THE ENGLISH HOUSE I THE ENGLISH HOUSE HOW TO JUDGE ITS PERIODS AND STYLES BY W. SHAW SPARROW AUTHOR OF "OLD ENGLAND," AND COMPILER OF "THE BRITISH HOME OF TO-DAY," "THE MODERN HOUSE," ETC. LONDON EVELEIGH NASH FAWSIDE HOUSE 1908 PREFACE NO book has yet been written for the lay public on the English House and its evolution through the cen- turies. Many authors speak of this subject from a technical point of view, and are ex- cellent guides for professional students ; but it happens that architecture depends for its sup- port on the encouragement of laymen, on the patronage given to it by towns and by private enterprise ; hence the writing of books for architects only cannot do much good, since no appeal is made to the real patron and paymaster, the nation as a whole. In these circumstances architecture is ne- glected, and we find that although there are buildings everywhere in England that represent many styles and a long history of social changes, only a very few persons in a thousand know an Ionic column when they see it, or can tell the difference between Gothic and Classic forms. Yet architecture is the most necessary of all the vi PREFACE arts, and by far the most democratic, since none can live without its help and shelter. The public ought to be interested, but technical writers say that little can be done, because their subject is one which cannot be dealt with in a lively and popular manner. Cannot is a strong word ; but it means here that the science of building, with its technical terms, its structural history, and its styles and methods, is likely to make a dull book ; and that un- questionably is true, so far as the general reader is concerned. But this question has another side. No study is altogether technical and beyond the sympathies of plain folk. Flam- marion and Ball have made astronomy delightful to a large public ; Ruskin wrote about art and attracted such a host of readers that novelists were inclined to envy his success ; and one day, let us hope, the story of the English House will be made as attractive as " The Cloister and the Hearth." There is no reason why it should not be that in the hands of a Charles Reade. For every form of architecture has human interest, representing the social needs and ideals which have been evolved by different types of society. In this book I have tried to give a brief and faithful sketch of the human side of the PREFACE vii English House, keeping clear of all matters which cannot be made intelligible by words (a point to be remembered, Chough often forgotten), dwell- ing as little as possible on hard technical details, but giving such definite traits of style as any one may learn by heart without difficulty. Mr. John Cash, Fellow of the Royal In- stitute of British Architects, has kindly read my proof-sheets, and to him I am indebted for criticism and suggestions. W. S. S. CONTENTS FACt INTRODUCTION : THE SUBJECT IN BRIEF i I. THE DAWN OF HOME LIFE 14 II. HALL AND HOUSE IN SAXON ENGLAND 34 III. SAXON CHARACTERISTICS OF STYLE 49 IV. CHARACTERISTICS OF NORMAN ARCHITECTURE 53 V. HALL AND HOUSE IN NORMAN TIMES 57 VI. HEARTH, FIREPLACE AND CHIMNEY 83 VII. HENRY III. AS PATRON OF THE HOME 100 VIII. LATER GOTHIC HOMES IN RELATION TO OURSELVES 12! IX. LATE GOTHIC AND TUDOR HOMES 144 X. HALLS OF THE POOR 162 XI. ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN MANSIONS 187 XII. THE RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES 221 XIII. SOME HINTS TOWARDS THE STUDY OF THE RENAISSANCE 252 XIV. PAST AND PRESENT ARCHITECTS 275 XV. ARCHITECTS AND THEIR CLIENTS 305 INDEX AND GLOSSARY 321 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Facing page INTERIOR OF THE HALL, PENSHURST PLACE, KENT. Fourteenth Century. From a lithograph by Joseph Nash Frontispiece CHARCOAL BURNERS AND THEIR HUT. From a drawing by James Orrock, R.I. 24 ANGLO-SAXON MANSION 40 ANGLO-SAXON TOWER AT EARL'S BARTON, NORTHANTS 49 IFFLEY CHURCH, OXFORDSHIRE, an Example of Norman Archi- tecture 53 EXAMPLES OF NORMAN ZIGZAG MOULDINGS 56 MANOR HOUSE, BOOTHBY PAGNELL, LINCOLNSHIRE, AND ST. MARY'S GUILD, LINCOLN. Examples of Norman Archi- tecture. From drawings by William Twopeny 60 HALL OF OAKHAM CASTLE, RUTLANDSHIRE. Norman Period, A.D. 1180. From a drawing by W. Twopeny 64 DETAILS OF THE HALL AT OAKHAM CASTLE 68 NORMAN FIREPLACES AT ROCHESTER CASTLE, circa 1130, AND CoNISBOROUGH CASTLE, Circa ll'JQ 72 THE JEW'S HOUSE AT LINCOLN, as drawn by W. Twopeny about sixty years ago 80 FIREPLACES FROM A.D. 1270 TO A.D. 1470 84 DRAWING-ROOM FIREPLACE AT SPEKE HALL, LANCASHIRE. Eliza- bethan Period. From a drawing by Joseph Nash 88 FIREPLACE AT LEVENS, WESTMORELAND. From a drawing by Joseph Nash 90 CHIMNEYS FROM A.D. 1250 TO A.D. 1350 92 xi xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Facing P*ge CHIMNEYS FROM A.D. 1340 TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 94 TUDOR CHIMNEYS FROM A.D. 1490 TO A.D. 1520 96 EXAMPLES OF TOOTH-ORNAMENT FROM A.D. 1220 TO A.D. 1260 100 AYDON CASTLE, NORTHUMBERLAND, a Fortified Manor House of the Thirteenth Century 104 STOKESAY CASTLE, SALOP. Thirteenth Century 108 INTERIOR OF THE HALL, STOKESAY CASTLE, SALOP 112 LITTLE WENHAM HALL, SUFFOLK. Thirteenth Century 116 DETAILS : LITTLE WENHAM HALL, SUFFOLK 120 EXAMPLES OF WHEEL WINDOWS in Decorated English Gothic 122 EXTERIOR OF THE HALL, PENSHURST PLACE, KENT. Fourteenth Century. (See also the Frontispiece) 124 THE SOLAR, SUTTON COURTENAY, BERKSHIRE. Fourteenth Century 126 MARKENFIELD HALL, YORKSHIRE, A.D. 1310 128 NURSTED COURT, KENT. Decorated Gothic 132 MANOR HOUSE, GREAT CHALFIELD, WILTSHIRE. Perpendicular Gothic 136 THE GATEHOUSE, OXBURCH HALL, NORFOLK. Perpendicular Gothic 140 PART OF A TIMBER HOUSE AT DUNSTER, SOMERSETSHIRE. Tudor, tempus Henry the Seventh 144 COWDRAY HOUSE, SUSSEX. Tudor Architecture, tempus Henry the Eighth 146 GEORGE INN, GLASTONBURY, SOMERSETSHIRE. Perpendicular Gothic, tempus Edward IV. 148 HOSPITAL, SAFFRON WALDEN, ESSEX. Tudor Architecture, tempus Henry the Eighth 1 50 PANELLED ROOM, THAME PARK, OXFORDSHIRE, tempus Henry the Eighth 152 COMPTON WYNYATES, WARWICKSHIRE, dating from 1520 154 THE GREAT HALL AT HAMPTON COURT, built by Henry the Eighth. From a Lithograph by "Joseph Nash 1 56 THE HALL AT ELTHAM PALACE, KENT, dating from the last half pf the Fifteenth Century 158 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii Facing page LITTLE MORETON HALL, CHESHIRE 160 BRAMHALL HALL, CHESHIRE 160 ABBOT'S HOUSE AT MUCH WENLOCK, SHROPSHIRE. Perpendicular Gothic 164 TIMBER HOUSE AT WEOBLEY. Fourteenth Century 168 COTTAGES AT KINGSLAND, HEREFORDSHIRE 172 COTTAGES AT EASEBOURNE, SUSSEX 172 HIGH STREET, WEOBLEY, HEREFORDSHIRE 176 THE GRANGE, LEOMINSTER, HEREFORDSHIRE 184 LONGLEAT HALL, WILTSHIRE, attributed to John of Padua, and built between 1567 and 1579 188 STAIRCASE, CREWE HALL, CHESHIRE, dating from 1636 192 STAIRCASE, BURLEIGH, NORTHANTS, designed by John Thorpe, Architect, and built between 1575 and 1587. From a drawing by Joseph Nash 196 STAIRCASE, ALDERMASTON, BERKSHIRE. From a drawing by Joseph Nash 200 EXTERIOR VIEW OF BURLEIGH, NORTHANTS, designed by John Thorpe, Architect, and built between 1575 and 1587. From a drawing by Joseph Nash 204 WOLLATON, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, designed by R. Smithson, Architect, and built in 1580. From a drawing by Nash 208 EXTERIOR VIEW OF CREWE HALL, CHESHIRE, built between 1615 and 1636 212 THE LONG GALLERY, HATFIELD HOUSE, dating from 1611. From a drawing by Nash 216 INTERIOR OF THE HALL, WOLLATON, NOTTS, built in 1580, R. Smithson, Architect 224 THE LONG GALLERY, LANHYDROC, CORNWALL. From a drawing by Nash 232 THE ADELPHI TERRACE, LONDON. Classic houses built by the brothers Adam in the reign of George III. 244 BEDFORD SQUARE, LONDON. Types of classic houses built by the 248 brothers Adam xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Facing page HOUSE IN ORNAMENTAL PLASTER. Late Seventeenth Century. Frtm a drawing by W. Ttoofeny 256 CLASSIC COUNTRY MANSIONS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. From Professor Banister Fletcher's " A History of Architecture " (B. T. Batsford, publisher) 268 COMPARISON BETWEEN GREEK AND ROMAN MOULDINGS. From Professor Banister Fletcher's " A History of Architecture " 272 THE RECTORY, COLN ROGER, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, an example of the Cotswold style. From " Old Cottages, Farm-Houses, etc., in the Cotswold District," by E. Guy Dawber, with photographs by W. G. Davie. (B. T. Batsford, pub- lisher) 288 YEW TREE FARM, NEAR BECKLEY, SUSSEX. From " Old Cottages and Farm-Houses in Kent and Sussex," by E. Guy Dawber, with photographs by W. G. Davie 296 LOWER GARDEN HALL, NEAR MALPAS, an example of Cheshire timberwork, from E. A. Quid's " Half-Timbered Build- ings," with photographs by J. Parkinson. (B. T. Bats- ford, publisher) 304 KENTISH HOUSES AT TONBRIDGE. From " Old Cottages and Farm-Houses in Kent and Sussex," with photographs by W. G. Davie. (B. T. Batsford, publisher) 308 THE MANOR HOUSE, WITHINGTON, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. A beauti- ful example of the Cotswold style, from Mr. Guy Dawber's book on the Cotswold district, with photo- graphs by W. G. Davie. (B. T. Batsford, publisher) 312 THE ENGLISH HOUSE INTRODUCTION THE SUBJECT IN BRIEF IN the most distant times, as far back as we can go in thought, family life built homes in keeping with its own customs and ideals; and this went on age after age. New ways of living were evolved from the old, little by little, with im- perceptible slowness ; and new homes were made to accord with them, so that domestic architec- ture may be called a history of man's life indoors. Each step in advance, however trivial and tenta- tive, was brought about by one of three things, or by the three acting together and in unison : 1. Fear, with a wish to get away from dangers. 2. Comfort an ideal wonderfully slow in its development. Refinement and privacy did not exist in early times. 3. A desire to protect women, followed by a feeling of some respect for their kind genius. Around these ideals home life in England has 2 THE ENGLISH HOUSE centred and progressed. The first one lasted in a mediaeval way to the destruction of castles by Cromwell and his soldiers. Then the wish to be safe at home gave greater care to naval matters. The other ideals refinement, comfort, privacy, all essential to woman's delicate and adaptive nature had a hard struggle till the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when the history of modern womanhood began, and with it the building of houses famous for their homeliness. It was inevitable that these things should occur at the same time, since the character of house architec- ture is determined by home customs and the way in which men and women live together with their children and servants. During the Middle Ages there was little in family life that gave women what they needed most of all, namely, comfort and educated freedom. Comfort without freedom has been given to the fair by some nations, and the result has been always a narrow civilisation, cramped and stereotyped. Freedom without comfort was granted to women by Teutonic peoples; and this explains the coarseness of domestic manners in mediaeval England, and the slow progress in house architecture. It was not till Tudor times that daily customs became friendly to our countrywomen. The beautiful home life of Sir Thomas More, with the joy he took in THE SUBJECT IN BRIEF 3 educating his daughters, marks the beginning of a new era. Thomas More believed firmly that education was essential to women as well as to men ; and this new idea came to him from Italy, where some universities had been open to girls for about two hundred years, like the one at Bologna, where Betisia Gozzadini became a doctor of law in the thirteenth century. Other nations followed with interest the pro- gress of Italian ladies, and England was happily affected in several ways. Henry IV., for example, invited Christine de Pisan to his court, and was exceedingly disappointed that she could not come. Henry VII. commanded Caxton to translate one of Christine's books, and Earl Rivers did into English her "Moral Proverbs." By this means English ladies were encouraged by a woman's success, and Dame Juliana Berners compiled her " Boke of St. Albans." Educated women became fashionable, so the ideals of home life improved, and men began to understand, like Sir Thomas More, that womanhood was abased without comfort and knowledge. During the Middle Ages, when discomfort was the rule of life, women were demoralised by home conditions that men did not mind, being occupied during the day with business, while their wives and daughters were constantly face 4 THE ENGLISH HOUSE to face with the uncleanliness to be found in all houses. No room was private ; halls were bed- rooms for servants and retainers ; and in the middle of the thirteenth century, at West- minster, an open drain flowed through the royal halls and made the courtiers ill. Thorold Rogers speaks of the indescribable filth common in manor-villages. It was not surprising that women were rude and coarse, and that home architecture moved forward at a snail's speed. All this may be called the drama of sex ; and unless we keep it constantly before our minds we cannot understand the ways in which houses were built by domestic manners and traditions. The first homes were caves, and these were followed by neolithic pennpits round holes underground, like those at Fisherton, near Salis- bury. Thence we pass to lake-dwellings, as at Ulrome, in Yorkshire ; then to the marsh- islanders near Glastonbury, whose colony lasted from about 300 B.C. to the Roman occupation of England ; and so we move on through time and change till we come to our modern towns, with their slums and their jerry-made villas, and their great contrasts of wealth and poverty, and of high rents and bad workmanship. It is an education to follow this evolution of pennpits from Neolithic times to our basement houses and tube railways. To learn how round THE SUBJECT IN BRIEF 5 huts became square cabins, how cabins became halls, and how these halls grew into castles, palaces, mansions, cottages, towns all this, no doubt, is a social history more intimate and domestic than any other. One day, let us hope, it will be taught in all English schools. At present it is known only to a specialist here and there. If the general public could be tempted to read about this subject there would soon be a popular movement favourable to better houses than those which are built to-day for all persons with small incomes. How many are there in London who can find good houses at a rent which they can afford to pay a rent in keeping with their salaries ? London has become a nation-city where those who work hard for small incomes have a dire struggle to make both ends meet. A small income is the average in- come, so that most Londoners are face to face with the same problem how to prevent their livelihood from being swallowed up by rents, rates, taxes, and season tickets. Meantime the cost of building rises higher and higher. It is three times greater than it was in the Middle Ages, though the wages of masons and carpenters are somewhat lower. There were no middlemen during the epochs of Gothic architecture, while to-day each building job has to support many ; and tenants, in their turn, pay 6 THE ENGLISH HOUSE for it all in excessive rents. It is common know- ledge that houses with low rents, so called, are fraudulent things, ill-built and wretchedly un- comfortable ; but people do not ask themselves why these modern houses are vastly inferior to simple old country cottages. Yet this question touches our national life in many ways. Bad homes undermine character. There is no surer test of civilisation than the way in which nations hand on their family traditions. Critics have much to say about good houses built for the well-to-do, and this phase of modern architecture is quiet and beautiful. Still, the rich are quite strong enough to fight their own battles, while persons with narrow means are at the mercy of speculative builders, whose trade has ruined many a fair district. One need not hesi- tate to affirm that our modern villas and flats are very seldom so well built as were the granaries and barns of the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- turies. In other words, clerks are not so well lodged as hay and straw used to be. This fact is worth remembering, because architecture is a true historian. We learn from it how nations love their religion, how they show respect for law and justice, how they give dignity to trade and commerce, how they amuse themselves, and, again, how family life is guarded among all classes. The history of mankind is to THE SUBJECT IN BRIEF 7 be read in architecture, which rises and falls with each governing race. The Romans, whose art influenced the whole of Europe, built with their national character, and wrote in the book of lost empires two virtues, determination and stern thoroughness. Their architecture, entirely masculine and practical, shows how they spent themselves in being masterful and patient. Still, they did not grow their own style, but borrowed its principles from other nations and blended them together. From the Greeks, whose architecture was wonderfully pure in line and exquisitely proportioned, Roman builders took columns and the cornice, and to these features they added arches, domes, and vaults, which it is presumed they borrowed from the Etruscans. The result gave them an architecture which purists have called debased, bad Greek, but which, in reality, is Greek art alloyed with useful structural features and with Roman power and practicalness. The ground idea of Greek building was horizontal weight adequately supported by up- right columns. It was a simple idea, and the Greeks clung to it with unswerving loyalty, developing their three orders, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. Ruskin was inclined to laugh at this weight-bearing principle, because a savage or a child could put up two blocks of stone and 8 THE ENGLISH HOUSE place another across them; but we must remember that this idea conquered nation after nation in the past, and is operative to-day in all parts of Europe. It began by conquering Rome, and Rome carried it to her colonies ; by this means it came to England in A.D. 43. When the Saxons and Angles arrived in the middle of the fifth century they found in many buildings the art which Rome had adapted from Grecian and Etruscan ideals an art furnished with columns, entabla- tures, arches, domes, and vaults. The Saxons themselves made their homes with wood. Their architecture was forest-born ; it consisted of a cabin or hall, which served as a general sleeping-room as well as a chamber for feasts and for household work. This hall, little by little, threw out other cabins a bower in which ladies and chieftains slept, an oratory where they prayed with a Christian priest, a kiln for baking bread, a byre for cattle, and so forth ; but in the hall many persons slept, and out of this one room our English house of to-day was evolved by more than a thousand years of very gradual progress, so halting and so slow that each generation added but little to the traditional house plan. In England, then, after the middle of the fifth century, different methods of building were THE SUBJECT IN BRIEF 9 brought together ; and it is from those methods, some Roman, some Anglo-Saxon, that nearly all the houses we see to-day have been grown. If you walk down Piccadilly, and notice the various styles of its architecture, you will find Classic buildings ; they are soon identified by the pilasters attached to their walls, and they denote the same influence which our Saxon forefathers encountered when they landed in England. For this reason, in any book on English houses it is essential to speak of the long ago. We must not pass by in silence any great characteristic that helps to make the present past and the past present. Unless we know not only how things came to be what they are, but also why, we cannot take an intelligent delight in any good building that we look upon. Hence it is necessary to begin at the beginning, not in the middle of our subject, so that we may follow the art of building from the dawn of home life to our own architects and their clients. My aim here is entirely practical ; for I shall try to show, briefly and with care, how one form of house developed into another, and how each dominant type or style has been handed down to our own time and may be recognised by certain marked characteristics, like tooth-ornament in Early English Gothic, and the ball-flower io THE ENGLISH HOUSE ornament in Decorated work of the fourteenth century. To map out styles in a popular manner, under- lining definite traits easy to be learnt by heart, is a thing that all English people need if they wish to enjoy their country and its buildings. It is by looking for definite characteristics of style that architecture is first seen with intelli- gence by those who are not professional students; and the pleasure of this amusement soon becomes a hobby, a pastime that educates. But there are styles and styles, and we must understand the difference between them. A style in architecture is a language, and may be employed in different ways ; just as our English tongue, in any period of its literature, is infinitely varied and yet of its own time, following the conformation of many minds, but retaining cer- tain forms and thoughts that make it Elizabethan, or Georgian, or Victorian, and so forth. None could describe all the characteristics by which any great period in English literature is enriched, and this applies also to the use made of styles in architecture. However strong tradition may be, it does not prevent a man of genius from forming new effects with ancient methods and forms. We know that Shakespeare himself belonged to a school. Yet there are laymen who talk as though THE SUBJECT IN BRIEF 11 English houses were built by one man during each period, and this delusion has to be kept in mind by all writers on architecture. Certain marked characteristics may be learnt by all laymen, but only a specialist here and there knows the subtle and elusive history of any one great style. Finally, there are seven periods in the history of our English house, and all may be studied at first hand. They run thus : 1 . Primitive : from pit-dwellings to Saxon timber halls. 2. Roman, with its influence on Saxon and Norman art. 3. Gothic: from late Norman onward to our Tudor houses. 4. Transitional \ including all styles that have a mixture of Gothic with Classic forms, like Elizabethan, Jacobean, and the so-called Queen Anne architecture. 5. Revived Classic of the Renaissance. It was Roman, not Greek. Inigo Jones, after long study in Italian towns and a professional visit to Copenhagen, was the first Englishman to work seriously in this style ; and since his death in the year 1652 Italian Classic has had English devotees generation after generation. 6. Greek Classic, introduced towards the end of the eighteenth century, in part by the brothers Adam (1728-92) and in part by Stuart and 12 THE ENGLISH HOUSE Revett, whose work on the " Antiquities of Athens " drew attention to the essential differ- ences in spirit and form between Greek and Roman architecture. 7. Modern Enterprise in many Styles. This period is a history of the others, for its work has turned many a town into a handbook on archi- tecture, with chapters jumbled together some- how, anyhow ; and this means that the art of building has become imitative and eclectic. These are the seven periods. Five mark a continued evolution, while the last two show the influence of copying. Through the Middle Ages we follow an arched style used for all pur- poses, from abbeys and village churches to barns and granaries. It changed from age to age, dividing its long history into eras, and to these eras names have been given. Here they are : 1. Saxon. From A.D. 410, when the Romans left England, to the year 1066. 2. Norman. From 1066 to 1189, running through the reigns of William I., William II., Henry I., Stephen, and Henry II. 3. Early English Gothic. From 118910 1307, embracing the reigns of Richard I., John, Henry III., and Edward I. 4. Decorated English Gothic. From 1307 to 1377, the reigns of Edward II. and Edward III. THE SUBJECT IN BRIEF 13 5. Perpendicular JLnglish Gothic. From 1377 to 1485. 6. Tudor Architecture^ a Continuation of Perpen- dicular Gothic. From the reign of Henry VII. to that of Elizabeth. 7. Transitional Architecture^ Elizabethan, Jaco- bean, and other styles, formed partly of Gothic features, like bay-windows, mullions and tran- soms, oriels, gables, and barge-boards, all very common in our old cottages, manor-houses, farms, and water-mills. This rural architecture springs from Gothic traditions as a rule. There is often an admixture of Classic details, but the spirit of the work is mediaeval English. It will be understood, of course, that the dates here given for the continuation of each era are merely approximate. They do not include any period of transition between the eras. For example, the growth of Decorated Gothic into Perpendicular began many years before Edward III. died ; yet pure Decorated work was done after that king's death. Still, dates are a great help in all studies, and here they do not mislead if we keep in mind the fact that they are only approximately true. CHAPTER I THE DAWN OF HOME LIFE Architecture is the printing press of all ages, and gives a history of the state of society in which it was erected. MORGAN. r ""^HIS definition is a half-thought, not a completed truth, because architec- M ture makes the distant near to us, and the present far off : it is alive to-day with forms and principles that belong to innumerable periods. Some familiar things are as old in the art of building as the mammoth is in the science of zoology ; and they are still young and useful. We may follow them back to a time when man, with simple and rude flint weapons, encountered the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros over there in the Mendips, and in other parts of our forest country. Those giant animals died out, like their fierce contemporaries, sabre-toothed tigers, bears, lions, hyaenas, and bisons ; while man not only lived and thrived, but formed some quite permanent traditions, heirs to all future days and types of social life. 14 THE DAWN OF HOME LIFE 15 So the aim of this chapter is to point out the prehistoric features in architecture that serve us helpfully to-day. There are five of them : 1. A passion for art, including wall decoration. 2. A burrowing instinct that reconciles men to a life underground. 3. An instinctive choice of a round shape for rooms : it is now approved and advocated by the science of hygiene. 4. A courage that faced water and marshlands, and built on piles lake-dwellings and marsh- villages. This formed a constructive art, which, after long ages, would span rivers with bridges, raise Peterborough Cathedral over a bog, and put Victoria Station where snipe used to fish for tadpoles. A lake-dwelling was a prehistoric Venice. 5. A preference for wood and plaster as building materials. These are all of primitive origin, so it is worth while to consider them here. The progress of man during the Mammoth Period was determined by four things : his weakness, his knowledge of fire, his gift of imitation, and his hope. The first of these was the most helpful ; and providence has not yet taken it away from human life. Man knows to this day that his lot is insecure, that he may 1 6 THE ENGLISH HOUSE fail to support himself; he knows, too, that his children need incessant care during many years, unlike the young of other animate creatures ;. and all this acts constantly as a spur to thought, as a stimulus to inventive pluck. Primitive man, surrounded by formidable animals, all hostile to him, felt his weakness more than we do ours, and had therefore to show in self-defence a vigilant cunning much fiercer than we need. He had no workhouse as a last refuge, you see. He was entirely self-dependent, a small figure among huge quadrupeds and ter- rific storms. His height ranged from 5 ft. 3 in. to 5 ft. 9 in. ; all the bone in his body weighed less than a mammoth's leg ; but his skull was well developed and his mind clear. He had con- fidence in his brain, and his hope was illimitable. To protect himself he looked for a weapon, and good fortune was a friend to him in this matter. For he chose flint, a stone not only as hard as metal, but with " the seeds of flame hidden in its veins." While chipping flint to a sharp point sparks were generated ; perhaps they set fire to some dried grasses ; it is certain that from them man learnt how to make arti- ficial light and heat ; and a fire was his best security against dangerous wild beasts. Comforted by this guardian, he was able to follow that bent for imitation which had come THE DAWN OF HOME LIFE 17 to him from ape-like ancestors, and which he developed into art, showing with his rough tools and simple means quite as much skill as was possible. He had a firm touch, his eye was quick and observant, and he was equally pro- ficient in sculpture, painting, and engraving. His passion for colour decorated the walls of his cave and painted his own body. At Dordogne, in the Caverne de Font-de-Gaume, there are mural pictures that represent the bison and reindeer, and that belong to the Mammoth Period. In Robin Hood's Cave, Cresswell Crags, a piece of a rib was found, engraved with the head of a horse, and showing clearly the eyes, mouth, and nostrils. Some other engrav- ings of horses represent what appears to be a rude form of harness. The best achievement in sculpture is called the Venus of Brassempouy, carved from a mammoth's tooth ; and much admiration has been given by men of science to another work, the head of a horse from Mas-d'Azil, which has something akin to the spirit of the Elgin Marbles, according to Dr. William Wright. But while this acuteness of observation was being developed into sculpture, painting, and engraving another form of art made little pro- gress, and borrowed its principles, seemingly, from birds and animals. This was architecture. 1 8 THE ENGLISH HOUSE Cave-men were like cave-lions and cave-bears, for they used a shelter prepared by Nature ; pit-dwellings at a later time, during the Age of Polished Stone, put human architecture on a level with the burrows made by timid animals ; and lake-villages may have been suggested by the lodges and dams built with astonishing cleverness by beavers. Even the use of mud as a plaster for walls cannot be claimed as a human invention, since it is found in the nests of several birds. For example, house - martins form a cement with loam and bits of broken straws, and allow each day's work to dry and harden before they put on another layer. During the Middle Ages mud cottages were built in the same way ; and as similar huts existed in England during prehistoric times these building methods are very suggestive. Thus the marsh-village near Glastonbury, dating from about the third century B.C., had wattled walls covered with clay or mud ; the earliest were circular on plan, like the Neo- lithic pit-dwellings at Fisherton, near Salisbury ; and this long retention of a round form implies a similar conservatism in other ways. Hence it is possible that man got his mud-plaster from birds and his round hole from burrowing animals. There is nothing to show that he invented them, as he did sculpture, pictures, and engravings. THE DAWN OF HOME LIFE 19 But if his building methods were copied from creatures inferior to himself in reason, he united them together and formed traditions that grew, whereas animals and birds have ever repeated with unvarying skill the same shelter-places and nests. Human imitation is like history, not only a collector of known things, but an artist in their use and interpretation ; and you will find always that men of genius are unafraid of plagiarism, taking their own wherever they find it, just as great rivers swallow up their tributaries. Man's earliest imitations have thus a transcendent in- terest, foretelling his future greatness. Pheidias may be seen in the Venus of Brassempouy ; and even man's burrowing instinct has a marvellous history. It seems to have been unknown during the Mammoth Period. There were then so many great animals that it would have been unsafe to build underground. What roof could have been strong enough to bear the weight of a woolly rhinoceros ? or what rampart of stone and turf could have baffled a hungry tiger, eager to claw its way through a roof of interlaced boughs coated with mud ? These questions may ex- plain the fact that in the present state of our knowledge no pit-dwelling here in England is referable to an earlier period than the Neo- lithic. 20 THE ENGLISH HOUSE That, to be sure, is amazingly old ; but cave- homes are older by far. Still, pitmen are more interesting to us than cave-men, because there is still in human nature a rabbit-like joy in burrow- ing, as any collier will tell you, for miners like to show offtheir underground vanity, their pit pride. Even in London flats the most recent develop- ment of our house architecture there are base- ments where porters live an obscure existence, with an electric light burning all day long. Some architects, also, following an idea suggested by the late E. M. Barry, R.A., would gladly build kitchens and bathrooms under the gardens in London squares, lighting them through a sky- light in the centre. We are still Neolithic in some ways, evidently. Pit-dwellings lasted among the Germans into historic times. Tacitus expressly states that the German people dug out subterranean caves, and piled over them great heaps of dung, as a shelter from winter and as a storage for the year's produce. Such places lessened the rigour of cold and enabled families to hide themselves from human foes. Among the Irish, according to Professor Sullivan, pennpits were kept in use at a time when their knowledge of lime would have enabled them to build better houses. This ancient people made rooms underground, from nine to ten feet long, and from three to four feet THE DAWN OF HOME LIFE 21 high and wide ; narrow passages linked these chambers together ; and other tunnels, barely sufficient to allow a man to creep in on his stomach, went up through the soil into a camp enclosed by a mound or rampart. Does not this remind you of coal-mines with their stables, and of tube railways with their stations ? Some pit-dwellings had two stories, the lower one serving as a granary ; these belonged to a late time. The round pits at Fisherton are Neolithic, and carried down through chalk to a depth of from seven to ten feet ; their roofs were interlaced boughs made weather-tight with clay ; and they were entered by tunnels cut through the chalk, sloping downwards to the floor. One cannot believe that pitmen used fire under- ground. It would have been very troublesome. To put a hole in the thatch would weaken the roof as a defence, and smoke rising through the hole would attract wolves, even although a pit- dwelling were defended by a wall of stones or a stockage of timber, like the marsh-village near Glastonbury. For these reasons warmth may have been obtained by avoiding all waste of animal heat. Finally, the evolution of these underground homes was towards the sun's light. That is, they became shallower, and each decrease of depth made it necessary to build higher walls above ground, so as to maintain the accustomed room- 22 THE ENGLISH HOUSE space. This progress towards light and air took place in England ; and we are still reminded of it when we see old cottages with their kitchens two or three feet lower than the soil around them. Similar houses were common in Italy as long ago as the fifth century B.C. It is thus that home architecture makes our own time contemporary with all past epochs. Circular houses underground were followed by round huts on the surface, and of this type we have many examples. One and it seems to be the oldest of all is employed to this day by char- coal-burners. If you study the illustration (p. 24) you will see at once that no hut could be less intelli- gent when considered as architecture. It is the letter A in the rudiments of building ; it cannot be compared for a moment with the constructive artistry of a beaver's dam, bending to meet a constant pressure of water that becomes formid- able when a mild river floods into spate. A charcoal-burner's hut has three characteristics : 1. It is cone-shaped, and its timber frame covered with turf slants upwards till it meets at the top in a point, looking like a clown's cap in architecture. 2. It belongs to the period of round primeval houses. 3. It has no hearth inside, so cooking takes place out of doors, as though fierce THE DAWN OF HOME LIFE 23 animals had still to be kept at bay by the glare of fire. These points are all interesting, for a cone is a much more primitive shape in architecture than a circle having upright walls and a pointed coverlid resting on roof timbers. Here there is some constructive thought and ability, while there is nothing of the kind in a few sticks tied together at their tops, then set upright as a cone, and covered with sods. An Irish round-house was far superior, though rude and primitive. It had upright walls forming two circles, between which was an annular space about twelve inches wide filled with clay ; and this solid wall, outside and inside, was made picturesque by a wattled basketry interlaced from prop to prop. Thus a cylinder was firmly built ; over it a conical roof was put, and thatched with rushes ; a wood fire burned on a central hearth, and its carbon smoke eddied through the doorway, or curled up through a hole in the thatch. This type of Irish round-house has evidently many advantages over our charcoal-burner's hut, and this applies also to the English marsh-village at Glastonbury, the remains of which are about two thousand years old in their most ancient parts. Here is a collection of round and oval cabins, from sixty to seventy in number ; their foundation is a platform solidly put together, 24 THE ENGLISH HOUSE formed with brushwood fascines and logs ; these are embedded in peat and covered with large beams, laid side by side and a foot deep ; and this colony of huts, thus islanded above a marsh, has around it the remnants of a thick-set palisade enclosing about three and a half acres. As to the building methods, when a hut was eighteen feet in diameter about sixty posts were set upright in the platform, then wattled and plastered with clay ; a stone hearth was put at a distance from these fragile walls, so that sparks might not reach their timbers ; a log marked the threshold ; and a rough doorstep was made with slabs of lias stone. Such was the architectural work done in England during the three hundred years that preceded the Roman Conquest. As this work is more advanced than a charcoal- burner's hut, and as the marsh-village at Glaston- bury is a descendant of the lake-dwellings that belong to the Bronze Age, there is much here to set thought astir. Charcoal-burning may be as old as the first pottery baked by a fire, not by the sun ; or as old as the first bronze weapons. But of one thing we may be quite certain : a char- coal-burner's hut is amazingly primitive in type and structure, and shows how in isolated con- ditions of life, when a trade does not admit of much improvement, men hand on their simple customs with the same conservative " - . . ri - . ^ * ;> ,\ THE DAWN OF HOME LIFE 25 spirit so remarkable among birds, animals, and insects. We have now seen that two Neolithic cha- racteristics have come down to our own time : a burrowing instinct and a round plan. Is there anything to explain this choice and retention of a circular form ? At once a good many facts bid for attention. Item, we find in ourselves spontaneous habits that suggest an explanation. A man learns with difficulty to hit out straight from his shoulder, for his natural blow sweeps in a semicircle, as women bowl at cricket. Again, the earliest attempts at drawing made by a child are unsteady rounds and ovals ; and the most difficult thing to be learnt in art is to square one's touch. All students give far too much emphasis to the in- numerable rounded forms in nature. " Your work has no character," a teacher says ; " it is too round : square your touch a little." We know, too, that a man's natural walk is not straight ahead. In the street you and your companion bump against each other ; on a moor, if you are thinking or talking, an arched bend is made by your footsteps ; so that our natural movements and gestures are not direct, but curved, like Nature's own lines and forms. For Nature detests a rectangle, and works in 26 THE ENGLISH HOUSE the round. Even when she grows a long fruit, like a banana, it is often circular in section. Her favourite shapes are cones, ovals, and circles ; and with these she makes fruits, flowers, and birds'-nests, the trunks of trees, and the skulls of birds and animals. Our round earth is warmed by a round sun, and Shakespeare's " visiting moon " is not a crescent, but a full circle. Altogether, then, there is nothing unusual in the fact that primitive man loved circular forms. Instinct guided him when he made his home round, just as it taught birds to build round nests. Yet he was not invariably loyal to his pre- ference. For example, he built two kinds of funeral mound, circular and long. The round barrows in England are more numerous than the others, and more equally distributed over the country. Some are Neolithic ; the others belong to later times, the Bronze and Iron Ages. Long barrows are relatively few in number, and restricted in their area. A hundred and four exist in England, divided between the coun- ties of Wilts, Gloucester, Dorset, and York. Gloucestershire and Wilts have seventy-six. These long barrows appear to be Neolithic, no bronze having been found in them ; and they show that some human minds had begun to think about shapes having greater length than THE DAWN OF HOME LIFE 27 breadth. Indeed, there are long barrows with chambers ; that is, they contain a number of stone cists, which open into a long gallery or passage ; and this passage has an entrance un- covered by earth, and with a very big lintel supported by two jambs. A chambered barrow may represent one type of dwelling ; it has certainly much in common with the beehive huts of Ireland, which were once inhabited, and where we may find a gradual transition from a round to a rectangular form. In the county of Kerry, on the island of Skellig Michael, there are six beehive houses built of dry rubble masonry ; their cells are rectangular inside, but round or oval outside ; except in one example, where the exterior is squared at the base. Their roofs are domed, and consist of horizontal courses that overlap ; their doors have inclined jambs and flat lintels or heads, and small holes, rectangular in shape, indicate how smoke got away. Every detail here is full of interest. Those inclined jambs prove that Ireland at one time had cone-shaped huts with slanting walls, of a piece with our charcoal-burner's ; and what could be more suggestive than the contrast between the rectangular cells in round and oval buildings ? A similar transition took place in the marsh- village near Glastonbury, where oval huts stood 28 THE ENGLISH HOUSE side by side with round cabins. Nor is this all. " Amongst the wood and debris underlying the clay of a dwelling mound three hurdles were uncovered ; the more complete one measured 6 ft. 3 in. high by 10 ft. 6 in. wide, with an average space between the upright posts of five inches. In close proximity to the hurdles was a beam of oak, having small mortise holes along one side parallel to the edge ; the distance be- tween the holes exactly tallied with the space between the hurdle-posts. From the way the under surface of the beam was cut and notched it was evident that it had been placed at right angles to a similar piece of timber. We have here distinct proof that some of the dwellings were rectangular, and that the walls were about six feet in height." This decision was made known to the British Association in 1896, and it shows the evolution from circular to squared houses. Attempts to build in oblongs may thus be noted, here and there, from very remote days, as in Neolithic chambered barrows, or in the long rooms underground made by the ancient Irish, onward to the marsh-folk at Glastonbury. Yet this transition from the round was so halting that no idea of its slow progress can be given in words. Even during Csesar's time a preference for round huts was shown by British tribesmen, THE DAWN OF HOME LIFE 29 as by the Gauls, though squared cabins were also put up ; and if you ask me why men ever wished to give up their circular homes for a shape not to be found in Nature I can only say that a circular form is very difficult to roof when its diameter exceeds from twelve to eighteen feet. It then needs more scientific knowledge than primitive races can learn from their simple building methods. Many hundreds of years later, during the great periods of Gothic architecture, roofing problems were very hard nuts to crack. For example, many castles were found to be roofless during the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I. With these facts in mind, I attribute the adoption of oblong houses to three things : 1. They were easier to roof than round houses of an equal area. 2. They enabled a chief to sit at a greater distance from his servants and dependents. 3. They were thus more favourable to that communal life in halls which Angles and Saxons brought with them to England. In other words, a round hut implies one family, as in that of a charcoal-burner ; while a squared hall may be extended to any reasonable length, and is therefore friendly to a primitive royal life, with courtiers and armed retainers. This may be illustrated by the way in which wooden houses were built during mediaeval 30 THE ENGLISH HOUSE times, with methods inherited from the Anglo- Saxons. Have you ever heard of gavels or gavelforks, known also as crucks ? They were bent trees, and with them arched gable-ends were con- structed. Two pairs of gavels were required for a simple cottage ; each pair formed a great strong arch ; and the two arches were joined together by means of a ridge-tree fastened securely from apex to apex. Thus a frame was made, to be finished with tie-beams, rafters, side-posts, and so forth. All this work was done before a frame was set up on its feet ; and a prodigious amount of beer was drunk by those who raised it into position on its site. The distance between the gavels that is, from gable to gable was called a bay^ and a bay was sixteen feet long. Large houses were built in several bays, and this applies also to barns and shippons. It is always useful to measure old cottages and farm-buildings, so as to ascertain whether their length is a multiple of sixteen or of eight that is, whether they contain a half- bay. For example, a cottage twenty-four feet long is a bay and a half. A bay-window one of the most delightful features that Gothic art invented for us used to be a real bay, large as a room ; and this may be seen at Haddon Hall, in the Long Gallery, where THE DAWN OF HOME LIFE 31 projecting windows measure 1 5 ft. by 12 ft. It would be easy to say a great deal more about bays, but here the main point is their early use in the construction of rectangular houses. But although round houses went out of fashion everywhere in England, except among charcoal- burners, architecture harked back, again and again, to circular forms, as in domes, in wheel- windows, and in round towers, so that the tradi- tion has never been lost. Round and oval rooms are common enough in modern French houses and flats, just as they were fairly common in English work of the eighteenth century ; and now we are told by men of science that our squared rooms are quite wrong, and that we must go back to ovals and circles. The modern science of hygiene detests a rectangle, following Dame Nature's example. " Square rooms are bad," the argument runs ; " their corners are dust-bins, and dust is a collec- tion of disease germs : it keeps a house dangerously full of microbes. Furniture is bad : it harbours dust, it occupies too much air-space, and air- space means life and health. Put as much furniture as you can in the thickness of walls ; let it lie flush with their surface ; and have shallow mouldings easy to be cleaned, even by present-day servants. Carpets, curtains, uphol- stery, are scavengers, for they gather dust and 32 THE ENGLISH HOUSE germs, and these are scattered into the air by draughts." In these criticisms a new architecture lies in embryo new and yet old, modern and yet primeval. We are asked to return to rounded shapes and a simpler home life. At the present time it is much to ask. Everybody is habituated to square rooms and rectangular houses, and everybody hates a revolution in long-accepted customs. Custom is reason fast asleep ; it takes the place of thought in all popular habits of life, and science will not rouse it up without infinite patience. Still, a reversion to rounded forms in architec- ture will gain strength little by little, and a city in the round might be made infinitely varied and charming. Might it not be tested in a Garden Village ? Last of all, you will see now that the title of this chapter, " The Dawn of Home Life," has two meanings : one carries our thoughts back to prehistoric times, and another speaks of a new Renaissance. Architectural styles were not much affected in the past by the science of health. Nations, indeed, encountered plagues, leprosy, fevers, and small-pox rather than treat sanitary questions in a spirit of common sense. Their life was a kind of suicide, from which a few persons escaped, living by good THE DAWN OF HOME LIFE 33 luck to threescore years and ten. All this has been improved by modern sanitation. Our towns have perfect drains, their water-supply is good, and they have a minimum size for rooms ; but science wants to achieve more than that. To conquer dust and its household dangers will be her next campaign ; and she will succeed after much popular opposition. WORKS OF REFERENCE " The Prehistoric and Early Historic Inhabitants of England." Lectures by William Wright, M.B., D.Sc., F.R.C.S., F.S.A. 1907. O'Curry's " Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish," with an Introduction by Professor Sullivan. 1873. Anderson's " Scotland in Early Christian Times." 1881. "Haus und Halle," by Dr. Konrad Lange. 1885. "The British Lake Village" (Taunton, 1895), by Boyd Dawkins. Clodd, "The Story of Primitive Man." Taylor's " The Origin of the Aryans." A. Bulleid, On the Marsh Village near Glastonbury. CHAPTER II HALL AND HOUSE IN SAXON ENGLAND DURING the fifth century Saxon archi- tecture came in touch with the Roman art that remained in England. Anglo- Saxons built with timber and daub, while the Romans used stone and thin bricks resembling tiles. These different methods began to affect each other, and their history through succeeding centuries may be seen to-day in English country districts. Remains of Roman building stand side by side with ancient stone churches or with timber-framed cottages ; and although the earliest English brickwork is said to be not older than Little Wenham Hall, Suffolk, dating from 1260, it is to be remembered that the earlier name for brick was tigel, or tile, so a tile-maker may have been a brick-maker also. Some Anglo- Saxon drawings represent walls which may be either of brick or stone ; some Norman buildings have tiles that recall to mind the narrow, thin bricks used by the Romans ; and so it is quite possible that the Roman art of brick- making never died out in England. Per- 34 THE SAXON HALL AND HOUSE 35 manence of tradition is, indeed, usual in archi- tecture. The Roman work most likely to influence Anglo-Saxons was to be found in stately and beautiful villas, remnants of which still exist. Sometimes their dining-hall, or triclinium^ had two circular compartments, with tesselated pave- ments, as at Bignor, in Sussex, where the tiles represent Ganymede carried off by the eagle, and figures of graceful nymphs dancing around a stone cistern, probably a fountain. On another pavement at Bignor is a row of figures showing how Cupids may fight gallantly with gladiators. All this tesselated work is framed with a border- ing, and the border patterns are familiar because they have been copied by modern tradesmen, and are met with on linoleum-covered floors. A Roman villa had a good inner court or quadrangle, into which rooms looked, so as to get away from the sun a natural thing under hot Italian skies, but unwise when a Northern climate had to be warmed indoors. Around the quadrangle was a cloister, as at Lydney, Wood- chester, and Chedworth, so that our English sun had other unnecessary compliments paid to its fitful geniality. Yet the Roman house plan was copied by monks and repeated in their mediaeval buildings. In Cornwall, again, as Richard Carew pointed 36 THE ENGLISH HOUSE out (A.D. 1602), it was a traditional custom to light rooms from an internal court. Cornish houses had low sites ; their walls were thick, and their stones put together with a mortar of lime and sand ; and their windows were arched and little. There is much here that speaks of Romanesque methods. Low sites were not favourable in our climate, and rooms facing in- wards upon a court were certainly of Italian origin. Still, it is always pleasant to think of a Roman atrium with chambers built around it, for an atrium seems to have been to Roman family life what a hall was to the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants, the place where all home interests were united in a sort of communal way. At first it was used for cooking as well as for meals ; clients and patrons did business there ; and each good atrium was adorned with works of art, statues, wall-paintings, and images of the owner's ancestors. In later times an atrium seems to have been divided into different parts, separated from one another by curtains or veils ; and this means of securing privacy was carried on by the Normans. Near the gate was a hearth, and a wood fire burnt on it always, under the charge of a janitor ; and around it images of the lares were placed. There were no chimneys to convey smoke THE SAXON HALL AND HOUSE 37 through the walls, so an atrium became sooty ; December was called Fumosus, from the use of fires in that month, and images were known as fumosce. So the Anglo-Saxons had little to learn from Romans in the use of Vood fires. They may have borrowed the Roman practice of anointing well-dried sticks with the lees of oil, to prevent smoke. But on this point I can find no evidence. To warm rooms has ever been a difficult problem. In the time of Seneca, who died in A.D. 65, heat was circulated through a house from a furnace below by means of tubes or passages made in the walls ; and this was in- finitely better than those hand-stoves in which embers were carried to Roman apartments at an earlier period. Portable stoves were used in England during the Middle Ages, while the better Roman method was not copied. There is yet one other thing of interest in connection with a Roman house. A rain-cistern, or impluvium, was put in the centre of the atrium ; as a rule it was uncovered, but at times it had an arched roof called a testudo. Old Vitruvius says that it ought not to be more than a third part of an atrium's breadth, nor less than a fourth part. From this we gather that this Roman hall or atrium was sometimes entirely roofed, even the space over the rain-cistern being covered. 