M V**(/' % 1 f \ « i' ,,, _, -.¦•v,.'a^v».'"" ^'^'^.C'^i'-. ¦.'-¦ . - ¦sfr'-'-'^T"' 1 ; 'f' i^^tti«vS^SM^ s:.v»:#w:-f'-^n^ * r#;'5^ >IIIIIIYALE UTSriVERSITYIIIIIK > SCHOOL OF THE PINE ABTS < EARLY RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. Architecture of the Renaissance in England. ILLUSTRATED BY A SERIES OF VIE'WS AND DETAILS FROM BUILDINGS ERECTED BET-WEEN THE YEARS 1560 and 1635, 'WITH HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL TEXT. The Illustrations comprise 145 Folio Plates, 118 being repro duced from Photographs taken expressly for the work, and 180 Blocks in the Text. 2 vols., large folio, in cloth portfolios ... £7 7s. Net. or half morocco, gilt ... £8 8s. Net. Plate I, HENRY VII.'S CHAPEL, -WESTMINSTER ABBEY. INTERIOR VIENV, SHOWING VAULTING AND SCREEN. EARLY RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND A HISTORICAL & DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF THE TUDOR, ELIZABETHAN, & JACOBEAN PERIODS, i5'oo — 1625' FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS AND OTHERS BY J. ALFRED GOTCH, F.S.A. AUTHOR OF " ARCHITECTU-RE OF THE RENAIS.SANCE IN ENGLAND," ETC. 'WITH EIGHTY -SEVEN COLLOTYPE AND OTHER PLATES AND TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT LONDON B. T. BATSFORD, 94 HIGH HOLBORN MDCCCCI BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO, LD,, PRINTERS, LONDON AND TONBRIDGE. PREFACE. It should, perhaps, be observed that although this book is entitled Early Renaissance Architecture in England, it deals -with much the same period as that covered by my former work The Architecture of the Renaissance in En.gland, but with the addition of the first half of the sixteenth century. The two books, however, have nothing in common beyond the fact that they both illustrate the work of a particular period. The foriTier book exhibits a series of examples, to a large scale, of Elizabethan and Jacobean buildings, with a brief account of each : whereas this one takes the form of a hand-book in which the endeavour is made to trace in a systematic manner the development of style from the close of the Gothic period down to the advent of Inigo Jones. It is not the inclusion of the first half of the sixteenth century which alone has led to the adoption of the title Early Renaissance : the limitation of period which these words indicate appeared particularly necessary in consequence of the recent publication of two other books, one being the important work of Mr. Belcher and Mr. Macartney, illustrating buildings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, under the title of Later Renaissance Architecture in England ; and the other being Mr. Reginald Blomfield's scholarly book, A History of Renais sance Architecture in England, which, although it starts with the beginning of the sixteenth century, does not dwell at any length upon the earlier work, but is chiefly devoted to an exhaustive survey of that of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The value of a work on Architecture is greatly enhanced by Vl PREFACE. illustrations, and I am much indebted to the numerous gentle men \\'ho, with great courtesy, have placed the fruits of their pencil, brush, or camera at my disposal : their names are given in the Lists of Plates and Illustrations. More particularly I desire to acknowledge the kindness of the Committee of that very useful publication The Architectural Association Sketch Book, in giving permission for some of their plates to be reproduced ; and among other contributors I have especially to thank Colonel Gale, Mr. W. Haywood, and Mr. Harold Brakspear; while to Mr. Ryland Adkins I am indebted for several valuable suggestions in connection ^\'ith the text of the Introductory chapter. Mr. Bradley Batsford has rendered ungrudging assist ance at every stage of the undertaking, which has particularly benefited from his broad and liberal \iews in regard to the illustrations. My thanks are also due to those ladies and gentlemen who allowed me to examine, and sometimes to measure and photograph their houses ; and I am indebted to Mr. Chart, the Clerk of Works at Hampton Court Palace, for much useful information imparted during my investigations there. Each illustration is utilized to explain some point in the text, but in many cases the reference is purposely made short, the illustration being left to tell its own story. J. ALFRED GOTCH. "West Hill, Kettering, August, igoi. CONTENTS. I.— INTRODUCTORY . . . . . i II.— THE INVASION OF THE FOREIGN STYLE . . lo III.— THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HOUSE PLAN FROM ABOUT I45O TO 1635 . 41 IV.— EXTERIOR FEATURES— The Lay-out of Houses, Lodges and Gateways, Doorways and Porches . . 73 v.— EXTERIOR FEATURES— General Aspect, External Appearance, -Windows of various kinds . 94 VL— EXTERIOR FEATURES— Gables, Finials, Parapets Chimneys, Rain-water Heads, Gardens . 116 VIL— INTERIOR FEATURES— Royal Progresses, The Manner OF Decorating Rooms, -Wood-Panelling . . . 138 VIIL— INTERIOR FEATURES— Treatment of the Hall, Open Roofs, The Smaller Rooms, Doors and Door Furniture, Chimney-pieces, Ceilings, Pendants, Friezes ... . . 159 IX.— INTERIOR FEATURES— Staircases, The Great Cham ber, The Long Gallery, Glazing, &c. . . 184 X.— MISCELLANEOUS "WORK — Street Houses, Market Houses, Almshouses, Town Halls, Village Crosses, Schools, Churches and their Fittings, &c. . . 200 XI.— SIXTEENTH CENTURY HOUSE-PLANNING— Illus trated from the Collection of John Thorpe's Drawings ... ...... 226 XIL— ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNERS OF THE SIX TEENTH CENTURY 253 List of Works on Early Renaissance Architecture . 367 Index . . • • ¦ ... 271 LIST OF PLATES. Note, — The letters •• ,A,A,S,B," denote that the subject is reproduced from The Architectural Association SketcIi Book, with authority of the Draughtsman and by permission of the Committee, PLATE I. — Henry VII.'s Chapel, -Westminster Abbey, Interior View ......... Frontispiece, S. B. Bolas, London, photo. II. — Henry VII.'s Tomb in Westminster Abbey . . . p^o^ H. O. Cresswell, del. 14 III. — Details from the Tomb of Henry, Lord Marney, Layer Marney Church . . Fred Chancellor, del. 18 I Fan Vaulting, Chapel of the Redmount, King's Lynn \ I W. Galsworth'V' Davie, photo. IV -( r iq Vaulting of Porch, Cowdray House, Sussex J. A. G., photo./ V. — The Countess of Salisbury's Chantry, Christchurch ; View from Choir ........ 30 VI. — The Countess of Salisbury's Chantry, Christchurch; Detail of Niches on North Side 22 [Part of Screen, St. Cross, Winchester . . .| J W. Galsworthy Davie, photo. '- 26 [Paulet To.mb, Basing Church. . . J. A. G., photo. VIII. — Screen in the Chapel, King's College, Cambridge ^TiLE Paving from Lacock Abbey ...... Harold Brakspear, del. IX.i . 38 Single Tiles from the same Pavement . . . . ! W. Haywood, del./ X, — Chest from St. Mary Overie, Southwark Victor T. Jones, del. [A.A.S.B.] 40 XI. — Compton Winyates ; General View 47 XII. — Compton Winyates ; The Entrance Porch C. E. Mallows, del. 48 LIST OF PLATES. PLATE XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI. XXII XXIII XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII, XXVIII. XXIX. XXX, XXXI XXXII, XXXIII, FACING PAGE 53-3 56 58 58 60 63 54-5 66 697879 (double) — Details from Layer Marney Tower Arnold B, Mitchell, del, — The Entrance Gateway, Hengrave Hall , J. Palmer Clarke, Bury St, Edmund's, photo, — The Entrance Porch, Moreton Old Hall Maxwell Ayrton, del — A Gable from the Front, Moreton Old Hall Maxwell Ayrton, del — South Side of Courtyard, Kirby Hall M, Starmer Hack, del — John Thorpe's Ground Plan for Kirby Hall . From the Soane Museum Collection (double) — Details of Porch in Court, Kirby Hall . . . Arthur G. Leighton, del — The Entrance Porch, Montacute House . From a water-colour by W. Haywood — The Entrance Front and Gate-house, Doddington Hall. By permission from Rev. R. E. G. Cole's History of Doddington — The Gatehouse at Stanway . . — The Gatehouse at Westwood Doorway at Chipchase Castle J. P. Gibson, Hexham, photo. Porch of the Manor House, Upper Slaughter . W. Galsworthy Davie, photo.. The Grand Staircase, Wardour Castle G. W. Wilson, Aberdeen, photo. j Doorway in Court, Hatfield House . >• Col. Gale, photo.. — Arcaded Porch at Cranborne Manor House — WoLLATON Hall; General View — Burghley House ; General View G. W. Wilson, Aberdeen, photo. 98 ExTON Old Hall, Rutland ) „ ,, „ „ ^ . J. A. G., photo. 100 The Manor House, Glinton J — Mount Grace Priory, Yorkshire . . . 106 — View of Front, Speke Hall . . . 107 — Part of the Front, Barrington Court Kotaro Sakurai, del. [A.A.S.B.] 110 i Astley Hall . . . . . . . . .'\ Bedford Lemere, London, photo. K 113 Kirby Hall; The Bay Windows . Col. Gale, photo. J 85 86 9197 LIST OF PLATES. PLATE XXXIV XXXV, xxx^'I XXXVII, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XI FACI.NG PAGE W. Galsworthy Davie, ii8 J. A. G., photo. 136 J. A. G., photo. 153 — Gables at Lilford Hall I Holmshurst, Burwash I Tudor House, Broadway j photo. — Chimney-st.vck and Window from Lacock Abbey Harold Brakspear, del. 128 — Blickling Hall ; Part of Entrance Front . . 130 ( Steps to Terrace, Haddon Hall .| -j Terrace ^^'ALL, Claverton House . . [• 133 ( J- L. Robinson, photo.) iGATE\\'AY, HiGHLOW HaLL, NEAr] HatHERSAGE 'r Terrace Steps, Eyam Hall j {Side of B.ay in the Dining RooM,^ Haddon Hall | Panelling in the Dining Room, f Haddon Hall j 1^\'ooDwoRK in Chapel, Haddon Hall] Bay Window in the Drawing I J. A. G., photo. 154 Room, Haddon Hall I XLII. — An Interior from Carbrook Hall, near Sheffield XLIII. — Side of Room at Benthall Hall B. J. Fletcher, del XLIV. — Screen in the Hall, Wadham College, Oxford XLV. — Screen in the Hall, Trinity College, Cam BRIDGE ... . . XLVI. — Screen in the Hall, Woollas Hall Harold Baker, Birmingham, photo XLVII. — The Great Chamber, South Wraxall Manor House Ernest W. Gimson, del XLVIII. — Fireplace and Panelling in the Mayor's Room Old Town Hall, Leicester XLIX. — Side of a Room, the " Reindeer " Inn, Banbury John Stewart, del L. — Details of Panelling from Sizergh Hall F. Dare Clapham, del LI. — Interior Porch, Broughton Castle LII. — The Presence Chamber at Hardwick Hall A. Seaman, Chesterfield, photo LIII. — Doorway in a House at Bristol LIV, — A Doorway from Levens Hall . F. B. Turner, Flamborough, photo 157 156159160 160 163 163162163163 164 164 165 LIST OF PLATES. FACING PAGE ( Doorway, Gayton Manor House . . J. A. G., del.-j LV.j Doorway, St. Peter's Hospital, Bristol . . .1 i66 [ T. Locke Worthington, del. [A.A.S.B.] ] LVI. — Chimney-piece from Boughton House . . . i58 LVII. — Chimney-piece from Lacock Abbey Harold Brakspear, del. i68 LVIII. — A Chimney-piece from Barlborough HallCol. Gale, photo. i68 LIX. — Chimney-piece in King James's Room, Hatfield House . . . . Col. Gale, photo. 169 LX. —Chimney-piece in the Great Chamber, South Wraxall Manor House . . W. Haywood, del. 169 LXI. — Chimney-piece from Hardwick Hall .... J. L. Robinson, photo. 169 LXII. — Chimney-piece from Ford House, Newton Abbot J. A. G., del. 170 LXIII. — Chimney-piece at Whiston, Sussex Col. Gale, photo- 171 LXIV. — Two Chimney-pieces from Bolsover Castle Col. Gale, photo. 171 LXV. — Chimney-piece at Bromley-by-Bow Palace . . 172 LXVI. — Chimney-piece from Castle Ashby Bedford Lemere, London, photo. 172 LXVII. — Ceiling and Frieze from Cardinal Wolsey's Closet, Hampton Court Palace .... J. A. G., photo. 175 LXVIII, — Ceiling at Deene Hall , , , J. A. G. photo. 177 LXIX. — Ceiling from the "Reindeer" Inn, Banbury J. A. G., photo. 178 LXX. — Ceiling of the Great Chamber, Aston Hall From W. Niven's Account of Aston Hall. 180 LXXI. — Ceiling of King Charles' Bedroom, Aston Hall From W. Niven's Account of Aston Hall. 180 LXXIL — Staircase from Burghley House, Stamford After Richardson. 187 LXXIII. — Plans of Staircases from John Thorpe's Drawings In the Soane Museum Collection. 189 LXXIV.— Staircase, Audley End . . C. J. Richardson, del. 194 LXXV. — The Long Gallery, Haddon Hall .... G. W, Wilson, Aberdeen, photo. 196 LXXVI. — The Long Gallery, Aston Hall .... Harold Baker, photo. 196 LIST OF PLATES. Xlll FACING PLATE PAGE LXXVIL — Glass Panel from Moreton Old Hall . John West, del. 198 LXXVIII. — Four Examples of Lead Glazing from W. Gedde's " BooKE OF Sundry Draughtes," i5ii ... ...... 199 LXXIX. — Two Street Houses from Oxford and Stratford- on-.Avon . ....... 202 LXXX. — The Village Cross, Brigstock .... Miss Dryden, photo. 211 LXXXI. — Details of the Chichester Tomb, Pilton Church ......... 218 LXXXIL— Choir Screen from All Saints' Church, Tilney C. A. Nicholson, del. 219 LXXXIII. — Pulpit in Edington Church R. Shekleton Balfour, del. 221 LXXXIV. — John Thorpe's Drawing for Sir Jarvis Clifton's House . From the Soane Museum Collection. 231 LXXXV. — Unnamed Plan and Elevation . . John Thorpe. 334 LXXXVI. — Plan "for Sir W:1 Haseridge" . John Thorpe. 335 LXXXVIL— Elev.ation of Plan entitled " for Sir W^i- Haseridge" John Thorpe, 235 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Note, — The letters ¦'A,.\.S,B." denote that the subject is reproduced from The .irckitectural Association Sketch Book, with authority of the Draughtsman and by permission of the Committee, illustration 1. Tomb of Prince Arthur in Worcester Cathedral J. L. Robinson, photo 2. Tomb of one of the Cokayne Family, Ashbourne Church J. A. G., photo 3. Henry VII.'s Tomb; Detail of Ornament H. O. Cresswell, del 4. Tomb of John Harrington, Exton Church . J. A. G., photo 5. Tomb of Thomas Cave, Stanford Church . J. A. G., photo 6. ,, ,, ,, End Panel . J. A. G., photo, 7. Tomb of Sir George Vernon, Bakewell Church . J. A. G., photo, 8. Tomb of Sir Thomas Andrew, Charwelton Church . Miss Dryden, photo 9. Tomb of — Bradbourne, Ashbourne Church J. A. G., photo 10. Panel from the Tomb of Elizabeth Drur}-, Hawstead Church J. A. G., del 1 1. Tomb of Henry, Lord Marney. Layer Marney Church Fred Chancellor, del 13. Carving from the Sedilia, Wymondham Church. J. A. G., del 13. Cowdray House, Sussex ; Vaultin.c; Rib of Porch. J. A. G., del 14. Chantry of the Countess of Salisbury, Christchurch, from the North Aisle 3o 15. The Salisbury Chantry, Christchurch ; Detail of Carving. J. A. G., photo. 21 16. Prior Draper's Chantry, Christchurch; Head of Doorway. 21 17. Christchurch; Divisions between Miserere Seats J. A. G., photo. 22 iS. ,, Bench-end in Choir J. A. G., photo. 23 1213 1314 141516 17iS19 19 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS illustration 19. Doorway and Panelling in the Gallery at the Vyne, near Basingstoke .... . J. A. G., photo. 20. Screen on the North Side of Choir, Winchester Cathedral (with Mortuary Chest) . . ..... 31. Canopy of Stalls, Henry VII.'s Chapel, Westminster A. W. Pugin, del. 22. Detail from Stalls, Henry VII.'s Chapel, Westminster G. G. Woodward, del. [A.A.S.B.]. 23. The Spring Pew, Lavenham Church . J. L. Robinson, photo. 24. Detail from the Spring Pew, Lavenham Church . C. R. Pink, del. 25. Roof of the Hall, Eltham Palace ...... E. and S. H. Barnsley, del. 26. Roof of the Great Hall, Hampton Court Palace A. W. Pugin, del. 27. Details from the Roof of the Great Hall, Hampton Court. A. W. Pugin, del. 28. Hampton Court; Head of Door to Great Hall. J. A. G., photo. 29. Lacock Abbey ; Tower at South-east Corner . W. Haywood, del. 30. ., ,, Stone Table in Tower Sidney Brakspear, photo. 31. ,, ,, Stone Table in Tower Sidney Brakspear, photo. 32. ,. ,, The Stables . . . W. Haywood, del. 33A. Panel from the Sedilia, Wymondham Church . J. A. G., del. 33. Great Chalfield House ; Plan . . After T. L. Walker. 34. O-xburgh Hall ; Ground Plan . . . After J. Britton. 35- .. .> Entrance Tower J. L. Robinson, photo. 36. East Barsham House ; Ground Plan . After A. W. Pugin. 37. Compton Winyates ; Ground Plan . After Heber Rimmer. 38. Sutton Place, near Guildford ; Ground Plan .... S. Forster Hayward, del. 49 39- .. > Details . A. C. Gladding, del. [A.A.S.B.]. 50 40. ,, ., Part Elevation of Courtyard .... A. C. Gladding, del. [A.A.S.B.]. 51 41. Layer Marney Tower ; Entrance Tower .... Arnold B. Mitchell, del. 53 43. Hengrave Hall ; Ground Plan . . After J. Britton. 54 43- „ „ West Front . J. L. Robinson, photo. 55 44- >. ,, Corbelling of Bay Window over Entrance Archway J. A. G., del. 56 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Xvii ILLUSTRATION 'AGli 57 45. Moreton Old Hall ; Ground Plan . . After J. Strong. 46. Kirby Hall ; Ground Plan . . A. G. Leighton, del. 61 47. Montacute House ; Ground Plan . After J. N. Johnston. 65 48- ,, ,, West Front, -vi'ith Court and Garden- houses . . J. L. Robinson, photo. 66 49. Barlborough Hall ; Plan of Principal Floor . J. A. G., del. 67 50. ,, ,, Entrance Front . . Col. Gale, photo. 68 51. Doddington Hall; Ground Plan . . . J. A. G., del. 69 53. Burton Agnes Hall ; Ground Plan . J. A. G., del. 70 53. Aston Hall, near Birmingham; Ground Plan. After W. Niven. 71 54- 1) :! 1) North Wing Harold Baker, photo. 73 55. Holdenby House ; Plan of Lay-out . From an old Survey. 75 56. Doddington Hall ; Block Plan . . . J. A. G., del. 77 57. Stokesay Castle ; The Gatehouse . . Col. Gale, photo. 78 58. Cold Ashton Manor House ; Entrance Gateway . J. A. G., photo. 79 59. Winwick; Gateway to Manor House . J. A. G., photo. 79 60. Gateway to Almshouses, Oundle . J. A. G., photo. 80 61. Holdenby House; Gateways to Basecourt Miss Dryden, photo. 80 62. Kenyon Peel Hall ; Gateway at Side of Court J. A. G., photo. 81 63. Doddington Hall ; Entrance Doorway . . J. A. G., del. 83 64. Porch at Chelvey Court, Somerset . . J. A. G., photo. 83 65. Doorway at Nailsea Court, Somerset . J. A. G., photo. 84 66. Doorway at Gayhurst Manor House J. A. G., photo. 85 67. Doorway at Cold Ashton Manor House , J. A. G., photo. 86 68. Doorway at Cheney Court . . . . J. A. G., photo. 86 69. Woollas Hall; Part of Entrance Front Harold Baker, photo. 87 70. Porch at Gorhambury, near St. Albans (photo) ... 88 71. Hambleton Old Hall (photo) 89 73. Chastleton House ; Ground Plan . After J. A. Cossins. 90 73. Doorway at Lyddington .... John Bilson, del. 91 74. Doorway at Broadway 75. Doorway at Aylesford Hall . . W 76. Kirby Hall ; South Side of Court 77. ,, ,, West Front 78. Longleat House, Wiltshire (photo) 79. Wollaton Hall ; Plan of Principal Floor 80. Charlton House, Wiltshire (photo) 81. Aston Hall; The South Front Harold Baker, photo. 99 83. Corsham Court, Wiltshire . . J. L. Robinson, photo. 100 83. Kentwell Hall J. L. Robinson, photo. 100 A.R. h . J. A. G., del. 93 Talbot Brown, del. 93 F. W. Bull, photo. 95 J. A. G., photo. 96 , , . 96 After P. K. Allen. 97 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. ILLUSTRATION PAGE 84. Cheney Court . . ..J.A. G., photo. loi 85. The Manor House, Cold Ashton . . J.A. G., photo. 102 86. ,, „ „ „ Ground Plan. J. A. G., del. 102 87. Bolsover Castle J. A. G., photo. 103 88. „ ,, Ground Plan . J. A. G., del. 104 89. Condover Hall ; The Garden Front . J. L. Robinson, photo. 105 go. Clegg Hall, near Rochdale W. Riley, del. 106 91. Courtyard, Ingelby Manor (photo) 107 92. House at Mayfield . . W. Galsworthy Davie, photo. loS 93. Cowdray House ; Part of Court . . J. A. G., photo. 109 94. Hoghton Tower; Bay of Hall . . . J. A. G., photo, no 95. Burton Agnes Hall ; Bay Windows Frith, Reigate, photo, in , 96. House at Bourton-on-the-Water W. Galsworthy Davie, photo. 112 97. Cottage at Steventon .... Col. Gale, photo. 113 98. Sections, of Various Window Jambs and Mullions. J.A. G., del. 114 99. Window Sill at Wollaton Hall . . W. Talbot Brown, del. 114 g9A. Head of Window from Hatfield House . .J.A. G., del. 115 100. A Northamptonshire Cottage . Miss Dryden, photo. 116 loi. Stone Finials and Kneelers . . J. A. G., del. 117 102. The Manor House, Finstock W. Galsworthy Davie, photo. 117 103. Cottage at Rothwell J. A. G., del. 118 104. Cottage at Treeton, near Sheffield . . C. Hadfield, del. ng 105. Cottage at Steventon .... Col. Gale, photo. 120 106. Wollaton Hall ; One of Corner Towers (photo) . . 121 107. Kirby Hall; Part of West Front . . Col. Gale, photo. 132 108. Gable in the Court, Rushton Hall . .J.A. G., del. 133 log. Gable in the Court, Apethorpe Hall J. A. G., del. 123 no. Exton Old Hall; Stone Parapet . J. A. G., del. 124 III. Bramshill House ; Stone Parapet . . After H. Shaw. 134 113. Audley End ; Stone Parapet . . After C. J. Richardson. 124 113. Rushton Hall ; Gable on East Front . Col. Gale, photo. 125 114. Chimney at Droitwich . . . W. Habershon, del. 126 115. Brick Chimney from Huddington Court House. J. A. G., del. 127 ,116. Brick Chimney from Bardwell Manor House 117. Chimney at Toller Fratrum 118. Chimney at Kirby Hall . , . , 119, Tj'pical Chimney in the Midlands 120. Chimney at Chipping Campden , 121. Chimney at Drayton House . . J.A. G., del. 129 122. Chimney at Triangular Lodge, Rushton . J. A. G., del. 129 123. Bean Lodge, near Petworth . W. Galsworthy Davie, photo. 130 J. A. G., del. 127 J. A. G., del. 127 J. A. G., del. 127 J. A. G., del. 129 J. A. G., del. 129 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xix illustration pack 124. Lead Rain-water Head from Haddon Hall .... From Mr. W. R. Lethaby's Leadwork, by permission of Macmillan & Co. 131 135. Lead Rain-water Head from Haddon Hall .... From Mr. W. R. Lethaby's Leadwork, by permission of Macmillan & Co. 131 126. Lead Rain-water Head from Haddon Hall From Mr. W. R. Lethaby's Leadwork, by permission of Macmillan & Co. 131 137. Pipe Head from Sherborne . . Henry Shaw, del. 131 138. Lead Pipe Head from Knole House . . . . W. Talbot Brown, del. 133 139. Lead Pipe Head from Bramshill House .... W. Talbot Brown, del. 132 130. Gayhurst ; Stone Pillar in Garden . . J.A. G., photo. 133 131. Gateway in a House at Lindfield . . Arthur Ardron, del. 134 132. Chipping Campden ; The Garden-house . Percy D. Smith, del. 136 T-iZ- Eyam Hall; Plan of Lay-out .... J. A. G., del. 137 134. Bedroom in Deene Hall ; Plaster Ceiling ; Tapestry on Walls. J. A. G., photo. 147 135. Haddon Hall; A Corner of the Great Hall J. A. G., photo. 149 136. Panelling of the Time of Henry VIII. . J. A. G., photo. 150 137. Example of Linen Panelling, Stanford Church J. A. G., photo. 151 138. A Panel of the Time of Henry VIII. . J. A. G., photo. 152 139. Door at Castle Rising . . . W. Galsworthy Davie, photo. 153 140. Panelling of Door at Beckington Abbey . J. A. G., photo. 154 141. Door at Nailsea Court . . . . J.A. G., photo. 155 142. Part of Reredos (removed) at Stowe-Nine-Churches J. A. G., photo. 156 143. Part of the Court Pew, Chelvey Church . J. A. G., photo. 157 144. Part of Screen (removed), Stowe-Nine-Churches . J. A. G., photo 158 145. The Hall, Knole House (photo) . . . -159 146. Wollaton Hall; The Roof of the Great Hall Percy K. Allen, del. 160 147. Roof of Great Hall, Kirby . George P. Bankart, photo. 161 148. Panelling from Sizergh Hall (now in South Kensington Museum) . F. Dare Clapham, del. 163 149. Doorway, Abbott's Hospital, Guildford . J. A. G., photo. 164 130. Latch from Abbott's Hospital, Guildford E. A. Rickards, del. [A.A.S.B.]. ib-i ISI. Latch from Haddon Hall . . R. S. Dods, del. [A.A.S.B.]. 165 h 2 XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. illustration page 153. Lock-plates, Latches, &c. . . . After C. J. Richardson. 166 153. Casement Fastener from Haddon Hall . R. S. Dods, del. [A.A.S.B.]. i65 154. Key-plate from Abbott's Hospital, Guildford .... E. A. Rickards, del. [A.A.S.B.]. 167 155. A Knocker . ... After C.J. Richardson. 167 156. 'Wood Chimney-piece, Benthall Hall . . B. J. Fletcher, del. 170 157. Stone Chimney-piece, Bolsover Castle. J. L. Robinson, photo. 171 158. Ceiling of the Presence Chamber, Hampton Court. After Nash. 173 159. Bosses from Ceilings at Hampton Court . J. A. G., photo. 174 160. Patera to a Ceiling at Hampton Court . .J.A. G., del. 175 i5i. Part of the Ceiling in the Long Gallery, Haddon Hall. J. A. G., photo. 175 163. Part of a Coved Ceiling at Beckington Abbey J. A. G., photo. 177 163. Coved Ceiling, Beckington Abbey . . J.A. G., photo. 177 164. Part of a Ceiling from Sizergh Hall (now in South Kensington Museum) . . . . F. Dare Clapham, del. 178 165. Ceiling from Benthall Hall . . . . B. J. Fletcher, del. 179 166. Ceiling in Gate-house, Haddon Hall R. S. Dods, del. [A.A.S.B.]. 180 167. Pendants of Plaster Ceilings . . After C. J. Richardson. 181 168. Examples of Plaster Friezes from Montacute, Audley End, and Charlton House .... After C. J. Richardson. 183 i6g. Plaster Frieze from Montacute House ..... C. J. Richardson, del. 183 170. Part of Plaster Frieze, Carbrook Hall W. Talbot Brown, del. 184 171. Ceiling of a Triangular Bay Window at Little Charlton House. After C. J. Richardson. 184 172. Staircase at Lyveden Old Building . .J.A. G., del. 186 173. Details of Staircase, Hambleton Old Hall .... W. Talbot Brown, del. 187 174. Staircase from East Quantockshead . . .J.A. G., del. 187 175. Details of Staircase, Lyveden Old Building , J. A. G., del. 188 176. Pierced Baluster . . .... J. A. G., del. 189 177. Staircase at Ockwells Manor House . . H. C. PuUin, del. 189 ^78- ., ,, ,, ,, Plans and Details. H. C. Pullin, del. igo i7g. Staircase at Benthall Hall, Shropshire J. L. Robinson, photo, igi 180. Staircase at a House at Warwick . .J.A. G., del. ig3 181. Staircase at the Charterhouse . . Roland W. Paul, del. ig3 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Xxi illustration 1'AGE 182. Portion of Glazing from Ightham Church . . J. A. G., del. 197 183. Glass Panel from one of the N\'indows at Gilling Castle. J. A. G., del. ig8 184. House formerly in North Street, Exeter .... W. R. Lethaby, del. [A.A.S.B.]. 200 185. House in the High Street, Canterbury W. Galsworthy Davie, photo. 201 186. Old House, High Town, Hereford. Valentine, Dundee, photo. 202 187. Corbels, " King's Arms," Sandwich W. Galsworthy Davie, photo. 204 188. Corbel at Canterbury . . . W. Talbot Brown, del. 205 189. Corbel at Canterbury . W. Talbot Brown, del. 205 190. Corbel at Orton Waterville . . W. Talbot Brown, del. 205 191. The " Swan " Inn, Lechlade . W. Galsworthy Davie, photo. 206 192. Desk in Almshouses, Corsham . . . W. Haywood, del. 207 193. Almshouses, Chipping Campden. W. Galsworthy Davie, photo. 208 194. Market House, Shrewsbury (photo) .... . 208 195. Market House, Wymondham (photo) . . . 209 196. Market House, Chipping Campden W. Galsworthy Davie, photo. 210 197. School at Burton Latimer . . . Miss Dryden, photo. ' 211 198. Mill at Bourne Pond, Colchester . . Col. Gale, photo. 212 199. Hawking-tower, Althorp Park (photo) ..... 213 200. Plan of Hawking-tower, Althorp Park . . J. A. G., del. 213 201. The Sign of the " White Hart " Inn, formerly at Scole E. A. Heffer, del. 214 202. The Chichester Tomb, Pilton Church Vickery Brothers, Barnstaple, photo. 215 203. Alabaster Frieze from one of the Foljambe Tombs, Chesterfield Church W. Talbot Brown, del. 216 304. Tomb of G. Reed, Bredon Church . Harold Baker, photo. 217 205. Tomb of Sir Wm. Spencer, Yarnton Church .... Plarold Baker, photo. 218 206. The Pulpit, Worth Church . W. Galsworthy Davie, photo. 219 207. The Pulpit, Blythborough Church W. Galsworthy Davie, photo. 230 3o8. The Pulpit, Chesterfield Church . . J.A. G., photo. 221 209. Font Cover and Canopy, Pilton Church W. Galsworthy Davie, photo. 322 210. Window of North Aisle, Kelmarsh Church J. A. G., photo. 323 211. Keystones from Compton Winyates Church .... W. Talbot Brown, del. 223 Xxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. illustration 212. Door in the Screen of the Chapel, Peterhouse College, Cam bridge R. S. Dods, del. [A.A.S.B.]. 224 213. Plan of the Chateau of Anssi-le-Franc copied from Du Cerceau John Thorpe. 227 214. Part Elevation of the Chiteau of Anssi-le-Franc, with three Turrets added .... John Thorpe. 228 215. Elevation copied from De Vries . John Thorpe. 229 216. An Unnamed Plan . . . . John Thorpe. 232 217. An Unnamed Ground Plan . . . John Thorpe. 336 318. Upper Plan of Fig. 217 . . . John Thorpe. 237 2ig. Elevation of Figs. 217, 218 . . John Thorpe. 238 230. An Unnamed Plan John Thorpe. 339 221. Ground and Upper Plans, Unnamed . . John Thorpe. 240 222. Elevations of Plans in Fig. 221 . . . John Thorpe. 241 223. Unnamed Plan and Elevation .... John Thorpe. 243 224. Plan and Elevation of House for Mr. W!^ Powell John Thorpe. 343 225. Plan of House for Mr. Johnson y"= Druggist . John Thorpe. 244 226. An Unnamed Plan John Thorpe. 245 227. Ground Plan of House for Sir Jo. Danvers, Chelsey John Thorpe. 246 228. Upper Plan and Elevation for Sir Jo. Danvers, Chelsey . John Thorpe. 247 229. An Unnamed Elevation . . . John Thorpe. 248 230. ,, ,, . . . John Thorpe. 249 231. ,, Plan (Circular) .... John Thorpe. 250 ERRATUM. Page 171 (faeing). For Plate XLIV. read Plate LXIV. (Bolsover Castle, Derbyshire — Two Chimneypieces). EARLY RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. The progress of style in the medieeval architecture of England was regular and continuous : so much so, that any one thoroughly acquainted with its various phases can tell the date of a building within some ten years by merely examining the mouldings which embellish it. These successive phases, more over, merge into one another so gradually, that although it has been possible to divide them into four great periods — called Norman, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular — yet the transition from one to the other is unbroken, and the whole course of development can be traced as regularly as the change from the simplicity of the trunk of a tree to the multiplicity of its leaves. For about four centuries (a.d. iioo — 1500) this growth continued, English architecture finding within itself the power of progression. But about the beginning of the sixteenth century it began to feel the influence of an outside power — that of Italy — which acted upon it with increasing force until, after two centuries, its native characteristics had nearly disappeared, and Italian buildings were copied in England almost line for line. The object of the following pages is to display the effect of this foreign influence upon our native architecture up to the point when it became predominant, and stamped our buildings with a character more Classic than Gothic. But it will be 2 THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY. desirable first of all to glance shortly at the causes which led to Italy having this extraordinary influence, and at the general effect which that influence produced upon England. England, in common with the rest of North-western Europe, was the home of Gothic architecture, instinct with the mystery and romantic spirit of the Middle Ages. Italy was the home of Classic architecture, which it had cherished since the great days of Rome. The Gothic manner was never thoroughly acquired in Italy, even in those parts which lay nearest to France and Germany, although it affected their buildings to a certain extent. The best examples of Italian Gothic hold a low rank in comparison with the masterpieces of the northern style. Classic forms were those in which the Italian designer naturally expressed himself, and it was these which he employed when that great revival of the Arts which took place in the fifteenth century, set him building. The earlier Renaissance in letters " the spring before the spring," of which the great figures are Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, heralded a great awakening of architectural energy, and Italian architects, in solving their new problems, mingled the results of a deep study of ancient examples with much of mediaeval spirit and tendency. They set themselves resolutely to revive the architecture which had been one of the glories of ancient Rome ; but they could not, even had they wished it, free themselves from the spirit of their own age, and the result was the development of a kind of architecture which used old forms in new ways, and which has gained the distinguishing title of the Renaissance style. But the awakening in architecture was only one manifestation of the spirit which was abroad : in painting, sculpture, and all the applied arts, as well as in literature, the same vivifying tendency was at work. With the fall of Constantinople in 1453, an event which flooded Western Europe with Greek scholars and Greek literature, a tremendous impulse was given to the new aspirations. A new world of history and poetry had been discovered, just as, forty years afterwards, a new world of fact and reality was discovered by Columbus and Cabot. The two events combined to excite men's imagination to an extra ordinary degree, and their stimulating effect was visible in all branches of mental activity. There was a marvellous mingling of the old and the new. In the past there was an inexhaustible well of knowledge and suggestion ; in the present a boundless ITS INFLUENCE ON ENGLAND. 3 opening for enterprise and fresh experiences. Just at this juncture the invention of printing was being perfected, and it came at the precise time to help the dissemination of the new ideas. The result was that great movement of the human mind known as the Renaissance, which in the space of a century altered the life of Western Europe. In politics it shattered the international fabric of the Middle Ages ; in religion it brought about the momentous change which we call the Reformation ; in art it wedded faultless execution with an extraordinary fecundity of design. There followed an age richer, perhaps, than any other in original genius and fertility of mental products. Italy was at the centre of this upheaval. To her were attracted students from all parts of Europe, not excepting England. She herself was teeming with men of talent in all branches of learning and the arts. It was inevitable that she should part with some of her superfluous energy to the surrounding lands, touched as they were, though less intensely, with the new spirit. So general was the enthusiasm that her neighbours were only too glad to welcome whatever Italy could send, even if not of her very best. The new movement eventually reached the distant shores of England, but as the stream flowed across Europe it became tinged with the peculiarities of the various lands over which it passed, and each country can show its own version of the Italian Renaissance in architecture as well as in other matters. Spain has one version, France another, Germany another, and England yet another; and there is this peculiarity about the English version — that it is coloured by the two channels through which it came, France and the Netherlands. The whole circumstances of the time being conducive to the spread of Italian ideas and forms (which are only the embodi ment of ideas), how did they aff'ect English architecture? They found in England a style long established, and still endowed with considerable vigour. At no period of its history had this style been so peculiarly English in its more elaborate efforts, the special development known as fan-vaulting, for instance — of which the finest examples are to be seen in the chapel at King's College, Cambridge, and Henry VII.'s chapel at Westminster (see Plate I.)— being found only in this country. The Gothic style of England and the Classic style of Italy 4 GOTHIC TREATMENT CONTRASTED WITH CLASSIC. had next to nothing in common. Their modes of expression were essentially different. The former was elastic, informal, readily adapted to different needs. Like Cleopatra, it was of infinite variety ; its component parts were small and manifold, its tendency was towards well-marked vertical lines. Its out ward appearance expressed its inward arrangement : a window more or less, a buttress here, a chimney there — so long as they were wanted — offered no difficulty to the designer. Classic architecture, on the other hand, was formal and restricted by considerations of symmetry ; its component parts were simple and less mobile than those of Gothic ; its tendency was towards strong horizontal lines. The Gothic string-course, for instance, could jump up and down to adapt itself to a door or window; it broke round projecting piers or buttresses without hesitation. But the classic cornice continued in the same straight line, neither rising nor falling, and only breaking forward round a pier or column after due dehberation. Its projection was far greater than that of any similar feature in Gothic work : it was consequently much less ductile. Compared to Gothic detail. Classic was unwieldy, even that more pliant version of it which had recently been evolved in Italy. The ornament, however, with which the Italian designers so freely adorned their architectural work, unlike that of the ancients, was generally small in scale and elastic in character. Here, there fore, was a feature common to both styles, and we shall find that it is in the ornament of buildings that the change first took place. It will be seen that the progress of the new style was very gradual : it showed itself first in small objects, such as tombs and chantries, and in the unimportant detail of larger buildings ; then it affected the more significant detail ; and ultimately, after many years, it controlled the organic concep tion and expression : but this final development did not take place till after the close of the period which we are to consider. That which we are to watch is the struggle of the old and the new : the encounter of the new spirit steeped in classical learning, with the old Gothic traditions and methods. The great monuments of English Gothic architecture are to be found in ecclesiastical buildings; those of the succeeding phase are domestic in character. The change of thought in religious matters, which was proceeding all through the sixteenth century, was not favourable to church building, and THE ELIZABETHAN MANSION. 5 after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. no more churches were built. But the new nobility, rich with the spoils of the dissolved houses and the traffic of the Indies, had acquired a taste for grandeur and dignity in outward life that required great mansions for its display. It is therefore primarily in the Elizabethan mansion that we must watch the contest between the old style and the new — a contest rendered more piquant by the fact that the new style had no experience of this particular kind of building in the land of its origin. The English house had developed on lines widely different from the Italian ; it had to meet other wants, it had to contend with a different climate, it was subject to other traditions. The new style when it came, had to harmonize these strange traditions as well as its own, derived from a far distant past, with the original and fertile spirit of the age. The result is one of abiding interest. Almost any of the great houses built in the reign of Elizabeth will show to the casual spectator examples of crudity in detail and imperfect classical proportion, mingled with reminiscences of Gothic notions ; but a deeper scrutiny will disclose the fact that in spite of these short comings there is a national individuality and sense of genius in the handling of materials sufficient to raise the result to the dignity of a distinct style. Just as the " Faerie Queen " shows a jumble of heathen gods and cardinal virtues. Christian knights and Pagan nymphs, and yet withal is a consummate work of art, so the buildings of the period — " With many towers, and terrace mounted high. And all their tops bright glistering with gold," in spite of their inconsistencies, have a fertility of fancy, a wealth of ornament, and a simplicity of treatment which raise them to a similar high plane. And just as the literature of the period, as it became more in accordance with rule, lost half its originality and more than half its fascination, so Renaissance Architecture, as it passed from the Elizabethan to the Jacobean, and so to the succeeding phases, became more homogeneous, more scholarly, more true to its classical origin, and yet withal lost vitality in the process. The full meaning of that great century which stretched from the divorce of Henry VIII. to the accession of Charles I. cannot be grasped unless it is always borne in mind that not only was 6 TRIUMPH OF THE RULES OF ARCHITECTURE. a new style supplanting an old one, but that it was doing so at a time when the originahty and richness of men's minds were at their height. But while in England the new style was winning its way, in Italy it was passing the zenith of its vigour. The continued study of ancient monuments enabled architects to reduce the old methods of design to a system which could be acquired with ease, and architectural design became less a matter of invention than a capacity for adapting new buildings to old rules. In course of time the same state of things estab lished itself in England. The invention of printing brought to the eye of English craftsmen not only plans and pictures of buildings recently erected in foreign lands, but also the rules which celebrated Italian architects had laid down for the pro portion of buildings generally — rules founded partly on the study of ancient fabrics and partly on the august authority of Vitruvius. The application of these rules to circumstances and needs which had never been contemplated by their authors was the problem which English designers set themselves to solve. During the earlier years of their attempt they were almost baffled. Then came Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren, and by their commanding genius they made the rules bend to their will ; but in the eighteenth century the rules triumphed completely, and, as already said, Italian buildings were copied in England almost line for line. It is the work of the men who were baffled that we are now to examine : work which, judged from the standpoint of their better tutored successors, may almost be regarded as a failure, but work which exhibits a vitality, a fancy, and a sense of romance for which we look in vain in the more correct architecture of the eighteenth centur}'. It is not surprising that England, in common with the rest of Europe, should have felt the influence of Italy. It is, perhaps, rather a matter for wonder that she should not have felt it earlier ; that the architectural Renaissance should have continued for more than a century, and have reached its prime in Italy before it landed on our shores and began to touch the more susceptible places of our Enghsh stonework. But Brunelleschi, who crowned the cathedral of Florence with its dome, and reared the Pitti Palace, had been dead seventy years ; the delicate sculpture on the fa9ade of the Certosa of HENRY VIII. AND FOREIGN ARTISTS. 7 Pavia was five-and-twenty years old ; and Venice was busy lining her canals with palaces, when Torrigiano brought the first Italian forms to England and applied them to the tomb of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey. But the way had been paved beforehand. For some fifty years it had been the custom of English scholars to repair to Italy to learn the humanities. They returned home familiar, if not in love, with Italian ideas and methods of expression, and if they themselves did nothing outwardly to hasten the impending change, it was their poverty and not their will which consented to inaction. Fine building requires monej-, and accordingly it is in the work of monarchs, noblemen, and great dignitaries of the Church that we find the first evidences of the Italian invasion. Henry VIII. was the outward and visible, although unconscious, agent who guided the new movement to our shores. His great Cardinal, Wolsey, was not less active in- building, but Henry was the royal patron, vying with other monarchs in obtaining the services of dis tinguished artists to adorn his surroundings. Now most of the distinguished artists at that time were foreigners, hailing chiefly from Italy. There were plenty of excellent English workmen it is true, but it was the fashion to employ Italians. Henry's rival, Francis I. of France, had secured the services of several such men ; why not he ? So his efforts were frequent, although they met with comparatively small success. Italians were loth to leave their own sunny surroundings, where all men were in sympathy with them and their ways, for the chilly fogs and the barbarous manners of those "beasts of Enghsh," as CeUini called them. A few men complied with his requests ; of these, Torrigiano was the most celebrated. To him Henry entrusted the making of his father's tomb, discarding the design approved by the dead monarch, and taking the work out of the English hands already engaged upon it. None of the other Italians whose names have been preserved have left any great or permanent mark in the country to which they came unwillingly, and which they left gladly. The other great foreign figure which stands out among those of minor importance is that of a German, Holbein. But though Holbein did much work in England in different branches of art, he left no school, nor can the influence of his manner be traced far, if at all, beyond his death. Names of Italians appear occasionally as being employed R.A. ^ S LIMITED EXTENT OF ITALIAN DETAIL. by the King, and among them John of Padua occurs most frequently ; but no one knows who he was, nor what work he left behind him. His name has often been attached to different buildings, and he has been confused with John Thorpe, but no evidence has yet been adduced actually connecting him with work that still survives. One of the curious and provoking facts about the early years of the Renaissance manner in England is the way in which Italian names elude pursuit. Work which looks as though it must have been done by a foreigner has no name that can be attached to it. Other work, which is almost as foreign in appearance, is found on investi gation to be that of an Englishman. Henry's rivalry with Francis I., his friendship and his feuds with that monarch, seem to have had some effect on archi tectural ornament, for much that was executed during Henry's lifetime has a French flavour about it. It is curious, indeed, to observe how little hold actual Italian detail obtained upon the fancy of English workmen. It was not direct from Italy that they would take it. The Italians were not liked by the English people at large ; protests were raised by the more thoughtful against the Italianizing of our young nobles. The popular conception of the subtle Italian was embodied by Shakespeare in lachimo and the more infernal lago. What Italian detail we find in Henry VIII.'s time is chiefly superficial ornament, and even that is by no means of universal application. It is to be found up and down the country in considerable quantity, but side by side with work which is still thoroughly Gothic in character. Islip, the Abbot of Westminster, who laid the foundation stone of Henry VII.'s chapel, and who saw the erection of that monarch's tomb — the great central feature for which the chapel was built — was not sufflciently enamoured of the new ornament to cause his own tomb to be of the same character. On the contrary, the screen which encloses his chapel is free from any touch of actual Renaissance detail, although erected some fifteen years after Henry VII.'s tomb. It was through Dutch and German channels that the Italian manner came to stay. This was the result partly of ties of race and religion, partly of commercial intercourse, and partly of the general imitation of Dutch methods which prevailed in England during the latter half of the sixteenth century. In DUTCH INFLUENCE. 