THE 
 
 MANOR HOUSES 
 
 OF 
 
 ENGLAND 
 
 By < 
 
 PHDifchficld /K.ETA. 
 
 Illustrated by 
 
 Sydney R. Jones 
 
 London:BTE>atslord 
 
 Nov^ork: Charier 5aibna5.5ons 
 1910 
 
; 
 
I 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 object of this book is to describe and illus- 
 trate the old country manor-houses of England, 
 which are fast falling into decay, and are being 
 replaced by modern and less picturesque buildings. 
 Many of them stand in remote, inaccessible and little-known 
 parts of the country ; and their remarkable beauty, their 
 historical associations and architectural merits, may have 
 escaped the attention of many who love to explore the English 
 countryside. It has therefore been deemed advisable to 
 depict and to describe a series of typical examples taken from 
 different counties and constructed of various materials, so that 
 a record may be made ere many may entirely disappear. 
 The manor-house is the principal dwelling-place in most 
 villages, and to it the chief attention has been paid ; but as 
 this book is a study of the domestic architecture of the style 
 of dwelling that ranked between the mansion and the farm or 
 cottage, it has been thought well to illustrate the work by 
 including some examples of a kindred nature that cannot be 
 strictly included in the generic term manor-house. 
 
 It would have been an easy task to fill the volume with 
 pictures and descriptions of well-known buildings that have 
 often been photographed and sketched, and about which 
 much has been written, but an attempt has been made to go 
 outside the beaten track, the oft-trodden road, and to record 
 the more unusual examples not so well known. The de- 
 scription of the details of the manor-houses of England has 
 been given in plain language, as free as possible from tech- 
 
 249485 
 
PREFACE 
 
 nical terms ; and the subject has been treated for the purpose 
 of interesting the general public rather than for the edification 
 of the architectural expert. 
 
 The author desires to express his grateful thanks to Messrs. 
 Batsford for much assistance they have rendered to him in 
 the preparat' on of this book, and for their valuable advice 
 and personal interest in the work ; also to the artist, Mr. 
 Sydney Jones, for his descriptive notes on some of the 
 houses which the writer had not an opportunity of person- 
 ally visiting, and to Mrs. Arthur Stratton for kindly searching 
 for some references in the British Museum with regard to 
 the history of some of the manors. 
 
 P. H. DITCHFIELD. 
 
 BARKHAM RECTORY, BERKSHIRE, 
 January, 1 910. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I INTRODUCTORY: THE MANOR-HOUSE 3 
 
 II THE MANOR n 
 
 III THE EVOLUTION OF THE MANOR-HOUSE 17 
 
 IV MATERIALS OF CONSTRUCTION 40 
 
 STONE 46 
 
 TIMBER 68 
 
 BRICK 86 
 
 FLINT 104 
 
 PLASTER I 06 
 
 V EXTERIOR DETAILS 115 
 
 CHIMNEYS 115 
 
 PORCHES AND DOORS 121 
 
 WINDOWS 129 
 
 ROOFS AND GABLES 132 
 
 VI INTERIOR DETAILS 141 
 
 MANTELPIECES AND FIREPLACES 145 
 
 STAIRCASES 1 5 3 
 
 PANELLING 1 60 
 
 CEILINGS 165 
 
 WINDOWS 172 
 
 VII METAL- WORK 176 
 
 LEADWORK 176 
 
 IRONWORK 180 
 
 VIII GARDENS AND SURROUNDINGS 188 
 
 INDEX 203 
 
ST. CATHERINE'S COURT, NEAR BATH. FROM THE TERRACE 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES 
 OF ENGLAND 
 
 INTRODUCTORY: THE MANOR-HOUSE 
 
 ENGLAND is remarkable for the number and beauty 
 of the old country houses, set amid pleasant scenes, 
 that abound in various parts of our island. 
 Hidden away from the gaze of the multitude in 
 sequestered villages and obscure hamlets, they are very 
 humble-minded, very retiring. They do not court attention, 
 these English manor-houses, or seek to attract the eye by 
 glaring incongruities or obtrusive detail. They seem in 
 quest of peace, and love obscurity. Hence few know how 
 fair they are, how full of grace and charm, as they stand in 
 their sweet old-fashioned gardens surrounded by rare blend- 
 ings of art and nature in park and pleasance. They brood 
 in their old age over many scenes of bygone history, over 
 the memories of sire and grandsire and retain vivid recollec- 
 tions of the vigorous old squire and his lady who reared these 
 walls in Tudor days and carefully saw to the carving of his 
 and his dame's initials over the doorway R. D. and E. D. 
 1595 A.D. 
 
 The builders of these houses were animated by that same 
 spirit which moved Sir William Temple, cultured diplomatist, 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 philosopher and garden lover, to write, " The greatest 
 advantages men have by riches are, to give, to build, to 
 plant and make pleasant scenes." And certainly they showed 
 by their buildings that they were men of taste and refine- 
 ment, very different from Macaulay's unflattering picture 
 of the old English country squire who is represented as 
 an ignorant boor. It is not in the greatest mansions, the 
 vast piles erected by the great nobles of the court, en- 
 riched by the plunder of the monasteries, that we find such 
 artistic perfections, but most often in the smaller manor- 
 houses of the knights and squires. These are the build- 
 ings which delight us, the charms of which we are attempting 
 to set forth in this book. The great noblemen and courtiers 
 were filled with the desire for extravagant display, and erected 
 such clumsy piles as Wollaton and Burghley House, import- 
 ing Flemish and German artisans to load them with bastard 
 Italian Renaissance detail. Nothing could be worse than 
 some of these vast structures, with their distorted gables, 
 their chaotic proportions and their crazy interpretation of 
 classic orders. Contrast these vast piles with the typical Tudor 
 manor-house, the means of the builders of which, or their 
 good taste, would not permit of such a profusion of these 
 architectural luxuries, and you will discover the far greater 
 attractiveness of the humbler dwelling. It is unequalled in 
 its combination of stateliness with homeliness, in its ex- 
 pression of the manner of life of the men who built it. 
 
 Such a noble Tudor house is Whittington Court in 
 Gloucestershire in the delightful region of the Cotswolds. 
 It is at once stately and homely, and its picturesqueness is in 
 no way diminished by the Queen Anne addition with its 
 conspicuous bay. Its three graceful gables, tall chimneys, 
 and mullioned windows are worthy of the art of their Tudor 
 builders. 
 
 These men built not only for themselves but for their 
 sons and grandsons. They lighted what Ruskin calls the 
 
 4 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 Sixth Lamp of Architecture, the Lamp of Memory, and 
 considered it an evil sign of a people for houses to be built 
 to last for one generation only. They felt that 
 
 " having spent their lives happily and honourably, they 
 would be grieved, at the close of them, to think that the 
 plan of their earthly abode, which had seen, and seemed 
 almost to sympathise in all their honour, their gladness or 
 their suffering that this, with all the record it bare of them, 
 and all of material things that they had loved and ruled over, 
 and set the stamp of themselves upon was to be swept 
 away, as soon as there was room made for them in the 
 grave ; that no respect was to be shown to it, no affection 
 felt for it, no good to be drawn from it by their children ; 
 that though there was a monument in the church, there was 
 no warm monument in the hearth and house to them ; that 
 all that they had ever treasured was despised, and the places 
 that had sheltered and comforted them were dragged down to 
 the dust. I say that a good man would fear this ; and that, 
 far more, a good son, a noble descendant, would fear doing 
 this to his father's house. . . . When men do not love their 
 hearths, nor reverence their thresholds, it is a sign that they 
 have dishonoured both. . . . Our God is a household God as 
 well as a heavenly one ; He has an altar in every man's 
 dwelling ; let men look to it when they rend it lightly and 
 pour out its ashes." l 
 
 Such feelings seem to have animated the builders of the 
 gems of domestic architecture that adorn our country-side. 
 They stamped their impress on the homes they reared. 
 They expected their children to respect their gift to their 
 families. They carved their names or their initials or their 
 arms over their doorways. They adorned them with texts 
 or homely verse, pious thoughts, or quaint or humorous 
 conceits. They built surely and well so that their houses 
 might last, not for their own pleasure nor for their own use, 
 but for their descendants, who would thus venerate the hand 
 that laid those stones and respect the memory of their fore- 
 fathers and the honour of their house. 
 
 1 RUSKIN'S Seven Lamps of Architecture. 
 6 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 We shall visit many such houses during our peregrinations. 
 As an example of the long, low type of restful English manor- 
 house we could not find a better instance than the curious 
 half-timbered mansion known as Bott's Green House, near 
 Shustoke, in Warwickshire. Its curved and slanting braces 
 and its fine porch and entrance gate are charming features. 
 It stands completely away from the busy haunts of men in 
 the midst of an unspoilt country. The fleur-de-lis of the 
 Digby family is very prominently inserted in the front. 
 Within there is a carved stone mantelpiece carefully painted 
 and grained to imitate wood, and upstairs a small panelled 
 room of plain design. 
 
 In contrast with this peaceful abode is the Yorkshire 
 manor-house of Lawkland Hall upon the borders of Lanca- 
 shire, situated on the wild moorland that separates the two 
 counties. It belongs to a different type, and has a stern 
 rugged look which harmonizes well with its surroundings. 
 
 Time has wrought its ravages on many of these old 
 houses. Families have lived and died out. Few, save the 
 delver in old records, can tell the names for which those 
 initials R. D. and E. D. stand. The golden stain of time 
 gives light and colour to its architecture; but often ruin 
 and decay have also left their marks. Reckless owners 
 who love new things, new fashions and new styles, have 
 doomed many of them to death. At the beginning 
 of the last century there was a veritable rage for pulling 
 down old mansions. You can still see the terraces of 
 the garden, the old fishponds and possibly the moat, but 
 the house has gone, a prey to the vandalism of the age. 
 Others have succumbed to new inventions. Coal fires were 
 unusual when the chimneys were built with a fatal beam 
 running across their cavities. Hence fires have destroyed 
 many of those ancient mansions which often stand in solitary 
 state far from the nearest fire-engine station, and nothing is 
 saved. Only a tithe is left of these pleasant houses. It is 
 

THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 well, therefore, to survey them before they vanish, to gather 
 up the fragments that remain, to learn from them how to 
 build surely and well, to avoid the construction of those 
 " thin, tottering, foundationless shells of splintered wood 
 and imitation stone," and to take as our models these beauti- 
 ful dwellings that our sires have left us. 
 
II 
 
 THE MANOR 
 
 WHAT is a manor-house ? Evidently the house 
 of the lord of the manor situated upon 
 his estate. And what is a manor ? Many 
 chapters would be needed for the full dis- 
 cussion of the origin, growth and development of the 
 English manor, its customs, laws and rights, and in spite 
 of the researches of the learned there is still some obscurity 
 on this subject, and all historians hold not the same views. 
 I can only find space to refer very briefly to the story of the 
 manor ; but it is necessary to distinguish between the house 
 so designated which gives the title to this book, and an 
 ordinary house of a country gentleman who was not a 
 manor-lord. 
 
 We can trace the manorial system back to its infancy in 
 Celtic and Roman times, when " the Roman lordships and 
 villas undoubtedly played their part as providing natural 
 and powerful centres in the process of settlement and 
 organization." 1 With the coming of the Saxon tribes who 
 introduced the formation of village communities, hundreds 
 and shires, the process of evolution developed. They formed 
 tuns, or hams, or settlements, making clearings in the 
 forests, subduing nature as they had subdued the British, 
 and keeping together for the purpose of defending them- 
 selves against an enemy and for the better pursuit of 
 
 1 The Manor and Manorial Records, by N. J. HONE, p. 6. 
 1 1 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 agriculture. How far these inhabitants of primitive settle- 
 ments were free without the government of an over-lord, 
 it is difficult to determine; but they needed a leader to 
 organize their forces for war, a judge to decide their dis- 
 putes, and in return for such services a lord began to 
 receive dues and rents and labour on the part of his tenants. 
 Under the Norman system of feudal tenure the manorial 
 system developed, and manors were reorganized on a more 
 strictly feudal basis. The lord became a very important 
 person and ruled over his little kingdom, though his 
 authority was by no means absolute. The tenants or villeins 
 had their customary rights, and the lord was bound to 
 observe them. He could levy fines in certain cases, a heriot 
 or the best chattel belonging to a tenant's estate on death, 
 and much else, and the tenants were obliged to work certain 
 days on the lord's land. The lord used to hold his court, 
 and the Court Rolls of numerous manors are in existence 
 dating back to Edwardian times, and revealing many 
 interesting features of old village life and property. The 
 manor is an institution which, under varying forms and 
 circumstances, has existed from a period " whereunto the 
 memory of man runneth not to the contrary " till the 
 present day. Of course the great feudal privileges which 
 were formerly attached to the lord of the manor have passed 
 into abeyance, but he is still a real factor in local life. As 
 Mr. Hone tells us in his book, to which I have already 
 referred, " Parish and district councils, in questions con- 
 stantly arising touching village greens, recreation grounds, 
 commons and rights of way, find that they have to reckon 
 with him in the exercise of their newly acquired powers, and 
 have to adjust their claims in accordance with the old 
 manorial rights enjoyed by him and his predecessors for 
 centuries." 
 