38 THE ENGLISH HOUSE This, we may be sure, would be the case in England, where an open roof could not but be inconvenient. The Anglo-Saxons must have found many Roman halls with well-built roofs, and there is evidence to show that their own building methods, formed by a traditional use of timber, were influenced, at least to some extent, by the Roman art of masonry. In the seventh century, for example, churches of stone were founded by Paulinus at York and at Lincoln, the first in 627, and the second a year later. In another church, built at Glastonbury, of timber, Paulinus employed lead for the roof, a fact of great interest. At a later date, in or about 685, a wooden church at Lindisfarne, now known as Holy Island, was covered all over with lead, both roof and walls. Yet writers on architecture are fond of asserting that the Anglo-Saxons were entirely loyal to their own methods, building their halls with wood, and thatching them with reeds, or covering them with shingles. Consider, for instance, this passage by Mr. J. J. Stevenson : " Among all the nations of Northern race the dwelling of the chief was a single great hall, built of wood, with a separate apartment for the women. With the Norsemen, as we know from their Sagas, it was a great nave, like a church, lighted by a clerestory, the aisles divided into sleeping-boxes, like the box beds still common in THE SAXON HALL AND HOUSE 39 that country [Norway], and till lately in Scotland; the women's apartment, a separate building at the inner end. It was roofed at times, no doubt, with turf; but the projecting beams were richly carved and brightly painted. " This practice of building in wood all these Northern races continued in the countries they conquered, at least in their more important buildings. In the Icelandic Sagas, wood being scarce there, we constantly read of the richer men sending to Norway for trees to build a hall. . . . " In England the Saxon thane built his hall from the woods of his demesne by the labour of his bondmen. The roof was thatched with reeds and straw, or covered with wooden shingles, supported by wooden posts. The king's villeins were compelled by law to erect nine buildings for him : a hall, a chamber, a buttery, a stable, a dog-house, a barn, a kiln or oven, I suppose a privy, and a dormitory. No kitchen was needed, for the cooking was done at the same fire as warmed the inhabitants, or for great repasts or in summer in the open air, all the more that there was risk of fire in the wooden buildings. Camping out was the normal existence, the hall being only a more permanent camp. These buildings were all of one story, and were some- times connected by covered ways ; they were surrounded by a wall. . . . The Saxon lord and 4 o THE ENGLISH HOUSE his ' hearthmen,' analogous to the Counts or Comites of the Frank sovereigns, sat by the same fire at which their repast was cooked, and at night retired with him to the same dormitory, which served also as a council chamber. The manners were rough and rude. It is told in praise of one king that ' he acted according to justice, nor drunken struck his hearth com- panions.' " * There is no hesitation in this account. Wood is mentioned as the building material for halls, and roofs are either thatched or covered with wooden shingles. Yet we have seen not only that stone churches were put up in the seventh century, but that lead was used for two purposes to protect roofs from the wet, and to keep damp and draught from passing through walls of hewn oak. At a time when there was no distinction between religious and domestic architecture useful innovations may well have passed from churches into the great halls built by kings and thanes. It is certainly discreet to believe so, and it does not run counter to the prevalence of wooden buildings throughout the Middle Ages. Conditions that affected churches and brought about improvements were not less active when the best halls were put up by wealthy men. Lead, no doubt, was dearer than wood and * " House Architecture," by J. J. Stevenson, U. 5-6. THE SAXON HALL AND HOUSE 41 plaster, and this would limit the utility of it in building. On the other hand, timber halls were bombarded with draughts. It is said, for example, that King Alfred invented lanterns as a shield for candles, which guttered when the wind blew into his rooms through crevices. Timber, we must suppose, was not seasoned, and when it shrank and warped the plaster covering it would crack, forming vents for the wind to enter by. If, then, lead was employed for some halls as well as in churches, ordinary common sense dictated a necessary improvement. Mr. Stevenson has drawn for us in outline a good sketch of the Saxon hall and its outhouses ; and this sketch may be rilled in with many inter- esting details. From Anglo-Saxon vocabularies we may get the names applied to [different parts of a building. An outer wall, surrounding the burh^ was sometimes a great earthwork and some- times a defence of stone. It had an entrance strong enough to resist attack, and called thegeaf. This gate led into an enclosed court known as the cafer-tun^ or inburh. The word ivah\ or wag, meant wall ; a stapul was a poster log set in the ground ; a rafter was a rafter ; while swer and stipere denoted a column and a pillar. A swer helped to support an arch or a vault, the bigels ; or the fyrst, the inner part of a roof, a ceiling. " The hrof^ or roof, was called also thecen^ or 42 THE ENGLISH HOUSE th&cen y a word derived from the verb theccan^ to cover ; but although this is the original of our modern word thatch^ we must not suppose that the Anglo-Saxon thtecen meant what we call a thatched roof, for we have the Anglo-Saxon word thac-tigel^ a thatch-tile, as well as hrof-tlgel^ a roof-tile." * Thus far we have learnt that a hall had columns and pillars, and was arched or vaulted ; and from this we may infer that it was like a Scandinavian hall, divided into a nave flanked by aisles. Not less interesting are the two kinds of roof-tiles ; and we shall see just now that they were sometimes carved and enriched with gilt. Some may have been Roman tiles taken from a Roman villa ; but those of Anglo-Saxon origin were of wood, probably, as a rule. Here and there, perhaps, a few may have been of cast lead, above all on church roofs. The entrance to a hall, and to other buildings inside a fun, or exterior wall, was called the duru^ or door ; and the hall door, as described in the poem of Beowulf, which dates from the middle of the fifth century, was fastened with fire-bands^ with straps of wrought-iron, probably. The hall door, again, had at times a selde^ what we should call a porch ; and in the illustration on * " Domestic Manners and Customs," by Thomas Wright, 1862, p. 12. THE SAXON HALL AND HOUSE 43 page 40 you will see that it was picturesque, being enriched with three graceful arches. The lord is seated under a great central arch, with his feet resting on a step ; behind him, inside the porch, are a number of female attendants ; on our right his wife stands ; and she and her husband distribute bread to the hungry. Every detail of this Anglo-Saxon drawing has great interest. No doubt the perspective is all wrong, but that doesn't matter : it is a thing to be expected. Two kinds of roof-tiles are clearly shown, and we see how the bowers that is, the sleeping-rooms are attached to the hall, on the roof of which you will note a stag's head. Behind the hall is a circular tower with a domed roof of tiles, and with five small windows com- manding the entrance. Through them missiles could be thrown in times of danger. A window was known to the Anglo-Saxons as eag-thyrl^ an eye-hole, or eag-duru^ an eye-door ; and all the windows in this drawing are in accord with those descriptive words. Do not neglect to study the walls, because they prove that stone or brick was occasionally used for Anglo-Saxon halls and bowers. The draughtsman may have exaggerated the height to which the masonry was carried ; anyhow, the present drawing represents very little wood- work. All the windows are set in wood, and 44 THE ENGLISH HOUSE the porch is timber, like the pillared entrance to a chapel on our right hand. Beside the chapel, and built out from its walls, is a little building with four tiny windows ; this may be a priest's cell. On the other side of the porch, guarded by spearmen, is the king's dormitory ; and next to it are two bowers, with three figures standing at the door. Here, as else- where, the walls are partly timber and partly masonry. Last of all, this illustration is taken from a Harleian manuscript in the British Museum, and Wright speaks of it as being " perhaps as old as the ninth century." The poem of Be'6wulf gives a very vivid picture of Saxon manners in relation to the hall. It relates how the hero comes with his com- panions to the royal hall of Hrothgar, for the purpose of freeing it from a monster named Grendel, that appears at night to prey upon its inhabitants. Beowulf walks from the shore along a road paved with stones, probably a Roman highway. When he draws near to the palace he sees a hall-gate rising aloft, high and curved with pinnacles. And the hall itself is lofty, and fast within and without, having iron bands forged in a skilful manner. The roof is steep and carved ; here and there it sparkles with gold ; and Beowulf, standing on the steps into the enclosed burh^ looks up at the gilded tiles. THE SAXON HALL AND HOUSE 45 Then, in accordance with a Saxon custom, he and his comrades take off their armour and leave it in the porch with a keeper ; and now they enter the hall as friends and peaceful men. The walls inside, built of wood, are draped with tapestries, rich curtains bright with golden threads and adorned with pictures. The floor is mentioned as variegated, so perhaps it is paved with wooden shingles, or with some tesselated pavement taken from a Roman villa. Around the hall benches are set ; but Hrothgar's chair or throne stands apart, isolated in a place of honour, perhaps on a dais at the far end, away from the keen draught that sings by the front door. Entering the hall, Be*6wulf finds that Hrothgar is drinking ale and mead with his hearth com- panions. The visitor makes known at once why he has come ; and instantly a bench is cleared for him and his followers. A twisted ale-cup is handed round, and a bard begins to sing, so there is joy among the heroes, and much boasting over deeds worth doing again ; and many tales are told, till the hour for Grendel's coming gets near and nearer. But who is this lady ? See how she enters the hall, and smiles her greetings. It is Hrothgar's queen, Wealtheow, too familiar with this old scene of revelry to mind it. Her duty 46 THE ENGLISH HOUSE is to be a good hostess, so she fills a twisted ale- cup and hands it graciously to her lord, who has already emptied it more often than is good for him ; and now the queen passes from warrior to warrior, so that none may be aggrieved. This ceremony at an end, she takes her seat by Hrothgar, and the talk goes on, and the drink- ing continues till bedtime. The king and queen now retire to their bed- chamber, known in later times as the bower ; here they will sleep in queer-looking cup- boards, which seem better for moments of rest during the day than for sleep at night. But if the ladies are fond of drink, like their husbands and brothers, sleep would come to them anywhere, even on a roof if it did not slant so much. As to Beowulf, he will sleep in the hall, " the treasure-house of men, adorned with vessels " ; " and a multitude of warriors watch the hall, as they before have often done. They uncover the bench-planks, and spread them all over with beds and bolsters " ; and near at hand, within easy reach, they place their wooden shields, and their helmets and ringed- mail shirts. "It is their custom," says the poem, " ever to be ready for war, both in house and in field." But this, to be sure, does no justice to the effect of their potations. A good Saxon thirst, THE SAXON HALL AND HOUSE 47 congenital and much encouraged, had no sym- pathy for war at night ; and that is one reason why the monster Grendel has had such an easy time when he has paid his nocturnal visits. Still, now that Grendel comes and finds Beowulf on guard he meets with a great sur- prise. He fights well, but is slain, and " a fearful terror falls on the North Danes, on each of those who from the walls hear the outcry." It is not clear how Grendel passed those watchmen on the walls. He did not eat them, since they hear the combat ; and there are other mysterious points. Hrothgar and his queen ought to be awakened by the battle-cries, because their bower adjoins the hall, where the fight takes place. Yet they know nothing about Grendel's death until they enter the hall early next morn- ing. You see what twisted ale-cups can do in the way of sound sleep. Those watchmen, probably, are examples of enforced temperance under fear of death. Beowulf s heroism is welcomed by great re- joicings. The hall rings with mirth all day long. After dinner a minstrel tunes his harp, gleemen sing, and rollicking jokes are made ; noise from the benches becomes loud, as " cup- bearers give wine from wondrous vessels." The queen, wearing a gold crown, is seated by her lord ; and drinking goes on till bedtime. 48 THE ENGLISH HOUSE These sketches of early manners show what Anglo-Saxons were in the middle of the fifth century or thereabouts, and they changed little. Some Grendel or other had always to be faced, and they were too careless to act on their own account. Be'6wulf would come, an Egbert, an Alfred, or some other hero, so they might take their ease in their old accustomed manner. But the last Be6wulf, Harold II., failed ; it was Grendel that triumphed ; and when William the Norman marched from Hastings to the Thames he found no fortified place till he came to the Roman walls around London. 1'lioto, Harris & .San. Xo'thamflon ANGLO-SAXON TOWER AT EARL'S BARTON, NORTHANTS. See pages 49 and 50. CHAPTER III SAXON CHARACTERISTICS OF STYLE IT will be understood, of course, that the earliest Anglo-Saxon timberwork perished long ago. Here and there some ancient wooden barns remain, looking from outside like primitive churches ; and these are the nearest relics we can find of much earlier work, for their shape is probably a repetition of hall architecture as carried on before the Norman Conquest. At Greensted, near Ongar, in Essex, is a famous Saxon church, dating from the year 1013. It was put up as a temporary shelter for the remains of St. Edmund, when removed from Bury dur- ing a Danish incursion. In recent times it has been restored, but its original timber walls may be studied yet ; they consist of cleft oak-trees, grooved and tongued together by their edges, and let into grooves in horizontal sills and heads. At Earl's Barton, Northants, is a Saxon tower, without buttresses, and with restored battle- ments. The walls are of rubble and rag-stone ; 49 D 50 THE ENGLISH HOUSE and note how the quoins the exterior angles are constructed. Some long pieces of hewn stone are put upright, then banded across by shorter strips of ashlar, or dressed stone ; so the angles look bandaged. This way of dressing is called " long and short work," and it is one characteristic by which you may know those churches which have been attributed, in part, to Saxon craftsmen. Only a warning must be given here. Long and short work was used during the late periods of Gothic architecture, as at Cap- dock Church, Suffolk, which belongs to the Perpendicular style (A.D. 1377 to A.D. 1485) ; and for this reason you must look for other reputed Saxon traits. At Earl's Barton, for example, the exterior walls are ornamented with vertical bands of stone ; these form a kind of ribbon decoration, projecting a little from the surface, and divided into tiers by plain horizontal strings, or bands, and enriched with triangles and semi- circular arches made with other strips of stone. All this should be remembered as very charac- teristic. In the tower at Sompting Church, Sussex, this strip-masonry runs up the centre of each face ; it is flat and pilaster-like below, but the upper part is semicircular, like a shaft, and a rough knob of moulded stone a sort of capital interrupts it midway, or thereabouts. At Sompting, also, there are a few tiny win- SAXON CHARACTERISTICS 51 dows with triangular heads, and this triangular shape is another Saxon trait. There are windows of this form at Deerhurst, in Gloucestershire, divided into a couple of slits by a short, flat- faced column decorated with flutings. On each side there are similar columns, and triangular heads rest upon the three. Altogether, look for the following things in Saxon architecture : 1. Long and short work at the angles. 2. Vertical strips of masonry divided into tiers by horizontal bands. 3. Triangular shapes and openings. 4. Rude work and rough materials. 5. Doorways with semicircular heads and a blunt, uncouth look, as at Earl's Barton. 6. When the belfry windows are round- headed, as at Earl's Barton, the mullions re- semble balusters, as though turned in a lathe, like wood. 7. Piers in churches are short, stumpy, and cylindrical, and their capitals are rough blocks of stone rudely axed into hollows and ovolos, as at Corhampton. Capitals at Sompting Church, Sussex, are carved, and show the influence of that Romanesque art from Italian towns which came to England with missionaries and priests. Indeed, the style attributed to Saxon builders has a coarse flavour of Romanesque work, as 52 THE ENGLISH HOUSE though uneducated peasants were trying to speak Italian. Normans, too, were affected by the same model, their style being an imitation, more or less complete, of forms in Roman art. Zigzag ornaments of various kinds, in which Norman builders took so much pleasure, may be traced to that Italian source, like the flutings on Norman columns, so that the beginnings of English architecture continue and hand on the tutorship of Rome and Italy. Remember, also, that when people talk about mediaeval styles of architecture they do so merely because it is convenient, so as to mark off the periods into which one style was separated in its evolution. Each period melts into another very slowly, and with such gradual changes that neither its beginning nor its end can be hit upon with accuracy ; but since no study can be carried on without divisions to map it out clearly in our minds, mediaeval styles have been named, and dates given to their eras, as explained in my Introduction, on pages 12 and 13. Photc* /_> l.ili.ian i- CO.. Ox/ord. IKKI.EV CHURCH, OXFORDSHIRE. An example of Norman Architecture. See page 55. CHAPTER IV CHARACTERISTICS OF NORMAN ARCHITECTURE WHAT are the most typical traits in a Norman building, and how may they be recognised by the public ? This question is necessarily difficult to answer, because Norman work in England passed from plain and massive effects with few mouldings to a much lighter craftsmanship, not only enriched with elaborate doorways and interesting orna- ment, but showing its transition into the Early English style, famous for its pointed arch and its tall, lancet windows. To explain all this in detail would fill a book ; and what holiday-makers need are just three or four clues to guide them through a labyrinth. Let us, then, think for a moment of the famous arcaded staircase at Canterbury a very beautiful and rich example of late Norman work. The doorway is tall and graceful, and the arch formed by it is round-headed, the curve being semi- circular ; and this shape has a varied character, for it is repeated several times by other half-circles $3 54 THE ENGLISH HOUSE having patterns cut deep into the stone. Among these patterns is the zigzag design, which is to Norman work what tooth-ornament becomes to Early English Gothic, a very distinguishing cha- racteristic ; and this tooth-ornament is nothing more than a double Norman zigzag made into a square flower with four petals. Norman masonry has other ornaments also, but zigzag is the most usual, and from it the more delicate chevron was evolved at North Hinksey. At North Hinksey, too, there is another Norman ornament which is quite easy to remember, known as the beak- head moulding, which consists of beaked heads placed at a little distance from each other and showing many different expressions in their eyes. The double-cone moulding is another clue. Model some new bread into cones, then cut off the pointed tops, join together two trun- cated tops, and then fit another cone at either end so that the bottoms come neatly together. This will give you a cone moulding, which may be continued to any length you like. With bread you may make another Norman ornament, called the billet, the simplest form of which is in Canterbury Cathedral. It represents a chess- board pattern made with cubes of stone. One row of cubes forms the white squares in an upper line, with hollow spaces left between for the dark squares ; below, in a second line, NORMAN CHARACTERISTICS 55 the cubes are fitted across the dark apertures above. Iffley Church, Oxfordshire, has a flowered ornament set in a hollow between simple hori- zontal mouldings. The flowers have eight petals and large centres. At Iffley, too, the zigzag mouldings are repeated in all the windows, three of which are round-arched, while the other is a circle (p. 53). This round form is unusual in Norman work, but there is another good example at Barfreston Church, Kent, at the east end, with fine tracery of a transition type, showing Norman art when it began to melt, so to speak, into the softer and more refined forms of Early English Gothic. You must not expect to find very delicate carving in Norman buildings, because masons then worked with an axe, but chisels came into use during the thirteenth century. Power, weight, massive logic in construction these are Norman as well as Roman characteristics, and they belong to a practical race of soldiers. Nor- man columns, often polygonal in plan, are not only strong enough for the burdens they carry : they look strong enough, and this gives an im- pression of rugged and simple grandeur. At Bristol, Exeter, and Gloucester the massive columns are round ; in Durham Cathedral they are fluted, and enriched also with zigzag channel- 56 THE ENGLISH HOUSE lings ; while at t Peterborough you will find some clustered piers. Here, too, in the roof is an example of Norman decoration in distemper. Norman architects formed lozenges with black and white, or with simple colours arranged in stripes, and the effect is simple and good. Norman masonry of the first period has wide joints of mortar, while in late work the stones are pressed together, leaving a very thin line of cement. The cushion-shaped capital is well known ; it belongs to early times, and when it is decorated with volutes curls of stone we know that the Norman style has reached its middle period. In London there are three excellent examples of Norman architecture : 1. St. Bartholomew's the Great, Smithfield. 2. The round portion of the Temple Church, transitional in style. 3. The White Tower and St. John's Chapel in the Tower. NORTH HINK8E7. BERZ3. GOIBRA7. NORMANDT FRE9NE CAMILL7. NORMANDT. DEEPING ST. JAMES LINCOLNSHIRE. NEW ROMNET. KENT. JFFLE7. OXFORDSHIRE. HADI8COE NORFOLK. ANDOVER. HANTS. BEADt-IEO Near Caen Normandy. EXAMPLES OF NORMAN ZIGZAG MOULDINGS. CHAPTER V HALL AND HOUSE IN NORMAN TIMES f ~^HE Norman Conquest influenced Ene- < o land's art in four ways : M i . Saxon churches were pulled down in large numbers, and better ones were put up. 2. Stone castles, blind-looking as despair, were built as a warning to Anglo-Saxon discontent. 3. Stone was used for some manor-houses, and occasionally in towns. 4. The natives, beaten but not subdued, learnt the Norman art of castle - building, and yet remained true, in their own homes, to their traditional timberwork. This point is often forgotten. Yet it is worth attention, if only because true Norman work has in its purest forms no quality that speaks with tenderness of home it does not suggest the presence of women and children. It is masculine through and through ; and in this we come upon its inner weakness, because real genius in art is not wholly masculine its qualities are always partly feminine. Genius, indeed, is a single creative agency with a double sex, for in 57 58 THE ENGLISH HOUSE it the attributes of women and men are summed up. When the Norman style merged into Early English feminine qualities began to show them- selves, and in 1280 they appeared in the glorious Angel Choir at Lincoln .Cathedral, built as a shrine for St. Hugh of Avalon. But twelfth- century Norman work, before its transitional period began, does not remind us of Coleridge's saying, that " all great minds must be andro- gynous.'* This want of feminine qualities in Norman art seems to have been disliked by Anglo-Saxons, who clung tenaciously to their gentler-looking timber halls and cabins. Of course, an Anglo- Saxon " house-place " had its own shortcomings ; it looked unkempt in peasant cottages as late as the fourteenth century, but it was a home in which yeomen and peasants evolved their own ideals, and from which they would not budge. Even in towns, where efforts were made to restrain them, people kept resolutely to the slow development of old wooden sheds and halls ; and it is also worth nothing that timberwork of the twelfth century appears to have been in essentials what it was a hundred years later, during the long reign of Henry III. Housebote was a customary right of tenants, and the better class of yeomen had wooden halls built on gavels and a frame, the spaces between NORMAN HALL AND HOUSE 59 the skeleton being either lathed and plastered within and without, or filled with mud-clay kneaded up with chopped reeds, just as house- martins made their nests with pieces of straw embedded in layers of loam. A yeoman's sleeping- room under the thatched roof was entered by a ladder, a rude staircase, as a rule inside the hall ; but sometimes it may have been put outside, and protected from the wet by a timber awning. The furniture was very simple a few benches and a chest or two, some wooden platters, and a tripod for cooking purposes. The walls seem to have been coloured with archil and whitewash, and along them on wooden pegs some farm implements dangled. The floor was littered with dirty grass and rushes, a bacon-rack swung from the roof- beams, a fire crackled on a hob of clay at some distance from the fragile walls, and wood and peat smoke disinfected an atmosphere which was ever tainted, and drove away some of the innumerable vermin. Chimneys were unknown, except in castles and in manor-houses. This picture is not exaggerated, and to appreciate what it means we must bear in mind certain influences more favourable to stone buildings than to these timber houses. i . Clothing, usually home-made, was not thick enough to keep out the cold ; and when a storm came, and a village river flooded into spate, 60 THE ENGLISH HOUSE wooden houses were often carried away whole- sale, as Matthew Paris related in the thirteenth century. Thus, for many reasons, stone houses would have been useful in manor-villages. 2. There must have been knowledge enough to build stone cottages, because not less than eleven hundred castles were put up during the nineteen years of King Stephen's reign (1135 1 1 54) ; and although a great many were pulled down by Henry II., castle-building went on through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, so that great numbers of English workmen must have been expert masons. Still, wood was at hand in the great forests, it could be worked freely with simple tools, it was easier to carry than stone, and, apart from all this, the English loved timber not only because it was cheap and good, but because it " set their genius " after ages of hallowed custom. That is the real point, though many writers lose sight of it. Some believe that stone was too dear, whereas it was cheap enough, as Thorold Rogers proved ; and others explain the English use of timber houses by saying that brickwork was a lost art. This too is a mistake. The old name for a brick was tigel, or tile. Roman bricks were really tiles, for they were not more than an inch or an inch and a half in thickness, and tiles very like them were used by the Normans during the twelfth century. MAHOH CCUSE. BOOTHB7 PAGNELL. LINCOLNSHIRE - - ST. MARY'S GUILD, LINCOLN. Norman Period. Drawn by W. TWOPENY in 1823. See pages 81 and 82. If a yeoman had cared for brick and stone, he would have used them at times, we may be sure. Even in towns, as I have said, people were i loyal to their favourite building materials, although wood was discouraged by civic autho- rities. London is the best example, because timber houses were common there till the Great Fire of 1666, by which the city was ruined from London Bridge to Temple Bar. The disaster began on a Sunday night, September 2, at a baker's shop in Pudding Lane, the very district near London Bridge which was deemed most perilous during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the opposition to timber houses began. In 1135, the first year of Stephen's reign, a fire spread from London Bridge to St. Clement Danes, destroying St. Paul's Cathedral. At that time the city was filled with wooden cabins thatched with reeds, rushes, straw, and other litter ; and as the damage done by the fire was very great, leading citizens took counsel together, and decided to put up stone houses covered and protected by thick tiles. These buildings had a very good effect when a fire arose in the city and threatened to be dangerous ; for they were little fortifications between the fragile blocks of timber houses, and that was very important from a 62 THE ENGLISH HOUSE public standpoint. On the other hand, those who lived in stone houses were far from satisfied. The lot of a buffer State has' never been a pleasant one ; and the wealthier citizens complained that their good masonry was always in danger from wooden cabins near at hand. So disputes arose between neighbours touching the boundaries which either existed or ought to be made between their lands, till at last the contentions had to be settled by certain town rules, which may be looked upon as the origin of our own Building Acts. They were known as the " Assize " of 1 1 89. When approved by the Common Council they were put into writing, and this document has come down to our times.* There is something uncanny in this little sheaf of city regulations, for they speak to us in voices and ambitions which once were powerful, seven hundred and nineteen years ago. The men who framed these rules one by one, after much dis- puting, had their schemes for human improve- ment, and these have outlived their authors by more than seven centuries, here in this document, the Assize of 1189. Let us imagine you and me that we are London citizens of that year, and intent upon following the regulations. * See Turner and Parker's " Domestic Architecture in England in the Middle Ages" (3 vols., 1851-59). The original document is given in the appendix, vol. i. NORMAN HALL AND HOUSE 63 We are well-to-do, and our lands adjoin, but our houses look at each other through oil-paper windows set in plastered timber, and your wife tells mine that she dreams of fire and awakes with her heart between her teeth. So we agree to build between us a stone wall three feet thick and sixteen feet high ; and at our joint expense we make a gutter on one side of this wall, so that the water from both houses may be carried off without injury to either of us. There is no difficult point to solve, yet some of our neigh- bours are at loggerheads. One says that he would decline to share a gutter with the king himself ; he wants every drop of water from his roof to nourish his back garden, and there his gutter shall go. Another prefers to let his gutter run into the high street, and the regula- tions give him permission. No sooner is our wall finished than you come to me and say : " Neighbour, my side the wall must go up higher, because my solar is too low, and I need a higher wall for the beams to rest upon." If I raise mine also, then the building will be a joint expense ; if not, you can raise your own part as much as you please at your own cost, but the rain from the new solar must drip into our gutter, and not into the founda- tions of my house, nor into any part of my land. 64 THE ENGLISH HOUSE Then another point comes up for discussion. You remind me that the stone wall is very much liked by women, because arches may be built into it for aumbries or cupboards. The regulations say, indeed, that each of us has the right to sink arched cupboards one foot deep into the masonry, so that the wall between the recesses may be one foot thick, the total thickness of our joint wall being three feet. But if either of us does not need a cupboard, what then ? He who wants one buys the freestone and has it cut, but the arch must be set and the work finished at our joint expense. Here the regulations encourage tidiness. Suppose, now, that the business we have done together had been hindered by poverty on your side or mine ; say that one of us could not afford to build in freestone and rubble. The rules guide us in this matter. One of us gives three feet of his own land for the wall to rest upon, while the other pays for the building ; and the wall belongs to both of us in equal measure, and each can put timber on his half and build. This means that the gift of land is considered equal to the other costs or nearly so ; for the laws say : " If tenants would have arched recesses, let them be made on each side the wall, as aforesaid, but he who giveth the land shall find freestone and cause it to be cut, while the a $j . ! r i --' i - *^J . . 1 i e - '/. : ; : 'x \ s i _s 5 CH 5 '* 3 . oo 2 _ 1 i -: o 1^ 3^ H >. u g *^ O 2 O o NORMAN HALL AND HOUSE 65 other at his own cost shall set it." This done, neither of us has the right to pull down any portion of the wall, nor lessen its thickness, nor make new recesses in it, without the other's assent and will. But this stone barrier, three feet thick and sixteen feet high, is only a party-wall, and we are free to build out from it whatever kind of house we like, whether of stone or of timber. Party-walls have grown enormously in height since 1189, but their thickness has dwindled away, strength giving place to rash economy. Another regulation shows that if a tenant built a party-wall on his own land and at his own cost he had certain rights and privileges over his neighbour next door. For instance, he could block his neighbour's view and keep the light from his windows, unless the neigh- bour could bring forward a legal agree- ment that guarded him from this tribulation. " Ancient lights " did not exist in London at that early date. The rules are clear on this point. The following regulation denotes some care in sanitary matters : " And concerning the necessary chambers in the houses of citizens, it is thus appointed and ordained : that if the pit made in such a chamber be walled with stone, the mouth of the said pit 66 THE ENGLISH HOUSE shall be distant two feet and a half from the land of a neighbour, even although there be a common wall between them. But if it should not be lined with stone, it ought to be three feet and a half from the neighbour's land." But these regulations, like so many things English, failed through excessive compromise ; the party-walls were not obligatory. It was thought enough to praise them as essential, leaving those who were willing, or able, to build them of stone. The result, ot course, was inevitable. Timber houses mere cabins, most of them were common in all parts of the city except Cheapside ; and at last, on July 1 1 , 1 21 2, another great fire broke out, and London Bridge was destroyed. So the citizens took counsel once again, and a new set of decrees was published. All ale-houses were forbidden, except those which were licensed by the Common Council at the Guildhall, and those which their owners would rebuild in stone. People who worked by night bakers, for instance, and ale-wives were put under discipline. To save expense they had got into a habit of feeding their fires with stubble, reeds, and straw ; nothing but wood was now permitted. Ale-wives were the women who brewed ; and their business NORMAN HALL AND HOUSE 67 prospered so well that in the fifteenth century Fleet Street was famous for its ale-wives. Many risks attended their work, and the re- gulations of 1 21 2 were not strict enough. Another decree of that date showed much concern for the cook-shops on the Thames. They were not whitewashed, they needed plaster inside and outside ; and many wooden cabins had gathered about them and formed hostelries places were people slept, no doubt. All these shanties were condemned, and a cook- shop became a building in two parts : a bed- room, and a house-place or hall, in which the family attended to customers. Further, citizens were ordered not to make roofs with reeds, " nor rush, nor with any manner of litter, but with tile only, or shingle, or boards, or, if it may be, with lead, within the city and Portsoken. Also, all houses which till now are covered with reed or rush, which can be plastered, let them be plastered within eight days, and let those which shall not be so plastered within the term be demolished by the alderman and lawful men of the venue." Above all, the stone houses in Cheapside must be protected from the wooden buildings nearest to them. These " shall be securely amended by view of the mayor and sheriffs, and good men of the city, or, without any exception, tq 68 THE ENGLISH HOUSE whomsoever they belong, pulled down. . . . Let all the aldermen have a proper hook and cord," with which to destroy the dangerous wooden structures. What a picture ! Put in a hook, and pull on a cord, and down comes a London house of the year 1212 ! Yet the daily pay of carpenters, like that of tilers and masons, was equal to thirty shillings a week in our money, being fourpence halfpenny a day without keep, and threepence with keep. These were the wages fixed by ordinance in 1212. Those cook-shops by the Thames are also full of interest. They were inns for travellers when that ordinance attacked them, and many became public ordinaries. They stretched along the road from St. Paul's, by Watling Street, to the Tower. Consider, too, how the Inns of Court had their origin. At first, like the inns of our universities, they were nothing more than clustered timber sheds where students lodged, taking their meals in large common halls, to which common kitchens were attached.* And now we must take a glance at the Norman castles, to see what effect they had * Turner and Parker's "Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages," i. 17-27 ; also appendix. DETAILS OF THE HALL AT OAKHAM CASTLE. See pages 79 and 80. NORMAN HALL AND HOUSE 69 on the progress of domestic building. It is a custom to praise their defensive art, and yet there is little to admire if we test it and them from a practical standpoint. A Norman castle was the negation of comfort and convenience ; hence noblemen would not live in their " keeps " during quiet reigns. There is something cowardly and ignoble in the look of a feudal castle, something that invites contempt, because the very men who called themselves warriors, and who from the age of seven were taught to be brave as soldiers, were yet so afraid to be killed that they feared to let in the light of day to their rooms, lest arrows should enter by the same windows as the neces- sary sun. Near the ground windows were for- bidden, and those high up the walls were little better than the slits that ventilated barns and kept hay from sweating itself into a fever. In- doors, where a fitful dusk lasted all day long from dawn to sunset, the seneschal lived on the second and third stories, always distressed by bad ven- tilation. Between him and the outside air was a wall from twelve to fourteen feet in thickness, a thing most wonderfully at odds with any danger which could threaten it during a time of siege. For the real defence rested, or should have rested, with the exterior lines of fortification the moat, with its bank, and the encompassing 70 THE ENGLISH HOUSE walls, with their towers and bastions. It was here that battles were lost or won. The castle itself was a last refuge for the defeated a prison. The whole art of defensive war was misunder- stood, always to the injury of health and comfort. Castles expressed in stone the same fear that governed the development of body-armour, till at last men died under their weight of steel, or, when unhorsed, lay on their backs like turtles, waiting to be killed or captured. The desire to live was far stronger during the Middle Ages than it is to-day ; and then, as now, the truest courage was shown by those who had little clothing between them and the battle perils. Under such conditions of over-defensive cus- toms and tactics, military architecture was little likely to benefit domestic work, though castles in a time of siege were as crowded with human beings as modern hotels are. No doubt im- provements did appear, and the Tower of London is a good specimen of the square Norman keep, with flanking turrets, also rectangular in shape. A plan of this castle may be found in guide- books, so its character as a dwelling-place may be studied. There is here, perhaps, a slight affinity with domestic art, but it is so trivial as to be hardly noticeable. Yet for each day of war the NORMAN HALL AND HOUSE 71 inmates had to endure many months that brought unneedful discomforts into their lives. When the Tower of London became a bastile, a prison for State offenders or supposed enemies of the Crown, the logic of the architecture was carried to its last consequences. Feudal castles were prisons that and nothing more. Still, the English house owes something to their long reign. Take, for example, the in- fluence of hoards. What was a hoard ? It was a thing that denoted another step in the defective art of mediaeval defence. Nobles and knights, ever anxious about their safety, could not harass themselves enough over devices that might keep them in secure misery within their castles. " How shall we defend ourselves if the enemy shall break through to our walls ? " they asked. " Can we keep the battering-rams at a distance, and kill the men who assail us with the oblong covered sheds known as cats ? " The right answer to this question was the hoard a timber structure, superimposed on the solid walls below the parapets, and projecting beyond them, so that men could hurl down stones and boiling oil upon foes at the castle's base. In early examples the hoards rested on strong timber beams, pushed from inside through holes in the walls, and ex- tending outward to form strong corbels, upon which wooden galleries were erected, sometimes 72 THE ENGLISH HOUSE roofed over to shield the defenders from falling arrows. This innovation dates from the twelfth century, and lasted till the fourteenth, when hoards were displaced by overhanging works of stone balconies, galleries, and cornices, upheld by great stone corbels put from three to four feet apart, and having apertures in their floors, so that missiles and fluids might be poured through the holes and slits. The effect of these projec- tions was picturesque, and their influence on architecture lasted, for England got from them the overhanging battlements and cornices that gave so much charm and dignity both to early Tudor and to Elizabethan turrets and gate- towers. Indeed, the real value of castles to English house architecture was like the shooting of bad archers, who hit the mark by accident. This means that military needs had an indirect effect on homes, passing with nobles to their manor- houses. Here, as time went on, battlements became ornamental details, while turreted gate- ways were to family life what spires were to the communal spirit namely, accepted marks of prosperous self-content. Castle Rising, in Norfolk, has appealed to many writers as perhaps the best example of an armoured manor-house built by the Normans. The disposition of its plan is remarkable in ROCHESTER. CASTLE, circa 1130 CONlSBOr-OOGH CASTLE, circa 1170 NORMAN FIREPLACES. See fa NORMAN HALL AND HOUSE 73 many ways ; it seems too good for the twelfth century. The comfort suggested by it may appear cold and hard, yet the design shows more domestic thought than was usual at that date. Let us, then, see what were the usual characteristics of Norman manor-houses and royal palaces. During the twelfth century, in the southern parts of England, they were built, as a rule, on one uniform design, comprising a good hall and a chamber. Two chambers were very uncommon. The hall was the only large room. Its position was generally on the ground floor, but sometimes it was placed over a lower story sunk half in the ground, another example of the burrowing instinct so common among men. The Normans, like the Saxons, used their hall as a bedroom for their servants and retainers, bolsters and sacks of hay being placed on benches and on the floor ; it is not surprising that minstrels sang about this ancient custom, and made frequent reference to the immoralities that sprang from it. Add to this simple plan a kitchen, a larder, a sewery, and a cellar, and you have all the accommodation in a twelfth - century manor - house. Even the king's country palaces at Kennington, Clarendon, Woodstock, Portsmouth, and South- ampton, though on a larger scale, had only one more apartment, and that was a chapel. 74 THE ENGLISH HOUSE At Clarendon, please note, his Majesty had to reach the chapel by a ladder communicating with a trapdoor, and this inconvenience was not done away with till Henry III. built a spiral staircase. Perhaps you have heard of Alexander Nequam, or Necham, who lived under the reigns of Henry II., Richard L, and John. It is said that he was born at St. Albans in 1157, acted as schoolmaster in the grammar school from 1188 to 1195, became Abbot of Cirencester in 1214, and died three years later. Nequam is mentioned here because he has a good many things to say about domestic architecture in his treatise " De Nominibus Utensilium." When describing the various parts of a house he mentions six rooms : the hall, a bedroom, or private chamber, a kitchen, a larder, a cellar, and a sewery. " In the hall," says Nequam, " let there be pillars at due intervals." Sometimes these pil- lars divided the hall into three parts, like a church, as at Oakham Castle, Rutlandshire, built by Walkelin de Ferrars between 1165 and 1191. At other times but this was uncommon the pillars ran down the centre and formed a support for the ridge or crest of the roof. In the royal hall at Clarendon the columns were marble. Arched ceilings were common, and NORMAN HALL AND HOUSE 75 were always built of timber. The windows of a hall looked towards the east, so as to catch the sunrise. Nequam says that the hall had a porch beside the vestibule, and a courtyard too. Here the kitchen stood. It was open in the roof, and I know not how the cook managed to do his work with comfort. Near the hall was a little inner court, where poultry grew fat for the table. According to Nequam, halls were roofed with tiles and with stone shingles, usually oval in form, like the Roman shingles. Tiles seem to have been fastened by wooden pegs. It is curious, but Nequam does not mention lead as a roofing material. Perhaps he considered it too expensive ; yet lead was much used at that time for churches, and a great deal was exported to France, where the abbey of Clervaux was roofed with Cumber- land lead given by Henry II. We may be sure that nobles did not forget to use it for English manor-houses. The principal lead-mines were in Cumberland, at Swaledale, Yorkshire, and Allendale, Northumberland. It was purchased in bulk, and cast into sheets at the building sites.* Norman roofs had a good pitch, and manu- scripts of the period represent them with * Turner and Parker's "Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages," i. 9. 76 THE ENGLISH HOUSE embattled parapets. According to the Bayeux tapestry, not to speak of the Caedmon MS., outside walls were richly painted with formal patterns, among which is the chessboard square, sometimes with an O in the middle. The roof, too, is either coloured or tiled in long, tapering bands. It may be thought, perhaps, that artists introduced colour to make their drawings gay. But in the illustrations given by Parker the effects have an air of realness, as though done from nature. Apart from this, the first crusades made the Normans familiar with the external decoration that gave a varied colour to many a building both in Constantinople and in Italian cities. One tower of Windsor Castle, during the fourteenth century, was certainly tinted outside with several colours ; * and this may well be a continuation of an old tradition started by the Normans in the time of Nequam. Nequam says that painting and carving were used indoors, and then lifts his eyebrows with disapproval. Indeed, this good monk imagined that his rugged time was too luxurious. He complained because the interior walls were polished by the mason's trowel ; and ornamental stonework an- noyed him because it encouraged spiders to spin webs. Tapestry he did not mind in a private * Turner and Parker, i. II and 12. NORMAN HALL AND HOUSE 77 room ; it was welcome there on the walls, as flies and spiders were then less noticeable. In the hall, Nequam says, tapestry should be hung from the epistyle ; and this way of obtaining privacy in the common room lasted to the sixteenth century. Wood floors were common in private rooms, but they were rarely seen ; rushes covered them during the winter, and green grass in summer. Walls in a common room were hung with armour and with weapons, except at the dais end, where tapestry seems to have been common. Doors were heavy and picturesque, their hinges having elaborate strap - bands, twisted into scrolls ; and locks had ornamented scutcheons. Norman ironwork has real in- terest. " The private, or bed, room was situated on the second story, and was called, from an early period, the solar, or sollere ; and a chamber beneath it, on a level with the hall, was called the cellar, and used as such. It would appear that there was no internal com- munication between the cellar and solar, access from the latter to the hall being had by stairs of stone or wood within the hall or on its exterior. . . . Frequently the only fireplace in the building was in the solar. ... A bed and a chest were the chief" furniture, and 78 THE ENGLISH HOUSE the chest served the place of a wardrobe, and held the owner's cumbrous apparel and valuables. It may be added that coffins were often made like chests, with locks and hinges, and are so represented in ancient drawings.* To sum up, Norman manor-houses, like the royal country seats, were of two kinds. At Oakham Castle, Rutland, the plan had a large hall on the ground floor, with no room above it nor cellar below ; while in other examples, as at Boothby Pagnel, Lincolnshire, there were two stories, the lower one vaulted, and the upper floor approached from outside by a flight of steps. I am able to give drawings of these houses on pages 60 and 64. The building at Oakham Castle, about fifty years ago, was adapted as a county hall, but without harm to its main features. Our artist then sketched this twelfth-century hall, and we will look at it with him. The building stands east and west,and its doorway is interestingly Norman. The east-end gable had a window to let in the sunlight before breakfast. It is blocked up in our illustrations, but in style it belonged to the later years of the twelfth century, perhaps even to the beginning of King John's reign * Turner and Parker's " Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages," i. 5, 13, 16. NORMAN HALL AND HOUSE 79 (1199-1216) ; for the transition from Norman to Early English was emphatically shown by the two pointed lights within a round-headed aper- ture. There are four windows each on the north and south sides, all various in detail, but uniform in general treatment. The exterior view shows two lancet-shaped lights divided by a shafted mullion, while the view indoors has marked differences. Here the head forms a round-arched tympanum, and the openings for light are square, the upper parts of the lancets being solid, and either left plain or filled in with trefoils, with foliage, or with small arches. The shafted mullions have usually on each side a row of tooth-ornament. At one time, as Turner and Parker point out, all the windows had shafts in their jambs, some round, others octagonal, but this beauty vanished long ago, except a portion in one window on the north side, which is cut out of the same stone as the jamb. I give a page of illustrations to show (i) a round-headed window-recess decorated with tooth-ornament ; (2) the principal doorway ; and (3) one beautiful window ; and you will see at a glance that our own architects may learn not a little from this architecture (p. 68). How delightful our own houses would look with windows as luxuriously simple as this good Norman art ! Note the tooth- ornament as marking the transitional character 8o THE ENGLISH HOUSE of this Norman work ; and observe that the shaft on the centre mullion is octagonal, while those at the sides are round. Were these windows glazed in the twelfth century ? There is no evidence to prove that they were. The Exchequer accounts of Henry II. 's time make frequent reference to windows, their making and repairing, but glass does not appear in the charges, and so the probability is that house windows were usually fitted with wooden shutters, lattices, or fenestrals, and sometimes with iron bars, as we know they continued to be in the thirteenth and early in the fourteenth century, long after glass had found its way into royal palaces and houses of the nobility.