote large, and was an oratorye wherein was the majeste of our 
 Lorde Jhesu Cryst upon a lytel aulter, and at eche corner was a candel- 
 styke of syluer, and thyder cam Parys for to make hys sacrefyce whan 
 he aroos, and whan he wente to hys beddeS." 
 
 f Harness, i. e. armour. the fayr Vyene, printed by Caxton, 1485, 
 
 g Storye of the Knyght Parys and of Sign B. ii. b. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 SECTION OF TOWER, SHEWING THE TWO CHAPELS, 
 A, the vaulted Lower Chamber. B, the Chapel. C, the Oratory or Upper Chapel, 
 
 BEVERSTQNE CASTLE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 
 
THE DOMESTIC CHAPEL. 
 
 183 
 
 The Inventories of the furniture of the domestic cha- 
 pel contain in most cases the same items as those of 
 churches, &c, the list being chiefly composed of the 
 different vestments for the priest and for the altars. 
 Thus, in Sir John Fastolfe's inventory of goods (1455), 
 we find, — 
 
 iiij. birdys quartelye. 
 j. crosse of sylver and gylt, withe 
 
 oure Lady and Seynt John, 
 j. chales (chalice), sylver and 
 
 j. pax brede h . 
 
 j. crucyfix, thereon withe oure 
 Lady and Seynt Iohn, enamelyd 
 and full of flour de lys. 
 ij. candylstykkis of sylver, the 
 
 borduris gilt, 
 ij. cruettys of sylver, percell gylt. 
 iij. pyllowes stonding on the 
 autre, off rede felwet, withe 
 flowrys embrawderid. 
 ij. carpettis. 
 
 iij. cosschenys of grene worstede. 
 j. chayre in the closet of Fraunce 
 
 fregid (of French cloth?), 
 j. cosschon of redde worsted, 
 j. sakeryng bell of sylver (the 
 
 "j. vestement covered with crounes, 
 
 gilt in the myddes with all the 
 
 apparayle. 
 j. vestement hole of redde da- 
 
 maske warke. 
 j. vestement of black cloth, of 
 
 gold withe the hole ornaments, 
 j. auter (altar) clothe with a fron- 
 
 tell of white damaske, the try- 
 
 nete in the myddys. 
 j. vestement of tunekell. 
 j. cope of white damaske, with ye 
 
 ornam nts - 
 j. awbe (alb), 
 j. stole. 
 
 j. favon (fanon?) encheked white 
 
 and blewe. 
 j. auter clothe. 
 
 ij . curtaynes of white sylke, withe 
 
 a frontell of ye same, withe 
 
 fauchonns of golde. 
 j. vestement of divers colurys, 
 
 withe a crosse of golde to the 
 
 bakke. 
 
 In the inventory taken at Ewelme in 1466 we find, — ■ 
 
 " In the Chapell. — A tapyte of A gret standard k of the chapell, 
 
 aras, of 15 signs of the Doom 1 . bowden with ierne, with 2 
 
 A tapyte of the story of Seynt lokks." 
 Anna, of Aras. 
 
 bell rung during the elevation 
 of the Host)." 
 
 h The pix, i.e. the vessel in which 
 the "pax brede" or consecrated wafer 
 was kept. It may be mentioned here 
 that in the inventory of the "bakehouse" 
 
 " ij. pay re wafer irens," i. e. the iron 
 moulds or tongs in which the wafers 
 were baked for the priest. 
 
 1 Doom, the day of judgment as de- 
 
 in the same house mention is made of scribed in the Apocalypse, a very fa 
 
184 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE I FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 As the domestic chapel was generally hung with a 
 great quantity of tapestry, we sometimes meet with the 
 word "chapel" signifying simply the "hangings," in 
 the same manner as when "la salle" was bequeathed, 
 the hangings of the hall were meant. Thus Eichard 
 Earl of Arundel leaves — 
 
 " Nulle chose de moun dit devys, sinoun la chapel qe je avoie ovesq' 
 ele ensemblement ove les litz, excepte la chapel, lit, et sale que je 
 avoie de doun (received as a gift from) ma honure Miere de Norfolk. 
 .... Item je devise a mon fitz Richard moun chapel ove tout appa- 
 reil de drap velwet rouge ove angeles et archanngeles de enbroudez 
 sur ycell." 
 