9 commercial and political as well as naval and military matters this imitation is well known to students of that period. The character of Renaissance work in England during Henry VIII.'s time inclined to Italian and the French version of Italian. After his death it inclined towards the Dutch version. In both cases it was strongly infused with English feeling ; but there is this difference, that whereas the earlier phase ended abruptly, no merging of it into the latter being traceable, the second phase can be followed step by step into the pronounced Italian of Inigo Jones's mature manner. We can see how some features were dropped and others acquired, until, by the double process of shedding and assimilation, the style of Burghley House glides imperceptibly into that of the Banqueting Hall at Whitehall. B 2 CHAPTER IL THE INVASION OF THE FOREIGN STYLE. In order properly to understand the position of the Eliza bethan mansion in the story of architectural development, it is necessary to examine the work which inter venes between it and the last of the Gothic period. The first work with Renaissance detail that was done in England was the tomb of King Henry VII. — the actual altar-tomb, not the metal screen enclosing it. There is no foreigm influence to be detected either in the screen or in the wonderful fan- tracery vault that spreads itself above (Plate I). These are essentially English productions, and yet there are certain parts of them which would lend themselves readily to the new - fashioned detail which was about to invade our shores ; parts which in subse quent buildings were J actually affected by it. But so far, that is up to the year 1509, when the king died, the chapel being still unfinished, there is no Renaissance detail. Nor is there any in the I,— Tomb of Prince Arthur (d, 1502) in Worcester Cathedral, TOMB OF HENRY VII, fine chantry in Worcester Cathedral, wherein King Henry's eldest son. Prince Arthur, who died in 1502, lies buried (Fig. i). The utmost that can be said is that here, as in the chapel at Westminster, the Gothic work is preparing to succumb to the new influence. It has been suggested that the king's own tomb was erected subsequently to that of his mother, the Countess of Richmond, who also hes in the Abbey. But the question is one of little importance ; no long period can separate the two, and the important point is that the actual invasion of the foreign style is a well-marked event, the circum stances attending it are on record, its results still survive in an ex cellent state of preservation. Henry VII. says in his will, dated 31st March, 1509, that he had arranged for his tomb to be made in a certain manner,* and from other sources we gather that the men who were to do the work were certain English craftsmen, of whom Lawrence Imber, carver ; Drawswerd, sheriff of York ; Humphrey Walker, founder ; Nicholas Ewen, coppersmith ; Robert Virtue, Robert Jenins, and John Lebons, master masons, were the chief. The last name is the only one with a foreign appearance, but it is a curious and rather significant fact that the design had been Tomb of one of the Cokayne Family, .Ashbourne Church, Derbyshire, Fifteenth Century, Britten's Architectural Aniiguities, Vol, II, TOMB OF HENRY VII. made by one " Master Pageny," as he was called by his English acquaintances, but whom his own countrymen called Paganino. No other work of Master Pageny's is known in England, but it seems tolerably clear that he is the same Paganino who de signed the tomb of the French King Charles VIII. at St. Denis, and that Henry's tomb was to have been like it.* The project, however, fell through in consequence of the death of the king, and the pass ing of the control of affairs into the hands of his son, Henry VIII. The new monarch dis carded the old design entirely, and entrusted the work to Pietro Torrigiano, or Peter Torrisany, as he became on English lips. Tor- rigiano's design departed widely from English tra ditions. The lead ing idea of recum- — this idea indeed but the 3- — Henry VII.'s Tomb, Detail, bent figures upon an altar-tomb was retained held the field for another three-quarters of a century old practice of adorning the sides of the tomb with cusped panels, or figures of saints in niches, or angels holding shields • Archceolof^ical Journal. 1894, " On the work of Florentine Sculptors in England " by Alfred Higgins, F,S,A, ^ ' TOMB OF HENRY VIL 13 4. — Tomb of John Harrington (d. 1524), Exton Church, Rutland. of arms (Fig. 2), was abandoned; and instead ofthe restrained architectural treatment of the English tradition, where the figures were soli tary, and every fold of drapery harmonised with the main archi tectural mem bers, Torrigiano gave us the free treatment of the Italian sculptors. The general arrangement of the panels is simple enough (Plate II.) There are three circular wreaths on each of the longer sides of the tomb, divided by Italian pilasters adorned with arabesques, into which the rose and portcullis of the Tudors are introduced. A rose also fills each of the four spandrils formed by the circular wreaths. These wreaths were new to English eyes; so, too, was the treatment of the spandrils, where the flower is simply applied to the triangular space, instead of appearing to be a growth on the structure itself in the old Gothic way (Fig. 3). The panels themselves contain figures in action, figures which have cast away conventional attitudes and stiffness of attire, and -Tomb of Thomas Cave (d. 1558), Stanford Church, Northamptonshire, 14 TOMB OF HENRY VII. 6,— Tomb of Thomas Cave (d. 1558), End Panel, comport themselves in the most natural way imaginable. Henry's patron saints are there to the number of ten, but instead of stand ing in niches, statuesque and motionless, they are grouped in pairs, every pair seeming inter ested in a com mon subject, instead of each individual being rapt in solitary contemplation. As there are six panels, the ten patron saints are supplemented by two other figures — the Virgin with the Child, and St. Christo pher. Another novelty appears in the shape of the four cherubs poised at each corner of the tomb; they have no niches or other architec tural back ground ; they are detached pieces of sculpture, self- reliant ; their purpose, which they no longer fulfil, was to hold banners, but these have long disappeared. The change of idea is complete, but it is a change that never took hold of English craftsmen. They adopted the circular wreaths and the arabesqued pilasters, and so far as those features are 7,— Tomb of Sir George Vernon (d, 1567), Bakewell Church, Derbyshire, ITS INFLUENCE ON OTHER TOMBS. 15 concerned we see in this tomb the prototype of many that followed after. But the figures in action do not appear again. English tradition M-as too strong for the Italian influence to overcome it, and the principal way in \\'hich it was affected was that the panels became frequently divided by pilasters instead of by moulded members ; and that the angels, which had hitherto been solitary and devout, took on the attitude of heraldic supporters, and assumed a more mundane 8.— Tomb of Sir Thomas Andrew (d. 1563), Charwelton Church, Northamptonshire, appearance, or endeavoured to imitate the amorini of Italian craftsmen — an effort for which they were, as a rule, too elderly. The dividing pilasters were sometimes nothing more than spiral columns, and such a column is occasionally the only sign of the new feeling. In the tomb of John Harrington, who died in 1524 (Fig. 4), a spiral column at the angles and a certain stiffness in the cusped panels indicate the impending change. This change is still more marked in the Cave tomb (Fig. 5) at Stanford Church, where (in 1558) the sides have three circular panels containing, however, shields of arms, not figures, and the upper end exhibits the family shield supported by two angels.. On the other hand. i6 THE INFLUENCE OF THE NEW STYLE the opposite end (Fig. 6) shows the family of the deceased gentleman in a number of figures treated with a stiffness of pose and a conventionality of attire that still belong to the ancient style. There is a very similar tomb at Charwelton to Sir Thomas Andrew, who died in 1563 (Fig. 8). In the tomb of Sir George Vernon (Fig. 7), who died in 1567, the angle pilasters, with their vases and portcullises in low relief, recall those on Henry VII.'s tomb. The middle shield on the end is sur rounded by a cir cular wreath, while the shape of the shield and the strange form of the dividing pilasters show a still further depar ture from the old detail. In the Bradbourne tomb of 1581 (Fig. 9) panels have dis appeared alto gether, and the sides of the tomb are occupied by figures of the children, who hold in a stiff and tiring manner, shields setting forth their marriages. There is a rather curious survival in the tomb of Elizabeth Drury at Hawstead Church, in Suffolk, where, as late as 1610, a shield of arms is supported by two amorini (Fig. 10). All these examples, selected from the tombs to be found in village churches, and covering a period of three- quarters of a century, tend to show that the Italianizing of the English workman, in this branch of art at any rate, was as incomplete as it was slow. The craftsman was, however, aware that a new influence was at work, and he was prepared to 9. — Tomb of - - Bradbourne {d, 1581), Ashbourne Church, Derbyshire, ON TOMBS AND HOUSES. 17 succumb to it where circumstances were favourable. In certain districts circumstances were favourable, and accordingly in parts of the eastern and southern counties, notabh' at Layer Marney, in Essex, there are tombs in which the detail is more decidedly wrought after Italian models (Fig. 11 and Plate IIL), although even here the difference is so great that any of them would look strangely out of place if transported to a church in Italy. The eastern and southern counties appear to have been specially affected by the new movement, for we find con siderable traces of it scattered over wide areas, and affecting not only small objects like tombs, but permanent structures. We shall presently see it at Layer Marney Tower, and among other places at East Barsham and Great Snoring in Suffolk ; while in Wymondham Church, in Norfolk, the sedilia is made of what appear to be fragments of a tomb much resembling those at Layer Marney in character (Fig. 12). In the southern counties, Sutton Place, near Guildford, abounds in Anglo-Italian detail; some of the woodwork at the Vyne, in Hampshire, is also affected by it. There is some very interesting work of the same nature at the Chapel of the Holy Ghost, at Basing stoke; while at Christchurch, in the same county, the chantry of the Countess of Salisbury is strongly touched with the Italian influence, and at St. Cross, near Winchester, are the very beautiful fragments of a Renaissance screen (Plate VIL). Winchester itself has some good work in the choir of the Cathedral ; and still further west, at Bingham Melcombe, in Dorset, there is a charming gable of mixed English and Itahan detail. At Lacock Abbey, in Wiltshire, there is a considerable amount of Renaissance work, wrought when the abbey buildings were converted into a dwelling-house soon after the dissolution of the monasteries. Some of this work is in stone and some in wood, but some of it is in terra-cotta, and it would be an interesting task to -From the Tomb of Elizabeth Drurv (d. i6io), Hawstead Church, Suffolk. THE LAYER MARNEY TOMBS. Oiirtli ^\jt)t oi (Doaumnil S •t AJ StJf ot ?^rt 'nSAiMz ± =£ II, — Tomb of Henry, Lord Marney (d, 1523), Layer Marney Church, Essex, ascertain why this pronounced detail should have been largely confined to these particular districts. The stone and wood work might have been carved by itinerant Italians wandering some distance from their ports of debarkation ; but the terra- Plate III. r ¦'y-;.yy/ y':¦^^:m'^!';'l^^^^¦'''':^'^<^:y^¦m DETAILS FROM THE TOMB OF HENRY, LORD MARNEY, Platk IV. CHAPEL OF THE RED MOUNT, KING'S LYN.N. FAN-VAULTING, COWDRAY HOUSE, SUSSEX, FAN-VAULTING OF PORCH. ITALIAN DETAIL. 19 cotta must have been cast, and need not have been cast close to where it was fixed, but abroad, and thence conveyed to almost any part of the country. Nevertheless, none of the work entirely loses its Enghsh character, whether it was done abroad or not. Some of it must certainly have been wrought by Italians, but about much of it the general impression pro duced is that it was done by E nglishmen with Italian pro clivities, rather than by Italians under English orders. Nor was the foreign detail on the stone simply added to the English work after the native craftsmen had finished. It was not that the Englishman completed his work and then invited the Itahan to come and do the carving after his own manner, but the two influences are curiously mixed. Take the fan-vaulting of the porch at Cow dray (Plate I v.), for instance. In general appearance it is of the same family as other fan-vaulting, of which the roof of the Chapel of the Red Mount at King's L}'nn may be taken as a speci men. But, as might be expected, it is in the susceptible parts of the stone work that the foreign influence first shows itself, — not in the construction, but in the ornament. The spandrils at Cowdray are filled with carving; some of it is foliage, treated in the Late Gothic manner, but in one appears the head of a winged cherub, clearly not of English but Italian descent. The main ribs of the vaulting, too, have an Italian arabesque worked on them, and the point to be observed here is that the section 12,— From the Sedilia, Wymondham Church, Nor -J ; 13, — Cowdray House, Sussex, Vaulting Rib to Porch (CIR, 1540), THE SALISBURY CHANTRY AT CHRISTCHURCH. of the rib is not of the usual type, but is expressly designed to receive the arabesque (Fig. 13). In the Countess of Salisbury's chantry at Christchurch it is much easier to imagine the Italian carver following the English mason, and adding his ornament to the other's work, for nearlyall of it lies in sunk panels, the highest parts of the carving being on the same face as the surroundingmargin : that is to say, the Italian found plain sur faces between the moulded mem bers left for him to carve, and one set of these plain surfaces, on the side next to the choir, he did not carve — they still remain bare. Take away the ornament, and the chantry in general design 14. — Chantry of the Countess of Salisbury, Christchurch, anr] treatment Hampshire, from the North Aisle (cir, 1529), is Late English- Gothic (Fig. 14), such as no Italian would have produced, if we except the topmost stage on the choir side, where there are^ two domed pinnacles of rather clumsy and unintelligible design (Plate v.). One of these has a curious feature — the somewhat Plate V. THE SALISBURY CHANTRY, CHRISTCHURCH VIEW FROM THE CHOIR. THE SALISBURY CHANTRY AT CHRISTCHURCH. ai I5-— The Salisbury Chantry, Christchurch. Detail of Carving. 16. — Prior Draper's Chantry, Christchurch. Head of Doorway (1529). MIXED CHARACTER OF DETAIL. vulgar product of the later Italian carvers — namely, the lower drapery and the feet of a figure ascending into clouds, all executed in complete relief. On the north side, next the aisle, are some shields in the spandrils between the niches (Plate VL), carved in the Italian spirit, and these can hardly have been added afterwards, but must have been an in tegral part of the design. The ara besques on the ver tical shafts and in thehorizontal bands might very well have been carved by a man put on for that pur pose only (Fig. 15). Altogether, it is diffi cult to adjust with any accuracy the claims ofthe English and Italian work men; it would almost seem as though they worked together, or at any rate with a cordial understanding be tween them. The same may be said of the screen to Prior Draper's chantry (dated 1529) in the same church. The 17.— Christchurch Hampshire, Miserere Seats, general design is Gothic, and while the arabesque enrichments may have been added afterwards, and the spandrils of the flat- poi'nted door, the same can hardly be said of the corbels to the niches over it (Fig. 16). The cresting along the top of this screen exactly resembles that over the screens at the sides of Plate VI, THE SALISBURY CHANTRY, CHRISTCHURCH, DETAIL OF NICHES ON NORTH SIDE. MIXED CHARACTER OF DETAIL. 23 the choir at Winchester Cathedral, except that the latter has not a battlemented finish (Fig. 20). Although it is not difficult to imagine an Italian carving this stonework at Christchurch, it is not quite so easy to attribute the interesting choir-stalls to him or a compatriot, for the Gothic feeling is too pronounced, and the angel and cherubs are not lissom and graceful enough to have descended from an Italian sky. The divisions be tween the miserere seats (Fig. 17) are thoroughly Gothic in general treatment and in their mouldings, but in the carving the Italian hand shows itself, although sub dued to the Gothic sur roundings in which it worked. Some of the desk ends are traceried and cusped, and some have vases and foliage after the Italian man ner. But here again the two , putti which turn their backs in so uncere monious a way (Fig. 18) can hardly be the work of Italian chisels. It is equally difficult to assign the beautiful panelling in the long gallery at the Vyne to a foreigner (Fig. ig) ; there is so much English feeling about it. The work conveys the impression that the carver was more at home with his linen panels than with the Italian flourishes with which he supplemented them; but the single panel over the door is evidently the work of a hand thoroughly familiar with the Italian method. We see the same mixed character wherever we look ; we can point to no work — not even Henry VII.'s R.A. c -Christchurch, Hampshire. Bench-end in Choir. 24 MIXED CHARACTER OF DETAIL. tomb — and say, " This is wholly Italian." There is always a strong English feehng, and sometimes it is only a touch here and there which shows the foreign influence. The same remark applies to the stone screens at the sides of the choir at Winchester (Fig. 20). They are Gothic in general 19, — Doorway and Panelling in the Gallery at the Vyne, Hampshire (before 1530), treatment, but a little Italian carving is introduced in the cresting along the top. They were the work of Bishop Fox in 1525, who evidently had a hankering after the foreign ornament in his life, although his own chantry, in which he lies buried, is free from it ; for in the neighbouring church at St. Cross are the fragments of some very beautiful screens containing charming BISHOP FOX'S WORK. 25 Italian work (Plate VIL). The history of these fragments is not known, but from the occurrence in them of the pelican, which was Bishop Fox's badge, they seem to be due to him, and they may possibly have come from the cathedral itself. They do not belong to their present situation, and one of the main posts is worked with a return at a very obtuse angle, indicating some such polygonal disposition as the east end of the cathedral has. On the top of the choir-screens in the cathedral are placed six oak chests, called mortuary chests, procured by Fox, in which 20, — Screen on North Side of Choir, Winchester Cathedral (with Mortuary Chest), 1525, are deposited the bones of various benefactors. They are of Italian workmanship (except two which replaced the old ones in the seventeenth century), and are suggestive as being one of the sources of inspiration to native carvers. One of them is shown in Fig. 20, and just behind it can be seen the cornice of the chantry of Bishop Gardiner, who died in 1555. The portion visible is of well-developed classic character, and indicates how the use of the foreign forms had progressed during the thirty 3'ears that had elapsed since Fox's time. Even here, however, the pinnacle at the corner — the head of a heraldic animal on a c 2 26 PAULET TOMB AT BASING. 21,— Canopy of Stalls, Hej^ry V1I,'s Chapel, Westminster, pedestal — shows how the designer was unwilling or unable to shake off all the trammels of his native style. At Basing Church, in Hampshire, there is yet another example of the same limited use of Italian detail in the Paulet tombs, which are con structed in the thickness of the side-walls of the chancel (Plate VIL). The arches over the tombs and the doorway in the wall are all flat-pointed, and the spandrils are filled with Renaissance carving, which, in the case of the large arches, surrounds the arms of the founder. Except for these touches, and for the cresting along the top, which recalls that at Winchester, the detail is all Gothic. The large panel in the wall over the doorway seems to be of later date. Another interesting piece of work of this period is found in the stahs of Henry VII.'s chapel at Westminster. The canopies (Fig. 21) are quite Gothic in cha racter, but of a rather florid description, and although there is no actual Renaissance detail, there Plate VII, PART OF SCREEN, ST, CROSS, WINCHESTER (probably due to bishop fox, who died 1528,) PAULET TOMB, BASING CHURCH, HAMPSHIRE, TREATMENT OF WOODWORK. 27 is a tendency towards it. The caps of the pilasters are also Late Gothic, while the columns are of that honeycomb pattern which is a sign of change towards the new fashion (Fig. 22). There is woodwork of a somewhat similar character at Winchester in Langton's chapel, and in Prior Silkstede's pulpit (1520). The Spring pew in Lavenham Church, Suffolk, is another instance of the late treatment of woodwork. There are niches, canopies, fan-vaulting, and cusped tracery (Fig. 23), but a closer inspection shows that the tracery has completely departed from the simple lines of Gothic work, and has assumed fantastic forms combined of twisted strands and foliage (Fig. 24), while the columns are honey- 22,— Detail from St.alls, Henry VlL's COmbcd Or twistcd intO Spirals. Chapel, Westminster, ^^i . n j. j j. 1 hese examples all tend to show that the old tradi tions died hard. The new ideas were cautiously ac cepted, and were utilised to help the existing methods rather than to supplant them. Hitherto it has been fittings, or chantries, or tombs which have furnished example s — comparatively small and isolated pieces of work which naturally lent themselves to experiments. But we find the same general treatment in larger and more important efforts; the native tradition still holds the field, but traces of the new manner are to be found -The Spring Pew, Lavenham Church, Suffolk, 28 TWO GREAT ROOFS COMPARED. in the spandril of an archway, the termination of a label, or the pendants of a roof. Compare the roof of the hall at Eltham Palace (Fig. 25) with that of the great hall at Hampton Court (1534 — 35). The roof at Eltham is still Gothic, without a touch of the Renaissance; the roof at Hampton Court is also still Gothic in conception and construction, but in the most susceptible parts — the pendants, the spandrils, and the corbels — the new influence makes itself felt (Fig. 26). These pendants are quite in the new style, and yet were carved by an Eng lishman, named " Richard Rydge, of London.* The span drils likewise are filled with Renais sance ornament, carved by Michael Joyner, among which the Kyig's Arms and the "King's beasts" appear, treated in the manner cus tomary in Late Gothic work ; the Tudor badges are also carved on the pendants and corbels, amid the cherubs and balusters and foliage which go to compose the Italian ornament (Fig. 27). Another fine piece of woodwork, which was being executed contemporaneously with the hall roof at Hampton, was the magnificent rood screen in King's College Chapel, Cambridge (Plate VIIL). There is no record as to who did this work, nor when it was done ; but the evidence of the arms, initials, and badges upon it, which are those of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, fixes its date between 1532 and 1536. It has been called the finest piece of woodwork this side the Alps, and its fn^:^ 24,— Detail from the Spring Pew, Lavenham Church, Suffolk, ¦* History of Hampton Court Palace, by Ernest Law, Vol. I. Plate VIII, KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, SCREEN IN THE CHAPEL (l532-6). THE SCREEN IN KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL. 29 exquisite design and workmanship quite justify the description, and even inchne one to omit the limiting line. It is more completely Italian in treatment than any other work of the time, and there is very little trace of Gothic influence. All the mouldings are classic, whereas in the roof at Hampton Court even the Italian pendants have a Gothic feeling in their mouldings. There is, however, a considerable similarity in feeling between the pendants in both cases, and it should be borne in mind that the work at the two places was being carried on simultaneously. Richard Rydge, of London, who Roof of Hall, Eltham Palace, Ken- carved the pendants at Hampton Court, may have had a hand in the King's College screen ; but it is practically certain that the general design and most of the work must have been done by Italians, and the whole screen must be regarded as an isolated example, complete in itself, not growing out of anything that went before it, nor developing into anj'thing afterwards. The early work at Hampton Court, that is, the work of Wolsey and Henry VIIL, executed between 1514 and 1540, is typical of the prevailing manner. This building was the most important one of its time. It was built by the magnificent Cardinal as his principal residence, where he could live amid 3° ROOF AT HAMPTON COURT. 25. — Roof of the Great Hall, Hampton Court (1534 — 35), quiet and healthy surroundings, and yet be in close touch with London, which was the centre of political activity. Wolsey lived in more than regal state, and the enormous size and extraordinary splendour of his palace is testified to by many ROOF AT HAMPTON COURT. 31 .-i<* 27. — Details from the Roof of the Great Hall, Hampton Court, foreigners of distinction who resorted to him on some of the innumerable matters in which he was the controlling spirit. This great palace he presented to the king some time before his fall, and the king altered and enlarged it still further, and 32 THE WORK AT HAMPTON COURT. made it, as was to be expected, one of his chief residences. Here, then, we may expect to find the best work that wealth and skill could produce ; here we may fairly look for typical work of the time. What is the character of the work that was being executed between 1514 and 1540 ? In its essentials it is Gothic of a late type, with just such touches of Italian detail as have been already mentioned. The structure is of dark red brick, with stone dressings ; the detail is of the simplest ; the windows are generally small, and have flat-pointed heads. Whatever elaboration there is, is chiefly confined to central features. 28. — Hampton Court, Head of Door to Great Hall, such as the gateways on the great axial line. The chimneys are of cut and moulded brick ; the archways are vaulted with fan tracery vaulting ; the large windows of the hall are traceried and cusped ; everything in its main outline is Gothic. But in certain parts the ornament is of Renaissance character. There are a number of terra-cotta roundels built into the walls, which came from Italy, and were made to the Cardinal's order. There is a terra-cotta tablet of his arms supported by putti beautifully modelled — this was also probably an importation ; it has no essential connection with its surroundings. The same may also be said of the more roughly modelled panels on either side of the doorway to the chapel, which contain the royal arms NONESUCH PALACE. 33 impaling those of Henry's third queen, Jane Seymour, sup ported by very mundane angels. But there is also, in other parts of the building, a little Renaissance detail, which is an essential part of the design, and could not have been brought from elsewhere and built in. Such is the carving in the spandrils of doorways (Fig. 28), the pendants of the hall roof, and the ceiling decoration of certain rooms. This must all have been wrought on the spot, but it forms an extremely small part of the whole. While the spandrils of three or four door ways are carved with Renaissance detail, the doorways them selves are in other respects quite Gothic. The hall roof, as already said, is Gothic in conception, although much of its ornament is of the newer fashion. The same may be said of the chapel roof, which is an imitation in oak of some of the stone vaulting and pendants of the period. The ceilings will be referred to later, but it may here be said that most of them are derived from the wood-ribbed ceilings of Late Gothic work, and that only in the small room called Wolsey's Closet does the design decidedly follow Italian models. It will thus be seen that Hampton Court is essentially Gothic in style, and that only in its susceptible places has it been affected by the foreign fashion. What happened at Hampton Court happened elsewhere, and in all the examples which have come down to us the same thing is to be seen — a Gothic structure with more or less of Italian ornament : more in such places as Sutton Court and Layer Marney Tower, less at Compton Winyates and Hengrave. There was, however, one building, which has not come down to us, in which the Italian manner must have been much more in evidence, judging by such accounts as we have of the place. This was the palace of Nonesuch, in Surrey. It was built by Henry VIII. as a retreat, according to Paul Hentzner, the tutor of a young German nobleman who visited England in 1598.* It was in "a very healthful situation," he says, " chosen by King Henry VIII. for his pleasure and retirement, and built by him with an excess of magnificence and elegance, even to ostenta tion ; one would imagine that everything that architecture can perform to have been employed in this one work ; there are everywhere so many statues that seem to breathe, so man)' ¦'^ Hentzner's Travels, e,d. by Horace Walpole 34 NONESUCH PALACE. miracles of consummate art, so many casts that rival even the perfection of Roman antiquity, that it may well claim and justify its name of Nonesuch." The site was acquired by the king in 1538,* and as he died in 1547, he must have begun to build almost immediately. According to a statement in Braun's Civitates (1582), he " procured many excellent artificers, archi tects, sculptors, and statuaries, as well Italians, French, and Dutch as natives, who all applied to the ornament of this mansion the finest and most curious skill they possessed in these several arts, embellishing it within and without with many magnificent statues, some of which vividly represent the antiquities of Rome, and some surpass them."+ About eight years after Henry's death the house was alienated from the Crown to the Earl of Arundel, and was thereby saved from the destruction contemplated by Queen Mary, who found it too costly to finish. The Earl, however, "for the love and honour he bare to his old master," completed the building and left it to his son-in-law. Lord Lumley, who added a second court. In 1591 it again came into possession of the Crown, and so con tinued until it was presented by Charles IL to his favourite, Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine, who pulled it down to help towards paying her debts. A few years before this happened Evelyn notes in his diary under date 3rd January, 1666: "I supp'd in None-such House, whither the office of the Exchequer was transferr'd during the plague, at my good friend's Mr. Packer's, and tooke an exact view of the plaster statues and bass relievos inserted 'twixt the timbers and punchions of the outside walles of the Court ; which must needs have ben the work of some celebrated Italian. I much admir'd how it had lasted so well and intire since the time of Hen. VIIL, expos'd as they are to the aire ; and pitty it is they are not taken out and preserv'd in some drie place ; a gallerie would become them. There are some mezzo-relievos as big as the life, the storie is of the Heathen Gods, emblems, compartments, etc. The Palace consists of two courts, of which the first is of stone, castle-like, by the Lo. Lumlies (of whom 'twas purchas'd), the other of timber, a Gotic fabric, but these walls incomparably beautified. I observ'd that the appearing timber punchions, * Gentleman's Magazine, August, 1837. t Archceologia, Vol. XXXIX,, p. 32, Toto del Nunziata was probably one of the Italians. NONESUCH PALACE. 35 entrelices, &c., were all so cover'd with scales of slate, that it seem'd carv'd in the wood and painted, the slate fastened on the timber in pretty figures, that has, like a coate of armour, preserv'd it from rotting." Some two and a half }ears before this visit of Evehn's, his lively contemporary, Mr. Pepys, had gone through the park to the house and, as he says, "there viewed as much as we could of the outside, and looked through the great gates, and found a noble court." In September, 1665, he was again there, and while waiting about he examined the house, which was, he says, " on the outside filled with figures of stories, and good painting of Rubens' or Holben's doing. And one great thing is, that most of the house is covered, I mean the post and quarters in the walls, with lead, and gilded.'" Of all this beautiful work nothing has survived, except a painted panel or two preserved at Loseley, in Surrey, and possibly other fragments in other houses of the district. According to a statement of John Aubrey, the antiquary, some of the materials of Nonesuch went to the building of The Durdans near Epsom. Evelyn calls it a Gothic building, and we shall probably not be far wrong in placing it in the same category as other buildings of the time — English in conception, but adorned with foreign ornament, which in this case was of greater extent and better workmanship than that on any other contemporarj- house. It seems clear, however, that the work, important as it was, did not have any permanent effect upon English architecture. It was the culmination of the Italian movement prevalent throughout Henry VIII.'s reign; after his death, and before the newness of Nonesuch had worn off, the Italian influence gave way to the Dutch. Nonesuch was a large building, especially after Lord Lumley had added the second court; but it would seem that Henry VIII. actually built but one court, measuring 116 feet long by 137 feet wide.* Hampton Court had four large courts besides half-a-dozen smaller ones ; the largest or Base Court, measuring 167 feet by 142 feet, still remains; so also do the Clock Court, measuring 160 feet by 91 feet, and the Chapel Court ; the fourth, measuring 116 feet by 108 feet, has given way to Wren's buildings. Hampton Court, therefore, stood without a rival in point of * Archieologia, Vol. V,, p, 429. 36 WORK AT LACOCK ABBEY. size, but Nonesuch was more magnificently decorated, and we can but echo Eelvyn's lament that the beautiful panels were "not taken out and preserv'd in some drie place." Just about the time that Nonesuch was being built, Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire was being converted into a residence by William Sharington, who had bought it on the dissolution of the monasteries. He was lord of the manor in 1540, and he died in|i553^ so that all thework which he did must be com prised between those dates. One important part of his work is the octagonal tower at the south-east corner of the house (Fig. 29). The detail of the stonework is simple, and, ex cept for certain br'ackets, does not show much foreign influence, but in the tower are two stone tables (Figs. 30 and 31), evi dently made for their situation, which strongly display the new spirit. That one of them was expressly made for William Sharington is proved by his initials and crest being part of its ornamenta tion ; and as a skilful mason named Chapman was working on the new buildings, it is just possible that he may have carved one or both of these tables. It is the table on the middle floor which has its base ornamented with Sharington's * " Notes on Lacock Abbey," by C. H. Talbot, Wilts. Archaolog. and Nat. Hist. Mag. Vol, XXVI, * 29,— Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire, Tower at South-East Corner (between 1540 and 1553), W®RK AT LACOCK ABBEY. 37 initials and crest ; from this base rises a central pillar, against Vi'hich squat four figures of satyrs carrying baskets of fruit and foliage upon which rests the table-top. The satyrs have that curious resemblance about their heads to North American Indians which characterises a number of such figures carved during the latter half of the sixteenth century. The second 30.— Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire. Stone Table in Tower, table (on the top floor) has nothing about it directly con necting it with Sharington. It was evidently intended for a banqueting house, as it is adorned with figures of Apicius, the first authority on the pleasures of the table, Ceres, Bacchus, and an unnamed personage of the same hierarchy. Sharington's work is of considerable interest, and includes, in addition to minor matters such as a chimney-piece, chimney-stacks, and panelling, a fine range of stabling 38 WORK AT LACOCK ABBEY. (Fig. 32), of which the detail is tolerably simple, and of a character closely resembling that which prevailed twenty years later, although here and there, in a chimney or a bracket, we get a touch more in keeping with what is usually associated with Sharington's own time. In addition to the Renaissance work in the tables there is some tile paving (Plate IX.) which displays, amid the foliage, the vases and the dolphins that form the staple of Italian ornament, the 31. — Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire. Stone Table in Tower. initials of Sharington and his third wife, Grace, his arms (gu., between two flaunches arg. and az., two crosses formee, in pale), and his crest, a scorpion. As Sir William Sharington died in 1553, and it was during the life of his third wife that these tiles were made, they may fairly be dated about 1550. With the close of the first half of the century we come to the end of pronounced Italian detail such as pervades the tiles at Lacock, and characterises other isolated features in different parts of the countr}^ The nature of the detail in the second Plate IX. L.\COCK ABBEY, WILTSHIRE. TILE PAVING (About 1550). SEPARATE TILES FROM THE SAME PAVEMENT, CHANGE IN THE CHARACTER OF DETAIL. 39 half of the century is different ; it no longer comprises the dainty cherubs, the elegant balusters, vases and candelabra, the buoyant dolphins, and delicately modelled foliage which are associated with Italian and French Renaissance work, but it indulges freely in strap work, curled and inter laced, in fruit and foliage, in cartouches, and in caryatides, half human beings, half pedestals, such as were the delight of the Dutchman of the time. But the ex treme heaviness ofthe Dutch work was lightened in its passage across the water, and the English workmen seem to have im proved upon their later models as much as they fell short of their earlier. There is a fine carved and inlaid chest in St. Mary Overie, Southwark, which shows this change indetail(PlateX.), but it is treated with more restraint than the woodwork of later years. It was the gift of Hugh Ofiley, and bears his initials and marks, as well as his arms and those of his wife's family : he was Lord Mayor in 1556, and is not unhkely to have given the chest in that year. In addition to the change in the character of the detail, we -Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire. The Stables (between IJ40 and 1553), R.A. 40 CHANGE IN THE CHARACTER OF DETAIL. find a classic rendering of strings and cornices more prevalent ; doorways became frequently round-headed instead of flat- pointed, windows became square-headed, and all accessories parted with what remains of Gothic character they may have possessed in favour of a classic treatment. But the general body of a building was less susceptible of change than were its particular features, and how the general body of such buildings fi.s houses developed will be seen in the next chapter. 32A, — From the Sedilia, Wymondham Church, Norfolk, CHAPTER in. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HOUSE-PLAN FROM ABOUT 1450 TO 1635. Note. — The plans are drawn to a uniform scale of 50 feet to the inch. The principal buildings erected during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries were houses, and it is mainly in connection with domestic architecture that we must seek to trace the development of the new style. There were but few churches built after the dissolution of the monasteries, and we have no examples of sufficient importance to show how ecclesiastical architecture would have been affected. There are chapels, chantries, and fittings, such as screens, pews, pulpits, and fonts, but nothing on a large scale. We have already seen how such comparatively small and isolated features were affected. It is necessary, therefore, to look to the numerous houses that were built in order to see what progress the new ideas made. The character of a house is largely determined by its plan, and the plan is the expression of the wants and habits of the inmates. Accordingly we find that the wants and habits of English people, being far less susceptible of change than their taste in ornament and decoration, caused the plan of their houses to follow the old lines long after the superficial decora tion had taken on itself the foreign fashion. The one quality which the Italian influence gradually introduced into the plan was symmetry, and this could be obtained without sacrificing the arrangements which seemed essential to English habits. In later days an Italian feature, the open loggia, was often made use of in the form of an arcade, but even this had its English precedent in the cloisters of the monks. What were the essential points about the plan of an English house ? The most important place was the hall, which was the nucleus of the whole series of apartments. Then there was the kitchen with its adjuncts ; and there were the private apartments for the family, of which the chief was the " parlour." The arrangement which naturally established D 2 42 FIFTEENTH CENTURY PLAN. itself was that the kitchen should be located at one end of the hall and the parlour at the other. This relation of rooms had existed from a very early period, and it is in the developing of this idea with more or less elaboration and skill that house- planning consisted down to the time of Inigo Jones, when the hall gradually ceased" to be the centre of household life, and became merely an entrance. To the central group of hall, kitchen and parlour were added what other rooms were required for convenience or defence; but in regard to the latter, precautions against attack had already become less necessary in Henry VIII.'s time, and they were practically disregarded in Elizabeth's, when considerations of stateliness and display chiefly influenced the design, at any rate as far as the larger houses were concerned. Nothing will help to show how the central idea of an English house developed, while tenaciously adhering to its essence, so much as a comparison of the plans of a number of houses built during the sixteenth century and the early part of the seven teenth. But in order to bring them into relation with what preceded them, the series commences with the plans of two houses that were built in tbe fifteenth century, before there was a trace of Italian influence to be found in English work. All the plans are those of fair-sized houses, chiefly of the manor- house class, and they are from examples scattered up and down the country ; therefore whatever characteristics they possess may be taken to have been of fairly wide distribution. The first example is Great Chalfield, in Wiltshire (Fig. 33), where the work is all of good Perpendicular character. The house was built towards the end of the reign of Henry VI., at a time when precautions against attack were still necessary; it was therefore surrounded by a moat. Much of the work has disappeared, and alterations have been made in what is left, but the arrangement of the hall is still plain, although the kitchen is not recognisable. The almost invariable disposition of the hall was as follows : it was an oblong apartment with one end cut off by a screen, which formed the entrance passage called "the screens." From this passage the hall was entered on one side, while from the other side access was obtained to the kitchen, the buttery, the pantry, and the rest of the servants' department. This arrangement may still be seen in use at many of the colleges in Oxford and Cambridge. The hall THE GREAT HALL. 43 itself was usually lighted from both sides, and was a lofty apart ment with an open roof, that is, with all the timbers showing. The effect of this disposition was that the hall divided the house into two separate portions ; there was no thoroughfare above it or around it, but onh' through it. At the end oppo site to the screens was the dais, a platform raised some few inches above the general floor level, where the family sat at meals, in the same waj' as the dons sit in many colleges at the present day. The dais was usually lighted by a bay window, which formed a con venient recess for a serving table. There <.xu are still a few houses where the dais sur vives, but in mostcasesithasbeen cleared away and the floor has been lowered to the general level. M O AT -Great Chalfield, Wiltshire, (temp, Henry VI.). That it was of universal adoption is proved by its being shown on practically all contemporary plans. The fireplace was placed in one of tbe side walls, and was generally somewhat nearer to the dais end than the other. It obviously could not be placed at the ^ screen end, because the screen itself did not go up to the roof, but was covered by a gallery, usually known as the minstrels' gallery, though it may be doubted whether in many instances it 44 THE GREAT HALL. was used by the votaries of the gaie science. Nor could the fire place be conveniently set in the end wall on the dais, since it would have interfered with the table ; it was necessarily placed therefore in one of the side walls. These features, then", may be looked for in every hall of the time— the screen, the dais, the bay window, and the fireplace— a Vo 3+, — Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk, Ground Plan (1482), and in some cases a good deal of ingenuity was displayed in contriving to obtain them in their due relation to each other. From the dais end of the hall access was obtained to the family apartments, which were few in number at first, but gradually increased with the ever-growing desire for comfort and refinement. OXBURGH HALL. 45 _ At Great Chalfield the hall conforms to the disposi tions detailed abo\-e, but the bay windows serve rather as means of communication with other rooms than merely as windows. At Oxburgh Hall, in Norfolk (1482), we have another type of 35. — O.xburgh Hall, Norfolk, Entrance Tower ([4S2), defensive house (Fig. 34). It was built round a court, as well as being surrounded by a moat. The entrance was through a lofty tower into the court, on the opposite side of which was the hall of the usual type. The kitchen was to the right on entering, in the extreme south-west corner ofthe building — not exactly the aspect we should choose in the present day. So 46 ABSENCE OF STRICT SYMMETRY. man}' changes have been made in the use to which the rooms in these old houses ha\e been put, and in the way of approach ing them, that too much stress must not be laid upon the details of the plan, but the relation of the hall and kitchen at Oxburgh must have been alwa\'s the same. The rest of the building is made up of small rooms surrounding the court, not arranged on any elaborate plan, but put to whatever use was required. It will be seen that although there is a con siderable amount of uniformity in the arrangement of Oxburgh Hall, there is no strict svmmetrw The entrance tower is in crou R T,' ;~;;-.