* We must remember, too, that windows were often covered with some oiled fabric, through which light passed as through a thin modern blind. And now let us turn again to the drawing. The walls are built of rubble, with ashlar quoins and buttresses, the word ashlar meaning that the stones are dressed (p. 64). Do not fail to study the buttresses ; they are typically late Norman, and resemble pilasters rather than strong abut- ments ; and this characteristic was borrowed from Romanesque buildings. Norman builders did not understand the use of buttresses, and were there- * Turner and Parker, i. 13. ' 'I! I o ~> II I i H 't - 9J s: IE NORMAN HALL AND HOUSE 81 fore apt to make them too weak, as at Peter- borough Cathedral, where the thrust from the arches proved too strong for some portions of the walls. For the rest, the hall at Oakham measures 65 ft. by 43 ft. ; there are two rows of circular pillars and arches, and the lateral divisions are lean- tos. The dormer-windows are modern (p. 64). Another drawing by William Twopeny repre- sents a twelfth-century house at Lincoln, known as the Jew's House. " The chief interest it possesses arises from the richness and character- istic design of the external ornamentation. We find in the latter many of the details . . . which illustrate the style of the time. There is, first, the deeply recessed doorway, with its shaft, and double zigzag archivolt. The archway over the door is made use of in a curious manner to support the fireplace and chimney belonging to the upper story. The chimney itself has been modernised,"* like those windows which stare at us through square openings. The other windows are Norman, as their form will tell you. St. Mary's Guild, Lincoln, commonly called John of Gaunt's Stables, is another drawing by Twopeny ; and I need but draw your attention * "Lectures on Architecture," by E. M. Barry, R.A., p. 224. F 82 THE ENGLISH HOUSE to a rich string-course of sculptured foliage, and to the tall, flat buttresses (p. 60). The doorway is good, and transitional in character, with a peculiar kind of tooth-ornament in a shallow moulding. Only one window is shown, but its shape is worth noting, because it has some resemblance to the lancet windows of Early English Gothic. Turner and Parker give another view of this building, vol. i. p. 40. CHAPTER VI HEARTH, FIREPLACE, CHIMNEY IN Chapter V., between pages 62 and 68, an account is given of two London " Assizes " that is, two sets of town regulations, dating from the years 1189 and 1212. They were directed against timber houses and cabins, among which fires broke out and endangered the whole city. These wooden structures were so frail that they could be pulled down with a cord and a long pole armed with a hook ; and no part of the city was free from them. Their presence was especially feared in Cheap- side, where some good stone houses made a brave show for the wealthier citizens. But the most dangerous parts lay between London Bridge and St. Clement Danes, where wooden shanties and hovels were packed together, forming those narrow lanes and alleys along which lepers were sternly forbidden to pass, lest they should brush shoulders with persons who were in good health. London, no doubt, in the twelfth and thir- teenth centuries was like a torch ready to be 83 84 THE ENGLISH HOUSE lighted ; and hence the regulations framed and published in 1189 and 1212. Yet, some- how, neither ordinance had a word to say about fireplaces and chimneys ; and from this silence silence on a matter that affected any system of rules against public risks by fire three things may be inferred with confi- dence. The first is that flues were very uncommon in London walls during the Norman period i.e., from 1066 to about 1 189 ; and the second, that only the best houses and shops were built with two floors. Twelfth-century fireplaces were put in the solars as a rule, and a solar was a private loft or chamber on the second floor. That was the usual position ; and documents of a later date refer to it as a loft. The third point is that cook-shops and other timber cabins were sheds one story high, divided into a bower and a hall. A fire, or a cooking-stove, was placed in the middle of each hall, with an opening in the roof above for smoke ; and hence the danger that bakers and ale-wives ran at night when they kept up their fires with litter, that threw out sparks by the thousand (see p. 66). Then, as to the position of a fire- place and flue in rich houses, they were not put in party-walls, because that, in some measure, would have defeated the purpose to be served by SRERBORN'F, ABIi'^Y, P'H'.SETSHIHE. circa 1470 FIREPLACES. See page 9 1 . HEARTH, FIREPLACE, CHIMNEY 85 those stone barriers ; but the flues may have been constructed either in or upon the front and back walls, or carried up in the gables, as in some manor-houses. The evolution of chimneys, however, is one of the most difficult questions to be found in our domestic architecture. It is " wropped in mystery." Long ago the word chimney was applied not to chimney-shafts alone, but to fire- places also, and to a portable stove cbymna de ferro^ an iron fire-grate, as it is called in the inventories of Finchale Priory, A.D. 1360. All this, no doubt, is perplexing ; but some facts stand out clearly. Thus, Leland, writing as late as the year 1538, was astonished to find that chimneys at Bolton Castle were carried up the walls. Now Bolton Castle was built by the first Lord Scrope in eighteen years, and was finished before Richard II. ended his dramatic reign, A.D. 1399. "One thinge I muche noted in the Haulle of Bolton," Leland wrote ; " how chimeneys were conveyed by tunnels made on the syds of the walls, betwyxt the Lights in the Haulle ; and by this means, and by no Covers, is the smoke of the Harthe in the Haulle wonder strangely conveyed." Now Leland knew his England with thoroughness ; he was her Bos- well ; and hence we may believe that chimney- shafts in halls, forming tubes outside a wall 86 THE ENGLISH HOUSE were rare in 1538. At an earlier date they must have been rarer still. It is true, no doubt, that a primitive central hearth and a louvre in the roof were common in halls at a time when fireplaces were built in the more private rooms; and this accounts for some of the surprise ex- pressed by Leland, since he was speaking of a hall as old as King Richard II. 's abdication. The word " covers " may, indeed, be a misprint for " lovers," one way in which " louvres " was written. On the other hand, covers 'were used in the best houses, and Leland's surprise was not caused by his seeing chimneys, which dated back to the twelfth century, but only that they were made on the sides of walls between the windows of a hall^ and that smoke was " wonder strangely conveyed" from the hearth^ which had, of course, a central position, as in other halls. At Bolton Castle there are no chimneys or fireplaces in the hall, either between the windows or any- where else ; and the woodwork, or lath-and- plaster work, has all disappeared. Many in- genious hands were employed at Bolton ; and it seems probable that some one invented a means by which smoke was conveyed from the central hearth, probably in a kind of pipes or chimneys of lath and plaster, with a hood suspended over the fire, these pipes being HEARTH, FIREPLACE, CHIMNEY 87 carried to the wall between the windows, and now destroyed.* As early as the twelfth century we find that the lath and plaster were occasionally used for fireplaces and chimneys, sometimes to form a canopy built on the walls, and sometimes raised above a central hearth, with a funnel rising to the louvre. This contrivance was mentioned by Aubrey as a flue. " Antiently before the Refor- mation," he wrote, " ordinary men's houses, as copyholders and the like, had no chimneys, but fleus like louver holes : some of them were in being when I was a boy." Mr. Addy believes that when we read in old authors of the absence of chimneys, we are not to suppose that the open hearth, except in the hovels of the poorest inhabitants, was without a funnel of some kind to convey the smoke. " It is true that stone or brick flues which formed tubes in the sides of the walls were only to be found in castles or large buildings, but wood- and-plaster canopies or covers to convey the smoke were commonly used from a very early period, "f " Very early period " is at once too indefinite and too strong. It might apply to ancient Britons or to early periods of the Middle Ages ; hence it * Turner and Parker, ii. 227, 228. t S. O. Addy's "Evolution of the English House," p. 117. 88 THE ENGLISH HOUSE has no real meaning. Thorold Rogers, who knew the thirteenth century and its town and country life better than any other historian, has taught us that yeomen and peasants allowed their smoke to escape " through the door, or whatever other aperture it could reach."* So that " very early period " among the poor is later than the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I. Personally I do not believe that wood-and-plaster canopies were at all common among yeomen and peasants before the latter part of the fourteenth century. Rich men would commonly use something better than plaster and timber ; while yeomen were really benefited by wood and peat smoke, which was to the Middle Ages what Keating's powder became to nineteenth-century fleas and other vermin. Writers on architecture forget this fact, and their eyes water as soon as they begin to think about mediaeval smoke. One may refer them to J. J. Jusse- rand's " English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages," where a vivid picture is given of the dirt that prevailed even in public hostels during the fourteenth century. Fleas sought refuge from smoke under rushes on the floor, where they were found in pecks. Altogether, then, too much fuss may be made about * " Six Centuries of Work and Wages," p. 67. _; .e ~ u HEARTH, FIREPLACE, CHIMNEY 89 chimneys and their evolution. There is nothing to show that average Englishmen during the Middle Ages wished to free their homes from wood and peat smoke, which was very much less pungent and dirty than coal smoke in a railway underground. How long did we moderns stand that abomination ? Among the well-to-do it was different, because ladies' dresses were luxurious and costly, and wood smoke injured them, just as it soiled rooms in Chaucer's cottage (p. 168). So the first chim- neys were built in private chambers where ladies slept, and where household work was done during the day. Turner and Parker give illustrations of early fireplaces, so that you may see their construction at a glance. One at Colchester Castle, Essex, dates from the twelfth century ; it is built partly of Roman-like tiles, those in the round-headed recess forming a herring-bone pattern ; and that recess, again, is shallow. At Boothby Pagnel, Lincolnshire, a Norman fire- place has great interest, for its chimney-piece represents a stone canopy built on the wall ; it is carried up to no great height ; and where it stops a hole is made through the masonry for smoke to go out by into the open air. There is some distance from this canopy to the stone hearth, so draughts would probably blow into the room many whiffs of smoke. This fireplace 90 THE ENGLISH HOUSE corresponds very minutely with those which are given in twelfth-century illuminations, and its design was not varied much before the fifteenth century.* A fireplace at Rochester Castle, Kent, is more elaborate (p. 72). It has a semicircular arch en- riched with Norman zigzags ; its back is semi- circular and deeply recessed ; and there are shafts in the jambs. Note the capitals, for they are carved in such a way that they prevent the zigzag orna- ment from asserting itself too much. Rochester Castle dates from about 1 1 30. Conisborough Castle is later by about forty years, and a fire- place and chimney-piece show more invention, if less practical knowledge. There is no recess in which timber could burn, supported by firedogs ; the back slants inwardly as it rises ; and one thinks that logs must have been put on end against that slope, for smoke could not otherwise be drawn from hearth to chimney. At least, our illustration conveys that idea (p. 72). Note, again, that the jambs have clustered shafts, an attractive feature, and that the mantelpiece forms what is known as a straight arch, several stones being ingeniously keyed together to make a flat lintel or breastsummer across the fireplace. You will find this keyed stonework in the * Turner and Parker's " Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages," i. 13. s a HEARTH, FIREPLACE, CHIMNEY 91 canopy at Boothby Pagnel in Turner and Parker's book. Another illustration Aydon Castle, North- umberland (circa 1270) is a development from this example at Conisborough (p. 84). It has a sloping back, but the hearth is well recessed, leaving space enough for logs to lie across the andirons ; and above it is a projecting chimney- piece supported by brackets. Other fireplaces at Aydon Castle are different. One has shafted jambs built against the wall ; they project into the room ; and over all is a covering hood that tapers upwards. Chimney-shafts at Aydon are for the most part carried up singly in plain, solid-looking channels. From Aydon Castle we pass to Edlingham Castle, Northumberland (circa 1330), and thence to Sherborne Abbey, Dorsetshire (circa 1470). The Edlingham fireplace belongs to the Deco- rated style, while the other is a gracious and friendly example of Perpendicular (p. 84). It springs from the same tradition as the Norman art at Rochester and Conisborough, so that these illustrations denote more than three centuries of gradual evolution. These fireplaces, one and all, have a fine hospitality ; they are in them- selves hosts and hostesses, and we learn from them how to appreciate that old-time phrase which bids us " Welcome to the hearth ! " At 92 THE ENGLISH HOUSE a later date, when Gothic architecture became merged in the Renaissance, chimney-pieces were enriched in a splendid manner, and Eliza- bethan and Jacobean mansions kept up the old and genial hearth-worship. Here, for ex- ample, is a delightful fireplace at Speke Hall, Lancashire, a fine and perfect specimen of an Elizabethan timber house (p. 88). The archi- tecture here belongs to late times in Elizabeth's reign, and some work was done after James I. came to his English throne. I have chosen the drawing-room fireplace, with its wide, arched recess, its carved overmantel rising to the corniced ceiling, and with a delightful bay- window at the side, raised one step above the floor, and having panelled seats. What an air of cosy stateliness there is in this royal art, and with what admirable judgment Joseph Nash has introduced figures into his drawing ! Everything is in perfect accord, even costumes and chairs forming a necessary part of this style in home architecture. It is a period in history, not a style in building. If a man were to live in such a room as this one he could not wear his dull, formal modern dress ; he would need right costumes, like an Eliza- bethan play. Nash illustrates the hall at Speke, richly panelled, spacious, and with a group of retainers ABINGDON ABBEY BERK3 circa 1250 A7DON CASTLE. NORTHOMBERLAND. circa 1580 SUEIiBORNE ABBEY DORSET, circa 1330. EXTON. RUTLAND, circa 1350 CHIMNEYS. See page 98. HEARTH, FIREPLACE, CHIMNEY 93 gathered about its deep fireplace, above which stand suits of complete armour, looking like gal- lant knights at attention. If King Alfred could be summoned into this splendid hall, what would he think, what would he say ? He, a great king, lodged so humbly that he had to invent lanterns to keep his poor candles from guttering ? Home architecture in England advanced through the Middle Ages with a slowness equal to the minute year's growth of a yew-tree, but in the long run a wonderful grandeur was attained. As a contrast to this Lancashire work in Speke Hall here is a noble fireplace at Levens, Westmoreland, belonging to the late sixteenth century, and typical of its period (p. 90). There are many other examples in Nash's " Mansions." Still, delightful as our ancient fireplaces were, they had one disadvantage to their jolly cheerfulness : they burnt far too much fuel ; and it says much for the conservatism of English- men that open fires have not disappeared, sent into the limbo of dead traditions by the ex- cessive price of coal in all English towns. A large proportion of the heat from every fire goes up a chimney, and the rest is badly dis- tributed, so that we may feel in one large room all the many variations of temperature by which our English year has won a diversified reputa- 94 THE ENGLISH HOUSE tion for itself. Near a fire we are in mid- August, and from dog-day heat we may pass through winter into spring. This experience means a great waste of coal. Many millions of tons have sent their heat up English chim- ney-shafts year after year lost heat and lost money. Open hearths are certainly doomed. Spendthrift fireplaces cannot for ever be an outward and visible sign of English economy. Besides, " if a man feels warm," says Mr. E. M. Barry, R.A., " he does not think of a fire, or expect to see one. With November chills we look at our cold grates, and wish to see a bright fire burning in them." But if rooms were warmed we should look at empty grates with no more concern than we feel at mid- summer. That is the real point. We may be economical without discomfort, and money saved will help us to buy a pension at the age of seventy, if not something better at an earlier date. On the other hand, many Americans are tired of steam-heat, and their doctors prescribe open fires. Here, no doubt, is another side of this question. Health as well as economy has to be considered ; and English architects must devise something better than steam-heat, with its bad effects on the throat and the nose and lungs. You see, then, that the evolution of our NORTEBOROUGH. NORTHUMBERLAND THORNB0RY CASTLE. OLOaCESTERSZIHE circa 1340 A.D. 151*. LAYER MARNEY. ESSEX. TONBRIDGE SCHOOL. KENT. C H I M N EYS. See pages 98 and 99. HEARTH, FIREPLACE, CHIMNEY 95 chimney is indeed perplexing. How it origi- nated in the twelfth century is one problem, and how to get rid of it in the twentieth is another. It has been worth while to consider these matters, because English houses at the present time are affected by many things which have a tendency to renew their youth. Refer- ence has already been made (p. 31) to a reaction in favour of rounded rooms, and now it is clear also that an open fire is too wasteful and expen- sive for those of us who work hard for a small and precarious income, which illness may stop at any moment. This applies to at least 80 per cent, of the population. And then, of course, the disappearance of fireplaces and chimneys will mean a great revolution in our homes. Think for a moment what London will be without that immense people, her innumerable chimney- stacks, puffing out smoke into a winter atmo- sphere ready at any minute to thicken into a black fog. For long ages London had no chimneys ; but there was plenty of smoke, fragrant with peat and wood. Coal was intro- duced in the fifteenth century, and Londoners began to cry out against its dirt and fogs. Chimneys and smoke have now to disappear at the same time ; and this problem will be solved by electricians working with architects for a common purpose. 96 THE ENGLISH HOUSE London chimney-stacks may well be described as an immense people, but they have little beauty if you examine them one by one. Effective in mass, in a crowd, they look unkempt and ragged if you detach them. It is no uncommon thing to see half a dozen different pots on one big stack, patent pots, one and all, and giving many examples of ugliness in short and in long shapes. These things speak to us about smoky rooms and the many ways in which experts fight against them. It is a cheap and pleasant recreation to study the chimney-pots of London from the top of a 'bus ; and I cannot too earnestly recommend you never to take a house or a flat until you have seen what the chimney-pots are like. If they vary much in form and size be suspicious, and write to the last tenant for an assurance that the chimneys do not smoke under certain conditions of wind and rain. No one takes a servant without a character ; but men who pride themselves on their common sense do not hesitate to take houses and flats without writing for testimonials to their last tenants. Too much stress cannot be laid on this point. A smoky chimney makes life unbearable ; and E. M. Barry, R.A., is right when he says that at present chimneys are one of the architect's greatest difficulties in large towns, as from the i. BADWEI.I. HALL, SUFFOLK, 1500. 2. BARTON, ISLE OF WIGHT, 1490. 3. EAST BASHAM HALL, NORFOLK, 1520. 4. CLARE, SUFFOLK, 1520. HEARTH, FIREPLACE, CHIMNEY 97 way in which buildings of different heights are crowded together, and from the general use of coal, the disposal of the smoke is often a problem not easy to solve, while its effect on our architecture is deplorable. Our ancestors appear to have been freer from these troubles, and their records do not, so far as I am aware, contain any mention of the profession of " chimney doctors." To-day, on the other hand, every resident agent in a block of flats has to be something of a chimney doctor, though he prefers to wriggle out of his difficulties by telling lies to would-be tenants. If trouble begins after a lease has been signed he has always at hand a patent chimney-pot, which may or may not be effective. One other warning may be given here. Do not take a house with chimneys on outside walls, unless the walls are thick and well-built. Much coal is wasted even in a central chimney- stack, but the waste is much greater, and a house colder, when fires burn against thin exterior walls. Builders are not careful enough in this matter. And they forget also pretty often that chimneys should be few, for economy's sake, and their position well balanced, for nothing so mars the composition as a lot of small and thin chimneys that come out of the roof at unexpected places. " Tall and massive chimneys add immensely to 98 THE ENGLISH HOUSE the beauty of a house, and perhaps no architect has realised this so clearly as Mr. Norman Shaw, R.A., who has shown himself a great master in the art of grouping and arranging his chimneys." I quote here the opinion of Mr. E. Guy Dawber, whose judgments are always good and sound. For the rest, some illustrations are given here to show the art displayed by old masters in the spring of their chimneys from side walls, as at Aydon Castle (p. 92), or from roofs. At Abingdon Abbey, Berkshire, built about the year 1250, a tall chimney ends in a turret with two gables, and in each gable is an Early English opening divided into three pointed arches for smoke to pass through. This idea is poetic as well as picturesque, for it implies that a chimney out- side speaks of the home within, and is worthy of the same art that enriched churches (p. 92). At Sherborne Abbey, Dorset, about fifty years later in date, the chimney is a stone funnel, tall and circular, formed into a cone at top, and crowned with a small finial. Apertures for the smoke are trefoil holes and lancet windows. Here again there is symbolism ; while at Exton, in Rutland (circa 1350), the work is more massive, and the top has battlements. Compare this example with another at Northborough, Northumberland, approximately the same in date, but richer by far in detail. It is an HEARTH, FIREPLACE, CHIMNEY 99 example of Decorated Gothic, but somewhat affected and meretricious ; for its gabled orna- ments, with their tall finials, are built on the solid masonry, and may be looked upon as un- necessary weather-mouldings. Omit them, and the chimney looks bolder and stronger (p. 94). Some other examples show the development of Tudor chimney-shafts from 1490 to 1560. There is one from Barton, in the Isle of Wight, dating from 1490 ; its angles are well managed, though thin and sharp, and the moulded brick- work is pleasant. Another example, at East Basham Hall, Norfolk, is unusual, forming a group of ten chimneys, and made entirely of moulded brick ornamented with various patterns (p. 96). CHAPTER VII HENRY III. AS PATRON OF THE HOME IN the thirteenth century Gothic archi- tecture had its golden time. Out of the stern bulk that Normans loved, and that expressed their stubborn and haughty character, the Early English manner was evolved, with its tall, ascending growth, and its enriched lightness both of effect and of material ; with its long, pointed windows, shaped like the spear-head of Ithuriel ; with its finer columns, clustered and banded together ; its foliage, too, conventional in a new and beautiful way, no longer recalling the acanthus- like ornament used by Norman builders ; and, again, with its dog-tooth enrichments, which may be found in every detail of Early English work in pointed arches, in capitals, corbels, string-courses, shafted door-jambs, and so forth. This dog-tooth ornament ought to be learnt by heart as characteristic of the Early English style. It appeared in late Norman mouldings, and sprang from those zigzag patterns which Norman architects adapted from Romanesque 100 3 I HENRY III. AND THE HOME 101 work. Dog-tooth, indeed, is a double zigzag often carved into a four-leaved flower, square in shape, and with its centre projecting in a point. As a rule you will find it well framed in a deep hollow moulding, with the flowers side by side, and the petals joined at their points, so that a decorative pattern is made by the spaces between them. At other times the flowers are separated ; and in rich suites of mouldings they are repeated several times. Of course, the transition from Norman to Early English was not rapid or startling. It began towards the end of the twelfth century ; and by 1280, when Edward I. opened the Angel Choir at Lincoln Cathedral, this style had begun to complete itself in a Decorated period. Progress was a natural evolution, without any undue interference from the personal ambitions of learned architects. There was much political turmoil at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and this was more favourable to military work than to religious and domestic buildings. Castles were overhauled, and manor-houses were cast in a warlike mould, that tried* in vain, like body- armour, to give security with comfort. But during the long reign of Henry III., from 1217 to 1272, great things were done, and Henry himself proved that his sympathy for 102 THE ENGLISH HOUSE home architecture was thorough and practical. He gave orders with knowledge and decision, showing always in a few words that he had not only a clear conception of his own house- hold needs, but a taste in domestic art which he meant to gratify. Henry III. was, indeed, the first patron of English homes. Historians do not admire him as a king, and certainly his temperament, like that of Edward the Confessor, wanted those steel-like qualities that make great rulers ; but he was kind, amiable, and cultivated, and English home life was bettered by his example. Not a few of his improvements were followed by Edward I. and other kings. Henry did much to confirm his people in their passion for colours. He delighted in polychrome effects, his favourite one of all being gold stars on a green background. He talked of these matters with an Italian artist, William the Florentine, who acted as master of the works at Guildford. Henry's aim was to make life comfortable, and his castles left much to be desired. Thus the Tower of London was a vast prison, so the king hated it, and tried to make away with its horrid gloom, sending word to the Constable that his queen's chamber there was to be painted with flowers. This idea was original, and we may follow it HENRY III. AND THE HOME 103 in a modern way, adorning H.M.S. Dreadnought with blue forget-me-nots and white rose-buds. Henry, too, was not pleased with his own chamber at the Tower. Its drain was out of order, and his Majesty wanted another to be made like a hollow column, " as our beloved servant, John of Ely, shall more fully tell thee." It was thus that Henry III. overhauled his castles and country seats, adding a spiral staircase at Clarendon, building an outside stair to his chapel at Rochester, freeing Westminster Hall from its open, poisonous gutter, and laying on water, with the help of Edward FitzOtho, his architect. A hollow pipe was used, not thicker than a quill, and through it water flowed from the conduit to the king's own private rooms. And other good things were done with water. Baths were put in some palaces, and conduits of pure water brought happiness to London citizens, who were properly grateful for their king's in- fluence. As to London houses, they differed very little from those described in Chapter V., at least till the middle of the thirteenth century. Timber sheds and cabins were common ; two-storied houses were still found in the best neighbour- hoods, like Cheapside ; but Henry III. lifted his eyebrows with discontent, having ideas that io 4 THE ENGLISH HOUSE came to him in France. Paris buildings were tall and stately ; and when Henry visited Paris in 1254 he rode in astonishment through a street called La Greve, then down another towards St. Germain Antin, and thence over a great bridge, seeing on all sides fine mansions, built of gypsum (plaster of Paris). Some had three chambers, while others were four floors and more high ; and fine windows were common everywhere, and all were bright with pretty women. Henry was delighted. London too must have tall houses and pleasant windows. Did he forget, I wonder, that his capital, in some respects, was better than the Gay City ? London had a better public spirit ; its drainage was better, and its good streets were generally wider and better paved. Even low-roofed houses had one real advantage, not being high enough to interfere with a free circulation of air and light, so that London was sunned and ventilated. To-day people do not give thought enough to the effect of innumerable tall buildings on public health. Yet it is a point worth attention. The more you think about it the more certain you will be that houses above a given height ought to pay a swinging tax to our medical officers of health. When streets are lined with tall build- ings on both sides what are they but channels J C S S 3 H o a B i HENRY III. AND THE HOME 105 for keen draughts ? Wind sweeps down them all day long, collecting dust and throwing it up in clouds that rise to the topmost windows. This means infection, not ventilation, for London dust everywhere is filled with microbes and particles of manure. Twenty-five years ago Mr. E. M. Barry, R.A., pointed out that street houses were becoming too high, and that this matter was bad for two reasons, affecting the people's health and doing harm to the general look of London. Things are much worse to-day. Open windows mean dirty rooms everywhere in London. A city without boulevards can- not afford to build such tall streets. London thoroughfares are narrow and cramped, very different from the spacious Avenue Louise at Brussels, or the magnificent Boulevard de Waterloo. We have nothing to compare with these vast public ways, yet London houses are loftier, as a rule, than those in Brussels. But we must go back to Henry III., who originated this London mania for tall houses in narrow streets. He was wrong in this matter, but his capital, no doubt, with its one-storied cabins along Watling Street and near London Bridge, looked poverty-stricken after the four- deckers in Paris. We have already seen (p. 65) that attention was given to sanitation, and to the rain-water dripping from roofs into gutters. io6 THE ENGLISH HOUSE Refuse of every description was carried away by open channels, like those in kitchens and in great halls. Alexander Nequam was in favour of this system during the twelfth century, while Henry III. objected to it, and some drains underground were made during his time. Thus far we have seen a growth of three good things in the thirteenth century : a delight in colour, public sanitation, and personal clean- liness a virtue never encouraged by the Church. Still, progress was an idea rather than a fact, because people as a rule were careless and indescribably unclean, as Thorold Rogers points out. Yet the appearance of baths and good drains, even in royal palaces, was an event ; it marked a new era in English home architecture. A love for colour was no doubt stimulated by many Italian priests, who grew fat on English benefices. As they had seen many polychrome effects in their own country, they were glad to follow Henry's lead, and colour decoration spread all over the halls and chambers, mural ornament becoming usual in all good houses. Walls were panelled to a height of about five feet, leaving a space above to be filled with a painted frieze. Sometimes the subject chosen was merely a design that imitated drapery folds ; but themes were taken from the Gospels, HENRY III. AND THE HOME 107 from popular allegories, and from lives of the saints. By this means a school of decorative art grew up in England under the protection of Henry III. Some members of this school were foreigners, like William the Florentine and John of St. Omer, but English artists held their own. There was John of Gloucester, famed for his statuary ; and William of Gloucester, a goldsmith who made a brass figure for the tomb of Catharine, infant daughter of Henry III. William, a monk of Westminster, painted for his king the " gestes " of Antioch ; other good work was done by an official court artist, Walter by name ; and there was a second Walter, a native of Col- chester, and sacristan of St. Alban's, whom Matthew Paris wrote about in glowing terms, " pictor et sculptor incomparabilis." All these men were encouraged by the king, and it is likely that they were influenced by conventional designs having a Greek origin. Henry III. was particularly fond of panelling. At his manor-house of Cliff, for example, he told his agent, Walter de Burgh, that the queen's chamber was to be wainscoted and painted with a history ; and another mandate directs the Sheriff of Wiltshire "to wainscot the King's lower room, to paint it of a green colour, to put a border to it, and to enrich io8 THE ENGLISH HOUSE this border with painted heads of queens and kings." Upstairs, in Henry's own room, a frieze was to tell the story of St. Margaret Virgin, accompanied by the four Evangelists ; while a wainscot below was to be green, relieved by gold stars, and having some male and female heads painted on it, " with good and exquisite colours." Whatever the effect may have been, Henry was in earnest. He had a feeling for home, a wish to get rid of armour and to take his ease leisurely in comfort. This good man was fastidious in all things domestic. We read, for instance, how he gave orders that a room on his ground floor at Windsor Castle was to be " boarded like a ship " a suggestive criticism. That room had no other flooring than the usual carpet- rushes in winter, green fodder in summer- spread over the beaten earth; and when such bad floors were to be found in Windsor Castle, imagine what halls were like in ordinary houses and cottages. Earthen floors got damp and filthy ; it was a custom to spit on the rushes and to throw into them the rinsings from glasses and all litter from the table bones, odds and ends of vegetables, &c. ; and yet rushes were employed in halls as late as the fifteenth century, and later than that. Even private rooms were generally rush-covered, but ladies scattered HENRY III. AND THE HOME 109 flowers over the rushes, till at last between the reigns of Henry V. and Henry VII. rugs and carpets made their way very timidly into fashion. Mediaeval lords and ladies put little money on their floors and much on their backs. It did not occur to them that dirty floors bred unclean habits. Henry III. was aware of this fact, so he encouraged foreign craftsmen to set up their homes at his court, and among them were some makers of decorative paving tiles. His mind was full of experimental ideas. He tried, for example, to repeat in woodwork an effect which he had seen done by a tiler, giving orders that in one of his rooms the wainscot was to have boards not only coloured, but " radi- ated " ; and this wish to make one material do the work of another was applied to wooden arches and stone piers, which were painted to imitate marble, as in Victoria's reign deal doors were grained to imitate oak. Of course, it was wrong a make-believe, a sham, a forgery. Still, Henry had good ideas also in chamber decoration. For example, he put " a wooden spur on the inner side of a door, and some- times against the wall of a chamber ; in the latter case it may have been intended as a sort of canopy over the principal seat, and when over the doorway it was probably designed to carry no THE ENGLISH HOUSE drapery, to protect the room from draughts. It must be confessed, however, that the real destination of this sort of structure is un- kriown. . . . Wooden screens (escrinia) on the inner sides of doors, in both halls and chambers, were in use during the latter part of Henry's reign."* This seems to prove that the king tried to get rid of draughts in a practical and artistic way, just as he gave a more domestic air to castles by building around their keeps, in the baileys, detached halls, chambers, and other out-shoots, because castles were too uncomfort- able for household use. From this innovation Edward I. borrowed hints when he built his famous strongholds, where the hall seems to have been a separate apartment, and where many chambers designed for different uses were knit together by a general plan. Under Henry III. scattered rooms were joined to one another by covered passages built of wood. In one case he said that his queen must walk with a dry foot from her chamber to chapel a pretty touch of homely thoughtfulness. Windows also claimed Henry's attention ; and with this we come to the use of glass for domestic purposes. It is a subject worth * Turner and Parker's "Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages," i. 91. HENRY III. AND THE HOME in considering. Glazed windows were employed in England by the Romans, as at South Darenth, in Kent ; glass vessels were known to the Saxons ; and in the ninth century some church windows were decorated with tinted panes. It is possible that glass may have been used occa- sionally in halls, but on this question there is no written evidence. Aubrey states that, apart from churches and gentlemen's houses, glass windows were rare before the time of Henry VIII., and that among copyholders in Salop, Herefordshire, and Warwickshire there were none as late as the Civil Wars. This explains why window openings were small. It is usually safe to judge a style in domestic building by the " wind eyes," as they were called. The smaller they are, the older is the tradition which they represent. Thus loopholes in barns are older than the smallest windows in extant cottages. Round apertures in roofs, covered with the caul of a new-born calf, were the earliest " wind eyes " among Norsemen ; and this may well be true of all Northern peoples, as cauls and bladders could hardly fail to attract attention by their transparency. Roof-holes in primitive huts and halls were followed by the clerestory windows of church architecture. When glass panes were used for home purposes they were set in movable casements, which could be ii2 THE ENGLISH HOUSE taken down and packed away, or carried from manor to manor with other household things ; and it is worth noting that they had a legal value. As late as the sixteenth century, says Mr. Addy, glass windows did not pass to the heir as part of the freehold estate, but to the personal representatives.* No record speaks of these windows during the twelfth century, and even in Henry III.'s time glass was far from common. Here and there palace windows were glazed, but window shutters and lattices were the rule, sometimes with textile blinds through which light could pass. At this moment I am writing on a grey morning with my blinds down, and there's enough light ; and this enables me to under- stand why oiled linen was often used instead of glass even as late as the sixteenth century. It was cheap, it served its purpose well enough, and if boys shot their arrows through it none cared. Not one writer on this question of glass windows has remembered that, from Edward I.'s time to Queen Elizabeth's, all English lads were compelled by law to practise archery ; and what more tempting mark at rovers than a glass window ? It could be broken from a distance without any one seeing. * S. O. Addy's "Evolution of the English House," p. 122. INTERIOR OP THE HALL, STOKE-SAY, SHROPSHIRE. Thirteenth Century. See pages 114-117. HENRY III. AND THE HOME 113 This fact must have had influence everywhere, particularly in country places, yet some writers on architecture pass it by and talk at random about the excessive price of glass, just as though huge sums of money were not spent by nobles on other household luxuries, like tapestries, costumes, and travelling carriages. Apart from this, glass was not unduly expensive. In Edward I.'s time it was fyd. a foot, including the glazier's wage about 4^. 4^. in modern money. Window glass came from Flanders, and was sent to English merchants in part exchange for the incomparable English wool ; but when it reached London the difficulty was to distribute such a fragile thing through the country. Mediaeval carters were by com- mon law bailees of their goods, and liable to the consignors for their safe delivery. This fact is mentioned by Thorold Rogers, yet no writer on architecture has applied it to the infrequent use of glass windows by mediaeval householders. Why should a carter try to ruin himself by carrying glass at his own risk ? For the rest, English craftsmen did not take to glass-work till the fifteenth century, and then they had very little success in their competition with Flemings, Frenchmen, and Italians. Table glass was imported from Venice H ii4 THE ENGLISH HOUSE even during the reign of William and Mary, English merchants sending models patterns, as they were called for Italians to work from. Window glass in Henry III.'s time came from Flanders, and was treated as we treat Dresden china. Much care was taken to protect it, stanchions and bars being put in window open- ings, or a simple trelliswork of wood. At Stokesay Castle, Salop, a fortified manor-house, tall windows were only half glazed, their lower parts being covered by shutters. Then as regards the shapes in which windows were built during the thirteenth century. They developed transitional forms of the late Norman period, arched lights be- coming pointed and enriched with trefoiled heads. At Chacombe Priory, Northants, win- dow openings are square ; each one is divided by a bold central shaft octagonal on plan, but the lights are pointed and trefoiled. At other places, and notably at Alnwick Castle, North- umberland, and Stokesay Castle, Salop, windows with two lights are divided also by horizontal transoms, and have plain circles above their trefoiled arches. This effect is rich and strong, above all at Stokesay, where many windows are large and beautiful. Note in the illustrations how their design is carried out (pp. 108 and 112). A transom is admirably placed, being somewhat HENRY III. AND THE HOME 115 below the centre of the aperture ; both lights are elegantly strong in line, and their trefoils are not carved out of the stone, but cusped to the inner edge or soffit of each pointed arch. The circle above rests on the arches, and a dripstone frames the window closely and gives emphasis to its arrow-headed form. There are no oriel windows at Stokesay, but many writs of Henry III.'s time refer to oriels in connection with royal houses. Unluckily, no examples now remain, and we cannot learn how they were designed and built. While Henry III. ruled our home architec- ture window-sills became picturesque indoors, and this trait was developed from Norman transitional art. As a rule a sill had stone benches, a seat on either side, with a step into the room ; while at other times the arrangement was more finished, the sill having returned ends and mouldings. At Stokesay, where great taste is shown, a large hall, measuring fifty-one feet by thirty, has no fewer than eight big windows, four on the west side and four on the east ; all have seats, and this good idea might be adapted by modern architects. Windows are rarely near enough to our ceilings, so they do not carry off the foul air as it rises. If they were put higher we should benefit from a sanitary point of view, n6 THE ENGLISH HOUSE and window-seats could be made raised above a room by a step or two. However, let us go back to Stokesay, and note how it was designed at the close of the thirteenth century. The ground-plan shows how a long range of buildings may be put up in a curved form on a courtyard of an oblong shape. The hall is one story high, with a fine open timber roof. Its double collar-beams are very strong, and the stone corbels upon which the arched collar-braces rest are large and upright, with early English mouldings deeply cut. At the north and south ends the hall is flanked by apart- ments. The north side has a good cellar, with a loophole ; a small tower juts out from it, and is built in a moat, which is about twenty-two feet wide. Above this tower and cellar is a second story, having rooms of wood and plaster, con- nected with the hall by a timber staircase. At the south end is a square door with a trefoiled head ; it leads to some lower rooms ; and above them we find the solar, two tiny windows look- ing from it into the hall, so that nothing may go on there without the lord's knowledge. These sentry windows were general and very useful during the Middle Ages, because a com- mon life in halls required careful watching. The solar at Stokesay we call it a drawing- room in our modern homes has lost much of mm f . - ^- HENRY III. AND THE HOME 117 its original character, for its elaborately- carved chimney-piece belongs to Elizabethan art, like the gate-house. Those lower rooms on the south side, already mentioned, have much interest, a passage leading from them to the great keep, a tower very un- usual in form, and commandingly designed and built. It is an irregular polygon, and from outside it appears to be a double octagonal tower. There are three stories, lighted by single or double lancet windows ; the parapet is battlemented, and pierced with loopholes. All these apertures had shutters. The roof can hardly be seen, but it is conical. Two circular chimneys, old as the masonry, are found on the south side. Below, indoors, the rooms are irregularly planned, and their windows are set obliquely to the walls, proving how afraid men used to be of archers and flights of barbed arrows. A staircase in the wall goes up to the second story, and thence to the floor above, where three small rooms used to be. The steps go still higher, to the top of the turret, where there is or where there used to be a small closet. Little Wenham Hall, Suffolk, is another good home of Edward I.'s time, dating from the year 1281. I am able to give two beautiful drawings of it by William Twopeny. It is n8 THE ENGLISH HOUSE famed as being the earliest known example of complete English brickwork. Here and there the bricks are intermingled with courses of stone and flint ; they vary much both in colour and in size, some being no thicker than Roman tiles, while others resemble Flemish bricks. Turner and Parker give the following description : " The plan is a parallelogram, with a square tower at one angle : on the outside the scroll moulding is used as a string, and it is continued all round, showing that the house now is entire as originally built : at one angle, where the external staircase was originally placed, some other building seems to have been added at a later period, though since removed : of this additional structure an Elizabethan doorway remains, with an inscription built in above it. The ground room is vaulted with a groined vault of brick, with stone ribs which are merely chamfered ; they are carried on semi-octagon shafts with plainly moulded capitals. The windows of this lower room are small plain lancets, widely splayed internally. " The upper room has a plain timber roof, and the fireplace is blocked up. The windows have seats in them ; and at the end of the room near the door is a recess or niche forming a sort of cupboard. Both house and tower are covered with flat leaden roofs, having brick HENRY III. AND THE HOME 119 battlements all round, with a coping formed of moulded bricks or tiles, some of which are original, and others of the Elizabethan period. The tower is a story higher than the body of the house, and has a similar battlement and coping : the crenelles, which are at rather long intervals, are narrow, with wide merlons between them. In one corner of the tower is a turret with a newel staircase. " On the upper story of the projecting square tower is a chapel, which opens into the large room or hall at one corner. It is a small vaulted chamber : the east window is of three lights, with three foliated circles in the head, of Early English character : the north and south windows are small lancets widely splayed within : in the east jamb of the south window is a very good piscina, with a detached shaft at the angle, the capital of which has good Early English mouldings : the basin is destroyed. On the north side of the altar-place is another niche, like a piscina, but without any basin ; it has a trefoil head and a bold scroll moulding for a hood terminated by masks. The vault is of a single bay, with good ribs, of Early English character, springing from corbels, the two eastern being heads, the two western plain tongues." Altogether there is nothing remarkable in 120 THE ENGLISH HOUSE the plan, but excellent workmanship is to be found everywhere ; and efforts to be domestic as well as defensive are aimed at tentatively. Little Wenham Hall belongs to a time when Englishmen did not wish to feel safe, but carried into their homes the same feeling of insecurity that caused them to spend large sums of money on body - armour. Robert Kerr, writing on this subject in 1865, sneered at the thirteenth-century house, its plan being feeble and its accommodation scanty. Yet Mr. Kerr was wrong. Englishmen were toughened by their hard life indoors, though they carried much too far their hatred for those refined habits which Henry III. wished to make popular with his nobles. Apart from this, cramped planning at Little Wenham Hall is not worse than the same thing in our London flats, where eight rooms are often squeezed into a surface area just large enough for five. _f , _J^ -*^ i - ,--^r- \VINDOW. LITTLE WENHAM HALL. OPENING FEOU CHAPEL TO HALL CHAPEL ENTRANCE. LITTLE WENHAM I3ALL. PCFTOLK Thirteenth Century. pages 1 1 7 1 20. CHAPTER VIII LATER GOTHIC HOMES IN RELATION TO OURSELVES 1 reign of Edward III. (1327-77) carried England a long way forward. Serfs became copyholders, town life improved, trade and commerce increased, and English soldiers, returning home with booty from France and Spain, brought to their manor- villages new ideas of comfort and independence. Among the well-to-do architecture continued the progress of Henry III.'s time, edging nearer and nearer to what we ourselves value most privacy. At the end of the thirteenth century we find that a wish to be safe at home was tempered by a desire to separate family life from the retinue of armed retainers. Detached apart- ments were built around castles, so that ladies might be private among themselves and free from the great common hall, where dependants slept at night and lived during the day. Yet there were men of authority who objected to this improvement, and among them was Robert Grosseteste, who became Bishop of Lincoln in 121 122 THE ENGLISH HOUSE 1235, and who, in some statutes for the ordering of a family, said : " As muche as ye may, withoute peril of sykenes and weryneys, eat ye in the halle afore youre meyny [household], for that schal be to youre profyte and worschippe." And this advice continued to be given in much later times. Even in the early days of Queen Elizabeth it was said, by conservative Englishmen, that " all eatingc in chambers should be prohibited, other than such as are ordinarily allowed to keep chambers." But English kings set a different example. Henry VII., for example, dined in his bedroom, with a bishop on one side and his queen on the other ; and if the chamber was large enough he might ask a lord and lady to dine with him also. These facts must be kept in mind, because the progress of English home life centred around the common hall, and it is clear that there was much opposition to any improvement that separated a family from its house-place, as a hall was often named. Bishop Grosseteste sprang from the people was, indeed, a serfs son and thus his attitude in this matter probably gave the popular view. A movement towards privacy cannot fail to draw a sharp line between de- pendents and their superiors, and it was this, no PALACE, 3T DAVID'S, PEMBROKESHIRE. ST. JOHN'S HOSPITAL. NORTHAMPTON EXAMPLES OF WHEEL-WINDOWS IN DECORATED ENGLISH GOTHIC. Fourteenth Century. See page 123. LATER GOTHIC HOMES 123 doubt, that Grosseteste and his followers feared. As long as a lord dined with his family in a common hall servants and retainers looked to him as a friend, and did not feel abased by their subordinate positions. This gave rise to a spirit of goodwill, which conservative and thoughtful Englishmen wished to retain ; but side by side with this was a determination to bring into home life a respect for rank that would isolate servants in the sharpest manner possible. Such was the position of affairs during the fourteenth century. Conservatism asked for a great increase of importance in the common room, and this was granted even by those who proved in other ways that their ideals were at odds with the old patriarchal system. Halls then attained a certain grandeur which has yet to be equalled in English architecture. Lofty walls, beautiful traceried windows, complicated roofs full of charm and dignity, carved screens enriched with arched ornament became usual in halls, and put domestic architecture on a level with church workmanship. Round windows were built in the gable-ends of halls during Henry III.'s reign, but now they grew large, and were filled with so much tracery that a wheel- window became an ornament rather than a giver of light. This was a mistake, no doubt, but the craftsmanship was lovely. Other windows 124 THE ENGLISH HOUSE were tall and pointed, with traceried heads ; each was divided by a horizontal transom, and below the transom carved stonework repeated the tracery that adorned the upper lights. At the inner end of a hall a larger dais was built than in previous times ; there stood the high table, and behind it a screen of rich tapestry. Across the hall, facing the high table, was a wooden partition, called the entry, or screens, containing a front entrance, a back door, and other doors to the household offices. An external porch protected the main entrance from bad weather ; in the screens was a side- board and a stone laver, this latter being a kind of piscina where all might wash themselves ; and over the screen was a minstrels' gallery. Near the walls, on either side, were tables for guests and retainers. Children of the best families did service in these vast rooms. Every knight had his squire, who waited behind his master's chair ; and even young princes learned lessons of obedience in this humble manner. But when a feast was over, and my lord retired with his family and guests, a hall floor became a vast bed covered with bolsters and mattresses, so a frugal past and a decorated present met together. The hall at Penshurst, Kent, belongs to the fourteenth century. It has four windows, two ^J **~ -! VI 0. LATER GOTHIC HOMES 125 on either side ; each has two lights with quatrefoiled heads, and the glazed openings are divided by horizontal bars of stone called tran- soms. On the north side of this hall is the dais, raised one step above the floor, and near to it is an open archway into an octagonal staircase, which leads up to other rooms of the fourteenth century. Hard by is a small door that enters a vaulted cellar, where a row of arches runs down the centre, and where you see an earlier type of architecture, dating, so it is said, from Henry II. 