 It has been already mentioned that the origin of the 
 Oriel Window was a recess for the altar of an oratory or 
 small chapel, corbelled out from the face of the wall in 
 order to give more space, and the earliest example known 
 is at Prudhoe Castle, Northumberland, which is of the 
 thirteenth century, and at the east end of the chapel, 
 which is over the gateway. Examples also occur in the 
 fourteenth, some of them remarkably beautiful, such as 
 the well known one at Nuremberg, but they become 
 much more common in the fifteenth century, and were 
 -then so frequently used for other purposes, that their 
 original use seems to have been lost sight of, though they 
 were still sometimes used for the same purpose K In the 
 Prior's house at Wenlock the altar stands in the recess 
 of the bay window, the chapel or sacrarium being on the 
 ground floor. Oriel windows are commonly used in this 
 century over gateways ; indeed, this fashion became so 
 
 vourite subject both for paintings on 
 the walls of churches and for the 
 hangings. In the hotel de Boheme, at 
 Paris, there was also, in 1408, a tapes- 
 try of the Doom. Mecherches sur les 
 etoffes de sole. 
 
 k A large chest, or trunk. 
 
 1 There is a good example of this 
 arrangement in the church of St. Mary- 
 in-the-Capitol at Cologne, where an 
 altar is corbelled out in an oriel at 
 the end of each aisle by the side of 
 the chancel, in order to give room in 
 the side chapels. 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 ORIEL WINDOW AT 
 
 SHERBORNE, DORSETSHIRE. 
 
 W. Twopeny.rfr/. 
 
 O. Jpivitt, »c 
 
THE DOMESTIC CHAPEL. 185 
 
 general, that some other origin besides that of the oratory- 
 has been sought for, and some antiquaries are of opinion 
 that they had their origin in the machicoulis or bartizans 
 of military architecture, which were generally used over 
 the gateway in order to protect it from assailants ; and 
 this sort of projecting closet, when glazed in more peaceful 
 times, assumed the form of the oriel window. Whatever 
 their origin may have been, they are one of the most 
 striking features of the domestic buildings of the fif- 
 teenth century, and they occur in various situations ; not 
 only over gateways, as in the colleges of Oxford and 
 Cambridge and many other gatehouses, whether of houses 
 or of monasteries, but in many other situations also, at 
 either end of the front, as at Chalfield, in a gable end, 
 as at Sherborne, Dorset, (now built into a modern house 
 in imitation of the old style). They are almost always 
 on the first floor, but occasionally they occur in the 
 gable end of the upper story, as at Clifton Maybank, 
 Dorset. 
 
 Bb 
 
CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 MEDIEVAL GATEHOUSES. 
 
 Among an infinite variety of examples, and even of 
 classes, Gatehouses fall naturally under two great divi- 
 sions ; those which stand as detached erections, and those 
 which are brought into close contact with other buildings. 
 Eoth however would include a great number of sub- 
 divisions. The former chiefly consists of the gateways of 
 monasteries. In designing a monastic erection space was 
 for the most part little regarded, and defence was a second- 
 ary consideration; the gateway might therefore, if de- 
 sired, stand alone by itself, connected with the other 
 buildings by nothing more than a blank wall. And, 
 standing thus detached, it might be built of any size 
 and shape that the architect might think good. Con- 
 sequently the various forms assumed by monastic gate- 
 ways are nearly infinite. 
 