 The accompanying plan of a manor shows in the centre of 
 the village the manor-house with the lord's demesne around 
 
THE MANOR 
 
 it, and near it the church. The main street of the village 
 leads to the river, and on each side are the houses of the 
 tenants and the common pasture with crofts or small en- 
 closures or grass yards for the rearing of calves and baiting 
 farm stock ; this 
 was the common 
 farmstead. The 
 lord's mill stood 
 by the river, where 
 all the tenants 
 were obliged to 
 grind their corn. 
 On the north lay 
 the arable fields of 
 the community 
 divided into three 
 large fields, in 
 which the rotation 
 ofcropswas strictly 
 enforced, each field 
 lying fallow once 
 in three years. To 
 each freeman was 
 assigned his own 
 family lots, which 
 were scattered 
 about in the open 
 fields. Shots or furlongs were divisions of the open fields, "a 
 furrow long," divided into strips or acres. Gored acres were 
 strips in the open fields pointed at one end. Around the 
 arable land were the waste and woodland used for the pastur- 
 age of pigs, and for the hunting of the lord. You can see 
 him with his retainers in the plan sallying forth with his 
 hounds on a hunting expedition. The remains of this 
 common field system are still evident in many parts of the 
 
 13 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 country, the fields being termed " lot meadows " or " Lam- 
 mas lands." 
 
 The best definition of a manor is, perhaps, that given by 
 Mr. Scargill-Bird in his Guide to the Public Records. He 
 states that a manor is " a certain circuit of ground granted 
 by the king to some baron or man of worth as an inheritance 
 for him and his heirs, with the exercise of such jurisdiction 
 within the said compass as the king saw fit to grant, and 
 subject to the performance of such services and yearly rents 
 as were by the grant required." A manor is not coterminous 
 with the parish. Sometimes a village is divided into as 
 many as five manors, as at East Hendred, in Berkshire. 
 The village of Sutton Courtenay has three manor-houses, 
 two belonging to the same manor, and the third to quite 
 a different property. Some manor-lords had many grants of 
 lands and manors, and in their turn made grants of manors 
 to less important persons. Thus, Finchampstead manor, 
 which at an early date was divided into two manors, being 
 granted by the owner, Sir William Banastre, to his two 
 daughters, Constance and Agatha, was always held of the 
 over-lord, the owner of Aldermaston manor. A process of 
 sub-division of manors went on until the reign of Edward I, 
 after which time no new manors were created. 
 
 The manor-house was, therefore, the hall of the lord of 
 the manor. It was usually situated in the centre of the 
 village on the demesne land and near the church and rectory. 
 He did not always reside there. Sometimes it was inhabited 
 by his bailiff or steward, and in the hall the manor-courts 
 were held, justice administered and all the affairs of the 
 community settled. 
 
 In later times when rich London merchants bought manors 
 in the country, not content with the old houses they found 
 there, they reared more magnificent edifices. This was the 
 case at Campden, in Gloucestershire, and a view of this fine 
 estate is given in the illustration. The manor was bought 
 
 14 
 
THE MANOR 
 
 in 1609 by Sir Baptist Hicks, sometime Lord Mayor of 
 London, who soon began to build this large mansion on the 
 high ground overlooking the vale to the south of the church. 
 The view, taken from a curious coloured drawing in the 
 British Museum, shows the palace with its forecourt and 
 
 ?Si~jS .<).... -0~~$ "$ ^ 
 
 r > T ~ ->,T ...T ;X > r r J , T . T.- ..X '.-- ^. -V- '- - ' '-.: ^'~r'-- T - '>,* 
 
 ^ -..t- :-.--' 
 , -^ ^ 
 
 ^f,Wrta^^ 
 
 CHIPPING CAMPDEN HOUSE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE 
 
 From an early coloured drawing 
 
 grounds and gardens. Unfortunately it was partly destroyed 
 during the Civil War, and only two pavilions, the entrance 
 gate, and the almonry remain to tell of its former magnifi- 
 
 cence. 
 
 The manor-house played an important part in the life of 
 the village, and is an interesting feature of every parish, 
 both historically and architecturally. Much attention in 
 late years has been given to the tracing of the manorial 
 
 15 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 history of each manor and parish. It is, as the writer 
 knows from painful experience, a surprisingly difficult task, 
 in spite of the researches which have been made at the 
 Record Office and amongst other stores of ancient docu- 
 ments. But the labour is sometimes rewarded by interesting 
 glimpses of mediaeval or Elizabethan life, by happy acquaint- 
 ance with bygone worthies, quarrelsome lords and unyielding 
 tenants, and by the light which such documents throw on 
 the history of the country. Manorial histories always must 
 have a fascination for the student of our ancient manners 
 and customs. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF THE 
 MANOR-HOUSE 
 
 OUR main concern is with the architectural charms 
 and beauties of the English manor-house, its 
 details, its garden, the well-wrought gates, its 
 varying materials. We are trying to describe the 
 attractive features that remain, and need not concern our- 
 selves with its origin and evolution. Nevertheless, the 
 construction and plan of many a manor-house are based upon 
 the Gothic traditions of early times ; some few of the houses 
 that remain are the actual mediaeval structures of the early 
 lords. It will, therefore, be necessary to describe briefly an 
 original type of the early residence of the manor-lord, and 
 trace its development. 
 
 The earliest house in Saxon times consisted of a capacious 
 hall wherein the lord and his retainers feasted during the 
 day and where the latter slept at night, the lord retiring to 
 an adjoining chamber for repose. Besides, there was a 
 buttery, and around the house were lean-to roofs covering a 
 stable, barn and offices. A very simple arrangement this 
 which continued for some centuries. The house was 
 thatched with reeds or straw or roofed with wooden shingles. 
 Little change was made when the Normans came. The main 
 apartment was the hall, and Alexander Necham tells us that 
 in addition to this there were at the end of the twelfth 
 century the private or bedchamber, the kitchen, the larder, 
 e 17 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 the sewery and the cellar. Sandon manor-house, in Essex,- 
 in the twelfth century, had a hall, a bower or women's 
 apartment, a latrina, besides barns, wash-house, cowshed, 
 brewery, sty and henhouse. Kensworth manor had a domus 
 or entrance, a bower and a large hall, besides the usual out- 
 buildings. Even the palaces of the King at Clarendon, 
 Kennington, Woodstock and elsewhere contained no ad- 
 ditional accommodation except a chapel. The private or 
 bedchamber, called a solar, was situated on the second 
 storey, the room beneath being used as a cellar. The fire 
 burned in the middle of the hall, and the smoke escaped 
 through a hole in the roof. In the solar there were fireplaces 
 and a chimney-piece remains in a house at Boothby Pagnell. 
 In early times the cooking was performed at the fire in the 
 centre of the hall ; later on there was a separate kitchen with 
 an open roof. The windows of the house were narrow slits 
 and could be closed by wooden shutters. 
 
 The manor-house at Appleton, Berkshire, belongs to the 
 end of the twelfth century. It is surrounded by a moat, and 
 is of a simple oblong plan, three doorways, round-headed with 
 early English mouldings, being the only parts which retain 
 the original character. 
 
 Boothby Pagnell manor-house, in Lincolnshire, is a good 
 example of a twelfth-century building, of which two views are 
 given. It consists of a large hall with windows high up in 
 the wall, one of which is a later addition. It was the seat of 
 a family named Boothby, the heiress of which married a 
 Paynell. Newport Pagnell, in Buckinghamshire, also be- 
 longed to the Paynells, but Leland states that they had " a 
 great mynde to ly at Boutheby [i.e. to be buried there] wher 
 they had a praty stone house withyn a mote." Traces of the 
 moat still remain, and also the stone house as a memorial of 
 an old Norman dwelling. 
 
 The plan of these buildings with barns and other out- 
 buildings was in the form of a quadrangle. The barns were 
 
 18 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE MANOR-HOUSE 
 
 PLAN Of PUlflCIRU. 
 
 BOOTHBY PAGNELL MANOR-HOUSE 
 VIEWS AND PLANS 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 of great size. Several fourteenth-century barns are still in 
 existence and are like large churches with nave and aisles. 
 Gunthwaite Hall barn, near Penistone, is 165 ft. long, 43 ft. 
 broad and 30 ft. high. 1 We like to picture the life of the 
 inhabitants of these primitive manor - houses, the lady 
 sitting with her maids working their tapestry with figures 
 of swans and beasts and ships and heroes, the playing 
 of games in the courtyard, the men returning from their 
 hunting, feasting in the hall, the minstrels and jugglers 
 contributing to their amusement. Padley Hall, in Derby- 
 shire, is a good example of an ancient manor-house. The main 
 building consisted of a hall and buttery on the ground floor, 
 and above on the first floor was a chapel with a bower, and 
 other buildings were grouped around an oblong courtyard. 
 
 As an example of this grouping of buildings round an 
 oblong courtyard an illustration is given of a picturesque 
 house in Somerset, though of a later date. It stands 
 about midway between Yeovil and Montacute, and is called 
 the manor house of Preston Bermondsey, often described as 
 Preston Plucknett. Its name suggests that it belonged 
 to the monks of Bermondsey Priory, but if that be so 
 their possession was not of long duration. Its second 
 name is derived from Alan de Plugenet, an early lord 
 of the manor, which was owned in the early half of the 
 fifteenth century by one John Stourton, who built this house. 
 On the right of the view you see the original hall with 
 a porch leading to the screens. The windows are Decorated. 
 At the dais end of the hall you will notice the lowering of 
 the sill of the window, giving it an importance which later 
 was further enhanced by the use of the bay or oriel window 
 generally found in this position. 2 An old sketch drawn prior 
 to the alterations shows that some changes have been made 
 
 1 Evolution of the English House, by S. O. Addy. 
 
 2 Domestic Architecture of the Tudor Period, by Garner and Stratton, 
 Part I, p. 25. 
 
 20 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 in the part of the house on the left of the porch. The 
 octagonal chimney is a fine example of the type which pre- 
 vailed for some time when the disuse of the louvre was 
 becoming general. You will notice the great breadth of the 
 wall on which it stands, due to the depth of the fireplace 
 within. Disfiguring brickwork has been inserted in the 
 original outlets for the smoke at the sides of the upper part 
 of the shaft. The interior of the house has been much 
 altered, and the interest and beauty of the building lie in the 
 long restful lines of the stone-built exterior, and are en- 
 hanced by the noble barn which is a few years later than the 
 house, but erected by the same owner, John Stourton. It 
 would be difficult to find a more picturesque group of 
 buildings. 
 
 The thirteenth-century manor-house differs little from its 
 predecessor. You can see a good example at Charney 
 Basset in Berkshire, which has as its chief feature the hall, and 
 the chambers at each side are arranged as wings, so as to form 
 with the hall three sides of a quadrangular courtyard. A 
 chapel or oratory adjoins the solar in the south wing. A 
 curious representation of a manor-house of this period is 
 shown on a personal seal of the date 1273, reproduced in the 
 Archaeological Journal. 1 It was constructed of wood with the ex- 
 ception of its cylindrical chimney-shaft; the windows of the 
 solar are placed high on the left, and the doorway is on the right 
 leading to the hall. The manor-house of the Greys, at 
 Coggs, in Oxfordshire, is partly of this period, as is also that 
 of Cottisford in the same county. 
 
 As an illustration of a fourteenth-century manor-house 
 we give two views of Lower Brockhampton Hall, the interior 
 of the ancient hall with its noble roof and minstrel gallery, 
 and the exterior with the gatehouse. It stands in a hollow, 
 and close to the ruins of a chapel of still earlier date. It is 
 no longer the manor-house, that honour being held by the 
 
 1 Vol. I, p. 219. 
 
V 
 
 INTERIOR OF THE HALL, LOWER BROCKHAMPTON, HEREFORDSHIRE 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 eighteenth-century building which stands on high ground 
 looking down on the beautiful old brick and timber house 
 which is still almost surrounded by a moat. It is many a 
 year since the family of Brockhampton, who took their name 
 from the property, sold the manor. About the middle of 
 the sixteenth century it was acquired by the Barneby family, 
 one of whom suffered severely in the Civil Wars, and was 
 accordingly compensated by being named for the intended 
 Order of the Royal Oak. The detached gatehouse with its 
 heavily studded door and the moat are relics of an earlier 
 day when the only approach to the house lay through a draw- 
 bridge. This gatehouse, which, with the well-known one at 
 Stokesay, is one of the very few timber ones existing in the 
 country, is very early, and belongs to the closing years of the 
 fourteenth century. The closeness of the upright timbers, 
 the moulded board covering the ends of the joists, the carved 
 bracket at the angles and the barge-boards all point to a good 
 old age which retains the beauties of youth. 
 
 In the fourteenth century a greater desire for privacy was 
 manifested in the multiplication of rooms, and houses were 
 made much more convenient. The hall remained the prin- 
 cipal apartment, and usually occupied the whole central 
 portion of the house. Sometimes it extended from the 
 floor to the roof; in other instances there were cellars or 
 low rooms under it. In houses of this and of the preceding 
 centuries, when the roof was too large to be covered by a 
 single span, pillars of wood or stone were used to sup- 
 port it. 
 
 The following description 1 of the squire's house of the 
 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries records their chief charac- 
 teristics : 
 
 " In the southern districts of England the old English 
 manor-houses, the houses of the gentry generally, as well as 
 
 L Surrey Archaeological Collections, a Paper on Timber Houses, by Charles 
 Baily. 
 