's reign. Opposite the dais, at the south end, is the screen, and the minstrels' gallery, a rich piece of woodwork, panelled and carved ; it has various ornaments, but a bear and a ragged staff are frequently repeated. Look up at the roof now. It is open to the ridge ; its timberwork is fine, with collar- beams and king-posts, all well moulded ; and notice those corbels, for they represent full- length figures of a grotesque type carved in wood. Again, there are three rather small windows in the gable-ends of this hall, neatly placed so as to fit the roof, the timbers passing between them. As to the floor, it is tiled, and in the centre a hearth is marked out with stonework, upon which firedogs stand ; and some furniture 126 THE ENGLISH HOUSE completes our sketch. The side-tables are interesting, for they are made on the ancient principle of boards and trestles ; these trestles, also, have very solid legs, resting on feet which are cruciform on plan, so that they would bear a great weight and tipsy roysterers could not upset them. There are benches to correspond, each with wide-spreading feet. " The high table is different, being a regularly framed table, with bulbous legs, but probably none of this furniture is earlier than the time of Eliza- beth or James I." * In a picture of this hall by Joseph Nash, reproduced here, the details are well given, and a Christmas feast is represented, with that dra- matic feeling for history which gives so much value to Nash's lithographs. Here are fourteenth- century life and character ; but behind them, let us remember, was a movement which was to upset the old 'order of domestic routine, with its communal spirit. (See the Frontispiece.) This movement is the next thing to be considered. It meant, as we have seen, a wish to be more private ; and this natural desire caused every new house to be judged by three questions : i. Did it give greater quietness ? * "Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages," ii. 279, 280, THE SOLAR, SUTTON COURTENAY, BERKSHIRE. Fourteenth Century. LATER GOTHIC HOMES 127 2. Was it conveniently arranged ? 3. Were the household offices far enough away from the private rooms ? These questions have been answered thousands of times since the fourteenth century, and one reply has been wrong, as a rule, generation after generation. Very little respect has been shown for those who have lived in the service quarters ; and to this fact we owe that dislike for domestic work which has produced in our own day the Servants' Revolt. No such thing was known when servants fed and slept in a common hall, because their lot then differed in degree, not in kind, from that of kings and queens ; but when a desire for privacy began to separate them from their superiors all the snobbishness in human nature had a chance to mark that sepa- ration in unkind ways, involving hardships or indignities. We may take the kitchen as an example. In early times, when nearly all common rooms were built with timber, kitchens were isolated because they were dangerous to the main building, but when, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, many great houses were of stone, common sense demanded that kitchens should be placed conveniently near the hall, so that food might be taken to table without in- convenience. Yet the old custom was followed, i 2 8 THE ENGLISH HOUSE kitchens were detached, and sometimes dishes had to be carried across a broad yard. This error in planning is all the more curious as kitchens of the fourteenth century were at times very important buildings, like the Abbot's Kitchen at Glastonbury, which I am able to de- scribe. It was built of stone, probably by Abbot Chinnock, between the years 1374 and 1420. The plan was square outside and octagonal with- in ; each corner had a fireplace, and the angles were cut off by four segmental arches. This kitchen was spanned by a lofty octagonal dome, supported by eight ribs, and covered externally by a peaked stone roof of eight sides, forming a spire without and a dome within. There was a high louvre in two stages ; outside it formed an octagon lighted by square windows, with its own battlement and spire, on which was set a smaller octagon and spire, to give a finish to the building ; and chimneys at each angle of the base completed the architecture. A kitchen of this kind must have been pleasant to work in ; but a long distance lay between it and the refectory ; and this not only isolated the household offices, but made it a difficult task to serve at table. The same characteristic is to be found in English house plans to the nine- teenth century, when innumerable basements were built in imitation of those which England LATER GOTHIC HOMES 129 copied badly from Italian designs during her Renaissance period. Servants were sent under- ground as low creatures, and breakneck stair- cases had to be climbed before they could reach the dining-rooms. This was an offensive want of tact, making domestic service a reproach ; and its result is to be seen at present in all English cities. Thousands of basement houses are empty, and no architect worth his salt will build another, except in flats, where porters may be treated with contempt, as they are usually time-expired soldiers who find it hard to get civil appoint- ments. They cannot afford to strike with the women servants, and striking alone wins fairness in this age of competition. Servants need privacy, just as families do, and this may be given to them without show- ing disrespect for their necessary help and position. Architects, in their eagerness to shut off the smell of cooking from their houses, must in future keep before their minds the ways in which domestic service has been slighted in house plans, age after age, since Edward III.'s time. Nothing is more trouble- some to-day in home life than a foolish parade of class distinction, because servants cannot get away from it like outdoor workers, who have cottages where they can shape their private 1 3 o THE ENGLISH HOUSE time in freedom. Servants indoors are servants all day long, just like soldiers on campaign. In such circumstances even small hardships, when unnecessary, become just causes of insub- ordination ; and the hardships which servants have had thrust upon them in English homes since the fourteenth century have been serious, not small. To-day, in all houses and flats for persons with small incomes, the service quarters are cramped and bad, as though health and comfort were things that cooks and housemaids should not wish to enjoy. One cannot speak too strongly on this point. After studying thousands of house plans, old and new, I am not surprised that domestic servants should rebel and put on airs of overdressed independence. The odd thing is that they did not revolt long ago, when the earliest basement houses sent them to earth as though they were prehistoric, and tried to make them ashamed of their calling. To find a parallel to this folly we must think of our English actors, who in nearly all theatres, past and present, have been scandalously treated in their dressing-room accommodation. Any- thing will do for an actor, anything will do for a servant indoors this has long been a rule with hundreds of architects. This bad policy began during the reign of Edward III. ; but it was only tentative then, LATER GOTHIC HOMES 131 because the old communal life in homes was a thing which could not be done away with all at once. Halls, little by little, lost their importance, particularly during the fifteenth century, when they ceased to be bedrooms for dependents, and when families used them mainly for great banquets. But the old com- munal spirit was not dead ; it came back at Christmas and during harvest festivals, so that ancient ties between masters and servants were not entirely broken by the new ordering of home architecture. This put all the house- hold offices in one wing and the family rooms in another, with many external doors leading from them into a court or quadrangle ; and the rooms, again, had communicating doors, like those which are common to-day in France. English architects, on the other hand, have a very strong objection to a suite of rooms united by doors. They say it is at odds with English ideals of privacy ; and in this they are at once right and wrong. Privacy is a thing conditioned by circumstances, and must keep step with the pressing needs of each generation. At a time when English families were large, and when land for building sites was not expensive, even in London, privacy could ramble over a good deal of ground with- out making a house too costly. More space 1 32 THE ENGLISH HOUSE was often used for passages than would be given to-day to a comfortable home. Indeed, town land is now so valuable that houses have either dwindled into small villas packed together into dull, uniform streets, or grown into huge flats where a dozen tenants live in a single block covering less ground than Englishmen of the fifteenth century would have thought enough for a cook-shop near Ludgate Hill. Under these conditions it is absurd to say that com- municating doors are bad at all times and in all cases. Most of us need for rooms the space which is now occupied by passages. This applies particularly to villas and to flats, where corridors not only lessen the size of all rooms, but are difficult to keep sweet. Air stagnates in them, and nothing but a thorough draught can displace it a great trouble in winter. And another thing that favours a return to rooms en suife, with communicating doors, is the fact that an average English family is much smaller than it used to be. Married couples, when educated, no longer believe that parental duties are undertaken by a special Providence, and that it is the simplest of all arts to give boys and girls a calling by which to live. Yet architects and builders are very slow to recognise the changes which have passed over o LATER GOTHIC HOMES 133 home life during the last fifty years. They talk and act as though they were in fifteenth- century England, and proud of the newly- invented corridors and passage-ways. However cramped their sites may be, a house must be a big one on a tiny scale, each room with a door that opens on to a landing or into a passage. It is forgotten that passages are admirable only when they serve their purpose without stinting room elsewhere. The other day I examined a villa at Chiswick, a small place where a married couple might live uncomfortably with a servant and a child ; but its plan, please to note, was an imitation of the Adam houses in Bedford Square, a basement omitted. It is odd indeed that this want of humour is not resented. No person would read a simple story written in Milton's essay manner ; but diminu- tive villas and flats, with many rooms huddled into little space, ape a style far beyond their home comforts, and yet find tenants. Altogether we have learnt another lesson from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Rooms en suite are not always bad, while passages are harmful to health if they make the living-rooms small. Town houses need the largest amount of air space that architects can manage to scheme into the plan of each room. When passages were introduced, during the 134 THE ENGLISH HOUSE fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it was soon discovered that their convenience, even in large houses, had serious drawbacks ; servants collided in them when going to and fro between the kitchen and dining-room ; and, again, they were difficult to keep warm in winter. For these reasons, among others, passages were made larger, till at last the stately long galleries were evolved, giving a noble air to Elizabethan and Jacobean mansions. Here, for example, is the gallery at Lanhydroc, Cornwall, admirably drawn by Joseph Nash, and showing a corridor trans- formed into a beautiful room, carpeted, well lit by tall windows, hung with pictures, and warmed by a good fireplace. The walls are wainscoted, the panels being small and arranged in a geometrical pattern repeated everywhere. There is an arched plaster ceiling, with rich ornamentation and heavy pendants ; and the family life, introduced by Nash, shows how architects were affected by splendid costumes, their decorative details harmonising with the ladies' ruffs and patterned robes. To show the progress of house architecture from outside during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries I have chosen four illustrations : 1. Markenfield Hall, Yorkshire, near Ripon, dating from A.D. 1310. 2. Nursted Court, Kent fourteenth century. LATER GOTHIC HOMES 135 3. Great Chalfield, Wiltshire. 4. Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk. Markenfield Hall, Yorkshire, is a fortified manor-house dating from the year 1310. It belongs to the era of Decorated Gothic, but the illustration will tell you that in house architecture at the beginning of the fourteenth century special characteristics began to show themselves. Note, for example, the six square- headed windows, all divided into a couple of lights by strong mullions ; and there are two with transoms also. Now windows of this kind were not only built in Tudor days, but survived till a much later time here and there, as in the delightful cottages so well known to-day in the Cotswold district. There is, to be sure, some difference between them. Cots- wold cottages have usually a strongly moulded dripstone above their windows and doors, quite straight, in bold relief, and turned down at the sides, while at Markenfield no dripstone frames the head of a square window. On the other hand, there are two pointed windows with good dripstones that repeat the springing of each well-drawn arch. In other words, they are curved like the window-heads. One .arched window shows very clearly that union between house and church architecture which Englishmen loved in medieval times. 136 THE ENGLISH HOUSE It is a traceried window with three lights, it is placed in the eastern end of a chapel, and its geometrical tracery is Decorated Gothic of an early type. At a later date, in the Deco- rated style, geometrical patterns gave place to a flowing tracery, but English builders never ran into the excessive, flame-like ornament in stone that produced the Flamboyant style of France and Germany. Window tracery sprang from the stone shafts with which Norman builders divided window openings into lights. Those shafts were turned into mullions, and these being too plain and assertive for the fine artistic genius of the thirteenth century, they were made to ramify into patterned forms, so that the upper parts of arched windows might be beautiful. How this was managed in 1310 is shown very well by the large window at Markenfield. You will note, also, in our illustration, that the walls have no fewer than six buttresses, all with so much strength that they must be accounted for by some structural requirements. These were two great roofs of open wood- work, one in the chapel and the other in the hall, and their timbers thrust with great power against the side walls. A modern roof was put up in the hall in 1853, but some of the ancient corbels existed at a later date. X if LATER GOTHIC HOMES 137 One other point must be noted in the external architecture at Markenfield namely, j ' its horizontal character. It is difficult to see the roof, which is nearly hidden behind a long embattled parapet having merlons crenellated with moulded copings. Too much attention cannot be given to this matter, because it proves that Gothic house architecture at the beginning of the fourteenth century began to develop a horizontal air of its own, and to appreciate this fact we must recall to mind the essential difference in spirit between Gothic and Classic buildings. Gothic architecture has life and hope ; it seems to ascend, to spring up buoy- antly from the ground towards the sun's light, like a tree ; while a Classic building rests firmly on its foundation, all its weight press- ing downwards, adequately supported in every part ; it is made symmetrical by means of horizontal lines that dominate those which are upright. A Gothic church looks as though it might have been enchanted out of the earth, while a Classic temple is obviously built. Compare Westminster Abbey with Somerset House or the British Museum, and you will see and feel the immense opposition between the rival geniuses of Gothic and Classic archi- tecture. The one grows and aspires, the other denotes repose and construction. The one is 138 THE ENGLISH HOUSE alertly glorious in height, the other calmly majestic in horizontal lines. And this being so, the Gothic work at Markenfield Hall has a tendency that goes away from the spirit of Gothic, forming a horizontalism distantly akin to that in Greek and Roman buildings. This tendency, too, was not accidental ; it marked the beginning of an English style in house architecture that produced the sweet low lines so remarkable in Tudor homes. So Markenfield is really an important manor- house, foretelling what our Tudor period will be, and what builders will do in the Cotswolds after the Tudor times have passed away. Nor is it difficult to explain the unusual features. That high parapet, for instance, by which the roof is hidden, reminds us that Yorkshire was influenced by that ever-present fear of war which the Border country turned into a Northern tradition. Those square-headed windows, too, were not employed for the sake of novelty, but from necessity, the floor above, or the roof, not allowing space for an arch. Where there was space enough the windows were arched. For the rest, at Markenfield, as in our own houses, the most private chambers are upstairs. As we prefer our drawing-rooms away from the front door, so Englishmen of the fourteenth LATER GOTHIC HOMES 139 century put their halls and chapels and solars on their upper storeys. A solar was a drawing- room, and at Markenfield it was built out from the hall behind the great dais, upon which my lord and his family took their meals. If we now compare this charming Yorkshire house with a Southern manor, Nursted Court, Kent, we pass at once to a more peaceful type of fourteenth-century Gothic, with a high- peaked roof, pointed windows and doorways, two jolly gables, and a pretty, simple air of romance. Kent is famous to this day for beautiful old homes, built usually of timber or of flint with stone dressings. Nursted Court, not far from Gravesend, was built in the middle of the fourteenth century, the materials being flints, with dressings of Caen stone for the quoins, windows, and doors. Every part was beautifully finished, so our modern rest- lessness called it old-fashioned, and destroyed a perfect bit of architecture. Still, I am able to give an illustration of the old work (p. 132) ; and one showing the interior of a delightful hall is given by Turner and Parker. You cannot study with too much care the constructive art. The gabled windows outside are different from the earlier traceried window at Marken- field Hall, having feathered transoms ; that is, you will find tracery below the horizontal 140 THE ENGLISH HOUSE bars, and it repeats the arched ornament to be found in the upper range of lights. These windows are very pleasant ; it was a pretty idea to put above them those sharp, triangular gables, which serve as bonnets to show off their beauty. At Great Chalfield, Wiltshire, is a manor-house of the fifteenth century, now being repaired ; and as it has long been neglected modern England does not deserve to have historic memorials I give a picture drawn about sixty years ago, and showing a noble-looking home, such as a modern architect might be inspired by. Here is a house in which people lived at their ease, undis- turbed by any thought of war (p. 136). What could be better than those two oriel windows, with their tall elegance and their exquisite detail ? There are gables, too, quite simple and unaffected, yet varied and full of character. They have a more stately look than the fanci- ful gables which came into vogue during the sixteenth century, and were carried on by our so-called Queen Anne style, not only before that queen's time, but long after. Step-gables, it is true, may be found in English Gothic work of the fifteenth century, when they were probably suggested by the common use of battlemented parapets for large country houses ; but the finest Gothic gables THE GATEHOUSE, OXBURGH HALL, NORFOLK. Perpendicular Gothic. See page 142. LATER GOTHIC HOMES 141 are not broken by corbie-steps nor twisted into curves ; they have simple outlines, like those at Great Chalfield. Their proportions vary a good deal, being regulated by the differing slope of roofs. In the Norman style, for example, the angle formed by their apex is seldom much more acute than a right angle, while in Early English work it is usually an equilateral triangle. This applies, at least in many cases, to later Gothic gables, but these are usually lower than thirteenth-century examples. Moulded copings are frequently employed, sometimes with an additional set of mouldings below them ; and crockets may run up the coping, or a finial be seen on the gable's point. There seems to have been little change in the general character of gables from the thirteenth century to the making of the first corbie-steps. Mouldings differed, no doubt, in accordance with the spirit of Gothic architecture ; and in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, forming the subject of this chapter, gables are at times sur- mounted by a parapet, either panelled, pierced, or battlemented. Also, when the covering of a roof extends over a gabled wall, and projects in front, as in timber houses, a barge-board is a common ornament, often very beautifully carved and with a finial at the top, and occasionally with pendants at the barge-board's lower ends. 142 THE ENGLISH HOUSE The gables at Great Chalfield have finials or hip-knobs, ornaments that vary much in mediaeval design. Here the hip-knobs are heraldic animals, rampant ; and in all cases they serve a purpose entirely in accord with the spirit of Gothic architecture, adding to a gable's height and asking us to look upward. One characteristic in this manor-house at Great Chalfield proves that the masons did their work when the Perpendicular style of English Gothic was near to its Tudor period. Arched shapes are rounded and depressed. Look at the doorway, for example, and compare each window with those pointed specimens which we have already examined. Dripstones, again, repeat the flattened curves ; but the roof here is more prominent than in typical Tudor houses, where it is often so low as to be hidden from view, sometimes by a parapet, and sometimes by many gables. Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk, belongs to the reign of Edward IV. (1461-83). In style it is late Perpendicular, and its gate-house has a noble air. Here is a splendid example of English brick- work. As to the architecture, a certain parade of military details may be seen, but very dif- ferent from that in earlier castellated houses. Ornament is the purpose served at Oxburgh by warlike memories of older times and customs ; LATER GOTHIC HOMES 143 and so we get a defended home, not a castle armed for mischief. This gate-house rises to a great height, and our illustration shows two octagonal turrets that ascend a good way above the battlements. They are covered with a panelling of brick, and the battlements are broken into corbie-steps, as in the gateway of Jesus College, Cambridge. There is a high door with a flattened arch ; and note how it is flanked by two oriel windows, very tall and slender, that rise from the ground, and look not unlike turrets. They have narrow, pointed lights grouped in threes, and marking three stages in their architecture. Each light is boldly framed at top by a label or dripstone, not arched, but horizontal, and turned down at the sides. This combination of square label- mouldings with arched window-heads should be noted as a characteristic of Perpendicular work, the most English and national form of Gothic. CHAPTER IX LATE GOTHIC AND TUDOR HOMES WE have already studied two houses built in the Perpendicular style of Gothic Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk, and a beautiful manor-house at Great Chalfield, Wiltshire ; but something more must be said about this very English form of Gothic, because our Tudor houses owe to it all their best qualities. Tudor architecture is said to begin with the reign of Henry VII., in 1485 ; that is, a distinction may then be made between it and its forerunner, the so-called Perpendicular style ; and this distinction arises from the fact that builders began to be influenced a little by new principles of design coming from Italy. When did the Perpendicular style first begin to show itself? The year 1352 has been chosen as a good approximate date, because at that time a church was founded at Edington, Wilt- shire, from which students have learnt when the Second Pointed style of Gothic, known as Decorated English, began its transition into the 144 PART OK A T1LJBEK BOOSE, DUJNSTEB SOMERSETSHIRE. TUUOR TIMBER WORK, REIGN OF HENRY VII. See page 146. GOTHIC AND TUDOR HOMES 145 Perpendicular manner, so called. This transi- tion was almost completed when Richard II. came to the throne. During his reign (1377- 1399) some buildings were no doubt put up in the Decorated style ; but William of Wykeham belonged to this period, and his works have a very evident Perpendicular character, their tracery being arranged in up- right lines. When England went away from her Deco- rated Gothic and evolved a new and severe style she expressed her dislike for too much ornamentation, like that which gave France and Germany their flamboyant period of Gothic. Here stone was treated as a pliant material in which to form waved lines, and contorted curves, and flame-like patterns, for architects and builders forgot that stone was unlike modelling- wax. Now the Decorated style in England was subject to the same debasement, as there is nothing more dangerous in art than a fondness for ornament and patterns. In our own time, for example, William Morris used pattern wherever it could be put, with the result that it became toujours perdrix and wearisome. Grinling Gibbons, too, in the seventeenth century, misused his great talent as a wood- carver, forgetting that ornament had nothing to do with a painter's realistic methods ; and 146 THE ENGLISH HOUSE the principle here involved is that conven- tional designs, whether in wood and stone or on paper and textile fabrics, are almost certain to become too ornate and realistic, because of the pleasure thaj: craftsmen take in doing them. Our last form of Gothic accepted this prin- ciple as a guide, and brought into vogue a severity of treatment that prevented looseness and contortion. It declined to look upon piercings as the main features in tracery ; here bars of wood and stone became predominant, and were made straight in obedience to com- mon sense. As an example I give a beautiful illustration showihg a timber house that used to be at Dunster, in Somersetshire, and representing our Tudor style during the reign of Henry VII. There are two rows of windows, and between them an arcaded panelling. The windows are very interesting, because they show one special use of strong, plain mullions. If these mullions were less prominent the window openings would seem too large ; it is they that unite a large surface of glass to the surrounding wall (p. 146). To appreciate this we must remember that in earlier times glass was not often used by house- holders, so windows were small ; but when glass became as common among the well-to-do as oiled linen was in the poor man's house a ' OAI* GOTHIC AND TUDOR HOMES 147 fashion for large windows sprang up, and it threatened the structural look of houses. Many a wall would have been a thing of glass if mullions and transoms had not been used with judgment. Here are two other illustrations to make this point quite clear. One dates from Henry VIII. 's time, and represents the ruins of Cowdray House, Sussex, a country seat that retained as a decora- tion the battlemented parapet necessary in early castles and fortified houses. The chapel windows have upright tracery. Each has two mullions and two transoms, and the spaces formed by their intersection are arched and feathered. This, you will note, ornaments the bars of stone ; it does not twist them into curves. Remark, too, how the oriels are treated. They rise from ground to roof, and in one no fewer than sixty arched lights are grouped into six stages, making a trellised masonry that binds the window to its framework of wall (Plate 31, page 146). Compare all this with the second illustration, a fine old inn of Edward IV. 's time, built at Glastonbury for pilgrims, and having about it an air of church dignity. Yet the main charac- teristics are the same. There is a battlemented parapet ; mullions and transoms form strong portions of the walls in a many-windowed house ; and there is also a doorway having a depressed, ] 4 8 THE ENGLISH HOUSE flattened arch, but with square mouldings above its head, forming a spandrel on each side over the arch (Plate 32). These things are all very typical of Perpendicular and Tudor workmanship. Although it is a custom to speak of these styles as Perpendicular, we must keep in mind the fact that upright lines are not their chief and distinguishing characteristic. On the con- trary, they have a very marked leaning towards horizontal effects. This, indeed, may be looked upon as a distinguishing trait. Many old Gothic features, not only usual in earlier English work, but emphasised by Frenchmen during the fif- teenth century, grow unfamiliar in our so-called Perpendicular style. Belfries, for example, ceas- ing to be like spires, become square towers, finished at their tops with level cornices and parapets. Depressed arches are common, and window-mouldings are straightened into cornices and graced with filigree-like battlements. Roofs no longer attract us by their steep pitch. In- stead of rising to meet the rain and snow, like umbrellas, they hide themselves behind parapets or gables ; and sometimes they are as flat as in the Italianised English houses of much later times, when Palladio (1518-80) and his research threw a spell over English architects, causing them to adopt those principles of architectural -TONBURY, S Perpendicular Gothic, reign of Edward IV. See pages 147 and 148. GOTHIC AND TUDOR HOMES 149 design which ancient Rome had borrowed from Greece and Etrusca. The ground idea of Classic architecture is horizontal weight adequately upheld, and it is hard to see why in England a Roman form of horizontalism should be better than our own national form, produced by the last movement in English Gothic. Beyond doubt there was no need at all in England for those ideals of style that Palladio collected from the ruins of ancient Rome. Tudor houses and earlier types of so- called Perpendicular work are sufficiently hori- zontal ; they have dignity and charm, and are admirably suited for all purposes of home life, whether in a cottage or in those stately buildings that Wolsey and Henry VIII. put up at Hamp- ton Court. The plum-coloured bricks are de- lightful, and there is a true sense of proportion, and the work as a whole is an expression of English character and taste. Mr. J. J. Stevenson says with truth that our Perpendicular style, by its common sense and severity, saved the last period of English Gothic from the looseness and degradation which in other countries marked a striving after new sen- sations along mediaeval lines. Higher praise than this would be given now, no doubt, if the Tudor manner had been carried on and developed. We see in the Cotswold houses what village i 5 o THE ENGLISH HOUSE builders did with it, but the proud homeliness so noticeable in Tudor work was less valued by the rich and educated, and that is why Classic details were added, forming the transitional styles known as Elizabethan and Jacobean. These, too, are English in spirit. They borrow things from Italy, just as Shakespeare did, but their accent is national. For they have many Gothic features, oriels, bay-windows, mullions, transoms, dripstones, barge-boards and gables, delightful gateways, and that picturesque air of alertness which Englishmen have ever loved when loyal to themselves. Sometimes, no doubt, in Elizabethan work, this last quality is rather excessive ; and there is also too much detail in the ornamentation of many rooms. Still, these shortcomings prove that Elizabethan work, like Tudor, might have been improved, and made into a ripened style. Its carving and sculpture, above -all in the human figure, was poor ; and, of course, there can be no perfect architecture without excel- lent sculpture. Indeed, an architect should remind us of a musical composer, who needs for the interpretation of his ideas an orchestra of assistants, artists one and all, and happy to work together in complete accord. Much of this combination we do find in Tudor and Eliza- bethan houses, where the same feeling for style .AI., HAl-'fllON WALDEN, KS Tudor Half-timbered Architecture. Early Years of Henry VIII.'s Reign. Seepage 153. GOTHIC AND TUDOR HOMES 151 passes from structural things to details of furni- ture, and thence to the costumes worn by men and women. Too much praise can never be given to this orchestration of style throughout a home. Yet English architects went away from their Tudor homeliness and their Elizabethan romance. Possessed by the spirit of the Renaissance, they wished to build in styles copied from dead types of society. Even men of great genius, like Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren, helped to import a new architecture, discard- ing a native one sanctified by long use and by splendid memories and achievements. Wren, who died in 1723, said one thing and did another at odds with it, for he believed, cer- tainly with justice, that " building ought to have the attribute of eternal, and is therefore the only thing incapable of new fashions." This principle ought to have made him a friend to English Gothic, with its glorious history ; yet he accepted the authority of Rome's Classic orders, and helped to bring in new fashions. One writer protested at the beginning of the eighteenth century Alexander Pope. Lord Burlington had just published some designs by Inigo Jones, and Palladio's drawings of the " Antiquities of Rome." This gave delight to i 5 2 THE ENGLISH HOUSE many architects ; but Pope shook his head, fail- ing to see why he should be proud to catch cold at a Venetian door in England : "Tis very fine, But where d'ye sleep, and where d'ye dine ? I find by all you have been telling That 'tis a house, but not a dwelling. This good sense was written to Burlington, upon whom it was wasted. Pope went on thus : You show us, Rome was glorious, not profuse, And pompous buildings once were things of use. Yet shall, my lord, your just, your noble rules, Fill half the land with imitating fools ; Who random drawings from your sheets shall take, And of one beauty many blunders make. And all this took place. English country mansions were turned into Palladian hotels, vast, pompous, uncomfortable, each one a fortune to build and a large income to keep in repair. Unlucky is the man who inherits a home of this un-English kind. It needs so much money that its owner may be forced to turn away from our own countrywomen and to marry a foreign heiress. This has happened several times. Altogether it is difficult to see what any one gained by following the Renaissance. St. GOTHIC AND TUDOR HOMES 153 Paul's Cathedral is not better than the English Gothic churches which it attempted to surpass ; and the most comfortable homes in a Classic style, like those built by Robert Adam and his brother, do not excel many a house built during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is for this reason that pre-Renaissance homes have a permanently national interest. Very often they seem to be contemporary with our own time. Here, for instance, is a cottage hospital built at Saffron Walden, Essex, at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Could anything be more charmingly simple ? And what is there here that would look old- fashioned to-day in a country town ? There are four delightful oriels, a gable tall and plain, and a jolly contrast between weather-tinted plaster and good oak timberwork. Our own cottage hospitals do not surprise us by their artistic merit : it is not often that they have charm, like their nurses ; while this Tudor building has grace, beauty, and a modest dis- tinction (Plate 33, facing page 150). Or let us take a glance at a panelled room. There is one at Thame Park, in Oxfordshire, and it shows how walls and ceilings were treated during the reign of Henry VIII. At that time the most common pattern for a wainscot was an imitation of folded linen ; that is, panels were 154 THE ENGLISH HOUSE grooved and moulded into upright lines that resembled folds. This ornament has come to be known as the "linen pattern," and it abounds everywhere in houses of this period. Another custom was to put above the wainscot a frieze of moulded plaster, called pargetting ; it often took the place of tapestry, above all when a room was low and gave little space between the wainscot and ceiling. Of this decoration the room at Thame Park is a good example ; and the ceiling is in better taste than was common at a later date. Compton Wynyates, Warwickshire, is another famous Tudor mansion. A part of it was rebuilt or much altered during Queen Anne's reign, but the rest dates from the year 1520, when Sir William Compton got a licence from Henry VIII. to enclose a park two thousand acres in extent, fortunate man, and to take into custody the castle of Fulbroke, from the ruins ot which some materials were obtained for the new house. The buildings enclose an open quad- rangle, and there are windows on all sides, various and good. In most cases transoms are not used, and bold mullions turn each aperture into three or four lights, with a strong dripstone framing the head closely in a horizontal manner, and carried for some distance along the sides. Some lights have arched and trefoiled heads g s O o C) U h 5 " * * o ,2 i- 3 o o w*Kw!-nt* iJ^faiM "- ",'-' ':/'/' ^tHffiffm "*<+. \ ?/ GOTHIC AND TUDOR HOMES 155 within their square mouldings ; and this characteristic is found in the doorways, where leaf-shaped openings are contrasted with hori- zontal labels and lintels, close-set and firmly cut. In the hall is a very beautiful bay- window, polygonal on plan, rising from the ground to the roof; it is crowned with battle- ments, enriched with panels of arched tracery, and divided by mullions and transoms into sixteen pointed lights, all simple and well drawn. Bay-windows do not appear to have been used earlier than the Perpendicular style, when they became a frequent attraction at the dais end of halls ; the earliest shapes were rectangular and polygonal ; and so we must remember that they are of later date when their form is semicircular. The porch, again, not seen in our illustration, has this attractive opposition between arched and horizontal lines ; and above the porch are the arms of Henry VIII., with that king's badges, a rose and a crown, with a greyhound and griffin for supporters. There is an oriel in each gable, and the barge-boards are ornamented with half-circles that intersect, and with trefoils in the open spaces. There are many fine chimneys of moulded brick, variously decorative, and their height is a thing to be noticed. Such lofty 1 56 THE ENGLISH HOUSE chimney-shafts are very useful, as well as picturesque. Then, as to the interior, there is a noble hall, panelled, and with an open-timber roof. The wainscot, illustrated in Nash's " Mansions," has great interest, for it is like a series of mullioned windows, and the recessed panels are carved into linen folds as at Thame Park. What was the origin of this pattern ? May it not be traced back to those painted draperies with which frieze ornaments were made during the reign of Henry III.? However that may be, some other patterns were used in Tudor wainscots, often mixed with Italian details ; and fanciful heads, set in a frame of wreaths, were frequently carved in high relief along the upper panels of a room. At a later time, when the sixteenth century became Shakespearian, plainer wainscots were liked, sometimes gilded here and there, and sometimes with painted arabesques. But there are writers who complain of the joiner's work, and say it is far inferior to our own. Tastes differ, of course, but highly-finished joinery has one drawback in a panelled room it looks too polished and too neat ; it needs those tool-marks which give " accident " and texture to less pampered craftsmanship. It is so easy to spoil wood by giving it a surface too > a. * I ^ 5 a 3 o H n s a. < E GOTHIC AND TUDOR HOMES 157 uniform and trim. Tooled inequalities are like brush-marks in good painting, and trained eyes prefer them to smoothness and varnish. To-day most furniture is ruined by a wish to hide all evidence of tool-and-craft labour. Brown var- nishes, often as thick as treacle, are spread over beautiful woods, turning them into mirrors, and women are constantly in a panic lest their tables should be marked by hot plates or scratched when the maid dusts them. This furniture is like a tragedy in many homes. Some harm is done to it every day ; then there are scenes with this person or that, long conversations during meals, and very often a workman is sent for and another layer of varnish is put on. Tudor work did not err in this absurd way. It had defects, of course, above all in figure sculpture ; but it was large in style, full of manliness, and racy of the soil. The Great Hall at Hampton Court is a magnificent specimen, and we owe it to Henry VIII., not to Wolsey, as many persons believe. It glows with colour, and is in all respects in keeping with the splendid ceremonies for which Henry used it, as when Catherine Parr was proclaimed queen, July 12, 1543. This hall was begun after Wolsey 's death, and was finished by the year 1536, when Jane Seymour was queen. The work was hastened, craftsmen giving " theyr howre tymes and 158 THE ENGLISH HOUSE drynkyng tymes for the hastye expedicion of ye same " ; and many a tallow candle was burnt by them " in the nyghte tymes." Yet there was no evidence of this hurry when the hall was brought to completion. Ernest Law, in his writings on this palace, draws a comparison between the hall at Hampton Court and the one at Christ Church, Oxford, which is remarkably like this, was built a few years before, and probably by the same architect. There is also an interesting contrast between their dimensions. At Hampton Court the length is 106 feet by 40 feet wide and 60 feet high ; while at Christ Church, Oxford, the hall is eight feet longer, just equal in width, but eight feet less in height, so there is little difference between them. The illustration by Joseph Nash does justice to the Perpendicular windows and to the intri- cate roof. But there is a mistake in history. Wolsey is introduced ; and Hampton Court, so far as this hall is concerned, has little connection with cardinals or with priests. Henry VIII. employed it for State ceremonies, as when Francis Gonzaga, Viceroy of Sicily, was enter- tained there, Christmas 1 543 ; or for dancing with Jane Seymour and Catherine Howard ; or, again, for banquets, and mummings, and masques. In later times plays were acted here, and there is evidence to show that the company of actors GOTHIC AND TUDOR HOMES 159 to which Shakespeare belonged gave several per- formances in this hall during the early years of James I. Mr. Law, speaking of the roof, pays a just tribute to its beautiful construction, but believes that the roof in Westminster Hall is grander and more imposing, while those at Crosby Hall and Eltham Palace are purer in taste. On the other hand, they have not the elaborate and rich workmanship that gives splendour to King Henry's roof. But these comparisons are always unjust. As a rule they imply defects when their real pur- pose is to point out characteristics ; and no two works of art by different men and of different types can be sufficiently alike to justify a com- parison. The roof at Crosby Hall is certainly pure in taste, but there is nothing amiss on that score at Hampton Court, where a different effect was aimed at with infinite care and success.* Again, there is much variety in Tudor work as well as much vigour and splendour. This may be seen very well in the timbered houses, as in Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire. This house dates from 1559, the second year of Elizabeth's reign, but the exterior is not transi- * Crosby Hall has been the subject of much recent discus- sion, its removal being a hazardous compromise ; and surely the greatest industrial city in the world ought to keep on its old site the finest merchant's house of the olden times. 160 THE ENGLISH HOUSE tional in character ; it belongs to an earlier time. You will note the pleasant contrast between many gables and many long windows, and that the glazed openings do not appear too large owing to the supports by which they are flanked. Other points are the roof and its treatment. It is felt^ not seen ; yet the gables are built with so much care that this old house appears to be roofed almost in that visible manner which Ruskin loved and always advocated. But if we turn to another ancient home in Cheshire, Bramhall,* we shall see that a flat roof without gables has rather an inhospitable air, looking somewhat forlorn in our rainy climate. Here in England a house needs a large and conspicuous protection against snow and rain ; and the more clearly it is seen the more certain we are that a roof is the soul of northern domestic architecture. Ruskin speaks with great earnestness on this point, and asks his readers to detest flat roofs, by which houses are turned into large packing-cases with windows in them. Some writers believe that flattened roofs came * Bramhall, near Stockport, belonged originally to the Bromhales, or Bromhals, but passed by marriage into the hands of the Davenports, tempus Edward III. The Elizabethan Long Gallery has disappeared, like the gate-house and one side of the quadrangle. LITTLE MORETON HALL, CHESHIRE. From a Drawing by JOSEPH NASH. Tudor Architecture. See pages 159 and 160. BRAMHALL, CHESHIRE. From a Drawing by JOSEPH NASH. See page 160. GOTHIC AND TUDOR HOMES 161 to England with other Renaissance ideals of Italian origin ; but illustrations in this book prove that they were not unknown as far back as the fourteenth century. English Gothic, with its battlemented parapets, had low roofs of its own ; but the ancient peaked roofs were retained by farmers and peasants. There is also a good early roof on the Abbot's House at Much Wenlock, Shropshire, a very seductive piece of architecture, still tenanted, and very well kept up. There are many arched windows, grouped in two long rows, and Perpendicular in style. Eight buttresses are built along the front with an admirable feeling for architectural effect, and the roof projects a little, throwing a pleasant shadow under the eaves and across the top row of windows. (Plate 40, facing page 164.) 1 CHAPTER X HALLS OF THE POOR slow evolution of halls may be looked upon as the most important thing in home architecture. For a long time so long that no fixed dates can be given a hall was one room, rectangular in plan, like a sardine box, and as well packed. Women and men lived there with a swarm of children, as many families do now in slum lodg- ings. Then, as time went on, and a wish for privacy was bred by the great discomfort, a room was added to this hall : it may be called a bower, or an outshoot or outshut, whichever you like ; its utility was great, being at once a day-room and a bedroom ; and it lasted until another growth of refinement suggested a second private chamber. It was thus that halls became palaces, castles, manor-houses, and cottages,^ but without losing their position as the hearth- centre, the mainstay of home life, the place around which all family traditions and interests gathered. Our immediate aim is to study this pleasant 162 HALLS OF THE POOR 163 topic in its relation to the poor namely, chil- dren of the soil, not the destitute ; these have no fireside history, but only a wretchedness that never changes, being to-day what it was in the Middle Ages a social cancer eating deep into the life of towns. At a time when the foulest mud-and-timber hovels formed slums in English cities the friars came, Dominicans arriving in 1221, and Franciscans three years later ; and it was hoped that they would cure the destitute and demoralised. Nearly seven centuries have passed since then, and chanty, during that long span of time, has poured into slums, not unlike wisdom spoken into deaf ears. No lasting good has been done. On the con- trary, if all incurable slum-dwellers could be got together in one place they would form a population at least six times larger than the 2,500,000 persons who lived in England when those friars came with their visiting charities. This fact ought to be remembered when English homes are the subject of debate. Do slums breed a microbe ? And is that why their misery has ever been endemic, malignant, and infectious ? However that may be, it is like a breeze of sea-air to turn from slums to country cottages, where we may watch with pleasure the growth 1 64 THE ENGLISH HOUSE of peasant architecture. In early times cabins were built on gavels that is, two pairs of bent trees were joined together so as to form two arched gable-ends ; these were united by a ridge-tree that stretched from the apex of one arch to that of the other ; and the frame was braced with tie-beams and completed with rafters, upright posts, interlacing twigs, and so forth. It is prob- able that the distance between the gavels was sixteen feet what in later times was called a house of one bay. The word bay is worth noting. It meant a good many things in old rustic life. When you come upon it in books it means a unit of measurement equal in length to the width of a rood of land i.e., sixteen feet. It denotes also the amount of space required in a shippon for a long span of oxen, when stabled four abreast, as they worked in the fields. Thus a house in one bay shows the in- fluence of farming on peasant customs. That is, a poor family was content to live in a hall no bigger than the space given to four oxen in a byre or shippon. Apply this to the popular old saying, " Every dog shall have his bay," and you will see how foolish we are when we put in "day" for "bay," or regard this latter word as a synonym for " bark.'* The true meaning is that even the poor shall have HALLS OF THE POOR 165 their modest home, their shelter against mis- fortune.* The manner in which the old foot measure was ascertained for a rood of land is explained by an Elizabethan writer on surveying, Val- entin Ligh by name. After prayer on Sunday sixteen men were stopped at the church door, just as they happened to come out, so that some might be tall and others short ; they were then put in a line, with their left feet touching one another ; " and the length thus obtained " was " a right and lawful rood to measure and survey the land with, and the sixteenth part of it " was " a right and lawful foot." So a house in one bay gave the length of sixteen left feet chosen at random ; and this explains why this architectural unit is sometimes rather less than sixteen feet of twelve inches each. It was a small house, of course, and furniture in it remained very primitive for a long time. In the taxing rolls of Edward I., preserved numerously in the Record Office, the house- hold furniture of small cottages is inventoried, * I believe this to be the correct reading. But Mr. John Cash, F.R.I.B.A., who has kindly read my proof-sheets, makes the following criticism : " What about Shakespeare's dog baying the moon ? But perhaps even he was not ' up to date,' and certainly I never heard a dog emit a sound equal to a * bay.' >: 166 THE ENGLISH HOUSE and valued at a very few shillings. It con- sists of a few wooden necessaries, generally of home manufacture, some coarse bedding, and some domestic implements, mostly earthen- ware. The most valuable articles in use were copper or brass pots, and a few common iron utensils, all metals being exceedingly dear ; and iron, relatively speaking, being the dearest of all.