-.-::-JBl3cilTE-H0U5il;v;: -4" ^r ^1 36, — East Barsham, Norfolk, Ground Plan (cir, 1500 — 15). the centre of the front, but the windows on either side of it do not tally with each other. The entrance to the hall is not on the axial line of the tower, nor is the setting of the windows and doors in the court b)' any means regular. As we advance in time, we shall find that all these points were very carefully attended to, especially towards the end of the sixteenth century. The plan here illustrated was made in 1774, and a few years subsequently the south side of the court, containing the hall and kitchen, was pulled down. Other alterations have been made since then, but there is still much of the original work left. The great entrance tower (Fig. 35) shows still a certain' hankering after defensi\'e features ; there is a curtain arch Plate XI. COMPTON WINYATES, WARWICKSHIRE (about 1520), PAUCITY OF RENAISSANCE DETAIL. 47 thrown across between the turrets, from behind which missiles could be hurled upon unwelcome visitors, and the openings in the turrets are of the smallest. The windows generally are of few lights, the heads are pointed and cusped, the parapets are corbelled out and battlemented, and the whole work is of Late Gothic character without any trace of the new style in its decoration. At East Barsham (about 1500—15) we get indications of the new style in the treatment of parts of the ornament. The general feeling, however, is still Gothic. There is not much of the plan to be made out, but what there is shows a large entrance tower, with the porch of the hall exactly opposite to it (Fig. 36). The hall has a bay window at the dais end, and, contrary to custom, a fireplace in the end wall. The kitchen is to the right on entering, and is approached by a passage from the middle of the screens. The whole arrangement is in the main of the usual type, so far as it can be traced. The new feehng is indicated in one or two panels which bear a head, but most of the ornament is still of the Gothic type with ciispings, etc. At the neighbouring parsonage of Great Snoring, which resembles East Barsham in general treatment, some of the ornament is more decidedly Itahan, with the characteristic balusters and foliage. Compton Winyates, in Warwickshire (about 1520), is a very complete and charming example of its period. The plan con forms in its main features to the ordinary type (Fig. 37). A certain amount of regularity is imparted to it by reason of its being built round a rectangular court, but of s\'mmetry in it there is hardly a trace, and there is still less in the grouping of the structure. Everything is as irregular and picturesque as the most romantic could desire ; the mixture of materials — stone, brick, wood, and plaster — lends a delightful variety of texture, tone, and colour, and makes the house, next to Haddon, one of the most alluring in the country (Plate XL). But our concern at present is more particularly with the plan. This shows a courtyard entered through a gatewa}- which is opposite, though not exactly opposite, to the door of the screens. On the left of the screens are the buttery, the kitchen passage, and a staircase ; on the right, of course, the hall, from the upper end of which access is obtained to the family rooms, the chapel, and — what previous plans have not shown — the grand staircase. 48 SLIGHT EFFECT OF NEW STYLE. Of course, with the lofty hall cutting the building in two halves, at least two staircases were necessary to get to the upper rooms ; as a matter of fact there were usually more than two, as there are here : difficulties of planning being often removed, or at any rate lessened, by this rather costly expedient. It will be seen that the hall has a range of rooms at the back of it, and that its two side walls are not, as usual, both external. The sides of the court are formed, as they were at Oxburgh, of a number of small rooms, which originally (in all probability) 37. — Compton Winyates, Warwickshire. Ground Plan (cir, 1520), led into one another, the passage being a later addition. The ornament, in which the house abounds, is all of Late Gothic character (Plate XIL). There is no actual Renaissance detail in the external work, although much of it looks as though it were quite ready for the change. So far, although we have come to nearly the close of the first quarter of the century, we have seen but little effect from the new style. Just a suggestion in the ornament at East Barsham, and a slight tendency towards a symmetrical treat ment of the plan ; yet whatever symmetry there may have been at East Barsham was thrown to the winds at Compton Plate XII. fit A Plgi>..B. H^r ^.^L jf r,,i ¦4-s- tK^ "T~H^r,-.-irii.-r.-f'r- !'1- :i:^ ^J,. .¦;, ¦ r-'ri\ 1.1 ."- 1^ j-' CEJITPAL PoK'-H '/VEST FRQNT r 9 J ffvef CCr\PT'h VVINVATE5. • » % osn Sep. ISS3, COMPTON WINYATES, WARWICKSHIRE the entrance porch STRICTER SYMMETRY. 49 Winyates. In the next example, Sutton Place, near Guildford, only a few years later in date (1523 — 25),* we find symmetry in plan and elevation, and ornament which is strongly marked with Italian character. The entrance was as usual through a tower, and faced the hall door exactly opposite, on the axial line (Fig. 38). Such accuracy of alignment was so infrequent at this date, and it results in the hall door being placed so far 38, — Sutton Place, near Guildford. Ground Plan (1523 — 25), from the end wall where the screens ought to be, that a feeling of doubt creeps in as to whether we see here the original arrangement unaltered. The hall, too, is of such a height as to embrace two tiers of windows, another most unusual treat ment. In the ordinary way the windows would have been made lofty in proportion to the hall. If the existing dispositions have come down unaltered, they are a striking testimony to the manner in which routine of design was broken in order to Annals of an Old Manoi House, by Frederic Harrison. 50 STRICTER SYMMETRY. 39.— Sutton Place, Surrey. Details (1523—25). obtain external symmetry. Apart from this point, the plan adheres to the usual lines. The hall connects the two wings, and the sides of the court are formed by a series of small chambers approached either through each other or from the outer air. The internal walls have either been removed or altered, but the external walls remain to show that the wings enclosing the court STRICTER SYMMETRY. 51 were only one room thick, and not of sufficient width to allow of a corridor. There is, how ever, an important point to be noticed, and that is the sym metrical treatment of the court. Not only is there a little bay window half way along each side, but the bay window of the hall, which comes in the angle of the court, is balanced by another bay in the other angle, although there is no important room to be lighted by it. Such an arrange ment was often adopted in subse quent plans, but this is the first instance which we have seen of it. While the plan adheres in the main to the customary lines, the ornamen tation has taken quite a new depar ture. The windows are of Perpendi cular type, and have the old-fashioned cusping in the heads, but the hollow of the moulding is occupied with ornament drawn from Italian, or -Sutton Place, Surrey, Part Elevation of Courtyard (1523 — 25), 52 PRONOUNCED RENAISSANCE DETAIL. perhaps Franco-Italian, sources (Fig. 39). The house was built by Sir Richard Weston, and, in accordance with the custom of the preceding half century, his rebus, or an attempt at it in the shape of a tun, appears as a diaper in various places and in the horizontal string-course ; but instead of being shrouded in vine leaves or other old and well-established devices, it occurs among ornament of the new type. This is a point worth noticing, inas much as it shows that this ornament was made for the place, and was not purchased out of ready-made stock. The amorini which are introduced over the doors have not the same individu ality, nor have the half-balusters which divide them into their panels, but they were no doubt made by the same men who did the tuns and Sir Richard's initials, which also help to form a diaper in places. All this ornamental work is in terra-cotta, but there is nothing to show where the patterns were cast, whether in England or abroad. The battlemented parapet is not yet dis carded (Fig. 40), and the large octagonal shafts are crowned with a variation of the dome. Some of the panels are Gothic quatrefoils, and in the parapet of the central block over the front door the Italian amorini disport themselves (a little clumsily) in panels with Gothic cusping. The whole of the ornament is a curious and interesting mixture of the old and new forms. Another house with many of the same characteristics is Layer Marney Tower, in Essex (1500 — 25). There is not enough left of the plan to enable us to draw any deductions from it, but the character of the work is very similar to that at Sutton, only a little more pronounced in its Renaissance feeling. The lofty entrance tower recalls that at Oxburgh; its general appearance, its pointed doorway and windows with their mouldings, and also the cusped panels of its string courses are all distinctly Gothic (Fig. 41). But closely asso ciated with the Gothic panelling is the classic egg and dart enrichment. The large mullioned windows, though of Gothic descent, are Renaissance in detail, while the parapets, with their egg and dart strings, and their dolphins climbing over semi circular panels filled with radiating ornament, are thoroughly Renaissance ofthe French type (Plate XIIL). In the moulded chimneys we go back to the ordinary patterns in vogue in nearly all houses of the time, whether touched with the foreign influence or not. The decorative detail here, as at Sutton Place, is in terra-cotta. •LHYEa- nHRTiEY •TQWERS- DETAILS FROM LAYER PLATE XIII. \RNEY TOWER, ESSEX. LAYER MARNEY HALL. 53 Both these houses were built by men who had spent some time in France. Sir Richard Weston was there more than once, and was among those who were present at the Field of 41. — Layer Marney, Essex, Entrance Tower (1500 — 25), the Cloth of Gold. Sir Henry Marney, who built Layer Marney Tower, was one of those attending upon Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, when he took a great army to France ini'i522.* But whether they took advantage of these * " Architectural Notes on Layer Marney Hall, Essex," by C. Forster Hayward. Trans. Essex Archceolog. Soc. Vol, III, pt, i. 54 HENGRAVE HALL. journeys to bring back French or Italian workmen with them is not known. Unfortunately there is no documentary evidence to produce, and any opinion that may be formed can only be speculative. One thing is clear ; namely, that no school was established over here of men working in the new style. The instances of its use are too few and isolated for that. At Hengrave Hall, in Suffolk (1538), the main dispositions conform to the usual type, but without any attempt at exact #0 2-0 SO AO .^z? ^r: i ' ' ' I ENTRANCE, 42, — Hengrave Hall, Suffolk, Ground Plan (1538), symmetry (Fig. 42). The entrance leads into a court, round which a corridor is taken. This feature adds much to the comfort and convenience of the house, but it is a refinement in planning which was very seldom introduced. On the opposite side from the entrance is the hall, with the old position of the screens still preserved ; to the right of the screens lies the kitchen wing. There is the usual bay window at the dais end of the hall, and the .family apartments are on the left. Owing to alterations the minutiae of the original plan cannot now be traced ; the general disposition alone can be recognised. The A TUDOR HOUSE. 55 accompanj'ing plan is from one made in 1775, since which time the whole of the kitchen wing has been pulled down and other alterations have been made. The general disposition shown on it may be taken as being like the original, and we see that the entrance is not in the middle of the side of the court, and that in order to obtain a symmetrical fa9ade a wing was carried out to the right, whereby the entrance comes nearly in the centre, though not quite, and is balanced on either hand by projecting turrets corresponding one with the other. The house was originally moated, and beyond the moat was an outer court, surrounded by low buildings, used as offices and 43, — Hengrave Hall, Suffolk, West Front (1538), stables. It was entered through a gateway or lodge, where the keepers and falconers had their quarters. The general treat ment of the architecture still follows the old lines (Fig. 43). The windows, as a rule, have few lights, they have flat- pointed heads, and their total area is relatively small in propor tion to the plain surface of brick wall. The chimneys are of cut and moulded brickwork of the prevailing type ; the turrets are crowned with a dome-like finish, similar to that which had been used at Henry VII.'s chapel thirty years before. The parapets are battlemented, and the strings are narrow and not of classic profile. In the entrance gateway we find the new note struck (Plate XIV.). The archway is Perpendicular in character, but above it is a triple bay window, supported on corbelling, full of R.A. E 56 A HALF-TIMBER HOUSE. Renaissance detail, while amorini in Roman armour carry long scrolls in their hands, and serve as supporters to a shield of arms (Fig. 44). The whole ofthe corbelling terminates at the bottom in a foliated pendant. This inextricable mixture of the old-fashioned Perpendicular detail with the new-fashioned Renaissance ornament is quite characteristic of the period, and shows that the masons, while clinging to the style with which they had been familiar since their youth, were endeavouring to make closer acquaintance with the foreign forms so much in demand. The names of the masons who did this work are on record : they were John Eastawe and John Sparke, evidently Englishmen.* Of the houses so far mentioned, Oxburgh Hall, East Barsham, Sutton Place, Layer Marney, and Hengrave are all built of brick. On the other side of the country, and in a house constructed of entirely different materials, we get — at Moreton Old Hall in Cheshire (1559) — the same kind of plan with which we have now become familiar (Fig. 45). This house is of timber and plaster, as many of the old houses in that district are. It is surrounded by a moat, and has — at any rate on the ground floor — but few windows looking out over the country ; they face into the court where possible. The relative positions of the hall, the kitchen, and the private apartments are here more clearly discernible than in some of the preceding plans, inasmuch as the family rooms have under gone but little serious alteration. The proximity of the two large bays of the hall and parlour is curious, and was the factor which caused the hall bay to be placed so far away from the dais end. The observations of contemporary writers are of much value when considering subjects of historical interest. It is therefore worth while to reproduce the advice of a certain Andrew Boorde, 44, — Hengrave Hall, Suffolk, Corbelling of Bay Window over Entrance Archway, Hist, and Antiq. of Hengrave, by John Gage, Pl/.te 7J,Y. HENGRAVE HALL, SUFFOLK (1538). entr-ance gateway. A SIXTEENTH CENTURY ADVISER. 57 Doctor of Physicke, in regard to the arrangements of a house, which he offers in the fourth chapter of his Compendyous Regyment, or a Dyetary of Helth, published in 1542. In this chapter he proceeds to " shewe under what maner and fasshon a man shulde buylde his bowse or mansyon in exchewyng thynges the whiche shulde shorten the lyfe of man." He dwells upon the necessity of a good soil and good prospect, which latter advice was frequently neglected, a great number of houses in those times being built in a hole. The air, he sa3s, must be pure, frisky, and clean, the foundations on gra\'el mixed with clay, or else on rock or on a hill. The chief prospects are to be east and west, espe cially north-east, south-east, and south-west ; never south, forthe south wind "doth cor- rupte and doth make evyll vapoures." He holds it better that the windows should open plain north than plain south, in spite, he says, of Jeremiah's saying that " from the north dependeth all evil." He then enters upon parti culars of the plan, and it will be observed how exactly his suggestions, so far as they go, agree with the plans we are examining. " Make the hall," he says, " under such a fashion that the parlour be annexed to the head of the hall, and the buttery and pantr\' be at the lower end of the hall ; the cellar under the pantry, set somewhat abase from the buttery and pantry, coming with an entry by the wall of the buttery ; the pastry-house and the larder-house annexed to the kitchen. Then divide the lodgings by the circuit ofthe quad- rivial court, and let the gatehouse be opposite or against the hall door (not directly), but the hall door standing abase, and the gatehouse in the middle of the front entering into the place. Let the privy chamber be annexed to the great chamber of E 2 Moreton Old Hall, Cheshire, Ground Plan (1559). 58 A SIXTEENTH CENTURY ADVISER. estate, with other chambers necessary for the building, so that many of the chambers may have a prospect into the chapel." The necessity for these particular arrangements, so far as health is concerned, does not seem quite obvious, especially the direc tions not to have the hall door exactly opposite to the entrance gateway ; and it may be supposed that this particular passage in his treatise was suggested by what he had frequently seen rather than by what science led him to prescribe. When he goes on to dwell upon the necessity for removing " fylth," he was probably taking a more original attitude, as also when he recommended the stables, slaughter-house, and dairy to be kept a quarter of a mile away from the house. The bakehouse and brewhouse should also be isolated, he thinks ; but in all these respects his advice was not universally followed, for the whole of these particular places are to be found attached to the house on one or other of contemporary house plans. His next advice is applicable to Moreton Old Hall. " When all the mansion is edified and built, if there be a moat made about it, there should be some fresh spring come to it, and divers times the moat ought to be scoured and kept clean from mud and weeds. And in no wise let not the filth of the kitchen descend into the moat." Most of Dr. Andrew Boorde's advice is practical and to the point, and he is not so much in bondage to ancient authorities as many of his contemporaries were, in spite of his reference to Jeremiah. The rest of his chapter refers to the gardens and other surroundings of the house, which need not now be dealt with. The prevailing treatment of the ornament at Moreton is still Gothic (Plates XV., XVI.), in spite of its date being beyond the middle of the century. Nevertheless the influence of the new style is seen here and there, especially in thecarved pendants of the overhanging work. The fine bay windows were made, as an inscription tells us, by Richard Dale, carpenter, in i559, a further testimony to the fact that it was English workmen who did most of the work of the time, even when it shows signs of foreign ornament. Although the bulk of the house was built in 1559, considerable alterations were made nearly half a century later, in 1602 ; and to this date may be assigned the long gallery, with its continuous row of mullioned windows reaching from end to end almost without a break. The effect is very quaint, but the room must always have been uncomfortable, whether Plate XV. f i ^ -r ? ^ 'f «;y MORETON OLD HALL, CHESHIRE. ELEVATION OF ENTRANCE GABLE. Plate XVI. J 3 f S 6 f S MORETON OLD HALL, CHESHIRE, ELEVATION OF GABLE ON FRONT. THE ELIZABETHAN PLAN. 59 in summer by reason of the heat, or in winter by reason of the cold ; and as a comment upon the effect of time on the stabilit}- of these timber houses, nothing can be more striking than an attempt to walk quickl}- down the sevent\' feet of billowy floor which the gallery presents. With our next plan we enter upon the Elizabethan era, an era marked by an extraordinary amount of house-building, which led to a great degree of attention being bestowed upon the planning. This attention, it is true, does not seem to have been directed so much towards comfort or economy as towards mag nificence and display. No doubt comfort of a kind was aimed at, but people did not then require comfort as we understand it, and designers were not likely to be much in advance of their clients. The sacrifices of common sense to architectural effect were nevertheless few. The relative positions of the principal apartments were settled b}' considerations of convenience, not of external grouping. The kitchens, for instance, were always fairly in touch with the hall, not, as in later days, when Palladian architecture was in vogue, located some hundreds of feet away in a detached wing, connected by a curved colonnade, and balanced on the other extremity by the stables or the remainder of the servants' rooms, in a similar wing. Nor were the servants' bedrooms hidden away in the roof with windows looking out on to the back of a solid pediment, or even looking inwards and only lighted by borrowed light. It was the architects of a more strict Italian school who were reduced to such expedients in the early part of the eighteenth century ; but in the late sixteenth the prevalent style was sufficiently elastic to enable the dictates of common sense to be obeyed. No doubt bay windows were placed in useless situations in order to balance others that were useful. Lofty windows were sometimes divided by floors half-way up their height in order that the uniformity of the front should not be interrupted ; but the rooms themselves were cheerful enough and had good prospects. The features which the Elizabethan designer had to marshal were smaller and more manageable than those which fell to the lot of his successor in the days of Anne and the Georges ; and this was particularly the case with his windows. In a mullioned window an additional row of lights in the width, or even the height, can be managed without attracting undue attention, but the sash window has to conform to the size and situation of its brethren. 6o INCREASE OF SYMMETRY. Economy of planning, in the sense of avoiding waste spaces, or saving the footsteps of the inmates, was not much studied. The only evidence we have of its consideration lies in the occa sional lopping off of extravagant features, or the substitution of a reduced set of plans for one of more extensive area. The real aim of the designers seems to have been magnificence and display — sometimes on a large scale, sometimes on a small. The principal means used for this end was symmetry — not so much a symmetry of detail as a symmetry of parts, of large features rather than of small. We shall find this quality in almost every kind of plan, and an extremely valuable quality it is if not carried to excess. The symmetry of the Elizabethans was generally under control. It was sometimes wasteful and its results were occasionally amusing, but they were never ridiculous or fatal to the comfort of the house. Up to the present the plans we have examined have not — with the exception of Sutton Place — shown any determined attempt at a symmetrical treatment, only a certain hankering after it. With Kirby Hall (1570 — 75) we get a more resolute effort in this direction (Fig. 46). The entrance gateway and the screens are on an axial line running through the house and its green court. The inner court is quite sym metrically treated, door answering to door, and window to window ; but the exterior facades were left to take care of themselves, and no attempt was made to balance one mass by another. The symmetry of plan was carried out in the elevations too, at least so far as the courtyard is concerned. The south side, in which the projecting porch stands, is quite symmetrical, the great windows of the hall on the right being exactly balanced by similar windows on the left (Plate XVII.). The hall reaches from floor to roof, but the left wing had two storeys, and the floor of the upper one occupied one row of the glazed lights This expedient cannot be justified on the principle of causing the exterior treatment to indicate the internal arrangement; but it can hardly be denied that the general effect would be marred were the left-hand windows divided into two tiers. The door below the windows to the left is a later insertion. A curious fact about this front is that the two outside gables, \\'hich contain much delicate detail, are partly blocked by the roofs of the side wings, which abut against them ; yet it is quite Plate XVII. KIRBY HALL, NORTHANTS. ELEVATION OF SOUTH SIDE OF COURTYARD (157O — 75). KIRBY HALL. 6i certain, from the character of the detail, and from the badges 46. — Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire. Ground Plan (1570 — 75). which are used as ornaments in the wings, that the whole court was built at the same time, ends and sides, and it is equally 62 THORPE'S PLAN OF KIRBY. certain that the whole building operations were comprised within the five years 1570 to 1575. Although no attempt seems to have been actually made to carry symmetry of treatment into the external fa9ades, yet an examination of the plan made by John Thorpe, the surveyor, at the time that Kirby was built, shows that such a treatment was contemplated on each of the four faces (Plate XVIII.). There are other points of interest which Thorpe's plan elucidates. Having entered through the principal doorway, in the north or upper side of the plan, and having traversed the length of the court, we find a projecting porch through which the screens are reached. The arrangement is the typical one which we have seen in all the plans yet examined, and which tallies almost exactly with Dr. Andrew Boorde's advice, already quoted (see page 57), with the exception that he was opposed to the hall porch being exactly opposite the entrance gateway. On the right (as the plan lies) are the buttery and pantry, and the passage leading to the kitchen department ; on the left is the hall. The details of the kitchen department are shown more clearly than in any of the foregoing houses, which have all undergone alterations. They comprise the kitchen, with its large fireplace ; " the pastry," where the ovens are ; the dry larder under it ; the surveying place ; and the wet larder. Close to these, and approached by the kitchen passage, is the winter parlour, a room which occurs on. many plans of the time in close proximity to the kitchen. This endeavour to get a living room conveniently situated for winter use is one of the refinements which were now creeping in. Returning to the screens, and passing into the hall, we find the dais marked on the plan, the fireplace in the side wall, but no bay window: there is one indicated, but it was not carried out. From the dais the family apartments are reached, together with a great staircase. Next to the head of the hall, as Dr. Andrew Boorde has it, is the parlour (pier) ; the other rooms are not named. The division ofthe lodgings by the' circuit of the quadrivial court " is shown on Thorpe's plan, but most of the cross walls are now gone. It will be seen that these lodgings consist of a number of groups of two or three rooms (which were called "lodgings"), each group being entered from the court by a door, and each room communicating with its neighbour, so that the complete circuit of the building could be made through Plate XVIII. s ¦ ^ ' I } &^ 1. If\ lj 1 ; 1 — 1 '"'"' KIRBY HALL. JOHN THORPE'S GROUND PLAN. From the Soane Museum Collection. DETAILS OF THE PLAN OF KIRBY. 63 them. The object of this grouping was to give a small suite of rooms to every guest, in which he could establish himself with his principal attendants ; in the case of a large retinue it could overflow into the next group. It was necessary to traverse the open court to reach the places of general resort, such as the hah, the "great chamber of estate," and the gallery ; but it is evident that this was not felt to be a drawback, since the practice was widespread. The ne.xt point to notice is that here we have the first instance of the open terrace, or arcade, or loggia. It occupies the north side of the court, thus being open to the full midday sun. The long gallery, which was one of the principal features of an Elizabethan house, and frequently affected the planning, inasmuch as endeavours were made to obtain a gallery of the greatest possible length, was over the western or left-hand side of the court : it was 150 feet long by 16 feet wide. The upper floor was to be reached, according to Thorpe's plan, by four large internal staircases, and two external ones on the west front. As a matter of fact, indications actually remain of five principal staircases, besides a subordinate one, and they are more conveniently placed than those shown on the old plan. The great extent of the rooms, and their being placed round a court, necessitated several means of access, and it must not be forgotten that the upper part of the hall interposed an impassable barrier between the two sides of the house on the upper fioor. The time was soon to come when the height of the hall was to be restricted to that of other rooms on the same floor, but at Kirby the traditional lofty hall was still retained. The detail at Kirby is thoroughly Elizabethan, but there are a few windows, dated 1638, 1640, which were inserted by Inigo Jones, and he remodelled the north wing. His work, however, is easily distinguished from that of earlier date. The house was built by a Sir Humphrey Stafford, the head of a family seated at Blatherwyck in the immediate vicinit}'. It was begun in 1570, and it bears on the parapet of the courtyard the dates 1572, 1575 ; in the latter year Sir Humphrey died, having practically completed his house, which was then sold by his heir to Sir Christopher Hatton. Not only are the parapets dated, but amid the ornament ofthe various bands which make the circuit of the courtyard, and in the gable over the porch, occur the Stafford cognizances. Their presence indicates the 64 ANOTHER TYPE OF PLAN. extent of the work of Stafford, and proves that practically the whole place was built between the years 1570—75, though the Hattons probably made some trifling alterations during the last ten years of the century, and subsequently employed Inigo Jones to partly modernise the house fifty years later. The detail is unusually free and fresh, and has more variety than Elizabethan masons generally bestowed upon their work. The gable over the porch in the courtyard has no counterpart in England ; the coping of the parapet round the whole court has an unusual but effective wave ornament (Plate XIX.). There are, of course, the usual classic columns applied with a liberal hand, and all the horizontal string-courses have classic profiles. The carving of the friezes is interesting, inasmuch as it is somewhat out of the common in detail, and its component parts were evidentl}- carved in large numbers, and used as occasion required, for in many places where the length of a carved stone was too great for its intended position it was ruthlessly shortened to fit, and the carving was mutilated. So far all the plans have shown a courtyard round which the house was built, first adopted, no doubt, from reasons of defence, and afterwards retained because it had become customary. We now come to another type of very frequent occurrence, in which two narrow parallel wings are connected by a narrow body, thus forming a figure like the letter H. It is in effect a curtail ment of the older plan by leaving out the " lodgings " which enclosed the court ; but there is no change in the old idea of placing the hall in a central situation and flanking it at one end by the family apartments and at the other by the kitchen and servants' rooms. At Montacute, in Somerset (1580), the original relation of hall and kitchen is preserved, but the inter mediate rooms have been allotted to modern uses (Fig. 47). It should be observed that the passage at the back of the hall was formed by inserting between the wings the porch and part of the walls from an earlier house at Clifton Maubank in the j-ear 1760. This passage, which is a great convenience to the house, must therefore not be looked upon as part ofthe original plan. The detail of the part thus inserted is of Late Tudor character. The profiles of the mouldings are Gothic, the carving inclines towards Italian, the parapets have cusped panels, the pinnacles have the spiral twist so dear to the Tudor mason, and a battlemented moulding beneath the heraldic puno^ a^ ^ -Irt- h- -I »*?f9^^ *ii--vJ w ^ M 48. — Montacute House, Somerset, West Front, with Court and Garden-houses (1580), of the building, is the gallery ; it is lighted at each end and down so much of the side as is not blocked by the wings of the house, which of course it cuts off from the staircases and the other rooms. The treatment of the elevations is as symmetrical as that ofthe plan (Fig. 48). The area of window space is in excess of that of wall space, the strings are of some depth and of classic profile, and the whole appearance contrasts strongly with that of Hengrave. Along the topmost floor in the spaces between the windows are eight statues, which, with a ninth in the central gable, are said to represent those Nine Worthies whom Holofernes and his companions tried to represent in a more dramatic manner before the Princess of France and her lively attendants. It has already been observed that the plan of Montacute is Plate XX, MONTACUTE HOUSE, SOMERSET PART OF ENTRANCE FRONT SEEN FROM WING, KITCHENS IN BASEMENT. 67 shaped roughly like the letter H. This type of plan is very frequent, and is the same in its essence as the E plan, of which many writers have made more than is needful. The n plan is in fact the same as the H with the side strokes curtailed. To make a just comparison, either the centre stroke of the m should be omitted or it should be added to the cross of the H, inasmuch as it represents the projecting porch, which was present equally in each arrangement. The fact that the m plan resembles the first letter of Elizabeth is probably a coincidence merely, and not a compliment to the queen. At the same time it would have been quite in accordance with the spirit of the time to have taken such away of expressing loyalty, only in that case we should have expected to find fewer plans of the H variety, and more of the other ; but as a matter of fact there are few, if any, houses with a perfectly straight front such as the back of the m demands. At Barlborough, in Derby shire (1583), we get again a different type. The house is built round a court, but an extremely small one, now filled with a modern staircase (Fig. 49). All the windows look out into tbe open country. along the ground, the house provides its accommodation by extending itself vertically, and the kitchen and servants' rooms are placed in the basement. This was an idea intro duced, it is said, from Italy, but it is one which, though some times met with, did not commend itself to Elizabethan builders when space was plentiful. The hall is on the principal floor, and is approached from outside up a long flight of steps. The screens led to the staircase which penetrated to the kitchen in the basement. The hall had its bay window at the dais end, from which the great chamber was approached. We have still, therefore, the old idea of the hall as a living room, and 49. — B.\RLBOROUGH HaLL, DERBYSHIRE. Plan of Principal Floor (15S3). Instead of extending itself 68 BARLBOROUGH HALL. part of a series of rooms communicating with each other ; not yet as an entrance from which the living rooms are approached. The detail at Barlborough is of a simple kind ; the house was not of a large size and did not require much elaboration (Fig. 50). The actual classic treatment is confined to the front door, which is flanked with columns. The parapet is 50, —Barlborough Hall, Derbyshire, Entrance Front (1583), battlemented, the strings are narrow, and the windows are not overwhelming in size. The roof is flat, and there are none of the gables which are so marked a feature of the time. Pic- turesqueness of outline, however, which was always sought for, is here obtained by carrying up the bay windows as turrets, a treatment which lends much distinction to an otherwise simple exterior. U U U U U U It C C C C C CC It It It It It It u 'I 'I 'I 'I 'I 'I 'S 3 3 3 3 3 33 C C C C C CC t; t; t; t; t; t; t; '< '< '< '< '< '< '< c c c c c c c I- I- I- I- I- I- 1- i- i- i- i- i- i- h ¦/.¦/.¦/.¦/.¦/.¦/.¦/ c c c c c c : 11 11 III [i [i [i [i [i [i [1 C C C C C CL r r r r r r7 ¦)¦)¦)¦)¦) 11 DODDINGTON HALL. 69 Twelve years later than Barlborough we get at Doddington, in Lincolnshire (1595), a plan which reverts to the type of Montacute (Fig. 51). It has the usual characteristics of the simplest kind — wings one room thick; the entrance at the end of the hall, leading on the left to the buttery, pantry, and kitchens ; the parlour at the head of the hall, and the principal staircase adjacent. Here, however, as at Montacute, the hall is only one storey in height ; it has a room above it — the great chamber: and on the top floor the gallery extends over the whole central part from wing to wing. There is an entrance court in front of the house enclosed by a waU. It is approached through one of the quaint gate-houses 51. — Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire, Ground Plan (1595), of the time, which were a reminiscence of a more turbulent state of society, when it was necessary for all who went to the house to do so under the eye of the porter, but which in the calmer times of Elizabeth were occupied by some of the numerous functionaries who ministered to the pleasures of the rich. The detail at Doddington is of the plainest, the only attempt at richness being round the front door. The windows are of reasonable size, the strings are narrow, and are all of the same quasi-classic profile. The parapet is perfectly plain, and the roof is without gables, the sky-line being broken, as at Barlborough, with turrets, formed by carrying up the porch and the two projections in the internal angles of the front (Plate XXI.). The house is an example of a plain and business like type, which may be accounted for by the fact that it was 70 INCREASE OF ACCOMMODATION. built for a business man, one Thomas Tailor, registrar to the Bishop of Lincoln. With the opening of the new century we get at Burton Agnes, in Yorkshire (1602 — 10), a repetition of the same leading idea which we have been following for a hundred and fifty years (Fig. 52). We have the screens at the end of the hall, the kitchens on the left, and the bay window, the family rooms and grand staircase at the head of the hall. The family apartments have increased in number. The tendency was towards having separate apartments for various uses, and on plans of the time we not infrequently find a "dining parlour " specially named. The intro duction of this refinem ent marks the dwindlingim- portance of the hall. The latter is ceas ing to be the centre of family life, and becoming merely an en trance. The dais end is no longer the comfortable place it was, with its bay window and the fireplace close by : it is becoming pierced with doors, and draughty. The family find it more comfortable to have a separate room for their meals, and the servants' quarters are becoming more self-contained. The old usages of the hall are being discontinued. This change is quite apparent in the last plan of the series, that of Aston Hall, in Warwickshire (1618 — 35). The haU is still central, the kitchen is in one wing, the family rooms in the other, supplemented by a row at the back of the hall (Fig. 53). But the hall itself is now merely an entrance — it has ceased to be a living-room ; it is entered from the middle of the side, no longer at the end, where indeed the fireplace now 52, — Burton Agnes, Yorkshire, Ground Plan (1602 — 10), DECAY OF THE HALL, 71 finds itself: there is no dais and no bay window. This is a revolution which it has taken more than a century to produce. FORE COURT D 100 FT. JLODG 53, — Aston Hall, near Birmingham, Ground Plan (i6iS — 35), counting from the first appearance of the Italian influence. The change no doubt was effected from the inside more than the out : from the gradual alteration of habits, rather than from the wish to Italianize our English plans. R.A. But the two 72 DECAY OF THE HALL. tendencies co-operated with each other and combined to lead English designers further and further away from the old traditions. Although the hall shows a departure from the old lines of planning, the general arrangement adheres to them. The symmetrical wings, the muUioned windows, the turrets (Fig. 54), the fore-court with its lodges at the corners, and the open arcade on the south front, are all in keeping with Elizabethan and Jacobean methods, and offer a striking contrast to the work at Rainham Hall, in Norfolk, which was built by Inigo Jones in 1630, five years before Aston was finished. The disappear ance of the hall 54, — Aston Hall, Warwickshire, North Wing, ^S a llVlUg-rOOm, and its adoption as a vestibule, mark a great change in our domestic archi tecture. The tie with the mediaeval past is loosened, and with the almost contemporaneous departure of the mullioned window it is severed altogether ; there is nothing now to prevent English designers from assimilating their buildings ever more and more to the models which they sought direct in Italy, without being diverted from their purpose by what they passed in intermediate countries. CHAPTER IV. EXTERIOR FEATURES. LAY-OUT OF HOUSES, LODGES AND GATEWAYS, DOORWAYS AND PORCHES. There was a very remarkable amount of building done in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. Plenty of money was available, much of it acquired from the lands of the dissolved monasteries ; the country was at peace, and the strong rule of Elizabeth gradually produced a state of prosperity hitherto unknown. Defensive precautions, save such as seemed necessary against vagrants, were abandoned in all kinds of houses. The outer courts, the inner courts, and the gate-houses, which formerly were built for the sake of security, were now retained chiefly for the sake of appearance, and because they added to the privacy of the house. The porter at the gate exercised a certain amount of control over those who wished to enter, and on occasion he closed his gates against the populace, although sometimes without complete success, as we learn from a scene in Shakespeare's play of " Henry VIII.," where the people, in their anxiety to see something of the christening of the infant Princess Elizabeth, managed to crowd in, in spite of " as much as one sound cudgel of four foot could distribute " at the hands of the porter's man. Everyone who could afford it seems to have built in the time of Elizabeth and James. The great nobles erected vast palaces like Theobalds and Holdenby, hke Audley End, and Knole and Buckhurst. Men of smaller wealth built mansions hke Kirby and Montacute, Wollaton and Blickling. Squires built their manor houses in the villages, merchants their homes in the towns, not infrequently, indeed, leaving the city for some neighbouring parish, and there ending their days as lords of the manor. When the condition of an existing house did not warrant its actual removal, additions in the new style were made; something had to be done to keep in the fashion. F 2 74 THE GENERAL LAY-OUT. Throughout the length and breadth of the land the same activity was displayed. From Yorkshire and Westmoreland in the north, to Cornwall and Kent in the south ; from Shropshire in the west to Suffolk in the east, we find work of this period scattered up and down the country in mansion, manor house, cottage and church. A good deal of building was done in Henry VIII.'s time, but vastly more in Elizabeth's. The examples left to us of the former period are few compared with those of the latter ; but in both cases it must be remembered that the old gave way to the new. The builders of Elizabeth's days removed the work of their grandfathers to make room for their own, only to have this in its turn replaced in the times of Anne and the Georges. Many as are the houses of the sixteenth century which remain, we know that many others, of equal interest and beauty, have been pulled down. Lay-Out. It is not always easy in the present day to grasp the system upon which the larger houses of Elizabeth's time were laid out. Modern methods of locomotion, and modern ideas of con venience, have in many cases caused the approach to the houses to be altered. It is the same with regard to most of our ancient cities. The railway now brings us to a spot which has no relation to the old landmarks of the place, and instead of approaching our destination through the ancient arteries, which were the growth of many years, we slip in through by ways and slums, or along a new street made expressly for the purpose. The approach to one of the larger Elizabethan houses was an affair of time. Roads were then of a very primitive description, and depended for their condition upon the nature of the soil. " There is good land where there is foul way," was a saying of the time ; and conversely, where there was a hard road there was likely to be stonj? land. From the main road a similar rough track led, perhaps through an avenue ot newly planted trees, in a straight line towards the house. There was no gate-keeper's lodge at the end of a finely gravelled road winding through a park. The lodge was part of the out buildings ofthe house, and until you arrived there the road was generally left to take care of itself. After passing through the lodge, there were often two courts to traverse before the hall THE GENERAL LAY-OUT. 75 The lodge was on the great axial line of the was reached. house, so that as you stood waiting, if all the doors happened to be open, you could see right through the courts and the screens and get a glimpse of the garden beyond. The accom- pan3dng plan of the lay-out of Holdenby (Fig. 55), from a sur- \ey made in I587> gives a good idea of the surroundings of the larger Eliza bethan houses. The road be tween two vil lages ran along the north side of the park, and from this road branched an other one which led up to the house. While it traversed the park it was allowed to wind according to the undulations of the ground, but when it came to within a quarter of a mile of the lodge it was made perfectly straight, and so ran through the midst of " the green" — "a large, long, straight, fair wa\-," as Lord Burghley called it. It led directly to the porter's lodge, which was a building separate from the house, and self-contained, and it Holdenby House, Northamptonshire. Plan of Lay-Out. From a Survey made in 1587, A .