 24 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 of the better class of yeomanry, were very simple in the 
 plan, and very often exhibited a singular uniformity of 
 design. In the centre was the hall, at the end of one side 
 
 O * 
 
 of which was the principal entrance to the house, a portion 
 of the hall being cut off by a screen, to form a passage 
 through the house from the front entrance to that at the 
 back, which was directly opposite. On the side of this 
 passage (known by the name * the entrye,' and sometimes 
 called the c screens ') and opposite to the screen were generally 
 three doorways, as at Crowhurst Place, the seat of the 
 Gaynesfords ; sometimes, however, there were but two, as 
 in the case at Great Tangley, in the parish of Wonersh in 
 Surrey. In both these examples the first of these doors 
 opens into a parlour ; at Crowhurst the second leads to a 
 staircase, and the third to the butteries, kitchen, and to the 
 whole of the domestic offices. 
 
 " In the screen were two openings, without doors, through 
 which the hall was entered. Beyond the upper or dais 
 end of the hall were one or several rooms, of a more private 
 character than either the parlour or hall ; the sleeping-rooms 
 were generally in the upper storeys. Externally there was 
 usually a recess in the centre of the front, formed by one 
 side of the hall, as we find was the case in the house of 
 Great Tangley, as originally built. At either end of this 
 central recess was a gable projection ; the one forming a 
 porch over the entrance, the other a bay-window to the hall. 
 Beyond these were two larger gabled ends, one enclosing 
 the parlour and offices, and the other the more private rooms 
 before noticed." 
 
 If in these examples the parlour was on the side of the 
 screens remote from the dais end of the hall, the arrange- 
 ment was exceptional. An examination of numerous plans 
 and an inspection of mediaeval houses prove that the ser- 
 vants' quarters the kitchen, butteries, bakehouses, brew- 
 house were always grouped at one end of the hall, and the 
 rooms of the family the parlour, solar, and bedrooms at 
 the other. This plan continued until the time of Inigo 
 Jones, when the hall had quite ceased to be the centre of the 
 
 26 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 life of the household and had become merely an entrance or 
 a passage. The illustration of Ditcheat shows the ancient 
 arrangement of the entrance to the hall, the screens, passage, 
 and buttery hatch. We shall refer again to this beautiful 
 house in the chapter relating to Interior Details (p. 141). 
 
 The early Tudor period, which commenced about the 
 middle of the fifteenth century and lasted until about the 
 year 1540, brought into being many charming manor-houses 
 as well as the palaces of kings and the mansions of the 
 nobles. Hitherto each Englishman's house was literally his 
 castle, and needed defences and the means of resisting an 
 attack. It was girt by a protecting moat and often was built 
 around a courtyard with strong guarding gates and towers. 
 But with the cessation of prolonged wars and internal strife, 
 and a more settled state of the country, the need of such 
 protection passed away, until at length in Elizabethan times 
 defences were practically disregarded. As early as the reign 
 of Henry VI we find a country squire built his manor-house 
 at Great Chalfield, in Wiltshire, without considering it 
 necessary to fortify his dwelling beyond giving it a moat. 
 
 In the time of Henry VII the country became thoroughly 
 settled. The country gentlemen became wealthy owing to the 
 sale of their rich fleeces to the clothiers. They set themselves 
 to add to, or to build anew, the ill-planned and inconvenient 
 manor-houses bequeathed to them by their forefathers. A 
 little later the after-gleaning of the spoils of the monasteries 
 added to their wealth and increased their lust for " bricks 
 and mortar." 
 
 Then arose some of the most perfect examples of English 
 domestic architecture that our land ever possessed. The 
 style was essentially English. Though Henry VIII brought 
 over foreign artificers, who were employed to assist in the 
 construction of his palaces and in designing decorations for 
 the mansions of the great, the native masons and builders 
 were engaged on these lesser houses, and wrought in simple 
 
 28 
 
DITCHEAT PRIORY, SOMERSET 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 fashion, clinging to the traditional style which they had loved 
 and reverenced. Moreover, the squire and owner took a 
 personal and active interest in the work. This personal 
 care and interest was observable in the building of many 
 houses, in many periods. See the accurate accounts and 
 minute superintendency of the building of Longleat by Sir 
 John Thynne. 
 
 We like to read of the leisurely way in which Chastleton 
 House (v. p. 193) was restored by the squire, John Jones, in 
 the eighteenth century. The work was all done very gradually 
 and very thoroughly. The stone was seasoned for three 
 years, first under sheds, and then in the open, and the squire 
 exercised close supervision over his workmen. After they 
 had left work for the day he used to go and try if he could 
 pick the mortar out with his knife ; if he succeeded, the 
 work had to be pulled to pieces next day and done over 
 again. 
 
 When we, in these days, wish to build a house, we engage 
 an architect. We tell him some of our ideas and vague notions, 
 but we leave the whole matter in his hands. We order a house 
 as we would order a motor-car or a portmanteau. The Tudor 
 squire himself superintended the building, watched the laying 
 of each stone and beam, paid the workmen, kept the accounts, 
 arranged the plans and the conveniences of the house accord- 
 ing to his liking, and cared not to copy classical models or 
 foreign details. He clung with whole-hearted affection to 
 the old English style of building, which he considered best 
 suited to the national character and climate. His son, or 
 grandson, followed in his footsteps, preserved the tradition 
 of building, added to the house, making improvements and 
 alterations according to his own taste and ideas. Hence houses 
 sprang up showing no unity of design with picturesque 
 grouping of portions erected at different times. They were 
 in the early Tudor period usually built round a court with 
 a substantial entrance gateway, sometimes carried up to form 
 
 3 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE MANOR-HOUSE 
 
 a tower. Fulham Palace, or, as it is more correctly named, 
 the Bishop's manor-house at Fulham, built in the time of 
 Henry VII, is a good example of this. We admire the 
 mullioned windows, the parapets corbelled out and battle- 
 mented, the irregular and picturesque grouping of the 
 various parts of these old Tudor houses. Sometimes we 
 find a great mixture of material, stone, brick, wood and 
 plaster ; but the great hall remains as the principal feature 
 with its screen, dais, bay window and huge fireplace in one 
 of the side walls. 
 
 The accompanying plans will reveal more clearly this de- 
 velopment and evolution of the house than any description 
 can give. We see in the plan of the house at Warneford the 
 simplest form of the hall 
 and offices. It was the 
 manor-house of the St. 
 John family, now quite 
 ruined. Two rows of 
 tall pillars carried the 
 principal timbers of the 
 roof. The Norman plan 
 of Boothby Pagnell (p. 
 1 9) shows a plain oblong 
 house divided into a 
 large and a small cham- 
 ber. The chief apart- 
 ment is on the first floor, 
 
 reached by the steps illustrated, with a vaulted undercroft 
 beneath. The second plan, that of the typical fifteenth- 
 century manor-house of Wanswell Court, Gloucestershire, 
 shows the addition of several chambers. In addition to the 
 central hall, there is a room at each end, a large kitchen, and a 
 cellar. The apartment at the west end was a parlour, and it is 
 clear that the lord dined there, and not in the common hall. 
 
 The third plan reveals a further development. It shows 
 
 PLAN OF AN EARLY HOUSE AT 
 WARNEFORD, HAMPSHIRE 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 the manor-house of Great Chalfield with its outbuildings, 
 moat, and the adjoining church. The hall still retains its 
 dominant position, but the number and complexity of the 
 subordinate rooms have increased. In the chapter on Gardens 
 (p. 193) is illustrated the plan of the Elizabethan house at 
 Chastleton, built round a small court, which shows the 
 greatly advanced ideas of comfort and privacy which had 
 
 grown up with the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 Dr. Andrew Boorde, whose 
 Dyatary of Helth was published 
 in 1542, tells how and "under 
 what manner and fashion a man 
 shulde buylde his howse or 
 mansyon in exchewyng thynges 
 the whiche shulde shorten the 
 lyfe of man." He advocates the 
 need of a good soil and good 
 prospect. The air must be pure, 
 frisky and clean, the foundations 
 on gravel mixed with clay. The 
 chief prospects should be east and west, or north-east and 
 south-west ; never south, for the south wind doth corrupt 
 and make evil vapours. This advice accords with that of a 
 contemporary poet, who asserts 
 
 The south as unkind draweth sickness too near, 
 The north as a friend maketh all again clear. 
 
 " Make the hall," he says, " under such a fashion that the 
 parlour be annexed to the head of the hall, and the buttery 
 and pantry be at the lower end of the hall ; the cellar under 
 the pantry, set somewhat above from the buttery and pantry, 
 coming with an entry by the wall of the buttery ; the pastry- 
 house and larder-house annexed to the kitchen. Then 
 divide the lodgings by the circuit of the quadrivial court, and 
 let the gatehouse be opposite, or against the hall door (not 
 
 PLAN OF WANSWELL COURT, 
 GLOUCESTERSHIRE 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE MANOR-HOUSE 
 
 directly) but the hall door standing abase, and the gatehouse 
 in the middle of the front entering into the place. Let the 
 privy chamber be annexed to the great chamber of estate 
 with other chambers necessary for the building, so that many 
 of the chambers may have a prospect into the chapel." He 
 locates the stables, slaughterhouse and dairy a quarter of a 
 mile away from the house, and advises that the moat should 
 be divers times scoured and kept clean from mud and weeds. 
 The advice of the good doctor seems to have been very 
 sound, and much needed in the infant days of sanitary 
 science. 
 
 In the Elizabethan house we notice great attempts towards 
 formal arrangement. No defence works were needed, and 
 in the spacious days of good Queen Bess there was evinced 
 a desire for display and magnificence as well as for comfort 
 and convenience. Small suites of rooms were erected for 
 guests on one side of the court, each room opening into the 
 other, and the long gallery, a familiar feature of an Eliza- 
 bethan house, was formed on the first floor of the left-hand 
 side of the court. The windows became larger. The H- 
 shaped type of house was evolved, which is only the old 
 plan of the hall in the centre flanked on one side by the 
 family apartments, on the other by those of the servants. 
 Also the E- shaped type came into fashion, erroneously 
 supposed to have been invented as a compliment to the 
 Virgin Queen. Of course it is only the hall with wings 
 projecting on one side only, the central stroke of the letter 
 representing the porch. 
 
 We shall give examples in subsequent chapters of the 
 details of these houses, the Renaissance characteristics and 
 changes in fashion which were introduced. 
 
 With the beginning of the seventeenth century the 
 
 "dining parlour" came into vogue, and the old fashion of 
 
 the family and household meeting in the common hall fell 
 
 into desuetude. Henceforward the servants adopted the 
 
 D 33 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 custom of u keeping themselves to themselves," quite in 
 accordance with modern notions. 
 
 The Jacobean house is but a further development of the 
 Elizabethan. Artists became more imbued with the Italian 
 spirit, and we notice an increased profusion of ornament, 
 wonderful plastered ceilings and elaborately carved panels 
 
 PLAN OF THE HOUSE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS 
 GREAT CHALFIELD MANOR, WILTSHIRE 
 
 and mantelpieces. The Tudor style became more and more 
 Italianized, though it still retained many of its English 
 characteristics. Evidences of foreign influence are seen in 
 the work of Thorpe, Robert and Huntingdon Smithson. 
 Then came the era of the "English Palladio," Inigo Jones, 
 who acquired his knowledge at Venice and in Denmark, ac- 
 companied Anne of Denmark, the queen of James I, to Eng- 
 land, and became the surveyor-general of the royal buildings 
 
 34 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE MANOR-HOUSE 
 
 under that monarch and his son Charles. Though his work 
 was mainly concerned with royal and noble houses, such as 
 the Banqueting House Whitehall, Stoke Park, Wilton 
 House, and St. John's College, Oxford, his influence and that 
 of his pupil Webb extended itself in the country, especially 
 in decoration, and the various rooms of the richer manor- 
 lords were converted into, as Bacon described them, " delicate 
 and rich cabinets, daintily paved, richly hanged, glazed with 
 crystalline glass, and all other elegancy that may be thought 
 of." The golden age of English house-building had passed, 
 and it was left to the humbler building, the smaller manor- 
 houses, the yeoman's house, and country cottages to maintain 
 in some measure the traditions of English Gothic and Tudor 
 art. Sir Christopher Wren lent his influence to the further- 
 ance of Renaissance ideals, though his art differed from the 
 Palladian adaptations of Inigo Jones. It is true that his 
 successors broke away from his manner in large and im- 
 portant buildings, but his influence lived on, and is seen in 
 the quieter domestic building which constituted the English 
 vernacular for many a day. 
 
 Lower Lypiatt, in Gloucestershire, is a good example of 
 an early eighteenth-century house. It was erected in 1717, 
 and we can detect the strong classic influence of the suc- 
 cessors of Wren. The house is set back in a forecourt 
 bounded by stone piers and wrought-iron railings. 
 
 The gates are extremely good and have a lock-rail of 
 richly interlacing work showing German influence. The 
 maker of this ironwork was Warren, who wrought it for 
 Judge Coxe, the builder of the house. Warren was the 
 artificer of many handsome gates of that period, including 
 those at Trinity College, Cambridge ; Eagle House, Clapton ; 
 the Little Cloister by Westminster Ajjbey ; Abney House, 
 Stoke Newington ; and Burleigh House at Enfield. The last 
 closely resemble those at Lower Lypiatt, having four small 
 panels, each filled with four scrolls proceeding from a circle, 
 
 35 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 united by vertical bars, with the central panel formed of 
 scrolls and water-leaves. The horizontals are fringed with 
 C scrolls holding waved spikes and the dog-bars are arrow- 
 pointed. The low pyramid tops of the piers are crowned by 
 solid vases. Master Warren and his brother blacksmiths of 
 the eighteenth century were wonderful artists. 
 