* As a rule the floor was the bare ground littered over with filthy rushes or straw, but at times some flint cobbles were beaten into the earth as a foundation for this litter to rest upon. Two or three chests, made by a cotter during long winter evenings, stood by the walls ; a bacon-rack dangled from the roof-timbers ; some dried herbs, employed as medicine, hung in bunches here and there ; and a wood fire burned merrily on a hob of clay, smoke eddying to the door or to any hole it could reach with help from the strongest draught. Sometimes a well was found inside the house, but generally it was in the parcel of land by which a home was surrounded the toft and croft, as the phrase went; and the position was always bad for a well, because no sanitary care was ever taken. Close by * Thorold Rogers, " Six Centuries of Work and Wages," pp. 67, 68. HALLS OF THE POOR 167 the door stood a mixen, a wet heap of many abominations ; rain trickled from it in streams, and one cannot believe that the well was not polluted. This dunghill, according to Thorold Rogers, fertilised the lower meadows, generally the lord's several pastures, and fouled the manor stream. Of course, children paddled in the overflow from the mixen, and cleaned their feet on the rush-strewn floor of the hovel, so that plagues found many dirty customs to welcome them. Even food, though plentiful, was unwholesome, for the usual diet during six months of the year was meat cured with bad salt. Scurvy was common, and lepers became so numerous that no fewer than a hundred and thirty lazar halls or hospitals were built for them and endowed. There were three kinds of hospitals in the old days : (i) Infirmaries, having a hall for the sick, and at the east end a chapel, so arranged that sufferers from their beds could hear the service ; (2) leper hospitals, that consisted of lodgings built around a court, with a chapel, well, and offices, usually near to a running stream; (3) semi-collegiate hospitals, with sepa- rate halls surrounding a court, on the Carthusian plan, as in the Hospital of Noble Poverty of St. Cross, Winchester, and Archbishop Abbott's Hospital, Guildford, St. Mary's, Chichester, 168 THE ENGLISH HOUSE is the best example we have now of a thir- teenth-century hall for the sick, and outside Chichester, near the river Lavant, are some ruined remains of the leper hospital of St. James. This information is given because no one can understand the Middle Ages unless he keeps in mind the innumerable charities brought into being by conditions of daily life unfriendly to health. The lodgings in which lepers were attended, usually with great kindness, seem to have been built in bays, sometimes with offshoot chambers, as in the picture drawn by Chaucer in his " Nonnes Preestes Tale " : A poure widewe somdel stoupen in age, Was whilom dwelling in a narwe cotage, Beside a grove, stonding in a dale. This widewe, which I tell you of my tale, Sin thilke day that she was last a wife, In patience led a ful simple life. For litel was hire catel and hire rente : By husbondry of swiche as God hire sente, She found hireself, and eke hire doughtren two. Three large sowes had she, and no mo ; Three kine and eke a sheep that highte Malle. Ful sooty was hire boure, and eke hire halle, In which she ate many a slender mele. Hire bord was served most with white and black, Milk and brown bred, in which she fond no lack, TIMBER HOO3E AT WEOBI.ET, HEREFORDSHIRE. Example of Decorated Timberwork. Fourteenth Century. See page 175. HALLS OF THE POOR 169 Seinde bacon, and sometime an ey or twey ; For she was as it were a maner dey. A yerd she had, enclosed all about With stickes, and a dry diche without. . . . It is an excellent picture, as sympathetic as a minute oil-painting by Van Eyck. That " narrow " cottage is still to be seen here and there in many a country district : a cottage which is really a hall with a room at the side, known as a bower long ago. In Chaucer's sketch this bower and the hall are sooty ; so that there was an open doorway between the two, and smoke from the hall fire went every- where ; for a poor widow with two daughters could not afford two fires. Even a second room in such a modest little cottage is re- markable, for it shows among the least pros- perous country folk of the fourteenth century a refinement which did not exist among cotters and serfs in Henry III.'s time, when a hall served for all offices of domestic life, from weaving and cooking to eating and sleeping. A bower was a kind of parlour by day and a bedroom at night, a predecessor of our modern bed-sitting-room. When other rooms were added to the bower a hall of one bay reached its full development as a one-storied cottage a type of rustic home which may yet 170 THE ENGLISH HOUSE be met with in England. Often it is built on gavels, and the distance between the gavels is one bay, sixteen feet ; the width is nearly as much, so the framework of timber forms a square ; and the space within is the old house- place, or hall. At first it was open to the roof, but in some examples a floor has been put in almost level with the eaves ; and this gives a low room downstairs, sometimes less than six feet high, and another much lower amid the roof-timbers, where those who can may sleep. The room below is lit by two windows, one on the left-hand side of the front elevation, and another facing it across the room. Near this second window there is at times a small pantry or larder. An entrance door is put quite close to the gavel-post on our right-hand side ; and when we enter by it we find that a screen juts out from the wall into the room, rising to a height of nearly six feet, and projecting beyond the sweep of wind from the open door. This screen, often known as a speer, and often as a sconce, forms a porch inside the hall, useful as a check upon draughts in winter, and favouring privacy on warm days when the door is open. It is also a part of the furniture ; for along the top of it is a shelf for bright pots and pans, and a settle is fastened to the HALLS OF THE POOR 171 inner side, within a few feet of a big fireplace. A mantelpiece, laden with odds and ends of pottery, has always a charm of its own, a rustic homeliness ; and don't you like it best when it runs like a beam from wall to wall, spanning the full width of a whitewashed room ? Just beyond the fireplace the door opens into a bower, and this offshoot from the hall may be divided by a brattice into a couple of small sleeping-rooms. The brattice, or wooden screen, as Mr. Addy points out, was " anciently known as a parclose or enterclose " ; it " extends about half-way up to the roof, and is not unlike the partition which divides cow-stalls from each other." * It denotes a half-wish to be private. Of course, the plan varies in other old cottages. Outshoots from a hall may be equal on each side ; they are so frequently ; and sometimes the door is screened by an outer porch. Still, when you look at an old cottage and wish to understand it the main points to be decided are three in number : 1. To what extent is it in keeping with mediaeval plans ? 2. Is it built on gavels, and, if so, what is * See Mr. Addy's excellent book on " The Evolution of the English House " in rural places. 172 THE ENGLISH HOUSE the distance between them ? Is it a house of one bay or of more ? 3. Or does it belong to a type of house without gavels ? To focus the first question in its relation to better kinds of old cottages and farms, let us turn for a moment to the Weald of Kent and Sussex. " The timber houses of this district," says Mr. E. Guy Dawber, " constitute a class somewhat by themselves, and though mutilated to a great extent both in plan and in elevation, they yet show us pretty clearly the arrangement of a yeoman's house in the sixteenth century. The most usual plan was practically a con- tinuation of the old mediaeval one an oblong hall or common room in the centre, with offices or other rooms at either end, forming wings ; sometimes the wing was built at one end only, but more frequently the plan was symmetrical. This type of plan, indeed, was the prevailing one throughout England, and was probably the origin of the E- and H-shaped plans on a larger and more extensive scale, which developed in the reigns of Queen Eliza- beth and James I., but throughout Sussex and Kent we find it, or some modification of it, in nearly all the houses of any antiquity. . . . In the earliest arrangements the plan was a simple parallelogram, with ends slightly breaking COTTAGES AT KINGSLAND, HEREFORDSHIRE. Photo by T. H. WINTERBOURN, Leominster. See tage 1 74. COTTAGES AT EASEBOURNE, SUSSEX See page 1 73 HALLS OF THE POOR 173 forward and the upper story at the floor level projecting, or sometimes carried around the entire building." * It is clear, then, that rustic architecture in Sussex and Kent, and in other parts of England, is a development of the simple hall whose evolu- tion I have traced for you from primitive times. Again, never fail to measure the central room in an old cottage or farmhouse, so as to learn whether it was built in bays and half-bays that is, whether the length is a multiple of sixteen or one of eight. You remember those long cottages that recall to mind the one where Anne Hathaway is said to have lived ? Not only were they built in several bays, but they used to be sold by the bay, like fodder for horses ; and sometimes the bays were left by will to different children. In this event a cottage could be sold and the money divided in exact accord with the different lega- cies, or the children might use the cottage as several homes, adding new bays or new offshoots in accordance with their wants. Here, for example, is a long row of simple cottages at Easebourne, in Sussex, with two dormer windows, and with a timber framework and plastered walls. The chimneys are modern- * " Old Cottages and Farmhouses in Kent and Sussex," by E. Guy Dawber, F.R.I.B.A., pp. 5 and 6 (B. T. Batsford). i 7 4 THE ENGLISH HOUSE ised, and the thatch is neglected, but the general look of the architecture is good and pleasing. The original work is probably Tudor, I think. Long ago this building was probably one cottage built in several bays, with a central hall and rooms on each side. Another illustration some old cottages at Kingsland, near Leominster, Herefordshire has a different arrangement of bays: there are two pro- jecting wings that form a little courtyard before the central house. It is a pretty composition, gabled, framed with good timber, and silhouet- ting against the sky in a graceful, waved line. This building may have been a wayside inn long ago, during the reign of James I. perhaps. The wings do not seem to be outshoots later ad- ditions to the middle cottage : the timber is all of the same age, apparently, though one cannot be certain, as there are evidences of bad luck here and there. Thus the roof was once slated, and a few bare slates have been left behind a tall chimney as a testimonial to better days. The present thatch seems rather ashamed of itself. But the good times enjoyed by this Kingsland cottage were never more than homely in a rustic way, because the crafts- manship has none of the richer qualities so common in Herefordshire timber houses. We find here no weather-boarding, no angle-posts HALLS OF THE POOR 175 and carved pendants, no balustrade, and no corbels. To see what Herefordshire work became, from the fourteenth century to the Jacobean times, you must go to Weobley and read about that delightful village. It has changed since Parker wrote about it in his " Domestic Archi- tecture of the Middle Ages," but although some fine houses have disappeared, while others have been mutilated, beautiful things still remain. I give a view of the High Street, with a delightful gabled house designed and built by John Abell, carpenter and builder, whose genius won ap- proval from Charles I. Abell, not being a learned architect, was content to be a master in the local style so long inherited by Here- fordshire craftsmen, and I am giving a good illustration to show what that style was at earlier periods. From Parker's book I take a timber house of the fourteenth century, delicate and delightful, having a four-light window enriched with tracery. Contrast this example (p. 168) with Plate 44 and Plate 45, both subjects of great interest, and you will see at once where John Abell got his ideas. To pass on to another topic, could anything be more pleasant than the way in which 176 THE ENGLISH HOUSE mediaeval country life centred around the fields, just as it does to-day in Northern Germany ? There was something curiously uniform in the treatment of all farm-workers, from men and women to horses, sheep, and cattle. Even a barn was like other buildings, firmly and strongly built ; but as its windows were meant only to give air their size was unusually small. Some famous barns, dating from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, were large cruciform struc- tures, much better built than manv modern i churches. Parker gives several illustrations of this, and among them is a famous barn that existed in his time at Pilton, Somersetshire, which in style belonged to our Perpendicular Gothic, not earlier than the reign of Richard II. Shippons, too, like barns, were often long halls built in bays, and divided into a central nave and two flanking isles with stalls for the cattle. The long yoke of oxen stood four abreast in a great stall sixteen feet wide ; cows were in separate compartments. On both sides the animals faced the nave ; and many a labourer slept near them, and found their breath much better than the foul air in a cabin. Those who sleep near cattle awake fresh in the morning, as Charles Reade mentions in " The Cloister and the Hearth." Even to-day, in Friesland and Saxony, shippon and house are combined a: = - EJc HALLS OF THE POOR 177 together under one roof, and the standard of health is not lower than with us. Professor Meitzen, in " Das Deutsche Haus," has much to say about Frisian and Saxon farms ; and as we are descended from the same stock as the Saxons and Frisians, we get from Professor Meitzen something of the distant past of England. Something : one cannot say more than that, because our English manor system had original characteristics, while retaining many that were Teutonic. During the Middle Ages a country parish remained a Teutonic settlement of the sixth century, but with modifications ; and amongst these, no doubt, the most important were the little villages with small, detached homes, separated nurseries for variousness of character. This applies particularly to Southern England. Hard districts in the North bred a harder race and a conservatism steel-like in temper, Teutonic in a primitive way. As late as Shakespeare's time there were farming customs in the North not to be found in Southern districts, and they had much in common with modern life on Saxon and Frisian homesteads. Harrison, whose book on England goes back to the year 1577, describes the difference that then existed between North and South. He writes an involved style, putting far too many facts in a sentence, but it is worth while to disentangle M 178 THE ENGLISH HOUSE them. Houses " in champaine ground stand alto- gither by streets, and joining one to an other," while " in woodland soiles " they are " dispersed here and there, each one upon the severall grounds of their owners." " The mansion houses of our country towns and villages are builded in such sort generallie, as that they have neither dairie, stable, nor bruehouse annexed unto them under the same roof, as in many places beyond the sea and some of the north parts of our countrie." All are " separate from the first, and one of them from an other. And yet, for all this, they are not so farre distant in sunder, but that the good- man lieng in his bed may lightlie heare what is doone in each of them with ease, and call quickly unto his meinie [household] if any danger should attack him." Thus, in some parts of Northern England, in 1577, farmers lived under one roof with their horses and cattle. Taking this fact as a guide, it will be easy to find out to what extent present- day farms in Saxony and Friesland help us to understand the English evolution of Saxon halls. Imagine a vast building with a great nave and two big aisles. At one gable-end a doorway is recessed ; the door itself is in two parts, each of which can be opened separately ; when both parts are shut their width is nearly equal to HALLS OF THE POOR 179 that of the nave or central floor ; and when they are swung wide open you see that this nave runs almost to the end of the hall, till arrested by a hearth and by three rooms. Flanking this hearth, in high and narrow bunks, are sleeping- cupboards for the farmer and his family. During the day the household lives around the fireplace, for room enough is kept for domestic use. This part of the hall extends as far as the opposite side walls ; to right and left there is a glass door into the open air, and light comes in also through high and broad windows. The nave on each side is divided into stalls ; cows stand on our right hand and horses on our left, looking over their mangers into the nave, whence their fodder is thrown to them ; and maid-servants sleep over the cows and men above their horses. In this wonderful hall even a large harvest may be garnered, on poles and boards between the roof-timbers. I have mentioned chambers behind the fireplace ; these did not exist till modern times, when a change in heating arrangements brought them into vogue. A chimney was built, and the hall freed from soot ; but when smoke no longer passed through the hall, to disinfect every part of it, a pungent byre smell from cattle and horses became too strong to be borne, i8o THE ENGLISH HOUSE and fleas and other vermin were not driven away. The effect of wood and turf smoke on vermin explains a preference shown by Northern peasants for an open hearth without a chimney. In this Saxon house, as in those English ones described by Harrison, a master from his hearth or from his bedstead can hear every sound and keep watch over his farm-servants ; and this must be needful in modern Germany, because tobacco and matches are as dangerous in a loft above a hall as in a coal-mine. The general use of tobacco has contributed not a little to the disappearance in England of the hay-loft as a sleeping-place for men-servants. Risks of fire became too great when matches and tobacco were brought within reach of all labourers. But old men still remember a time when " farmers' men-servants in England used to sleep on the hay in a gallery or hay-loft over the cows. Some of them have been known to sleep there for a year together," but not without waking, let us hope. " It is said that they often did so to save money to be spent in drink " and tobacco also, we may be sure. " When Irish labourers came over in the autumn to assist in getting the harvest in they usually slept on the hay or straw in the barn or in the balk. In the sixteenth century HALLS OF THE POOR 181 ox-houses in Yorkshire still contained beds, blankets, sheets, mattresses, pillows, bolsters, and happings, or coarse coverlets. As no bed- steads are mentioned, we may presume that the mattresses were laid on the floor of the loft over the ox-stalls."* We have now followed the growth of halls from primitive huts to country cottages of to-day ; and peasants who live in old cottages find that they are as comfortable as any good model dwellings recently built by philanthropic landowners. I use the word philanthropic because few country houses, if they are well made, can be let at a rent that gives a fair return on the capital which they represent. Well- built cottages for labourers pay only a small interest, and this vanishes altogether in " to be let " seasons. Building costs are now a great hindrance to good work as a profitable invest- ment ; and many expenses might be avoided. The curse of building to-day is the number of middlemen who live by it, and whose power is even worse than the tetchiness of trade unions. It is amazing to think about the ways in which money is squandered. Bricks are carried into districts where stone quarries are common ; stone travels by rail into counties where bricks have been used for centuries ; timber comes * Mr. Addy's book, pp. 81-82. 182 THE ENGLISH HOUSE from one merchant, window-frames from another, gates from a third ; slates, tiles, and other necessaries journey in trucks from good- ness knows where ; and builders are careless. When architecture is treated in this Gilbertian fashion good work must be expensive and bad work common. Not thus, you may be sure, was work done when England became famous for her churches, farms, manor-houses, country mansions, and rustic cottages. Middlemen did not exist in those days, and the cost of building was three times less than it is at present, though craftsmen were relatively as well paid. Perhaps the most interesting forms of architecture were those that carried on the Saxon traditions, showing from age to age the progress of timber houses, as in Cheshire, Warwickshire, Lancashire, Shrop- shire, and Herefordshire. Of course, beautiful timbered houses were built elsewhere, as in Kent, and there were several marked differences between the methods of work in different counties. In Southern districts, for example, the craftsman- ship is, as a rule, more refined ; it has the character of a carriage-horse, while in the Mid- lands and the North the style reminds you of a cart-horse breed. A prodigious amount of wood is employed for a house, and all the beams are thick and heavy. HALLS OF THE POOR 183 But there are exceptions to this rule. Some timbered buildings in the Western counties are quite similar to those in Kent, while a few Kentish cottages and Sussex farms have a great deal in common with the rustic woodwork of Salop and Herefordshire. Still, the Western and Northern districts usually show in their ancient timbered houses the same stern qualities which may be noticed to-day in their people's character and speech. Both are to be trusted, but their graces are rough-hewn and downright, above all in Lancashire. The strongest note of all in Northern and Western design is the way in which elaborate patterns are formed in the timberwork itself by using bent and twisted pieces of wood from small branches, and placing them in the panels formed by the uprights and crossrails. This delight in patterned ornament on the exterior walls of houses must not be looked upon as belonging to one period, because it is more noticeable in later buildings than in those of an earlier time.* Finally, the timbered houses now extant, though often mutilated by ill-treatment, belong by descent to three periods. Some are as old as the fifteenth century, like the Rows, Weobley, Herefordshire, and the Butchers' Row, Shrews- * See the plates of Bramhall and Little Moreton Hall. 1 84 THE ENGLISH HOUSE bury. But the work of this first period now extant is usually hidden from sight under a fronting of later date, as in Sussex and Kent, where many a tile-hung farm or plastered cot- tage was a timbered dwelling at the end of the fifteenth century, or thereabouts. Oak has a great tendency to shrink, and when this hap- pened in the old days, making gaps through which the wind passed, walls were either daubed all over on the outside, or covered with tiles, or boarded with deal planks. This gave them a new shell, and preserved the original wood frame. So it is always worth while to examine with great care the beams inside an ancient house, as they are probably of much earlier workmanship than the walls outside. But the great period of timbered architecture lies between the years 1558 and 1625. To it belong nearly all the famous examples to be found at present in England often, one regrets to say, in that " restored " condition which uneducated persons like. There is yet another period, stretching from the year 1625 to the reign of George II. ; but the wood-framed houses deserving the most careful study join the times of Edward VI. with those of James I. A practical question now arises. Is timber 1 1 O - HALLS OF THE POOR 185 nogging* a favourable style for a modern home ? The best answer to this question is given by Mr. E. A. Ould, an architect of distinction, who speaks after practical experience and with full knowledge of his subject. " Given a suitable client," says he, " one who is worthy of the privilege of living in a timber house, who will appreciate the advantages and put up with the drawbacks, it is eminently a suitable style for a house of moderate dimensions. But it is not a cheap style, nor one to give to a fidgety or exacting client, who will attribute the natural behaviour of the materials to some neglect on the part of the builder. No matter how dry the oak may be, it will shrink and twist to some extent when first exposed to the weather and sunshine. After about two years the oakwork will require overhauling and the lead-lights and casements refitting, after which it should give little further trouble, if it has been properly constructed at first. No style of building will harmonise so quickly and so completely with its surroundings, and so soon pass through the crude and brand-new period, * Nogging : This term is applied also to brickwork when carried up in panels between studs or quarters, in which method of work partitions are made which are known as " brick-nogged partitions." Brick nogging sometimes forms a pattern, a herring-bone design as a rule. 1 86 THE ENGLISH HOUSE and none continues to live on such terms of good-fellowship with other materials, whether rosy brickwork, grey lichen-covered masonry, or pearly flag-slates, which last it loves most of all."* * " Old Cottages, Farmhouses, and other Half-timbered Buildings in Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Cheshire," by J. Parkinson and E. A. Quid (B. T. Batsford, publisher). CHAPTER XI ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN MANSIONS transition from Tudor to Eliza- v '. bethan began during the reign of M Henry VIII. Proud as this king was of his country and people, he yet had one doubt in his mind as to their worth ; and this doubt concerned their taste in art. Was it equal to that of other nations ? Was it not rather inclined to be rude, untutored, and insular ? Many a king had asked himself these questions before they came into the mind of our eighth Henry ; and the reply given to them in actions had never been quite just to England. Even in Saxon times some foreign craftsmen had been imported as missionaries of good taste, and since the Norman Conquest the same thing had happened many times, showing that self-abasement which Englishmen to this day are ever ready to parade in matters artistic. London critics are never so happy as when they speak to us about foreign pictures and sculpture, and dealers find it easier to launch a Frenchman 187 i 1 88 THE ENGLISH HOUSE of genius than a native artist quite equal to him in merit. All this points to a national fear of self in things aesthetic ; and this may arise from the fact that England's attention has been drawn away from her silent arts by the conscious delight which she has ever taken in active pursuits and pastimes involving risk or danger. If any one had told Henry VIII. that archers could be found superior to his own good peasants and yeomen his Majesty's anger would have been a thing worth seeing ; but when he was given to understand that his craftsmen wanted taste he accepted the false criticism, not only receiving foreign artists at his court, but giving hospitality to an Italian architect, John of Padua. This man became " Devisor " of the king's buildings A.D. 1544. Henry died three years later, and may thus have been in bad health when he put an Italian watchman to superintend his Tudor architects. Anyhow, John of Padua was not ousted by his patron's death, but lived through the next reign under Somerset's pro- tection, receiving two shillings a day for his work as " devisor," a sum about equal to a pound in modern money. He was a consulting architect, and the first of that kind in England. 1 ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN 189 John carried his good luck into Elizabeth's time, when he is said to have built Longleat Hall, in Wiltshire, between the years 1567 and 1579. Another building attributed to him was old Somerset House, long since destroyed. It made way for the present Anglo-Palladian structure, designed by Sir William Chambers in 1776, and finished by Sir James Pennethorne. John of Padua was certainly a man of great ability, and his sympathy for Classical ideals must have had a wide influence over English masons and joiners. Nor was this the only unnational event in Elizabethan architecture. Many foreign craftsmen came to England, French, Flemish, German, and Italian, and all, or nearly all, had served their apprentice- ship to the revived Classic style. In these circumstances it was wonderful that Elizabethan houses were able to keep so many Gothic features, forming a style in which the Renaissance temper of mind appeared as a ser- vant, not as a master. It would become a tyrant at a later time, but under Elizabeth and James I. it spoke Italian like a good Englishman after a short trip to Padua, Bologna, or some other city that Elizabethans loved to think about. Village builders, good conservative fellows, were most unwilling to give up their own methods and traditions ; and this explains why the humbler 190 THE ENGLISH HOUSE kinds of house used by shopkeepers, yeomen, millers, peasants, and manor stewards have long been noted as more national, and often more pleasing, than those great mansions that recall to memory the essay on building written by Bacon. Rustic Elizabethan does not try to do too much. It is simple and structural, it shows in all its forms and methods that it has grown out of old traditions, and its charm is infinitely various. What could be more different than a good sixteenth-century house in Gloucester- shire, built of stone, with peaked gables, mullioned windows, and square dripstones, and a timber-framed cottage in Herefordshire, Shropshire, or Cheshire ? The first represents the Perpendicular style in English Gothic, the other carries on those woodland handicrafts that the Anglo-Saxons brought with them to England. Still, the purpose of this chapter is to speak of the large mansions, beginning with Hengrave Hall, Suffolk, partly because it was a very fine example of late Tudor work, and partly because its munificent planning had a great effect on Elizabethan architects. Hengrave was built by Sir Thomas Kitson, and finished in 1538. There were no fewer than a hundred and twenty rooms, and of these not less than forty were put ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN 191 on the ground floor. The plan * has a great interest, for its main feature is quite Italian, as though influenced by John of Padua. This feature is a small inner court only forty-nine by forty-five feet. Corridors, six feet wide, form a sort of cloister around three sides, the fourth side being the hall, with three windows that receive light from that court. One window is a fine bay about ten feet wide and eight deep. Along the corridors six windows look into the court, and three doors. As to the rooms, they are gathered about this little open area, and we find on the ground floor bed-chambers, wardrobes, a drawing-room, a chapel, a china-room, a ser- vants' waiting-hall, an entrance-hall, two dining- rooms one for summer months, lit by four good windows, the other for winter a breakfast- room, a housekeeper's room, the great hall, a servants' hall, and a scattered wing for the house- hold offices, the kitchen, as usual, being at a great distance from the dining-tables. An ancient Roman would be astonished by the number of different chambers at Hengrave, but he would certainly recognise that inner court as a thing not at all unlike an uncovered atrium with cubicles around it. In England, no doubt, * See Kerr's " English Gentleman's House," p. 38, where a plan is reproduced from Britton's " Antiquities," showing Hengrave Hall as it was in 1775. i 9 2 THE ENGLISH HOUSE before Hengrave Hall was built, some houses had inner courts, as I have shown in a preceding chapter, but their use at Haddon Hall or at Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk, was different, the open quadrangle being large and well aired. I have spoken of Oxburgh before as a very typical home of the fifteenth century. Here the court measures 128 ft. by 100 ft., and the buildings that surround it look like a fringe.* That is, the court dominates the plan we stand in it at our ease and see windowed walls on all sides. The air is fresh ; we could train here for a Marathon race, but what could we do in the little area or court at Hengrave, measuring little more than sixteen yards by fifteen ? It is not better nor more admirable than a well-hole in a London flat, where the sun cannot enter, where vitiated air collects, and where rain is a source of damp, cold, and discomfort to all the rooms that it is supposed to keep sweet with fresh air. Perhaps John of Padua had a hand in the planning of Hengrave. At Longleat, a house attributed to him, there were two little inner courts, till the plan was remodelled by Sir J. Wyatville in 1809 ; both were arranged as an Italian would have built them, and had points * Kerr gives a good plan of Oxburgh Hall, taken from a drawing made in 1774, and published by Britton. STAIRCASE, CRF.WE HALL. CHESHIRE. Dating from 1636. See pages 200 ana 201. ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN 193 in common with the central spaces to be found in palaces at Pisa, Siena, Rome, and Florence, though their use was different. In Italy an open court within a building is a shelter from heat and from noise, and so a palace there turns inwards from the street, gathers all living-rooms around an open space, and unites them together by means of corridors, and balconies that serve as ante-rooms. Then a court is a radial centre for all the privacy and friendliness of home life. At Longleat, on the other hand, not a room faces the open areas ; every one of them looks through mullioned windows over pleasant landscapes. This follows an English tradition, while those areas were pure Italian, and quite unsuited to the needs of English country life. E. M. Barry, R.A., in his " Lectures on Architecture," gives a good analysis of the exterior work at Longleat, where Italian taste is very evident. Indeed, but for the mullions and a few other peculiarities, we might almost believe ourselves to be in presence of an Italian palace. " We have the three orders superimposed, in accordance with the revived Classic custom : first the Doric ; then the Ionic ; and lastly the Corinthian. The pilasters are well executed, with diameters diminishing from the lower story to the higher. Each order has its appropriate entablature of architrave, frieze, and cornice, 194 THE ENGLISH HOUSE designed with due subordination of parts, and the whole is crowned with a regular balustrade. The pervading principle of the design of Long- leat is that of horizontalism. Each floor is marked clearly and decidedly by the entablatures, and each story is distinguished by a different order of pilasters. There is a central entrance in a symmetrical front, and a very few additions and suppressions would give a complete Italian character to the whole composition. " On the other hand, we have the mullioned windows so dear to medievalists, and the pro- jections common in Elizabethan work. These projections, indeed, are very pleasing, and serve to redeem the front from flatness and insipidity. They form bay windows, moreover, and so increase the internal space as well as the cheer- fulness of the rooms, and they mark the transi- tional character of the design." Taken as a whole, Longleat is a remarkable building, and its Classic details have a refinement not often to be found in other houses of the same period. There are critics who think that Italian craftsmen may have been employed, just as they were called in to the aid of the brothers Adam during George III.'s reign ; and it is certain that as early as Elizabeth's time Italians sought work in different countries, accompanied by skilled architects, like Vignola, who not only ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN 195 stayed in France, but practised his art there, leaving work which had a powerful influence at a later date over Sir Christopher Wren. It was thus that the revived Classic architecture was taken from place to place, to renew the tutor- ship of the old Roman genius. To understand what this means, let us imagine a parallel case. Let us suppose that Elizabethan statesmen, losing confidence both in their own judgment and in their national traditions, sent themselves back to school, so as to learn from classical antiquity how their England ought to be governed. Lord Burleigh, let us say, gave classic opinions to his Queen. " Madam, it were dangerous to act thus, because Caesar would not have sanctioned it ; and many Greeks would have counselled in a way gently at odds with your Majesty's present wishes. Plato, were he with us in body as in spirit, would show toward this Armada a noble gentleness." In precisely this temper of mind Longleat Hall was built, its Italianised style drawing principles of taste from the ruins of ancient Rome. England was told in this way that her own judgment in house- building, though formed by centuries of toil, was bad, and that she must look to a Southern country for help and common sense. Happily all Elizabethan architects and country gentlemen were not of this opinion. The open central 196 THE ENGLISH HOUSE courts at Longleat, essentially Southern features based on Roman customs, were not generally adopted. A square plan, or one oblong in shape, was preferred by Englishmen ; and if more rooms were needed wings were built at each end, and the space between them was left unenclosed. E-shaped plans were formed in this way, and were infinitely better than the Longleat plan, with damp and stale air bottled in two small inner spaces. This said, we can pass on to other charac- teristics. The hall, out of which our English house plan had grown since Saxon times, was retained by the Elizabethans ; its walls were panelled to a height of from eight to ten feet ; and above this wainscot were many interesting things armour, family portraits, trophies of various kinds, weapons, stags' heads, and so forth. Near the entrance was a fine oak screen, and above it a minstrels' gallery ; at the other end a dai's was put under a good bay-window, the sill of which came down close to the floor. Up in the roof were elaborate panels of moulded plaster, or oak principals and hammer-beams. During the sixteenth century the evolution of ceiling ornament was very important. At first and Thame Park, Oxfordshire (p. 153), may be taken as an example the main divi- sions of a ceiling were made by the beams STAIRCASE, BURLEIGH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. Designed by JOHN THORPE, and built between the years 1575 and 1589. From a drawing by J. NASH. See pages 201 and 202. ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN 197 in the floor above, and these spaces were sub- divided by means of plaster ribs having a slight projection. But, of course, joists and beams in the floor above could be treated in a different manner, and sometimes they were accepted as wood to be moulded and carved. When this happened they made a handsome framework over a ceiling. At Layer Marney, Essex, built in 1530, another method was tried with success, as at Hever and Allington Castles, Kent. The aim here was to pattern a ceiling with raised and varied figures ; for this purpose oak ribs were applied, and the spaces between them filled with plaster. Rich plaster cornices formed part of the decorative scheme, which needed for its completion not only good panels of carved oak on the walls, but Tudor furni- ture, and women and men in their Tudor cos- tumes. Then a room was a picture, its back- ground strong and quiet, and the foreground animated. At a later date, as in Elizabeth's reign, ribbed ceilings were usually made all of plaster, some- times too much ornamented, an excess of deco- rative detail being then a characteristic, like the affected language which Shakespeare ridi- culed in Osric. Occasionally pendants were introduced to draw attention from the over- elaborated patterns. 198 THE ENGLISH HOUSE When and how did this plasterwork arise ? We come upon it in the fifteenth century, both indoors and outdoors. Sixty years ago, in the market-place at Newark, Parker saw a timbered house ornamented with plaster : it dated from the time of Edward IV. ; one large window went like a frieze across the front ; and there was a series of little plaster figures with canopies over them. Again, at Great Chal- field, a beautiful country home to which I have already drawn your attention (p. 140), the great hall had its ceiling divided into squares by the main timbers, and those spaces were subdivided into others of plaster, with bosses at the inter- sections. Thus it is clear that ornamental plaster, so characteristic of Tudor and Eliza- bethan work, was in England a feature handed on from the late Gothic of the fifteenth century. And it may be followed much farther than Shakespeare's time. For example, very rich plaster houses were built in towns during the last decades of the seventeenth century. Some were wonderfully ornate, as in Ipswich, where Bishop Sparrow built himself a very splendid one, far more famous to-day in books than his own writings are, though these may fill divinity students with despair. This decorated house was very well sketched by William Twopeny (p. 256), and many writers mention it as a ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN 199 good example of artistic plasterwork, all the more interesting because its lineage may be followed back to the reign of Henry III. For gypsum was employed as early as the thirteenth century, and under its present name, plaster of Paris. Internal walls were covered with it, then polished with a trowel ; and as to outside walls of stone, it was also a rule to plaster them, Englishmen having a great dis- like for the natural surface of masonry, whether in churches or in houses. But from this bad custom ornamental plaster ceilings were gradually evolved ; and concerning them I have only one more fact to mention. It is often believed that pendants on ceilings date from Elizabeth's time, but some are older than that. In the reign of Henry VIII. pendants were occasionally intro- duced, though square bosses were more typical of the Tudor style. We pass on now to the staircase. One writer gives the following traits in his account of Eliza- bethan mansions : " A broad staircase of oak is a special feature, with its heavily-carved newels, pierced balus- trading, and rich carving. It is generally placed in connection with the hall, and lends to the interior an air of spaciousness and dignity. Its importance arises from the fact that the chief living-rooms were often placed on the 200 THE ENGLISH HOUSE upper floor, and therefore demanded an important means of approach." The details in this quotation are really more Jacobean than Elizabethan. Ornamental stair- cases did not appear in England until towards the end of the sixteenth century ; " where they exist of such a form," says Parker, " as, according to the taste of later days, would have required a baluster ; the space below the hand- rail is usually filled up with plaster instead of an open balustrade, as at Boughton Malherbe, Kent." It was during the seventeenth century that staircases with open balustrades came into use, as at Crewe Hall, Cheshire. Here there is a fine example, entirely of oak, elaborately worked and carved, and of excellent and sound design and construction (p. 192). It is a newel staircase, built around a central well-hole. " The more ordinary plan of staircases was a system of long flights, few in number. Here we have a different principle, and it is interesting to notice, again, that it is a principle commonly followed by Italian architects. They did not, indeed, form well-holes, as at Crewe. . . . The Italians built for the most part stone staircases with a solid central pier, and stairs around it in numerous short flights. Here also (at Crewe Hall) we have numerous flights ; but the pier is replaced by a well-hole, with massive wooden STAIRCASE, ALDERMASTON, BERKSHIRE. From a drawing by J. NASH. See page 201. ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN 201 newels at the four angles. The staircase at Crewe is not only beautiful architecturally, but is also very easy and convenient. It occupies, more- over, but little space, being not more than twenty-four feet square from wall to wall, while the height of the story is twenty feet. The shortness of the flights and the frequency of the landings secure great ease in ascending, and, from the compactness of the plan, no unnecessary distance is traversed." * This staircase belongs to the Stuart period, Crewe Hall, Cheshire, dating from 1636 the year when it was finished. By way of contrast I give two other examples : a staircase at Burleigh, Northants, pure Elizabethan (p. 196), and another at Aldermaston, Berkshire, which is very much nearer to the Stuart work at Crewe Hall. At Crewe the handsome newels, carved and panelled, are surmounted by heraldic animals with their cognisances ; at Alder- maston, too, the same kind of craftsmanship is found (Plate 49), but the newels are pedestals for emblematic figures. There is a profusion of carved ornament ; and Joseph Nash has put in a lady and child to denote the feminine spirit of this art. At Burleigh, on the other hand, there is a martial character in the stern * "Lectures on Architecture," by E. M. Barry, R.A., pp. 324 and 325. 202 THE ENGLISH HOUSE discipline shown by an excellent architect, John Thorpe, whose name, somehow, is not so well known as it ought to be. He built Holland House, Kensington, in 1607, and Burleigh, Northants, between 1575 and 1587. It will be worth your while to study this stone staircase detail by detail. All the arched forms are admirably designed, and their simple ornamenta- tion is not weakened by twists and flourishes. The patterns are geometrical, mainly squares and circles linked together and of varied size. And Thorpe knew that as decorative details chattered, his art had also to be silent in plain spaces, so he left the walls nearly bare, and gave a simple floor to each landing. There is nothing for a hand to rest upon ; hence we walk in thought down the middle of the steps. This would not be pleasant now, in these days of lifts, and perhaps you may wonder how this Burleigh staircase might be kept warm on a cold day. When viewed from outside, as in another drawing by Joseph Nash (p. 204), Burleigh has a magnificent air of its own, for there is some- thing unusual in its Elizabethan mixture of Gothic and Classic features. To the architect, John Thorpe, Gothic was still a living and vigorous style, but in spirit rather than in structural anatomy ; and, further, his mediaeval preferences ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN 203 were not entirely English. Thorpe, indeed, seems to have divided his time between Paris and England ; he certainly practised in France, and there became familiar both with the work done by Vignola during the reign of Francis I. and with the slanting, pyramidal slate roofs, that gave so much charm to French chateaux and country houses. These tall roofs, technically known as hipped roofs, were a legacy to the French Renaissance from Gothic architecture as developed in France, and from them, we may suppose, Thorpe borrowed his idea for the chisel-formed structure with which he finished his clock-tower at Burleigh. It rises up like a spire, like many a roof that French- men built on round and octagonal towers, as in the Chateaux d'Azy-le-Rideau, Indre-et- Loire. Again, Thorpe was very well pleased to flirt with the new style coming from Italy, yet he tried not to enforce the horizontal lines characteristic both of Classic architecture and of English Gothic during its last period. This, too, may be seen at Burleigh. Instead of using the Elizabethan chimney-stacks of cut brick- work, with shafts carried up boldly, he treated these things in a Classical manner, with orders ; but side by side with this parade of the new style, confirmed and made more noticeable by 204 THE ENGLISH HOUSE his use of semicircular arches and columns which are not Gothic, we find that certain features common in Tudor buildings are lengthened out so as to express a Gothic tendency to upward growth and height. Thus the mul- lioned windows are tall and narrow, but not arranged in many graceful tiers, as in the oriels at Cowdray House, Sussex (p. 147) ; they have never more than one transom, and it is left out when the windows cannot be made as long and slim as Thorpe's aim would wish them to be. Now this should be noted as very remarkable. In England, since the fifteenth century, the evolution of mullioned windows, when not designed as at Cowdray, is plainly in the direc- tion of horizontal effects. Again and again they form a kind of frieze over a front eleva- tion, while at Burleigh they are elongated, and their shape, too, is a result of deliberate and thoughtful art. Look at the illustration, and you will find that your eyes travel at once from the round pillars of the arcade upward to the mullioned windows, and thence to the ornamental work above. Here some horizontal lines are put in with strong mouldings, but Thorpe has broken their course by means of a vertical recess having a semicircular head ; and the result is that the horizontal lines do not predominate, but act as BURLEIGH, NORTHANTS. Designed by JOHN THORPE, and built between 1575 and 1587. From a drawing by JOSEPH NASH. See pages 202-205. ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN 205 foils to the many vertical ones that express a feeling for ascending growth. This characteristic is even more strongly marked in the clock-tower, where many con- trasts between arched forms and perpendicular lines are used for the same purpose. The eye is drawn up the tower to that high structure rising from the parapet ; but your attention will linger by the way, attracted by semicircular openings, a clock, and six niches with rounded heads. You remember, no doubt, how pilasters were applied to the front elevation at Longleat (p. 1 8 8) ; and this will enable you to see the difference between that feature and a similar one at Burleigh. In the clock-tower, on both sides of the niches, pillars are built out from the walls, and mark three stages : the entrance, the first floor, and a story in the tower itself, where a room is lighted by a mullioned bay- window, that expresses very well the spirit of Thorpe's style. Indeed, Thorpe plays with Classic ideas ; they are toys to him ; while at Longleat we meet with a refined architect who believes firmly in Italian ideals of style, though he has to accept bay-windows and mullions out of respect for his client's wishes. Thorpe, on the other hand, is quite Elizabethan in spirit. His aim is to translate into his own English some Italian ideas that he has picked up, maybe 206 THE ENGLISH HOUSE in France ; and he is fanciful in a severe way a quality to be seen also in French castles of the same period. Englishmen of later times have borrowed ideas from the French Renaissance. They did so during Victoria's reign, when Mr. E. M. Barry designed the Temple Chambers on the Victoria Embankment, London, and when tall French roofs became fashionable. Writing about them in 1880, the late Mr. J. J. Stevenson said : " All about London now they break up the modest roof-lines of the older architecture. They are apt to look pretentious here, as there is neither tradition nor convenience to justify them, for they make the neighbouring chimneys smoke, and when stuck on the top of houses al- ready of seven stories they compel their chimneys to be carried so high that they cannot be swept. They are dangerous for fire. Constructed of wood, and rising high above the party-walls separating houses, flames spread with the wind from one high roof to another. . . . On houses in the country they make hard, shiny black spots in the landscape, for our slates are not so beautiful as the French." Thorpe made better use of his French ideas, translating them into English. From Burleigh we now pass to Wollaton, Nottinghamshire, built in 1580, the architect ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN 207 being R. Smithson. You will see at once that there are points of resemblance between the two mansions (p. 208). Smithson, like Thorpe, builds chimneys in a Classical manner ; he is not less fond of mullioned windows, only he makes them wider ; he decorates his walls with pilasters and niches, but in a way different from Thorpe's ; and both architects show clearly, each in his own manner, that a level and uniform front is a thing detestable to them. They have no sympathy at all for a regulated style which is always on its best behaviour, like an official at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. You may easily imagine what Thorpe and Smithson would think of such a Classic thorough- fare as Gower Street, with its dull, practical, flat-faced houses all in a line on each side, as stiff as soldiers are in dull overcoats when stand- ing at attention on a frosty day. How a street like this came to be built in a city famous for its damp discomforts, and therefore in need of picturesque, gay architecture, would astonish those Elizabethans, Smithson and Thorpe, if they could revisit the glimpses of our London moon. " Do you think," they might ask, " that London in our day built fine timber houses without knowing their danger ? They were loved because of their brightness, and bright- ness all day long was worth a bad fire now and 2o8 THE ENGLISH HOUSE then. And what have you done with all your opportunities ? London to us now seems to be ashamed of all the many styles to be found in her million streets, for these different ways of building are huddled together anyhow, so that no eye can find harmony. Each street is a drama with many copied scenes and acts, all taken from well-known plays and put together at random. We find in your Gower Street, where one poor thing is repeated a great many times, some new-made buildings in a Gothic manner ; done, in faith, with cunning workmanship, but how came they to be built there ? And is the rest of the street to be pulled down ? Why this bright patch of Gothic in the midst of your uninspired, town-bred Classic ? We confess to be better pleased hard by, in Bedford Square. The garden is delightful, and the Classic houses around it have style. They are said to be as old as Adam, and this surprised us much, till We were told that our thoughts in this matter should be given to the brothers Adam, archi- tects of a much later time than ours. They had much talent, though their ornament is weak, and used on too many things. We find their festoons of husks on pediments, and also on sugar-bowls ; and these sugar-bowls may have on each side the very same ram's head with which a marble fireplace may be decorated. a .S - ^ 5 "= O * E ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN 209 Yet we must not speak amiss. The windows in Bedford Square have a tallness that gives pleasure ; and round-headed doorways with fan- lights, and the whole arched openings dressed with blocks of cut stone, prevent the flat brick elevations from being dull. And the central houses on each side of the square, coloured, pilastered, and with pediments, these are good, though we know not why Englishmen at any time should have preferred rows of uniform houses to a symmetrical disorder, such as we Elizabethans loved. Had we built a Bedford Square, we should have placed at each corner a towered wing with three stories, and another on the ground floor. Behind, well recessed, we should have put a range of buildings which on a plan would have made with the wings a form like the letter E, the short middle stroke repre- senting a great house built out from the rest, and with a graceful flight of steps leading up to a terraced front entrance. Our windows would have been mullioned and transomed ; our towers w r ould have had tall gablets fanciful in shape ; and our Classic pilasters would have been used as at Wollaton, in Nottinghamshire, where you will see the orders superimposed, Doric on one story, Ionic on the next, and Corin- thian on the third, all treated with a care that an English craftsman should not overdo, 210 THE ENGLISH HOUSE since a true Italian house would be astray in England." You may read all this, and more besides, in Elizabethan architecture, which represents a great time ; for it shows in the art of building the very same national spirit that makes our Shakespearian age a liberal education to young and old. It is not possible for Anglo-Saxons to read without coming in touch with Elizabethan poets, thinkers, masters of statecraft, and sea- adventurers. All were men of action, and all looked out upon a far horizon stretching away beyond England. It was this that caused them to be restless, and eager to adopt new things ; they were colonists in thought, who conquered what they took, and in their own way made it their own. Such were Shakespeare and Bacon ; merchants were fired by the same temper, and seamen also ; and when the queen travelled from place to place she met with receptions full of dramatic incident, as though stage-managed by a London playwright. With this spirit in the air, Thorpe, Smithson, and other craftsmen designed their houses. It was inevitable that they should be of their time, not in merits only, but in shortcomings also. Elizabethan architecture is nearly always great in idea, but there is in it a want of balanced self-control. Indoors, for example, there is a ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN 211 profusion of ornament very different from the severer charm of homeliness in the best Tudor houses ; and as to the sumptuousness and elegance of Jacobean mansions, they continue the Eliza- bethan manner, but their Classical features are at times nearer to the Renaissance. Still, it is a mistake to mark a separation be- tween Elizabethan and Jacobean, because they denote the history of one transitional style which never came to maturity. It might be called Tudor-Classic, its Gothic characteristics being those which came into Tudor art from the Perpendicular style of the fifteenth century. Nothing is more troublesome to the general public than the subdivision of styles into many periods. People, for instance, began to talk of Edwardian architecture as soon as Queen Victoria died, as though our architects had all adopted new methods of work. Similarly there is a great deal of talk about Jacobean, and many persons are in terror lest they should speak of a James I. mansion as Elizabethan. Yet Eliza- beth died in 1603, and her successor just twenty-two years later, so the only thing which architects could do in that short time was to develop the Italianised Tudor style now known as Elizabethan. To make these points clear I am giving several illustrations, beginning with a picture of 212 THE ENGLISH HOUSE Crewe Hall, built between 1615 and 1636. If you compare this fine mansion with Wollaton, which dates from 1580, you will pass from the thirty-eighth year of Elizabeth's reign to the eleventh of Charles I. Well, what changes took place in the outward look of country seats during those fifty-six years ? You will see at a glance that Wollaton and Crewe belong to the same school of thought, their fronts having very similar projections, and very similar gable-like ornaments ; there is the same wealth of win- dows, with numerous mullions and transoms, the only differences being that some windows at Crewe Hall are narrower, and some others project into good oriels. Then, as regards the Classic features, there are many differences here, and yet the general effect is the same, approximately, showing how two Englishmen made use of quotations from Italian writers on Roman architecture. I have chosen the word " quotation " because neither architect wished to be a thoroughgoing copyist. The one at Crewe was not at home with Classic orders and pilasters, so he employed them only for the main entrance, and tried to show the same moderate Classic feeling else- where as in the elevations, where the spirit of his design was gently horizontal. Further, selecting chimneys of red moulded brick, and a ^S^Sfeft3^8Sl J , . ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN 213 mixture of brick and stone for the outside walls, he made up his mind to be homelike in a good English way ; and although he used gables timidly on the house itself, he put them gladly on the outbuildings, both in simple forms and in the curved and fantastic shapes that Eliza- bethan taste had invented for him. This architect, then, wished to fuse together the two principles of English and Italian work. And it is worth noting that he chose one Italian idea altogether opposed to English common sense, namely, an open court for lighting rooms, similar to the one which we studied at Long- leat. On the other hand, he was mediasval in his liking for a large hall. To this room he gave much dignity and importance, and close to it he put the withdrawing-room, called by tradition the " Carved Parlour." The upper part of this hall is lit by an oriel and marked by a dais, while at the lower end is a handsome screen of carved oak. " We find, in relation to this screen," says Mr. E. M. Barry, R.A., " the old arrangement of the passage with a buttery- hatch behind it, communicating with the offices, and there are openings in the upper part of the screen which, taken in connection with the peculiar design of the top, lead irresistibly to the conclusion that above the passage there was the traditional ministrels' gallery overlooking the 2i 4 THE ENGLISH HOUSE hall. The ceiling of the dining-hall is designed with great intricacy, and is executed in plaster, with pendants boldly treated. The walls are wainscoted to a height of about eight feet, and there is a large fireplace in the middle of one of the side walls." * Something must be said now about the Classic orders, since they give character to all Renais- sance buildings. The word " order " applies to a column, with its base, shaft, and capital, supporting an entablature of architrave, frieze, and cornice. There are said to be five orders, each with its own characteristics : Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite ; but the two last, sometimes called the two Roman orders, are little more than variations, the Tuscan of Doric, and the Composite of Corinthian. The Corinthian is, perhaps, the easiest for laymen to identify, because of its capital, in which spiral volutes f spring from a crown of acanthus leaves that surround the bell of the capital. There are in all three rows of leaves, eight in each row ; those in the third row support eight small open volutes, four of which are under the four horns or points of a hollowed abacus, an abacus being the uppermost member * " Lectures on Architecture," p. 323. t A volute may be described as a horn or curl of moulded stone. ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN 215 of a capital the thing upon which the super- imposed weight rests. The Greek abacus resembles a tile in the Doric order, a tile quite plain and square ; in Roman Doric the upper edge has an ogee moulding and a fillet. In Grecian Ionic the upper edge of an abacus has a thin moulding, an ovolo or an ogee, sometimes sculptured, and usually without a fillet above it ; while in Roman Ionic there is a fillet. A Corinthian abacus has hollowed sides, and the angles made by the hollows are cut off ; it is under them that four acanthus leaves curl. Again, although the Corinthian order is placed among the Greek orders, it is more Roman than Greek, because it appeared in Greece under Roman masters, who loved it always for its magnificence. It was a symbol of life in Rome, sumptuous and full of pomp. If laymen re- member that the Corinthian order has an abacus with hollowed sides and a capital en- riched with acanthus leaves, they will recognise this form of Classic architecture in a great many English buildings. A capital in the Ionic order is also easy to identify, having spiral curls that project beyond a column's shaft. A Doric capital is a mere projection under the square abacus. In Grecian Doric a column has no base, while in Roman Doric there is generally a base. Rome, again, 216 THE ENGLISH HOUSE after adapting the Grecian Doric and Ionic, and after making the Corinthian order pre-eminently their own, formed two other orders the Tuscan and the Composite. Tuscan is noted for its simplicity. It was not employed by the Greeks. Though a variation from the Doric order, its columns are never fluted,* there are no tri- glyphsf in the frieze, and the entablature is always simple and without any enrichment. Tuscan is, in fact, the antithesis of the Composite order, which the Romans invented by placing the upper part of the Ionic capital upon the lower part of the Corinthian, so that you find under the abacus those projecting spiral volutes that belong to Ionic capitals, and below them the Corinthian leaves. These general facts are given as a guide to laymen who cannot take pleasure in English architecture without some hints to guide them * Flutes : These are hollows or channels cut perpendicularly in the shafts of columns and pilasters. They are used in all the orders except the Tuscan. In Doric columns there are twenty flutes y separated by a sharp edge or arris-, in the other orders, Tuscan excepted, a column has twenty-four flutes^ separated by a small fillet. t Triglyphs : An ornament used in a Doric frieze, con- sisting of three vertical angular flutes, or channels, separated by narrow flat spaces; they have notched ends, and are said to be a reminiscence in stone of wooden beams belonging to an earlier architecture. Triglyphs appear frequently in our English transitional styles. ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN 217 through the shoals of Classicism. Since the sixteenth century the Roman orders have in- fluenced our buildings ; and at the end of the eighteenth century, thanks to Stuart and Revett mainly, pure Greek architecture became known, and its power soon passed from architects to suburban builders. St. George's Hall, Liverpool, is a Greek structure, forlornly out of place in an English seaport ; and St. Pancras Church, London, is another ambitious attempt to be Athenian under a Northern sky. It is thus im- possible for us to get away from Classic archi- tecture, owing to the mania for copying which came to England in the sixteenth century. We must make the best of it, and try to keep in mind those characteristics of style which are easy to remember. There are certain forms of ornament, for example, and you will find here, in a picture by Joseph Nash, the use made of triglyphs in the Long Gallery at Hatfield, dating from 1 6 1 1 . Triglyphs really belong to a Doric frieze, but here they are employed above Ionic capitals, and this may be done when pilasters are used. The Greeks them- selves set this example, while the Romans did not (as a rule), giving a pilaster the same capital and base as a column would have had in this order or that. Greek pilasters were of the same breadth from bottom to top, while in Roman 218 THE ENGLISH HOUSE work they often diminished in size upwards, just as they do at Hatfield. Further, above the tri- glyphs at Hatfield, which are very well spaced, you will find a projecting cornice, and from its under-side hang a great many guttte^ the history of which is entertaining. The Greeks, in their first temples, built out their cornices to throw off the wet ; raindrops gathered upon the under- side and sparkled ; this decorative effect was noticed and remembered ; and at last those gutta were made in stone to represent hanging spots of water. This ornament was used in Doric entablatures on the under side of the mutules of their cornices, and beneath the tsenia of the architrave, under the triglyphs. J. J. Stevenson spoke of guttas as spots of wet petrified into stone "petrified raindrops," briefly; and these ornaments you will see at Hatfield. In the hall at Wollaton, illustrated here (p. 224), triglyphs and gutta? appear again, but the spaces between the triglyphs are ornamented, and the pillars are meant to be Roman Doric. In Roman buildings, between the triglyphs of Doric friezes, there is often a decoration of carved ox-skulls, with a sort of garland hanging around the horns ; and these singular things were emblems of sacrifice to the gods. They are not pretty, like the goat-heads so familiar to all students of Robert Adam's work. Among other Roman ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN 219 ornaments, like the acanthus scroll, with a con- tinuous stem and with spirals and rosettes, arabesques should be remembered, for those in the Baths of Titus had a great effect on fresco decoration during the Renaissance. It will be remembered, also, that the Greeks were particularly fond of the anthemion, or honey- suckle, their favourite motif for surface decora- tion ; and I give a page of illustrations to show other Classical ornaments, like the bay-leaf gar- land, the egg-and-tongue, the leaf-and-dart, the bead, and the guilloche, all common in Anglo- Classic mouldings. (Plate 60, facing page 272.) For the rest, Englishmen at first missed many qualities of self-control that belong to Classical ornament, and scattered over their ceilings a wonderful amount of pattern, as in Elizabethan work. Rich laces and splendid velvets got into the minds of architects long ago, just as they turned painters into colourists. Movement, brightness, colour, space : these you will find in all good architecture of this period ; and above all, perhaps, in the famous long galleries by which the wings of country houses are joined together. Here are the dimen- sions of some important examples : Aston Hall (Jacobean) : 136 ft. long, 18 ft. wide, and 16 ft. high. 220 THE ENGLISH HOUSE Montacute, Somersetshire (Elizabethan) : 170 ft. long by 20 ft. 6 in. wide. Hardwick (A.D. 1590-97) : 166 ft. long, 22 ft. 5 in. wide, and 26 ft. high. Charlton, Wiltshire (Jacobean) : 1 30 ft. long by 22 ft. wide. When we think of all the attractions that English homes gathered about them from the days of Henry VII. to those of Charles I., it is natural that we should think of that period as a golden age in house-building. It is national, it is English in essentials ; and we shall see in the next chapter that although great English houses ceased to be English during the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries, our domestic architecture has never quite lost its line of descent from the Middle Ages. This fact is proved by all old country cottages, with their many Gothic features ; but there are houses of a larger type, built in our English Renaissance manner, to which accident has given the name of Queen Anne ; and here also we meet with a transitional style, partly Classic, partly Gothic, which may be placed side by side with Tudor- Classic namely, with Elizabethan and Jacobean houses. CHAPTER XII THE RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES SINCE the seventeenth century there has been so much confused imitation in Eng- lish house architecture that a student is harassed by an erratic theme as devious as a golf- ball, so he knows not what to do. His mind is bunkered here and bunkered there, now in a vast Italianised palace which never should have been built in England, then in an Early Gothic castle with slits for windows dating from the early decades of the last century. No sooner does he escape from these troubles, not without thanksgiving, than his golf-ball subject flies off in another direction, and reaches a " Queen Anne house " before Queen Anne's time. What does this mean ? What is a plain man to think ? But there is really no time for questions and answers. The subject moves on always in a most wayward manner, ponderously Classic at one moment, wildly Gothic at another, transitional between these extremes ; there are revivals of one style and counter- revivals of another ; and joined to these we 221 222 THE ENGLISH HOUSE find a cosmopolitanism which in the nineteenth century tried very hard to be omniscient. No adventure among foreign methods and ideals could satisfy it. Byzantine art was tried, and Chinese pagodas were taken ; mediaeval castles were built, and Greek temples put up as con- cert halls ; Swiss chalets had their turn, and Indian bungalows also ; the Scotch Baronial style competed against the Flemish Renais- sance, or the Rural Italian, or the French- Italian ; and even our own native types of house were not forgotten. But who is to understand this chaotic jumble of styles ? If a battle of Waterloo were to last for three centuries no historian could give an account of its progress. And we find, too, that writers are afraid of that Waterloo of architectural styles which began in England at the time of the Renaissance and still goes on, dividing our architects into three armies Classics, Goths, and followers of mixed tradi- tions, partly Gothic and partly Classic. After such a long battle there are no doubt many signs of reasonable fatigue. Indeed, we are enjoying a welcome truce, during which the rival armies steal each other's beliefs in the most friendly manner, so that we find Classic houses built by soldiers of the Gothic regiments, while mullions and bay-windows are designed with RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES 223 pleasure by those who rank as generals in the Classic Brigade of Guards. Of course, these signs of peace may not be lasting. One remembers that Wellington's men in the Peninsula were on good terms with the French between their battles ; and this may be the present position of our Goths and Classics. Yet their war may be over, experi- ence having taught both sides that when several different forms of architecture have been re- conciled with the needs and customs of the same nation's daily life, reasons for quarrelling have vanished in essential compromises all round. This we may believe, and it gives us a sort of vantage-ground upon which we may stand to survey the last three hundred years of battle. In other words, as the best work done to-day in house architecture is quiet and reasonable, no matter what its style may be, we are not called upon to pass in thought through all the strife and turmoil which separates our peaceful time from the Renaissance. No architect now would design such a Classic mansion as Castle Howard, Yorkshire (A.D. 1714), where Sir John Vanbrugh sacrificed comfort and use to monumental grandeur ; and who would go back to that foolish lath-and-plaster abbey with which Horace Walpole started the Gothic revival at Twickenham in 1770? At a later date, in 224 THE ENGLISH HOUSE 1820, James Wyatt tried to make a modern home in his reproduction of a mediaeval monas- tery, and this wonderful experiment goes by the name of Wyatt's " Fonthill Abbey." Six years later Sir Jeffrey Wyatville began to transform Windsor Castle, and this set on foot a craze for castellated mansions, modern within, but with battlements and turrets outside, all in imitation of Edwardian fortresses. Nothing could have been more absurd. Yet the Classic men held out counter-attractions, such as the St. George's Hall, Liverpool, by H. L. Elmes (1815-47), who designed an ancient Greek building for a Northern seaport, when he might have won a wider reputation by placing a Buddhist temple in the Scotch Highlands, or a Chinese palace on the top of Snowdon. Some writers still assure us with pride that Elmes gave us the most perfect design of the Classical school. " The main hall," says one critic, " recalls the Roman Therms. Externally a colonnade and portico design is handled with great effect." Poor Liverpool and its history are not to be thought of, you see. There was a rage for Greek architecture, so buildings after that style had to be put up somewhere, any- where, and for all purposes, whether for con- certs and political meetings or for Christian prayer ; so St. Pancras Church was built in one - 1 INTERIOR OK THE HALL, WOLLATON, NOTTS. Early Renaissance Period. Seepage 218. RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES 225 English city, St. George's Hall in another, and a National Monument was begun on the Calton Hill at Edinburgh. The New Church of St. Pancras, by H. W. Inwood (1794-1843) was built in 1819, and reproduced in many respects the Erechtheion at Athens. All this shows and I give only a few exam- ples that historical perspective was not under- stood. Architecture might do with impunity whatever was suggested by a copyist's whims. And there was nothing to choose between the rival fanatics of style, Goths and Classics being equally out of touch with their own times. Look, for instance, at the British Museum, with its quite useless portico, and its size and bulk altogether dwarfed by the railings in front of its courtyard. Such was the ruling taste between the years 1823 and 1847. The archi- tect, Sir Robert Smirke, was responsible also for King's College, London, built in 1831, while a contemporary of his, William Wilkins, used a Classic adaptation for St. George's Hospital, London, and the University College. Places of amusement were also put up in the same manner, like the Haymarket Theatre, designed by Nash, the brave man who introduced the age of stucco, as in Regent Street, and in many great houses around Regent's Park. What is a layman to think of all this ? What 226 THE ENGLISH HOUSE use, for example, can a portico serve in our English climate? Why< should any person wish to darken rooms on the ground floor by building a portico between them and the fitful light of an English town ? It took two hundred years for this simple question to dawn upon the minds of Classical architects. It was Inigo Jones who introduced the domestic style with pediments and porticoes, the earliest example being the Duke of Devonshire's villa at Chiswick, an imitation of Palladio's villa at Vicenza. This set a very bad example, and its influence lasted till the end of the eighteenth century. Useless porticoes to houses were then as common as basement offices for servants, and both evils were marks of high rank. Servants were sent below because they were not good enough to live on a ground floor ; while porticoes were liked because they had what was known as a " grand air." A Classic mansion must be dignified and magnificent, and these qualities were never united to utility and convenience. Under this false system a great many discomforts could be dovetailed into a vast space, as at Holkham Hall, Norfolk, designed and built by W. Kent in 1730. It is a vast and gloomy structure in a depressing part of Norfolk, near Wells-next-the-Sea. The design is certainly less extravagant than Van- RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES 227 brugh's work at Blenheim and Castle Howard, but when Holkham is compared with a good Elizabethan house we realise a sad falling off from English ideas of genial homeliness. Indeed, the first owner of Holkham said : " It is a melancholy thing to stand alone in one's own country." The noble earl bought this opinion at a very high price, but his architect was happy. Shall we look at his plan ? There are four symmetrical wings joined to a large symmetrical body ; the distance between the wings measures about 215 ft. ; and from the kitchen to the dining- room, as a crow flies^ 180 ft. As to the main building, it has two well-holes two inner little courts for light and on the first floor we find a great Italian saloon with a drawing-room on each side, a lofty entrance hall with galleries, several bedrooms and dressing-rooms, and a statue gallery also. The inner courts for light were fashionable then, just because they had an Italian character at variance with English needs. Unreasonableness dictated the rest of the plan, leaving people to find at their leisure the least troublesome way of getting from the wings to the main house. In this connection one may tell a good story about Lord Chesterfield. His friend General Wade got Lord Burlington to build for him a 228 THE ENGLISH HOUSE house in the fashionable manner, but found it anything but a pleasant dwelling-place. The unhappy General did not know what to do. If he lived in his mansion he would be miserable, yet the outside had really a " great air," which he longed to admire after spending so much money on useless show and pomp. Chester- field laughed, and then hit upon a good idea. " Take a lodging over the way," said he, " and look at your house ! " a very good criticism on this form of Classic architecture. Even the Classic devotees themselves wearied at last of their un-English work, and began to sneer a little at the " Pediment and Portico Periods." Then Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860) broke away from useless porticoes, and tried what is known as the astylar treatment of design ; that is, a treatment of fa9ades without the aid of columns, as in such Florentine palaces as the Palazzo Riccardi. Barry, in the Travel- lers' Club, Pall Mall, was influenced by the Pandolfini Palace, Florence, while the Reform Club, Pall Mall, made known his admiration for the Farnese Palace at Rome. But a Gothic Revival was then in the air, and to the same architect we owe the Houses of Parliament ; they were begun in 1840, and their exterior work was made a careful and good example of Perpendicular Gothic. Thus Sir Charles Barry RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES 229 marks two important things in modern archi- tecture : first, he gave up porticoes because they were absurd in England, and, secondly, he used for a public building the most domestic style in our English Gothic, the style to which our Tudor houses belong, and out of which our Elizabethan arts came, with some help from Italian ideas. From that time, despite a few reactions, English Classic architecture at its best has not been unfriendly to common sense. But, un- happily, past errors do not die out in archi- tecture as in other arts ; they stand in public places, great solid things in brick and stone, warnings, perhaps, but harmful none the less to a nation's judgment and taste, as familiarity does not breed contempt here ; it reconciles us to many strange things. When we pray in a Classic church why do we not think of the religions under which the Greeks and Romans won and lost their greatness ? There can be no criticism when we separate a style in architecture from its own historic associa- tions. If laymen would only recognise this simple fact their influence over architects would soon be of value to England, for they would put to themselves such questions as the following : i. What purpose does this building serve, and 230 THE ENGLISH HOUSE is the style of its architecture in accord with that purpose ? 2. Is England so poor in native styles that she cannot now put up a national building without help from Classical ideals ? These questions are worth attention, because the art of building is the most public of all arts, and ought therefore to be judged by practical tests which plain men can understand and apply. Learned writers very often speak as though architecture had its home in an island of dreams, and not in our cities and country places. They pooh-pooh the popular taste, and say that archi- tects ought not to be disturbed in their work by the talk of " garrulous amateurs." Well, architects did rule for many genera- tions after the revival of Classic styles, and with what results ? The late Mr. J. J. Stevenson replied to this question. He was an excellent architect himself, and had no feeling of ill-will towards his profession. In the following passage he refers to the use of Greek architecture in England : " As practised with us, it was cold and formal ; and, as there were very few specimens to copy from, and only the most perfect of these were followed, there was a weary sameness in the results. The sculpture which had given life and interest to the original was omitted ; RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES 231 colour was thought vulgar ; and the general impression of one of those Doric porticoes in our climate, in any weather, but especially in an east wind with sleet driving through it, was dismal and depressing. The style had also the serious practical disadvantage for our climate, that windows were supposed to be inadmissible. As it was impossible wholly to dispense with them, they were ignored, like vulgar intruders in good society, and treated as if no one was expected to look at them, as plain holes cut in the wall, without any ornament or moulding whatever. This, of course, only made them more painfully conspicuous. Smuggled in between columns, and cutting up what should have been their solid background of wall, they became vulgar and objectionable." What a scathing criticism ! Architects did what they liked in those days, playing dismal practical jokes on a careless nation. They did not even understand the art which they copied, since they left out its colour and its sculpture; and all this happened just because laymen did not put to themselves the test questions to which I have referred. It is useful to arrive at this point, as public buildings are still put up in styles that laymen ought to condemn as unnecessarily un-English. It rests with the public to decide whether some 232 THE ENGLISH HOUSE national form of architecture ought not to be used for all public work ; whether patriotism in this art should not hold in check the cos- mopolitanism which has long been thrust upon us. If the Tudor style will give us a noble building, why should we have a kind of Classic structure, like the Home and Foreign Offices built by Barry and Sir Gilbert Scott (1860-70), and condemned to-day by architects as a bad com- promise between modern French and the tradi- tional Italian ideas of the Renaissance ? Surely a national building should have a permanent national interest, like that which has given our cathedrals and village churches their glorious place in the life of England. You may ask, " What has a public building to do with the English house ? " Everything. In the first place, all houses are public buildings. Even those which are hidden behind walls, or behind trees and railings, prove this by their wish to screen themselves from the people's curiosity. But, apart from this, the styles chosen for great national buildings set the fashion for house architecture. Take as an example the work done by Sir Christopher Wren. Wren's opportunity was the Great Fire of London in 1666. Had he been in sympathy with English forms of architecture he might have done much to repeat in brick and stone the o RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES 233 beautiful national sentiment represented by the old timber dwellings just burnt down. He would have said to himself : " London grew out of her own past, and showed this in her houses and churches. It is my duty to put this fact before the City authorities, and to do what I can in my own work to call back the old styles, and make them at home in a new and safer London." He did realise one important side of this great matter. He saw that London ought to be planned on a grand scale, and we suffer now because Wren's plans were not accepted, for pecuniary and other reasons. On the other hand, his bent in architecture was not English ; neither was it Palladian, like that of Inigo Jones. Wren was in love with that form of Classic which Frenchmen had adapted from the work of Vignola, and he said at one time that he " would have given his skin for Bernini's design for the Louvre," a singular confession. And the odd thing is that while Wren helped to make new fashions in building with his bor- rowed Classical columns and details, he said in simple English that architecture did not admit of such new departures ; and if we judge him by this principle his own work is condemned by his own verdict. What is St. Paul's Cathedral but a new fashion a break in the historical sequence ot 234 THE ENGLISH HOUSE English cathedral churches ? Noble as it is in design, has it the poetry of Salisbury or the winning grandeur of Durham ? Does it appeal to the English people like Wells, or Lincoln, or Peterborough ? Such Gothic churches are English and national in a Shakespearian way, whereas St. Paul's has the dignity of Milton's thoughts when they appeal to us in Latin. Further, did we gain much as a nation by Wren's secular architecture ? At Greenwich Hospital, in the two blocks furthest from the river, he is praised for his stateliness ; and in King William's palace at Hampton Court he certainly united a feeling for home with a royal dignity. But does any one feel here, or at Marl- borough House, Pall Mall, that Wren got from the Renaissance any qualities equal to those which he might have found in English work ? " For the charm of homeliness," says J. J. Stevenson, " nothing can surpass the houses of the Tudor age, with their mullioned windows and oak carving " ; and this being so, Wren might have been a greater man had he carried on the Tudor style in his own way. But there is, no doubt, another side to this question. Men of genius must either obey the spirit of their age or rebel against it, and Wren was free to make his choice. After doing so, he put a marvellous variety into his designs and showed that his RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES 235 strength was English. All critics admit this now, even those who own that the first two centuries of Classic architecture were a failure in England, because they did not improve our English ideals of home life. To put the matter in this way is to invite laymen to look at buildings as pieces of history much more valuable than written words, because they invite daily attention in our public places. There they are waiting to be read, and show- ing how the minds of Englishmen have been swayed by various schools of thought. And it is with buildings as with books. Some are for students only, while others belong to the nation at large, and prove that the best critic and the best librarian is the judgment that comes from the heart of a great people. This brings us to the real difference between the Gothic times in architecture and the Renais- sance. The revival of Classic styles did not spring out of the needs of English life, so its appeal was artificial, imposing fashions that few understood, while the old Gothic styles were interwoven with the people's highest aims and most humble daily wants. Even now, after three hundred years of Classic experiments, Englishmen respond at once to any style having Gothic characteristics. London and many other towns have innumerable houses built in mixed 236 THE ENGLISH HOUSE styles, and side by side with them are streets and squares with various forms of Classic treatment ; and with some account of these I shall close this chapter. In this, of course, we must keep to the points of view given in the test questions on pages 229-30. After Wren's death in 1723, at the age of ninety-one, Classic architecture became a mode in which craftsmen had served their apprentice- ship ; but they did not always like or follow some of its rules. One rule said that all windows in a row must be equidistant and of equal size whether the rooms to be lighted were large or small. Imagine such a law in England the nursery of compromise ! Imagine, too, how the common sense of builders refused to accept it. Architects might jeer at their " ignorant prejudices," but builders had no wish to give up all the old Gothic forms, so they formed a style to which accident has given the name of Queen Anne, but which, in reality, was to the later times of the Renaissance what Elizabethan architecture became to it at the end of the sixteenth century. Queen Anne architecture, so called, is thus a composite style often more Gothic in spirit than Classic. It shows how simple workmen, though opposed by learned architects, made a Renaissance style of their own, expressing with RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES 237 virile charm our English liking for compromise and for picturesque shapes. Its merit is not only admitted to-day : it is also adapted to our modern needs under the name of Free Classic. Three architects of genius W. E. Nesfield, Philip Webb, and Norman Shaw, R.A. started a movement in favour of this style about thirty years ago, and their example had a very strong influence over the design of smaller houses.* " Queen Anne " let us keep to the popular name deserves to be popular, for it allows an architect to express himself freely, and also in an attractive manner that ordinary people like ; and when you come to look for its past and present characteristics you find that they are exceed- ingly varied, because architects have combined with " Queen Anne " certain forms that belong to other Renaissance styles. For example, you must have noticed in London a good many tall, peaked roofs flattened at their tops, and with railings around their flat summits ? These features belong to the French Renaissance. * It was, I believe, on the Bedford Park Estate that Mr. Norman Shaw started his Queen Anne, unless Lowther Lodge, Kensington, is counted to that royal lady's credit, as perhaps it should be. About the same time Mr. Shaw was at work on several great country houses, such as Cragside, Northumberland, and this domestic Gothic was the shrine at which many young architects worshipped. 238 THE ENGLISH HOUSE Again, at Collingham Gardens and Cadogan Square, London, there are houses influenced by the Flemish Renaissance, and these will give you pleasure, because they look at home in London, being neither too formal nor too picturesque. Then, as to the Queen Anne style long ago, it is very well described by Mr. J. J. Stevenson, who used it himself with admirable skill and judgment. " At the end of the seventeenth century," he writes,* "brick had become the common building material of the country, and Classic forms and mouldings the vernacular of the workmen, who, following, apparently, their own instincts, formed the style out of these elements, without drawings from architects, who were too learned to tolerate its barbarism. . . . The shaping of the gables into various curves, which is one of the characteristics of the style, is a simple and natural, and consequently cheap, mode of pro- ducing an effect in brick. It is one of the many ways in which the builders in every country, still inspired by the old Gothic freedom, got rid of the trammels of Classic rule. . . . The Queen Anne style, though Classic in all its details, has in it something of Gothic character. It avoids the deeply set windows * *' English House Architecture," i. 331. RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES 239 and dark shadows of Classic, and gets the sense of continuous wall surface characteristic of Gothic by keeping the window-frames flush with the walls, and making them part of the wall surface by covering them with thick sash- bars. . . ." Sometimes " the windows are even more Gothic, with their mullions and transoms and leaded lights." At Kew Palace, an elaborate example, illus- trated by Mr. Stevenson, there are bay-windows rising from the ground to the windows of the fourth floor ; gables variously curved look homely and yet dignified ; and between the bays are Classic columns treated in a free and easy manner, the orders being incorrect and even clumsy. " It is probably not the work of an architect, else it would be more correct, but one of those productions of a builder which were denounced by persons of taste and know- ledge as aberrations from the standard of Classic purity." None the less, " it is a charming house, built to live in, but yet pleasant to look on." Sometimes, as in the neighbourhood of Mar- gate, you will find it in houses of grey flint with all the architectural parts gables, for instance, and quoins and window-dressings in red brick a delightful contrast. Note, too, that the mouldings and carvings are not in moulded 240 THE ENGLISH HOUSE bricks, like many Tudor and Elizabethan chim- neys, but in cut bricks called " rubbers " ; these are soft and granular, and easy to carve into good forms with true and firm contours. The Romans, too, used brick in this way ; and cer- tainly it is more attractive than the moulded terra-cotta to be seen on many buildings at Kensington, and among them the Albert Hall. Terra-cotta may twist in burning, and its colour is apt to be unpleasantly livid, while good English bricks have had a gamut of colour ranging from the plum-tinted ones at Hampton Court to the orange red of our own time. Thus the use of pleasant-hued cut brick is a notable feature in the Queen Anne style. And there are still two or three more charac- teristics. The window-panes are small and the window-frames white, like the panelled walls in the cosy parlours ; and it is no uncommon thing to find keystones in the window-heads and aprons under the windows. These aprons are decorative, particularly when they are edged with a moulding of stone. The characteristics of this style all denote the same spirit, the same quiet and modest liking for a picturesque freedom of expression not in the least at odds with good taste. It became the style of London, and provincial folk liked to see it in their town halls. Its proper name RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES 241 is the English Renaissance manner, a sister of Elizabethan and Jacobean architecture, and with them it forms a line of direct descent from the Tudor age to our own. You have but to walk about London if you wish to see what a firm grip these composite styles have on the popular mind. There are many examples, for instance, along Marylebone Road. Here you will find a varied treatment of bays and of gables, all in modern buildings, some of the more important being flats. Near Upper Baker Street, facing the main road, is a tall and long block with semicircular bay- windows and well-built gables, all treated in a pleasant manner, and showing that these old Gothic features are as young as the alert enter- prise of London. Near at hand are some prim- faced Classic houses, that blink sedately through their rows of uniform windows. They recall to mind, somehow, the meek good books which used to be read on Sunday as a mild penance, whereas the gabled houses with bay-windows look gay and vivacious, as though some genius from our merry old country ballads had got into them. The same contrast may be seen, too, in other parts of London, as in the West Central district, where any one may learn a great many things about English Classic architecture in streets and Q 242 THE ENGLISH HOUSE squares. Gower Street, as we have already noticed, is an example of Classic routine stereotyped into monotony. Compare it with the Bedford Court Mansions, behind Bedford Square, and you will recognise at once the tendency of Classic archi- tecture towards dulness and of Gothic towards vivacity. The Bedford Court Mansions are very well designed, and show with individuality the charm of Gothic forms when used well for the needs of to-day. One feels tempted to speak of their style as modern Tudor. Every part of the elevations may be studied with pleasure, because the workmanship throughout is thoughtful, varied, attractive, and structural. After this good English art the houses in Gower Street are certainly depressing. The truth is that Classic devotees had many hard problems to solve in town architecture. Long rows of flat-faced houses with windows all the same size on each floor were not easy to make beautiful. Vulgar they could not be, for they were too uniform for that, but beauty must be a thing of contrasts as well as of harmonies. This, to be sure, was understood by Classic men, who made use of balconies to give interest to their elevations, gave much thought to their doorways, applied pilasters to the walls, and made strong, projecting cornices. But their efforts were often thwarted by ground landlords, who RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES 243 welcomed the Classic style because its laws of symmetry were useful in business. If all win- dows on the same level must be uniform in shape and size, why not apply this rule to the door- ways also and the elevations generally ? Why not repeat the same house scores of times ? Money could be saved, and this consideration being very important to ground landlords, a good many supplied their architects with an elevation and insisted that streets should be degraded to a lifeless uniformity. The Portman estate went so far as to condemn all the traceried fanlights in doorways, forming a rule that com- pelled each new tenant to pull out the wrought ironwork and the leaden ornament of husks, leaves, &c., and to put in a single sheet of plate glass. In these circumstances, what were Classic men to do ? They all delighted to make their doorways interesting ; and I remember the time when in little streets off the Strand, now de- stroyed by the Hotel Cecil and other buildings, every doorway was a work of art and quite different from its neighbours. A good many were as old as the beginning of the eighteenth century. Their design was various and charming, for they had never too much ornament, like builders' work at the present time. Sometimes these doorways were of wood, and their deep-set 244 THE ENGLISH HOUSE fanlights were rich with tracery, always carved in a delicate manner. Many had Classic pillars and hoods ; not one was ugly. Some may be found even now, as in the neighbourhood of the historic Adelphi Terrace, where J. M. W. Turner worked as a boy in the house of Dr. Monro, receiving a shilling or two for the sketches he made in friendly competition with poor Tom Girtin. It is a Classic quarter in more ways than one, as the Adelphi Terrace itself was designed by the brothers Adam, and will tell you how these famous architects gave variety to their rows of Classic houses. In this case they give a different treatment to each line of windows, and make use of pilasters, enriching them with a large palmette ornament, repeated from top to bottom of each pilaster. This decoration is a honeysuckle, or anthemion, a thing much used in Greek and Roman archi- tecture for cornices, in the necking of Ionic capitals, and elsewhere. At the Adelphi Terrace the flowers are big, and the general effect of the elevation is rather " full " ; that is, we see so much that we fail to see it as a whole. There is less unity and less distinction than you will find in Bedford Square ; here the brothers Adam use simpler means with admirable judgment. The brickwork has a pleasant texture, tall win- dows give alertness to a flat plane of wall surface, Z i- o '53 CJ RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES 245 boldly arched doorways impart character and strength, while the painted central houses, with pilasters and pediments, are balancing plots of variety. Many tenants in Bedford Square paint the doorways a rich cream white, and this gives emphasis to the ornamental slabs which at in- tervals project from the brickwork around the semicircular arches. This, no doubt, is good Classic applied to the needs and conditions of town life ; and you will find similar houses in many streets and squares. Yet, good or quiet as this work is, a layman may venture to ask himself a few questions. Why those pediments when a gable would have served the same purpose ? Why those long lines of tall, elegant windows, when bays and oriels would have given a finer diversity of effect ? Was it really worth while to be Classic in wet and foggy London ? The answer to this, no doubt, is that even the dead Classic of Gower Street has a certain dignity which is often absent in work having gables and bay-windows. Gothic traditions are not easy to handle. They require excellent workmanship and much self-control. To make this clear we may think of two styles in writing, one simple, like Bunyan's or Addison's, the other fluent and ornate, like De Quincey's. Now London Classic architecture, however dull 246 THE ENGLISH HOUSE it may be at times, has never the self-assertion to which ornate styles are subject, while London Gothic, when bad, has all the vices that a simple manner in writing avoids. This, no doubt, is the strongest point that writers can bring forward in the favour of Classic methods for town architecture. Go to any London suburb and note the effect of badly-designed bay-windows in long streets of jerry-built villas. You will then think of Gower Street with pleasure. In this formal style there is safety, while in builder's Gothic there is scope for an overwhelming vulgarity. This has been plain for many years, and it helps those of us who love Gothic traditions to take delight in good Classic work like that which is known as the Adam style. Robert Adam, it is true, was rather effeminate in his use of attenuated ornament, which, though chaste and elegant, was employed for too many purposes and in too many materials. It was often too small to be in scale with the surface to be decorated. For all that, Adam valued the beauty of simple lines, and his decorative scheme was carried through a house, including the furniture and the tableware. Much of the craftsmanship was done by Italians, and the sculpture had much in common with the art of Flaxman. Adam's style, in fact, belongs to RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES 247 that Georgian school of thought represented by Wedgwood and his ware, and having much in common with the Classic delicacy of the time of Queen Anne. Still, there are writers of distinction who have no patience at all with the brothers Adam, and both sides of a question should be considered. The late G. T. Robinson, F.S.A., wrote as follows : " When Robert Adam returned from his study of old Roman architecture in its most emascu- lated phase he brought with him a new fashion directly derived from the degenerate decadence then prevailing in modern Italy. Instead of seeking to execute his designs in the old modelled stucco-work, by which they were originally carried out, he borrowed the craft of the cheap picture- and mirror-frame maker, and brought with him a band of Italian workmen endowed with the knowledge of a secret com- position, itself the illegitimate offspring of the noble old art of working in gesso. This was a putty-like mixture, pressed into boxwood moulds, and from this pastry-cook ware of pliant material and a few matrices of honey- suckle ornaments, masks, and scrolls he arranged, often with grace and elegance, light, meandering festoons and sprays, which per se were not by any means without merit, but which by constant iteration became almost nauseous." 248 THE ENGLISH HOUSE Some persons believe that the Adam style was invented by the brothers Adam, which is too great a compliment to these able men. The style was a living one, as J. J. Stevenson points out, and understood by all workmen. " Some designers may have been better than others, acknowledged as masters of the style and setting new fashions, like the brothers Adam. But the work which is not theirs is similar in type, and they could not have carried out the things they are credited with, all over the three kingdoms, unless the style had been everywhere familiar to workmen." This, no doubt, is true. These men were leaders of a school, and it is a pity not to re- member this fact. The style was found years ago in thousands of houses, large and small, but Victorian ratepayers did not like it, so they tore down the panelled dados around the rooms, which were always painted white, like the rest of the woodwork. Even the delicate white marble chimney-pieces, inlaid with different colours, were disliked, and gave place to Victorian art in enamelled slate all as heavy as lead. You will remember the huge mantel-shelf and un- gainly consoles. Adam silverwork has fared better ; it is justly valued at the present time, and has all the familiar characteristics of this Georgian o 2L >, H RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES 249 style. To put these distinguishing traits into words to tell laymen how they may recognise this art is difficult, because the brothers Adam, like Flaxman, liked a certain kind of line which cannot be described. It is clear-cut and firm, yet very delicate and refined ; it gives distinc- tion both in curved lines and in straight. You will find it in every detail of a typical marble fireplace. Still, there are certain things in this style which any layman may remember with ease. The brothers Adam were fond of a husk ornament arranged in festoons ; and these strings of husks were used for many purposes above door-lintels, on pediments, on silver candlesticks, and elsewhere. Then there is another distin- guishing feature, a beautiful Grecian vase, very often with a goat's head on each side. The same goat's head appears on Adam silverwork, as well as in medallions on fireplaces. Leaves and sprays, delicately moulded and formal, are other characteristics ; and there is also a flower bor- rowed from Italian art, and having some resemblance to the Tudor rose. But the main point of all is refinement. " How very deli- cate ! " is the criticism that occurs to everybody at a first glance. The Adam style became fashionable again about thirty years ago, and it might be used now with discretion in flats, where the rooms are 250 THE ENGLISH HOUSE small and in need of quiet, refined ornament. We are slow to recognise that the reign of George III. gave us something more than a great school of painting. In addition to this it produced a school of design from which a great many useful lessons may be learnt, not in fur- niture only, but in street architecture and in room decoration. We are not likely to imitate Georgian mistakes porticoes, for instance, and basements ; but the good qualities which accom- panied these errors may be forgotten in our hurried age. There is a fine reserve of manner in good Georgian design, and the craftwork is very beautiful. Wedgwood, Flaxman, Sheraton, Chippendale, the brothers Adam, and many others, are English Classics ; and as the Classic school of architecture is settled for good in England, it is well that we should think with respect of those who have left us permanent examples of honest work, not to imitate slavishly, but to admire with judgment. Georgian furniture * is invaluable as a model to ourselves. No matter what its ornament may be, whether simple or elaborate, it has the quality of thoroughness, without which no governing race can hold its position in the world. I have seen cabinets in which * I mean the best furniture produced during the reigns of George II. and George III. RENAISSANCE AND OURSELVES 251 the brothers Adam tried their skill in Gothic forms, and with so much reserve and knowledge that I remembered at once the saying of a French architect : " Modern Gothic is helped by a thorough Classic training, just as a style in writing is improved by the discipline of Greek and Latin translation." This may be the real lesson which the Renaissance has to teach us after three hundred years. One thing is certain at any rate : our Gothic school is more reserved than it used to be, and the Classic school is more attractive and more homeful. Their in- fluence at present is unluckily thwarted by many circumstances, and these will be considered in Chapters XIV. and XV. Good houses for the few are built to-day, but they do not make a national form of architecture, like that which existed during the later mediaeval times. CHAPTER XIII SOME HINTS TOWARDS THE STUDY OF THE RENAISSANCE f~ iHE Renaissance was a very complex '; movement, and its work must be M associated with other historical events, some of which preceded it (like the invention of gunpowder, which made the castle system of defence almost useless). The course of politics in England during the fifteenth century pre- pared the way for great changes by weakening those ancient and noble families whose conser- vatism appeared to be as settled as their landed estates. The old nobility of England suffered immensely in the twelve pitched battles of the Wars of the Roses ; a great many families were annihilated, and the new men who succeeded wished to be enterprising, and in touch with current theories and with new movements of thought. Side by side with this was the progress or printing, which in Henry VII. 