\ The Park. G 0. Mounts. B. Base-court. M. Site of Old House C. First Court of House. iv. Church. ]) D Gardens. L L. Ponds. a.. Rosery. M. Stables. F F. Terraces. «. Porter's Lodge. 76 THE GENERAL LAY-OUT. passed the long range of stabling on the right. The porter's lodge opened into the first court, the "base-court," as it was called, walled round, and entered on its two sides by large gateways. At the further end of the base-court stood the house, raised a few steps above the general level, where Lord Burghley " found a great magnificence in the front or front pieces of the house, and so every part answerable to other, to allure liking." The house was built round two great courts, the first 128 feet by 104 feet, the second 140 feet by no feet, comparable in point of size to those at Hampton Court, and a good deal more intricate in detail. To the north of the house itself were two walled gardens, of nearly an acre each, and beyond these were spinneys, or small woods, and the little village with its inn. The ground oji the south side of the house sloped pretty steeply away, and was laid out in a series of terraces. At the top of these, and flanking the whole length of the base-court, the house, and the orchard beyond, ran a broad straight path. In the midst of the terraces a great platform was run out at the level of this long path, containing a rosery laid out with paths in a simple geo metrical pattern. At the extreme end of the long path was a cross-path leading each way to a prospect mount, up at least one of which wound' a spiral path, ending (in all probability) in a banqueting house, such as Lord Bacon describes in his essay " Of Gardens," and such as the Parliamentary Commissioners describe as being at Nonesuch in the year 1650. At the foot of the terraces lay fishponds amid orchard-trees, and, in a. small enclosure of its own, the church. Close to the church was the site of the old manor house, the home of Sir Christopher Hatton's fathers, but which he found far too insignificant a dwelling for the Lord Chancellor. Such were the surroundings of one of the most splendid palaces of Elizabeth's splendid courtiers, and an examination of the contemporary sur\-ey shows upon what a large scale the house and its appurtenances were laid out. The house covered nearly two acres; the base-court more than one acre; the green more than seventeen. In comparison with the house the village is a mere collection of outhouses, not so extensive as the range of stabling. The garden has not acquired all the architectural adjuncts in the way of stone terraces, and garden- houses, lead vases, statuary and jets d'eau, which became fashionable a hundred years later ; but it has a fine simplicity THE APPROACH TO THEOBALDS. 77 G a!r bE N about it and a largeness of scale which are in keeping with the house it belongs to. Theobalds, in Hertfordshire, was the model upon which Sir Christopher Hatton professed to have founded his own more magnificent house at Holdenby, and there is an interesting account, written by John Savile, of King James's visit to Theobalds on his first coming to London in 1603.* It is an early example of descriptive reporting which would do credit to one of our great daily papers. Theobalds was the house of Sir Robert Cecil, afterwards Lord Salis bury, and had been built and embellished by his father, the great Lord Treasurer. The writer particularly mentions the approach to the house, which stood back from the highway, unhke the " manie sumptuous buildings " in the neighbourhood, most of which belonged "to the cittie marchants." It was reached by a most stately walk raised above the general level, and beset about either side with young elm and ash trees extending from the common street way to the first court belonging to the house. In s*^" order to obtain full parti culars of the proceedings, Savile stationed one of his party CHURCH-YARD. -Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire, Block Plan, at the upper end of the walk, of the first court, while a third door, and he also arranged with to stand in the court that led particulars of the ceremonies invisible to the others. After the king had at length entered the house, the crowd of sightseers * Nichols' Progresses of King James I., Vol. I. 135. another at the upper end stood at the second court a gentleman of good sort " into the hall, and furnish 78 THE LODGE. surged even into the uppermost court, apparently without pre test from the porter, and to their view the monarch graciously displayed himself at his windows for the space of half an hour, previous to going into the " laberinth-like garden to walke." Lodges and Gateways. Sometimes the lodge formed part of the buildings enclosing the first court, in which case one or two rooms or " lodgings" of the wing on either side ofthe gateway would be devoted to the porter, in the same way as the entrance to most of the col leges at Oxford and Cambridge is still arranged. But very fre quently it was separated from the house by a court enclosed by a wall, as it was at Holden by, and again at the much smaller house at Dod dington (Fig. 56). This wall was sometimes high and solid, and sometimes coped "leaning height," as John Thorpe has it on one of his plans, or sometimes pierced with ornamental patterns. The lodge itself was generally large enough to accommodate 57, — Stokesay Castle, Shropshire, The Gatehouse. Jr. LATE ii_?i.ii, STANWAY, GLOUCESTKKSIIIRK (about 1630). THE GATE-HOUSE. XX <,-1 w W a 0 2 0 H Q s 0 1^ 0 ^ ¦ H ! (fl J M THE GATEWAY. 79 58,— Cold Ashton Hall, Gloucestershire. Entrance Gateway, the porter and his family, having two rooms downstairs and perhaps three above, but occasionally there were even three floors, as at Stanway in Gloucester shire (Plate XXII.), while at Hamstall Ridware, in Staffordshire, the lodge was merely a gateway between two fla,nking turrets only seven feet across inside. At Stoke say Castle, in Shropshire, is a charming lodge or gate-house of timber and plaster, added in Eliza beth's time to the ancient castle (Fig. 57) ; and at Westwood in Worcester shire the lodge is formed of two separate brick buildings connected by an open timber roof and some pierced stonework, displaying the mullet or five- pointed star of the owner (PlateXXIIL). The smaller houses had merely a gateway of more or less pre tensions, such as may be seen at Cold Ashton, near Bath (Fig. 58), a charming little entrance on the roadside; leading straight up by a paved walk to the front door of the house ; or at Winwick, in Northamptonshire (Fig. 59), the stately -Winwick, Northamptonshire. Gateway to Manor House. 8o THE GATEWAY. 9IMlllPPRV -Gateway to Al,\ishouses, Oundle, Northamptonshire, remnant of a house now much curtailed in size. This example is treated in a more important manner than usual, the masonry flanking the arch way on either side being of considerable width, and elabo rately ornamented with sunk patterns and carving. The well-proportioned columns are disengaged from the wall behind them, and the whole treatment of the lower part as far as the top of the cornice calls to mind some of the Roman arches to be met with in Italy. The pediments above the cornice are hardly equal to the structure upon vvhich they stand, but they give that variety and piquancy of outline which was considered indispensable in work of the time; moreover, the cir cular gable over the archway affords room for a panel contain ing the owner's arms, although, by an irony of fate which would have annoyed him deeply, the bearings are now indistinguishable. This gateway vies in import- 6i, — Holdenby, Northamptonshire, Gateways to at Holdenby Base-court (1585), THE GATEWAY, (Fig. 6i), but the house at Warwick could never have been more than a good-sized manor house. At Cold Ashton the gateway is more in scale with the house, and although the central feature above the cornice is mutilated, the arras still remain. The effect of this roadside gateway is heightened by the circular steps and the mounting-block. At Oundle, in Northamptonshire, there is an example of a small gateway in the front wall of some almshouses (Fig. 60) which, in spite of its insignificant size, imparts considerable interest and even dignity to the group of which it is the centralfeature. In large houses the entrance courts not infrequently had archways in their side walls to afford access to the gardens or the orchard. The base-court at Holdenby has already been men tioned as having a gate way in each of its sides, apart altogether from the gate-house or porter's lodge. These two gateways still re main (Fig. 61), although most of the house and its adjuncts have dis appeared, leaving them stranded in a position that is hardly intelligible without the aid of a plan showing the original arrangement. They bear the date 1585, and a shield of arms containing fourteen quarterings of the owner, Sir Christopher Hatton. In general treatment they resemble the similar gate ways in the forecourt at Kirby, which also belonged to Sir Christopher, and they are more remarkable for their size and stateliness than for the beauty of their detail : but it should not be forgotten that the walls which supported them on either side, and which connected them with the great house, are gone, and that, denuded of their original surroundings, they appear much more heavy and cumbrous than when they 62.— Kenyon Peel, Lancashire, Gateway at Side oe Court {1631). ¦82 THE G.\TE\\-.\Y, were a small part of a large scheme. ]\Iuch smaller than the base-court at Holdenby was the forecourt at Kenyon Peel, in Lancashire, a half-timber house with a symmetrical m front, and approached through a two-storey stone gate-house, joined to V^TT^ j||f[flpif[!pi[f;p;f;[pifr[|ai[[[|Dlif[[|p w tg^ ^ w- '^ vwy "wt 63. — Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire, Entrance Doorway (1595), the house itself by stone walls. The gate-house is rather gaunt, like many of the stone buildings in that district, but in the little gateways in the side of the court (Fig. 62) an effort has been made to produce something less severe. The mixture of the stonework and the black-and-white work ofthe house is effective, and the small court, with its formal paved walks leading from the gate-house to the porch, and from one side doorway to the THE PORCH. 85 other, is full of interest ; especially as the house lies amid the chimneys of a busy part of Lancashire, and is surrounded by the abomination of desolation which accompanies the spread of populous places. The initials G. R. occur in the topmost step^ ofthe coping, and the date 1631 on the lintel ofthe doorway. Entrance Doorw.ws and Porches. The lodge or the gatewa}-, as the case might be, was generally adorned in some conspicuous place with the arms of the family, the squires of the time being as proud of their various cogni zances as Justice Shallow was ofhis twelve luces. Five out of the eight examples already illustrated are so adorned. The same shield that appears on the gateway is also fre quently to be seen over the door of the house itself, which is reached after crossing the court. The door way generally formed part of a somewhat elabo rate piece of orna ment, for, however simple (and sometimes even monotonous) the general treatment of the house was, the front door was made handsome. At Doddington, in Lincolnshire, while the bulk of the house is of plain brickwork, including the parapet, the doorway is treated with a considerable amount of elaboration (Fig. 63). The door stood more often than not in a projecting porch,. 64.— Porch at, Chelvey Court, Somerset (cir, 1640), 84 THE PORCH. which, although sometimes only one storey in height, as at Chelvey Court, in Somerset (Fig. 64), was usually higher, and was frequently carried up the full height of the building. It is round these doors that we find pronounced classic features employed in the shape of pillars and pilasters, friezes and cornices, and pediments. But it was seldom that the English mason did not introduce into his design some departure from strict classic treatment, suggested by his native traditions. At Chelvey the door way has a flat-pointed head resting on an impost, such as usually accompanies a semicircular arch: there is also a key stone which protrudes from the straight lintel instead of crowning the arch, which in the ordinary way would be there. The twisted columns support pilasters of a different scale, which in their turn, however, are relieved of any thing to carry. The broken pediment en closes a shield of arms, which rests in the usual fashion upon a base carried by the keystone. Over all is a pierced parapet divided into square panels by shallow pilasters. The spirit of the whole com position is Jacobean, but the treatment betokens a late date, with its twisted columns and broken pediment ; and the arms confirm the conjecture prompted by the character of the work, though the exact date is not recorded. It is evident, however, that even in Somerset, the home of good masons, the lesson of making appropriate use of classic features had not yet been mastered. The treatment of the doorway at the neighbouring Doorway at Nailsea Court, Somerset, Doorway at Chipchase Castle, Northumberland. Plate XXIV. Porch to the Manor House. Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire. THE PORCH. bouse of Nailsea Court (Fig. 65) is more logical and pleasing. There is a quaint mixture of pointed arch and classic cornice and corbelled bay-window ; and the manner in which the central projection in the cornice is made the starting-point of the corbelling to the bay is a happy illustration of the freedom with which the new features were handled. At Chipchase Castle, in Northumberland (Plate XXIV.), a square porch is combined with a canted bay above it. The door way follows the more usual pattern; it has the circular arch resting on imposts, a project ing keystone carried up to break the lines of the cornice, and is flanked on either side by a circular column, which endeavours to justify its presence by carrying an obelisk. The obelisks serve the useful purpose of breaking the severe line ofthe splay which joins the octagonal bay to the square porch below it, and they, together with the shield of arms and the carving on the columns and the voussoirs of the arch, impart considerable richness to the whole composition. At Gayhurst, in Buckinghamshire, the columns, which are primarily introduced for the sake of ornament, are made to do actual duty by supporting a slight projection of the storey above them (Fig. 66) ; and there are two tiers of them, a fact which helps to increase the importance of the entrance. In this, as in similar cases, the cornices are continued along the sides of the projecting porch, and are stopped against the face of the main building. At Upper Slaughter, in Gloucestershire (Plate XXIV.), the porch has more of the appearance of being an excrescence, the only connecting member being the string 66. — Doorway at Gayhurst, Buckinghamshire, 86 THE PORCH. over the upper windows of the house, which is returned' along the , sides of the porch. The cornices of the porch are in this instance only just returned round its outer angles, and not car ried back to the main building. The pilasters are merely ornamental adjuncts : there is no pre tence about them of doing any work ; the head of the upper window breaks un ceremoniously into the frieze of the cornice, the keystone of the arch is carried up so that the lines of the lower cornice 67,-DooRWAv AT Cold Ashton, Somerset, ^g^^ break rOUud it, and the whole treatment shows that the designer was free from any morbid craving after correctness. In the door- wayatHatfield, intheside ofthe court (PlateXXV.), the work is handled in a more formal manner. There is the semicircular arch, with its impost, and the two flanking pilasters carried up in order to break the cornice, while a central projection follows up from the keystone. There is no crowning pediment, but in its place is a strapwork pattern terminating at the top with a point which finds itself in the centre of one of the triglyphs in the 63,-Doorway at Cheney Court, Somerset, entablature which makes the circuit of the whole house at the Wardour Castle, Wiltshire, The Grand Staircase, Plate XXV. Hatfield House, Hertfordshirf. Doorway IN Court (i6ii). THE PORCH. 87 first floor le\-el. The archway at the foot of the grand staircase at Wardour Castle (Plate XXV.) is treated with still greater propriety; the designer has allowed himself to take no liberties with his copy, but the severity is relieved by the informal manner in which the steps wind away to the left. This is an accident arising frora the fact that the staircase is ofan older date; .it is covered with Gothic vaulting, and at its upper end the original pointed arch has been made semicircular,and the stone round it has been recessed so as to surround it v\ith a square moulded frame in the manner prevalent at the beginning of the seventeenth centurv-. At Cold Ashton we have a simple pedimented doorway in a shallow projec tion between the two wings of the house (Fig. 67), and at Cheney Court there is another simple form of doorway ; it has no pilasters, but a curved pediment, supported on corbels, forms a hood (Fig. 68) — a mode of treatment adopted towards the close of the Jacobean period, and handled here with a pleasant freedom, a panel being con trived in the middle of the frieze to contain the family arms. At Woollas Hall (Fig. 69) there is a boldly projecting porch, R.A. G —Woollas Hall, Worcestershire, Entrance Front (i6ii). Part oe THE PORCH. thrusting itself out beyond the main face of the house, and giving from its oriel on the top floor a wide view over the surrounding countr}'. The ruins at Gorhambury, near St. Albans, a house built 70, — Porch at Gorhambury, Hertfordshire (1568). by Sir Nicholas Bacon, the father of Lord Bacon, present another treatment, which can still be made out in spite of the modern brick buttresses, and the brick arch which has been inserted below the original one of stone (Fig. 70). There is a projecting porch of two storeys, with all its three external faces carefully treated, the front being made rather more elaborate by the introduction of niches with statues. The employment of statues and busts as decorative features was a favourite device of the time. They were almost invariably of classic origin, and attired in classic garb, the most modern personages usually admitted to this distinction being those three of the Nine Worthies who were of Christian extraction. In the spandijls of the arch are circular medallions with busts, and in the parapet are the royal arms. There was also over gorhambury. 89 the arch (we are told) a grey marble panel with four Latin verses, stating that the house was finished in the tenth year of Elizabeth's reign by Nicholas Bacon, whom she made a knight, and Keeper of her Seal. Below these verses was the aphorism " Mediocria firma," that is, " Firm is the middle state." 71, — Hambleton Hall, Rutland. Statues, busts, and inscriptions are all characteristic of the taste of the period, and will be more particularly dealt with later on in connection with the design of chimney-pieces. The house which was thus finished in the tenth year of Elizabeth, that is in 1568, was begun (according to an account in the possession of a local antiquary) on the ist day of March, 1563, thus taking five years to build. It was not of vast extent, but it comprised two courts, one for the house, the other for the kitchens. The porch illustrated was approached in a direct line across the larger of these courts, and led into the screens in the usual way ; the windows visible to the left of the porch lighted the great hall at the dais end. There is very little left of the old walls, but the extent of the hall can be made out, as well as the position of a clock tower ; and at some little distance there remains another niche with a headless statue G 2 go GORHAMBURY. in it, no doubt that of Henry VIIL, which we are told was put up on the occasion of the Queen's second visit to Gorham bury. Her first visit was paid in 1572, four j-ears after the completion of the he use, on which occasion the Queen told the Lord Keeper that he had made his house too little for him, whereupon he replied, " Not so, madam, but your Majesty has made me too big for my house." He was, however, resolved not to be open to such a reproach again, and on receiving an intimation that the Queen would visit him a second time (in 1577) he is said to have built a gallery of lath and plaster 120 feet long by 18 feet wide, beneath which were cloisters, and in the middle of their length the statue G A R D E^ of King Henry in gilt armour. This enlarg ing ofthe house for the express purpose of re ceiving the Queen vvas only one of numerous instances, which will be referred to, in a subsequent chapter, as also will the proportion of the long galleries so distinctive of the period. The gallery was panelled with oak gilt, and on the panelling were Latin inscriptions, so aptly selected that it was considered worth while to collect them in a small volume, illuminated with much beauty. In the orchard was a banqueting-house, which in its turn was adorned with busts and inscriptions. These all related to specific subjects — grammar, arithmetic, logic, music, rhetoric, geometry, and astrology ; and each subject was not only depicted on the walls, but was further illustrated by appropriate verses and the pictures of such learned men as had excelled in it.* Although most of them were selected from the ancients, yet Sir Nicholas Bacon was 72. — Chastleton, Oxfordshire. Ground Plan (cir. 1603). 1. Hall. 4. Nursery. 2. Little Parlour, 5. Chamber over Kitchen, 3, Great Parlour. 6, Pantry, 7. Parlour. Nichols' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, Vol. II. UN-CENTRAL ENTRANCES, 91 sufficiently catholic in his taste to admit such modern names as Lilly, the grammarian, and Copernicus, the "astrologer," the latter of whom had only been dead some thirty years. Another kind of entrance is afforded by the arcaded porch, of which a simple example is to be seen at Hambleton, in Rutland (Fig. 71), and a more elaborate one at Cranborne, in Dorset (Plate XXVI.), where it was added, along with other "modern" features, to an old manor house dating from the thirteenth century, in order to bring the house into the prevailing fashion. So far all the en trances which have been mentioned were in the main face of the building, the front doors being in the centre of the facade. As the front door almost always led 73, — Doorway at Lyddington, Rutland, into the screens at the end of the hall, it followed as a matter of course that the hall itself occupied only a little more than half the length ofthe facade. In some instances, however, the hall was made to occupy the centre of it, and in such cases the porch could no longer be central, but was moved to one side, and made to balance a corresponding projection which served as the bay window of the hall : the doorway was then placed, not in the front face but the side face of the porch, as may be seen at Chastleton, in Oxfordshire (Fig. 72), and Burton Agnes, in Yorkshire (Fig. 52). The main approach was therefore still on the axial line, but on mounting the final steps, instead of going straight forward into the porch, you turned either to the right or left (in the 'two instances illustrated it 93 MINOR DOORWAYS. was to the left) and so through the porch to the screens. At Chastleton the old arrangement remains perfect ; the screen is there, and also the dais with the bay window at the end of it. At Fountains Hall, in Yorkshire, the same idea is carried out, but as the ground slopes very steeply, the principal floor is some feet above the ground at the entrance. The doorway is central, and immediately on entering, a straight flight of steps leads off to the right up to the main floor, which it gains just in time for a turn to the left to lead into the screens. In situations re quiring less orna mental treatment, a very pleasing type of doorway came mto use, and lin gered on in remote places far into the days of regular classic architecture. Such doors abound in the stone villages of Somerset and thence northwards through the Cots- wolds and Oxfordshire, up to Northamptonshire and Rutland. They are usually flat-pointed, and the jambs have two moulded orders, the inner one going round the flat-pointed head, while the outer one forms a square frame round it, as in the example from Lyddington (Fig. 73). There is not much of the classic manner about such a door, especially when, as in this instance, the label is returned down the ends of the head. But the section of the jamb-mould is an adaptation of the contours found in classic work, and the label not infrequently was treated in the manner of a cornice, instead of being returned, as it is in this example and that from Broadway in Fig. 74. There is a small doorway of this kind at Aylesford Hall, in Kent ^--H ^ ' ' 1 y 4.— Doorway at Broadway, Worcestershire. MINOR DOORWAYS. 93 (Fig. 75), which shows a curious mixture, for the head has a fairly high-pointed Gothic arch, while the label is of classic profile, and is ornamented with dentils : the spandrils are filled with shields of late design, one of which bears the date 1590, thus showing how long the old traditional forms lingered in places. The masons of the time made use of a type of door which was chiefl\' of Gothic descent, but they varied its features at will. The head was either high-pointed, flat-pointed, or elliptical, as their fancy dictated ; and the label was either moulded after the fashion of their youth, or in accordance with the newer forms which they saw in use around them. It is in such unimportant matters as these, where no one was parti cularly concerned about the result, that we see how the workmen availed themselves indifferently of the old forms or the new. 75. —Doorway at Aylesford Hall, Kent (1590), CHAPTER V. EXTERIOR FEATURES {continued). GENERAL ASPECT, EXTERNAL APPEARANCE, WINDOWS, &C. Before proceeding to enter one of these doorways and to examine the interior treatment of an Elizabethan house, it will be well to look at the exterior more closely. We find that the effect, although often elaborate and striking, is produced by very simple means. The picturesque appearance of Haddon and Compton Winyates is chiefly due to the irregularity of the plan, which in the case of the former was largely the result of a gradual growth, extending over some centuries. The stately effect of the Elizabethan house is the result of regularity and . symmetry in the plan, and its picturesqueness springs from its windows, gables and chimneys. The English designer avoided, as a rule, very large plain surfaces and long unbroken fa9ades, differing in the latter respect from his Italian contemporaries. He diversified his long fronts by throwing out bay-windows ; he broke up the skyline with gables ; he grouped his chimneys so as to add emphasis to the design ; and there were always the mullioned windows, of which the relatively small divisions gave scale and life to the whole. There are many houses which have no further attempt at ornament than these features, and these are felt to be quite sufficient ; but occasionally, when a great effort was demanded, the Elizabethan designer borrowed his ornament from abroad, and added a multiplicity of pilasters and niches to his walls, extravagant and fantastic curves to his gables, while, in order to avail himself of classic forms to the full, he turned his chimneys into the semblance of columns. His zeal was not always accompanied by knowledge ; he some times misapplied his borrowed features ; he too frequently regarded a pilaster as in itself an agreeable ornament, without troubling to bring it into scale with the building or with his other pilasters used elsewhere, and without providing for it ENGLISH CHARACTER OF WORK. 95 even a semblance of anything to support. The more ignorant masons evolved designs which bore but a distant resemblance to the originals which inspired them. All this is true, and it is so manifest that one cannot be surprised at the opprobrious epithets bestowed upon work of this period by purists of other 76. — Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire, South Side of Court (1570-75), schools. Still, in spite of errors and ignorance in the applica tion of ornament, there is an exuberant vitality about the buildings of the time which accords with the vitality of its literature. Moreover, their character is essentially English : an Elizabethan house could no more have been designed by Palladio or Du Cerceau or Vriese than a play like those which Shakespeare gave us could have been written by one of the novelists, essayists, or dramatists of Italy, France and Germany, from whom the Englishman, however, did not hesitate to borrow some of his material. External Appear.vnce. The courtyard of Kirby Hall is one of the finest examples that is left of the period (Fig. 76), and although pilasters of different scale are employed as ornamental features rather THE LARGER HOUSES. than as constructional, the whole effect is both dignified and picturesque. The mullioned windows have a lively simplicity, the large pilasters prevent monotony, and the small detail about the central porch contrasts happily with the plainer 77- — Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire. \\'i;st Front {157*1-75, parts P0SSIBL^¦ 1595). yS. — Longleat, Wiltshire (1567), treatment of the main walls. The external fagade on the west, though not symmetrical, is kept in subjection ; the strong horizontal lines of the strings and cornices bind it together, and the great chimney stacks are so ordered at regular intervals that they alone would give dignity and rhythm to the front (Fig. yy). The work on this front is not all of one time, though the various parts cannot be separated by many years, and it is quite possible that the curved gables were added by a somewhat later hand. Sir Christopher Hatton's successor THE LARGER HOUSES. 97 may have modified this fagade towards the end of the century, when he built the stables, which have now disappeared. Kirby is freer in its treatment than Longleat, in Wiltshire, which has to submit to a more severe symmetry (Fig. 78). The windows here are rather overpowering, but the whole effect is restful, owing to the strong horizontal lines, while the pro jecting bays entirely relieve it from monotony. There are no gables, and ap parently never were, which is a somewhat unusual cir cumstance,considering the date of its erec- tion, 1567. Wollaton, near Nottingham (Plate XXVI I.) bears some re semblance to Longleat in its detail, but it is far more fan tastic in its treatment, and its plan places it in a category almost by itself It cannot be called a typical house either in its arrangement or its design, although from its striking appear ance and exceUent state of preservation it is frequently quoted as such. Its plan shows a central hall, surrounded by a range of rooms, with a projecting pavilion or tower at each of the four corners (Fig. 79). The general effect is undoubtedly impressive, but the ornament is overloaded, and shows a too careful study of extravagant Dutch models. The work, how ever, and the design are those of well-instructed masons, familiar with the features they were handling. Wollaton is -Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire, Floor (15S0-8S). Plan of Principal 1, Hall. ¦2.. Saloon, 3. Library, 4. Dining-room, Armoury. 6. Bedrooms. Boudoir,Study. Small Drawing-room, 98 THE LARGER HOUSES. another instance of combining a central hall with a central doorway. The present flight of steps inside the front door, together with the doors in the long sides ofthe hall immediately opposite, is comparatively modern. The original approach, after entering the front door, was up a flight of steps to the right, at the top of which, by turning to the left (as at Fountains Hall), the screens were gained, and the hall was entered in the usual wa)'. At Burghley House we revert to a simpler treatment. The main walls are of plain masonry pierced with windows, and divided by the usual horizontal cornices (Plate XXVIII.). -Charlton House, Wiltshire (1607). Diversity is obtained by projecting turrets, lofty bay windows, and the boldly-curved entrance porch on the north front. There are no gables, the skyline being broken by the turrets, the chimneys, and the ornamental parapet. It is, perhaps, an exaggeration to say there are no gables, but there are none in the later part built between 1575 and 1587. The great hall has gables, but that was built some years earlier. At Charlton, in Wiltshire (Fig. 80), there is an example of the open arcade, which became rather fashionable, but which later generations have, in many houses, found unsuitable to our climate, and of which the arches have in consequence been filled up. The gables here are ornamented with a kind of filigree, which is more curious than beautiful. At Aston Hall, >X o w" c/}DO Will o« m THE LARGER HOUSES. 99 near Birmingham, the south front presents another instance of an open arcade (Fig. 8i), and a good deal of picturesqueness is imparted by the broken outline of the gables. Corsham Court, in Wiltshire, shows a more restrained treatment (Fig. 82). The animated effect is obtained by a number of plain gables, and bv' square projecting windows crowned v\ith flat pediments, the whole bound together with conspicuous horizontal strings. At Kentwell Hall, in Suffolk, the digni fied effect is produced by the combination of two turrets 81. — Aston Hall, Warwickshire, South Front (1618-35), with the front gables, by projecting windows carried up the whole height of the building, and by massive chimney-stacks (Fig. 83). The approach is still on the axial line, although the present low wall is but a poor substitute for the usual enclosure ; but in many of the examples cited the general effect is decidedlj' impoverished by the disappearance of the outer courts. Coming now to somewhat smaller houses, we find the same simple materials relied upon, and producing equally good effects. In the ruins of the old Hall at Exton, in Rutland (Plate XXIX.), the front fa9ade shows curved gables separated by a length of THE SMALLER HOUSES. 82. — Corsham Court, Wiltshire (1582). pierced parapet, and the side has thjree straight gables close together, with a huge stack of chimneys placed irregularly against them. The Manor House at Glinton, in Northampton shire (Plate XXIX.), is even simpler ; nevertheless, its curved gables, carefully wrought chimneys, and projecting porch give it a considerable amount of character. ' It is not on record when either of these houses was built, but Exton Hall was 83.— Kentwell Hall,, Suefolk, probably the work of John, Lord Harrington of Exton, the tutor of the Princess Elizabeth, only daughter of James I. There is nothing left inside the house, which was burnt down in 1810, but enough of the exterior remains to show that, like most manor houses in the district, it must have been a fine place in its palmy days. In the church at Exton are a number Plate XXIX, ' Exton Old Hall, Rutland, The Manor House, Glinton, Northampto. bHiKE THE SALALLER HOUSES, loi of exceptionally good monuments of the sixteenth and seven teenth centuries, commemorating the Harringtons and their descendants (see Fig. 6). The manor of Glinton was granted to the Dean and Chapter of Peterborough at the dissolution of the monasteries, and so remained till long after the house was built, which may therefore have been used as a country residence for the Dean. At Cheney Court, near Bath (Fig. 84), another house without a history, the treatment is quite simple, con sisting of nothing more than three evenly placed gables along the side, and two others, in combination with large chimney- 84,— Cn Coui^i, S^y Stacks, along the end. The reason for the sudden jumping up of the strings in the right-hand gable of the side is not apparent ; but as a matter of fact, at the present time that part of the house is occupied by one tenant, while the remainder is let to another. This type of manor house, with its extremely quiet 'handhng of gables, chimneys, and muhioned windows, is common all over the country, and so far as its exterior is concerned, it owes httle besides its symmetrical disposition to the Italian spirit. An extra touch is given to the doorway here (Fig. 68), and the internal fittings show the foreign influence, but other wise it is entirely a native production. The same may be said THE SMALLER HOUSES. of Cold Ashton (Fig. 85), another house in the neighbourhood of Bath, but here the sym metrical treat ment is more marked, as will be seen by look ing at the plan (Fig. 86), and the chimneys are gathered into two groups which serve the whole house. This is an in teresting ex- 85. — Manor House, Cold Ashton, Gloucestershire, i r .1 ^ ample of the smaller kind of manor house, and it has been subjected to very few alterations. Its history is not recorded, but ; g a h d e n it was evidently built by one of the numerous squires of the time, who put his arms over the gateway on the road side (see Fig. 58). Judging by the two doorways remain ing in the screen on the left of the central passage, one of which now leads into' a pantry, the hall has been shortened by the space re- cjuired for the pantry, but except for this alteration the plan seems to indicate the arrangement, in- that of the front garden, with its gateway and circular steps, its paved walk, and the flight of steps leading to the terrace in front of the house. The external detail throughout is of the simplest, but there is a good original eluding ROAD -Manor House, Cold Ashton, Gloucester shire, Ground Plan, THE SMALLER HOUSES. 103 ceiling in one of the parlours, and some of the woodwork is of unusual elaboration. The character of the work points to the early part of the seventeenth century as the date of erection. In these simpler examples the windows do not occupy nearly so large a proportion of the wall space as they do in the more ambitious houses. An interesting adaptation of the symmetrical arrangement of the forecourt and lodges is to be seen at Bolsover Castle (Figs. 87, 88), where the square house has been built on 87, — Bolsover Castle, Derbyshire (1613). the site of the ancient keep, which no doubt largely con trolled its size. There are no gables, all the roofs being flat ; that over the house itself is approached by a staircase in a domed turret, and was intended as a place of resort. The usual picturesqueness of outline is obtained by various turrets and chimneys. In the illustration the two chambers in the sides of the courtyard are hidden behind those which form the entrance to it. It is not easy to say to what use these chambers were to be put. They are all furnished with fireplaces, most of which are carefully wrought, as though for the delight of the owner rather than of his retainers. The house itself is full of R.A. K 104 ELIZABETHAN VAULTING. interest ; all the rooms on the basement and principal floor are vaulted, and the vaulting ribs and corbels are managed with such care as was seldom bestowed upon those features even in the days of stone vaulting. This method of construction was rapidly going out of fashion, most of the houses of the sixteenth century having floors of joists and boards, the underside being ceiled in the early part of the century with wood, and in the latter with plaster. But at Bolsover, as late as 1613, we have stone vaulting beautifully wrought. There is a large amount of good panelling also left, and the chimney-pieces are unrivalled in any house of the time for their beauty and variety. Some of these will be illustrated when that subject comes to be dealt with. This part of Bolsover Castle, although so carefully built and embellished, is but a small portion of the whole scheme. There was an immense gallery in close proximity, which, however, has fallen to ruin. It is in a style somewhat later than its smaller neighbour, with gigantic doorways and unwieldy mouldings, and forms a link between Jacobean work and the more fully developed classic treatment of the close of the seventeenth century. At Condover, in Shropshire (Fig. 89), an agreeable variety of treatment is introduced on the garden front by contriving to get a range of low rooms over the open arcade, the heads of the windows being at the same level as those of the principal rooms. The central gable on the same face is occupied by a bay window, which starts from corbels over the centre arch of the arcade and is carried up to the topmost storey. Variations like these serve to relieve the monotony which is sometimes to be found in the symmetrical houses of the period. 88. — Bolsover Castle, Derbyshire, Ground Plan (1613), ., Porch. 3, Pillar-room, 2. Hall. 4. Main Staircase. 5. Small Staircase. DETAIL VARIES WITH LOCALITY. 105 The amount of detail bestowed upon these houses varied according to their locality and the materials at hand. In York shire, Lancashire, and Derbyshire, where the stone is hard, great simplicity is the rule. The entrance doorway usually received some attention, and the gables often had finials, but otherwise the work was of the plainest description. The roofs were generally of flatter pitch than in less boisterous districts, and the whole house gives the impression of rough sturdiness quite in keeping with the charac ter of the owners. Compared with the work in N o r thampton- shire, as exempli fied at Kirby, Rushton, or Ape thorpe ; in Hamp shire at Brams hill ; in Sussex at Cowdray ; or in Somerset at Montacute, the work in the north is severe and wanting in detail. But it has its own charm, just as the rocky "edges" of Derby shire, and its wild, boulder-strewntors, with their memories of prehistoric tribes perched upon their bleak summits, have a grim fascination not less powerful than that which hangs over the forest districts further south, where ancient oaks, so old as to retain little beyond their huge trunks, call to mind the curious and cruel laws which once protected the animals that lived beneath their shade. Haddon Hall is a large house, and was the home of one of the first families of the county, but its stonework is comparatively plain. Hoghton Tower, in Lancashire, is another large house, H 2 -Condover Hall, Shropshire, The Garden Front (1598), io6 YORKSHIRE HOUSES. but the detail is even simpler than at Haddon. Clegg Hall, near Rochdale (Fig. 90), is a good example of a Lancashire house of medium size, except that, compared with others to be found on the wolds and in the dales of that part ofthe country, it is unusually lofty. Mount Grace Priory, in York shire (Plate XXX.), is of a more usual type, but even here there is rather greater, liveliness than generally distinguishes the Yorkshire manor house ; the windows are larger, and the dormers are of steeper pitch than is common. Oakwell Hall, East Ardsley and Swinsty Old Halls are good examples go, — Clegg Hall, Lancashire, of their kind, with flat-pitched roofs, plain gables, and windows of many small lights. The courtyard at Ingelby Manor (Fig. 91) has an open arcade with some amount of detail about it, but the effect is grim and chilly, and serves to illustrate the mistake of transferring a child of the Italian sun to the bleak regions of Yorkshire. In some parts of Lancashire, in Cheshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire, and generally in the west, timber was much employed. The " black-and-white," or " magpie," or " post-and-pan " work, as it is variously called, has much charm about it, and appeals keenly to lovers of the picturesque. The contrast between the dark framework Plate XXX. MOUNT GRACE PRIORY, YORKSHIRE. BLACK-AND-WHITE HOUSES. 