 In a castle, on the other hand, in a great private 
 house, in an academical college, the case was different. 
 In a great medieval castle mere space was certainly of 
 no more consequence than in a monastery ; but then the 
 gateway was naturally a chief point of attack and defence, 
 which it was necessary to bring into the closest con- 
 nexion with other parts of the building. In a medieval 
 house again, of sufficient consequence to possess a gate- 
 house of any architectural character, defence, though not 
 a primary consideration, was more thought of than in 
 the case of monasteries; domestic reasons would also 
 co-operate to make the whole building as compact as pos- 
 
MEDIEVAL GATEHOUSES. 187 
 
 sible. In a college built in a town every inch of ground 
 was precious, and the buildings could not be allowed to 
 straggle unrestrainedly like those of a great abbey. In 
 all these classes therefore the gateway was brought much 
 nearer to the other buildings than was necessary in the 
 case of a monastery. The result has been that the gate- 
 ways of castles, houses, and colleges, present some points 
 of resemblance to each other, though of course the gene- 
 ral type assumes forms of considerable diversity according 
 to the class of buildings to which it was applied. 
 
 This type is that which places the actual aperture of 
 the gate between two towers or turrets, which, though 
 not universal, is decidedly characteristic of the three 
 classes of buildings, castles, houses, and colleges. It is 
 also found in a great number of monastic edifices ; but 
 there it is only one form used indifferently among others, 
 and is in no way characteristic of the general class of 
 structures. 
 
 The aspect of the genuine military gate, such as we 
 see in many of the Edwardian castles, is sufficiently 
 familiar. The outer side presents the gate itself between 
 two massive round towers, leaving no more space be- 
 tween them than is actually necessary for the aperture. 
 Ehuddlan, Flintshire, exhibits this type in its most 
 strictly military state, without the intermixture of any 
 purely architectural modifications. At Tunbridge Castle 
 we have the same idea, as strictly military as anywhere, 
 but with its character somewhat altered by the extreme 
 beauty of the masonry and execution. Chepstow, Pen- 
 nard, Penrice, the Burgesses' Tower at Denbigh, and 
 numerous other instances, exhibit this type in its per- 
 fection. The town-gate at Eye, though not strictly that 
 of a castle, is also a fine example of the same class. 
 Most, if not all, belong to the Edwardian period. At 
 
188 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Carisbrooke, which seems later, the towers are less mas- 
 sive, the space between extends a little beyond the mere 
 gateway, and a little more of purely architectural or- 
 nament is introduced. At Llawhaden, Pembrokeshire, 
 where the towers are still very massive, square-headed 
 windows with mullions and transoms cause some de- 
 viation from the pure military type. So at Allington 
 Castle, Kent, we find plain tolerably massive round 
 towers, but the gateway itself has a square spandrel 
 and a square-headed window over it. 
 
 In the interior of these gateways the towers are gene- 
 rally much more slender; the space between is wider, 
 and admits a somewhat greater amount of strictly archi- 
 tectural enrichment. This may be very distinctly seen 
 at Tunbridge. It is easy and interesting to trace the 
 steps by which this purely military type was changed 
 into that of the fine domestic and collegiate gateways 
 of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Whenever the 
 flanking towers cease to be round, there is a deviation 
 from the purely military idea. Defence may still be 
 contemplated, and may even be primary, but strictly 
 architectural considerations are no longer excluded. The 
 gateway of the Bishop's Palace at LlandafF, of the thir- 
 teenth century, is flanked by two enormous square 
 towers with their angles chamfered off. This particular 
 example does not itself depart from the purely defensive 
 type a , but it evidently exhibits the germ of the octagonal 
 turrets of a later period. In the superb gateway of 
 Denbigh Castle, of the fourteenth century, we find a 
 further advance. The towers are octagonal, and the 
 
 8 Bishops' Palaces of course vary ac- 
 cording to their position. This of Llan- 
 dafF, standing neither in a town nor in a 
 fortified close, approaches more nearly 
 
 than usual to the head of purely military 
 architecture. It is in fact an episcopal 
 castle, like Llawhaden and others. 
 
C0-A1P E M © HI § IS 9 ©XIBUJRM MAJLJL , MIWOIDK . 
 