 With the commencement of the eighteenth century was 
 evolved the so-called " Queen Anne " style, which has given 
 us many charming and picturesque houses throughout the 
 country. As the late Mr. J. J. Stevenson wrote : 
 
 " Brick had become the common material of the country, 
 and the 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 barbar- 
 ism. 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 producing 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." 1 
 
 We might pass on to think of the Georgian builders, of 
 the work of the brothers Adam and other great masters, 
 but that would carry us beyond the limits of our search. 
 As an illustration of the later development of house- 
 building we give a view of the manor - house of 
 Studley, in Warwickshire. The chimneys that once soared 
 high have hidden themselves behind a parapet. The 
 rows of plain oblong windows are scarcely attractive, and 
 the redeeming feature of the house is the splendid iron- 
 work of the gates, which are worthy of a better dwelling. 
 It is with the old manor-houses of England that we are con- 
 cerned, and compared with them modern or comparatively 
 modern work seems unsatisfying and unsatisfactory. All 
 
 1 English House Architecture, I, 331. 
 36 
 
it 
 
 r$ 
 
 ! ' -. 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 these old houses seem to us beautiful. Time has added to 
 their charm. Some are more beautiful than others, but 
 there are no failures ; and though Time has improved their 
 appearance, mellowed their brickwork, wrought wonders on 
 their tiled roofs, and cast over them the glamour of romance, 
 their beauties are due to the skill and natural sense of artistic 
 
 STUDLEY MANOR-HOUSE, WARWICKSHIRE 
 
 effect of the village masons and artificers, carpenters, and 
 smiths, who " built houses and churches such as for excel- 
 lence and accuracy in architectural style we vainly now, with 
 all our knowledge, attempt to imitate." Such is the sad 
 confession of a modern architect. The examples of the 
 work of these village artists, which we have selected for this 
 book, are a witness to their skill. They wrought in various 
 materials, and in the following chapters we will examine 
 
 38 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE MANOR-HOUSE 
 
 their work more closely, and delight ourselves by the con- 
 templation. We shall try to trace the development of their 
 ideas, as generation after generation they were striving 
 after a more excellent way, to admire their efforts to make 
 the houses beautiful inside and out, and to understand their 
 conceptions of ornamentation and decoration. Perhaps we 
 shall discover that our best ideals for future work will be 
 formed by studying the triumphs of our native English 
 craftsmen rather than in following the imaginings of alien 
 builders unsuited to our climate and foreign to our 
 traditions. 
 
 39 
 
IV 
 MATERIALS OF CONSTRUCTION 
 
 IT has often been remarked how well the buildings be- 
 queathed to us by our forefathers harmonize with their 
 surroundings. They seem to be part of the landscape. 
 There is no incongruity, no false or startling note. The 
 cause of this harmonious blending is not hard to discover. 
 Our ancestors always used the materials which Nature her- 
 self supplied in the neighbourhood wherein the house was 
 to be reared. If they lived in a region of stone quarries, 
 they constructed their houses of stone. If they were 
 surrounded by woods and forests, the giant trees supplied 
 them with timber for their dwellings. This was entirely in 
 accordance with the eternal fitness of things. The half- 
 timbered houses of Berkshire, Sussex or Kent would look 
 out of place amid the wild moors of Yorkshire, where the 
 stone hewn from the native quarries supplies fit and pleasing 
 material for north-country dwellings. Compare the illustra- 
 tions of two specimens of these types given opposite and on 
 p. 43. The mediaeval masons and their descendants worked 
 unconsciously in accordance with this principle of aesthetic art. 
 There were no railways to bring stone from far-off quarries, 
 or slates from Wales, or bricks from Bracknell. Some of our 
 kings delighted to bring Caen stone from Normandy by sea 
 for great castles or abbeys. " Cane stone " was brought to 
 Reading Abbey by Henry I and to Wallingford Castle, and 
 when these great buildings were ruined the same stones were 
 shipped off in barges for the improvement of Windsor Castle. 
 
 40 
 
ST. BENEDICT S PRIORY, NEAR TENTERDEN, KENT 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 But the builders of our manor-houses would not be inclined 
 to incur the expense of bringing stone from Normandy. 
 With here and there an exception, such as Shrub Place, Sussex, 
 where Caen stone is used for the sixteenth-century addition, 
 they used the materials that lay ready to hand, and thus 
 avoided the production of strange anomalies and the associa- 
 tion together of those constituent parts that Nature had not 
 blended. They wrought as they best could, naturally, un- 
 affectedly, and built for themselves those pleasing and 
 enduring houses which it is our pleasure to admire and study 
 and perhaps to do our best to imitate. 
 
 The external appearance of these buildings was in a great 
 measure determined by the situation of the land upon which 
 they stood and the materials it yielded, these factors also bear- 
 ing the impress of the individual character of those who 
 used them. . Up and down the country-side is everywhere 
 seen the work of these village craftsmen, vernacular work un- 
 affected by imported design. It shows how local traditions 
 of taste were cultivated and carried down from generation to 
 generation. The builders of the smaller manor-houses and 
 humbler cottages pursued the even tenor of their way, one 
 age content to profit by the experience of its predecessor. 
 Hence traditions in building arose from the long retention 
 of certain definite tendencies, gradually gaining in power by 
 the introduction of new methods and ideas. Villages or 
 districts were self-centred, owing to the difficulties of com- 
 munication and transit, and different parts of the country 
 preserved their own peculiarities little affected by what was 
 being accomplished in other parts of the country outside their 
 own little world. Some wrought in stone, others in brick, 
 plaster or timber ; but the same underlying principle 
 governed all a wish to do their best with the materials 
 nearest to hand. Such was the process ; the results, though 
 not without fault, command our admiration and respect. 
 
 Building materials naturally vary with the geological forma- 
 
 42 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 tion of our island, and determine the character of the great 
 building districts. In the south-eastern region of England, 
 
 A GABLE AT SARRE, KENT 
 
 including Kent, Surrey, Sussex and eastern Hampshire, the 
 natural materials are chiefly chalk, chalk marl and weald 
 clay. Flints are often found in the chalk. The gable at 
 Sarre shows the local use of brick. Originally the land 
 
 44 
 
MATERIALS OF CONSTRUCTION 
 
 was densely overgrown with forests. Thus we find the 
 buildings composed of timber and plaster, of brick and flint, 
 the houses being tile-hung or weather-boarded. This chalk 
 formation continues through portions of the counties of 
 Wilts and Berks and away to the sea coast of Suffolk. Chalk 
 is the chief influence in the buildings, and plaster is commonly 
 used, either separately or together with the other products of 
 the land, flint and stone, bricks made from the clay and 
 timber from the forest lands. The extreme easterly part of 
 England, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Kent, with the Isle of 
 Thanet, yields clay for brickmaking and tiles. The great 
 forest of Epping, stretching across Essex, was also important 
 for its timber and contributed materials for the structure of 
 the houses. 
 
 In the southern parts of Hampshire and Dorset, together 
 with the Isle of Wight, we find chalk and flint. The great 
 stone bed of oolite and lias, stretching from the Dorset coast 
 in the south to the Yorkshire coast in the north, furnished 
 most excellent building stone, and along its course is the 
 region of the best stone buildings in the country. Cornwall, 
 Devon and West Somerset produce granite, sandstone, grit 
 and slate. With the Midlands as a centre, its arms stretch- 
 ing north, south and west, is the great sandstone formation. 
 Almost all this land was thickly wooded. Hence this was 
 pre-eminently the great timber-building district of England. 
 The natural products of the north country are sandstone, 
 limestone and granite which were used for the construction 
 of houses in that district. 
 
 We will now study some of the beautiful works of art 
 wrought in these various materials that Time has spared. It 
 is impossible in this work to describe all the manor-houses in 
 England, and we can only select typical examples fashioned 
 of stone or timber, brick or flint or plaster ; but from these 
 specimens we can judge of the achievements of the skill of 
 our forefathers and admire their perfections. 
 
 45 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 i. STONE 
 
 We must look for the best examples of stone buildings 
 along the course of that broad band of oolite and lias which 
 extends from the southern coast of Dorset to where the 
 North Sea laves the shore of Yorkshire. It embraces part 
 of Wiltshire, Somerset, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, 
 Derbyshire, part of Lincolnshire. Along its course can be 
 seen many of the most superb of English architectural 
 triumphs, fine church towers and spires, some of our 
 grandest cathedrals, such as Salisbury, Wells, Lincoln and 
 Southwell, and beautiful stone manor-houses, mansions and 
 cottages. It embraces the region of the Cotswolds, cele- 
 brated for its architectural beauties, and many other districts 
 that abound in charming examples of exquisite construction. 
 
 In the southern counties of Somerset, Wilts and Dorset 
 the buildings betray a strong mediaeval influence. Gothic 
 feeling probably lingered here longer than elsewhere in 
 England, and some of the mediaeval manor-houses happily 
 remain, though many have fallen from their former state. 
 There is a delightful old manor-house near Darleigh, in 
 West Somerset, known variously as Bur or West Bower 
 Manor, or Court, now called West Bower Farm, which is of 
 very early construction, and belongs to the Decorated period 
 of English architecture. Its entrance, guarded by two towers 
 with windows far from the ground (those on the right and 
 left of the entrance were evidently inserted in later times), 
 shows that it was built in troublous days when the need of 
 fortification had not passed away and when every English- 
 man's house was his castle. Probably the lean-to roof and 
 present doorway are not part of the original building. It 
 claims to be the birthplace of Jane Seymour, afterwards 
 queen of Henry VIII and the mother of Edward VI. Her 
 father, Sir John Seymour, was lord of the manor of Bur. 
 The stone turrets still contain some of the old glass in 
 
 46 
 
^5 >WwfflgoK7* '?Sf < x 
 
 *-- *fe^jfe& ^P-x ,---, 
 
 V 
 
 V 7 
 
 W J. 
 
 '1. 
 
 WEST BOWER FARM, NEAR DARLEIGH, WEST SOMERSET 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 which appear formal roses and archaic letters. M can be 
 deciphered, and it probably stands for Malet. 1 
 
 Perched high on a hillside stands the sturdy stone-built 
 manor-house called Stanton Old Hall, in Derbyshire, 
 within a short distance from Haddon Hall, commanding 
 one of the loveliest views in the county. Its long, low 
 front rising above the narrow flagged and terraced forecourt, 
 its square-headed mullioned and latticed windows, and its 
 gables finished with ball finials, suggest that it was built in 
 the latter half of the sixteenth century, during the tenure of 
 the Bache family. The family of the De Stantons was an 
 ancient one. Robert de Stanton requested, in 1327, King 
 Edward III to grant pontage to the men of Stanton and 
 Swarkeston towards the repair of the bridge between the 
 two towns. Fate has grimly distinguished the change of 
 possession of this manor by the extinction, not infrequently 
 by violence, of the male line of each family who has owned 
 it from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century. 2 
 
 The present tenant, a farmer of the name of Smith, 
 claims that the house has been the home of his family for 
 many generations past, and the sword of his great-great- 
 great-grandfather hangs in the inglenook of the kitchen, 
 where the massive oak ceiling beams and panelling on the 
 low walls give an old-world character to the room. 
 
 A modern drawing-room has been added in recent times, 
 and altogether the other sides of the house have lost their 
 original character, but traces of the sloping garden suggest 
 that the scheme must once have been very complete for a 
 small house. 
 
 It is now the property of the Duke of Rutland. The 
 site of the house forced the development of the plan. You 
 will notice the graceful gables, the mullioned windows, the 
 picturesque chimney-stack, the low pitch of the roof necessi- 
 
 1 Fletcher Moss, Pilgrimages to Old Houses. 
 
 2 Tilley, Old Halls and Families of Derbyshire. 
 
 48 
 
STANTON OLD HALL, DERBYSHIRE 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 tated by the use of the heavy Derbyshire slabs. Our fore- 
 fathers soon discovered that though steeply pitched roofs 
 drained off the rain best, and were most satisfactory when 
 thatch or light slates or tiles were used as roofing material, 
 yet when heavy tiles or slabs were hung they pulled sorely 
 on the rafters and broke the pegs that held them ; hence our 
 ancestors wisely adopted a lower pitch. As you enter the 
 house you notice that the door is fastened in the old- 
 fashioned way a great beam shot into holes in the wall. 
 The hall is original, the furniture just the same as when the 
 manor-lord sat at the head of the table, settled the disputes 
 of his tenants, and dispensed common-sense justice at his 
 court leet. 
 
 Sandford Orcas Manor-house, Dorset, is a good example 
 of an early sixteenth-century stone house. A view of the 
 fine Tudor gatehouse is shown. The house is built of Ham 
 Hill stone, to which local material the old houses of Dorset 
 and Somerset owe not a little of their mellow colouring 
 and beautiful texture. It has two storeys, with rooms above 
 in the attics, having mullioned windows with dripstones 
 in the gables. It is entered by a beautiful porch which 
 leads to the screens on the west of the hall. The hall 
 has a large bay mullioned window. On the summit of 
 the three gables are curious grotesque figures. The porch 
 has a chamber over it, an elaborately carved coat-of-arms 
 over the door, and finely carved finials crown the buttresses 
 on each side of the porch. 
 