's time began to open new horizons in knowledge ; just as recent discoveries of new trading-centres 252 THE RENAISSANCE 253 quickened the public mind with an idea of space hitherto unknown to it. In 1486, the year of Lambert Simnel's rebellion, Bartholomew Diaz, a native of Portugal, sailing to the South, reached the Cape of Good Hope ; in 1492 Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the West Indian Islands; in 1497 Vasco da Gama made his way to India by the Cape of Good Hope ; three years later Corte Real dropped anchor in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, while Pedro Cabral discovered Brazil ; and about the same time (1496-1502) Sebastian Cabot sailed from Bristol in an English ship and reached Newfoundland. Then the Renaissance came in other and more subtle ways, appealing to the imagination through works of art and through the genius of Luther and Erasmus. It was an Italian, Torrigiano, who made the tomb of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey ; the work was begun in 1509, and the artist held himself aloof from the influence of Gothic styles. His monument is, in fact, our earliest example of revived Classic art. And Torrigiano is not the only foreigner who connects the reign of Henry VIII. with the new art movement. I have spoken of John of Padua (p. 188), and other Renaissance artists were befriended by the king, like Holbein, Giovanni da Majano, and Rouezzano. 254 THE ENGLISH HOUSE During Elizabeth's reign there was a great influx of foreign workmen into England, par- ticularly after the massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572, and this was preceded by the first English book on the Classic styles of archi- tecture, written by John Shute, and printed in 1563. It is clear, then, that the word Renais- sance applies to changes of mental outlook that affected English life in many different ways, working revolutions in religion, knowledge, art, and commercial enterprise. Colleges were built, and men talked of a New Learning and fought for a New Religion, prepared themselves for adventures in a New World, and wished to make experiments in a New Drama and a New Art. But there was, of course, a great difference between the Renaissance in Italian art and its English imitation, for Italian artists rebelled against asceticism, the very power which ruled in England with Cromwell's Puritan soldiers. Their aim was to slacken those monastic leading-strings which had bound men of genius to ecclesiastical discipline and tradition. Art, it was argued, should represent the joy of life and the beauty of created things ; and if it could do this in a spirit of reasonable freedom why should it lose the patronage of the great and good ? To be " other-worldly " in matters of this world to THE RENAISSANCE 255 preach the Gospels in some pictures and be frankly pagan in others was not easy ; but the Italian Church was moved by the Renaissance spirit just like her artists, and men of genius won their liberty. All their many forms of beautiful work were united together and served one purpose in magnificent buildings, so that churches and palaces glowed with colour, and were rich with sculpture and splendid crafts- manship. In England it was very different. The Puritans grew stronger and more intolerant ; they began to assert themselves during Shake- speare's life, showing a determined hatred for art and luxury ; and thus the Classical revival was strongly opposed from its first coming, particularly in those very aims that made it glorious in Italy. Both Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren had great ideas, but neither did full justice to himself, the political temper of the age being inartistic and turbulent. Whether the modern decorations improve St. Paul's Cathedral is a question open to doubt, but they prove that Wren was unable to complete his work. And Inigo Jones was not more fortunate. White- hall Palace has never been finished, as every one knows, but its design may be studied in Fergusson's " History of Architecture," and its 256 THE ENGLISH HOUSE vast scale looks too grand even for our own wealthy times. The palace would have been 874 ft. long towards the river, and not less than 1152 ft. in depth, with a great central court measuring 750 ft. long by 378 ft. wide. The architecture is unaffected, and its Classicism has an air of its own, for the whole fa9ade is broken up with projections, and the horizontal lines do not prevail over those which are ver- tical, so there is a feeling of upward growth such as we find in mixed styles of Gothic and Classic. Even the sky-line would have been interrupted by pediments, towers, and statues. Jones made this great design soon after his second visit to Italy, yet before he had settled down into full sympathy with the Classic orders. In the present Banqueting House, so well known in connection with the death of Charles I., we may see the nature of the work that Jones had in mind ; only we must remember that other parts of the building would have had three stories instead of two, so as to give variety to the general outline. To be brief, Whitehall is an example of the thwarted aims which Classical art met with during the Great Civil War ; and a good many other events broke in upon the new architecture and hindered its slow adaptation to the needs of English life and to the conditions of a - ' ' V I- THE RENAISSANCE 257 Northern climate. For example, if any archi- tect wished to study at first hand the Classic styles which he copied, he travelled at great expense to Italy ; and even then, after his return to England, he had to rely upon books and memories. Under this disadvantage he was never aided by living traditions, and hence the eagerness with which any help from abroad was welcomed. When Charles II. came to the throne, in 1660, French influence grew strong, and it lasted till the times of George II., though its power was disputed by a Dutch rival during William and Mary's reign. The early work of Chippendale is an example of this French taste, for its reiteration of reversed curves was prompted by the style of Louis Quatorze. The chronology of Chippendale's designs may be followed by noting how he went away bit by bit from this characteristic, till he came in touch with that Chinese mania which Sir William Chambers introduced into England about 1760. Chinese chairs were fashionable then, but Chippendale believed that their style might be improved, so he adopted more rigid forms, giving up his early fondness for curved lines, and making chairs with plain square legs and with interlaced backs, where bars of wood formed a trelliswork. 258 THE ENGLISH HOUSE About ten years later, in 1770, Walpole started his Gothic revival ; and this movement, though interrupted by a fashionable wish to be Grecian in architecture, was handed on by James Wyatt to John Shaw (1776-1832), to A. W. N. Pugin (1812-52), and to many other men who have had a ruling influence, like Ruskin and William Morris ; and thus it is clear that the Renaissance has for its main characteristics the following points : 1. A great diversity of aim. 2. A Classicism interrupted by political events, by artistic fashions, and by a wish to recover the old-time authority of native English styles. The political events are important because their effects are very visible, as in the destruction of castles by Cromwell. This was a great loss to the history of architecture, because those castles showed in their arrangement how they had been fitted to the habits and customs of different generations. As to the artistic fashions, they were short-lived, for the Anglo-Chinese move- ment of 1760 had no more effect on English household art than the Anglo-Japanese ideas that come now and then into vogue. All that is permanent in the Renaissance may be divided into three periods : i. The Early Period, embracing the transition from Tudor into Elizabethan and Jacobean. THE RENAISSANCE 259 2. The Middle Period, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Classic work pre- dominates, though builders in country districts and in London form their English Renaissance style, popularly known to-day as " Queen Anne architecture." 3. The Modern Period, or nineteenth century, during which, after many wild flights of enthu- siasm, the rival schools of Goths and Classics settle down at last into order and quiet, forming or using vernacular styles that accord with the needs and conditions of daily life. Many books have been written on these subjects, and many beautiful volumes of illus- trations have been published ; the following selection will be of value to all amateurs and students : 1. "Mansions of England in the Olden Time." By Joseph Nash. 4 folio vols. 1839- 1849. 2. The large publication on Tudor architec- ture now being issued by B. T. Batsford. 3. "The Evolution of the English House." By Sidney O. Addy. 1899 and 1905. 4. " Analysis of Ancient Domestic Architec- ture." By F. T. Dollman. 2 vols. 1863. 5. " Some Account of Domestic Architecture in England during the Middle Ages." By T. H. Turner and J. H. Parker. 1859-77. 260 THE ENGLISH HOUSE 6. " A Collection of the Ancient Timber Edifices of England." By J. Clayton. Folio. 1846. 7. " Old Cottages, Farm-houses, and other Half-timber Buildings in Shropshire, Hereford- shire, and Cheshire." By E. A. Ould and James Parkinson. 1904. 8. " Old Cottages, Farm-houses, and other Stone Buildings in the Cotswold District." By W. G. Davie and E. Guy Dawber. 1905. 9. " Old Cottages and Farm-houses in Kent and Sussex." By W. G. Davie and E. Guy Dawber. 1900. 10. "Studies from Old English Mansions." By C. J. Richardson. 4 folio vols. 1841- 1848. 11. Richardson on "The Architectural Remains of the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I." Folio. 1840. 12. "The Ancient Half-timbered Houses of England." By M. Habershon. Folio. 1836. 13. "Annals of an Old Manor-house: Sutton Place, Guildford." By F. Harrison. 1893. 14. "Details of Elizabethan Architecture." By H. Shaw. 1839. 15. "Old Halls in Lancashire and Cheshire." By H. Taylor. 1884. 1 6. Original drawings by John Thorpe in the Soane Museum. THE RENAISSANCE 261 17. Original drawings by Twopeny in the Print Room, the British Museum an invaluable collection, necessary to all students of English domestic architecture and decorative design. The sketches are very numerous and varied, and an excellent catalogue has been prepared by Mr. Laurence Binyon. 1 8. " House Architecture." By J. J. Steven- son. 2 vols. 1880. 19. "Lectures on Architecture." By E. M. Barry, R.A. 1881. 20. "The English Gentleman's House." By Robert Kerr. 1865. 21. "The Decorative Work of R. and J. Adam." Folio. 1901. Published by B. T. Batsford. 22. "A History of Renaissance Architecture in England." By R. Blomfield. 1897. An abridged edition appeared in 1900. 23. "The Life, Work, and Influence of Sir Christopher Wren." By A. Stratton. 1897. 24. " Architecture of the Renaissance in England." By J. A. Gotch. 2 vols. 1891- 1894. 25. " Early Renaissance Architecture in England." By J. A. Gotch. 1901. 26. " Later Renaissance Architecture in England." By J. Belcher and M. E. Macart- ney. 2 vols., folio. 1897-1901. 262 THE ENGLISH HOUSE 27. " Some Architectural Works of Inigo Jones." By H. Inigo Triggs and H. Tanner, Jun. Folio. 1901. 28. " A History of Architecture." By Professor Banister Fletcher and Banister F. Fletcher. Published by B. T. Batsford. 29. "The British Home of To-day." Edited by W. Shaw Sparrow. 1904. 30. " The Modern Home for Moderate In- comes." 1906. " Flats, Urban Houses, and Cottage Homes." 1907. Companion volumes to "The British Home of To-day." This list might be lengthened, but it gives, I believe, the books that appeal to the general public as well as to professional students, for they are enriched with admirable illustrations that enable a reader to travel about England without paying innumerable hotel bills and railway fares. To study architecture at first hand, by visiting houses and churches, is one of the most expensive pastimes that any one can cultivate, even although he may journey in his own motor-car ; while to study it in photographs and drawings in folios, books, and prints does not cost more than many popular hobbies, such as amateur photography, stamp-collecting, and other good things encouraged by newspapers. But there are few persons who understand how much the public owes to architectural THE RENAISSANCE 263 draughtsmen like Blore, Twopeny, and Nash, and to architectural photographers like Mr. Bedford Lemere and Mr. W. G. Davie. These men and many others have preserved for us examples of domestic work that the State would not protect from careless owners or from jerry-building enterprises. At the time when Queen Victoria came to the throne English country districts had many good relics of very ancient domestic architecture ; indeed, all the many phases through which the English house had passed since the Norman Conquest could be studied at first hand in various examples ; and if these works of history had been preserved by the State, or by the commercial common sense of our town councils, they would be to-day a source of revenue to many neighbourhoods, attracting students and visitors from far and near. But a craze for "restoration " set in, followed by a wish to " clear away old rubbish," as venerable houses were called by speculative builders ; and in this way many towns and villages were made unhistoric and unattractive. Hence it is fortunate for us that houses cannot be entirely destroyed if plans and pictures of them exist. We may still learn what England was from 1750 to 1850 by studying our topo- graphical draughtsmen, from Sandby and Hearne to Blore and Twopeny. From Twopeny much 264 THE ENGLISH HOUSE more than this may be learnt ; he is the Boswell of our English house, for his beautiful pencil drawings are a history of its evolution from the twelfth century to those mansions of orna- mented plaster which were built here and there during Charles II. 's time. Now that Two- peny's work is safe from injury, like many architectural drawings by earlier artists, there is no fear that the restoration and destruction ot historic houses and cottages will keep us from knowing what they were like outside and how their rooms were planned. Again, as house architecture in every period represents a phase of social manners and customs, there ought to be a public gallery in which every one might study this fine history of English family life. Plans, drawings, and photographs could be arranged in their right historical sequence, and a good catalogue would serve as an efficient lecturer. This may be too much to expect at the present time, but it is clearly a thing to be desired, and a beginning might be made at little cost if the Government issued portfolios of reproduced photographs for use in public libraries and in all schools. This, indeed, is the only way in which the story of the English house can be made as truly popular as it ought to be, because no book can afford the large number of illustrations THE RENAISSANCE 265 that this subject needs for every one of its styles and periods ; and, of course, there are many things in architecture as in other arts which cannot be described by any writer. Colour, form, pattern, subtle differences of treatment, and varieties of the same style are all indescribable, and they happen to be the very things that amateur students wish to know thoroughly. In a book like the present one, addressed to non-technical readers, the only thing a writer can do is to keep to those matters which can be made real by words with the help of a few pictures. By this means he may stir up here and there a genuine liking for his subject, and cause some readers to buy other books and a collection of photographs, such as may be obtained from Mr. Bedford Lemere, Strand, London. The following list of some famous houses will be a guide in the choice of subjects, from the fourteenth century to the Classical work of the nineteenth : Fourteenth Century 1. Ightham Mote, Kent, a moated manor- house containing work of many periods. 2. Stokesay Castle, Salop, circa 1291. 3. Markenfield Hall, Yorkshire, 1310. 4. The Hall at Penshurst, Kent. 266 THE ENGLISH HOUSE Fifteenth Century 1. Great Chalfield, Wilts. 2. Compton Wynyates, Warwickshire, with many later additions of the time of Henry VIII. 3. Haddon Hall, Derby, with later additions. 4. Crosby Hall, London, 1466-75. 5. Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk, tempus Edward IV. 6. Warkworth Castle, Northumberland. Sixteenth Century 1. A part of Hampton Court. 2. Moreton Hall, Cheshire, A.D. 155059. 3. Charlecote, Warwickshire, A.D. 1558. 4. Kirby, Northants, attributed to John Thorpe, A.D. 1570-75. 5. Knole, Kent, A.D. 1570. 6. Penshurst, Kent, 1570-85. 7. Burleigh, Northants, by John Thorpe, 1 575- 8 7* 8. Longleat, Wiltshire, attributed to John of Padua, and built in 156779. 9. Westwood, Worcestershire, dating from 1590. 10. Wollaton, Notts, by R. Smithson, A.D. 1580. 11. Longford Castle, Wilts, by John Thorpe, A.D. 1580, but much altered in the eighteenth century. THE RENAISSANCE 267 12. Hever, Kent. 13. Sutton Court, Surrey. 14. The ruins of Cowdray House, Sussex. 15. The Gate of Honour, Caius College, Cambridge, attributed to Theodore Haveus, of Cleves, A.D. 156574. 1 6. Nevill Court, Trinity College, Cam- bridge, by Ralph Simonds, A.D. 15931615. 'Jacobean and Stuart Period 1. Holland House, Kensington, by John Thorpe, A.D. 1607. 2. Bramshill, Hants, dating from 1612. 3. Hatfield House, Herts, A.D. 1611. 4. Audley End, Essex, by Bernard Jansen, finished in 1616. 5. Blickling Hall, Norfolk, A.D. 1620. 6. Montacute, Somerset. 7. Loseley Park, near Guildford. 8. Aston Hall, Warwickshire. 9. Chilham Castle, Kent, by Inigo Jones, transitional in style, with an E-shaped fafade of brick dressed with stone. The side wings radiate and form a horseshoe court behind. 10. The Quadrangle of St. John's College, Oxford, by Inigo Jones, also transitional. It is a delightful building, and its Gothic traits are all the more noteworthy because they date from the years 1 63 135, ten years later than Whitehall. 268 THE ENGLISH HOUSE Classical Architecture Inigo Jones (1572-1652). Banqueting House, Whitehall, 1619-21 ; the King's House, Greenwich, and Chevening House ; Stoke Park, 1630-34; Wilton House, Wiltshire, and Ash- burnham House, Dean's Yard, London. Webb) a pupil of Inigo Jones. The river fa9ade of Greenwich Hospital. Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723). Inner Court, Trinity College, Oxford, 1665 ; the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1679 ; King William's Palace at Hampton Court, 1690 ; Greenwich Hospital, the two blocks away from the river, 1698 ; Kensington Palace ; Chelsea Hospital ; Marlborough House, Pall Mall, built in 1709. Sir John Vanbrugh (1666-1726). Blenheim Palace, 1715 ; Castle Howard, Yorkshire, 1714 (see Plate 59) ; King's Weston, Gloucestershire, and Seaton Delaval, Northumberland. Kent (1684-1748). Holkham Hall, Norfolk, 1730 ; Devonshire House, Piccadilly, and the Horse Guards, London, in which he collabo- rated with the Earl of Burlington. Robert and James Adam (about 1728-92). Kedlestone Hall, Derbyshire (built in 1761) ; the Adelphi Terrace (see p. 244) ; some houses in Fitzroy Square, London ; Stratford Place, Oxford Street ; Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, A. THE GREAT HflLL B.THEPWNCIMLflMRTMENTJ C, THE CORRIDORS D, PRIVflTE DINIINtROOM E, CHflPEL r, KITCHEN 6, HUNTING flPflRTMENTS CLASSIC COUNTRY MANSIONS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. Reproduced by kind permission of Professor BANISTER FLETCHER'S " History of Architecture " (B. T. Batsford, Publisher). See pages 268 and 270. THE RENAISSANCE 269 and the College also ; Bedford Square, London, and Caen Wood, Hampstead. Nash (1752-1835). Buckingham Palace, afterwards altered by Blore ; Regent Street, Lon- don, and the blocks of houses around Regent's Park. Decimus Burton (1800-81). Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall, and the United Service Club. Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860). The Travel- lers' Club, Pall Mall, and the Reform Club ; Bridgewater House, where Gothic influence marks a transition of style. Sir James Pennethorne (180171). The western wing of Somerset House, and London University, Burlington Gardens. Pennethorne, influenced by Sir Charles Barry, broke away from the use of porticoes, and his style is often nearer to the English Renaissance than to Classic purity. But it is invidious to draw up a list of Classical buildings, because they abound in all English towns, and their variations of style appeal to everybody. To understand their his- tory is a lifelong study, which few architects have time enough to master ; but this need not deter laymen from taking pleasure in the treat- ment of Classic doorways, in the shape and disposition of deep-set windows, in the use of cornices, and in the difference between Greek 2 7 o THE ENGLISH HOUSE and Roman ideals of style. Professor Banister Fletcher has kindly allowed me to take from his book "A History of Architecture " two very useful drawings, one giving the plans and ele- vations of Castle Howard and Kedlestone Hall, and the other a comparison between Greek and Roman mouldings. These plates are not difficult to learn by heart, and when they are understood they become a guide to many forms of Anglo- Classic work. Compare Kedlestone Hall with the Adelphi Terrace and with Bedford Square, both of which are illustrated here, and you will see how the brothers Adam changed their style several times in the reign of George III. Hence we must not speak of " the Georgian manner " as though one type of house was built during the long span of years that separated the accession of George I. (1714) from the death of George IV. (1830). Nothing could be less correct. Houses were built in many styles and in many variants of one style. Castle Howard is very different from Kedlestone, yet both are Italian in spirit. They have, no doubt, some points of resemblance, for the ground floor in each is a basement, and a great external staircase leads to the porticoed entrance on the first floor, where the best rooms are situated. Note, too, that the saloon at Kedlestone is circular, like the Great Hall at Castle Howard. Architects of the THE RENAISSANCE 271 eighteenth century were fond of many-shaped apartments. It was no uncommon thing for them to round off the ends of oblong rooms, and to give further variety with the use of octagonal forms. These characteristics are interesting, but they denote only one kind of Georgian house, very different from the practical, street-bred type to be found in Hanover Square, Stratford Place, and other London localities. Still, the town and country houses had one thing in common under the Classic movement : their windows were long and narrow, so as to counteract the many horizontal lines. Other points concerning windows are mentioned in this book ; and we have also considered the treat- ment of doorways, another matter to which Classic architects gave great attention. At a time when English towns were badly lighted after dark, and when gentlemen drank too much, after the manner of Squire Western, it was very important that houses in a street should be easily recognised at all hours of the night ; and this consideration influenced architects in their designs for doorways. One other characteristic may be mentioned at this point, namely, the use of rustic work. It is described by Parker as dressed masonry, the joints of which are worked with grooves or channels, to make them conspicuous ; some- 272 THE ENGLISH HOUSE times the whole of the joints are worked in this way, and sometimes only the horizontal ones ; the grooves are either moulded or plain, and are formed in several different ways. In early examples of this rustic work the stones were purposely made rough, while at a later time they were usually made even. After stucco was introduced by Nash, during the Regency, rustic work was often applied to that material, grooves being made in the stucco to imitate joints between large stones. Again, many doorways in English streets have rusticated columns ; that is, the shafts of the columns are decorated with slabs of stone ; these are square in shape, and the shafts appear to run through them. Another type of doorway has a rusticated architrave, adapted from Palladio. There are usually either three or five keystones in the head, and four or five stretching-rustics at the sides, and a good trian- gular pediment to crown the whole design. The brothers Adam, in Bedford Square, used a different treatment, which may be studied in the illustration facing p. 248. Finally, though it is necessary to think of these details, we must not forget that the Renaissance must be looked at from a more general point of view as a great event in the life of England. What do we learn from it ? How should its m ts^^g?^:^ COMPARISON OF GREEK AND ROMAN MOULDINGS. Reproduced by kind permission from Professor BANISTER FLETCHER'S "A History of Architecture" (B. T. Batsford, Publisher). THE RENAISSANCE 273 long history guide us at the present time ? Many answers have been given to this question, but the one I prefer was written by Mr. E. M. Barry, R.A., and it is worth quoting : " If the art-history of Italy can teach us nothing else, it can at least show us a time when men cared about art, when prince and people united to honour the artist, and when great cities turned out their thousands to walk in procession after a work of genius, or to follow a great painter to his grave. The Renaissance also can indicate to us a path by which an advance may be made, even if we are unable to accept its principles unreservedly. It was a time of energy, an age of determination to carry out not only artistic decoration, but also the neces- sary public works of utility, demanded by the large populations which were beginning to gather in the fair cities of Italy. It was the great ambition of artists ... to improve and adorn their native places." To-day, on the other hand, " the state of our huge towns is too often an opprobrium not only to the architect, but to our public policy. . . . Is it too late to cleanse, improve, and adorn our grimy hives of industry to bring culture and beauty to the homes of our vast population ? " We may be sure of one thing at least. All artistic progress in the future must be sought by 274 THE ENGLISH HOUSE enlisting public sympathies ; the schoolmaster must show himself abroad, in art as well as in literature ; and building speculations must be watched with the greatest care, particularly by newspaper critics. There is, no doubt, a very noticeable improvement in large houses, and Garden Cities are hopeful, though their rooms are usually smaller than they need be ; and among art-workers there is abundant talent, which forms useful societies, like the Home Arts and Industries. But these facts are more than counterbalanced by the ill-built houses in which the great majority of us have to make our homes at an excessive cost in a high-rented discomfort. CHAPTER XIV PAST AND PRESENT ARCHITECTS :t f~ i "^HE science of building has scarcely | advanced since the days of the M Ptolemies," wrote E. M. Barry, R.A., " and our modern builders have little to boast of." This criticism is certainly true, and the reasons why house architecture is so often a failure to-day, except in work done for the well-to-do, may be stated in a few words. In former days, when the Gothic styles of archi- tecture were evolved, each generation worked in one way only, all others being either false or inconceivable. Changes came, but they were gradual, like those in any natural growth ; they passed unnoticed when they first appeared, though it is easy for us to measure them over centuries. The completed results of a long evolution lie before us as in a map, while those who did the work age after age were content to do their best with a traditional style which they had learnt during their apprenticeship. All this has been changed. " We have cut ourselves loose from tradition," says Mr. J. J. 275 276 THE ENGLISH HOUSE Stevenson. " Instead of accepting and trust- fully following the ways and customs handed down to us, we claim to be absolute judges of right, and make our individual preferences laws. It would need omniscience not to fail. . . . We cannot, as of old, trust the experts, for they are not themselves agreed. The thread of tradition has been cut, and there are no authoritative standards or articles of faith to which appeal can be made, and judgment given." There is thus a chaos of jostling opinions, and it prevents laymen from taking delight in architecture. Why should you spend money, and try to gratify the aims of architects, wher vou do not understand their discordant theories and beliefs ? If you employ a common builder you know at once where you are. His aim is one of trade, not of art. From each job he earns as much money as he can, and gives you, by way of compensation, a display of vulgar ornament in each room. Builders have no doubt at all as to what a house should be. So we are face to face with two kinds of domestic architecture : one is carried on by tradesmen as a gambling speculation, while the other is done by experts working in different styles, but with a sincere wish to be thorough. This division of labour, by affecting most of us ARCHITECTS 277 in our family life, has been disastrous. It is so easy to harm a racial character when bad homes are put up everywhere as a trade speculation ; and for this reason, among others, no distinction should be drawn between builders and architects. Houses are not inscribed with their authors' names ; they are either good or bad for the nation's family life ; and as such they should be judged. In this chapter, then, the word architects will include builders also, and my subject will be considered in its relation to ordinary house- holders, who toil hard for their little incomes. Many important matters have been shame- fully neglected in the great majority of modern houses and flats, but a foremost position must be given to walls and floors. These ought always to be as sound-proof as the art of good construc- tion can make them. It is not right it is not even decent that sounds should compel us unwillingly to spy upon each other's actions in private rooms. Modern walls are as indiscreet as a phonograph. They encourage scandal like village gossip, and make us quite as uncivilised in a hidden way as the Saxons were openly in their great hall, where women and men dressed and undressed together, and did not mind their unprivate customs. But we we go a step beyond that : we hear what {he Saxons were 278 THE ENGLISH HOUSE accustomed to see, and sounds are usually more eloquent than sights, affecting the imagination in a way that renders it meanly inquisitive, or cowardly and panic-stricken, or overtaxed in some other unwholesome manner. To hear the murmuring that comes from a sick-room during a time of dangerous illness the hushed talk, and the queer, soft, carpet-brushing footsteps to listen to that, during minutes that seem like hours, and hours like days, is anguish. It were better a thousand times to be in the room itself, where our eyes could question and read, where the patient's condition could be seen truly at a glance. And this applies to other things and sounds either common or usual in homes. When a person listens to a noise and tries to guess the meaning of it he finds that many unexpected things pop out of his character. We do not know what we are until we have been tested by the rustle of unseen move- ments and the talk of unseen neighbours. There are two kinds of eavesdropping, volun- tary and involuntary ; and the effect of each on character is demoralising. Many a child has had its mind debased by the thin walls separating n odern rooms. Even sounds that do not blab confidences, or make private actions known, are trouble- some and harmful. A piano heard from the ARCHITECTS 279 house next door, or from a flat under your own, is more distracting than it would be in your own study, because you feel that you have no power to stop it, that you are at its mercy whether you are ill or well, at work or at play. Sixteen years ago I lived in a block of flats designed by an architect. Under my rooms dwelt a middle-aged couple who quarrelled every night at bed-time. The man, whose work was connected with theatres, came home after midnight, and usually he was over-cheered with whisky and water. His wife " went for him " at once, and he replied in thunderclaps of bad language. To lie in bed and listen to the midnight battle, several times every week, did not help me to love my neighbour as my- self. The dispute went on into the small hours, at which time a feminine voice said a lingering last word ; and I knew from the snoring which accompanied it through my floor that the man was unaware of his defeat. As to the archi- tect who built those flats, he ought to be con- demned to live in them all his life, with the privilege of paying a second rent into the King's exchequer. What a " Chronique Scandaleuse " might be compiled from the evidence of those who have been unwilling eavesdroppers through walls and floors ! It would be far more varied than a 280 THE ENGLISH HOUSE popular newspaper issued for Sunday recreation. Families innumerable tell indiscreet confidences to one another without knowing it ; and ser- vants at the present time are unsafe confessionals in our Protestant homes, for they repeat what they overhear. Meantime, while the public suffers, what have architects to say ? Has their Royal In- stitute taken any practical steps at all likely to free us from an evil which renders privacy impossible in a million homes ? Has that society discussed the matter at public meet- ings, or tried in other ways to influence Par- liament ? All architects own that our modern floors and walls are rarely as sound-proof as decency demands, and some are advocates in favour of stern legislation. Beyond this they do not go, preferring to wait on events. The architectural profession seems to have taken for its motto a well-known line in the Midsummer Night's Dream : " When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer." It is we, the public, who must give the cue, and see that it is taken up in the right manner and spirit. Had there been any real combination among architects, a free trade in fraudulent building would have been checked many years ago, just as bad sanitation was overcome by an influence which scientific men took pains to spread ARCHITECTS 281 abroad. It is high time that medical officers of health should have a companion ; we need urgently a public surveyor of houses, with power not only to condemn thin floors and walls, but to report on wasteful fire-grates, ill-fitting windows, and other home grievances forced upon tenants by landlords. For health is deter- mined in our homes by many things, not by drains only. Further, year by year we have a Medical Congress, and many papers read at it, being reported by the newspapers, open the way for many improvements. Will the Royal Institute of British Architects ever begin to hold in public annually a conference dealing with all matters that affect the British house ? The subject discussed at each meeting could be limited to one thing of national value ; and the speakers should not be architects only, but tenants also, and district nurses, and doctors any persons, indeed, who gain special knowledge of a useful kind by their daily work. To get such varied information at the present time is exceedingly difficult, because there is no sys- tematised means of collecting it together ; and writers on domestic architecture are often pre- judiced ; some have their own axes to grind, while others think only of the good work encouraged by rich clients. Truth would come 282 THE ENGLISH HOUSE out at a yearly congress, and tenants would know then that their homes had a Parliament. As an example we may take the bathroom, a necessary room always. Yet it appears in most architectural plans as a hurried after-thought. Usually it is placed in a dismal corner away from the sun, and the north light enters through a tiny window. As a rule, also, it is too small for a fireplace ; and so we take hot baths in a chil- lingly cold air, and wonder why our families have coughs in winter. A great many dangerous illnesses are caused in this way, and I sometimes think that Arctic bathrooms account for many cases of " influenza." Anyhow, the old hand- bath was very much better for health and com- fort, because it was taken by a fire in a warm room. Again, if we look at other details of planning, with reference to ordinary houses, and to flats for moderate incomes, we find that enforced im- provements in the drains underground are often paid for by rash economies elsewhere, as in windows, fireplaces, and doors those draught- makers. A keen draught may be as harmful almost as a defective drain. To this fact many builders close their minds, as though they really wished to afflict tenants with a second income- tax to be paid in doctors' fees. Why else should they ventilate their plans with a battery of ARCHITECTS 283 crossing draughts which can't be escaped ? Im- perfect fire-grates are very common ; only a stift breeze will make them draw and keep them alight, and this comes to them from ill-fitting doors. Then we have the greatest enemy of all a huge window, almost as wide as the room itself, and divided into several lights. In winter this large surface of cold glass chills the warmed air, and newly-heated air displaces the chilled, driving it into the room a continuous draught. Hold your hand near a window-pane in winter, and you will feel the movement of this air current. A custom of breaking up our walls with too much window-space was brought into vogue partly by absurd building by-laws, and partly by a belief, common among house- holders, that rooms could not be well lighted through openings just big enough to be in scale with the surface area of the elevations. A house riddled with glazed holes never looks well ; it appears unsubstantial and insecure, recalling to one's recollection a criticism passed in old days on Hardwick Hall, in Derbyshire, of which the people said that it was " more glass than wall." Hardwick was built between the years 1590 and 1597, so that a misunderstanding existed in Elizabeth's time on the very question which we are now considering. Mr. Guy Dawber, F.R.I. B.A., an excellent authority on English 284 THE ENGLISH HOUSE architecture, is positive that our modern win- dows are much too big, and that we may learn many helpful lessons from well-lit rooms in old houses, where the actual openings are gene- rally small. Mr. Dawber has other good things to say : " Windows should be all of the same cha- racter, and sash windows and casements should not be placed together, in positions bearing the same relative proportion. Sash windows de- mand a more severe handling than casements, and a certain sense of rhythm and symmetry is essential, as the proportions are vertical instead of horizontal. Nothing is more unsatisfactory than sash windows of varying heights and widths, particularly when they are scattered about the elevations, since all dignity is lost unless they are proportionate one to the other. " Casements, to be sure, can be treated more elastically ; they are the easiest form of window to deal with, and allow of infinite variety in bays, in oriels, or in plain windows, whether of wood or stone ; and they may be stretched out into long and low windows, or coupled together and by means of transoms carried up to any height. Upon the balance and pro- portion of the windows much beauty in a house depends," ARCHITECTS 285 When Mr. Dawber goes on to say that windows, as a rule, and casements particularly, are too big and wide, his one aim is to make us reasonable ; he does not wish to hark back to the tiny windows in Early Gothic buildings. This problem is quite a simple question of balance and proportion. Any educated person can tell at a glance whether a piece of furniture is too large or too small for a given room ; and, with a little thought and attention, it is not more difficult to compare windows with the masonry surrounding them. Ruskin speaks about this subject in his " Lectures on Architecture," and his dislike for the incessant repetition of square-headed windows should be noted. Horizontal lines, repeated by a thousand window-heads in a street, are dull and monotonous, while a pointed window here and there is alert and attractive. A pointed arch, says Ruskin, is the most beautiful form in which a window or door-head can be built " not the most beautiful because it is the strongest," though it is stronger than a horizontal lintel, " but most beautiful because its form is one of those which, as we know by its frequent occurrence in the work of nature around us> has been appointed by the Deity to be an 286 THE ENGLISH HOUSE everlasting source of pleasure to the human mind."* Again, " you surely must all of you feel and admit the delightfulness of a bow window ; I can hardly fancy a room can be perfect without one. Now you have nothing to do but to resolve that every one of your principal rooms shall have a bow window, either large or small. Sustain the projection of it on a bracket, crown it above with a little peaked roof, and give a massy piece of stone sculpture to the pointed arch in each of its casements, and you will have as inexhaustible a source of quaint richness in your street architecture, as of additional comfort and delight in the interiors of your rooms." Then, " as respects windows which do not project. You will find that the proposal to build them with pointed arches is met by an objection on the part of your architects, that you cannot fit them with comfortable sashes. I beg leave to tell you that such an objection is utterly futile and ridiculous. I have lived for months in Gothic palaces, with pointed windows of the most complicated forms, fitted with * Ruskin counted the square-headed Classic windows in Queen Street, Edinburgh, including York Place and Picardy Place, but not counting any window which had mouldings. On one side of this thoroughfare he found 678, all precisely similar to one another, and altogether devoid of any relief by ornamentation ! ARCHITECTS 287 modern sashes ; and with the most perfect com- fort. But granting that the objection were a true one and I suppose it is true to just this extent, that it may cost some few shillings more per window in the first instance to set the fit- tings to a pointed arch than to a square one there is not the smallest necessity for the aperture of the window being of the pointed shape. Make the uppermost or bearing arch pointed only, and make the top of the window square, filling the interval with a stone shield, and you may have a perfect school of architecture, not only consistent with, but eminently conducive to, every comfort of your daily life." It is not always safe to accept Ruskin as a guide in domestic architecture ; some of his views are certainly open to question, though interesting and full of verve ; now and then, when speaking of styles which we ought to adopt for modern use, he has Italy in mind rather than England ; but in his admiration for pointed windows he is practically useful to us, for the beauty of that type of window has been handed on to us with our cathedrals and village churches, and we love it instinctively. Place two good designs side by side, let one be Gothic and the other in keeping with the spirit of Classic architecture, and I wager that ninety-nine Englishmen in a hundred will choose 288 THE ENGLISH HOUSE the Gothic at once, without a moment's hesita- tion. " This is what we like," they will say. Architects are very apt to forget this spontaneous popular verdict, and, forgetting it, they design a good many public buildings that the man in the street neither likes nor tries to understand. Perhaps they believe that they have a right to force their own tastes on their unmoved countrymen ; but no art can govern the present or the future unless people are drawn towards it by a natural impulse and a sympathy un- sought. When there were few architects in England each county had traditions of domestic building, precepts of taste and style as popular as the local accent in speech. From one generation to another they were handed on, improving with the social manners and customs. Ordinary masons understood these inherited ways of work, and used them in the happiest manner, for they brought into their architecture a freshness of feeling, a quaint, romantic sincerity, not unlike that which gave charm to folk-songs and ballads. English home architecture had then a national language enriched with many pleasant dialects, and a traveller might know in what county he was by looking at water-mills, and cottages, and farmhouses. Even now, after a century given to botched ARCHITECTS 289 craftsmanship, English villages retain enough old architecture to mark the chief and distin- guishing characteristics of local method and tradition in the various types of country house. Thus, for example, you will remember with delight the East Anglian homes built of brick and flint, their pantile roofs diapered with glazed tiles. Then there are districts where quiet, dignified houses look at us with white windows framed in red-brick walls, as in Berk- shire and the Thames valley ; or we may go into the counties of Gloucester, Oxford, Wor- cester, and Northants, where stone buildings make us familiar with the Cotswold style, which belongs to the period between 1580 and 1690. It was linked at first with the last development of Gothic architecture, the Perpendicular manner, which arose gradually from the Decorated style during the latter part of the fourteenth century, and continued to the middle of the sixteenth. Cotswold builders, who were encouraged by well-to-do sheep-farmers, were loyal to the bold and good qualities of Early Perpendicular ; for they could not afford to imitate the elaborate work common to that style in its last days. This was fortunate, because the tendency in all human work that is done with honest care is to pass from simple effects into a weakening debauch of ornament. The first principle of all fine archi^ T 2 9 o THE ENGLISH HOUSE tecture condemns this tendency, and says that the purpose of all detail and tracery is to strike the eye as ornamented construction, not to draw attention to itself as constructed ornament. For example, a window is designed to give light in an attractive way, and light is made beautiful by passing through tinted panes ; stonework may be carried across the top in a scroll of pierced tracery, because that enriches the structural form of a window arch ; but when tracery hides the greater part of the glazed surface a mason's craft has become more important than the light which a window ought to give, and is therefore used in a wrong manner. English provincial methods were good just because they progressed under conditions very friendly to excellent work of a simple kind. No countryside was then em- barrassed by a dozen different styles, each with a little circle of admirers. There was but one parent style, and it passed from churches into homes ; for the separation of religious and domestic architecture is modern and foolish, a home being as sacred as a church when its life is worthy. Englishmen in early times used Gothic for their houses, but translated it to suit their needs, showing, as we know, in various parts of the country, various qualities of local taste and method. Time passed, these characteristics were developed, and each county took just pride in ARCHITECTS 291 its own ways of building, in its own type of house ; so the people's taste was formed by its own habits and traditions, and its judgments, accordingly, were useful. Further, builders were granted money enough for the doing of good simple work, but no farmer, no landowner, was willing to spend his capital on unnecessary detail and ornament ; and thus the humbler kinds of English house were saved from that over- elaboration which found its way, here and there, into churches and into large country mansions, when a restraining need of money was not there to act as a despotic editor. Perhaps some exceptions to this rule are to be met with among the half-timbered houses of Cheshire and Lancashire, the walls of which are at times too variegated with black- and-white patterns, not unlike an old bed- quilt. In the Cotswold districts, on the other hand, a stern logic in the art of simple building was handed on with admirable common sense ; and any one who intends to build for himself an English stone house ought to visit those districts where lessons in the essentials of home architec- ture are abundant. Gables are very well treated ; mullioned windows with square dripstones are other Gothic characteristics ; and the masonry is excellent. A house from outside should suggest comfort and convenience within, and 292 THE ENGLISH HOUSE this the Cotswold houses rarely fail to do in the following localities : Gloucestershire : Stanton, Willersey, Paxford, Withington, Stow-on-the-Wold, Little Rissing- ton, Mickleton, Lechlade, Coin St. Aldwyn, Stroud, Weston Subedge, Aston Subedge, Bi- bury, Arlington, Chipping Campden, Ebrington, Painswick, Coin Roger, Bourton-on-the-Water, Laverton, Lilfield, Snowshill, Stanway, Saint- bury, and Cirencester. Northants : Harringworth, Gretton, Blis- worth, Colley Weston, Stamford, Yarwell, Duddington, Oundle, and Nassington. Oxfordshire : Finstock, Ducklington, Rams- den, Bampton, and Burford. Good examples may be found at all these places, and at Broadway, in Worcestershire, rang- ing from cottages to manor-houses, and from street dwellings to farms and rectories. I give two examples, and many other specimens may be found in Mr. E. Guy Dawber's excellent handbook, with photographs by W. G. Davie, published by B. T. Batsford in 1905. Although the Cotswold style is full of " grit," you will find that its granite-like qualities are softened by the same feeling for romance that timber houses have, and that belongs to a time when costumes were pictur- esque and when flowers were carried by men ARCHITECTS 293 at May Day festivals. We must never dis- sociate the romance of Gothic art from the mediaeval delight in gay colours and in lively pageants. Modern architects try to repeat this old quality, but not often with great success. Too often the romance does not appear at all, and architects marvel why their adapted home- liness should look dull and cold. The reason, I believe, is not usually far to seek. An architect should take his art into the open air. He works far too much in a stuffy office, for ever annoyed by a ringing telephone bell, and with so many helpers at times that he is spared neces- sary thought. This may be favourable to a man whose skill in obtaining commissions happens to be his only talent for architecture ; but it is not at all likely to encourage the best work, because domestic architecture is not merely a thing of town business habits. This matter concerns every man in the street, because rents are affected by building methods as well as by house agents. London is rapidly becoming a place where a moderate income is not only a tragedy, but a tragedy half played, with a workhouse to follow in a logical third act. This means that an average wage cannot afford to pay an average rent. Anything, then, which raises a landlord's cost in building raises the rent at the same time ; and so we must understand 294 THE ENGLISH HOUSE an architect's position as it affects the finance of house architecture. First, then, in what way is he paid ? His professional value to his client should be deter- mined by two things : his ability and his fame. As a specialist, a professional man, his market value is made by his success. Yet, somehow, his profession has brought into vogue a stereo- typed method of payment, and this method is opposed to all principles of good finance. Setting aside out-of-pocket expenses, like rail- way fares, an architect receives 5 per cent. on the cost of production, when that cost is more than 1000. Think what that means. You call in a man to help you to spend your money for a given purpose, and you find that you must ascertain his worth to you by the amount of money he can encourage you to spend. No sooner does he suggest an improve- ment than you begin to feel suspicious. " Is it necessary ? " you think to yourself ; " or is it a dodge to run up the costs ? " It were better for him and you, and better for the work in hand, if he received fees like a barrister, or like a specialist doctor. One may say this and yet be well aware of all the difficulties by which this question is surrounded, for there is certainly among architects a keen struggle to get the best results at the smallest possible expense. I have ARCHITECTS 295 never known it otherwise with any architect of my acquaintance. But the main point is that all business should be carried on in accordance with usual business customs, and a percentage on the cost of production is unusual. That is why it excites suspicion. Nor is it fair to architects, since the cost of a thing does not determine its beauty and artistic value. A small house by a great architect is worth a great deal more to any client than a large one by a designer with less talent and experience. Yet the larger house at the present time would be more profitable to its architect. Further, if domestic architecture is an art, and not merely a trade, its followers ought to live and work as artists; they cannot lose by so doing, and certainly they have lost much through a parade of methods opposed to art. In their profession there is talk from time to time about " the working ghost " ; and a routine of city business, with all its worries and office troubles, must interfere with the personal attention which every craftsman should give to his designs. Under such conditions no man could paint well, or compose an opera, or write a good book ; these things require time, thought, quietness, concentration, and invention. Are we, then, to suppose that architecture, unlike other arts, makes few calls on the higher faculties of a mind ? 