/ 
 
 MEDIEVAL GATEHOUSES. 189 
 
 whole is a grand display of architecture. The detail is 
 mostly destroyed, but the arch of the gate itself and an 
 elaborate niche with a statue over it shew that we have 
 reached a state of things quite different from Ehuddlan 
 or even from Tunbridge. 
 
 Eaglan Castle, of the fifteenth century, has less en- 
 richment than Denbigh, but, from its better preservation, 
 we can more safely judge of its general effect. The gate 
 is flanked by two comparatively slender hexagonal towers. 
 Though there is but little ornament, the execution is ex- 
 cellent, and evidently shews the presence of the architect 
 and not of the mere engineer. 
 
 The inner gate of the Palace at Wells exhibits nearly 
 the same stage. Octagonal towers are formed by giving 
 that shape to the extremities of the whole mass on each 
 side. In the actual gate we see for the first time in this 
 series the square head and spandrel. 
 
 The magnificent gateway of Herstmonceux Castle 
 marks the turning-point between military and domestic 
 structures. The turrets — we can hardly any longer call 
 them towers — have become much more slender, though 
 less so than in still more advanced examples ; their lower 
 part is octagonal, but the upper stages are round. Ma- 
 chicolations and eylets are still very prominent, but the 
 height of the whole gatehouse, the additional height of 
 the turrets — a smaller stage being raised above the ma- 
 chicolations — and the large windows over the gate itself, 
 shew that the domestic idea prevails, and that the military 
 features are little more than a decaying tradition. 
 
 In the gateways of Cowdray, Sussex, and Oxburgh, 
 Norfolk, of more advanced Perpendicular, we may look 
 upon the change as fully accomplished. Military details 
 still exist ; there are eylets for instance, but they have 
 very much less prominence than at Herstmonceux, and the 
 
190 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE '. FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 whole genius of the thing is purely domestic. At Cow- 
 dray four equal octagonal turrets occupy the four corners 
 of the gatehouse. There are large windows over the 
 gate, but unluckily very little of the details can be made 
 out, a great deal being broken down, and a great deal 
 concealed by the favourite plague of ivy. 
 
 Oxburgh is a noble example of brick architecture. It 
 is not merely the material, as at Herstmonceux, but it 
 completely influences the style. The gateway is of a 
 great height ; two lofty turrets flank the gate, and rise a 
 good way above the battlements, though less so than at 
 Herstmonceux. They are covered with a sort of panel- 
 work in brick, and the battlements have corbie-steps. 
 There are two large square-headed windows over the 
 gate. Within, the effect is more massive and less en- 
 riched. The two great turrets of the exterior exist only 
 in the form of much smaller ones perched on the battle- 
 ments. There is no great window over the gate, but a 
 tall slender turret or lofty oriel, containing three stages 
 of small windows, is placed on each side of it. Those 
 at Layer Marney, in Essex, another grand example of 
 brick- work, develop into actual turrets, rising above the 
 rest of the gatehouse. The actual angles are splayed off 
 into a quasi-octagonal form. Instead of the oriels of 
 Oxburgh, these turrets contain a great number of small 
 distinct windows, arranged in eight stories. Unlike 
 Oxburgh, also, there are two large square-headed win- 
 dows over the gate itself. These examples at once lead 
 us to the familiar type of the Perpendicular gateway, 
 flanked by two slender octagonal turrets and commonly 
 presenting no military feature whatever. In houses and 
 colleges the whole gatehouse assumes something of the 
 character of a tower, and rises more or less over the 
 buildings on each side. The variations in proportion, 
 
r 
 
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Q ATE WAY OF JESUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
MEDIEVAL GATEHOUSES. 
 