107 and the light-coloured plaster, together with the variety of line consequent upon the constructional necessities of the framework itself, insure a lively result ; and when the straight lines of the greater part of the framing are relieved b\' the introduction of curved braces or more fanciful panels in the gables, the com bination is very attractive. The effect is often enhanced by dainty little bits of detail in the wood finials and pendants and verge-boards, but even without these aids the texture of the .wood becomes so beautiful through age and weather as hardly 91. — Courtyard, Ingelby Manor, Yorkshire, to require the help of a chisel. One example, Moreton Old Hall, has already been mentioned (Plates XV., XVI.) ; Speke Hall, in Lancashire, near the banks of the Irwell, is another (Plate XXXI. ), and it has at the entrance a certain amount of stonework which adds considerably to the interest of the house. There is a fine example at Bramall Hall, near Stockport ; a plainer one at Pitchford Hall, in Shropshire ; \vhile, among others, may be mentioned the Market-house at Ledbury and the Grange at Leominster, both in Herefordshire. Some examples, although not so many, are to be found in the southern counties ; but all through Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire the usual io8 LOCAL CHARACTERISTICS. treatment of cottages and small houses was to hang them with weather-tiling. The ground floor was generally of brick, the upper one was tile-hung : there was nearly always a good chimney, sometimes rising out of the roof, but often carried on a massive base which was continued down to the ground. The rich colours which come to these bricks and tiles with age tend to spoil those who live in their midst, and to make them look with a somewhat dull eye upon the quieter tones prevalent in stone districts. Examples of half-timber or " magpie " work, however, are not wanting amid the tile and brick, and one of the most elaborate is to be seen at Mayfield, in Sussex (Fig. 92,), but it is far behind similar work in Cheshire and Lancashire in richness of detail. In the eastern counties, as in the southern, brick is the chief material, but here, too, plaster played an important part in clothing the con struction. In the west all the detail was put into the wood; in the east it was put into the plaster, and there are many examples still left of elaborate modelling in plaster to be found upon houses and cottages in Essex and Suffolk. Cut fiint was also largely employed for walls, and was used in combination with stone to produce highly-ornamental designs ; but its employment seems to have largely died out with the Gothic forms in which it was so suc cessfully manipulated. The brickwork, which in the early part of the century was very rich and elaborate, became much plainer towards its close, and indeed the terra-cotta and the 92, — House at Mayfield, Sussex, WINDOWS. 109 wonderful chimney-shafts of Henry VIII.'s time are hardly to be found in the work of succeeding reigns. It is not in brick work that we must look for Elizabethan detail, but rather in the easily-worked stone which underlies the central district of England from Devon and Somerset in a north-easterly direction to Rutland and Lincoln. Windows. It has already been said that an Elizabethan house depends for its picturesqueness chiefly upon its windows, gables, and M rj3 ^^H w^^,tjS ^^^p^BH ^l^^^l BHHHjy^ ^^ ^^^^B^^l^l ^^HBB^BsjS^ttflfll T^^i^^ni ¦ ^^ 1 {k||H EMe MJ^H ^^^M ^^^^H IW ' "issa ^M IIP ^H 1 ^^^n ¦ IHHHl -^^^ " '^i* fi^^^^ 93, — Cowdray House, Sussex, Part of Court, chimneys. The mullioned and transomed window is indeed one of the characteristic features of the Elizabethan style, the openings being all rectangular. Already during the prevalence of Gothic forms the vertical spaces formed by the mullions of the windows had been divided horizontally by transoms, but this treatment was rather the exception than the rule. In Tudor times the windows were usually small, sometimes consisting only of one light, but often of two or even three, and occasionally being two tiers in height. The lights almost always had flat-pointed heads. The small size resulted from the old wish to have a TUDOR WINDOWS. defensible house, but as the need for such precaution lessened, the lights increased in number; the desire for well-lighted rooms led to still further extension and to doing away with the pointed heads in favour of straight ones. The gradual changes in the form of windows is well seen in the courtyard at Cowdray (Fig. 93). The window on the extreme right of the illus tration, with its pointed arch and traceried lights, is Gothic; next to it comes a Tudor bay win dow, made up of a number of flat-pointedlights, which there was no need to restrict in this case, be cause the window looked into the court. To the left are two bays of Elizabeth's time, with rect angular lights three rows in height and many in width. At Barrington Court (Plate XXXII.) may be seen a more usual ex ample of Tudor windows, as well as the twisted flnials of which the early sixteenth century was so fond. Another kind of treatment is occasionally to be found, in which brackets are introduced in the upper lights, springing from the mullions and supporting the horizontal head. One version of this method is to be seen at Layer Marney in the windows over the archway (Plate XIIL), and another at Lacock Abbey (Plate XXXVI.). In the latter window should also be noticed the circle introduced at the crossing of the centre mullion and transom, which resembles the treatment adopted -Hoghton Tower, Lancashire, Bay of Hall, Plate XXXII. ^^p^ BARRINGTON COURT, SOMERSET, (tudor.; B.\Y WINDOWS. in the screen at King's College Chapel (Plate VIIL). The date of Layer Marney may be put at 1520, Lacock Abbey at about 1540, and the screen at 1535. The greatest develop ment of windows was, however, to be found in the bay. The bay window is one of the most important features in the architecture of the time. English designers had always been fond of bay windows : they put them to the dais of their halls in quite early times, and there are many examples of small bays being corbelled out on an upper floor, where the exigen cies of the ground plan did not per mit of their start- ing from the ground. But as a rule these early bays were only one storey in height : as time went on, however, they grew to two storeys, and then to as many as the main building it self had. From being an adjunct they became a dominating fea ture, and most of the large houses of 95. — Burton Agnes, Yorkshire (1602 — 10), the time derive variety of outline and rhythm of composition from their bay windows. Hoghton Tower, in Lancashire (Fig. 94), has a fine bay at the end of the hall. It is o.nly one storey high, but that storey is the full height of the building in that part. The sill is brought down lower than those of the other windows in order to enable the occupants of the dais to look out into the court. At Astley Hall, also in Lancashire (Plate XXXIII.), the two bays are the dominating feature of the front; indeed, the whole architectural interest of this side ofthe BAY WINDOWS. house lies in the management of the windows, for the doorway, flanked by double columns which lend their united strength to supporting a peaceable lion, is hardly worth attention. The long range of windows which reaches continuously from one end of the building to the other forms a striking feature, but must be a matter of much concern to the housewife who has to drape them on the inside, and to consider the claims of her carpet on sunny days. At Burton Agnes the grouping of a cir cular bay in the gable with an octagonal one just round the corner (Fig. 95) is very effec tive pictorially, and makes an interesting plan. The circular bays at Lilford, in N orthamptonshire, set within the curved gables, produce a pleasing combination (Plate XXXIV.) ; but of all circular bays the palm must be assigned to the great twin bays at Kirby (Plate XXXIII.). It was not only in important houses that these strik ing features were intro duced ; they are to be found in all kinds of dwellings, and frequently impart interest to small and insignificant cottages, whether of stone, as at Bourton-on-the-Water (Fig. 96), or of wood and stucco, as at Steventon, in Berkshire (Fig. 97). In both these examples much of the pleasant effect is derived from the small size of the windows and the proportionately large space of plain wall between them ; but the same effect can hardly be obtained in the present day, because the rooms have to be higher, and toleration is seldom accorded, either by private taste or 96, — House at Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire. Plate XXXIII, Astley Hall, Lancashire. Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire. The Bay Windows. Plate XXXIV, LILFORD HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE (1635) cukvec gables. WINDOW MOULDINGS. "3 public regulations, to windows which start a long way from the floor and end a long way from the ceiling. There was no great variety in the mouldings of the stone work. Several sec tions of jambs and mullions are shown on Fig. 98, of which No. I was most fre quently used in Eliza bethan and Jacobean work. The jambs and principal mullions had an outer member, slightly splayed. which formed a frame within which the sub sidiary mullions and the transoms were enclosed, as may be seen by referring to Figs. 71, 96, and 103. Sometimes this outer member was moulded instead of splayed, as shown in No. 2 (Fig. 98), and occasionally an extra member was intro duced close to the glazing line, as showm in No. 3. These three examples are all varieties of the same type. No. 4 shows a type with a hollow moulding, which was prevalent in Tudor work, as it had been previously in Gothic ; and it remained in use, along with the plain splayed mullion, up to the time of the sash-window. Although it preceded the type No. i, and might therefore be considered to indicate an earlier 97, — Cottage at Steventon, Berkshire, 114 WINDOW MOULDINGS. date, it is not by any means a safe guide, inasmuch as both forms were in use at the same time. No. i, however, was not used before the middle of the sixteenth century, and may be taken as a fairly safe indication of a date subsequent to that time. No. 5 shows a sunk splay, and was occasionally 98, — Section of Window Jambs and Mullions, used, but it is not frequently met with. The label shown on No. 4 was used in late Gothic work, and survived in some instances as long as the mullioned windows themselves ; but in the more ambitious designs its place was taken by the lower member of a cornice founded on classic models. No. 6 is an example of a quite different type. In all the others, the windows were of the ordinary mullioned type, with a label (or cornice) over them. In No. 6 not only does the shape of the mullion follow a new idea, but the whole of the mouldings outside of it are carried round the head and jambs of the window to form a regular architrave : the effect can be seen in the windows at Wollaton, in Fig. 106. As this architrave projected beyond the face of the wall, the window-sill was brought forward to receive it, as shown on Fig. 99. The projecting sill is supported at each end by a quaint corbel, and the space between the corbels is filled by a projecting panel fashioned like a piece of fancifully-shaped leather nailed on to the wall, and having some of its cut ends curled up. 99, — Window-sill at Wollaton Hall, WINDOV^ MOULDINGS. 115 This treatment of windows involved a considerable amount of labour and expense, and accordingly was not often adopted ; but the use of the architrave became general during the seventeenth century, after the mullioned window had given way to sashes. 99A. — head of a window at HATFIELD HOUSE. CHAPTER VI. EXTERIOR FEATURES {continued). GABLES, PARAPETS, FINIALS, CHIMNEYS, RAIN-WATER HEADS, GARDENS. Gables. The gable is one of the characteristic features of the period. As a rule it was of steep pitch — indeed, in many thatched barns and cottages the apex is very acute (Fig. lOo). In such cases the cottages generally had attic-rooms in the roof, which were lighted by dormer windows, over which the thatch was worked in such a way that they appeared to be a growth out the main roof rather than an extra- neous window applied to it. In stone and brick houses the gable wall rose above the roof, and was coped with stone to prevent the wet penetrating into it. The coping rested at the bottom on a kneeler, which projected sufficiently to accommodate itself to the projection of the eaves, and at the apex it was usually crowned by a finial. A considerable amount of variety was introduced into the design of the kneelers and finials, and many a small house and cottage is redeemed from insignificance by the possession of 100. — A Northamptonshire Cottage. GABLES AND FINIALS. 117 one or two of these features (Fig. loi) . Even where there was no finial, the mere fact ofthe apex ofthe coping projecting above the line of the ridge produced a point that showed against the sky. loi. — Stone Finials and Kneelers. and helped towards the general picturesqueness of effect. In some of the more important houses the finials were worked 102.— Manor House, Finstock, Oxfordshire. with greater elaboration, and were placed not only on the apex of the gable but on the kneelers at its foot (see Fig. 108, and the dormer on Fig. 113 ; also Plate XXX.). The effect of plain gables contrasted with those having simple finials is ii8 GABLES. shown on Plate XXXV., while examples of larger and more important finials may be seen at Kirby and Rushton (Figs. 107, 113), the prevailing forms being some variety of the obelisk. The use of simple gables or their combination with dormer windows and chimneys, all without elaborate detail, is quite sufficient to impart in terest to a building,' which otherwise would have little claim to atten tion. Examples of these unpretentious houses are to be met with in every county ; one or two are illustrated here from Fin stock, in Oxfordshire (Fig. 102), Broadway, in Worcestershire (Plate XXXV.), and Holms hurst, in Sussex (Plate XXXV.). There is very little conscious effort about the design of either of these, beyond the in troduction of a certain amount of symmetry. At Finstock Manor House there is a range of three equal gables occupying most of the front, and the door is in the centre. At Tudor House, Broad way, there are three gables, but they are de tached from each other, and the middle one is rather larger than its neighbours ; a bay window of two storeys occupies the centre of the front, and the very plainly treated door is i03> — Cottage at Rothwell, Northamptonshire. (1660.) Holmshurst, Burwash, Sussex, Tudor House, Broadway, Worcestershire. GABLES OF TIMBER HOUSES. iig at one end. The house at Holmshurst is, like most of those in the Weald, built of brick : it has stone windows, but very little detail, its effect depending upon the two fgables, each flanked with a large chimney-stack. The style which was prevalent at the end of the sixteenth century lingered on far into the seventeenth in buildings that were not subject to the passing fashion : indeed, the treatment was hardly adopted consciously, but was rather the obvious and natural way of building, otherwise it would not have 104. —Cottage at Treeton, near Sheffield. been applied to such cottages as that at Rothwell (Fig. 103) and Treeton, near Sheffield (Fig. 104). In houses which were constructed of timber and plaster it was impossible to carry up the gables above the roof; the method of building did not admit of it, and there would have been no adequate means of covering them from the weather. They were finished, therefore, with projecting verge-boards, which served to protect the surface of the walls, and which were often carved or cut and moulded. A simple instance applied to a cottage is to be found at Steventon (Fig. 105), but there are plenty to be seen in different parts of the country, particularly in the west. In the more important houses the gables were not infrequently R.A. I CURVED GABLES AT WOLLATON HALL curved, especially in later times, that is to say, the curved gable is more frequent in Jacobean work than in Elizabethan. This idea no doubt came from the Low Countries, where it was very extensively adopted, but the extravagant and fantastic curves which the Dutchman loved were much simplified by his English imitator. Some of the more ambitious efforts, such as Wollaton, went near in their elaborate strap-work to rival the original models. A study of one of the corner pavilions (Fig. io6) will show how, not only in the gables but in the whole treatment, the foreign influence is predomi nant. The simplicity of the native type is ent'irely wanting. There are no plain sur faces of any extent; the columns are broken by a projecting band; the pedestals on which they stand are adorned with panels of double projection ; not only are the corner piers of the parapet crowned with an obelisk, but the pediment at the top of each gable carries a small statue on a pedestal : every thing is done to add to the picturesqueness and richness of effect. Nevertheless, through all the ornament with which the design is overloaded, its main ideas are plainly visible : the large and simple windows, the emphasizing of the angles, the gables of studiously irregular outhne. In some Dutch and German work the designers seemed to lose sight of their purpose in the exuberance of their ornament, but here it is not so. It will be seen that the circular niches on the side faces are filled with busts, although the vertical niches between the pilasters are empty. The busts, so far as they are named or ¦Cottage at Steventon, Berkshire, AND AT KIRBY HALL. can be identified, are those of classic personages — Plato, Aristoteles, \^er- gilius — and are said to have been brought over from Italy. The west front of Kirby (Fig. 107) offers a great con trast to Wollaton. Here everything up as high as the para pet is as simple as it can well be; there are no pilasters, no niches, no strap- work panels. The windows and the cornices \vhich make the circuit of the building are the only architectural features. The gables haA'e the strap-work, but it is of a simpler form than that at Wolla ton: the irregularity of their outline, combined with the tapering obelisks, some of which have open stone bows at the bottom, some thing after the fashion of a jug handle, imparts the necessar}' pictur esqueness, without 106.— Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire, One of Corner Towers (15S8). I 2 122 SIMPLER CURVED GABLES. having recourse to the expensive devices employed at Wollaton. The latter house was built between the years 1580 and 1588, and the gables may therefore be taken as dating from 1588: the date of the west front of Kirby is not recorded, but from the character of the work it may very well have been subsequent to the main building operations in 1570 — 75, and, as already stated, these gables were not improbably added towards the close of the sixteenth century. One curious point about this front is the care which was taken to make the quoins perfectly regular in size : in some cases where the quoin stone 107. — KiRiiv Hall, Northamhtonshire. Part or West Front (possibly 1595). was larger than the regulation size, the overplus was slightly sunk, and then scored with false joint-lines to match those of the adjacent rubble. There was a simpler type of curved gable which was freely used, as in the courtyard at Rushton (Fig. io8), and it was sometimes combined with steps, as at Apethorpe (Fig. 109), the result being picturesque without being fussy. The date of the example at Apethorpe is 1623 — 24, and that at Rushton 1627. The curve, instead of being ogee-shaped as in these instances, v/as sometimes composed of two curves of similar form, with a square shoulder between them, like those at Blickling (Plate XXXVII.), or the sweep of the ogee was broken PARAPETS OF HOUSES. "3 by the introduction of a vertical line, such as may be seen in the gables at Lilford (Plate XXXIV.). Further varieties occur at Montacute (Fig. 48), Stanway (Plate XXII.), and West- |, wood (Plate XXIII. ). |\ is* Parapets. The gables and the dormer windows in the larger houses were often con nected by a parapet, broken at inter vals by a shallow pilaster carried up to form the base of a finial or the seat for some heraldic animal. Some times the parapet was solid, as at Apethorpe (Fig. 109), Doddington (Plate XXL), and the courtyard at Kirby (Fig. 76) ; sometimes it was formed of a series of arches, as at Exton (Fig. Plate XXIX.), and at Hambleton (Fig. 71) ; sometimes 108. --Gable in Court, Rushton, Northa.mptonshire (1627). no, and of stone panels pierced with a pattern, as at Bramshill (Fig. Ill) and Audley End (Fig. 112); and sometimes of stone balusters, of which Rushton Hall offers one example (Fig. 113) and Wollaton Hall (Plate XXVII.) another. There was a considerable amount of variety, according to the ability of the mason 109. — Gable in Court, Apethorpe, Northamptonshire ^' (1623—24). the owner to pay. The effect of the pierced panels carried along a considerable length of parapet is very rich and lace-like. The stone balusters were occasionally of very meagre proportion, and 124 PARAPETS OF HOUSES. used with too sparing a hand, but at Rush- ton this is not felt to be the case. The parapet to the main roofs here is more satisfactory than the rather confused orna ment which serves a similar purpose for the bay. This gable also affords a good ex- no.— exton Old Hall, Rutland, Stone Parapet, ample of the manner in which the lights of the mullioned windows were stepped up r y / 112. — Audley End, Essex, Stone Parapet, SO as to follow roughly the slope of the roof. In one or two houses (Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire, and Temple PROMINENCE OF CHIMNEYS. 125 Newsam in Yorkshire) the parapets are formed of stone letters forming a series of legends which make, more or less, the circuit of the house. Chimneys. The chimneys were always dealt with boldly. In many cases, as already said, they were massed into great stacks at intervals along the walls, and made the dominating fea- turesof the whole design. W^her- ever they occur red their presence was frankly ac cepted, and, as a rule, much skill and ingenuity were bestowed upon them. In later centuries chimneys appear to have become a source of con siderable annqy- ance to architec tural designers, and a great deal of misapplied in genuity was ex pended in trying to conceal their existence, owing to the idea that they interfered with the purity of classic fa9ades. But in the early days of the introduction of classic features, the problem of making chimneys harmonize with the rest of the building seems to have been a source of delight instead of annoyance. -Rushton Hall, Northamptonshire. Gable on East Front (1627). 126 CHIMNEYS NOT UNIVERSAL. The general use of chimneys was at this time rather a novelty. So late as the time of Henry VIL, in the new palace caUed Richmond Court, built to replace an older structure destroyed by fire in 1498, the great hall was warmed by a fire in the middle of the floor with a lantern in the roof over it. There is a description of the Court in the return of the Commissioners of Parlia ment made in 1649, which is interesting not only as mentioning the fire, but as bearing out what has already been said of the hall of a large house. The higher store}', they sa\-,'^ "contains one fa} r and large room 100 feet in length and 40 in breadth, called the Great Hall. This room hath a screen at the lower end thereof, over which is a little gallery, and a fayr foot-pace in the higher end thereof [the dais] ; the pavement is square tile, and it is very well lighted and seeled [i.e., panelled with wood], and adorned with eleven statues in the sides thereof; in the midst a brick hearth for a charcoal fire, having a large lanthorn in the roof of the hall fitted for that purpose, turreted and covered with lead." But early in the sixteenth century chimneys came into general use, and they are one of the most characteristic features of a Tudor house. They were generally built of moulded brick, and were fashioned in elaborate and com plicated ways. An illustration from Droitwich is given in Fig. 114, in which the moulded bases stand on panelled » Nichols' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, Vol. I. (1566). ^x_ -Chimney at Droitwich, ^\'orcestershire. EARLY FORMS OF CHIMNEYS. 127 pedestals ; the shafts also are moulded, each after a different 115. — Brick Chimney from Huddington Court House, Worcestershire. 116. — Brick Chimney from Bardwell Manor House, Suffolk. 117. — Chimney at Toller Fratrum, Dorset. iiN.— Chimney at Kirey Hall, Northamptonshire. manner, and the caps are crowned \\'ith a battlemented ornament. Some of the simpler forms are illustrated among 128 VARIOUS FORMS OF CHIMNEYS. the details from Layer Marney (Plate XIIL), also from Huddington Court House, in Worcestershire (Fig. 115), Bard well, in Suffolk (Fig. 116), and a stone example from Toller Fratrum, in Dorset (Fig. 117). But far richer specimens are to be seen at Compton Winyates (Plate XI.) or at Hengrave (Fig. 43), besides many other places. With the death of Henry VIII. this elaboration disappeared, and a plainer treat ment prevailed. In some of the more pretentious edifices the chimne}-s were cast into the form of columns, as they were at Wollaton (Plate XXVII.) and Burghley (Plate XXVIII.), and at Montacute also, where the column carries a kind of stone cowl. The columnar form had occasionally been used in earlier days ; there is a well-proportioned and excellently wrought example at Lacock Abbey (Plate XXXVI.), where the shafts are fashioned into fluted columns, and the cap takes the shape of a short length of classic entablature with architrave, frieze, and cornice complete. The columns stand upon a pedestal, the face of which is occupied with a panel surrounded by strap-work ; and as there seems every reason to suppose the work to be part of Sharington's prior to his death in 1553, the whole idea and its mode of execution is unusually early, strap-work being associated as a rule with a period fifteen or twenty years later. The consoles carrying the projection of the base are an additional feature, and the whole group is carefully designed. The notion, however, of making the chimney-flue into a column and taking a short length of entablature as a cap is hardly satisfactory, and a more reason able type was employed at Kirby (Fig. 118), while throughout the stone district of the Midlands the usual form is that in Fig. iig, a form which, with modifications, has lingered on even down to the present day. A somewhat ornamental variety of the same idea is to be seen at Chipping Campden (Fig. 120), and another variation at Drayton House, in North amptonshire (Fig. 121). The quaint triangular chimney of the Triangular Lodge at Rushton (Fig. 122) is really the same in principle, but its unusual apex and carved panels place it in a class by itself. The brick chimneys of Elizabeth's time have straight stalks and an oversailing cap of thin bricks, occasionally varied with still thinner courses of tiles. The profile is nearl}' always the same, but considerable variety is imparted by varying the plan, and by adding square or Plath XXXVI. LACOCK ABBEY, WILTSHIRE. CHIMNEY-STACK AND WINDOW, CHIMNEYS. 129 ^^^^ Iig. — Typical Chimney in the Midlands. 120. — Chimney at Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire. 121. — Chimney at Drayton House, Northamptonshire (1584.) 122. — Chimney at Triangular Lodge, Rushton, Northamptonshire (1595). 130 CHIMNEYS AT BLICKLING HALL. triangular projections to the plain faces of the flues. A simple but effective example may be seen at Bean Lodge, near Petworth (Fig. 123). More elaborate specimens are found at Knole House and Cobham Hall, in Kent; Blickling Hall, in Norfolk (Plate XXXVII.) ; at Moyns Park, in Essex, and indeed on almost every brick house of the time. Blickling HaU, affords examples of many of the features which have been de scribed. It has fine stacks of chimneys, curved gables, and pierced parapets over the windows; on each gable is a dainty little statue. The front doorway i s richly embellished, and over it are the owner's arms set forth with much heraldic display. Classic features are used with moderation and restraint ; a cor nice marks the level ofthe first floor; other cornices crown the bay windows ; and columns flank the archway. But they are all used because they answered the de signer's purpose, and not because he hoped by loading his building with classic features to give it a character which, without such help, he was powerless to impart. 123. — Bean Lodge, Petworth, Sussex. Rain-Water Heads. Attention should be drawn to another feature of which nothing hitherto has. been said, but which was one of the recognized means of obtaining effect — namely, the rain-water pipes. These Plate XXXVII. '^'0^^-fc\..-'m.'& blickling HALL, NORFOLK (1619-20) PART OF ENTRANCE FRONT. b LEAD RAIN-\YATER HEADS, 131 necessar}- adjuncts to a building have ceased to play the important part which once they did ; tbey are still tolerated, because they cannot be abolished, but the}- are only admitted grudgingly and of necessit}-. In tbe sixteenth and se\'enteenth centuries a large amount of care was bestowed upon their design, and being made, of lead they were susceptible of interesting treatment. Their use was in the nature of a novelty, since up to this time the water from the roofs had been allowed to splash on to the ground from projecting gargoyles. They very frequentl}' carried either the date or the family crest upon them, and were often ornamented with pierced work. The examples shown in Figs. 124 — 126 are from Haddon Hall ; two of them bear the cognizance of the Vernon family (the boar's head), and one that of the Manners family in addition (the peacock). Haddon passed into the possession of Sir John Manners, by his marriage with Dorothy \^ernon, in the year 1567, and these lead heads must be ascribed to a date subsequent to the marriage, otherwise they would not bear the peacock of the Manners family. They still retain in their ornament some trace of Gothic feeling, but the topmost moulding, with the dentils beneath it, is clearly of classic derivation. The third head with the cresting of fleur- de-lys may well be of rather earlier date, and the work of Sir George Vernon, the father of Dorothy. Allied to the last example from Haddon is the rain-water head from Sherborne, Dorset (Fig. 127), dated 1579, also with a battlemented cresting. At Knole, in Kent, is another good example (Fig. 128) with a pierced front and two triangular projections ending in a pen dant ; the top is ornamented with a battlemented cresting, now mutilated. Another specimen, of somewhat plainer character, comes from Bramshill (Fig. 129) ; it is dated 1612, and has its outlet towards one end, so as to bring the water horizontally along the wall for a short distance in order that the pipe may not interfere with some feature in the wall below. At Rushton there are some lead heads bearing the date 1627, which depend for their effect upon their shape rather than upon their decoration, which is practically limited to a very simple treat ment of the cresting. These are two or three examples out of a great many that still remain, some of them being even more ornamental ; the greater number, however, were more nearly allied to the plainer than the richer examples. 132 LEAD RAIN-WATER HEADS. 24. — Lfad Rain-water Head from Haddon Hall, Derbyshire. 126. — Lfad Rain-water Head from Haddon Hall, Derbyshire. 125.— Lead Rain-water Head from Haddon Hall, Derbyshire. 127. — Pipe Head from Sherborne, Dorset. 128.-LEAD Pipe Head from Knole, Kent. 129.— Lead Pipe Head from Bramshill. Plate XXXVIII. Haddon Hall, Derbyshire, Steps to Terrace. ..^..SSfei Claverton, Somerset. Terrace Wall. FORMAL GARDENS AND TERRACES. 133 Gardens. This is not the place to enter into an elaborate account of gardens, but they touch the subject under discussion so far as this— that there was a certain amount of architectural design bestowed upon them in the shape of terraces, flights of steps, balustrades and garden-houses. The view of Montacute shown in Fig. 48 gives a good idea of the manner in which the house was set off by a formal garden enclosed by stone walls and balustrades, which were emphasized at the angles by garden-houses, and along their lengths either by gateways or some kind of special object, such as the quaint kind of temple, which serves no pur pose but to vary the monotony of the balustrade. The well- known terrace at Haddon is as good an example as can be found of the fine effect of a raised walk approached by a broad flight of steps, and pro tected by an arcaded balus trade (Plate XXXVIII.). The detail is quite simple, there is no particular effort visible, every thing seems to be there because it is wanted, but the whole effect is extremely picturesque. At Claverton, near Bath, are the remains of a fine house and garden, of which a long terrace wall is also illustrated on Plate XXXVIII. Here the straight length is broken by the large gate-piers, which rise some twelve feet high before tapering off into the universal obelisk. Claverton must have been a splendid example of Jacobean work, judging by the illustrations in Richardson's Elizabethan Archi tecture, but unhappily little of it now remains. At Gayhurst, in Buckinghamshire, there are a number of quaint stone piers flanking the main approach, set a few yards apart (Fig. 130), the space between them being filled in with cut yew hedges. Hedges do not enter into the scope of the present work, but they were —Gayhurst, Buckinghamshire. Stone Pillar in Garden. 134 GARDENS AT NONESUCH. much in \'ogue, as were also pleached alleys and the green shaded walks so much desired by the Noble Gentleman in Beaumont and Fletcher's play of that name. With arches in walls we have more concern, and have already dealt with them in dealing with the approaches to the house ; but an additional example from a garden at Ling- field, in Sussex, is illustrated in Fig. 131 ; and another from Highlow Hall, in Derby shire, on Plate XXXIX. The lay-out of a late sixteenth cen tury garden was tolerably simple, the whole being treated on a defi nite system, and with straight lines. The bowling-green was an important adjunct, and the larger houses had mounts for pro spect, and also a "wilderness" of considerable ex tent. The de scription of the gardens at None such, given by the Parliamentary Commissioners in their survey of April, 1650* (already quoted), gives a good idea of the gardens attached to the larger sort of houses. The "frontispiece," or approach, was railed with hand some rails and balusters of stone ; at a distance of eight yards from the house was the bowling-green, from which a fair and * Archaologia, Vol, V. p. 429. 131 — Gateway in Garden, Lingfield, Sussex (1617), A SMALL FORECOURT. 135 straight path led along an avenue to the park gate, which (they say) being very high, well-built, and placed in a direct line opposite to the house, was, in consequence, a good ornament to it. On three outward sides of the inner court lay the " Privy Garden," surrounded with a brick wall 14 feet high, and cut out and divided into various alleys, quarters, and rounds, set about with thorn hedges. Adjoining this garden was the kitchen garden, also enclosed by a 14 feet wall : on the west of this lay the wilderness. In the privy garden was a spiral pyramid of marble, set upon a base of similar material, " grounded upon a rise of freestone ; " and near this there was a large marble wash basin, over which stood a marble pelican, fed with water through a lead pipe. There were also two other marble obelisks, and between them a fountain of white marble, set round with six lilac trees, "which trees bear no fruit, but only a very pleasant flower." In the highest part of the park stood the banqueting-house, a three-storey timber building of quadrangular form, enclosed within a brick wall. The ground floor was occupied by the hall, the upper storeys had respectively three and five rooms, and they were all panelled with oak. In each of the four corners of the whole house there was a balcony placed for prospect. This is worth remembering, for the desire to obtain a prospect is generally considered to be of modern growth ; and no doubt until quite recently it was necessary to a beautiful view that it should be obtained in ease and comfort. The notion of climbing a wild mountain for the sake of the view was probably never entertained before the beginning of this century. There is a good example of the lay-out of a forecourt to a small house at Eyam Hall, in Derbyshire, and although tradition and the only date to be found about the building (on a spout- head) place the erection of the house in the latter part of the seventeenth century, it looks much earlier, and is charac teristic of the beginning of the century rather than of the end. There is very little detail about it ; but the formal disposition and the broad and simple treatment combine (with the assist ance of time) to impart a fine and dignified effect. It will be seen from the plan (Fig. 133) that the court is nearly square. It is entered from the road through a pillared gateway up a short flight of semicircular steps ; a broad paved walk leads to another flight which lands on to a wide paved terrace extending R.A. ^ 136 GARDEN AT EYAM HALL. along the whole front of the house (Plate XXXIX.). Exactly opposite the steps is the front door, placed centrally in the main face of the house, which is recessed from the faces of the pro jecting wings. At either end of the terrace is a doorway, one leading to the kitchen approach, the other to the garden, which is reached down another flight of semicircular steps. The paths in the vicinity of the house are straight, and the rise of the ground necessitates still more steps, which give access eventually 'mmi1110 rLii 3t.'/r .,f f:..h 132. — Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire. Garden-house, to a long, straight walk beneath a south-west wall. Away from the house the treatment has lapsed into less formality ; but the house itself, together with the court, the terraces, and the flights of steps, the whole gay with flowers, makes a very attractive picture. The banqueting-house at Nonesuch was, hke the other part of the house itself, built of timber. So, also, in all probability, was the " goodly banqueting-house" which the Lord Admiral built for the Queen when she went to his place in the year 1559 from Hampton Court. It was richly gilded and painted Plate XXXIX. Gateway at Highlow Hall, near Hathersage, Derbyshire. ¦> .. LSI ¦ '^^ Eyam Hall, Derbyshire Terrace Steps. THE BANOUETING-HOUSE. 137 (we are told), "that lord having for that end kept a great many painters for a good while there in the country." But the more usual material was brick or stone, and a fair number of examples of such buildings still suryi\e. One of the most elaborate is to be seen at Chipping Campden (Fig. 132), in Gloucestershire, where the fall of the site enables an under- storey to be obtained without being: buried in the ground. The illustration shows the ground floor only, but there is a storey below it approached by a substantial staircase. The work is elaborate, and has lasted well in spite of its rather unworkmanlike treatment, as for instance in the jointing of the stone parapets. The detail is too fanciful, and the building is illustrated not so much for the sake of its design, as to show how much trouble and expense were lavished upon a structure which could only have been used a few times during the year. It and its fellow on the opposite side were, however, important features in the general lay-out. 133. — Eyam Hall. Plan of Lay-out. K 2 CHAPTER VII. INTERIOR FEATURES. The chief points in the internal arrangement of houses of the period have already been explained in the third chapter. The hall was the central feature, entered at one end ; next to this end was the kitchen ; next to the other, or dais end, was the parlour. The kitchen and the parlour respectively were amplified according to the accommodation required, and in the larger houses the amplification entailed one or more courts, but the hall remained the centre of the system. The need for such great amplification as we find in the larger houses arose from the fact that large retinues accompanied great personages on their visits to each other, and that there was always the chance that the sovereign might have to be entertained upon one of the progresses which were undertaken three or four times every year. Both Elizabeth and James adopted this method of keeping in touch with their subjects, and they must have become tolerably familiar with their dominions, except, perhaps, the extreme outlying parts in the north and west; and so far as James was concerned, he made the acquaintance of a good many houses in the north, on his journey from Scotland when he came to take possession of the crown. Royal Progresses. When Queen Elizabeth made her progresses, she was fre quently entertained with elaborate shows, which, presumably, must have pleased her, since they occurred so often, but which afford tedious reading to the modern inquirer. They were usually cast in an allegorical form, and had more or less dramatic action. They took place in the daytime and in the open air : it can hardly be said that they were performed, for the thread of the plot was so thin, and the stage of operations so large, that the whole effect must have appeared rather PLAYS AND PAGF-ANTS. ' 139 fortuitous, and wanting in cohesion. At night time and in one of the great halls, either of a city, a college, or a great house, there were other performances, in which the interest was more concentrated, and the characters more varied ; these were called plays, of which a great number were performed, written b}- all sorts of people, and all affording (apparently) equal pleasure to the onlookers. The majority of these pieces have faded into oblivion, but a certain number have survived, and go to form much of what we know as the Elizabethan drama. But it is with the entertainments provided in the daytime that we are more particularly concerned : they were of an ephemeral nature, and have not, like many of the plays, passed into the literature of the country : and our concern with them lies in the form in which they were cast and the spirit which animated them. \A'hen Elizabeth made her passage through the city of London to Westminster the day before her corona tion — that is, on January 13th, 1558 — the whole journey was interspersed with " pageants," as they were called.* These consisted of triumphal arches of various designs, upon which living allegorical figures were placed : one represented the Queen's immediate ancestors : another four virtues treading down four contrary vices ; another the eight beatitudes ; on another were Time and Truth his daughter ; and so forth. Each of these personages, says the account, according to their proper names and properties, had not only their names in plain and perfect writing set upon their breasts easily to be read of all, but also each of them was aptly and properly apparelled, so that his apparel and name did agree to express the same person that in title he represented. As each pageant was reached, there stepped forth a "child" on to some prominent part of it, who recited a number of verses explanatory of the device, and a copy of these verses was affixed in a tablet upon the pageant, balanced by another bearing a Latin version of the same lines. Besides these, it says, every void place in the pageant was furnished with sentences touching the matter and ground of the said pageant. We have here, therefore, on a large scale, the same kind of treatment which was applied on a small scale to chimney-pieces — allegorical figures and various inscriptions more or less pithy. It is a matter for speculation * Nicliols' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth. 140 HARRISON'S TRIUMPHAL ARCHES. whether either the Queen or the populace at large thoroughly grasped the full meaning of the several devices upon which so much ingenuity had been lavished ; but certainly to the monarch, who stopped at ever}- pageant, and received an explanation of it, the journey must have been extremely tiring, seeing bow great were the number and ingenuity of the pageants. To preserve so much good work from oblivion, within the next ten days an account of the whole "passage" was printed, which towards its close gives much credit to the city, forasmuch as without any foreign person, of itself, it beautified itself. This casual reference to the foreign person, and to the city being able to manage without his help, shows that he was a recognized factor in the production of design. When King James made his " memorable Passage from the Tower to Whitehall," on the 15th March, 1603 — 4, there were seven triumphal arches erected, of such importance that they were considered worth}- of being engraved and published. They were designed by an Englishman, Stephen Harrison, "Joyner and Architect," and their architectural treatment followed the lines of the more pronounced Anglo-Italian work of the time, in which classic feeling has superseded Gothic. They are interesting as showing how completely the English craftsman had familiarized hiraself with the foreign methods of design. They were published by Harrison in 1604, the engrav ings being b}- William Kip.