 On the borders of Yorkshire and Derbyshire at Holmes- 
 field, not far from Sheffield, stands the lonely Cartledge 
 Hall, far from the haunts of men, a manor-house of the late 
 fifteenth or early sixteenth century. Few people know of 
 the existence of this. It is built throughout of large 
 blocks of stone, and has the typical large stone slabs 
 common to the district. It stands solitary and alone, 
 exposed to the fierce storms that sweep over a wild, bleak 
 
 5 
 
THE GATEHOUSE, SANDFORD ORCAS, DORSETSHIRE 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 and rugged moor, challenging the fury of the tempestuous 
 gales. With its bold unimaginative details and bleak 
 surroundings the house seems to convey to the mind the 
 stern spirit of the north-country man, his steadiness, his 
 practical nature and strength of charatter. Some of the 
 interior details which are of much interest will be examined 
 later. The house remains a good type of a northerner's 
 rugged dwelling. 
 
 
 CARTLEDGE HALL, DERBYSHIRE 
 
 A Yorkshire type is seen at Oakwell Hall, Birstall, near 
 Leeds, though a century later than Cartledge, having been 
 built in 1583 by one Henry Batt, of whom nothing good 
 can be said save that he had the good taste to build this 
 noble dwelling. Its narrow mullioned windows and some- 
 what heavy appearance correspond to the usual features of 
 Yorkshire houses. Its interest is that it is almost in the 
 same condition as when Henry Batt finished it, a quaint 
 homestead with a panelled hall, huge fireplace, a gallery 
 running round the chamber and old dog-gates at the foot of 
 the stairs to prevent the animals gaining access to the 
 
 5 2 
 
'.. * M** .2* 
 
 -* 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 bedrooms. The founder achieved ignoble fame by waging 
 war against the vicar, appropriating money that had been en- 
 trusted to him for building a school, selling the great bell at 
 Birstall and pulling down the vicarage. His successors had 
 to pay heavily for this sacrilege. You can see a bloody foot- 
 print in one of the bedrooms imprinted by the ghost of a 
 Batt who was slain in a duel in London. The Fearnleys 
 used to make the old house echo with sounds of merriment 
 and hunting songs, but its chief fame is derived from its 
 association with Charlotte Bronte, who pictured its ancient 
 gables and old-world charm in Shirley. 
 
 Of stone manor-houses dating from the days of Elizabeth 
 we have many other examples. Owlpen in Gloucestershire 
 presents many features of peculiar interest. 
 
 The parish of Owlpen has been aptly described by an 
 eighteenth-century writer a as a " kind of gloomy retreat," 
 and the manor-house itself is in keeping with its surround- 
 ings. Shut in by steep hills and hidden in trees, access to it 
 is most difficult, the more so because of the state of the 
 roads. When reached, the weird beauty of the place gives 
 an impression not easily shaken off. It is indeed something 
 of a relief to learn that the present owner does not live 
 in the grey old house, but uses it and the beautiful gardens 
 by daylight as a picnic place. The house itself, which 
 is built of the stone of the county, is a specially interesting 
 example of sixteenth-century architecture. 
 
 The name, variously spelt Olepenne, Ullepenne, is derived 
 from its situation, being on the hill above the Uley. It is 
 rather disappointing that it should have nothing to do with 
 owls, but three owls argent appear on the arms of the family 
 of Olepenne, who owned the manor from the early part 
 of the fourteenth century until their heiress brought the 
 property by marriage to John Daunt, who died in 1522. 
 His descendants were still the owners when Rudder wrote in 
 
 1 Rudder's Gloucestershire, 1779. 
 54 
 
OWLPEN MANOR-HOUSE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 1779. The entrance gates are evidently much later than the 
 house, and belong to the Queen Anne period. 
 
 Shipton Hall, Shropshire, in Corvedale on the road from 
 Much Wenlock to Craven Arms and Ludlow, is a charming 
 example of the latter part of the sixteenth century. It 
 has a tower over the porch, picturesque gables and broad 
 projecting windows. The approach is imposing with its 
 series of terraces and wide stone steps and balustrades. Old- 
 fashioned flowers flourish in the terrace gardens. There is 
 a fine stone dovecot and eighteenth-century stables and 
 outbuildings. The interior shows a noble hall and grand 
 staircase, carved mantelpieces and good panelling. It was 
 formerly the home of the Mytton family, and boasted of a 
 famous collection of old furniture, armour, books, manu- 
 scripts, silver, pewter and other family relics ; but all these 
 have vanished, having been sold recently by auction, and the 
 house has passed into the hands of a new owner. 
 
 Belonging to the same period is Wilderhope Manor-house 
 in Shropshire. This well-preserved stone-built manor-house, 
 secluded amongst woods and pasture-land, was for many 
 generations the home of the Smallmans. The existing house 
 was either built or largely remodelled by Francis Smallman, 
 who died in 1599. His initials and those of his wife, Ellen, 
 appear on a very beautiful plaster ceiling, together with a 
 half-obliterated legend, of which three at least suggested 
 renderings are given by differing authorities. The mystery 
 of these words together with the high-spirited reputation 
 enjoyed by a certain Major Smallman, of Royalist fame, are 
 probably responsible for strange stories connecting the family 
 and the house with a darkly-spoken-of " Hell-fire Club." 
 The spot is still pointed out, however, where Major Small- 
 man, pursued by enemies, leaped his horse from Wenlock 
 Edge : the horse was killed, but a timely crab-tree broke the 
 major's fall and saved his life. 
 
 Wilderhope is now a farmhouse : it has not belonged to 
 
 56 
 

 \ *3SV., ; 
 
 
 ; 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 the Smallman family since the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century. Its principal front faces south and has three project- 
 ing gabled wings, the main entrance being in the eastern pro- 
 jection. It has mullioned windows with Tudor dripstones, 
 and finials at the end of each gable. The many-shafted 
 chimneys are a feature of the house, and there is a curious 
 tower, containing a staircase, with a conical roof somewhat 
 resembling the Scottish type. The part of the house given 
 in the illustration faces north, and shows how well the old 
 builders made allowance for the more exposed side. 
 
 Condover Hall is one of the finest of these Shropshire 
 stone houses, built between 1586 and 1598. It is a very 
 perfect example of this period, to which also belong Acton 
 Scott and Upton Cressett ; Madeley Court, which also has 
 a cone-shaped roof tower, and Elsich, near Craven Arms, 
 belong to the middle of the sixteenth century, and Benthall 
 and Belswardine to the beginning of that century. The 
 prosperity of the country markedly showed itself in 
 Shrqpshire during tfyis period, when wealth increased in all 
 ranks, especially among the middle classes, and comfort was 
 more considered than in early days. Squires and merchants, 
 yeomen and tradesmen of every degree, built for themselves 
 houses fitted for the new luxuries, and there is hardly a 
 town or parish in Shropshire that cannot show a house, 
 larger or smaller, of this period. 
 
 We have already illustrated (p. 5) Whittington Court, 
 Gloucestershire, a fine house of which some exterior 
 details and interiors are given in a later chapter. The 
 manor of Whittington was granted by Henry VII to the 
 Cottons, and -the present house was built by Richard Cotton, 
 who died in 1553, and is commemorated together with his wife 
 in the church near by. Apart from its architecture and the 
 beauty of its surroundings, Whittington Court is of interest 
 as having been the home of Sir John Denham, famed as the 
 author of Cooper s Hill and for being Surveyor-General 
 
 53 
 

THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 to Charles II. Later the heiress of Whittington brought 
 the main property in marriage to Sir William Morley of 
 Helnaker, and thus it came to Mary, wife of James Earl of 
 Derby, on whose death Helnaker was allowed to fall into ruin. 
 A different fate, however, awaited Whittington, for it was 
 shortly afterwards bought by Thomas Tracy, M.P., who made 
 it his residence, and in 1865 it was very much restored. 
 
 On the edge of Salisbury Plain stands the old manor- 
 house of Knook, which has weathered many a storm and 
 is now much dilapidated and liable to fall into decay. The 
 only habitable part is that to the left of the entrance porch, 
 and it is a pity that such a house should become a ruin. 
 It is a good example of a late Tudor house, and is worthy 
 of preservation. 
 
 Wiltshire is a county of beautiful old manor-houses. 
 Some of them have fallen from their high estate. Great 
 Chalfield, built in the reign of Henry VI by Thomas 
 Tropenell, in 1460-70, was until recently a ruin, and is now 
 being rescued from its sad condition of neglect. There is 
 a good entrance gate and adjoining it a range of domestic 
 offices. The ha 1 ! had been made into two storeys, but the 
 dividing floor has been removed. Two curious masks, 
 through the eyes of which the lord could watch the behaviour 
 of his retainers in the hall, have been replaced. Not far 
 away is South Wraxall Manor, a fine stone house, erected by 
 Robert Long, who died in 1447. The portions belonging to 
 that period are the great hall with timber roof of the early 
 hammer-beam type, porch, parlour, kitchens with chamber 
 above and the buttery with withdrawing-room over it. 
 Early in the sixteenth century the gateway with oriel and 
 porter's lodge over it, and the ouildings connecting it with 
 the parlour, were erected by Sir Thomas Long, whose badge, 
 the fetterlock, appears over the arch of the gateway. Ex- 
 tensive alterations were carried out in the time of Elizabeth 
 and James I. Some of the fireplaces are very magnificent, 
 
 60 
 
THE OLD MANOR-HOUSE OF KNOOK, WILTS 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 and are shown in works on architecture. The house was 
 once a school ; then it degenerated into a show place where 
 tourists and trippers could have tea-parties. It is now, by 
 the skill and bounty of Mr. E. Richardson Cox, restored to 
 its pristine glories, a model manor-house. 
 
 Limestone is the chief building stone of the Isle of Wight 
 which is rich in beautiful specimens of domestic archi- 
 tecture of the humbler sort. Wolverton Manor-house is a 
 good example of the E-shaped plan with its porch and two 
 projecting wings. 
 
 As early as the reign of Henry V the manor of Wolverton 
 was owned by the family of Dingley, and in the reign of 
 Elizabeth John Dingley built the present manor-house. 
 The site surrounded by a moat of an earlier house can 
 still be traced, but none of the building remains. 
 
 Standing on low-lying ground watered by a mill stream, 
 and well equipped with trees, the gabled house, built of 
 warm tinted stone, gives joy to the passer-by. Every side 
 being well broken up there is no monotony in its lines, and 
 from whatever point of view it is seen the effect is good. 
 The entrance front, which faces south-east and is enclosed by 
 the walls of a forecourt, has the projecting wings usual in 
 Isle of Wight houses and also a fine two-storey porch. It is 
 possible that parts of this porch may have once belonged to 
 the earlier house and have been built into the new one. 
 
 The south wing has suffered by the insertion of sash 
 windows, and the annexe to the west, designed for a staircase, 
 but used as a brewhouse, is of later date than the house. 
 But on the whole the exterior has been little spoiled or 
 altered. Indeed, the unfinished attics are still in an un- 
 plastered condition. 
 
 The plan of the interior is much the same as when first 
 designed, and the great hall, which contains a good mantel- 
 piece, has always been kept to its original use. 
 
 The mantelpieces in the drawing-room and in one of the 
 
 62 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 bedrooms were probably added by Sir John Dingley, 
 grandson of the builder, who married Jane Hammond, 
 daughter of Dr. Hammond, Physician-in-Ordinary to Prince 
 Henry, son of James I. Sir John Oglander made a scornful re- 
 mark of Sir John Dingley, saying that he " lived altogeathor 
 neare London and not in oure Island, as being drawen 
 thethor by ye instigation of his wyfe and her Fryndes." 
 
 KINGSTON MANOR, ISLE OF WIGHT 
 
 The arms of Hammond impaled with those of Dingley 
 appear carved on a panel in the mantelpiece in the bedroom. 
 
 The " pleasance " was doubtless to the north, where 
 the old garden is now. 
 
 The old manor-house at Kingston in the island is full of 
 architectural interest, but the modernization of the windows 
 of the south front and the large eighteenth-century chimney- 
 stack, which is a prominent feature of the north front, have 
 done much to deprive it of its original character. 
 
 6 4 
 
MATERIALS STONE 
 
 It was built early in the seventeenth century by one of the 
 Meux, a family who had owned the property from the 
 beginning of the fifteenth century. The last baronet, Sir 
 William Meux, died without issue early in the eighteenth 
 century and Kingston passed to his sister. It was about this 
 time that the house suffered a good deal from alteration. 
 
 RAM HALL, WARWICKSHIRE 
 
 Fortunately, however, the gables still retain their stone copings 
 and their finials (p. 137), similar in detail to those at Barton, 
 and in most instances the lapel moulding to the windows 
 remains. On the upper floor this moulding seems to have 
 been continuous, which suggests the existence formerly of an 
 attic storey, since pulled down or perhaps never finished. 
 
 In the present dining-room the Meux arms are carved on a 
 central panel in the elaborate Jacobean chimney-piece,and in the 
 old hall, now used as a kitchen (p. 1 45), there is a good Jacobean 
 F 65 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 door to the cupboard (p. 163), beside the wide flat-centred 
 chimney-piece. It is panelled as high as the mullioned 
 windows, and has fixed benches attached to the woodwork. 
 