 191 
 
 detail, and amount of ornament are nearly infinite. In 
 some cases we meet with two openings, a large wide 
 gate for carriages, and a smaller one by its side for foot- 
 passengers; internally, the two are most frequently 
 thrown into one of enormous width. The great gate 
 of Trinity College, Cambridge, is one of the finest ex- 
 amples. But it is more common to find only a single 
 opening. Of this class none would probably have been 
 more admirable than the magnificent gateway which 
 still remains unfinished near the chapel of King's Col- 
 lege. As far as it is completed it is covered with orna- 
 ment of the best style of the period. The outer gate- 
 way of the Palace at "Wells is a good specimen, with 
 much enrichment in the way of windows, niches, and 
 panelling. In a house at St. Pierre, Monmouthshire, is 
 a much plainer, but very well-proportioned example. 
 The town-gate at Lynn, though really a military struc- 
 ture, and standing quite detached, has more of the 
 character of these domestic and collegiate gates than of 
 the old castellated type. It is, however, much more 
 massive, and its turrets, though octagonal, are not equi- 
 lateral. 
 
 In all these examples the arch of the main gate is 
 four-centred, and in several of them it has a square span- 
 drel, often very richly adorned. The smaller gate, when 
 it occurs, has often a more pointed arch, and in Cam- 
 bridge there is a tendency to cover it with rich ogee 
 canopies and similar ornament, as at Jesus College. 
 
 The gateway of the Palace at Norwich may be placed 
 with these, but it has some peculiarities of its own. The 
 turrets — if they are to be so called, being something 
 between turrets and buttresses — are flat, except a single 
 octagonal one on their side. The whole is much lower 
 than usual. Externally there is a double gate ; the great 
 
192 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 gate and the inner one are obtusely pointed, with a very 
 rich spandrel, in marked contrast to the plainness of the 
 remainder of the building. 
 
 This example leads us to those domestic and collegiate 
 gateways which have dispensed entirely with turrets, 
 except perhaps a single one at a corner for a staircase. 
 This is the prevalent type in the college gateways in 
 Oxford. Every one who has compared the architecture 
 of the two Universities must have observed how much 
 more prominently the gateways at Cambridge stand out as 
 distinct portions of the building. At Oxford the gate- 
 way-tower is generally only distinguished from the rest 
 of the building by its masonry rising as high or a little 
 higher than the apex of the high roof on each side ; pro- 
 minent turrets form no part of the type ; except in the 
 late and anomalous, though magnificent gateway of 
 Christ Church. The double entrance never occurs. Over 
 the gateway is often a large oriel window, which fre- 
 quently marks the rooms originally designed for the 
 Head of the College. 
 
 The gateway towers of William of Wykeham have a 
 peculiar character of their own, arising from the manner 
 in which the corner turret is set on the angle of the 
 square mass and rises above the battlement. The towers 
 themselves are a story higher than the mass of the build- 
 ing, but not otherwise distinguished from it by any pro- 
 jection until they rise above the roof. There are two of 
 these Wykeham towers at New College, Oxford, two at 
 Winchester, one remaining at Windsor, and a few others 
 in different places, which may be distinguished by their 
 peculiar turrets, even though it may not be known that 
 Wykeham was the architect of them. 
 
 A very fine gateway which may be referred to this 
 class, is that of the Hospital of St. Cross. It has a stair- 
 
MEDIEVAL GATEHOUSES. 
 
 193 
 
 case-turret at one corner, the rest have buttresses reach- 
 ing to the top. The proportions are massive, but it rises 
 considerably above the roof of the buildings on each side. 
 Two plainer examples occur at Crickhowell, Brecknock- 
 shire, (called Forth Mawr,) and Itton Court, Monmouth- 
 shire. Both have only a square turret rising from the 
 battlement; both have single and rather tall pointed 
 arches. At Itton the battlement has the corbel-table cha- 
 racteristic of the military church-towers of the district. 
 
 This leads us to Tretower Court, Brecknockshire, where 
 the architecture is ruder and more defensive, but where 
 the gateway-tower is still less marked without, though 
 it is very conspicuous within, the range on each side 
 of it being a merely defensive wall, connecting it with 
 other parts of the house. There is a double gate, but 
 the smaller one is not within the tower. Finally, in the 
 Bishop's Falace at Bosbury, Herefordshire, (unless in- 
 deed, as is quite possible, the building has been lowered,) 
 there is no tower at all, but the gateway is placed in a 
 range of a very uniform height. It consists of an un- 
 usually lofty pointed arch reaching the whole present 
 height of the building, with a smaller one. The two 
 stand between two large flat buttresses. The arch on 
 the inner side of the gateway is of wood. Similarly, in 
 the College at Higham Ferrers, the gateway is merely 
 placed in the ordinary range, like a large doorway, 
 without at all assuming the character of a distinct 
 portion of the building. 
 