* They were built in a substantial manner, nearly six months being spent upon their erection. Two of them were called respectively "The Italians' Pegme" and "The Pegme of the Dutchmen," residents of these two nationalities being responsible for their erection ; but it is curious to see that the Dutchmen's arch is not more Dutch in treatment than the Italians'. It evidently did not occur to Harrison to emphasize the character of his designs to suit the two nations, even if he were aware of the points in which their architecture differed. It was perhaps natural in those days that when Queen Elizabeth visited the great seats of learning she should be * The title of the book, -which is well worth inspection, is "The Archs of Triumph, erected in honor of ihe High and Mighty Prince James, the First of that Name King of England, and the Sixt of Scotland, at his Maiestie's Entrance and Passage through his Honorable Citty and Chamber of London, upon the i$th day of March, 1603, Invented and published by Stephen Harrison, Joyner and Architect ; and graven by William Kip." LATIN VERSES AND ORATIONS. 141 greeted with a shower of Latin verses and orations. Pages after pages of these have been preserved, but it seems extremely doubtful whether the recipient of them could have found time to master their contents. The orations she listened to and understood, for the expression of her face is said to have changed with the subject-matter of the speeches, and some of them she answered in the same tongue. But it yas by no means to Eton or to Oxford and Cambridge, that Latin verses and orations were confined : obscure parsons in small towns seized their opportunities, and were often handsomely praised by the Queen for their skill. As to verses, when she visited Sandwich in 1573, "upon e\-ery post and corner, from her first entry to her lodging, were fixed certain verses, and against the court gate all these verses put into a table {i.e., a frame) and there hanged up." The Queen's visit to Kenilworth Castle in Jul}-, 1575, is one of the best known episodes of her Progresses, and the " Princely Pleasures at Kenilworth Castle," recorded (and largely devised) by George Gascoigne, consisted of the same kind of entertainments as greeted her at her coronation. They are too long to quote extensively, but a few of the principal efforts will serve to show the kind of spirit that was abroad at the time. As the Queen approached the castle, Sybilla met her and prophesied prosperity in a number of verses. On entering the gate Hercules, who acted as porter, seemed inclined to dispute her entry, but being overcome by the " rare beauty and princely countenance" of her Majesty, he gave up his keys, and burst into poetry. In the base-court there came a lady, attended by two nymphs, and the lady welcomed her Majesty in another set of verses. A few steps further on came an actor clad like a poet, who pronounced a number of Latin verses, which were also fixed over the gate in a frame. After leaving the poet, she was received into the inner court with sweet music, and then escaped to her own "lodgings." A day or two after her arrival there met her in the forest, as she came from hunting, one clad like a Savage man, all in iv}-, who was so much over come w-ith wonder at the Queen's presence that he fell to quarrelling with Jupiter, and called upon Echo to explain who the resplendent personage might be, incidentally contriving to lavish a number of compliments in the course of the inquiry. 142 ELIZABETH AT KENILWORTH. Then Triton came, and the Lady of the Lake, and Proteus sitting on a dolphin's back, who all delivered themselves of further compliments in lengthy verses. It is just conceivable that her Majesty grew a little weary of these pedantjc inter ludes, for one long show was prepared by Master Gascoigne, in which Diana and her nymphs. Mercury, Iris, and others were to have acted ; but in spite of every actor being ready in his garment for two or three days together, it never came to execu tion, being prevented (its author thought) by lack of oppor tunity and seasonable weather. At the Queen's departure, being commanded by the Earl of Leicester to devise some worthy farewell entertainment. Master Gascoigne clothed him self as Sylvanus, the god of the woods, and meeting the Queen as she went hunting, broke out into a long extempore oration, which her Majesty at length interrupted by proceeding on her way. Sylvanus, however, kept pace with her, and continued his speech running at her side, until in very pity for his breath less condition, the Queen stopped her horse. At Sylvanus's humble request, however, she continued her ride, and he con tinued the ceaseless stream of his oration, until coming to an arbour, a second actor in the tedious drama, by name Deep Desire, took up his part, spake some verses, and sang a song. A few more lines from Sylvanus released the Queen from this very diverting farewell show. Many other entertainments might be cited to illustrate the direction which popular taste took in these matters ; but to multiply instances would be as tedious to the reader as (one cannot help thinking) the shows themselves were to the Queen and her attendants. This, at any rate, becomes clear — that the favourite themes, personages, and allusions were of classic origin ; the thoughts were clothed in pedantic language ; verses were freely written and hung up for passers-by to read, and the Latin tongue was employed in preference to the English, where it was not absolutely necessary that the points should be understanded of the people. The accounts that have been handed down of these interludes are, it is true, somewhat tedious reading, but under the genial satire of Shakespeare they lose their dulness and become amusing. We do not tire of Holofernes and his party in their presentation of the Nine Worthies, nor of Bottom and his company in their great classical interlude of " the tedious brief scene of young Pyramus THE ENTERTAINING OF ROYALTY. 143 and his love Thisbe," nor of Orlando and his verses, which he hung on ever}- tree. It was no small matter to entertain royalty in those days. Even in the present day, when facilities for moving about and for obtaining provisions are so vastly greater, and when the mode of life in the Court is so much simpler, it requires a large house and a well-filled purse. But in the sixteenth century the undertaking was more like providing for a small army, and it is not surprising to find that outside the wealthier owners of great mansions, there was a disposition to evade the honour. Lady Anne Askewe wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton, about the year 1581, to know if she might be excused on account of the shortness of the notice and her " unfurnished house."* The officials of the Court so far sympathized with this feeling that we find one of them writing to a friend who was threatened with the honour, Mr. More, of Loseley, to say what a " great trouble and hindrance " it would be, and to advise him to ¦" come and declare unto my lord of Leicester your estate that majesty might not come unto your house." 'I- It is not clear whether these representations were actually made, and if made whether they were successful or not; but, however that maybe, the same gentleman (he was now knighted) received an inti mation in August, 1583, from Sir Christopher Hatton that the Queen intended in about ten or twelve days to visit Loseley, .and to remain there some four or five days, and that he had better see everything well ordered and the " house kept sweet and clean to receive her highness." Three weeks later Sir William More had another letter from Sir Christopher to say that on the third day thence the Queen intended to go to bed at Loseley for one night only, and that he should see that the house was " sweet and meet to receive her majesty," and should send his family away. These involuntary hosts were not always consulted beforehand, for one of them wrote to Sir William More in July, 1577, to say that he found the lists were issued for a progress into his county, and his house was one of those to be visited ; accordingly he wrote to his loving friend. Sir Wilham, to beg him, for the sake of old acquaintance and friendship, to say what order was taken by the Queen's officers in respect of provisions when her Majesty visited Loseley, as * Sir Nicholas Harris's Memorials of Sir Ch. Hatton, p. 223. t Loseley MSS., p. 266. 144 HOUSES ENLARGED TO RECEIVE ROYALTY. the writer was altogether unacquainted with the order of pro cedure. The listsof places to be visited, or "gests," as they were called, were carefully prepared beforehand, and gave the names of the houses and their owners, the number of nights the Court intended to stay, and the distance between one stopping-place and the next: this distance was on the average about ten miles, but it varied, according to circumstances, from five to fourteen, the latter being the longest journey attempted. To entertain the Sovereign and the Court the houses were necessarily large, indeed we shall not be far wrong in attributing the enormous size of the largest — such places as Holdenby, Theobalds, and Audley End — to the express intention of pro- \-iding suitable accommodation for Elizabeth and James. Sir Christopher Hatton, in a letter to Sir Thomas Heneage, in 1580, talks of Holdenby being dedicated to "that holy Saint,"' meaning the Queen ; and Lord Burghley, in writing to Hatton about Holdenby and Theobalds, says " God send us both long to enjoy Her, for whom we both meant to exceed our purses in these."* In another letter (August 14th, 1585) he says, " My house at Theobalds was begun by me with a mean measure, but increased by occasions of her Majesty's often coming. "f These mansions may be regarded almost in the light of large hotels, with certain common apartments for the guests, a large kitchen department, and a vast number of rooms arranged in groups of two or three. .Although notice of the sovereign's intended visit was usually given, it was not considered necessary for less exalted people to send word. When James's queen was journeying towards London from Scotland, a certain Lady Anne Clifford hurried with her mother to meet her. The lady describes her journey,, and how they went without notice to a large house in Bed fordshire.! She says that having killed three horses that day — it was midsummer — with extreme heat, they came to Wrest, my Lord of Kent's house, "where we found the doors shut, and none in the house but one servant, who only had the keys of the hall, so that we were enforced to lie in the hall all night, till towards morning, at which time came a man and * Memorials of Holdenby. by Miss Hartshorne, p, 16. t England as seen by Foreigners in the days of Elizabeth and James I., by W, B. Rye, p, 213. X Nichols' Progresses of King James I., Vol, I,, p, 174. ROOMS IN A GERMAN CASTLE. 145 let us into the higher rooms, where we slept three or four hours." This artless account quite casually illustrates the relation of the hall to the rest of the house. It was the room first entered from the outside, and was shut off by doors from all the rest of the house. The servant who let the travellers in probably slept either in the buttery or a " lodging " attached to it, and beyond those two apartments and the hall neither he nor they could go until the " man " came who had the keys which gave access to the stairs and the higher rooms. The Manner of Decorating Rooms. Some idea of what the rooms were like which surrounded a courtyard of the time may be gathered from the description of the suite allotted to the Earl of Lincoln when he went to Cassell, in 1596, on an embassage to the Landgrave of Hesse; and although they were in a German castle the description would apply almost equally well to those in a large English house. The rooms were five in number, and they occupied the end of a goodly quadrangle, like the Louvre at Paris, high and stateh'.* They consisted of two dining chambers, two drawing chambers, and between the two latter a bed chamber, so placed " for his more quiet and private being." His lord ship's own dining chamber was panelled with wood and marble, " with crestings, indentments, and Italian pillar work; " there were escutcheons with the blazoned arms of the Landgrave's "friends and allies ofthe Protestant part," and on the four sides of the room next the ceiling were carved four stories of the Creation, the Passion, the Resurrection, and the Judgment ; the ceiling was wrought with knot-work. The next room, where the ambassador's gentlemen dined, was hung with tapestry. The next " was a fair drawing chamber, seated round about, and covered with scarlet ; above the seats hung round with a rich small wrought tapestry of an ell broad, of emblem work, and verses written underneath; over this, 'upon a ledge of wainscot, were divers tables [pictures] of sundry devices, well painted, with their posies to garnish the chamber, and, among all, that was the best which had this motto : ' Major autem horum est caritas,' for it waxed cold. The roof was * Nichols' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, Vol. II. 146 METHODS OF DECORATION. likewise flourished with painting and devices. These rooms had the through light of four fair windows." The bedroom was decorated with a painted tree that grew up at the door, the branches spreading all over the ceiling, full of fruit, and hanging down upon the walls, with other pictures to fill up ¦empty places ; the story taken out of Daniel. The last room •of the suite was " a fair drawing chamber hung with arras, which parted his Honour's lodging from the other side of the house, that so he might not any way be disturbed." We get therefore in this set of rooms an example of the three principal modes of decorating the walls — by panelling, by hanging with tapestry or arras, and (more seldom) by painting. At Theo balds the hall was decorated with trees, and not only were they furnished with leaves and fruit, but, regardless of the niceties •of natural history, with birds' nests too, and so lifelike was the effect that, according to the testimony of a German visitor in 1592,* when the steward opened the windows the birds flew in, perched upon the trees, and began to sing — perhaps to express their surprise at finding fruit and nests on the trees at the same time. This realistic treatment was, fortunately, not very common, and it is rather curious that so strong a man as Lord Burghley should have delighted in such embellishments, and others equally puerile in conception. The more usual way of treating the walls was to cover them either with hangings or with panelling. There are numberless references to the former among the poets of the time. Imogen's bedchamber was " hanged with tapestry of silk and silver " ; F~alstaff fell asleep behind the arras when he took his ease in his inn, and had his pocket picked ; Polonius, when he hid himself in order to overhear Hamlet's interview with his mother, slipped behind the arras, and it was through the arras that Hamlet subsequently made the fatal pass with his sword. The rooms in Spencer's Castle Joyous " were round about apparelled with costly cloths of Arras and of Tours," and the parlour of Alma's castle " was with royal arras richly dight." These hangings were moved from house to house when the family migrated from one abode to another, and in Beaumont and Fletcher's ]Vit ¦without Money there is a lively scene in which a great lady suddenly determines to leave her house iu town * The Secretary of Frederick, Duke of "Wirtemberg. England as seen by Foreigners in the days of Elizabeth and James L, by W. B. Rye, p. 44. HANGINGS ON WALLS. 147 for the country. Amid the confusion which ensues — servants shouting, my lady's sister in much an.xiety about her dog, her looking-glass, and her curls — Ralph calls to Roger to help down with the hangings, but Roger declines, as he is unable to- leave the packing of his trunks. The hangings at Hampton Court were of the most costly description,* Cardinal Wolsey being an ardent collector, and utilizing the services of his agents. 134, — Bedroom in Deene 11a_l, *. _¦ ^thamptonshire. Ceiling: Tapestry on Walls. in various foreign countries to add to his stores. Three-quarters of a century later much of this splendour was still left, and the German visitor whom we have already seen at Theobalds says- of Hampton Court, that " all the apartments and rooms in this immensely large structure are hung with rich tapestry, of pure gold and fine silk."+ From this regal magnificence there were numberless gradations down to the " smirch'd, worm-eaten, * Law, Vol. I., p. 57. t England as seen by Foreigners, p. 18. 148 TAPESTRY AND PANELLING. tapestry " mentioned in that conversation between Borachio and Conrade which led to their arrest by Dogberry. The sub jects of these hangings were of extreme diversity — scriptural, mythological, and allegorical. There were the stories of Toby, Our Lady, and the Forlorn Son, alongside of those of Priamus, Venus and Cupid, and Hannibal. The story of Esther balanced the Romaunt of the Rose. Christian saints and heathen gods were equally welcome, and always and everywhere, either in foliated borders or forming the subject-matter itself, were the arms of the owner, with angels or amorini to support tliem, and a convoluted scroll to bear the motto. The allegorical subjects are the most bewildering, and they even puzzled the people of the time, to whom such trains of thought were familiar, for it is expressly said of the tapestry in Alma's parlour that in it there was nothing pourtrayed nor wrought but what was easy to understand. Of course much of the tapestry which was so widely used has now disappeared, or has found its way into the hands of collectors ; very little is left in its original positions, even if it remains in the houses for which it was first acquired. There is a fair amount, however, to be found up and down the country, and the effect of tapestry-hung walls in conjunction with a rich plaster ceiling is shown in Fig. 134, from a bedroom in Deene Hall, Northamptonshire. Wood Panelling. W'ood panelling is of a more permanent character than tapestry, or at least is not so easily removed and adapted to fresh situations ; and there are many examples left of this mode of clothing and decorating the walls of houses and churches. It was in vogue tolerably early in the century, and there is a contract, printed in the History of Hengrave, between Sir Thomas Kytson, for whom the hou.se was built, and Thomas Neker, for "seelyng" the house. This " seelyng " has been mistaken for plastering, but a perusal of the contract shows that it must have been panelling, since some of the rooms are to be "seelyd" their whole height, and others only to the height of the windows, or a certain number of feet high. Stools, benches, cupboards, and portals are also mentioned as part of the work, as well as " the gates at the coming in " ; and Sir Thomas is to find all manner of timber, hewn and sawn. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PANliLLING. 149 Among the rooms to be thus panelled were the hall, the t\\-(j parlours, the wardrobe over the cellar, and the two great chambers above the dais. Seven lodgings, that is bedchambers, were to have portals onl}- ; sixteen other lodgings were to be " seelyd " to the pendant's foot, and on the pastry house a wardrobe was to be made, with one close press, and open presses round about. There was to be a fret on the ceiling of the hall with hanging pendants, "vault fashion"; no doubt after the manner of the watching chamber at Hampton Court, which was being built about the same time. Towards these works Sir Thomas Kytson was to provide the contractor with " all the old seelyng, and frets of the old work that is in his keeping." The development of wood panelling is of considerable interest. Previous to the six teenth century, that is in the days of the Gothic manner, the construction was on a substantial scale. 135. — Haddon Hall, Derbyshire. OF the Great Hall. A Corner the framing being formed of wood up rights and cross-pieces, measuring, perhaps, four inches by three in section, the uprights being from eighteen inches to two feet apart, and strengthened by horizontal cross-pieces at heights of three, four, or five feet, or thereabouts, according to the height of the room. The spaces thus formed into panels were filled with one piece of board let into the sur rounding framing, which was sometimes splayed, but more generally moulded, the mouldings being stopped before they encountered the cross-pieces. The screen in the hall at Haddon (Fig. 135) illustrates this early method of construction. 150 THE DEVELOPMENT OF PANELLING. while against it, and clothing the wall and the side of the window-opening, is the seventeenth-century panelling, the development of which will be presently Texplained. The panels in Gothic work were ornamented either with cusping, such as may be seen in the upper part of the screen at Haddon, behind the antlers, or with paintings, such as still remain in a number of churches, especially in the eastern and south - western counties. Gra- dually,however,the large size of the framework was reduced : instead of being four or five inches thick by three or four inches wide, it became only about an inch or so thick by about the same width as formerly. The panels were made narrower, because it was found easier to get boards ten or twelve inches wide than of a width twice those sizes, and gradually the very long proportion of height to width was lessened, the panels became more nearly square, and eventually they were made of varying sizes and proportions, but rhythmically arranged. The old idea of moulding or splaying the wood framework w-as long retained, and practical considerations in the framing of it together gave rise to a particular kind of effect, which is characteristic of the earlier kind of panelling. The framework is composed of vertical and horizontal pieces of wood tenoned 136.— Panelling of the Time of Henry Vlll, THE DEVELOPMENT OF PANELLING. 151 together and secured by wood pins. It is obvious that if the edges of all the wood were moulded before it was framed together, it would be impossible to make a neat junction where the pieces crossed, because the continuous moulding on the edge of the one piece would interfere with the proper adjust ment of the end of the other which comes against it at right angles. It will be seen by referring to Fig. 136, that on the horizontal rails, which are continuous, the moulding and the splay die out before they reach the vertical pieces, thus leaving a plain surface sufficiently wide for the latter to abut against, whereas on the vertical pieces the mould- ings are con tinued from top to bottom of the panel and stop abruptly against the horizontal rails. The verti cal pieces could therefore have been worked in one long piece and then cut into lengths, whereas on the horizontal rails the mould ing was worked in lengths to suit the width of the panels — a more troublesome proceeding, and one requiring thought and care. The tendency of all change in workmanship being towards the saving of thought and care on the part of the great body of workers, the next steps in the development of panelHng were in this direction. But before following these steps, a reference to Fig. 137 will show how^ in some cases the horizontal rails are continuous, with the edge- mouldings dying out, while the vertical are in short lengths with continuous mouldings abutting against the horizontal rails; and in others the parts played are reversed, and it is the vertical pieces which run through. It will be noticed that R.A. ^ 137. — Stanford Church, Northamptonshire. Linen Panelling. 152 the DEVELOPMENT OF PANELLING. in addition to the edge-moulding, there are others on the face of the rails which, not being subject to interference by the abutting of the cross-pieces, are worked continuously without a break. In both these examples (Figs. 136, 137), and also in Fig. 138, It will be observed that the panel itself is decorated with some kind of carving. The English form is shown in Fig. 137, where the panels are what are known as linen panels, the decoration taking a form some thing like folded linen. In the long gallery at the Vyne the walls are panelled with linen panelling, with the addition of coats of arms, or badges, or scrolls bearing a motto (Fig. 19). A later form is seen in Fig. 136, where the design is quite Italian in feeling. The circular panels containing heads became a favourite feature in English panelling about the end of Henry VIII.'s reign, and may generally be ascribed to a date within a few years of 1540. The diamond-shaped panels in the lower part appear to be hori zontal panels standing on their ends, and are probably not in their original relation to the others. The two charming dol phins counter-hauriant, if tbe term may be allowed, carved at the top of a long panel, leaving the lower part plain, give a quaint and pleasing effect (Fig. 138). The presence of dolphins rather points to French influence, for, although no doubt the use of this form started in Italy, it was eagerly adopted by the French, since the dolphin was the cogni zance of their dauphin. The door at Castle Rising (Fig. 139) gives another example of the use of heads in circular panels among Italian foliage ; but it will be noticed that the mouldings round the panels do not conform to the type already explained, but to one which is a step forwarder in development. Instead 138. — A Panel of the Time of Henry Vlll. v-1X THE DEVELOPMENT OF PANELLING. I5J ofthe mouldings of the continuous horizontal rails being stopped short of the sides of the panels, they are carried on and intersect with them. This intersection is called b\- joiners a mitre, and a mitred moulding is an advance on a stopped moulding or one that abuts against a cross-piece. It will be seen that in this example, although the moulding is mitred at the top of the pane', it still abuts against the bottom rail. In the panelling from Haddon Hall (Plate XL.) it will be seen that the \-ery simple moulding mitres all round the panels. But in all these cases the mouldings are what are called "' out of the solid," that is, the actual framework of the panels is moulded, the con sequence being that wher ever a moulding had to be stopped or mitred, thought and care were required, and a failure of either in volved the injury of a fairly large piece of wood. The next step therefore was to refrain from working a moulding on the solid wood, but to keep square edges to the framework, and after framing up all the panelling with these square edges, to insert round the margin of each panel a small separate moulding planted on to the recessed panel. This saved much time and labour, and consequently expense, and is the method pursued in the present day. Its appli cation may be seen in almost any four-panelled door in an ordinary house. This latest form, the " applied " mitred moulding, hardly came into general use so early as the time of Elizabeth or L 2 -Door at Castle Rising, Norfolk, 154 THE DEVELOPMENT OF PANELLING. James — indeed, the date of its earliest occurrence is a question of considerable interest. But mouldings mitred on the solid had almost entirely replaced the older form of stopped mould ings by the end of the sixteenth century. By returning to the illustration ofthe screen at Haddon (Fig. 135), an example may be seen alongside the heavier Gothic work ; and another example, with a much deeper and broader moulding, may be seen in an upper room at the same place (Plate XLL). It is a provoking characteristic of work of this time that its method of treatment does not give an infallible clue to its chronological sequence. In earlier times the mouldings gave this clue : when once a form was superseded by another, it did not occur again; but in the period now under consideration fashion was not so accommodating, and though on the whole the mitred mould ing is later than the stopped moulding and finally super seded it, yet there are early examples of mitring, as in the panelling at the Vyne, which must have been put up before Wolsey's death in 1530, and there are late examples of stopped mouldings in such things as chests, which maybe as late as James I. The pewing and pulpit at Haddon (Plate XLI.) have them, and they are late Elizabethan, if not Jacobean, while the panelling in the dining-room, which is dated 1545, is mitred. The panels themselves, which in early days were decorated with the linen pattern, and subsequently with Italian foliage and heads within circles, became plainer and simpler. In the dining-room at Haddon all the lower panels are plain, while a kind of frieze of ornament is carried round in those next to the cornice. The ornament consists for the most part of coats 140. — Door at Beckington Abbey, Somerset. Haddon Hall, Derbyshire. Bay-window in THE Drawing-room, Plate XLI. Haddon Hall, Derby,shire, Woodwork in THE Chapel. PILASTERS INTRODUCED. 155 of arms from the Vernon pedigree, but there are also heads in circles, linen panels, initials with true lo\-ers' knots, and other devices. All these are carved in relief, but in later times carving gave way to patterns formed by sinking the groundwork and leaving the design on a level with the face of the panel. There was little or no modelling in the design, and the work could be done by a less skilful hand than actual carving would require. An example is to be seen in a door at Beckington Abbey (Fig. 140) : the same kind of work was often applied to the rails of panelling, the face of pilasters, and other plain surfaces. Another specimen, with a little more model ling in it, is at Nailsea Court (Fig. 141). The services of the carver were, how ever, by no means dispensed with, and there is a vast amount of richlyornamented panelling up and down the country, both in houses and churches. The monotony of the con stantly repeated oblongs was broken by the introduction of pilasters, which were themselves fluted or decorated with patterns. Carbrook Hall, near Sheffield, which has now fallen from its former estate, has a very fine panelled room, in which the pilasters are richly decorated with various simple patterns (Plate XLII.). They support a carved frieze, above which is a modelled 141. — Door at Nailsea Court, Somerset, IS a wood cornice, and above this again 156 PANELLING AS DECORATION. two feet deep, forming part of the plaster frieze some handsome ceiling. At Benthall Hall, Shropshire, is another instance where the monotony of the panels is relieved by the introduction of pilasters, and it is also lessened by the presence of the large centre panels (Plate XLIII.) with their greater freedom of treatment. The variation caused by adapting the same design to the narrower panel of the door in the middle bay is also a pleasant relief. The intention here was to rely upon the panelling itself for the 142. — Part of Reredos (removed) at Stowe-Nine-Churches, Northamptonshire. decoration of the room ; there was no thought of hanging pictures on it, which, indeed, would be out of place, and would spoil the effect both of themselves and the paneUing. It may be doubted whether any of the panelling of the time, even the simplest and the most regularly disposed, was intended as a background for other ornament. It was itself the decoration, although, when perfectly simple, it could be used in a restricted way as a background for pictures. But the fashion of hanging up framed paintings and prints had not yet arisen ; when it did arise it rendered wood panelling an inappropriate means for the general decoration of rooms. In the church at Stowe- X X k, HmH< ooow o THE TREATMENT OF PANELLING. 157 Nine-Churches, Northamptonshire, are the remains of some good panelling which once served as a reredos, but which the reforming and restoring zeal of a late incumbent has now relegated to the vestry. There are fluted pilasters here, dividing panels which increase in richness as they ascend^ the upper ones containing boldly projecting heads amid the usual strap-work curls (Fig. 142). Sometimes the panels were made with semicircular heads, which rested upon pilasters furnished with imposts and bases, all the margin being highly ornamented, while the panels themselves were plain, as in the Court pew at Chel vey, in Somerset (Fig. 143). There are many instances of the use of these arched panels : the long gallery at Had don has them in wide and narrow widths alternately; and there is a room in the Red Lodge at Bristol where every panel is arched, the effect thus produced being very rich. At Chelvey the frieze is carved yith a con tinuous pattern, as it was in very many instances, but sometimes it was decorated in a more mechanical way with ovals and oblongs, as at Benthall Hall (Plate XLIII.), and occasionally it was pierced in a very charming manner into a kind of filigree work, as in the remains of a screen at Stowe-Nine-Churches, which has shared the fate ofthe reredos (Fig. 144). The effect of the frieze in this instance is enhanced by its being slightly curved outwards. In later days, instead of cutting down the substance of the wood in order to get carving in relief, the projection was obtained by cutting the ornament out of another piece of wood and applying it to the surfaces that were to be decorated. 143,— Part of the Court Pew, Chelvey Church Somerset. 158 THE TREATMENT OF PANELLING. Some of the ornament at Benthall Hall appears to be treated in this manner. But whatever means were adopted, the end aimed at was the same — namely, an extreme richness of effect : indeed, in some of the panelling and in many of the chimney-pieces the result is bewildering in its intricacy of line. I44-— Part of Screen (removed), Stovve-Nine-Churches, North.ampton shire. /^pMnaw X 0 'i W a Ju ^ CHAPTER VIII. INTERIOR FEATURES {continued). Treatment of the Hall, Screens, Open Roofs. On entering the hall after leaving the courtyard, it was on such panelling as this that the eye rested. The screen which divided the hall from the passage was generally even more richly decorated than the adjacent panelling. Its two door ways were flanked with columns, which carried a complete entablature from side to side of the hall ; above this came the panelled front of the gallery, which was sur- rhounted in its turn perhaps by a series of small arches, per haps by some of the fantastic strap-work peculiar to the time. The spaces between the columns were panelled ; every panel here and above was decorated with carving — usually of shields of arms, but where these were not suitable, as in halls of colleges, then with foliage or allegorical figures. Knole House, in -Kent, has a good example of a screen with heraldic, decoration (Fig. 145). Wadham College, Oxford (Plate XLIV.), has one of comparatively simple character; while for sumptuous effect those at Middle Temple Hall, London, and Trinity College, Cambridge (Plate XLV.), 145, — The Hall, Knole, Kent, i6o SCREENS AND OPEN ROOFS. could hardly be surpassed. Woollas Hall, in Worcestershire, has a good screen of simple character. The illustration on Plate XLVI. gives a view of it looking from the hall. The archway leads into the passage called the "screens," in which can be seen the open door of the principal entrance. The gallery has a balustraded front ; it is carried out over the entrance porch, and is lighted by a small window, visible in Fig. 69, just below the oriel. The hall, having a room over it. 146. — Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire, The Roof of the Great Hall (15S0 — 88), has a flat ceiling, and not an open timber roof. The windows of the hall were usually rather high up, and the walls were panelled up to the sills, but as a rule the sill of the bay window at the dais end was brought down low enough to afford an outlook. Above the panelling the walls were largely occupied by the windows, the spaces between which were hung with " pikes, guns, and bows, with old swords and bucklers that had borne many shrewd blows": or they were filled with pictures, of which a considerable number, chiefly portraits, began to be found in large houses. From the top of the windows sprang tj IT) C o O r Iz; w Plate XLVI. WOOLLAS HALL, WORCESTERSHIRE (1611). screen in the hall. OPEN ROOFS. i6i the roof, the feet of its principals coming down and occupying part of wall space between them. The principals were still constructed in the old hammer-beam manner, even at so late a date as 1604 for Trinity College, Cambridge, and 1612 for Wadham, but all the ornament is of a late type, and gives a very rich effect, the light glancing upwards against the many surfaces of the pendants and the strong lines of the moulded braces. The roof at Middle Temple Hall, built in 1570, is almost as elaborate and fine as that of the Great Hall at Hampton Court, built some forty }-ears before, but the detail 'h; \ ^¦.^ ,t^-. .-'' 7^.' 147. — Roof of Great Hall, Kirby, Northamptonshire (1575). is later in character. The roof of the hall at Wollaton is peculiar in that it is of the hammer-beam type, although sup porting the flat floor of a room over it (Fig. 146). Usually, when there was a room over the hall the ceiling was treated with ornamental rib-work, in the same manner as the other and less lofty rooms : the hall at Knole presents an example of this kind of treatment (Fig. 145). At Kirby there is an unusual form of roof, neither flat nor open timbered, but a kind of barrel-vault formed of four straight faces (Fig. 147) ; each face is divided into large panels b}- moulded and cut oak ribs of large size, and each panel has a curved diagonal rib i62 TREATMENT OF ORDINARY ROOMS. resembling the wind-braces of a Gothic roof. The panels are filled with boarding at the back of the ribs. The Smaller Rooms. Leaving the hall for one of the smaller rooms, we find much the same kind of treatment, but here the ornamental ceiling pla}S an important part in the decoration. The walls were panelled, more or less richly, from floor to ceiling, and were crowned with a carved frieze and projecting cornice, above which started the ceiling ribs. The great chamber at South Wraxall (Plate XLVII.) gives a good idea of the whole effect, but the coved ceiling is somewhat exceptional, and so also is the great projection to the left. This is a mass of masonry required to carry the roofs, but the designer, who found himself obliged to leave it (for this room was contrived in an old house), resolved to face the matter boldly and make an ornamental feature of it. It will be noticed that though the panelling here is quite simple, a good deal of character is obtained by varying the size of the panels in a systematic manner. In the old Town Hall at Leicester there is a good panelled room (Plate XLVIII.), with a handsome chimney-piece and a special seat for the mayor. The work, which bears the date 1637, is simple in design, but is quite as effective and rather more pleasing than many of the more elaborate effects of the time, in which the impression is conveyed that the designers over-exerted themselves. Another good example of rather later date is to be seen at the " Reindeer " Inn, Banbury (Plate XLIX.) ; the panelhng itself is simple, but the doorways and chimney-piece are more elaborate, and the columns which occur at the angles of the window-recess impart considerable vigour to the whole effect. The restraint exhibited and the concentration of the ornament on one or two places is a welcome relief from the superfluity of decoration which not infrequently distinguishes the woodwork of this period. In the broken and curled pediments of the doorway and chimney-piece we get a decided indication that the seventeenth century was well advanced when this work was done. The ceiling here is very richly wrought, and the whole room comes as a surprise in its out-of-the-way situation. Sizergh Hall, in Westmorland, offered a still more elaborate THE OLD TOWN HALL, LKICESTER INTERIOR SIDE OF A ROOM, "REINDEER" INN, BANBURY, OXFORDSHIRE. Pl.^te L. DETAILS OF PANELLING FROM SIZERGH HALL. (NO'W IN SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM.) ^Fm^- Plate LI. -"VA*i.V-n-.,V / : BROUGHTON CASTLE, OXFORDSHIRE, INTERIOR PORCH (ABOUT 1599). INTERNAL PORCHES. 163 example, which has now been erected in South Kensington Museum (Fig. 148 and Plate L.). The panels here are not carved, but inlaid — a method of decoration much in vogue in . Italy, where some exquisite drawing is bestowed upon it, but not prevalent in England. There are a number of instances in dif ferent parts of the country, but, compared with carving, inlay was seldom resorted to. The domed turret in the corner of the .3cal«-oF.£lL_L__jL P rFc^. 148.— Panelling from Sizergh Hall, Westmorland (now in South Kensington Museum), room should be noticed (Fig. 148); it is, in fact, an inside porch contrived so as to allow access between two other rooms without having to come through the third. This device in planning is not of frequent occurrence, but when it was con sidered necessary much care was taken to produce an attractive feature. There are several in the southern counties, notably at Broughton Castle, Oxfordshire (Plate LL), at the Red Lodge, in Bristol, and at Bradfield, in Devonshire. This room 164 DOORWAYS. at Sizergh presents a fresh t\'pe of treatment in the junction of wall and ceiling. In previous examples the wood panelling was carried quite up to the ceiling ; here it stops short by a foot or more, and the space thus left is occupied by a modelled plaster frieze which leads up to the ornamental ceiling. This method was adopted as frequently as the other ; the depth of the plaster frieze varied a good deal, being in one of the rooms at Hardwick Hall as much as six or seven feet, and filled with figure subjects modelled in relief and painted, repre senting hunting and other woodland scenes : the space below the frieze is covered with tapestry instead of panelling (Plate LIE). Doors. Doorways presented another opportunity for the display of design. At Sizergh the door is merely a portion of the panelling on hinges, the porch in which it is hung gives it the requisite importance ; but as a rule the doorways were surrounded with a large amount of decoration. In important houses they were flanked with columns or pilas ters, were surmounted with a frieze and cornice, and often with a pediment ; obelisks stood over the pilasters ; the frieze was fluted or carved or adorned at intervals with heads; some convenient panel was filled with the owner's arms ; nothing was omitted that an extravagant fancy could suggest (Plate LIII.). At Levens Hall, in Westmor land, there is a fine panelled room with a richly orna mented doorway (Plate LIV.), in which fantastic figures support a cornice whereon is set up a panel for the 149. — Doorway, Abbott's Hospital, Guildford, Surrey (1627), H S <; Plate LIII. DOORW.-VY IN A HOUSE AT BRISTOL. Plate LIV, LEVENS HALL, WESTMORELAND A DOORWAY, DOORWAYS. 165 owner's arms, flanked on either hand by a contorted animal. 150. — Latch from Abbott's Hospital, Guildford, In the same district, at Conishead Priory, there is a panelled room of even greater elaboration than this at Levens. Some of the panels are ornamented with mouldings mitred into various pat terns, but most of them have niches with pediments or raised panels sur- rounded with mouldings curved and straight and breaking back in a bewildering manner, while here, there, and everywhere are cherubs' heads and bunches of i5i.-latch from haddon hall. fruit — the whole effect being rather too bizarre. Sometimes the embellishment surrounding the door was in stone or even marble, which being less susceptible of minute 1 66 DOOR FURNITURE. detail was more soberly treated. In smaller houses the treat ment was naturally less elabo rate, but even in places like St. Peter's Hospital, Bristol, and Abbott's Hospital at Guildford, the doorways had much attention bestowed upon them (Fig. 149 and Plate LV.). At Gayton Manor House, in Northamptonshire, there is a still simpler treat ment, the effect being enhanced by projecting the door some inches into the room (Plate LV.). The hinges and latches of the doors and the fastenings of the window case ments were of wrought iron, and were always more or less 152.-L0CK-PLATES, Latches, &c, ornamental There were in variably skill and ingenuity bestowed upon even the smallest I53-— Casement Fastener from Haddon Hall, piece of work. The latch from Abbott's Hospital, illustrated in Fig. 150, is an example of a spring latch, that is to say, Plate LV. -V-U' Doorway, Gayton Manor House, Northamptonshire. Doorway, St. Peter's Hospital, Bristol, DOOR FURNITURE. 