 Ram Hall, Warwickshire, stands a memorial of its de- 
 parted greatness. It has seen better days, but still its twin 
 gables, its mullioned lattice-paned windows, its curiously 
 devised chimney-stack and the half-timbered barn beyond, 
 standing against a bank of giant elms, and the great moat in 
 
 EYAM HALL, DERBYSHIRE 
 
 front, form a wonderfully charming picture that is not easily 
 forgotten. 
 
 There is not much to tell of the history of these houses. 
 They have passed through the ages peacefully and pleasantly. 
 History fails to record any great events that happened in 
 their ancestral halls, or disturbed their placid existence. 
 Plots and conspiracies could not be bred in such quiet homes 
 and if an occasional secret hiding-place tells of dangers feared 
 or actually realized the page of history is silent. They 
 resemble closely their owners, sturdy country squires who 
 
 66 
 
MATERIALS STONE 
 
 hunted and sported, farmed and tried to do their duty to 
 their neighbours, and then slept in the neighbouring church- 
 yard where a simple stone slab records their names and 
 memories. 
 
 Not entirely without history, however, is the hall of 
 Eyam. The manor dates back to Saxon times when it was 
 held by one Caschin, and at the Conquest passed into the 
 King's hand. William Peveril became the over-lord in the 
 reign of Henry I, and under him it was held by the 
 Morteynes and then by the Furmivals. Amongst the owners 
 of the manor were the Talbots, earls of Shrewsbury, and the 
 dukes of Devonshire, and the Staffords de Eyham were 
 under-lords of the manor until the family became extinct 
 about a century before the famous Plague that devastated the 
 village. The present manor-house never saw that terrible 
 visitation, which broke out in the year 1665. The old Hall 
 was purchased by the Wright family soon after the Plague, 
 who pulled it down and erected or re-erected it about the 
 year 1680. It is still in the possession of the family and is 
 now the property of Miss Wright. The family is an ancient 
 one, being a branch of the Longstone Wrights who were 
 settled at Longstone Hall in the fourteenth century. The 
 house was evidently constructed on the old lines, and appears 
 to resemble a late Tudor, rather than a building erected at 
 the end of the seventeenth century. It has rough walling 
 with dressed stone at the angles. 
 
 There is not much attempt at ornamentation about the 
 houses of Derbyshire and Yorkshire. The stone of which 
 they are constructed is hard and difficult to work. The gable 
 is a general feature, low-pitched and finished with a coping. 
 
 Another characteristic north-country house is Cark Hall 
 (given on p. 43), Lancashire. It is a Tudor gabled house 
 with a good Renaissance doorway. You will notice the 
 typical, heavy, north-country chimneys, one of which is 
 circular. 
 
 67 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 2. TIMBER 
 
 We must naturally look for half-timber houses in the 
 great forest districts of the country, in the south-eastern 
 counties, the Weald of Kent and Sussex, Essex and part of 
 Suffolk, in Herefordshire, the Forest of Dean, Shropshire 
 and the Welsh marshes, Lancashire and Cheshire. There we 
 find splendid examples of the skill of the carpenter who 
 fashioned the beautiful timber houses which we so much 
 admire, and which give an added beauty to the English land- 
 scape and form a characteristic feature of our scenery. It is 
 impossible to state how early the use of timber for house- 
 construction was invented. It is probable that the Saxons 
 framed their houses of wood and filled in the interstices with 
 " wattle and daub," but most of the existing half-timber build- 
 ings date from the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth 
 centuries. Owing to the scarcity of timber few important 
 buildings were erected after that period. 
 
 It is unnecessary to describe here the methods adopted for 
 their erection. For information concerning them the reader 
 is referred to Mr. Charles Baily's " Remarks on Timber 
 Houses," published in the Surrey Archaeological Collections, 1 to 
 Mr. Dawber's Introduction to Mr. W. G. Davies' Old 
 Cottages in Kent and Sussex, and to our previous volume on 
 The Charm of the English Village. It may be useful, however, 
 to point out the signs which tell of early, or fifteenth-cen- 
 tury, work whereby we can distinguish it from the pro- 
 ductions of later builders. The older houses have for a 
 corner-post the butt of a tree placed root upwards, with 
 the top part curving diagonally outwards in order to carry 
 the angle-posts of the upper storey. These are often cut 
 into brackets both on 'the outside and inside of the house. 
 The posts themselves were also richly carved. The close- 
 ness of the timbering is one of the characteristics of early 
 
 i Vol. IV. 
 68 
 
MATERIALS TIMBER 
 
 ToNG 
 
 work. It was not until later, when timber became scarce, 
 
 that the timbers were set further apart and curved and 
 
 shaped braces 
 
 introduced as 
 
 shown in the 
 
 gable illustrated 
 
 from Bridgnorth. 
 
 Sometimes the 
 
 projection of 
 
 the upper 
 
 storeys was 
 
 carried round the 
 
 angle of the house 
 
 and continued on 
 
 all sides. The 
 
 projecting ends 
 
 of the joists were 
 
 rounded off or 
 
 moulded, but it is a sign of early work when they were 
 
 covered with a long fascia board, either moulded and the 
 
 upper part cut into small battle- 
 ments, or carved with foliage. 
 The filling up of the interstices 
 was accomplished in several 
 ways. In some cases upright 
 hazel rods were fixed in grooves 
 cut in the top and bottom of 
 the square panels formed by the 
 upright and horizontal beams, 
 and thinner hazel wands twisted 
 round them. The panel was 
 then filled up with a plaster of 
 clay and chopped straw and 
 
 finished with a coating of lime plaster. 1 Sometimes bricks 
 
 1 R. Nevill, Old Cottage Architecture in South West Surrey. 
 69 
 
 BRIDGNORTH 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 EvESHAM 
 
 were placed in the divisions between the timbers, and 
 occasionally arranged in herring-bone fashion. Flint and 
 stones in checkered squares are not uncommon in Kent. 
 
 Gables also are good indicators of the age of a building, 
 as they are usually adorned with barge-boards. The earliest 
 forms reveal barge-boards with the edges cut in cusps. In the 
 sixteenth century they are pierced with tracery as at Evesham, 
 frequently in the form of trefoils or quatrefoils ; and in the 
 
 Jacobean period the ends of 
 the gables at the eaves have 
 pendants, a finial adorns the 
 ridge, and the perforated de- 
 signs are more fantastic and 
 correspond to the details of 
 the usual Jacobean carving. 
 In the older houses the barge- 
 boards project about a foot 
 from the surface of the wall. In the eighteenth century, when 
 weather-tiling was introduced, the distance between the wall 
 and the barge-boards was diminished, and ultimately they 
 were placed flush with it ; elaborately carved boards were 
 then discarded and the ends of the gable moulded. Other 
 evidences of early or late design will be noticed when we 
 discuss the details of the manor-house. 
 
 The work of building timber-framed houses differed widely 
 in various parts of the kingdom. Thus, owing to the pre- 
 sence of the industrious Flemings, in Eastern England the 
 work in timber, as well as in stone and brick, was more 
 refined than in the remoter regions of the west and north. 
 In Herefordshire, Cheshire and Lancashire the buildings are 
 distinguished by a rude vigour of design and by a coarseness 
 of execution. John Abel, who lived to be ninety-seven years 
 of age, and was born in 1597, was responsible for much good 
 half-timber work in Herefordshire. He built surely and 
 well ; his construction was sound and good, but his work was 
 
 70 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 often a little crude. Mr. Blomfield, in his History of Renaissance 
 Architecture, tells of the existence of sundry insidious pattern- 
 books full of atrocious models which were a snare and a 
 delusion to Abel and other carpenter-builders, and led them 
 away from their truer instincts and traditional styles. New 
 fashions ill understood did not go well with the lingering 
 spirit of Gothic architecture or the scarcely acquired concep- 
 tions of the Renaissance. After this time a traditional 
 vernacular method of working again arose in England. The 
 local builders, masons and carpenters, recovered their lost 
 art and worked in their own natural and true style ; and we 
 find " in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the inde- 
 pendence of thought, the sober taste and kindliness of 
 manner which has throughout stamped our architecture, 
 whether Mediaeval or Renaissance, with a character unmis- 
 takably English." l 
 
 Herefordshire is famous for its timber houses. Weobley 
 still retains a large number of beautiful old black and white 
 structures, which were universal in the county two hundred 
 years ago. In the county we find Knill Court, which was en- 
 larged about 1561 ; Orleton Court, the seat of the Blount 
 family ; the Wythall, near Ross ; the Ley in Weobley, the 
 residence of the family of Brydges, and built by James 
 Brydges in 1589, with no fewer than eight gables on the 
 north front; Luntley Court in Dilwyn, dated 1674. 
 
 We will work up these western shires and notice the types 
 of timber-framed houses which abound there. Hudding- 
 ton Court is an old moated manor-house in the heart of 
 rural Worcestershire, not far from Droitwich. The romance 
 of history is woven round this old half-timbered house, 
 with its encircling moat, aged walls and twisted chimney. It 
 is celebrated as the place where the conspirators of the Gun- 
 powder Plot halted during their last melancholy fight after 
 the plot had been discovered and they knew that they were 
 
 1 Renaissance Architecture in England, by R. Blomfield. 
 72 
 
SOLIHULL, WARWICKSHIRE 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 doomed if captured. It was the home of the Wintours of 
 Hodington, one Joan de Hodington marrying Roger 
 Wintour, a descendant of Wyntour the Castellan of Carnar- 
 von. Robert Wyntour, the conspirator, came of an ancient 
 and powerful Roman Catholic family. He married Gertrude 
 Talbot of Grafton, the daughter of the wealthiest landholder 
 in the county. But his restless spirit, his religious fanaticism 
 made him the victim of the mad visionaries and traitors who 
 devised the Gunpowder Plot. On November 6th, 1605, 
 a weary company of exhausted and dejected travel-stained 
 men rode across the bridge to Huddington Court. In the 
 east window of the Court (still called Lady Wyntour's 
 window) sat Robert Wyntour's wife watching for the return 
 of her husband. Robert's brothers, Thomas and John, were 
 also involved, and here in this hall they met, for the last time, 
 fugitives from justice, well knowing the fate that awaited 
 them. The dining-hall is now divided, by a lath-and-plaster 
 partition, into two bedrooms, but the fine stone chimney- 
 piece remains, with the arms of Huddington and Cromby 
 and the royal arms of Edward III. The company on that 
 memorable night numbered thirty, including Catesby, Percy, 
 Rookwood and Sir Everard Digby. Guards watched at 
 the corners of the roads. At 3 a.m. the weary men rose 
 from sleep to attend Mass. Arms and ammunition and 
 armour were laid out in the hall for their use, and a few 
 hours later the conspirators were in the saddle again, and 
 Robert Wyntour had embraced his wife and children for the 
 last time and bid farewell for ever to the home of his 
 ancestors. 
 
 The neighbouring county of Warwick has several notable 
 houses, and amongst these is the curious half-timbered 
 mansion known as Bott's Green House, near Shustoke, to 
 which we have already referred (p. 7). 
 
 In the same county is the house at Solihull, reputed to be 
 the original manor-house of the Greswoldes, distinguished by 
 
 74 
 
MATERIALS TIMBER 
 
 its two oriel windows jutting out in the central bay. Sash 
 windows have been inserted in the ground floor. 
 
 The coloured frontispiece to this volume shows Grimshaw 
 Hall, in Warwickshire, a delightful timber and plaster house 
 with projecting porch, shallow bay windows supported by 
 brackets and brick clustered chimneys. 
 
 HARTON MANOR-HOUSE, SHROPSHIRE 
 
 Shropshire is famous for its black and white houses, 
 notably the old town of Shrewsbury where they abound. 
 Pitchford Hall dates back to 1475, an ^ the house on the 
 Wyle Cop, where Henry of Richmond slept in 1485, still 
 stands to show how well men built in the fifteenth century. 
 Park Hall is a magnificent example of a half-timbered front 
 of 1555, and Marrington Hall of 1595. At Durvall there 
 
 75 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 is a fine timber house of about 1580. Boscobel, well known 
 for its associations with Charles II, was built at the close 
 of the sixteenth century, or at the very beginning of the 
 seventeenth, and Plowden Hall is of about the same date. In 
 both of these houses you will find some ingeniously devised 
 hiding-places or priests' holes. When in these difficult days 
 we manage to save any money we take it to the bank. In 
 Elizabethan times there were no banks and few opportunities 
 for investing money. Hence our forefathers kept their 
 money in their houses and cleverly devised secret cupboards 
 and hiding-holes, where they could deposit their superfluous 
 wealth. It is surprising how many nooks and corners and 
 secret holes you can find in an old-fashioned escritoire. The 
 little Harton Manor-house embowered in trees is a good 
 example of the smaller type. The ornamented curved braces 
 in the gable are peculiar, showing some attempt at elaborate 
 decoration, and the clustered chimney-stack displays fine 
 workmanship. The view we give of the Great Lyth in the 
 same county (p. 103) shows a fine brick house with curved 
 gables. 
 
 Crossing the boundary into the neighbouring county of 
 Stafford, we admire the half-timbered Bradley Hall at King- 
 swinford, which conforms to the usual type of the Midland 
 manor-house. It bears the date 1596, and we notice chimneys 
 wide at the base so as to afford a pleasantly large inglenook 
 which is probably combined with an oven, the closeness of 
 the upright timbers, the overhanging of the storeys so that 
 the front of the gable embraces the large bay window and the 
 ingeniously constructed porch which is carried up to the roof 
 and has rooms over it. 
 