 We may here add a few very anomalous domestic 
 gateways. 
 
 The gatehouse of Mackworth Castle, Derbyshire, is of 
 anomalous character ; it is a complete house in itself, and 
 the archway is little more than a doorway : it has two 
 round turrets projecting from the two outer corners, and 
 
 c c 
 
1U4 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 a good chimney, which has an earlier look than the rest 
 of the work. The windows are square-headed, with 
 labels over them ; these, and the ogee head to the door- 
 way, and the moulded battlement, appear to be late 
 work. Some antiquaries of eminence consider the gate- 
 house to be as early as the middle of the fourteenth 
 century, but its general aspect seems more like the 
 end of the fifteenth. 
 
 In many of the larger castles the gatehouse is quite 
 a complete house in itself, of which Saltwood Castle, 
 Kent, is a very fine example : this is generally the 
 case also in the larger castles of South "Wales, as at 
 Oystermouth. 
 
 The gatehouse at Athelhampton, Dorsetshire, is a fine 
 example of rather late date. It is a complete house in 
 itself, and rather out of proportion to the manor-house 
 to which it forms the entrance. It has a good gable end, 
 with the family crest for a finial, and corner buttresses 
 amounting almost to turrets, one being corbelled out to 
 avoid the wall which joins on to it, and both are ter- 
 minated by figures : the archway is small, and has an 
 oriel window over it, and a closet boldly corbelled out 
 by the side of it. 
 
 We now turn to the monastic gateways, including 
 some collegiate and other ecclesiastical examples erected 
 under similar circumstances. The Close of a cathedral or 
 other great secular foundation had the advantage of space 
 just like a monastery, and was very different from a 
 college built in a street of Oxford or Cambridge. In- 
 deed, as the inhabitants did not live coenobitically, but 
 occupied their own private houses, the gateway of 
 a secular cathedral might be a still more independent 
 building than that of a monastery. But, for that very 
 reason, it lost in architectural splendour. The buildings 
 
MEDIEVAL GATEHOUSES. 195 
 
 within such a Close did not form so much of an archi- 
 tectural whole as those of a monastery. They were more 
 like a small town with a wall and gateway, and such is 
 often their character. 
 
 As was before said, the gateways of monasteries, which 
 might stand thus independent, assumed any form which 
 the designers thought good. But, on the other hand, 
 though they might stand almost detached, they also 
 might, and often did, stand in close connexion with 
 other buildings. 
 
 Some stand quite detached, or connected only by a 
 wall. Such are the two magnificent gateways at Bury 
 St. Edmunds. The well-known Norman tower is a gate- 
 way and campanile in one. But for the lower story, 
 where the actual gateway is formed, it would be a very 
 fine example of a Norman church-tower, and might 
 just as well have been attached to one of the three 
 churches which it helps to enclose. It is strikingly ana- 
 logous to the superb campanile at West "Walton in Nor- 
 folk, which stands quite away from the church, and 
 whose lower portion similarly forms a magnificent ap- 
 proach to the churchyard. Walton is indeed a mere 
 parish church, with no other buildings connected with it, 
 so that the tower merely makes a sort of magnified 
 lichgate; but architecturally the arrangement is re- 
 markably similar. 
 