296 THE ENGLISH HOUSE In so far as domestic architecture is con- cerned, this question must be answered affir- matively, because our English house creeps through the centuries in a very slow evolution, showing little creative work in any hundred years. How different it is from the art of paint- ing under the Van Eycks, which rises suddenly to perfection ! Here there is great invention and true genius ; while in home architecture, its history and progress, we think always, not of men, but of manners, not of artists eager to create, but of a whole conservative nation, reluctant to give up any custom, however primi- tive and barbaric. This does not invite us to think about architects. It is the national life, the national character itself, that rules here, from earliest times to our own day. Every change in the house plan has denoted one of two things : some change in household customs, or some new discovery, which architects have not (as a rule) originated, as in improved methods of sanitation and of lighting. These things, no doubt, are problems to be solved, and many a builder shakes his head over them and pulls a wry face, not unlike a domes- tic servant over spring cleaning. When his cue comes, and we call him, he answers with some reluctance, because he is really troubled by new difficulties, even when they are less ARCHITECTS 297 bothering than those which a good chess-player meets with in every game. " In old times," he says dolefully, " a builder was not worried as I am ; sanitation was very primitive ; there was no network of pipes and drains, no system of hot and cold water, no gas and electricity, and no fellows outside to make improvements for this, that, and the other." Such, then, is the average builder. He in- vents very little himself, and is not particularly delighted when discoveries by other men oblige him to modify his methods of work. It has been his lot to move slowly forward with an old routine. Other artists, again and again, have been far in advance of their own age and generation ; while he has never been quite contemporary with the present day, with his own time. We are always waiting for some- thing which he does not give ; better windows, for instance, which, while ventilating our rooms in summer, will keep out the street dust and its microbes. This shows a slowness of mind in all that belongs to creative work, and it has ever been noticeable in home buildings. At a time when the Gothic movement in churches reached its zenith, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, English houses were still rather primitive. Why ? It was because the Church would not linger by the way, but urged 298 THE ENGLISH HOUSE architects on. Rapid progress was demanded, so the Anglo-Norman style was developed with enthusiasm, and the Early English type of church came into being. In castles, too, architects made progress, driven forward by military wants, which changed rapidly; but else- where, in ordinary homes, there was little eager- ness for change, so progress was determined by a pressure of social needs on the people's conserva- tism, and how ineffectual that pressure was during long periods may be judged from one fact in the history of halls. As late as the forty-fourth year of Henry III.'s reign, A.D. 1261, all foul water from the royal kitchens at Westminster flowed through the two halls. Henry noticed that the smell from this open drain did harm to his courtiers and visitors, so he ordered his mason, John of Gloucester, to make " a certain conduit " through which all refuse might pass into the Thames. This conduit was a sewer under- ground ; hence it implies that some knowledge of sanitation existed then. Yet an open drain was kept open till the year 1261, in a king's palace, as though courtiers were as primitively unrefined as in Saxon times. During all the many years in which that dangerous thing pol- luted English houses architects were at work, but they could not advance more rapidly than the domestic civilisation of their times. ARCHITECTS 299 Even to-day, though we talk much about hygiene, there is at times a singular disregard for health. Many flats are planned with great carelessness. There are some with bedrooms that open into the kitchens, and there are others even worse. In these all " slops " have to be carried through the kitchens, and think what that would mean at a time of infectious illness. What do these facts signify ? Do they prove that architects are useless ? This question has been debated by several writers of eminence, and I cannot do better than give you the opinions expressed by Mr. Fergusson, whose " History of Architecture " is a thorough text-book of great value. He represents an extreme school of thought in all that belongs to an architect's position. His facts are well stated, but his deductions run into the Middle Ages, where the present time cannot go. It ought to be easy to improve modern methods of producing archi- tecture, but we cannot return to the spirit that put life into mediaeval ways of work, as Mr. Fergusson desires. Still, his criticisms are brisk and thoughtful. "An architect in practice," he says with some truth, " can never afford many hours to the artistic elaboration of his designs," and this explains " the remarkably small amount of thought that a modern building ever dis- plays." Further, " the evil has been aggravated 300 THE ENGLISH HOUSE in modern times by architecture being handed over too exclusively to professional men who live by it, and generally succeed more from their businesslike habits than their artistic powers." Here there is truth of a distorted kind. The tyranny of mere business over art is apparent in all branches of modern English architecture, except in large houses for the well-to-do. But you would not gain by design- ing your own home or by setting an amateur to do it for you, because years would pass before you or he could pick up the technical experi- ence which an architect has at his command, and without which co-operative work with craftsmen is impossible. To understand Fergusson's opinions we must remember that his ideals of work were those of a writer on history, the most exacting of all studies. He was thus astonished by the contrast between his own toil and the ease with which architects did their familiar plans. " These eminent persons," he wrote, "have been the bane of art for the last three hundred years." Their profession is a " spurious " thing, he con- tinued, very different from the practical and thorough system that gave England her mediaeval churches. Workmen in those days were fine craftsmen, and their chief, the master workman, was a true architect, for he had enough " imagi- ARCHITECTS 301 native power " to be " the life of art " ; " and in like manner the emancipated workman, gloriously impelled, must always be, and is, the only real hope of English architecture." What will the trade unions say to that ? Dreams are pleasant, and Mr. Fergusson perceived, amid the fogs and horrors of an industrial age, a new great architecture somewhere in the future, and a new spirit among builders. ' There will then be no need of the profession, and architects will subside into their proper places as book- makers, .artists, business-men, students of sym- bolism and archaeology, and, in fact, pupils and illustrators of those very workmen whom they now profess to direct and to control." Mr. J. J. Stevenson, in his " House Archi- tecture," published in 1880, replies to Mr. Fer- gusson's crusade ; and, while admitting " that a large proportion of modern houses are archi- tectural failures," he declines to give up hope. Modern architecture is certainly ill ; both writers agree on that point ; but Mr. Fergusson thinks of his patient's funeral, while Mr. Stevenson wants to aid in a recovery of health. One is a keen undertaker, the other a good doctor. But both agree in their diagnosis : present times are inferior to the past, they say. " Every old house is interesting," remarks Mr. Stevenson, " not because it is old, but because it 302 THE ENGLISH HOUSE is good. The style of one age may be better than another, but all are good in their way. . . . Old Gothic houses of every period of the style are beautiful. . . . Some may be better than others, but there are no failures such as we now constantly see produced. All are good archi- tecture of their kind, not great mansions only, but farmhouses and cottages in village streets. And these results were accomplished, not by a specially educated profession, like the architects of the present day, directing the tradesmen by means of drawings and instructions, but by common tradesmen themselves, without any superintendence. Every village mason could build houses and churches such as for excellence and accuracy in architectural style we vainly now, with all our knowledge, attempt to imitate." Not] that village masons were the only admir- able builders. There were architects of a dif- ferent class, learned men rather than workmen ; and you will find, in Britton's " Christian Architecture," the names of a hundred and fifty, together with the churches which they designed. They worked in England during the Middle Ages, so that modern architects have a good ancestry, and their duty is to uphold its best traditions. Again, is it not time that architects should have ARCHITECTS 303 a degree, not only recognised by the State, but accorded by the State ? Degrees, to be sure, do not guarantee a practical efficiency ; but they give men a professional status, and exami- nations are feared by charlatans and duffers ; and this has a real importance when a profession affects a nation's life and character, as in architec- ture, in medicine, and in Holy Orders. For this reason, too, public opinion should be an architect's critic as well as his client. At present he never feels that whip with a thousand thongs which newspapers keep for writers, painters, actors, and dramatists. A writer of a bad play is flogged in one week by all the leading news- papers in England, for those in country places quote from the best-known London critics. Indeed, there is so much ado that a bad play might well be a danger to the British Empire. Yet it does harm only to the dramatist and his company ; while a single bad plumber, a single slipshod builder, does more mischief in a year than all the bad plays written in a century. What we need, then, first and foremost, is newspaper criticism for all who are engaged in house architecture. It is absurd that the most necessary of all arts the one that affects a nation's home life and character should be free from public criticism. And then, of course, there is the all-important relation of architects 304 THE ENGLISH HOUSE with their clients. Ought they to have a free hand ? Which styles are best suited to our wants and to our climate ? In what way ought designs to be submitted for approval, and how should clients study them? These questions will be considered in the next and last chapter. O ^ < a 25 CHAPTER XV ARCHITECTS AND THEIR CLIENTS MANY architects are of opinion that they ought to have a free hand after their designs have been approved. Why ? Other professional men have a public to fear, and the King himself is influenced by popular opinion. Should an architect be an exception ? One critic gives the following reply : " The relation of an architect towards his client is a matter of very great importance. To describe it accurately is difficult, but one may say with truth that the average client either regards an architect with indifference, or else looks upon him with some suspicion as an expensive luxury." This applies also to the popular notion of many other public servants, like doctors, lawyers, and barristers. We don't love these men, but we go to them when we need them. On the other hand, " only a person here and there recognises an architect as a quite neces- sary adviser," which implies something wrong in the state of England or in the profession 305 u 306 THE ENGLISH HOUSE of architecture maybe in both. Then the critic goes on to say " that when an archi- tect of position is given a free hand, more or less, the house he builds is a real success, harmonious in all its parts, being carried out as a single scheme in obedience to the direc- tion of one trained mind." But this point, even when granted, does not carry us to any definite conclusion. An architect builds a house not for his own use, but for that of his employer, and the best judges may hold divergent opinions on the simplest questions of good taste. To complain is futile, and to whimper about it is nothing more than a trivial adventure in self-pity. " It is not often," we are told, " that an architect has a free hand. His art is usually a thing of compromise ; and what can be more disheartening to a man of genius than compromise, in an essential matter of design and art ? " Yet this trouble has to be borne by all artists. Those who live to please must please to live. Thackeray, for example, had a wish to draw a young man truly, though with less detail by far than Field- ing allowed himself in " Tom Jones " ; but his readers cried out for compromise, some cancelled their subscriptions, and the author wrote with frankness of his defeat. He was wistful rather than surprised or indignant ; and that is what ARCHITECTS AND CLIENTS 307 an architect of genius should be when he is obliged to compromise. Besides that, there is no reason in domestic architecture to talk of genius, because the pro- gress of building has owed little to individual men, being a thing of very slow and gradual development ; and for this reason, when an archi- tect begins to talk about originality, new schemes, and other great ideas, a discreet client is not in the least awed. His one wish and there is no harm in it is to have a simple, good house that will not invite too much attention, like the originality of 1'Art Nouveau. He does not want his neighbours to say, " Oh, yes, how novel ! how very remarkable ! " A desire to be original at any cost is now so common among artists that a fettered hand is coming rapidly into vogue, imposed by a dearth of buyers and patrons. L'Art Nouveau had a short reign with English house-builders, who did not enjoy the popular verdict passed upon it in country places ; and this experiment in " created architecture," as it was called, stares at us in public places. Its results cannot be put out of sight, like bad pictures and dead books. To ask for a free hand in house archi- tecture is not politic. This said, we can pass on to the plans and elevations as they affect a client's home interests. 308 THE ENGLISH HOUSE On this matter a good many necessary things ought to have been written long ago. First as regards the choice of a style. You can never go wrong if you choose the local style that flourished years ago in your part of England. It is native to the place, it is quiet and beautiful ; and it will seem new when adapted to your present-day needs, because your architect will put something of himself into his modernised version. Perhaps you may live in a district where local by-laws forbid you to build a weather-boarded house of the Kentish type, though it is good and safe when constructed in a right way. Reform in by-laws that affect architecture is a question of the hour ; and, happily, the Local Government Board is alive to this fact. To forbid good methods and materials, while sanctioning any amount of horrible jerry-labour, is Gilbertian irony in a tragic vein. Still, if you may not build a weather-boarded house, choose with care and judgment some other familiar style, like the Cotswold ; it will not be discordant in any country district, because English landscape is English everywhere, like the character in local types of cottage, and farm, and manor-house. For all that, your style should be chosen with your site when you go outside your own neighbourhood for a type KENTISH HOUSES AT TONBRIDGE. Reproduced by kind permission of Mr. B. T. BATSFORD, from Mr. E. GUY DAWBER'S book on Kent and Sussex. ARCHITECTS AND CLIENTS 309 of house. Grey stone may be too cold in colour for some places ; and there is a kind of native affinity between the wooded landscapes of Surrey or Sussex and the rich, tiled buildings. In this matter your architect will help you ; but do not swerve from your determination to be English. Your position is that of an editor who wants a given subject put into an English dialect, not into Anglo-Italian, nor any other style that centuries of copying have brought into Engjand as a free import. This choice of a style being settled, plans come in to disturb your peace, though they seem at first to be simple things. Your architect examines the site, measures it, notes where the trees grow, studies the landscape back- ground, and reminds you somehow of a good chess-player face to face with a new problem. There is nothing unimportant here ; everything counts for much in the game to be played. When this examination of the site is finished there are several things which you must not fail to do, unless you want to be disappointed with the plans. If you have furniture and intend to use it in your new house, you should prepare a complete list of it, with the exact size of each piece, naming the room in which it will be put ; and you should ask the architect to show on his plans how the furniture will be placed in each 3io THE ENGLISH HOUSE room. This matter is worth noting, because it is all-important that house and furniture should go well together. You wish to be certain, for example, that your study will be large enough for your bookcases ; and that when the writing-table is put in its position, with the light falling over your left shoulder, you will be able to move without jamming your chair against a bookcase. This sort of thing happens in thousands of studies. I am sitting now at my desk in a London flat, with a huge window before me, and a great draught passing between it and a badly placed door ; some architect quite forgot to think of furniture when he designed the room. If I turn my desk sideways there is less than a yard's space between my chair and a print-chest. But I do not know what difficulties the archi- tect had to contend against. Possibly that ill- placed door made an increase of five shillings a week in the rent of the whole block, and to matters of this kind landlords attach great importance. How many bedrooms do you know in which the furniture does not occupy far too much air-space ? How many dining-rooms where a waitress can move with comfort to herself and others ? Such rooms are not to be found in houses and flats for moderate incomes. You may spend 200 a year in rent for a flat, and ARCHITECTS AND CLIENTS 311 get unhealthy band-box rooms. But since you intend to build a house for yourself you can give up this modern home life, with its bad specula- tion in tiny rooms and tall rents. Only you must be on your guard, and decline to look at any plans in which your furniture is not well placed. It happens pretty often that the innocent- looking thing known as a plan sets a husband and wife at variance, to the amusement of their children. Their quarrel may not be serious, but men may be glad to know how it arises. Your architect, having finished his designs, calls with them and explains their meaning in a delightful manner. The plans are spread out upon a table, and you and he bend over them together. The architect speaks ; his words come trippingly; and his right hand is not less eloquent, for it travels over the plans with a kind of rhythmic assurance, stopping here and there to give point to the description. All seems right and transparently good and clear. " A fool could understand this," you say with enthusiasm. " Well, I've tried to meet your wishes," the architect replies, diplomatically. "Jove, but it's good ! " you go on, though lost in a little maze of lines near the scullery and kitchen. Somehow you don't feel able to ask 312 THE ENGLISH HOUSE questions after hearing such a lucid account of some rooms and a staircase or two. What in the world could be simpler than that ? And why should you give away your technical inex- perience when your architect is so reasonable and his elevations are plainly what you need ? So the architect goes home in fine feather, carrying the approved designs with him. At dinner you repeat to your wife what you remember of the architect's description, only to find that it is received in a silence filled with questions to be spoken. For an English house- wife is a critic in these matters, keen and quick, arriving at clear judgments while her husband talks about non-essentials. It is not for nothing that architects fear an English housewife. Let her see any home, and she will describe it accurately, noting every point in it, both good and bad. She seems to have an eye in every nerve, and a good ounce of common sense in every criticism. That is why your wife listens coldly, and then probes your mind with questions : 1. What distance separates the kitchen from the dining-room ? 2. Is the kitchen well ventilated, or will it drive cook to give notice in summer ? 3. Is the hall a passage-way for servants, or can the front door be reached without passing through the hall ? 2 W *"" -^H HH O > o 3 fr < A w o .-a a * s H j2 - o .a u B v .% Q "5- I 6 X V <2 I !8i 330 INDEX AND GLOSSARY COTSWOLD DISTRICT, and its style of house architecture, 135, 138, 149, 289, 291 ; Cotswold villages and towns, 292 ; the style admirably useful as a guide in modern work, 308. See the illustrations of the Rectory at Coin Roger and the Manor House, Withington COTTAGES : For the evolution of round huts into squared booths and cabins see Chapter I. ; for the poor man's home see Chapter X. ; for rustic styles of house-building, 288-93 COURTS, INNER, a Roman feature in domestic architecture, 35 ; they survive in Cornwall, according to Richard Carew, A.D. 1602, 35-36 ; they reappear at Hengrave Hall, 191, and Longleat Hall, 192 ; also at Crewe Hall, 213, and Holkham, 227 COWDRAY HOUSE, SUSSEX, beautiful Tudor ruins, 147 ; its oriel win- dows, 147, 204 CREWE HALL, CHESHIRE, built between 1615 and 1636 ; its staircase, 200, 201 ; its exterior architecture contrasted with that of Wollaton, 212 ; its use of the Classic orders, 212 ; its inner court and its hall, 213 CRITICISM, PUBLIC, essential to the progress of modern house-building, 303 CROCKETS, projecting leaves or bunches of foliage used in Gothic architecture to decorate the angles of canopies, spires, &c., or the sloping edge of a gable, 141 CROMWELL, his destruction of castles, 258 CROSBY HALL, London, built by Sir John Crosby between 1466 and H75> '59 CUSPS : The ornamentation of the heads of windows ; the termina- tions of Gothic tracery, some trefojl, others quatrefoil, &c. DADO : The portion of a pedestal between its base and cornice. A term also applied to the lower parts of a wall when they are decorated separately, as in genuine old Adam houses, 248 DATS, the high or principal table at the end of a hall, at which the chief guests were seated with their host; it was raised above the level of the floor, 124, 125, 139, 196, 213 DAVIE, W. G., his architectural photographs, 260, 263 DAWBER, E. GUY, F.R.I. B. A., on chimneys, 97 ; on timber houses in Kent and Sussex, 172 ; his books, 260; on windows, 283-84 DECORATED GOTHIC, a continuation of Early English, and sometimes INDEX AND GLOSSARY 331 called the Second Pointed style ; it lasted, approximately, from 1307 to 1377, 12 ; a Decorated fireplace illustrated, 98-99 ; at Markenfield Hall, Yorkshire, 135. The characteristic ornament of this style is the ball-flower, so called because it resembles a ball placed in a circular flower, the three petals of which form a cup around it. The prevailing ornament in Hereford Cathedral, in the south aisle of the nave of Gloucester Cathedral, and else- where, as at Bristol. A flower resembling this, but having four petals, is sometimes found in Late Norman work ; it is never used in long suites, like the ball-flower in Decorated Gothic DEFENSIVE ART OF WAR, in feudal times, defective, 69, 70 DENTILS : Tooth-like ornaments, used originally in the bed-moulding of Ionic and Corinthian cornices. They are common in Anglo- Classic work DEPRESSED ARCHES that is, arches with flattened heads form a characteristic of fifteenth-century Gothic and Tudor, 142, 143, 147, 148 DIFFERENCE in spirit between Gothic and Classic styles explained, 137-38 DISCOMFORT, its bad effects on home life and house architecture, I, 3, 73, 277 ^ "!> DOG-TOOTH : See Tooth Ornament DOORWAYS, Gothic, 139, 142, 147 ; Classic, 209, 242, 243, 245, 271, 272 DORIC ORDER : The oldest and simplest of the three orders of archi- tecture used by the Greeks, but ranked as second of the five orders employed by the Romans. Its characteristics, 214-15 DORMER WINDOW : A window pierced in a roof, and so set as to be vertical while the roof slopes away from it. Therefore a window in a sloping roof. In?old days it usually lighted a bedroom, and hence its name. See the illustration of the cottages at Ease- bourne DOUBLE-CONE MOULDING, in Norman work, 54 DRAINS, open, in Westminster Hall, during a part of Henry III.'s reign, 103 ; they are displaced by a drain underground, 298 DRAUGHTS, in Saxon halls, 41 ; in thirteenth- century houses, HO ; in modern rooms and flats, 282 DRAUGHTSMEN, ARCHITECTURAL, their historic value, 262-64 332 INDEX AND GLOSSARY DRIPSTONE, label, or hood-mould, the termination of a projecting moulding in Gothic architecture put over the heads of doorways, windows, archways, &c., generally for the purpose of throwing off rain, 115, 135, 142, 143, 154 DUNSTER, in Somersetshire, timber house at, 146 DUTCH influence during the reign of William and Mary, 257 EARL'S BARTON, NORTHANTS, Saxon tower at, 49, 50, 51 EARLY ENGLISH GOTHIC : Grew out of the Norman style, and developed into the Decorated work of the fourteenth century. Tooth ornament and lancet windows are the main characteristics of Early English. See pp. 12, 58, 98, 100, 141, and Chapter XII. EASEBOURNE, SUSSEX, cottages at, 173 EAST BASHAM HALL, NORFOLK, chimney at, Tudor period, 99 EAVES : The lower portion of a roof jutting out beyond the face of a wall ECHINUS : Properly the egg-and-tongue ornament originally used in the Ionic capital, but often applied to the bold projecting ovolo of the Doric cap EDLINGHAM CASTLE (circa 1330), fireplace at, illustrated, 91 EDWARD I., 165 EDWARD III., 121, 129, 130 EDWARD IV., 142, 147 EGG-AND-TONGUE, a Classic ornament, 219. See also the Plate giving a comparison of Greek and Roman mouldings ELIZABETHAN ARCHITECTURE, fireplaces, 92. See also Chapter XI., and the list of books in Chapter XIII. ELMES, H. L. (1815-47), builds St. George's Hall, Liverpool, in imitation of a Greek building, 224 ELTHAM PALACE, its roof and hall, 159 ENTABLATURE : The superstructure which lies horizontally upon the columns. It is divided into architrave^z part immediately above the column ; frieze, the central space ; and cornice, the upper mouldings that project. At Longleat Hall, 193 EXTERIOR DECORATION of houses, in Norman times, 76 ; in later times, sec the illustrations of timber houses, and the ornamented plaster house of the time of Charles II. EXTON, in Rutland (circa 1350), chimney from, 98 INDEX AND GLOSSARY 333 FAMILY LIFE, the true architect of houses, I ; modern houses in their relation to family life, 277, 278-80 FAN VAULT : A system of vaulting that belongs to our English Perpendicular Gothic. All the ribs have the same curve, and resemble the framework of a fan FANLIGHTS, above Classic doorways, 243, 244 FARNESE PALACE, at Rome, influences Sir Charles Barry in his design for the Reform Club, Pall Mall, 228 FERGUSSON, his ' History of Architecture," 255 ; his love for the Middle Ages, 299 ; his attack on modern architects, 299 ; his criticisms overstated and unpractical, 300 FIFTEENTH CENTURY, houses of, 131-34, 140-43, 266 FINIAL: A knot or bunch of foliage, or foliated ornament, that forms the upper extremity of a pinnacle in Gothic architecture, or ot some other architectural feature, like a canopy or a spire. Gable- crests are sometimes called finials, 142 FIRES, GREAT, in London: A.D. 1135, 61 ; A.D. 1212, 66 ; A.D. 1666, 232 FIREDOGS, or andirons, 90, 125. The oldest firedogs now extant are said to belong to the end of the fifteenth century, and these have often engraved upon their upright standards the letters I.H.S., as though they were originally made for monastic or religious houses. In the reign of James L. and later, andirons were sometimes decorated with silver FIREPLACES : See Chapter VI. In the Adam style, 208, 249 ; in modern houses, 282-83 FISHERTON, near Salisbury, round Neolithic pit-dwellings at, 18, 21 FLAMBOYANT GOTHIC, 136, 145 FLATS, 130, 133, 249, 277, 282, 310 FLAXMAN, sculptor, 246, 250 FLEMISH RENAISSANCE, how it has influenced some modern houses in London, 238 FLOORS, in Roman villas, 35 ; in Norman halls, 59 ; in Henry III.'s time, 108 ; their defects in modern houses for moderate incomes, 277-80 FLUTES, in Classic architecture, described, 216; on Norman columns, 55 FONTHILL ABBET, built by James Wyatt, A.D. 1820, 224 334 INDEX AND GLOSSARY FOURTEENTH CENTURY, houses of, 123-28, 133, 134-38, 139, 265 FRENCH RENAISSANCE, its influence on Thorpe, 203 ; on modern architecture, 206; on Sir Christopher Wren, 233 ; on Chippendale and his contemporaries, 257 FRIARS, the, and their work in England, 163 FRIESLAND, MODERN, its domestic customs have much in common with those in the North of England in 1577, 176 78 FUNERAL MOUNDS, prehistoric, in their relation to house architecture, 26,27 FURNITURE, references to, 59, 77, 92, 125, 126, 151, 166, 170, 257, 309 GABLE : Gothic characteristic. The triangular portion of a wall marked by the enclosing line of a roof. Anciently formed with bent trees known as gavels, 30; at Nursted Court, Kent, 139 ; at Great Chalfield, Wiltshire, 140 ; their history sketched, 141 ; on Tudor houses, 153, 160 ; at Crewe Hall, 213 ; on houses in the so-called Queen Anne style, 238, 239; compared with Classic pediments, 245 ; in the Cotswold style, 291 GALLERY, LONG, in Elizabethan and Jacobean houses ; their origin, 134; some famous examples mentioned, 219-20. See also the illustrations of the Long Galleries at Hatfield and Lanhydroc GAVELS, bent trees, or bent dressed timber, used in pairs to form the arched gable-ends of rustic houses, 30, 164. Gavels became a popular term for gables GEORGIAN ARCHITECTURE : Though belonging, in the main, to the pediment and portico style first introduced by Inigo Jones, it had yet much variety, including houses without porticoes. Compare the examples illustrated of the work done by the brothers Adam. The best English furniture produced during the reigns of the Georges can scarcely be excelled. See Chapter XII., particularly the latter part of it. It is to be remembered that the popular Renaissance manner known as " Queen Anne " belonged to the eighteenth century, and was active during the reigns of the Georges, so that the porticoed and pedimented style must not blind us to the merits of other Georgian work GIBBONS, GRINLING, his woodcarving too realisti^ 145 GLASS, its use in England, 80, no, in, 113, 146 INDEX AND GLOSSARY 335 GLASSWORKERS, English and foreign, 113, 114 GLASTONBURY, near, the marsh -village, 18, 23, 27, 28 ; beautiful old 'inn at, 147 GOWER STREET, LONDON, an example of routine Classic architecture, 207, 208, 243, 245 GOZZARDINI, BETISIA, an Italian lady of the thirteenth century, starts the higher education of women, influencing England, 3 GREAT CHALFIELD, WILTSHIRE, manor-house of the fifteenth century, 135, 140, 142 ; ceiling in the Great Hall, 198 GREEK ARCHITECTURE, 7, 214-17 ; copied by English architects, 224, 229 ; this Anglo-Greek work condemned by the late J. J. Steven- son, 230-31 GREEN, this colour much used by Henry III. in his room decorations, 102 GREENWICH HOSPITAL, the two blocks furthest from the river are by Wren, 234 ; the river fa$ade, by Webb, a pupil of Inigo Jones, 268 GROSSETESTE, ROBERT, Bishop of Durham, 1235, opposes innovations in family life, 121-22 GUILLOCHE, a Classic ornament in the form of two or more bands or strings twisted over each other in a continued series, leaving circular openings which are filled with round ornaments, 219. See also the Plate giving a comparison of Greek and Roman mouldings GunvE, small cones attached to the lower part of the triglyphs, and also to the lower faces of the mutules, in a Doric entablature, and said to represent in stone the rain-drops which gathered under the wooden cornices of earlier Greek temples, 218 GUTTERS, their use in London in the twelfth century, 63 ; an open gutter in Westminster Hall, A.D. 1261, is done away with by Henry III., 298 HALF-TIMBERED HOUSES, consisting of a framework formed of wooden posts, and the interstices filled with brick or with plaster : Sec Timber HALL : The history of this room is virtually the history of the English house plan. Information concerning it is given in all the chapters 336 INDEX AND GLOSSARY HAMMER-BEAM ROOF : This kind of roof belongs to late Gothic times, and has no direct tie. The ends of hammer- beams are often ornamented with heads, shields, or foliage, and sometimes with figures, as in Westminster Hall, or with pendants, as in the hall at Eltham Palace, illustrated p. 158 HAMPTON COURT, 149; the Great Hall, built by Henry VIII. 157-58 HARDWICK HALL (A.D. 1590-97), its Long Gallery, 220; its large windows, 283 HARRISON, in the year 1577, wrote his book on England, 177, and gave useful information on houses, 178 HATFIELD HOUSE, dating from 1611, its Long Gallery, 217 HEARNE, THOMAS, topographical painter in water-colour, 263 HENGRAVE HALL, SUFFOLK (A.D. 1538), 190-91 HENRY III. : See Chapter VII. HENRY VIII., 147, 149, 187-88 HEREFORDSHIRE TIMBER HOUSES, 175, 182 HEVER CASTLE, KENT, its ceilings, 197 HIP-KNOBS : A finial, or other ornament, at the intersection of the hip rafters and the ridge. This term is sometimes used to denote gable-crests, 141-42 HOARDS, on mediaeval castles, 71-72 HOLKHAM HALL, NORFOLK, designed by W. Kent in 1730, 226-27 HOLLAND HOUSE, KENSINGTON, by John Thorpe, 1607, 202 HONEYSUCKLE ORNAMENT, the Greek anthemion, 219, 244 HORIZONTALISM, the main characteristic of Classic architecture, 137; but it appeared also in English Gothic, as at Markenfield Hall, 137 ; and in Tudor work, 149 HOSPITALS, mediaeval, 167 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE, its slow development, I, 296 HOUSE, ENGLISH, and its periods, n, 12 IFFLEY CHURCH, OXFORDSHIRE, Norman period, 55 IMITATION, by men, is like history, a collector of known things and an artist in their use and interpretation, 19 IMPOST : The member, usually formed of mouldings, on which an arch immediately rests INNS OF COURT, their origin, 68 INDEX AND GLOSSARY 337 INTERIOR DECORATION, Norman, 59, 76 ; in the thirteenth century, 102, 106, 107, 109, no ; in Tudor times, 153-54, I 5^ ) 157- See also Chapters XL and XII. IONIC ORDER, one of the three Greek orders of architecture, and one of the five Roman orders, easily known by its capital with spiral volutes or curls of stone, 214, 215 IRISH, ANCIENT, and their round houses, 23 ITALY, and the higher education of women, 3. See also the chapters on the Renaissance JACOBEAN Long Galleries, 134. See also Chapter XL JAMBS : The sides of the openings of doors and windows. The part outside the window-frame is called the reveal JOHN OF PADUA, an Italian architect in England, his life, 188-89 ; his reputed work at Longleat Hall, 192-94 JONES, INIGO, 226, 255, 256, 267, 268 KEDLESTONE HALL, by the brothers Adam, 270 KENT, timber houses, 182 KENT, W., architect, designs Holkham Hall, Norfolk, in 1730, 226 KERR, his book on " The English Gentleman's House," 191, 192 KEW PALACE, built in the so-called Queen Anne style, 239 KEYSTONE : The central stone of an arch KING WILLIAM'S PALACE, Hampton Court, 234 KING-POST: A beam that extends from the ridge of a roof to support a tie-beam in the centre KINGSLAND, HEREFORDSHIRE, cottages at, 174 KITCHEN, the, and its history, 39, 127, 128, 312 KITSON, SIR THOMAS, builds Hengrave Hall, Norfolk, in 1538, 190 L'ART NOUVEAU, 307 LABOURERS, 176, 180, 181 LAKE-DWELLINGS, 4, 15 LANCET ARCH : A sharp-pointed arch that resembles a lancet, and that belongs as a rule to Early English Gothic i.e. t the thirteenth century LANDLORDS, their influence on house architecture, 242-43, 281, 310 Y 338 INDEX AND GLOSSARY LANHYDROC, CORNWALL, and its Long Gallery, 134. See also the illustration LAYER MARNEY, ESSEX, built in 1530, its good ceilings, 197 LAYMEN, in their relation to house architecture, 230, 231, 235, 276 LEAD, as used in architecture, 38, 40, 67, 75, 118 LEAF-AND-DART, a Classic ornament, 219. See the illustration LELAND, his remarks on Bolton Castle, quoted and explained., I 85-86 LEPERS, MEDIEVAL, and their hospitals, 83, 167 LEVENS, WESTMORELAND, its fireplace, 93 LIGH, VALENTIN, describes how the old measure was ascertained for a rood of land, 165 LINEN PATTERN, a common design on Tudor wainscots, 156. See also the illustration of Thame Park, Oxfordshire LINTEL : The piece of timber or stone that covers an opening and supports a weight above it LITTLE WENHAM HALL, dating from 1281, 117-20. See also the illustrations LONDON, 5, 61, 83, 94, 103, 104, 186, 207, 208, 232, 235, 240, 241, 245, ' 246, 293, 317 LONG GALLERIES, 134, 219 LONGLEAT HALL, WILTSHIRE, attributed to John of Padua, 189, 192, 193, 194 Louis QUATORZE, effect of this style in England, 257 MANOR-HOUSES, 101, 138, 142 MARGATE: Near this town are "Queen Anne" houses built with grey flints and red bricks, 239 MARKENFIELD HALL, YORKSHIRE (A.D. 1310), 134, 135, 136-37 MARLBOROUGH HOUSE, PALL MALL, by Sir Christopher Wren, 234 MARSH-DWELLINGS, 4, 15, 23 MASONS, their work in English rural places long ago, 288 ; could design admirably, 302 METHODS, modern architectural, 293 MIDDLEMEN, 5, 182 MEITZEN, PROFESSOR, on modern Frisian and Saxon farms, 177, 178, 179, 180 ; the relation of this to old English country life, 177, 178, 180 INDEX AND GLOSSARY 339 MILITARY ARCHITECTURE in its relation to domestic needs, 68, 70-72 MINSTRELS' GALLERY, 124, 125, 213 MIXED STYLES, partly Gothic, partly Classic, 235, 241, 256. See also Elizabethan, Jacobean, Queen Anne MODILLIONS : Projecting brackets in a Corinthian cornice MONTACUTE, SOMERSETSHIRE, its Elizabethan Long Gallery, 220 MORETON HALL, LITTLE, CHESHIRE (A.D. 1559), I 59~^o MORRIS, WILLIAM, and his delight in pattern, 145 ; a believer in Gothic art, 258 MUD, as a plaster for walls, 18 MULLIONS, Gothic features, upright bars to divide windows into different numbers of lights, these being usually glazed in leaded panes, 146, 147, 154, 194, 204. Note their use in the transitional styles, as at Longleat Hall and Crewe Hall MUTULES : Projecting inclined blocks in a Greek Doric cornice, and supposed to be derived from the ends of wooden rafters NASH, JOSEPH, architectural draughtsman and author of " The Man- sions of England in the Olden Time," 92, 134, 155, 201, 202, 263 NASH, architect, of the Regency, introduced the age of stucco, built Regent Street, laid out Regent's Park into blocks of Classic houses, and designed Buckingham Palace, afterwards altered by Blore, 269 NATIONAL LIFE, in its relation to architecture, I, 6, 296, 319; Sir Christopher Wren gave insufficient thought to this matter after the Great Fire of London, 232-33 ; want of national feeling in Renaissance houses from the seventeenth century to the nine- teenth, 221 ft ieq.-y Alexander Pope noticed this fact, 151-52; modern improvement in this respect, 223, 25 1 ; national criticism needed, 317-19 NAVE : During the Middle Ages, in England, shippons and barns, like halls, were often divided by columns or pillars into a nave flanked by aisles, 176; this may be found also in modern home- steads in Friesland and Saxony, 177 et seq. NEQUAM, or NECHAM, in the twelfth century, wrote about con- temporary houses, 74, 75, 106. He may be the " mysterious schoolmaster of St. Albans" concerning whom the late Mr. William Blades wrote in a puzzled way 340 INDEX AND GLOSSARY NEOLITHIC pit-dwellings, 4, 18, 21 ; two Neolithic characteristics have come down to our time, 25 ; funeral mounds or barrows, 26 NESFIELD, W. E., about thirty years ago, helps to revive the English Renaissance style known popularly as " Queen Anne," 237 NEWEL : The central shaft around which the steps of a circular staircase wind ; also the post in which a handrail is framed, 119, 200 NOCCINC, a term in building, explained, 185 NORMAN STYLE, or English Romanesque, Chapters IV. and V. NORTHBOROUGH, NORTHUMBERLAND, example of a chimney in Decorated Gothic, 98 NURSTED COURT, KENT, fourteenth century, 134, 139. See the illustration OAK, its use in timber houses, 144, 150, 152, 160, 168, 172, 176, 184, 192, 200, 304 ; it always shrinks, however well seasoned, 185 OAKHAM CASTLE, the hall of, 78, 79. See also the illustrations OGEE : A moulding formed by a hollow and a round combined, the section of which is the form of the letter S, with the convex part above ; cyma reverse. An ogee arch is a pointed arch, each of the sides of which has the curve of an ogee that is, has a reversed curve near the apex. ORDERS, the Classic, of architecture, 7, 8, 193, 209, 214-15 ORIEL : A window corbelled from the face of a wall by means of projecting stones. It is a Gothic feature, and a kind of bay- window. The term oriel was applied in the Middle Ages to a gallery for minstrels, and to a recessed apartment next the hall where certain persons used to dine ; hence a bay-window in this recess may have taken the name given to the recess itself. Oriels are mentioned on pp. 115, 140 (at Great Chalfield), 147 (at Covvdray House, Sussex), 153 (at Saffron Walden, Essex). See also the illustrations of these houses, and refer to the facts con- cerning bay-windows on p. 155 ORNAMENT : Certain forms of ornament are particularly useful to any layman who desires to recognise styles in architecture. See under Zigzags, Tooth Ornament, Ball-flower, Linen Pattern, Adam ; and a plate is given of Greek and Roman mouldings used in Anglo-Classic houses and public buildings INDEX AND GLOSSARY 341 OXBURGH HALL, NORFOLK, of the reign of Edward IV., 142, 143, 192 OX-HOUSES, in Yorkshire, used as bedrooms during the sixteenth century, 180-81 PAINTING, DECORATIVE, prehistoric in origin, 15, 17 PALLADIO, ANDREA, Italian architect (1518-80), his influence during the revival of Classic styles, 148, 149, 226. English Classic was mainly Palladian during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while French Classic drew its inspiration chiefly from Vignola ; and this other influence was felt by Thorpe and Sir Christopher Wren, both of whom were familiar with Franco-Italian archi- tecture PANDOLFINI PALACE, FLORENCE, influenced Sir Charles Barry in his design for the Travellers' Club, Pall Mall, 228 PANELS AND IPANELLING, in Henry III.'s time, 106, 107, 109 ; at Lanhydroc, Cornwall, 134; at Thame Park, Oxfordshire, 153 ; other Tudor wainscots, 156 ; in Elizabethan halls, 196 ; at Crewe Hall, 214 ; in so-called "Queen Anne" houses, 240; dados of white panelling used in Adam rooms, 248 PARAPETS, the upper part of a wall above a roof, often battlemented, 76, 117, 137, 138, 140, 141, 142, 147, 148 PARGETTING : A kind of decorative plasterwork in raised ornamental figures, formerly used in the decoration of houses both inside and outside. See p. 154 (Thame Park, Oxfordshire), and the illustra- tion of the plaster house built during Charles II.'s reign PARIS, the influence of, on Henry III., 104; on John Thorpe, 203* on Sir Christopher Wren, 233 ; on art during the early times of Chippendale, 257 PARLIAMENT, Houses of, built by Sir Charles Barry in the Perpen- dicular style, 228 PARTY-WALLS, between houses, their origin, 63, 65 PASSAGES, in houses and flats, 131-33 PATRIOTISM, in architecture, 230-32 PEDIMENT : In Classic architecture the triangular termination of the roof of a temple ; much used in Anglo-Classic houses ; see the illustration of Bedford Square. In Gothic buildings a pediment is called a gable PEDIMENT AND PORTICO STYLE, 226, 228, 245 342 INDEX AND GLOSSARY PENDANTS, hanging ornaments on roofs, ceilings, &c., much used in the later styles of Gothic, and in the transitional work known as Elizabethan and Jacobean, 141, 199, 214 PENNETHORNE, SIR JAMES, architect, 189, 269 PENSHURST, KENT, the hall, 124, 125; the rest of the building belongs to the Elizabethan times, 266 PERIODS, of the English house, II, 12; of arched styles, 12, 13; ol the Renaissance, 258, 259 PERPENDICULAR style of Gothic, 140-43, 144-49 PILASTER, an anta or a square pillar, projecting about one-sixth of its breadth from a wall, and of the same proportion as the order with which it is used, 193, 217, 244 PILTON, SOMERSETSHIRE : A famous barn existed there, 176 PISCINA, a niche near the altar in a church, containing a small basin for rinsing altar vessels, 119 PIT-DWELLINGS, NEOLITHIC, 4, 18, 20, 21, 22 PLAN : The representation of a building to show the general distri- bution of its parts in horizontal sections. References to planning, 39, 73, no, 116, 118, 120, 121, 128, 129, 131, 154, 172, 192, 196, 22 7, 309, 3", 3 J 3, 3*4 PLASTER, the use of it in house architecture, 18, 59, 68, 134, 196, 197-99, 214. See under Ceilings and Pargetting POOR, halls of the, Chapter X. POPE, ALEXANDER, ridicules the Classic mansions of his time, 151, 152 PORCH, 42, 45, 75, 124, 171 PORTICO : The space enclosed within columns, and forming a covered walk. It is a useful architectural feature in warm climates, but in England it is out of place, darkening rooms on the ground floor. Introduced into England by Inigo Jones, 226 ; used during the Regency in imitations of Greek buildings, 231 ; Sir Charles Barry abandons the use of porticoes, 228, setting a good example which is followed by Sir James Pennethorne (1801-71), 269. Park Crescent, London, is an example of porticoed town houses PORTMAN SQUARE, LONDON, 243 PRIMITIVE ARCHITECTURE : See Chapter I. PRIMITIVE MAN : See Chapter I. INDEX AND GLOSSARY 343 PRIVACY, in home life, I, 122, 126, 131 ; want of privacy in modern houses for moderate incomes, 277, 278 PUGIN, A. W. N. (1812-52), and the Gothic Revival, 258 PURITANISM, in relation to the Renaissance, 254, 255 QUEEN ANNE STYLE, so called, 140, 236, 237, 238-40 QUOINS, a term generally applied to the corner-stones at the angles of buildings, and thence to the angles themselves, 80 RECTANGLE, in house-building. As the earliest houses were round, the evolution from circular forms to rectangles has great interest, 28, 29, 30, 31 ; long chambered barrows or funeral mounds, as repre- senting possible types of prehistoric houses, 27 ; the Irish beehive houses, 27 ; men of science now ask us to go back to oval and round rooms, 31, 32 REFORM CLUB, PALL MALL, 228 REGENT STREET, LONDON, 225 RENAISSANCE in England : See Chapters XL, XII, XIII. REVIVAL, GOTHIC, of the nineteenth century, 228, 258 REVIVAL of the Classic styles : See chapters on the Renaissance RICCARDI, PALAZZO, FLORENCE, the astylar treatment of its design, 228 ROBINSON, G. T., F.S.A., the late, condemns certain features in the Adam style of decoration, 247 ROCHESTER CASTLE, KENT, dating from 1130 ; a fireplace at, described and illustrated, 90 ROGERS, THOROLD, on the uncleanness of mediaeval villages, 4 ; on peasant cottages of the thirteenth century, 88, 165, 166 ROMAN ARCHITECTURE, 7, 8, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 ; its revival, see under Renaissance ROOFS, 28, 43, 67, 75, 123, 139, 141, 160, 148, 196, 203, 237 ROOMS, en suite, 131-33 ROSES, WARS OF THE, their effect as a forerunner of the Renaissance, 252 ROUND : The history of round orms in architecture, sec Chapter I. ; round and oval rooms of the eighteenth century, 270-71 Row, BUTCHERS', at Shrewsbury, an example of fifteenth-century work, like the Rows at Weobley, Herefordshire, 183 344 INDEX AND GLOSSARY ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS, 280-81 " RUBBERS," soft and granular bricks used in the so-called Queen Anne style, 240 RUSKIN, on roofs, 160 ; a believer in Gothic traditions, 258 ; on the beauty of a pointed arch, 285 ; on the charm and utility of bay- windows, 286 ; other windows, 287 ; not always a safe guide in house architecture, 287 RUSTIC STYLES of English house-building, 190, 288, 289 RUSTICATED COLUMNS, described, 272 RUSTICATION, or rustic work, a method of forming stonework with recessed joints, used for the most part in Renaissance Classic architecture, 271-72 SAFFRON WALDEN, ESSEX, a Tudor hospital at, 153. See also the illustration SAINT GEORGE'S HALL, LIVERPOOL, an imitation ot Greek architecture, 217, 224-25* SAINT JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD, the Quadrangle, by Inigo Jones, 267 SAINT MARY'S GUILD, LINCOLN, as drawn by William Twopeny, 81, 82 SAINT PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, LONDON, destroyed by fire in 1135, 61 ; burnt down in 1666, and rebuilt by Wren in a Classic style, 232-33 ; this style contrasted with English Gothic churches, 234; Wren's work was left unfinished, like that of Inigo Jones at Whitehall, 255 SAINT PANCRAS CHURCH, LONDON, an imitation of Greek architecture, 217, 225 SANITATION, 31, 32, 33, 65, 105-6, 282 SAXON ARCHITECTURE : See Chapters II. and III. SAXONY, MODERN, its farm life resembles that in England long ago, 176-80 SCIENCE, MODERN, supports the ancient belief in round and oval rooms, 31, 32 SCREENS, 123, 124, 125, 170, 171, 196, 213 SERVANTS, in their relation to house architecture, 123, 127, 128, 130, 226 INDEX AND GLOSSARY 345 SHAW, R. NORMAN, R.A., a master in the grouping of chimneys, 98 ; his great and useful influence, 237 SHERATON, 250 SHERBORNE ABBEY, DORSET (circa 1470), a fireplace at, 91 SHINGLES, for roofs, 39, 75 SHIPPONS, 176 SHROPSHIRE, its timber houses, 182 SHUTE, JOHN, in 1563, writes the first English book on the revived Classic styles, 254 SILVERWORK, by the brothers Adam, 248 SIXTEENTH CENTURY : See Chapter XI. SKELLIG MICHAEL, Ireland, its beehive houses, 27 SLUMS, 163 SMITHSON, R., architect of Wollaton, 206-10 SMOKE, from wood and peat fires, useful in medieval times, 88, 89, 179 SOLAR, a room in ancient houses, 63, 77, 84, Il6, 139 SOMERSET HOUSE, its Classic style contrasted with Gothic, 137; designed by Sir William Chambers and finished by Sir James Pennethorne, 189 SOMPTING CHURCH, SUSSEX, its Saxon tower, 50 ; its capitals, 51 SPANDREL : The irregular triangular space between the curve of an arch and the square enclosing it ; spandrels are common features in Late Perpendicular work, 148 SPARROW, BISHOP, of the time of Charles II., builds himself a house in ornamented plaster, 198 SPEKE HALL, LANCASHIRE, Elizabethan timber house, 92 STAIRCASE, 103, 119, 125, 199, 200-2. Three illustrations STEP-GABLES, 140, 143. Known in Scotland as corbie-steps, or crow-steps ; they are common in Flanders, Holland, and Germany STEVENSON, J. J., the late, architect, on Saxon architecture, 38-40 ; on Perpendicular Gothic, 149 ; on the influence of the French Renaissance in England during the third quarter of the nine- teenth century, 206 ; on the " Queen Anne " style, so called^ 238 ; on English copies of Greek buildings, 230 ; on tradition in architecture, 276; opposes Mr. Fergusson in his attack on architects, 301 z 346 INDEX AND GLOSSARY STOKESAY CASTLE, SALOP, of the thirteenth century, 114, 115, 116 STONE, early use of this material, 38, 60, 61, 63, 65, 66, 83 STOVES, 37 STUART STAIRCASE at Crewe Hall, 201 STUCCO : Plaster of any kind used as a coating for walls; above all, a plaster composed of lime or gypsum with sand and pounded marble, 247, 272 STYLES, in architecture : See under Saxon, Norman, Early English, Decorated Gothic, &c. &c. TAPESTRY, 45, 76 TENIA : The band or fillet forming the upper member of the Doric architrave TERRA-COTTA : Earth burnt or baked and formed into moulds, to be used ornamentally, or constructionally, as at Sutton Place, near Guildford. As employed in the Albert Hall, London, 240 THAME PARK, OXFORDSHIRE, Tudor, 153, 196 THIRTEENTH CENTURY : See Chapter VII. THORPE, JOHN, architect of Burleigh, Northants, 202-6, 210 TILES, 60, 67, 75, 125 TIMBER, in domestic buildings, 57, 58, 59, 66, 67, 68, 83, 128, 141, 175, 182, 183-84 TOOTH ORNAMENT, a marked characteristic of Early English Gothic, 54, 79, loo. Known also as dog-tooth TORRIGIANO, his tomb for Henry VII., 253 TOWER, 70, 102 TRANSOM, a Gothic feature in windows consisting of a horizontal division or cross-bar, 114, 139, 147, 154 TRAVELLERS' CLUB, PALL MALL, LONDON, 228 TREFOILS, a term applied to the distribution of this ornament (trot's feuilles three leaves) in Gothic tracery, 114 TRIGLYPHS, described, 216, 217 TUDOR ARCHITECTURE, 99, 138, 142, 161, 187, 197, 211. The Tudor flower is an ornament of the Perpendicular style TUSCAN ORDER, in Classic architecture, 216 TWELFTH CENTURY : See Chapter V. TWOPENY, WILLIAM, architectural draughtsman, 198, 261, 263 INDEX AND GLOSSARY 347 UNDERGROUND HOUSES : See Pit-dwellings VANBRUGH, SIR JOHN, architect, 223, 227 VENUS OF BRASSEMPOUY, an example of prehistoric sculpture, 17 VERTICAL LINES : They predominate in Gothic architecture, while in Classic styles the horizontal lines rule over the composition, 137-38 VIGNOLA, Italian architect of the Renaissance, his influence, 194, 203, 233 VILLA, ROMAN, 35 VILLAGES, ENGLISH, 177, 289, 292 VOLUTES : The 'scrolls or spirals in Ionic and Composite capitals, resembling curls of stone, 214, 215, 216 WADE, GENERAL, story of, and Lord Chesterfield, 227-28 WAINSCOT, 106, 107, 109, 134, 153, 156, 196, 214 WALL DECORATION, of prehistoric origin, 15 WALLS, usually not well built in modern houses for moderate incomes, 277-80 WALPOLE, HORACE, and the Gothic Revival, 223, 258 WARWICKSHIRE, 183 WEDGWOOD, 250 WELLS, MEDIAEVAL, 166 WEOBLEY, HEREFORDSHIRE, 175, 183 WESTMINSTER ABBEY, 137, 253 WHEEL-WINDOW, known also as rose-window : A circular window with mullions that converge like the spokes of a wheel, 123 WHITEHALL, and Inigo Jones, 255-56 WILKINS, WILLIAM, architect, 225 WINDOW TRACERY, 136 WINDOW-SILLS, 115 WINDOWS, 43, 69, 75, 78, 79, 80, 100, in, 112, 114, 118, 123, 124, 125, 135, 146, 154, 204, 207, 209, 231, 240, 241, 242-43, 244, 271, 282, 284 WINDSOR CASTLE, 224 WOLLATON, NOTTINGHAM, by R. Smithson, architect, dating from 1580, 206-9, 2I2 > 2I ^ 348 INDEX AND GLOSSARY WOLSEY, CARDINAL, did not build the Great Hall at Hampton Court, 157 WOMEN, their influence in house architecture, 1-4, 312, 313 WOOD, its use in house-building, see under Timber WREN, SIR CHRISTOPHER, 151, 195, 232-34 WYATT, JAMES, architect, and the Gothic Revival, 224 WYATVILLE, SIR JEFFREY, transforms Windsor Castle, 224 V Printed by BALLANTTNE & Co. LIMITED Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. Series 9482 3 1205 00439 2732 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000 648 351 5