167 instead of depending — Key-plate from Abbott's Hospital, Guildford, merely upon its weight to keep it in its place, it is furnished with a spring, and the whole of the simple mechanism is displayed to ^-iew. The plate to which it is fixed is shaped in suitable places, and the latch and its accessories are also ornamented to a certain extent. On the other side of the door would be a handle, something after the fashion of that shown in Fig. 151, which, however, is at Haddon. It is treated in a similar fashion : the plate is slightly ornamented, and the handle itself is wrought into a shape at once convenient to grasp and agree able to the eye. In the casement fasteners a little more ornament was sometimes in dulged in, ad\-antage being taken of the fact that the ironwork was outlined against the light of the window. There are two simple examples shown in Fig. 152, and a more elaborate one in Fig. 153. The same treat ment was applied to the escutcheons of key holes, of which examples are shown in Fig. 152 and Fig. 154; the former also exhibits a lock plate and a drop handle and plate. It will be noticed that the whole of this orna ment, although in some instances it looks rich, is in reality obtained by the simplest means, which consist in the main of cutting a thin plate of metal into a variety of shapes ; there is hardly any modelling about it. This method is characteristic of most of the iron work of the time ; it was only seldom that modelled ornament was indulged in to the extent shown in the knocker and plate illus- ^55- trated in Fig Chimnev-Pieces. A Knocker (i6iS). Much elaboration was bestowed upon the chimne3--pieces, of which, indeed, there are very few simple examples to be met with. They were made of wood, of stone, and of marble. R.A. M i6S CHIMNEY-PIECES. Wood and stone were the more usual materials employed, and it is difficult to say upon which the detail v\'as the more minute. The general idea that controlled the designs was much the same in all cases, but the treatment of it varied. The idea was to flank the fireplace opening with columns carrying an entablature consisting of architrave, frieze, and cornice, the projection of the latter forming a convenient shelf. On the top of this composition was another of the same kind, but with smaller columns and of more delicate proportion. The space enclosed between the columns, which in the lower half was the fireplace, was occupied in the upper half by some kind of carved subject. This was very often the arms of the owner, being either those of the family, or his own special achievement. At Boughton House, in Northamptonshire, there is an example of this kind (Plate LVI.). It is fairly simple in design ; the centre-piece is the Montagu arms ; on the margin of the panel is the motto adopted by Sir Edward Montagu, who caused the work to be done ; and in the frieze below is one of the innumerable Latin aphorisms with which houses of this time abound. The fireplace opening occupies the full width between the sides of the chimney- piece, and if the grate were removed, would give a tolerable idea of the appearance of an Elizabethan fireplace, with its cast-iron fire-back delicately modelled, and the fire-dogs, or andirons, to hold the logs in place. This particular fire-back, however, is of a later date. Almost contemporary with this fireplace at Boughton is one at Lacock Abbey (Plate EVIL), equally simple in design, but executed with more refinement, and having a very unusual adjunct in the shape of a hearth stone ornamented with a pattern inlaid with lead. The two works are likely to be of much the same date, as Sir William Sharington of Lacock died in 1553, and Sir Edward Montagu of Boughton in 1556. At Barlborough, in Derbyshire, there is a fine chimney-piece still fairly simple, in which the upper part is devoted to the owner's personal history (Plate LVIII.). His name was Francis Rodes, a lawyer, and subsequently a justice of the Common Pleas. He married twice. These facts are all set forth on the chimney-piece. His own arms, and those of his two wives, are carved at large, and the names of his wives are printed against their shields. The upper cornice is supported by two caryatides instead of columns, one of whom Plate LVI. STONE CHIMNEY-PIECE FROM BOUGHTON HOUSE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE (before 1556). Plate LVII. .STONE CHIMNEY-PIECE FROM LACOCK ABBEY, WILTSHIRE, (before 1553). Plate LVIII. BARLBOROUGH HALL, DERBYSHIRE (1584). a chimney-piece. Plate LEI H.A.TFIELD HOUSE, HERTFORDSHIRE, chimney-piece in king james's roo.m (about 1612). Plate LX. STONE CHIMNEY-PIECE IN THE GREAT CHAMBER, SOUTH WRAXALL MANOR HOUSE, WILTSHIRE. Plate LM HARDWICK HALL, DERBYSHIRE. A CHIMNEY-PIECE. ALLEGORICAL AND OTHER FIGURES. 169 represents Justice, in allusion to the calling of the .master. At Hatfield House, in a room called after King James, there is a handsome marble chimney-piece, yith a large statue ofthe King in his robes as the centre-piece (Plate LIX.). Here, too, there is an open hearth, with an iron fire-back and handsome andirons. In the great chamber at South Wraxall is a very elaborate stone chimney-piece (Plate EX.), in which the prevailing idea is highly developed. The lower entablature is supported by pairs of caryatides growing out of pilasters, and adorned with bands and swags of flowers. Within the main enclosure is a subordinate margin of mouldings and egg-and- tongue enrichments. The upper part of the composition, though founded on the same idea of columns supporting a crowning cornice, is much elaborated with niches and carved panels. There are no shields of arms, which is rather a curious omission, but instead there are statues of abstract conceptions — Arith- metica, Geometria, Prudentia, and Justitia. The whole effect is extremely handsome, .but it is too intricate to be quite satisfactory. In contrast to this is an interesting chimney-piece in a bedroom at Hardwick Hall, in Derbyshire (Plate LXI.). The material is marble, and the design is unpretending. Its noticeable feature is the panel that serves as overmantel, carved with much grace and spirit. The subject seems to be Apollo and the Nine Muses, though some of the latter appear to have abandoned for the time being the callings over which they presided, in order to join in concerted music. The period of the work is put beyond a doubt by the presence of the royal arms with Elizabeth's supporters, the lion and the dragon, and- of the initials E. R. Panels with figure subjects were not uncommon, although they were not often so well executed as this. Scriptural themes were frequently represented, but they did not necessarily imply any special religious character in the house, and often in some of the other rooms of the same house would be other themes of quite mundane inspiration. At East Quantockshead, in Somerset, a house of the Luttrells, one room has in the overmantel the Descent from the Cross, the next a mermaid with scrollwcrk and flowers, the next the Luttrell arms and the date 1614 : others have Christ Blessing the Children; the Lamentation over Jerusalem, with the city in the distance, and a hen in the foreground gathering her chickens M 2 170 WOOD CHIMNEY-PIECES. under her wings ; and the Agony in the Garden. Another house in that district has the Affliction of Job, with the prin cipal figure represented as being in exceedingly poor case. Occasionally there were no figure subjects, nor even shields, the panels being quite plain, as in the wood chimney-piece at 156. — Wood Chimney-piece, Benthall Hall, Shropshire, Ford House, Newton Abbot (Plate LXII.), where the consider able amount of enrichment serves as ornament only, and does not lend lustre to the family arms. The workmanship is not of the best, and the details of the design are somewhat poor and wanting in imagination, especially in the treatment of the arched panels ; but it is characteristic of a good deal of work Plate LXII, WOOD CHIMNEY-PIECE, FORD HOUSE, NEWTON ABBOT, DEVONSHIRE. Plate LXIII. STONE CHIMNEY-PIECE, WHISTON, SUSSEX. (now out of doors.) Plate XLIV. BOLSOVER CASTLE, DERBYSHIRE ANGLE CHIMNEV-PIECES. 171 of the time. The chimney-piece at Benthall Hall (Fig. 156) is far more beautifully conceived. It departs from the regular treatment in the disposition of the main panels. There is great freedom about the play of the strap-work and figures surrounding the cartouches, and if it be compared with the panelling in the same room (Plate XLIII.), it will be seen that while preserving the same general idea, there is a special richness about this part of the work which is quite appropriate to it as being the chief feature of the room. It will be seen that here, too, the car touches in the upper panels bear coats of arms. At Whiston, in Sus sex, there is a stone chimnej'- piece which has got excluded from the house, and now adorns an outside wall. It is of unusual design (Plate LXIII.), but the family arms form the centre-piece, and are flanked by 157. — Stone Chimney-piece, Bolsover Castle, Drkbyshire. figures of warriors in recesses divided by small, 'elegant columns. In the upper part is a circular panel containing two subjects, of which it is difficult to decipher the meaning ; the figures, however, are in violent action. Bolsover Castle contains Some of the most striking examples of chimney-pieces to be found in the country. They are all in stone or marble, and have a variety and originality of design which are quite remarkable. Two of them are iUustrated on Plate LXIV. There are also a number of small ones fitted into corners of the rooms 172 HERALDRY ON CHIMNEY-PIECES. (Fig. 157), and it will bs seen that the walls against which the chimney-piece is placed are faced with stone to receive it, and that this plain stonework is surrounded with a moulding against which the wood panelling stops. There was a chimney-piece of unusually good design and ¦workmanship in the palace of Bromley-by-Bow: it is now in the South Kensington Museum (Plate LXV.). The composi tion does not quite follow the usual lines, inasmuch as the upper part, or overmantel, is not a repetition in idea of the lower. Nor is it divided into panels of equal width and height ; the large central panel, which contains the royal arms, is the dominating feature, and is flanked on either side by a niche of much less width and height. The upper half is wedded to the lower by the bosses on the boldly carved shelf, which carry down the main lines of the columns. The arms are those of James I., as the second and third quarters are Scotland and Ireland respectively, and one of the supporters is the Scottish unicorn. In another house near London, at Enfield, there was a well-designed chimney-piece, figured in Richardson's Studies from Old English Mansions, in which the royal arms and badges were the centre-pieces ofthe composition. The part above the fireplace was divided by columns into thjee panels, of which the middle one was the largest, and contained the arms of Elizabeth with her red dragon as one of the supporters. Of the side panels, one was occupied by the rose crowned and the other by the portcullis crowned. In the smaller panels below these, and between the pedestals on which the columns restedj. were the royal initials E. R., and a Latin sentence expressing a pious aphorism. It is not certain whether this house belonged to the Crown, or whether this display of regal heraldry was a compliment to the Queen on the part of the grateful owner. In either case the making of arms and badges the chief objects of interest in the composition, and the introduction of the Latin aphorism on a conspicuous panel are quite characteristic of the time. At Castle Ashby, in Northamptonshire, is a chimney- piece (Plate LXVI.) treated in much the same way as that from Bromley. It was not designed for the house, and therefore the heraldry is not so apposite as usual. The central panel contains the arms of the owner set in an elaborate framework of fanciful carving. On either side is a niche containing a figure of one of the virtues. The columns which support the cornice are richly Plate LXVI CASTLE ASHBY, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, a chimney-piece. ORNAMENT ON CEILINGS. 173 car\-ed in low relief, as also are the mantel-shelf and the friezes below it. On the lower of the friezes the family arms are repeated, and in the centre is the crest. The opening of the fireplace is flanl^ed on either side by a female figure, which changes in a provoking way into strap-work and the semblance of a pilaster. The whole effect is rich, and the principles dominating the composition are at once recognizable, but the details are too fantastic to be quite agreeable. Ceilings. Of all the architectural work of the time of Elizabeth and James, that which was peculiarly English is to be found in the ceilings. It was a development of native tradition, and although, like all other work of the time, it was influenced by Italian models, it retained its individuality with great tenacity, and in no other country can the same special de velopment of design be found. The root- 15s.— Ceiung of the presence Chamber, Hampton idea of an Elizabethan ''°""" ^"" '"* ceiling is to cover the space with a shallow projecting rib forming a more or less regular pattern. The ribs varied in section, and the patterns varied in form. The ribs and the panels they enclosed were sometimes perfectly plain, sometimes highly deco rated with modelled work ; and between these two extremes were infinite gradations — plain ribs and decorated panels, or plain panels and decorated ribs, the decoration varying from something quite simple to ornament of much elaboration. The plainest examples^ are sufficient to give character to a room, while the richest are bewildering in the intricacy of the pattern and the minuteness of the detail. The origin of the idea is to be found in the treatment adopted by the late Gothic joiners. When they had a large flat surface to deal with, they divided it into panels by moulded wood ribs, and they frequently covered the intersection of the ribs with a carved boss or with carved foliage. Their main lines, being 174 DEVELOPMENT OF CEILING ORNAMENT. formed of wood, were straight ; their panels rectilinear and often rectangular, the whole treatment being suggested by the moulded constructional timber of earher roofs. At Hampton Court, in the portions built by Wolsey and Henry VIIL, there are .several ceilings of this kind still left. The ribs are arranged in simple geometrical patterns with straight hues. In the watch ing chamber, at the end of the Great Hall, these ribs are of a fair size, both in width and depth, and at certain intersections they are bent downwards to form a pendant after the fashion prevalent in the stone vaulting of the time (Fig. 158). Some ofthe panels thus enclosed are adorned with a kind of indepen dent circular boss formed of a wreath surrounding one of the 159. — Bosses from Ceilings at Hampton Court. royal badges, or even the royal arms. These bosses are not carved, but modelled in papier mdche, or some similar sub stance, and they, together with the wood ribs, are secured to the joists above. Two of these bosses are illustrated in Fig. 159, and it is in the wreaths of these comparatively unim portant adjuncts that the only touch of tha new fashion is to be found. Other rooms have ceilings of which the ribs are much smaller in depth and width : the ribs are again arranged in patterns with straight lines, and at their intersections there are four small leaves of lead nailed on, the whole junction being covered with a small plain wood boss, which forms the centre of the flower. At other intersections each of the four angles of FLy_T= LXVII. HAMPTON COURT PALACE. ceiling of cardinal wolsey's CLOSET. EARLY CEILINGS IN ENGLAND. 175 the flat ceihng is occupied with a small modelled head in foliage, all of papier indche ; one of these is also shown in Fig. 159. The four insertions taken together form a circle, which is divided into four quadrants by the intersecting ribs (Fig. 160) ; and the whole arrangement is the first step towards the elaborate decoration which was afterwards introduced, when the facility with which plaster can be worked was recognized and acted on. Another, though somewhat similar, tj'pe of ceiling is to be found in a little room called Cardinal Wolsey's Closet ; but here the decoration is more general, and is founded more directly on the Italian manner (Plate LXVII.). The ceiling is divided by wood ribs into rectilinear panels of small size and simple design ; the intersections of the ribs are covered, in the manner already mentioned, with a plain wood boss and lead leaves bent down into the angles ; each panel is filled with Italian decoration modelled in papier mdche ; the whole is screwed up to the floor-joists above. The effect is very rich and elaborate. There is also a frieze on the wall which formed partof the design, although its precise relation to the ceiling can no longer be detected owing to modern alterations. The relation was pro bably something like what we see to-day (Plate LXVII.), but a close scrutiny shows that the connecting links between the ceiling and the frieze have disappeared ; there must have been some kind of moulded cornice. There can be little doubt that the spacing of the panels in the frieze was made to agree with those of the ceiling, and that it had a moulding of some importance at the top to connect it with the ceiling, and corre sponding to the border which it still retains at the bottom, on which is painted repeatedly Wolsey's motto " Dominus mihi adjutor." The panels in the frieze are ornamented in a manner corresponding with the ceiling panels, which all contain either a rose or a fleur-de-lys, the devices of Henry VIII. This 160. — PATF.RA TO A CeILING AT HaMPTON Court, 176 ORNAMENT IN WOOD. ceiling is of great interest, because it is one of the earliest of a highly decorated kind left to us — for the Tudor joiners placed little, if any, decoration in their panels ; it is more Italian in manner than any other that survives, and it is formed of wood ribs and modelled filling, which were made elsewhere and then brought to the room to be fitted and fi.xed in position. From the occurrence of Wolsey's motto in the frieze, it is .probable that this work was done by him ; it would conse quently date prior to his death in 1530. Richardson, in his Architectural Remains of the Reigns of Elizabeth and fames I., gives a large drawing of a ceiling in the Chapel Royal, St. James's, dated 1540, which is very similar in character to Wolsey's. It con sists of small geo- metrical panels formed by wood ribs, enclosing rich designs in the Italian manner, among which the King's devices are constantly re peated, together with the date, the initials of Henry and Anne of Cleves, and such mottoes as " Vivat rex," " Stet diu felix." If the latter aspiration were fulfilled, it certainly was not in conjunction with the wife whose initials are on this ceiling that the wished-for happi ness was attained, for she was divorced in Juty, 1540; and we therefore incidentally learn that the ceiling must have been put up in the first half of that year. In addition to the ornament already mentioned the King's arms frequently occur. The ribs in this case are broader than those at Hampton Court, and they are ornamented with a running pattern cast in lead. These two ceilings are the most Italian in character which have survived. The type does not seem to have been generally adopted ; but it was rather a simpler one, founded more directly on Tudor methods, which was developed. The wood 161. — Part of the Ceiling in the Long Gallery, Haddon Hall, Derbyshire, Plate LXVIII. DEENE HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE CEILING OF A BEDROOM, ORNAMENT IN PLASTER, 177 ribs were replaced by plaster, and in the more plastic material they were no longer kept in straight lines, but were curved into an infinite variety of pat terns, more or less intricate. The intersec tions were sometimes, but not often, covered with foliage ; as a rule they were left bare, but where the pat- tern 1 e ft a salient angle the lower 162, — Part of a Coved Ceiling at Beckington Abbey, Somerset, members ofthe moulding were carried out to form the stalk of some foliage, ' as may be seen in the long gallery at Haddon (Fig. 161), and also at South Wraxall (Plate XLVII.L The ribs, which at first were of a section simi lar to that of their predecessors in wood, soon assumed other proportions : they in creased in width and lessened in depth; they sometimes ceased to have any mouldings, and became more like ribbons or straps, as in the example from Beckington Abbey (Fig. 162), but more often they retained their moulded edges, and were ornamented on the flat face with a minute running pattern, such as that at Deene Hall (Plate LXVIII.), and the " Reindeer " Inn, Banbury (Plate LXIX.). The strap-work ribs — CuVliU CkILINO, BtLKiNUlU.N Somerset. lyS STRAP-WORK ORNAMENT. did not form such regular set patterns as the others : they enclosed a panel here and there, but wandered off into spirals and scrolls, and were emphasized at intervals by little orna mental knobs, such as may be seen in the ceiling of the gallery at Charlton House, Wiltshire. It was by no means necessary for the ceilings to be fiat. Indeed, this kind of decoration was exactly suited for application to coved ceilings such as that already seen at South Wraxall (Plate XLVII.), and that at Beckington Abbey (Fig, 163), where there is not only the main vault of the ceiling, but also a subsidiary cove af the side. ¦ K^couie • oF- f , I t -T.isdi 164. — Part of a Ceiling from Sizergh Hall, Westmorland (now in South Kensington Museum), the curved face of which is ornamented with a variation of the principal pattern. The end wall of the room is also decorated in a similar way in the upper part where its shape is controlled by the curves of the ceiling. The example at Beckington Abbey is among the more formal of those where the strap- work type was employed ; there are panels of regular shape, and the scrolled ends balance one another. But in some instances the strap-work conformed in its course to no regular pattern at all ; it twisted and interlaced and bent itself back upon no system whatever, except that of covering the surface evenly, and of gathering itself into a knot or of surrounding a Plate LXIX. THE REINDEER INN, BANBURY, OXFORDSHIRE CEILING. FORMAL PATTERNS. 179 pendant at regular intervals, the result being that the most prominent features stand out in regular arra\- from a mazy background that requires concentrated attention to follow. There is a ceiling of this kind among the many beautiful examples at Audley End. These erratic designs were used 165. — Ceiling from Benthall Hall, Shropshire, simultaneously with others of much severer character, where the pattern is of the simplest in structure, and richness of effect is derived from its frequent repetition, and from the ornament in the panels. Such an example is to be seen at Sizergh (Fig. 164), and others, slightly more elaborate, at Aston Hall (Plates LXX., LXXI.), where the modelling is beau tifully delicate and varied. But in both these examples the i8o FORMAL PATTERNS. proportion is so carefully managed that the shape of the panels, which is the foundation of the design, is not obscured by the patterns which occupy them. The effect is equally rich in both, although the width of the rib and the manner of its decoration are varied. These ceilings are fairly late in date, as Aston Hall was being budt from 1618 to 1635, and comes quite at the end of the period under discussion, but they retain all the charac teristics of Elizabethan and Jacobean work. Another example 166. — Ceiling in Gate-house, Haddon Hall, Derbyshire. of the formal kind is at Benthall Hall (Fig. 165), where the main panels are all of oblong rectangular shape, and are filled with strap-work enrichment surrounding an elliptical boss. The patterns are varied in every case, and exhibit considerable ingenuity in obtaining the same general effect with entirely different disposition of lines. It will also be seen, by comparing this ceiling with the panelling and chimney-piece in the same room (Plate XLIII. and Fig. 156), that they are all en suite, and not, as is often the case, designed without relation one to the other. Plate LXX. P( ]o( PI /O) :,.,., /•!..., c.i. I) <:.-^"ig"'' CEILING OF THE GREAT CHAMBER, ASTON HALL, NEAR BIRMINGHAM (CIR. 1635). Plate LXXI. CEILING OF KING CHARLES' BEDROOM GENERAL PLAA' or CEILING IZ 6 O 6 feet IS fact CEILING OF KING CHARLES' BEDROOM, ASTON HALL, NEAR BIRMINGHAM (CIR. 1635,) HERALDRY IN CEILINGS. i8i The ceiling at the " Reindeer" Inn, Banbury (Plate LXIX.), is also thoroughly Jacobean, although, from the stj-le of the wood panel ling, the room must date from well on in the seventeenth century. Soon after this time the large unbroken space of the ceilings began to be cut up into large panels by cross-beams : the spaces thus formed were still of considerable size, and were decorated in the old manner, as ma^- be seen in a room in the entrance tower at Haddon (Fig. i66), and at Carbrook Hall, Sheffield (Plate XLII.). But it was an easj^ step to omit this surface decoration, and when that was done, the ceilings became the large coffered ceilings characteristic of the style which followed the Jacobean. As in the chimney-pieces, so in the ceilings, a favourite method of ornamentation was to introduce the owner's arms and badges. Of the examples given here only two, as it hap pens, illustrate this custom — the ceilings at Haddon (Fig. i6i) and Sizergh (Fig. 164), The square panel at Haddon encloses a shield surrounded by a delicate strap-work border, and bearing the arms of Manners impaling \'ernon, the work having been done by the Sir John Manners who came into possession of Haddon through his marriage with Dorothy Vernon, one of the co-heiresses of her father. Sir George, called the King of the Peak. At Sizergh one of the panels encloses a shield of arms, and others a badge. There is a very splendid ceiling in the gallery at Blickling, in Norfolk, wherein various badges are introduced, and another at Apethorpe, in Northamptonshire. Others might be named, but the custom was not so widespread in the case of ceilings as of chimney-pieces, perhaps owing to the plasterers having a number of stock designs from which they worked, and which, of course, would not include the arms of any special family. There seems no doubt that the plasterers did have such stock designs, but it is curious how seldom they are found repeated ; J67. — Pendants of Plaster Ceilings. 1 82 SIMPLICITY OF ORNAMENT. hardly anywhere, indeed, can two designs be found which are exactly alike. Besides heraldic ornament, there was a certain amount of modeUed figure subjects of the usual kind — allegorical, mytho logical, and scriptural ; but English plasterers were not very good at modelling the human figure, and it seems to have been generally recognized that a ceiling is not the most favourable position for a close study of detail, and the effect aimed at was MUtc^aw ^I J3i».c=iJ.feS^^[^„^lt^ j '^^^^^"^^^-'yT^:^ i6S. — Examples of Plaster Friezes from Montacute, Audley End, and Charlton House, Wiltshire. one of general richness which did not demand minute investi gation — such as, for instance, is necessary to appreciate one of Verrio's painted ceilings — and yet which repaid such scrutiny if subjected to it. Most of the ornament was of a kind which no one would examine unless specially interested — as a draughtsman, for instance, might be ; but in some cases the beautiful modelling induces even the casual visitor to put his neck to inconvenience, as he gladly would do to see the Fish ceiling at Audley End, where the panels enclose a number of excellently modelled fishes and other denizens, real and PENDANTS AND CORNICES. 183 imaginary, of the ocean, and where the pendants are of unusual beauty. Pendants of more or less projection were another means of adding variet}- and interest to the design (Fig. 167), and they varied in size from a mere excrescence to an elaborate shaft, supported by figures half human, half foliage, which served to hang the lamp from. This shaft would only occur in the centre of the design, but the lesser pendants were introduced at regular intervals and accentuated its salient points. Another kind of ceiling had no considerable ribs at all, but was covered 169.— Plaster Frieze from Montacute House, Somerset. with a flowing pattern in low relief, so arranged as to fall into a more or less symmetrical design. This is by no means a usual form, but there is an example at Burton Agnes, in York shire, and another, which stands halfway between the two ideas, in the gallery at Chastleton, in Oxfordshire. At the junction of the ceiling and the wall was a series of mouldings forming a cornice : these were sometimes in wood and formed the crowning member of the oak panelhng, and sometimes they were in plaster. Beneath them on the surface of the wall there was frequently a plaster frieze of more or less depth. Occasionally it was only a few inches deep, as in the R.A. N 1 84 CORNICES. drawing-room at Haddon (Plate XLL), but more usually it was from two to three feet, and in one room at Hardwick it was much deeper, as already mentioned (see Plate LII.). The narrower friezes were ornamented with some kind of running pattern, the wider ones were divided into panels in various ways, and often displayed the family arms. Examples of the narrower kind in plaster may be seen on Plates LIII. and LXXVI., while others forming part of the panelling are shown on Plates XLIII., XLVII., and XLIX. Sizergh Hall (Plate L.) has a frieze on the wood panelling and another in plaster above it. Examples of different kinds of friezes are given in Fig. i68, and one of considerable depth, and adorned with shields set in large panels, is shown from Montacute (Fig. 169). A fairly deep frieze is to be seen at Carbrook (Plate XLII.), of which a small part of the detail is shown in Fig. 170. An example of the way in which a pattern was fitted into an unusually-shaped space is shown in Fig. 171. 170. — Part of Plaster Frieze, Carbrook Hall, near Sheffield, 171. — Ceiling of a Triangular Bay Window at Little Charlton, Kent. CHAPTER IX. INTERIOR FEATURES {continued). STAIRCASES, GALLERIES, GLAZING. The staircases of the early part of the sixteenth century followed the old fashion, and were of the "corkscrew" type, winding round a central newel. They were built of stone or brick, and were hardly, if at all, ornamented. Then, quite suddenly, the fashion changed, and they were constructed of wood in straight, broad flights, with frequent landings. Everyone who has been up a church tower knows how tiring it is to climb the winding, never-ending steps, unrelieved by anything in the shape of a landing. It is somewhat less fatiguing to mount one of the grand circular staircases of the chateaux on the Loire, the task being lightened by the greater width of the steps and the introduction of more frequent landings. But the management of the landings is one of the great difficulties in a spiral staircase, because they break the regular sweep of the architectural lines. Whether English craftsmen recognized this difficulty from what they saw in France, or whether the idea of improving the circular type did not occur to them, it is impossible to say ; but no attempt in this direc tion was made, unless it may have been at Rothwell Market- house (1577), where a circular staircase of considerable width was intended, although no remains of the actual stairs exist. There seems to be no intermediate type between the stone spiral and the straight flight in wood. In France, and especially in the district of the Loire, the old narrow, difficult steps were wonderfully improved; from being merely a means of ascending, they became elaborate pieces of work, upon which much inge nuity of contrivance and ornament was bestowed. From being two or three feet wide, they became ten or twelve. Instead of curling up a narrow turret, they occupied a considerable tower, and the tower, being one of the chief features of the house, had to be treated with great care. Much fancy was expended upon the internal treatment ; a handrail was worked upon the newel, N 2 i86 FRENCH STAIRCASES. and wound round it in a continuous line ; another projection formed a plinth, a third served as a cornice ; another cornice followed the sweep of the steps where they rested on the outside 172 — Staircase at Li\EDEN Old Building, Northamptonshire. wall : everything was done to make the constructional features serve as ornaments, and the results were some of the most interesting and curious pieces of stonework that can be seen. But nothing of the kind was attempted in England. The Plate LXXII. STAIRCASE FROM BURGHLEY HOUSE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. STONE STAIRCASE AT BURGHLEY. 187 173. — Details of Staircase, Hambleton Old Hall, Rutland. nearest approach is the stone vaulted staircase at Burghley House (Plate LXXIL), which resembles some of those in France, where the steps are carried in straight flights instead of round a central newel. There is such an instance at the Chateau de Chenonceaux, where the two straight flights are on either side of a di\'iding wall, the lower flight merging into the upper by means of winding stairs. These winding stairs were eschewed by English designers, who nearly always kept to straight runs, and at Burghley the two main flights are connected by a shorter one across the landing. The date of this staircase is not quite certain, but it probably belongs to the work which was being done about the year 1556. The idea of stone vaulted stairs, however, did not obtain any hold in England, and there are very few examples to be found. All the finest staircases are of wood, and they seem to have sprung into being without any gradual growth ; the connecting links between them and the old corkscrew type, if there were any, 174.— Staircase from East Quantockshead, Somerset. haVC disappeared. CONSTRUCTION OF STAIRCASES. The principle upon which these wood staircases were con structed may be compared to that of the ladder, where the sides of the ladder are replaced by deep and comparatively narrow pieces of wood called "strings," and the rungs are replaced by the treads and risers. One side of this amplified ladder was placed hard on to the wall, the foot of the other was secured into a stout upright post, or " newel," as also was the top : into the same newel that received the top of the first )4< i75.^Details of Staircase, Lyveden Old Building, Northamptonshire, string the foot of the second was secured at right angles, and so onwards and upwards as far as the staircase extended. At about two feet above the top of the string, and parallel to it, was the handrail, and between the handrail and the string were fixed the balusters. The top of the first flight leant against a flat landing, on which also the foot of the next flight rested. The construction, therefore, was extremely simple in principle, far simpler than that of the continuous winding flights of the eighteenth century ; but the component parts were often highly decorated. All the woodwork was of fairly large dimen sions; the newels were six, seven, or eight inches square, the. handrail was generally nearly as wide as the newel, the strings were three inches thick or even more, the balusters were Plate LXXIII. PLANS OF STAIRCASES FROM JOHN THORPE'S DRAWINGS IN THE SOANE MUSEUM. PLANS OF STAIRCASES. 189 proportionately massive. The flights were five or six feet wide, and comprised usuallyabout six steps, although they were longer when necessity demanded it. The plans on Plate LXXIII. show various arrangements of staircases taken from John Thorpe's collection of plans in the Soane Museum. Nos. i and 2 are the most usual types, and of these No. i is the more frequent. The space to be occupied by the stairs is divided into nine equal squares, of which those in the corners represent the landings, while the intermediate ones are occupied by the steps; the middle square is the "well- hole." The staircase at Lyveden Old Building, in Northamptonshire, is planned on this principle, and the effect can be seen in the sketch in Fig. 172. The flights in this case consist of seven steps each. This arrange ment is very simple, but it necessitates the access to the upper rooms being from one of the comparatively small corner landings. Another plan, giving a larger landing at the top, is shown in No. 2, and an ampli fication of the same idea is given in No. 3, where, alarger number of steps being required, the sides have two flights with an inter- mediate landing. Sometimes the central square, in stead of being occu pied by an open well-hole, was either a solid block or a shell of masonry, round the four sides of which the steps ascended. Such an arrangement is shown in No. 5, where 176, — Pierced Baluster, SacAoi. ^.. //„ -'-^I'l.r r r f I- r [• r r I' r r r T -i- I77-— Staircase at Ockwells Manor House, Berkshire. igo PLANS OF STAIRCASES. also may be seen some winding steps in one of the corners ; but these winders are not of frequent occurrence, short straight flights being the rule. These four types are those most frequently adopted. Of the others. No. 4 is an instance of the employment of winders, and shows the somewhat unusual .iW, 178.— Staircase at Ockwells Manor House, Berkshire. Plans and Details, arrangement of two lower flights combining into one upper flight; No. 6, being in a turret, consists wholly of winders; and Nos. 7 and 8 are instances of a rather grander style of planning, in which it is evident that considerable effect was aimed at. The plans varied, of course, according to the dis position of the rooms to be reached ; the chief characteristics BALUSTERS AND NEWELS. igi were simplicity of construction and massiveness of effect. In the less important houses the work \\-as fairly plain : the newels were unornamented, except for a shaped top ; the string was moulded at the top and bottom ; the balusters were merely stout turned bars. But there was much variety imparted to 179. — Staircase at Benthall Hall, Shropshire. the turning, and while many of the outlines are rather clumsy, many of them also exhibit considerable subtlety and refine ment. To increase the richness of effect the newels were ornamented either with carving, or with a pattern contrived by sinking the groundwork, thus leaving the pattern itself raised and at the same level as the general face of the newel. The tops of the newel were sometimes little more than round 192 TREATMENT OF NEWELS knobs, as at Hambleton Old Hall (Fig. 173), and a house at Warwick (Fig. 180) ; but more often they projected far above the handrail and were shaped in a variety of ways, of which four examples of varying degrees of elaboration are given from East Quantockshead (Fig. 174), Lyveden Old Building {Fig. 175), Ockwells Manor House (Figs. 177, 178), and the Charterhouse (Fig. 181). They were sometimes made the pede stals upon which figures were placed — such as boys playing in struments, as at Hatfield ; or warriors in various guises, as at Blickling; or the animal sacred to the particular family concerned, and hallowed in their sight by being borne in their coat of arms. The newels at the Charter house carry a crest by way of finial (Fig. 181). Then the outer surface of the outer string would be also carved (Figs. 179 and 181), or decorated with a pattern ; and the balusters would some times be flat pieces of wood shaped and pierced in a variety of patterns (Fig. 176). Sometimes, instead of balusters there was a series of arches springing from small columns and following the upward rake of the stairs ; as at Ockwells Manor House (Figs. 177, 178), and the Charterhouse (Fig. 181). Or, again, 180. — Staircase at Warwick. AND BALUSTRADE. 193 the balustrade would consist of woodwork cut and slightly carved into a version of the favourite strap-work pattern, like that 181. — Staircase at the Charterhouse, at Benthall Hall, Shropshire (Fig. 179). Not infrequently the space at command forbade the arranging of the flights at right angles to each other ; the second flight then returned side 194 THE GREAT CHAMBER. by side with the first. In such cases either the newels were increased in width sufficiently to take both the handrails, or the handrail and string intersected each other in the way shown on Fig. i8o. Occasionally, when a little space divided the flights, the great newels were carried up and joined to each other by wood arches, as in the instance of a stair case at Audley End (Plate LXXIV.) : this kind of treat ment occasionally produced a most intricate result, of which a careful study is required in order to make out what are its component parts. There was no end to the variety which the workmen imparted to the simple constructional features which were the groundwork of the design. The points which were always aimed at were breadth of way, ease of ascent, massive appear ance, and very frequently richness of effect. The series of stout newels going up and up in a long procession, each crowned with a handsome finial or heraldic animal, alone is enough to lend stateliness to the staircase; and when these are supplemented with quaint balusters, or a row of arches, or, as in later days, with a carved foliated filling, beyond which is seen the highly ornamented string of the upper flight, the whole effect is particularly striking. As a rule the flights were short, from six to eight steps being considered enough between the various landings, but the number varied according to the height to be attained and the space at command. These fine staircases were clearly made for show as well as use, because it not infrequently happens that having reached the first floor, which was their chief object, they sweep upwards with equal grandeur to the next, where there are only insignificant attics. The upper staircase, however, although it leads to no important room, would be in full view of those who came to the first floor ; and it was on this floor that some rooms were placed which were the resort of all who were staying in the house — namely, the Great Chamber and the Long Gallery. The great chamber was, among princes and nobles, the presence chamber, where they received guests. It was the "Great Chamber of Estate." In smaller houses it answered much the same end as the drawing- room of the present day. Even so inconsiderable a person as Slender, who was a small squire, had a great chamber in Plate LXXIV. STAIRCASE AT AUDLEY END, ESSEX. DIMENSIONS OF GALLERIES. 195 his house, which he took care to mention casually in the course of his controversy with Falstaff as to the picking of his pocket. The Long Gallery. The Long Gallerj' is a feature peculiarl}- characteristic of the times of Elizabeth and James. Mention has already been made of this apartment, and of the fact that not a few houses were speciall)- planned so as to obtain a gallery of great length. Some of them were extravagant in this respect, the length being as much as eight and ten times the width. At Buckhurst House the gallery was 254 feet long by 16 feet wide, at Ampt- hill 245 feet by 22 feet, but it is not quite certain that these were not divided into two lengths each. John Thorpe shows the gallery at Slaugham Place to be 200 feet by 27 feet, Audley End probably 190 feet by zf feet, Holdenby 140 feet by 22 feet, Aston Hall 140 feet by 18 feet, Copthall 136 feet by 22 feet, Burghley 128 feet by 18 feet, and Wollaton 100 feet b}' 18 feet. Others, to which there are no names, are 200 feet by 20 feet, 150 feet by 25 feet, and 150 feet by 17 feet, besides many of 80 feet in length by widths varying from 10 feet to 21 feet. The purpose of such a long apartment has never been fully explained : it may have been for exercise ; it may have had its origin from reasons of display or in imitation of royal palaces, where its use as an ante-room to the royal closet is easily understood ; or it ma}' have been merely a development in planning dictated by fashion, each person vying with his neighbour to obtain a long room. But, however this may be, no Elizabethan or Jacobean house of any size was without its long gallery, which was ornamented in the same way as the great chamber, the parlours, and the hall. The waUs were either hung with tapestry or panelled, the ceiling was richly moulded, the fireplaces, of which there were two or three in the length, were large and elaborate. The porch of the house was often carried up to form a bay window in the middle of the length, and advantage was taken of other opportunities to break up the extreme length by projections at the side. It was almost always on the topmost floor, where space was of less importance for other purposes ; but as many of the houses were only two storeys high, it was usually easy of access, and, of course, it was approached 196 THE LEGEND OF DOROTHY VERNON. by one, or oftener two, of the principal staircases. .The room at Haddon, now called the ballroom, is in reality the long gallery (Plate LXXV.). It is no feet 6 inches long by 17 feet 4 inches wide, and its extreme length is broken along one side by three large projecting bays, the middle one of which, measuring 15 feet by 11 feet 6 inches, is itself large enough for a fair-sized room. The legend of the elopement of Dorothy Vernon from this " ballroom " is a modern inven tion which confuses the public mind in regard to the household arrangements of that period, for Dorothy's father, who greatly embellished Haddon, lived during the prevalence of the Late Tudor style, and had no such .huge apartment: it was her husband who fashioned this long gallery in Elizabeth's time, and adorned it in the manner then prevalent. This may seem a small point to insist on, and to the general public no doubt it is ; but to the student, whose imagination naturally clings to the picturesque legend, it is important to realize that the work in the "ballroom" was not done by Dorothy's father, who belonged to the Tudor era, but by her husband, who belonged to the Elizabethan. But leaving this point, it may be remarked that the gallery is panelled with unusual richness, and the ceiling is felt to be in harmony with the rest of the work, although the moulded rib is but small, and the pattern it makes is simple. It may also be noted that there is but one fireplace in the whole length of no feet, which must have been quite inadequate, according to modern ideas. The gallery at Aston Hall (Plate LXXVI.) is a fine example of its kind. The walls are panelled from the floor nearly up to the ceiling, only sufficient space being left above the wood work for a plaster frieze. The panels have an arched enrich ment in each of them, in accordance with the fashion prevalent in King James's time, and they are divided into bays by shallow pilasters, fluted above, and ornamented with imitation rustic work below. The ceiling is of great richness, and itself goes a long way towards " furnishing " the room. There is a row of windows down one side, and a large one at the end. The Hall is now used as a museum, and the rail, which occupies a conspicuous position in the illustration, serves to protect the articles exhibited. Although it is tolerably certain that Sir George Vernon had no such room as the long gallery, it is not quite clear that Plate LXXV HADDON HALL, DERBYSHIRE. THE LO.NG (j.