 The other gateway at Bury, that known distinctively 
 as the Abbey Gate, is as grand a structure and one as 
 completely independent as the Norman tower ; but it is 
 totally different in date and character, being in form a 
 massive oblong, and in style an example of enriched 
 Decorated work. It is, in fact, a large oblong mass, 
 completely unbroken except by flat buttresses which 
 are doubled at the angles, but which do not assume 
 
196 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE: FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 the character of turrets or rise at all above the general 
 battlement. It consists of the actual passage and a 
 story over it. In length it forms three bays, with an 
 intermediate arch between the first and second bay from 
 the outside. The outer arch is segmental with an ogee 
 canopy ; the inner one is pointed, and much higher 
 and wider. 
 
 In these Bury gateways, the actual opening of the 
 gate is still the main thing, and the whole design has 
 direct reference to it, whatever there is above and beside 
 it being chiefly intended for its support and ornament. 
 But in some other instances the actual gateway is little 
 more than a mere aperture in a large distinct building. 
 Thus the Priory gate at Malvern now stands quite de- 
 tached, and can hardly have at any time had more than 
 a wall, as at Bury, connecting it with other parts of the 
 monastery. It is an oblong building, in the Perpendicular 
 style, rich with panelling, with the gateway in the centre. 
 But this gateway is made no more of than a large door- 
 way ; it is not the architectural centre of the whole. On 
 each side of it is a window ; in the upper stage there are 
 three, that over the gateway itself being an oriel, but not 
 brought into any special relation with the arch itself. 
 
 Not altogether unlike this is the gateway of Castle 
 Acre Priory, Norfolk, though it is much plainer, and as 
 there is a large and a small archway, it is less symme- 
 trical than Malvern. Both archways appear on the inner 
 side, the smaller one having a distinct passage, instead 
 of being, as usual, thrown into one inside. The gateway 
 called the Newark, at Leicester, is a large quadrangular 
 building, with a large and a small gate in one corner, 
 and square-headed windows irregularly disposed as they 
 were wanted. In the Canongate at Chichester, the two 
 archways fill up nearly the whole width, but the build- 
 
MEDIEVAL GATEHOUSES. 197 
 
 ing is of the same oblong form, with small windows 
 over the arches. These arches are of the same height 
 bnt different widths, being very obtuse. They reappear, 
 as at Castle Acre, though there is no separate passage. 
 They are clearly late Perpendicular, but from the early 
 vaulting within they must be a mere casing of an older 
 building. The gateway of Mailing Abbey, Kent, has 
 one large pointed archway, the full height of at least 
 the present building, and beside it a smaller one with 
 a square-headed window over it. In all these examples 
 the style is Perpendicular. 
 
 One of the grandest and at the same time most im- 
 posing of monastic gateways is that of Thornton Abbey, 
 Lincolnshire : it has two side archways, rather lower than 
 the central one, over which is a fine oriel window, and 
 on the inner face are four tall slender octagonal turrets, 
 and there are wings on each side with battlements on 
 corbie steps : its date is near the end of the fourteenth 
 century. 
 
 The great gatehouse of Maidstone College, also Per- 
 pendicular, joins on to the collegiate buildings, on one 
 side at least, forming a range from which it does not at 
 all project, though in height it rises considerably above 
 them. It is, like so many others, a distinct large ob- 
 long building, without buttresses or turret, with a large 
 pointed archway in the middle and a smaller one on 
 one side, with square-headed windows above and on 
 each side. 
 
 In some cases a gateway, instead of finishing square 
 at the top, has a gable. A noted case of this is St. 
 iEthelberht's Gate at Norwich b , a well-known and beau- 
 
 b The other gateway of the Close — 
 the Erpingham Gate — seems unfinished ; 
 it presents, in its proportions and treat- 
 
 ment, the appearance of a gigantic Per- 
 pendicular doorway, heing most un- 
 usually lofty. 
 
108 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 tiful example of the Decorated style, and remarkable as 
 exhibiting some of the best and earliest specimens of the 
 characteristic Norfolk flint panelling, combined, on the 
 outer side, with rich niche-work. It consists of the gate 
 itself — single with a pointed arch — and a story over, 
 formerly a chapel . It has no turrets nor even buttresses 
 of any great consequence. 
 