 Cheshire has many houses of the black and white type as 
 well as of the red sandstone which mellows so beautifully 
 with age and seems part of the scenery. Of the former 
 Handforth Hall is a delightful example. It is rich in beauty 
 and in romance. The Honfords of Honford (such is the old 
 
 76 
 
Sq i 
 
 " \-' . **fcji 
 
 > ' 3'''<SSI 'I 
 
 i "ewiJ 
 7rS5v i a 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 spelling of the name) were a sturdy race, like many of the 
 other old families of Cheshire : 
 
 Strong in the arm 
 And weak in head. 
 
 One fought in the Crusades and took for his cognizance a 
 wondrous star that fell from heaven before the armies of 
 Saladin. Another fought in France against Jeanne d'Arc, and 
 the last of the heirs-male fell fighting against the Scots at 
 Cheviot Moor. He left a daughter Margaret, who married 
 first Sir John Stanley, the warrior sung by Sir Walter Scott, 
 who quarrelled with the Leghs and became a monk, and 
 secondly Uryan Brereton who built the present hall, as the 
 inscription over the door testifies : 
 
 ljts Ijaulle teas bunlfcetr In tlje ueare of oure l^oriJ oft 
 M.CCCCC.LXII. bjr qmn fkcretoun IMgbt tohnm 
 maqjeft IHarrjarct daughter anit {jeirre 0f Myllgam Kfantrfortlj 
 of lianofortljE (Bsquyer & lja& Issue iri sonnes antr ii 
 fcawj friers. 
 
 The Breretons played a manly part in the history of the 
 shire, but the glories of the old house have departed. It is 
 only a farmhouse now, and not long ago its poor furniture 
 was sold by auction. But Uryan Brereton built surely and 
 well, and the grand old staircase and panelling bear witness to 
 his skill and a hiding-hole in the stairs to his ingenuity. 
 
 In the neighbouring county of Lancashire can be seen 
 many good houses of stone or brick according to the nature 
 of the land, but some of the " magpie " houses are the most 
 highly finished and carefully wrought. As an example we 
 give the interesting Hall i' th' Wood at Tonge, a good 
 specimen of late sixteenth-century half-timber work with a 
 stonework addition. Hall i' th' Wood is a charming house, 
 very peaceful and dignified as it looks down upon the busy 
 bustling Bolton town with reeking chimneys and noisy 
 factories. In the quaint Lancashire tongue it tells by its 
 
 78 
 
*T -' TaP'^ *$*' *" ' ' 
 
 HANDFORTH HALL, CHESHIRE 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 name that it was once girt with tall trees, but these have 
 nearly all vanished. The initials "L B B" over a fireplace with 
 the date 1591 declare its builder to have been Laurence 
 Brownlowe of Tonge, grandson of Roger, who held lands 
 here in 1499. Half a century later a daughter brought the 
 property by marriage to Alexander Norris, who built the 
 
 HALL I TH WOOD, TONGE, LANCASHIRE 
 
 stone porch and wing. Upon a sundial over the entrance are 
 inscribed the initials A N A with the date 1648. Then John 
 Starkie of the Starkies of Huntroyd by marriage with Alice 
 Norris acquired the house, and placed his shield of arms, six 
 stalks, in the hall. The house fell upon evil days. Poor Samuel 
 Crompton, the inventor of the spinning jenny, lived here and 
 worked and starved. The Starkies lived on their estates at 
 Huntroyd, and the old house became a ruin. It has been 
 carefully restored and is now a museum, having been 
 
 80 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 purchased by Mr. Lever and presented to the Bolton Cor- 
 poration. You enter the house through the stone porch 
 erected in 1648. There is a grand oak door with long 
 flowery-ended hinges and studded with nails. A fine stair- 
 case leads to the withdrawing-room. The windows are lofty 
 with mullions and transoms. There is a good plaster ceil- 
 ing in three compartments, and a seventeenth-century mantel- 
 piece with pilasters and caryatides. Some of the details of 
 the panelling and other features will be noticed later on. 
 
 Journeying to the south-eastern district we find some ex- 
 cellently finished work of the carpenter's craft, which was 
 indeed an art. " Some of these old buildings are works of 
 art, that is, they show that intangible quality, the result of 
 growth and life, which no artificial rules or mechanical means 
 can achieve ; those employed on the building were doing 
 creative work., according to their capacity, for their fellows, 
 who were competent to appreciate success or failure." 1 In 
 Surrey and Sussex the local materials are numerous. We 
 find walls of stone and brick, half timber and plaster, half 
 timber and tile-hanging. Red brick sometimes fills the 
 panels of half-timbered walls, and the roofs are of thatch or 
 Horsham slabs or tiles. Great Tangley Manor-house is a 
 good example of a Surrey house. We can trace the old plan, 
 the great hall with screens and entrances, and the insertion of 
 the upper floor at the end of the sixteenth century when the 
 present front was added. 
 
 We give an illustration of the charming house called St. 
 Mary's, Bramber, Sussex, as an example of an early timber- 
 framed house. It is part of the manor of Bidlington, 
 distinct from Bramber, and was originally a small hospital 
 dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, in charge of a prioress. 
 At its dissolution it became the property of Magdalen 
 College, Oxford, and was leased by the college to the Lid- 
 
 1 Old Cottages and Farm-houses in Surrey, by W. Curtis Green. Illustrated 
 by W. Galsworthy Davie. 
 
 82 
 
BROAD STREET, KENT 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 bettor family who held it for three centuries. 1 In such houses 
 as these we do not find the same general character and appear- 
 ance which we noticed in the buildings of Lancashire, 
 Cheshire and Shropshire. These lack the elaborate setting- 
 out of panels with diapering and cusping, and as a rule we 
 find only the plain vertical timbering varied sometimes by the 
 curved braces. 2 A very fine Kentish house is that at Broad 
 Street with its picturesque gable of the fifteenth century, 
 the edges being foliated. The little battlemented facia that 
 runs over the edges of the joists, the latticed windows and 
 square-leaded panes, and long stretch of tiled roofing, are all 
 distinctive features. A larger and more important house is 
 St. Benedict's Priory, near Tenterden, already given (p. 41), 
 a region renowned for its pleasant houses full of quiet charm 
 and repose. It would be hard to devise a more picturesque 
 grouping of the roofs and gables, of bays and oriel with 
 curved supporting bracket. 
 
 It often happens that the timbers of a half-timbered house in 
 course of ages shrink and the wattle and daub panels become 
 less impervious to the weather. Hence our forefathers were 
 compelled to adopt other means to keep themselves warm, to 
 keep out the draughts and the rain. Sometimes they hung 
 the outside walls with tiles, or covered them with weather- 
 boarding, or plastered them over. Behind these layers of 
 tiles, or boards, or plaster, the old half-timbered house still 
 remains. Such a tile-hung half-timbered structure is Old 
 Shoyswell, in Sussex, in the northern part of the parish 
 of Etchingham, not far from Ticehurst. It dates from 
 the early part of the sixteenth century, and is a very 
 good example of the half-timber work of its period and 
 county. Tradition states that it was a hunting -lodge of 
 King Henry VIII, but the history of the manor is opposed 
 to this theory, as during his reign and for a long period 
 
 1 History of the Castles, Mansions and Manors of Western Sussex, by Elwes (1876). 
 - Old Cottages and Farm-houses In Kent and Sussex, by E. Guy Dawbcr. 
 
 84 
 
MATERIALS TIMBER 
 
 it was held by a family who took their name from the 
 place. 
 
 Judging from the few facts of their history that it is 
 possible to glean, the Shoyswells must have been a rather 
 delightful family. They owned the property of Shoyswell 
 from about the middle of the thirteenth until the end of the 
 seventeenth century, when the family became extinct. It 
 is likely that a certain Elizabeth Shoyswell was the wife 
 
 OLD SHOYSWELL, SUSSEX 
 
 of William de Etchingham, the rebuilder of Etchingham 
 Church, as the Shoyswell arms, " three horseshoes of the 
 field," appear impaled with those of Etchingham, on the 
 brass which commemorates him. 
 
 Thomas Shoyswell in his will dated 1580 makes some 
 crisp bequests to his wife Dorothy, amongst them being 
 " the use and weringe of her weddinge ringe during her lief" 
 and " free liberty to bake and brewe in the bakehouse and 
 brewhouse for her owne necessarie use and to drye her 
 clothes uppon the hedges and bushes about his mannor-house 
 of Shoyswell." She is also to have the "Chamber in his 
 
 85 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 howse called the Grene Chamber, and the Chamber within 
 the same, together .with free ingress, egresse and regresse 
 into and from the same by the ways, droves, and stayers 
 used and accustomed to the same (together with wood for 
 fuel) and the garret over the Greene Chamber." 
 
 This domestic autocrat was probably the builder of the 
 present house, and on account of his skill in rearing this 
 pleasant dwelling-place perhaps his tyranny may be for- 
 given him. 
 
 3. BRICK 
 
 It is usually supposed that the use and knowledge of brick- 
 work disappeared with the departure of the Romans and 
 were not rediscovered until the thirteenth century, when 
 Little Wenham Hall arose in Suffolk about the year 1260 
 A.D. It is suggested that the making of bricks was not a lost 
 art during these several centuries, that the old name for a 
 brick was tigel or tile, and that these thin tile-like bricks were 
 made in England both in Saxon and Norman times. But the 
 old tradition is doubtless correct, and we may assume that 
 whatever bricks were used prior to the thirteenth century 
 were the old Roman bricks taken from disused villas or 
 abandoned walls. Their reintroduction was due to the 
 industrious Flemings who migrated into East Anglia and 
 brought with them the art which they had long practised in 
 their own country, where there is a complete absence of build- 
 ing stone. Probably they brought their bricks with them, 
 and it is supposed that those which were used for Little 
 Wenham Hall were imported. A good description of this 
 house is given in Turner and Parker's Domestic Architecture : 
 
 "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 
 
 86 
 
MATERIALS BRICK 
 
 this additional structure an Elizabethan doorway remains', 
 with an inscription built in above it. The ground floor 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 fire- 
 place is blocked up. The windows have seats in them ; and 
 at the end of the room near the door is a recess or niche 
 
 LITTLE WENHAM HALL, SUFFOLK. 
 
 forming a sort of cupboard. Both house and tower are 
 covered with flat leaden roofs, having brick 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. 
 
 87 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 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-piece 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." 
 
 The builders of this old hall evidently strove after 
 domestic comfort as well as to provide some defence against 
 an enemy. The times were not then ripe for the abandon- 
 ment of fortifications. Though bricks were used so exten- 
 sively in this Suffolk house, they did not become a common 
 building material for some time. In the fifteenth century we 
 find many notable houses built of brick, such as Tattershall 
 Castle, Lincolnshire ; the old Palace, Hatfield (now the 
 stables) ; Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk ; Hurstmonceaux Castle, 
 Sussex ; and Layer Marney, Essex. Wherever the Flemings 
 settled, there we find the early use of brick. In East Kent 
 they left their traces, in such places as Rye and Sandwich, 
 until at length by the time Elizabeth came to the throne 
 brickwork had become common. Many great houses were 
 constructed of this material, and the country squires began 
 to use it for their manor-houses. An important Flemish 
 feature introduced were the crow-steps or corbie-steps along 
 the gables of houses. The bricks used were much thinner 
 than those used now, and varied from i|- inches to 2 inches 
 in thickness. Between each course was a thick layer of 
 mortar, and this arrangement of thin bricks and thick 
 mortar is one of the causes of the picturesqueness of these 
 old houses, which far surpass in beauty our modern erections 
 of thick, machine-made bricks with little mortar. 
 
 88 
 
MATERIALS BRICK 
 
 Wormleighton Manor-house, in Warwickshire, is a very 
 fine example of late Henry VIII style. The bay was 
 originally carried up to the second storey j 1 otherwise the 
 building seems practically unaltered. It is the property of 
 Earl Spencer, and is honoured by bibliophiles as being the 
 house where the Spencer Library was formed. The Spencers 
 of Wormleighton, like many of their neighbours, made a 
 
 WORMLEIGHTON MANOR-HOUSE WARWICKSHIRE 
 
 great fortune in the wool trade and reared this house. The 
 manor belonged to the Earl of Mellent at the Conquest, was 
 afterwards owned by the De Clintons, and was acquired by 
 the Spencers in 1506. Lawrence Washington and his sons, 
 Sir William and Sir John, were frequent guests at the old 
 house, and also at Althorp. During the Civil War it was 
 garrisoned for the King, and then abandoned. Prince Rupert 
 slept here the night before the Edgehill fight. The interior 
 
 1 An old print of the house shows the continuation of the bay. 
 
 89 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 shows the remains of the " star chamber," the clock tower 
 and the Tudor hall. 
 