\LLEKY. «;o H CHARACTER OF ORNAMENT IN GLAZING. 197 houses in his time were all without them, for at Hampton Court, in the time of Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour, there was the Queen's long gallery, which was 180 feet long by 25 feet wide, lighted on both sides, and having, like Haddon, three bay windows down one side, the middle one of which was not square but circular.* But although the palace had such an apartment, there is no evidence that the smaller houses in general possessed them until the time of Elizabeth, when they became of universal adoption. Glazing. The windows in the gallery at Hampton Court were glazed with heraldic glass displaying the arms, badges, and mottoes of the King and Queen. This was in accordance with the custom of the time, the principal windows being generally more or less filled with heraldic devices relating to the family who owned the house. Much of this splendid decoration throughout the country has disappeared, but enough is left to show that the treatment of the glass followed the same lines as the carving of stone and wood. In the early part ofthe century it consisted of dainty foliage, vases,' candelabra, scrolls, and the quaint animals with attenuated bodies, which are characteristic of Italian ornament. Toward the end of the century these were replaced with the strap-work and the great bunches of fruit and flowers which we owe to Dutch designers. A small part of an early pattern from Ightham Church is illustrated in Fig. 182 ; among the Italian vases and flowers is the English portcullis, the badge of the Tudor family, more particularly of Henry VII. A good example of the later treatment, when the Dutch strap-work was in vogue, is given in a panel from Moreton Old Hall on Plate LXXVIL The strap- work is merely an ornamental border to the shield bearing the family device, and is treated in the same way as that which sur rounds most of the shields on the tombs of the period. There 182. — Portion OF Glazing from Ightham Church, Kent. Law, Vol. I., HERALDIC GLASS AT GILLING CASTLE. is a fair amount of sixteenth century glass to be found up and dowm the country, but it is mostly in small pieces, either saved from the wreck of larger windows, or consisting of detached coats of arms. The finest displa)- of the later glass that has survived is that in the dining-room of Gilling Castle, in Yorkshire, 183.— Glass Panel from one of the Windows at Gilling Castle, Yorkshire (1585). where there are several large windows full of beautiful heraldic glazing. Much of it was the work of a Dutchman, Bernard Dininckhoff, who signs one of the panels with the date 1585 (Fig. 183). The hah of the Middle Temple also has some good heraldic glass which is dated 1570. There were good English glaziers both before and after Dininckhoff's time. At Hengrave the old glass, dated 1567, was the work of Robert Wright, Plate LXXVII. GL.\SS PANEL FROM MORETON OLD HALL, CHESHIRE. Plate LXXVIII. PATTERNS FROM "A BOOKE OF SUNDRY DRAUGHTES.' BY -WALTER GEDDE (1615). DESIGN FOR GLAZING. 199 who was paid £4 for the " making of all the glasse wyndows of the Manour-place, with the sodar, and for xiij. skutchens with armes."* In the year 1615 one Walter Gedde published abookof pattern glazing called "A Booke of Sundry Draughtes. Principally serving for Glasiers ; And not Impertinent for Plasterers and Gardiners: besides sundry other Professions. Whereunto is annexed the manner how to anniel in Glas ; And also the true forme of the Furnace, and the secretes thereof," in which he gives 103 pages of designs for lead glazing of varying merit, out of which four have been selected for illustration on Plate LXXVIII. Few, if any, of these designs have survived in actual execution ; such patterns as are still to be found here and there are somewhat simpler in design. It is interesting to observe how Walter Gedde considered that his patterns would be useful to plasterers for the groundwork of their ceiling-designs, and to gardeners for the ornamental beds and knot-work with which they embellished their gardens. The finest examples of painted glass of the early part of the sixteenth' century are the splendid windows at King's College Chapel, which were the work of Englishmen. There are also portions of the beautiful glass from the ruined Chapel of the Holy Ghost at Basingstoke, still preserved at the church of Basingstoke, and at the Vyne; and there are three windows in the apse of the chapel of that house. In addition to these examples, there are several windows at St. Neot's Church in Cornwall, the character of which inclines more to the Perpen dicular than the Renaissance; there is the east window of St. Margaret's, Westminster; and there are fragments at Balliol and Queen's Coheges, Oxford, and at St. James's, Bury St. Edmund's. -1 The ornament forming the background to the figures in these windows is all similar in character to that which adorns other work of the same period. * History and Antiquities of Hengrave, by John Gage. t See The History of Design in Painted Glass, by N. H. J. Westlake, 1894, in which are numerous dra-wings of portions of the glass mentioned in the text. R.A. CHAPTER X. MISCELLANEOUS WORK. HOUSES IN STREETS, SCHOOLS, MARKET-HOUSES, &C. The houses built in towns followed much the same lines as those erected elsewhere in general treatment, but the plan was of course restricted by the situation of the house, and by the fact that it could not derive light from the sides. The fronts were often constructed of wood and plaster, and the upper floors were cor belled - out over those beneath in the same fashion as had been customary for many years. Owing to the nature of their materials most of these houses have disap peared through fire or decay. Others have been swept away in the improvements which inevitably accompany prosperity in a town ; others have'been altered to suit the changes and develop ment of trades. There are not many examples, therefore, to be found except in out-of- ^ 0':^\ 184. — House formerly in North Street, Exeter. STREET FRONTS. the-way places, or in districts of large towns from which the main stream of business has been diverted. There are a few examples in the older parts of Bristol and York, for instance, but they have been much mutilated and altered. Some 3-ears ago there was an unusually good specimen in North Street, Exeter (Fig. 184), but it has now disappeared. Here the columns on the storey above the bays were particularl}' good both in pro- poition and in general effect, and there was an unusual amount of richness be stowed upon the carving of the corbels and the strings and cor nices. Towns near the coast seem to have been richer in houses of this kind than those further inland. The Butter- market at Dart mouth is a good specimen; the first floor is carried on columns, thus forming a covered walk ; the bay windows are supported by boldly-carved corbels fashioned, some like fabulous animals, some like human figures. Ipswich has some excellent examples of carved strings and beams ; it was customary to enrich the faces of the large beams which carried the projecting storeys, and a considerable amount of fancy in design and dexterit}' of execution were expended upon them. In the eastern counties generally there is some capital work to be found, both in wood and in modelled plaster. Canterbury has o 2 185. — House in the High Street, Canterbury. 203 TREATMENT OF STREET FRONTS. a few remains, one of which, of somewhat late date, is shown in Fig. 185. The general treatment of the windows on the first floor is in accordance with Jacobean methods, but the handling of the boldly-modelled plaster-work above them points towards the latter half of the seventeenth century as the time of its execution. Two of the objects aimed at in these street fronts seem to have been to get plenty of light and to introduce bay windows. In the example from Canterbury, the whole front of the first floor is occupied with windows, and 186. — Old House, High Town, Hereford. there are two bays introduced in the range which serve as large corbels to the straight front above them. Another example, from Oxford (Plate LXXIX.), also shows the whole front of two floors occupied by window space. But this front is gabled, and has one large bay window in the centre, which is covered by a broken pediment embracing a kind of dormer, all enclosed within the lines of the gable itself, which, however, has under gone some alteration since it was first erected. The difference in the treatment of the arched lights in the several floors should be noticed. Another variety is to be seen in a house in Strat- ford-on-Avon (Plate LXXIX.), where the general disposition House in the High Street, Oxford. Plate LXXIX. House at Stratford-on-Avox, Warwickshire, PROCLAMATION AS TO TOWN HOUSES. 203 is rather simple, but all the woodwork is highly ornamented. The main beams which carry the projecting storeys are carved in the manner already mentioned as being prevalent at Ipswich. Here, again, there is a bay window on the first floor helping to carry the storey above it, and another projecting window on the top floor, the upper corners of which are hidden behind the barge-boards. The same general treatment is to be seen in an old house in the High Town at Hereford (Fig. 186), where the excellent effect is produced by very simple means. The woodwork of the framing is all straight, but it is massive, and not much less in width than the plaster panels. The upper storey projects far enough to give good shadow, which is varied by the shallow bays just beneath it. The gables have heavy carved barge-boards, and in each of t'nem is a bay window, the top of which, unlike the example from Stratford, is free from interference by the barge-board. The pendants between the bays on the first floor are of the ordinary pierced pattern. In considering these specimens from busy towns, it should be remembered that they have all been more or less restored. The fashion of building with timber on the narrow streets of the time was felt to be dangerous, and in the year 1605 a proclamation was made in London that the fore-front and windows of all new houses within the city and one mile thereof should be of brick or stone. The old houses, however, were left until the great fire of 1666 swept them away: it was these charming half-timbered dwellings which afforded the chief fuel for that huge bonfire. In Thorpe's book there are several plans drawn for "London Houses." One (on page 18) is entitled " Three houses for the city, or for a country house at 8 parts to the inch." It shows a row of three houses, two of which have a frontage of 33 feet each, while the third has 24. The plans are very rough and unfinished, but they show alternative ways of providing the accommodation. One house has a hall and kitchen on the front, and a parlour, staircase and buttery at the back, while a "vault" is contrived in the centre in a most insanitary manner. The second has the hall and buttery to the front, the stairs at one side, and the parlour and kitchen to the back. The third (having only 24 feet of frontage) has merely an entrance passage and kitchen to the front, and a parlour at the back, while the staircase is opposite the front door — the plan being a forerunner 204 THORPE'S PLANS FOR TOWN HOUSES. of the type which later became of universal adoption. The second part of the title, indicating that the plan might be used for a country house, is rather obscure, inasmuch as no redistri bution of names among the rooms shown could have converted them into a workable plan for a single house. Another plan (on pages 135, 136) is called a " London house of 3 breadths of ordinary tenements." It has a frontage of 51 feet, thus giving 17 feet as the « IB breadth of an ordinary tene ment. With such a frontage, it is of course a much better house than those already de scribed for the city. It was en tered at one end, the entry commu nicating with a narrow yard which gave access to the garden in the rear. The hall looked out into the street, as also did the par lour and buttery. At the back were the winter par lour, the kitchen, and the stairs, with the larder 187. — Corbels, "King's Arms," Sandwich, Kent. under them. The rooms were not large, the parlour being 18 feet by 13 feet, and the winter parlour 15 feet by 12 feet: as usual, much space was occupied by the large fireplaces. The first-floor plan is not given, but on a higher storey appears an open leaded terrace along the street front, behind which is a narrow and low gallery (only 5 feet to the rafters) extending the whole length of the house, and again THORPE'S PLANS FOR TOWN HOUSES, 205 behind that there are "sundry lodgings for servants, etc." There are no means of fixing the date of the plan, but it appears Corbel at Canterbury. Corbel and Pendant at Canterbury. to have been prepared for Sir Thomas Lake, who was clerk to the signet in 1595, and a Secretary of State in 1616. If we are to presume that a high official complied with the proclamation as to houses being of stone or brick, the date would be prior to 1605, for although the ground floor is shown with stone walls, those of the upper floor are only of wood and plaster. There is one other plan for a town house ; it is called "A London house. Lady Derby, Channell Row " (page no). It is the plan of a much finer house than any of the fore going, and as it is built round a courtyard, there were no special difficulties in providing hght and air. It follows the usual type of large houses, having a central entrance, from which a flagged path leads across the court into the screens of the hall. The staircases, chapel, winter parlour, kitchen and other rooms are grouped round the court in the ordinary way, the only differ ence being that those which occupy the sides of the court have no windows on their outside walls, but only such as look inwards into the court itself. The restrictions imposed by the 190. — Corbel, Orton Waterville, Huntingdonshire, 206 CORBELS CARRYING UPPER FLOORS. fact of the house being a " London house " are therefore very slight. The " Channell Row" where this house was built was probably the street of that name in Westminster. These plans of Thorpe's are of considerable interest, as they show the first steps taken towards developing a plan suitable for the confined spaces available in large towns. Reverting to the smaller examples under consideration, we find that a great variety was intro duced into the corbels which caried the projec ting floors; many of them were grotesques after the fashion of that on the " King's Arms " at Sand wich, in Kent (Fig. 187), others were simpler, like the examples from Canterbury (Figs. 188, i8g), while others, like that from Orton Waterville, Hunt ingdonshire (Fig. igo), combined both ideas. But the characteristic common to them all is boldness, both of size and treatment. They generally had a spiral about them in one form or another, varied by foliage or projecting bosses, or some variation of the strap-work motif. The great corner-posts of such houses as formed the corner of a street were often wrought with a remarkable amount of care. They were not only of sufficient size to make suitable angle-posts, but they were brought out at the top in a diagonal manner in order to support the storey above, which overhung the lower one on both faces ; igi. — The "Swan" Inn, Lechlade, Gloucestershire. STONE FRONTS. 207 an instance of this treatment may be seen in the example from Sandwich (Fig. 187). In some places it was customary not only to bring out the face of each storey beyond that of the one below, but to bring the whole house out over the footwalk. The Rows at Chester are a well-known example of this practice. The Long Row on the great market-place of Nottingham is another instance, but here the arcade has been almost entirely re-built, one of the last specimens of a Jacobean front having recently been removed in the course of making a new street. In stone districts the local material was chiefly employed, and all through the small towms and villages of Somerset, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire charming little examples, such as the "Swan" Inn at Lechlade (Fig. 191), may be found here and there. The idea is of the simplest — a door in the middle, with a bay window on each side, crowned with a gable. But the disposition of the small windows, the treatment of the door, and the change from the canted side ofthe bay to the square base of the gable afforded opportunities for variety and for careful treatment sufficient to render these minor examples well worth attention. Market-Houses, Schools, Almshouses, &c. Most of the work of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries which has come down to us is to be found in houses ; but there are a certain number of other buildings left, such as town- halls, market-houses, schools, and alms houses. Of alms houses, or hospitals, as they are often called, there are some excel lent examples in many parts of the country. Ford's Hospital, in Coventrv built in 192.— Desk in almshouse, Corsham, Wiltshire. 1529, is an extremely good specimen of Late Gothic woodwork; St ~ °5' 1 — 0 0 = 1 900 "CO -J fare so well as with the plans, smcelhe number of elevations is far smaller. There are, further, a few drawings which ^'may be re garded as studies — studies in perspective, in the five orders, and in the style of foreign architects. For there is no doubt that Thorpe studied books on architecture, both Italian, French, and Dutch, of which a consider able number had been published during the latter half of the six teenth century. His exercise in the five orders is evidently drawn from an Italian publication, which, however, has not yet been identified. He has copied at least three designs from a French source, one of Androuet du Cerceau's books, " Les plus excellents basti- ments de France," published in 1576 — 79. One of these designs is the Chate'au of Anssi-le-Franc, of which he gives the plan on page 75, and part of the elevation on page 76. The plan is copied accu rately except in one or two trifling particulars, and so also is the elevation (Figs. 213, 214); but to the latter he has 4^ 213.— The Chateau of Anssi-le-Franc, COPIED FROM Du Cerceau (page 75 of Thorpe's Book), 228 THORPE'S STUDIES FROM FRENCH added threie sketches of turrets, which do not appear in the original, and which are designed in the Dutch rather than the French style. On each side of the plan he has sketched in pencil the main lines of another plan founded on the original, but which looks as though it were meant to be adapted to Eng lish uses. An other plan which he copied from Du Cerceau (on pages T], 78) is the Chateau de Madrit in the Bois de Bou logne. This is, with one little exception, line for line : S^i^ lijje the original, but, curiously enough, here again he has made notes in pencil indicating how he would have adapted it for English habits. The third instance is part of the plan and ele vation of the " theatre " at Saint Germain (on pages 165, 166). Thorpe was also a student of Dutch publications. On page 24 he has a design entitled " \ z. front or a garden syde for a noble man" (Fig. 215), of which the central portion is copied from Plate 20 of Jan Vredeman de Vries's " Architectura, ou Basti- ment prins de Vitruve," published at Antwerp in 1577. He 214. — The Chateau of Anssi-le-Franc copied from Du Cerceau, but with three Turrets added (page 76 of Thorpe's Book), AND DUTCH BOOKS. 229 has departed from the original in one or two small particulars ; for instance, he has four-light windows where \'ries has two- light ; he has mullions to his dormers where Vries has none ; he has added the final flourishes and pinnacle on the top ofthe centre gable which Vries leaves plain, and his treatment of the windows over the middle arch is different from Vries's ; but with J A -fnU ¦¦• e. yZbi'^JyJ'- /¦- « 215, — Elevation copied from De Vries, The Central Portion is copied ; all to the left of the Arcade is added bv Thorpe (page 24), these exceptions the original is followed faithfully as far as to the end of the arcade, to the left of which the design is Thorpe's own. Thorpe has written on the panel over the entrance " Structum ad impensum Dni Sara A° Dni 1600." This is the only drawing of his which has been traced to Dutch sources, but nearly all his elevations, of which a few are illustrated in this chapter, show some hankering after Dutch forms in the gables. On page 60 of his book he has a few sketches, chiefly 230 FRENCH AND DUTCH INFLUENCE ON THORPE'S DESIGNS. of strap-work gables, which look as though they had been either copied from a Dutch book or inspired by one. This study of foreign books by one of the designers of the period is a noteworthy fact, and it is equally worthy of note that the study of them seems to have set him thinking, and to have suggested ideas to him, which he" jotted down in pencil near the copies which he made from the foreign books. These are not the only instances of this habit, for in other parts of his book are to be seen, by the side of carefull}' finished plans, hasty sketches of some variation of the same main ideas. Of the foreign books which he studied, some, therefore, were Italian, some were French, and others Dutch: and it is curious to see how the French books seem to have influenced his plans, and the Dutch books his elevations. The French influence on those plans which, so far as we know, were actually carried out, was not strong ; but among the plans \\-bich may be classed as exercises, are some with towers at the corners, after the manner of those at Chambord, Chenonceau, and Azay-le-Rideau, and a number with square turrets such as those of the Chateau de Madrit. He may also have derived from thfe same sources his extreme love of symmetry, and his adoption of the grand manner apparent in some of his designs planned round a court- }'ard. These French books ma}-, therefore, have influenced bis style, but they did not dominate him so much as to cause him to copy the French type of plan in designing an English house. The same may be said of the Dutch influence on his elevations. Only in the one instance already mentioned did he embody a whole piece of Dutch design into one of his own. But in his chimneys, his strap-work gables, and his turrets or lanterns he drew from Dutch sources. And there are two points to notice in this connection — one is that the strap-work gable occurs much oftener in his drawings than in bouses actually built ; the other is that had these gables been adopted as freely as the eleva tions would indicate, the houses would have been more Dutch than the Dutchmen's own buildings, for in the latter the stepped gable is far more frequent than strap-work, and produces an entirely different effect. Let us, however, turn from these speculations to the drawings which compose the great bulk of the book — namely, the plans and (in some cases) elevations which show what kind of building an English house was intended to be, and which ought to be Plate LXXXIV. ^J_^; c^Aj I. Hall. 2. Vestibule. 3. Parlour. 4. Lodging. " SIR JARVIS CLIFTOM'S HOUSE. (pages 65, 66.) 5. Grand Staircase. 6. Chapel. 7. Buttery. 8. Butler's Room. 9. Back Stairs. 10. Lodging. II. Kitchen. 12. Dry Larder. 13. Wet Larder. 14. Bakehouse, 15. Open Arcade. i6. Gatehouse. SIR JARVIS CLIFTON'S HOUSE. 231 compared with the examples already given in Chapter III. The type of plan made familiar in those examples is the t}'pe on which nine-tenths of Thorpe's plans are based. The hall is the centre of household life, the parlour and family rooms are at one end of it, the kitchen and servants' rooms are at the other. But he has a certain number of plans in which the hall shows more or less signs of becoming an entrance rather than a living-room ; the following examples show how the old type gradually changed into the new. The first plan of the series (Plate LXXXIV.) is named " Sir Jarvis Clifton's House." It shows a large symmetrical house with a forecourt. entered through an imposing gate-house fur nished with a turret at each corner. Directly opposite to this lodge is the porch of the house, which gives access in the usual way to the screens, and thence into the hall, with its dais shown at the upper end. The bay window at the end of the dais leads into a large vestibule from which the great staircase and the parlour are approached ; beyond the parlour, at the corner of the building, is an isolated room marked " lodging" {i.e., bed room). The left-hand wing is occupied by the chapel, which is approached through a vestibule leading out from the foot of the great staircase. This completes the accommodation for the family so far as the ground floor is concerned. On the other side of the hall are the servants' rooms : first, two for the butler with a staircase to the cellar ; then a large vestibule (with a servants' staircase), which leads to another "lodging"; to the kitchen, with a fine bay window and two fireplaces, one large and one small, each having a little oven close to it ; and to the dry larder : beyond the kitchen is the wet larder, and beyond this is the rest of the servants' department, of which tlie bake house occupies a wing balancing the chapel wing. The mouths of the two ovens of the bakehouse are shown, but the paper was too small to allow their full extent to be indicated. There is no upper plan, but from notes on this one it seems that the long gallery was over the arcade at the back ofthe hall, and that the great chamber was over the parlour and its vestibule. There is an arcade on either side of the front porch, and another between the wings on the opposite side of the house. It is worthy of note that although the front and back fa9ades are of different lengths, each of them is symmetrical in itself. This variation is the result of considerable ingenuity in planning. R.A. Q AN UN-NAMED PLAN. i,U, ={-'.' •».- >^ ¦>¦ S p\y" LJ 'i^gM r^ cz 216— An Un-named Plan (pages 117, 118), I. Hall. 5. Buttery. 9- Pastry, 2, Principal Stairs. 6. Winter Parlour. 10. Inner Court, 3. Parlour. 7. Back Stairs, 11. Open Arcade, 4. Lodging, 8, Kitchen. 12. Outer Court. THE TRADITIONAL PLAN MAINTAINED. 233 The whole plan is worth attention as a specimen of the usual type treated in a broad and dignified manner. The Cliftons had been seated at Clifton, near Nottingham, for some time prior to the reign of James I.; the family stiU resides there, but there is nothing in the existing house to connect it with this plan of Thorpe's. Sir Gervase Clifton lived from 1586 to 1666, and was created a baronet in the year 1612. This plan must therefore have been drawn subsequent to that year, as it is entitled " Sir Jarvis Clifton's." There is nothing to show whether it is an original design or a survey of an existing house : the clean way in which it is drawn points to the latter assump tion ; but if it is an original design it is interesting as showing at what a late date the old type of plan was still employed. The next plan (Fig. 216) has no title. It shows a house with a courtyard in front and two long wings at the back, forming a nearly square block. The arrangement follows the established lines : a porch leads into the screens and thence into the hall, which again has the dais indicated. Owing to the exigencies of the external treatment, the bay window is not placed at the end of the dais. A door between the latter and the fireplace leads into a vestibule with the chief staircase in it ; beyond is the parlour, with a bay window looking into a small courtyard, and beyond the parlour is another room. On the servants' side is the buttery with its stairs, and then the winter parlour, of which the bay window balances that of the hall. A vestibule containing the back staircase separates these rooms from the kitchen, which has a bay window looking straight across at the bay of the parlour ; beyond the kitchen are two rooms, the first of which is probably a larder, while the other is certainly, on account of the ovens, either the bakehouse or "the pastry." There is an arcade at the back of the front wing, occupying one side of the inner court. The fourth side of this court is enclosed by a wall, but the draughtsman has indicated it in two separate positions, thus making it appear as though there were a solid wing on this side. In this plan, also, the only indication of the upper floor is given in the note written on the hall, " Great chamber over this to y'' Skryne " (screen). The plan shown in Plate LXXXV. has no title, but it has the advantage of having every room named ; and its elevation is also drawn, which was not the case in either of the two Q 2 234 REMARKABLE CONFECTIONERY. preceding examples. The plan follows the familiar lines ; it has a long narrow body, and at each end a long narrow wing at right angles to it, with a staircase turret at the internal angles. The porch and screens are in the usual relation to the hall, be)-ond which are the parlour and two "lodgings," each of which has a small inner room attached. The first of these lodgings is a thoroughfare room, but there is an external door in the passage connecting the two, which enables the hall to be gained by crossing the court, thus affording an alternative route of a kind. On the servants' side of the house are the buttery, the pantrv, the winter parlour, the larder, kitchen, bolting- house, and pastrj'. The kitchen has the usual small oven ; the pastry has the invariable two, one somewhat larger than the other. The two wings are treated symmetrically on the principal sides (towards the court), one incidental result being that the pastry gets vastly more light than the kitchen. It has already been suggested that the winter parlour was placed on the servants' side in order to be near the kitchen. The bolting- house was the room where the meal was bolted, that is, sifted. The " pastry " was, as its name implies, the room in which were made pies, "cates," confectionery, and the " prett}- little tiny kickshaws" which Justice Shallow ordered when he was fur nishing his table for the entertainment of Sir John Falstaff. The housewives of the time were accomplished in the making of such dainties. The narrator of the Progress of James I. in 1603 remarks upon the delicate fare provided by Sir Anthony Mildmay at Apethorpe, rendered " more delicate by the art that made it seem beauteous to the eye ; the Lady of the house being one ofthe most excellent Confectioners in England, though I confess many honourable women very expert." A\'hen Queen Elizabeth was entertained at Elvetham bj- the Earl of Hertford in 1591, a banquet was served in the evening " into the lower gal ler}' in the garden," when a thousand dishes were served by two hundred gentlemen, yith the light of a hundred torches, and among the more notable dishes were some tours dc force in sugar-work, representing the royal arms, the arms of all the nobilit)', figures of men and women, castles and forts, all kinds of animals, all kinds of birds, reptiles and " all kind of worms," mermaids, whales, and " all sorts of fishes " : all these, we are told, were standing dishes of sugar-work. It is not suggested that the ladj- of the house herself produced these masterpieces ; Plate LXXXV. ?OD!l llDDDl iDDDl iPaPl IDDDII I DDD ....^.t 'f ^„r^..-S.-Jf UNNAMED PLAN AND ELEVATION. (pages 89, go,) Plate LXXXVI. 1. Hall. 2. Parlour, 3. Principal Stairs, 4. Vestibule. 5. Lodging. 'SIR Wm. haseridge." (pages 147, 148.) 6. Inner Room. 7. Buttery. 8, Lodging. g. Winter Parlour. 10, Back Stairs. II. Survaying Place. 12. Kitchen. 13. Dry Larder (Wet under). 14. Pastry. 15. Courtyard. ELEVATION OF PLAN ENTITLED " SIR V^m. HASERIDGE." (pages 147, 148,) PICTURESQUENESS IN THE ELEVATION. 235 but ladies were certainly skilful in the making of cakes, and it was a recommendation in actual life, as well as in one of the plays of the time, that the heroine could " do well in the pastry." The elevation is treated, on the whole, in a quiet and dignified manner, but the handling of it from the parapets upwards shows a determination to obtain that picturesqueness of outline which was considered essential. The means to this end are curved gables, quaint pinnacles, and rather elaborate lanterns, of which there are two alternative designs provided, as there are also of the small gables or dormers on the parapet. The tj-pe of chimney shown is one ofthe more reasonable which were employed. The plan on Plate LXXXVI. shows a slight variation of the usual type, inasmuch as the wings, instead of being narrow and only one room thick, are two rooms thick. In other respects it follows the familiar lines. On one side is the hall with its dais and bay window ; then the grand staircase and a vestibule giving access to the parlour and a group of two lodgings, the remainder of the wing being occupied by a room which — if the ovens are an}-thing but a repetition of those in the corresponding wing — must be the bakehouse. On the other side of the house are the buttery, a lodging, the winter parlour, the back stairs and vestibule, the kitchen, dry larder, and pastry ; the wet larder, according to a note, is under the dry. There is no arcade here. This plan is entitled " Sir Wm. Haseridge," and the upright (as the elevation was called) has on it the initials D. H. and the date 1606 (Plate LXXXVIL). This is important, as it shows that at that time the old relation ofthe hall to the rest ofthe house was still retained. This house, in spite of its title, has not been identified with any existing building. A family of the name of Haselrigge has lived at Noseley, in Leicestershire, since early in the seventeenth century, but the existing house has nothing in common with this plan. The elevation is treated in a simple manner, with very few foreign flourishes. In the next example (Figs. 217, 218, 2ig) we have ground plan, upper plan, and elevation : a valuable example, inasmj,ich as it is one of the few cases in which all three drawings are given ; the upper plan is interesting, as it shows the position of the two chief rooms, the gallery and great chamber. The disposition of the ground floor conforms to the usual type, but is varied so as to enclose a small central court, somewhat after the fashion of Barlborough (Fig. 49) ; but here all the principal 236 A VALUABLE EXAMPLE. rooms are on one floor, whereas at Barlborough the kitchens are in the basement. The accommodation here comprises the hall, grand staircase, and parlour on the one side, and buttery, winter parlour, back stairs, and kitchen on the other. There is a vestibule to the kitchen, which probably would have been ¦^-h-, i ^ 217. — An Un-named Ground Plan (pages 217, 21 I. Hall, 2. Principal Stairs. 3. Parlour. 4. Inner Room. 5. Buttery. 6. Winter Parlour, 7. Back Stairs. 8. Survaying Place (?) 9. Kitchen. 10. Inner Court. called the '' survaying place " had it been named, similar rooms being so designated in Figs. 224, 226. The use ofthe survaying place is not anywhere explained, but most likely it was a serving room, where the dishes were overlooked before being taken to the hall or the winter parlour. There is a staircase from the kitchen which presumably led down to the larders, pantries, * In order to bring this plan within the Hmits of the page, the terrace walls on either side have been brought nearer to the house than they are on the origina drawing. SANITARY ARRANGEMENTS. 237 and other subsidiary rooms. The manner in which the middle bay window on the kitchen side serves to light the vestibule and the back stairs (through a borrowed light) should be noticed as an instance of the subordination of the plan to the uniformity of the exterior. Here, for the first time, occurs an example of the use of sanitary conveniences : it will be seen that neither downstairs nor up are they placed in a manner that would be 218. — Upper Plan of Fig. 217 (pages 217, 218). II. Great Chamber. 14, 14. Bedrooms.' 12. Principal Stairs. 15. Backstairs. 13. Gallery. 16. Inner Conrt. tolerated at the present day. Nor indeed were they arranged at this period with anything like the same attention to isolation and means of ventilation which was bestowed upon such places in mediaeval times. The central court is shown with a room and staircase projecting into it, but this excrescence was ver\- wisely crossed out, for the court was small enough ^\'ithout it, and could never have been either cheerful or conducive to health. The upper plan shows the long gallery, Sofeet long by 20 feet wide. ^38 UPPER FLOOR PLAN. and the great chamber, 45 feet long by 23 feet wide. To these two rooms nearly the whole space is sacrificed, there being in addi tion only two fair-sized bedrooms and two smaller apartments, besides those which may have been contrived in the roof. Both the gallery, the great chamber, and the parlour are shown with an inner porch, such as occurs at Sizergh Castle (Fig. 148), and at Broughton Castle, in Oxfordshire (Plate LI. ), Bradfield, in Devon shire, and a few other houses. The elevation (Fig. 219) resembles that on Plate LXXXV. It is treated in a simple and unostenta tious wa}', but the most is made of such features as the bay <=^s^ /"r-itt^^^^ Jj^r n^^ 2ig. — Elevation of Figs. 217, 218, windows, chimney-stacks, and gables. The latter have the curly outline which is prevalent in the Thorpe collection, but which, as already said, does not appear in the same proportion among such of the actual buildings of the time as have survived. The front chimneys are of the same pattern as those on Plate LXXXV. The foregoing examples are a few out of a great number which conform to the traditional arrangement of the hall. The vast majority of the plans follow this type, but there are some, which we will now proceed to consider, in which the hall receives a different treatment, thus indicating that important change which resulted in its becoming a place of entrance INTRODUCTION OF DINING-PARLOUR. 239 instead of what it had been for four centuries — the centre of household life. On some of these plans the room which is usually called the parlour is marked " dy pier " or dining parlour. This shows that even the eating of meals, one of the functions for which the hall had always been used, was being transferred from that apartment to smaller and more comfortable rooms. The heads of the household, more particularly, sought the quiet of a smaller 220. — An Un-named Plan. I. Hall. 2. Parlour. 3. Principal Stairs. 4. chapel. 5. Lodging. 6, Buttery. 7. Winter Parlour. 8. Back Stairs. g. Survaying Place. 10. Kitchen. II. Pastry. 12. Courtyard. apartment, and with them they took their special friends, leaving persons of less importance to dine with the household in the hall. There is a letter from a Mr. Marlivale, of Chevington, written to Sir Thomas Kytson, of Hengrave, complaining of having been placed to dine in the hall with the steward instead of with the superior persons in the parlour. As Sir Thomas died in 1540, the practice of withdrawing from the great hall must have begun previous to that date. On one of Thorpe's plans he has marked a room as the " Servants' dining-room," 240 CHANGES IN THE HALL. f"4 AJ-k" t_ 'kiiEBBS"^ A ~\ r :^ £2: .,hishouse 224 ,, Sutton Place 38 ,, Wollaton Hall 79 Plans from John Thorpe's book 226 — 252, LXXXIV., LXXXV., LXXXVI,, 2I3, 216, 217, 218, 220, 221, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 231 Platts, or plans 256 Porches 83—93 Porter, the 73. 79 Powell, Mr. W'"., plan and eleva tion for his house, by John Thorpe 244, 224 Printing, invention of 3, 6 Progresses of the Sovereign , . 138 Pulpit in Winchester Cathedral . . 27 Pulpits 220 Quanstocksiiead, East 169 staircase, . 192, 174 Queen's College, Oxford, glazing igg Rainham Hall 72 Rain-water heads 130 Red Lodge, Bristol, panelling . . 157 ,, inner porch .. ..163 INDEX. 279 Red Mount, Chapel of. King's Lynn 19 Reed tomb, Bredon Church 218, 204 Reformation, the 3 " Reindeer " Inn, Banbury , , .. 162 ,, ceiling 177, 181, lxix. ,, panelled room 162, xlix. Renaissance in letters 2 ,, style 2, 3 Richmond, Countess of, tomb n, 253 Richmond Court 126 Rodes, Francis 168 Roiley, Richard and Gabriel, tomb makers 258, 259 Rothwell, cottage at .. .. 119,103 ,, market-house ... 185, 210 Rovezzano, Benedetto da . . . . 254 Royal Exchange, Gresham's 261, 262 Rules of architecture 6 Rushton Hall 105 ,, ,, chimney of Triangu lar Lodge . . . . 122 ,, curved gables 122, 108, "3 ,, ,, finials 118 ,, ,, parapet 123 ,, ,, rain-water head , , 131 Rydge, Richard 28, 29 Rye, St. John's Hospital . . . . 208 Saint Germain, plan copied by John Thorpe 228 Salisbury Chantry, the, at Christ church. See Christchurch. Sandwich, ^corbels on "King's Arms" . . . . 206, 187 Queen Elizabeth's visit to 141 Savile, John, describes visit of James I. to Theobalds , . , . 77 Schools 211 Scole, sign of the " White Hart" 213 201 Screen at Tilney All Saints . . 2x9, LXXXII. at St. Cross . . . . 25, vii. ,, " at Winchester Cathedral 24, 20 ,, of churches 219 ,, of hall in houses and col leges 159 Screens, " the screens " in a house 42, 160 Seymour, Jane, arms 33 R.A. Seymour, Jane, tomb 254 Sharington, William 36 — 38, 128, 168 , , Grace (his wife) . . 38 Sherborne, rain-water head 131,127 Shrewsbury, market-house . . 210, 194 ,, school 211 Shute, John, his Chief Groundes of Architecture 263 Silkstede, Prior, his pulpit . . 27 Sizergh Hall, ceiling .. 179, 181, 164 ,, door 164 frieze . . . . 184, l. inner porch .. 163,283 ,, ., panelling 163, 164, L, 148 Slaugham Place, the long gallery 195 Smaller rooms, the treatment of 162 Smith, Sir Thomas 260 Smithson, Robert 265 Snoring, Great 17. 47 South Wraxall, ceiling . . . . 177, 178 ,, ,, chimney-piece i6g, LX, great chamber 162, XLVII. Spain, Renaissance in 3 Sparke, John 56 Speke Hall 107, xxxi. Spencer, Robert, Lord 212 ,, Sir William, tomb at Yarnton , , . . 218, 205 Spring Pew, Lavenham Church 27, 23, 24 Stafford, Sir Humphrey . . . . 63 Staircase, the grand 47 at Benthall Hall,. ig3, 179 , , at Kirby 63 Staircases 185 — 194 ,, examples from John Thorpe's drawings. . 189, 190, LXXIII. in France 185 Stanford Church, panelling 151, 137 tomb in , . 15, 5, 6 Stanninge, or Hawking-tower . . 212 Stanway, gatehouse , , . . 79, xxii. ,, curved gables ,. .. 123 St. Cross, "Winchester, screen 25, vii. ,, Tames, Chapel Royal, ceiling 176 ,, Margaret's Westminster, glaz ing 199 ,, Mary Overie, Southwark, chest 39, x. ,, Neot's Church, Cornwall, glaz ing 199 T 2S0 INDEX. Steventon, cottage at 112, ng, 97, 105 Stokesay Castle, gatehouse . . 79, 57 Stonegrave Church, screen . . 220 Stowe -Nine- Churches, reredos and screen 157,142,144 Stratford-on-Avon, house at . . 202, LXXIX. Sutton Court, near Guildford . , 33 Sutton Place (or Court) near Guildford 17, 49 — 52 ,, details 39 ,, ,, part elevation of courtyard . . . . 40 ,, ,, plan 38 Swinsty Old Hall 106 Symmetry in plan .. .. 41,49,60 Torrigiano 7, 13 employed on Henry VII.'s tomb . . 12, 254 Torrisany, Peter (same as Torri giano) 12 Toto del Nunziata . , . . 34 note, 254 ToWN-HALLS 209 Treeton, cottage at . , , , ng, 104 Tresham, Sir Thomas 210 Triangular Lodge, Rushton, chimney 128, 122 Trinity College, Cambridge, the hall 159, 161, XLV, Upper Slaughter, porch Uprights, or elevations. . 85, XXIV. 226, 256 Tailor, Thomas 70 Tapestry 146, 134 Temple Newsam 125 Terra-cotta detail 18 Texts on walls of churches . . . , 224 Theobalds . . . . 73, 77, 144, 146 Thorpe, John . . . . 8, 78, 195, 256, 264 ,, ,, his book of drawings 226 ,, his plan of Kirby Hall . . . . 62, XVIII. ,, his plans for London houses . , . . 203 ,, his study of foreign books 227 Tilney All Saints, screen 219, lxxxii. Toller Fratrum, chimney ,. 127, 117 Tomb, contract for 259 Tombs, development of style in 10 — 26, 216 Andrew, Sir Thomas 16, 8 Bradbourne . . . . 16, 9 Cave, Thomas . . . . 15, 5, 6 Chichester . . 218, 202, lxxxi. Cokayne 11,2 Drury, Elizabeth . . 16, 10 Foljambe 218,203 Harrington, John . . 15, 4 Henry VII. 7, 10 — 15, 253, 3, 11. Marney, Henry, Lord n, iii. Paulet 26, vii. Reed 218, 204 Spencer, Sir Wm. .. 218, 205 Vernon, Sir George , , 16, 8 Venice, palaces at 7 Vernon, Dorothy 131,181 ,, her legend 196 Vernon, Sir George . . 131, 181, 196 tomb of 16, 8 Verrio's ceilings 181 Verses, Latin 141 Virtue, Robert n Vitruvius 6 Vries, or Vriese 95 his books on architecture , . 264 copied by John Thorpe 228, 215 Vyne, the, Hampshire 17 ., glazing igg panelling .. .. 23,152,19 Wadham College, Oxford. See Oxford. Walker, Humphrey n Wardour Castle, archway to stairs 87, xxv. Warwick, house at, staircase 192, 180 Westminster, Henry VII. 'schapel 3, 10, pi. I. tomb 7, 10—15,253, 3, pi. II. stalls 26, 21, 22 •• 52,53 ,, ..123 . . 79, XXIII, 171, LXIII. •• -.255 • • ••255 Weston, Sir Richard , , Westwood, curved gables gatehouse .. Whiston, chimney-piece Whitehall, gateways at Wilton House, work at INDEX. 281 Winchester Cathedral 17 ,, ,, Gardiner's chantry 25 ,, Langton's chapel 27 Prior SUk- stede's pulpit 27 ,, screen in choir 23, 25, 20 ,, St. Cross, screen 25, vii. Windows 100 — 115 sections of jambs, etc. .. 98 Window tracery 222, 210 Winwick, gateway 79, 59 Wollaton Hall 73 ,, chimneys .. .. 128 corner tower . . io6 curved gables 120, 122 ,, general view xxvii. ,, longgallery ..195 Wollaton Hall, parapet . . . . 123 ,, plan .. .. 97,79 ,, ,, roof of hall.. 161, 146 ,, ,, window sill 114, 99 Wolsey, Cardinal .. .. 7, 147, 154 ,, ,, his tomb . . . . 254 ,, ,, his work at Hampton Court 29 Wood panelling, development of. . 148 Woollas Hall, porch . . . . 87, 69 ,, ,, screen ,, 160, XLVi Worth Church, Sussex, pulpit 220, 206 Wren, Sir Christopher, , .. 6,35 Wrest 144 Wright, Robert, glazier , , . . 198 Wymondham Church, sedilia 17, i2,32a. ,, market-house 210 — 195 Yarnton, Spencer tomb . . 218, 205 York, old houses at 201 Young, Dr., his tomb 254 THE END. BRADBURY, AGNEW & CO. LD., PRINTERS, LONDON AND TONBRIDGE, 3 9002 02530 m^Asm' .M--' rvv-:-'-