 This St. JEthelberht's Gate stands quite detached, but 
 at Kingswood Abbey, Wiltshire d , a gateway gabled in 
 this manner stands in the centre of a range of buildings. 
 This example is the more valuable, as shewing that this 
 form was deliberately employed 6 , and thought capable of 
 a high degree of ornament, the gable being adorned 
 with large crockets and finished with a rich finial. The 
 gateway itself has a niche on each side and a pointed 
 window. The style is Perpendicular, with some sin- 
 gularities of detail. A gateway of a somewhat similar 
 arrangement occurs at Bayham Abbey, Sussex. 
 
 Not unfrequently again monastic gateways reproduce, 
 as one of their varieties, the collegiate or domestic type. 
 Such, for instance, is the magnificent Decorated gateway 
 of Battle Abbey, which stands in the midst of a long 
 range of buildings, above the apex of whose roof — now 
 lowered — it only rose by the battlements. In this it 
 resembles the Oxford type ; but in its greater width, its 
 double archway, and the four turrets at the angles, it 
 approaches to those at Cambridge. The details are well 
 worthy of study. There is also a Perpendicular one at 
 Montacute Priory, Somersetshire, whose appearance is 
 still more collegiate. The adjoining buildings here re- 
 
 c One of the town-gates at Winches- e Sometimes the gabled form is due 
 
 ter still has a church over it, and there to alterations, as at Llanthony, where 
 
 was one so placed at Canterbury. the gable was evidently introduced when 
 
 d A detached part of the county, lo- the gateway was converted into a barn, 
 cally in Gloucestershire. 
 
MEDIEVAL GATEHOUSES. 
 
 199 
 
 tain their high roofs, so that the gateway-tower rises 
 very little above them. Over the archway is a fine oriel; 
 there is a bold staircase-tnrret on one side, and one not 
 reaching the full height on the other. 
 
 Of the numerous gateways at Canterbury the two 
 finest will come in here. Christ Church Gate, late Per- 
 pendicular, is a massive rectangular structure, with tur- 
 rets at the angles, not rising above the battlements. The 
 two archways occupy but a small proportion of the height, 
 which is filled up with a gorgeous display of niches, 
 panel-work, and heraldic ornament. The beautiful De- 
 corated gateway at St. Augustine's Abbey forms, in its 
 light and airy proportions, the most marked contrast to 
 the massive solidity of that of Christ Church. It is 
 flanked by two turrets rising far above the battlements ; 
 the arch is single; the whole is well known as an 
 example of the most beautiful ornamental detail of its 
 own date. 
 
 The gatehouse of Congleton Court, "Warwickshire, is 
 worthy of especial mention as a fine example in good 
 preservation of a grand tower gatehouse, with tall tur- 
 rets standing up clear above the parapet, and an oriel 
 window between, thrown over the archway. This be- 
 longs to a room of some importance, now used as the 
 drawing-room. We have before observed that there is 
 frequently a room of considerable dimensions and im- 
 portance in this situation, the use of which is not 
 clear. Sometimes it was the chapel, but this does not 
 seem to have been the usual arrangement. It may 
 have been the guest-chamber, and strangers may have 
 been lodged altogether in the gatehouse. 
 
 A plain example with a gable occurs at the manor- 
 house of South Wraxhall, Wiltshire. The gable is quite 
 plain, with a chimney on the slope of it : the arch is four- 
 
200 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE : FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 centred, with a square label over it, and a fine oriel 
 window. The room over the archway has been one of 
 some importance, and has remarkable squints or small 
 windows, commanding the approach so far as to see who 
 was coming, but it has scarcely any vestiges of the 
 military character, the defences are calculated only to 
 resist a band of robbers. 
 
 The above seem to be the most marked and important 
 among the various classes of gateways ; but doubtless 
 there are other classes, as there certainly are individual 
 examples which cannot be reduced to any of them. No- 
 where does the individual genius of the architect appear 
 to have been allowed freer scope : even among those 
 which evidently exhibit the same leading idea, there is 
 the widest difference in proportion and consequently in 
 general effect. 
 
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