 In the original home of brickwork, in East Anglia, we 
 may expect to find some of the most perfect examples of 
 brick buildings, and Parham Old Hall, the home of the 
 Willoughbys, now the property of Mr. H. C. Corrance, 
 presents one of the most picturesque. It was never a very 
 great house, and is now a somewhat decayed farmhouse. 
 It rises sheer out of its broad tree-girt moat, its walls of rich 
 red where the bricks are crumbling, of green and grey and 
 yellow where they are overspread with moss and lichens. It 
 was built by Sir Christopher de Parham, father of the first 
 Lord Willoughby de Parham, between the years 1498 and 
 1527. The manor came to the family through the marriage 
 of Lord Willoughby d'Eresby with a daughter of the Earl 
 of Suffolk in the time of Edward III. You can trace a 
 resemblance between the bay windows and chimney-shafts of 
 this beautiful old house with the better-preserved work at East 
 Barsham, Great Snoring, Oxburgh and Cressingham. You 
 cross the bridged moat under a gateway bearing five coats- 
 of-arms and admire the building which a long period of 
 neglect and decay, the roughly repaired windows and roofs, 
 cannot rob of its beauty. George Crabbe, the poet, lived 
 here, having loved and won Sarah Elmy, the niece of John 
 Tovell, a yeoman farmer, who resided at Parham Hall. 
 Crabbe's son and biographer thus describes the house : 
 
 " His house was large, and the surrounding moat, the 
 rookery, the ancient dovecot and the well-stored fish-ponds 
 were such as might have suited a gentleman's seat of some 
 consequence, but one side of the house immediately over- 
 looked a farmyard full of all sorts of domestic animals and 
 the scene of constant bustle and noise. On entering the 
 house there was nothing at first sight to remind one of the 
 farm a spacious hall, paved with black and white marble ; at 
 one extremity a very handsome drawing-room, and at the 
 other a fine old staircase of black oak, polished till it was as 
 
 9 o 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 slippery as ice, and having a chime-clock and a barrel-organ 
 on its landing-places. But this drawing-room, a correspond- 
 ing dining parlour, and a handsome sleeping apartment 
 upstairs were all tabooed ground, and made use of on great 
 and solemn occasions only." 
 
 The house has shrunk somewhat since then, and has lost 
 some of its ancient features. It is a pity that no friendly 
 hand can be outstretched to restore it to its former greatness. 
 
 Another old Norfolk house is Barnham Broom, a fine 
 specimen of old brickwork. The manor was held of Castle- 
 Acre Castle, and came to the Mortimers, in whose family it 
 remained for some time, and then passed by marriage to the 
 Chamberlains, who held it during the sixteenth and seven- 
 teenth centuries ; it was then sold to Sir Thomas Wood- 
 house of Kimberley, and is now owned by the Earl of 
 Kimberley. It is a long building under a span roof with an 
 important porch three storeys high projecting into the 
 garden. The crow-stepped gables and fine chimney-stacks, 
 its walls pierced with windows of all shapes and sizes and 
 in all kinds of odd positions, are worthy of notice. The 
 door and window mouldings, which at first sight appear to 
 be of stone, are really brick plastered over. The square 
 pieces running up either side of the gable are also thin 
 layers of plaster. This practice of covering brick with 
 plaster is fairly common in Norfolk. The house retains 
 many of the features of the hall with screens. Now a long 
 corridor runs the whole length of the house. The old hall 
 has been divided, but the bay window indicates its former 
 size. There is an upstairs room with a fine plaster ceiling 
 bearing the date 1614. A door is illustrated on p. 126. 
 
 Kirstead Old Hall, the property of Viscount Canterbury, 
 now used as a farmhouse, is a very picturesque old manor- 
 house. It preserves the tradition of the hall with porch 
 and two wings. The red brickwork and tiles display bril- 
 liant colouring. A pleasing effect is produced by the diaper 
 
 92 
 
THE OLD HALL, BARNHAM BROOM, NORFOLK 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 lozenge-shaped pattern formed by the insertion of black- 
 headed bricks. The crow-stepped gables are again seen 
 here. The windows are mullioned with pedimented heads, 
 and the number of lights decreases as they approach the 
 summit of the gable. The date 1614 is inscribed over the 
 pedimented entrance doorway. 
 
 In East Kent Flemish influence was strong, but the builders 
 of brickwork dwellings belonged to a different school from 
 that which swayed the ideas of the East Anglian artificers. 
 As an example of late sixteenth-century house we give an 
 illustration of Sturry Court, the seat of Lord Milner. It is a 
 good instance of the East Kent type. We notice the impos- 
 ing gateway flanked by heavy buttresses, and encircling wall 
 with sunk bays, the object of which seems to have been 
 purely decorative. The manor of Sturry formed one of the 
 original possessions of St. Augustine's Monastery at Canter- 
 bury, and it was at Sturry that the abbots had their summer 
 residence. Indeed, the last abbot, who, after the dissolution 
 of the abbey, was sole owner of the manor, died at Sturry. 
 The present building, however, which dates from 1583, was 
 the property and residence of the Lords Strangford. Later 
 it suffered a fate common to many sixteenth-century manor- 
 houses and descended to the level of a farmhouse, but in 
 1905 it was restored by Viscount Milner, and is once more 
 the dwelling of a nobleman. 
 
 Foreign influence is again seen in the gables formed of 
 combinations of curves. These came into fashion at a period 
 later than the crow-stepped gables, many of the houses which 
 have this characteristic bearing dates from the middle to the 
 end of the seventeenth century. 
 
 The house at Littlebourne in East Kent and one at Sarre 
 give examples of these, and furnish us with instances of the 
 ingenious method in which a blank wall can be treated and a 
 gable decorated by the simple use of tile and brick. Courses 
 of brick intermingled with occasional courses of tiles ingeni- 
 
 94 
 
MATERIALS BRICK 
 
 ously arranged with curves and slopes, and in the centre 
 of the gable an elliptical bit of plaster in a curved frame of 
 brick, add diversity to the whole scheme and give an attrac- 
 
 i 
 
 >*. 
 
 ~i, , ,., 
 
 ~X.: A ~ .-; 
 
 ; 
 
 ^^__._.^^ ^wJ^rtSSSSSa^^' 
 
 AT LITTLEBOURNE, EAST KENT 
 
 tive appearance. The effect is produced simply with the aid 
 of plain unmoulded bricks. The chimneys of these Kentish 
 houses form a very important feature. They are ingeniously 
 contrived with various projections and settings forward, 
 showing a love of novelty and of change on the part of their 
 
 97 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 designers. But these we shall consider in detail in a later 
 chapter. 
 
 The same love of diversity is shown in other examples of 
 brickwork, notably in the details of the brickwork at Sarre. 
 The string courses that extend around the house and the 
 
 LITTLEBOURNE 
 
 BRICK DETAILS FROM EAST KENT 
 
 pilasters on the surface of the wall are quaintly devised and 
 admirably executed. 
 
 Wandering away westward we come to Leicestershire, and 
 find an interesting piece of brickwork mingled with stone in 
 the manor-house known as Groby Old Hall, where the court 
 leet and court baron are still held, a reminiscence of its 
 former dignity. The wall between the two towers is an 
 addition, and also the buildings on the right of the illustra- 
 
MATERIALS BRICK 
 
 tion. The house, now much dilapidated, was once the home 
 of the Barons Ferrers of Groby, and is renowned in his- 
 tory, as here Elizabeth Woodville, afterwards the queen of 
 Edward IV, lived happily as the wife of Sir John Grey. On 
 his death, at the battle of St. Albans in 1461, the estate was 
 forfeited and passed into the hands of the King. 
 
 We give two views of the Herefordshire brick and timber 
 house known as Nunupton Court. It is unfortunately unin- 
 
 i^ r _lL'" nr ^^^^^^^ r 
 
 K^ft * 
 ^1L 
 
 LITTLEBOURNE 
 BRICK DETAILS FROM EAST KENT 
 
 habited and fast falling into decay. It is sad that such a 
 picturesque pile should be doomed, and the attention of the 
 National Trust for the Preservation of Places of Historic 
 Interest and of the Society for the Protection of Ancient 
 Buildings should be called to its forlorn condition. The 
 timber porch, roofed with slabs, with its carved barge- 
 boards, the graceful gables shaped with segments of circles 
 and finials, the fine chimney-stacks, one of which is a 
 triumph of the bricklayer's art of the seventeenth century, 
 the encircling wall of the terrace, all combine to form a 
 
 99 
 
MATERIALS BR>ICK 
 
 picture of great beauty, and show that the skill of the 
 bricklayers in Herefordshire was no less than that of the 
 
 NUNUPTON COURT, HEREFORDSHIRE 
 
 carpenter-builder who reared such fine half-timbered dwell- 
 ings in this western county. 
 
 The illustration of the Great Lyth shows a quaint old 
 
 101 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 brick house in a country more frequently associated with 
 timber building. There is, however, some good work in 
 brick to be met with, as at the Crow Leasow, near Ludlow. 
 
 The Great Lyth 
 stands on the sharp 
 slope of Lyth Hill, 
 near the Shrop- 
 shire mining dis- 
 trict. Within a 
 few miles are Con- 
 dover Hall, a fine 
 sandstone house 
 already mentioned, 
 and the enormous 
 half-timber Hall at 
 Pitchford, good 
 instances of the 
 variety of Shrop- 
 shire building 
 materials. 
 
 Our last illustra- 
 tion of brickwork 
 is a view of the 
 manor - house at 
 Penn in Bucking- 
 hamshire, which 
 with several other 
 eighteenth-century 
 
 houses forms the modern part of this old-world village. 
 The manor belonged to the family of Penn late in the 
 fifteenth century, and remained theirs until the death of 
 Roger Penn in 1732, when it passed through marriage with 
 the heiress to Sir Nathaniel Curzon. 
 
 --liL"'^'^^-^-^-" : ' -" * 
 
 ; ^lllBP^^7 
 
 NUNUPTON COURT, HEREFORDSHIRE 
 
 102 
 
/g' _- 
 
 ffl8plk 
 
 -f 7 ' '.i'V '-'MoU"~ r i KjnvKi 
 
 iVd'fi/iS^fli&iEf^.v,;! 
 
 ir^rflf '^ v ^^P*^ w 
 EL fe- V*-' ^<T-:^^ rt 
 
 nwEgjnHP&> 
 
 
 
 l.^ft^-" ^i 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 PENN, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 
 
 4. FLINT 
 
 Where chalk abounds there many flints are discovered 
 which form such a useful and pleasing material for building. 
 In the south-eastern counties of England, in Kent, Surrey, 
 Sussex, Wilts and Berkshire, Hampshire, Dorset, Isle of 
 W T ight, East Anglia, you will find many houses constructed 
 of flint, or of flint combined with other materials such as 
 brick or plaster. In Norfolk it was a common custom to 
 build walls of black and white flints, the external angles of 
 the dwelling and the quoins of the doors and windows being 
 of brick. On the Isle of Thanet and the east coast of Kent 
 a similar method of building was employed. In this region 
 a local variety of treatment is observable. The main 
 walling is of flint marked by occasional bonding courses of 
 brickwork which are often treated in a peculiar and pic- 
 turesque manner. Patterns of diaper in brick are sometimes 
 
 104 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 used to enliven the flintwork, or a pattern in flints relieves 
 the monotony of the brickwork. In Wiltshire we find 
 stone and flint combined, as in the case of Longford Castle. 
 
 ' O ' 
 
 begun in 1580, where the wall face of the towers " is divided 
 into oblong panels by bands of white stone and black flints 
 alternately." 1 Stockton Manor is a good stone and flint 
 house with Elizabethan gables. The stone and flint run 
 in alternate courses, giving a most pleasing effect. 
 
 The beautiful moated mansion of Elsing Hall, Norfolk, 
 rebuilt about 1470 by Sir John Hastings, presents many 
 interesting features with its two projecting gables, the upper 
 parts being constructed of half-timber work. All the walls 
 are of flint with stone dressings. Sustead Old Hall, once 
 the manor-house of the Wyndhams, which bears on its 
 gables the date 1663, has its main walls constructed of 
 squared and faced flints with brick angles and dressings to 
 the windows. Great freedom is often used. At Shapwick 
 we find stone, brick and flint introduced into cob-walling. 
 
 5. PLASTER 
 
 In the construction of timber-framed houses we noticed 
 the use of wattle and daub for the filling up of the panels 
 formed by the horizontal and vertical timbers. The builders 
 of our old houses were not content to leave the surface plain 
 and unadorned. The panels pleaded for decoration and did 
 not cry in vain. In many cases the whole of the surface of 
 the walls was plastered over, and this afforded a wide field 
 for the plasterer's art, and he did not fail to make extensive 
 use of it. His art was called Pargeting or Parge-work. 
 His material was simple, ordinary lime and sand and hair, 
 mixed with some cow-dung and road scrapings. Now his 
 art has almost died out. Professor Lethaby tells that in the 
 eastern and southern counties " by careful inquiry you may 
 find an old workman who remembers seeing it done when 
 1 Renaissance Architecture in England, by R. Blomfield. 
 1 06 
 
 
MATERIALS PLASTER 
 
 he was young, who can describe the tools and knows the 
 patterns * tortoise-shell,' l square-picking,' and the rest." 
 The village plasterer had his own patterns which he varied 
 with skill. His neighbouring rival worked out his own 
 devices ; so there is often much variation. In Essex you 
 will find the zigzag incised on the plaster, the whole surface 
 
 CROWN HOUSE, NEWPORT, ESSEX 
 
 being pricked with a pointed stick. Sometimes a fan of 
 pointed sticks was used. Some patterns were scalloped, 
 and some done in wavy or flowing lines, and others with 
 thin wavy lines intersected or interlaced like basket-work. 
 
 The artist sometimes strove after great inventions and pro- 
 duced curious figures of men or birds or animals, but these 
 usually turned out to be unconsciously designed grotesques 
 or burlesques. Sometimes he would simply cut patterns 
 through the top layer of the plaster down to the coating 
 beneath, but he was an ingenious person and discovered 
 
 107 
 
j- -- - -'-- "r-' +*' .- - i .. ". 1 xy^r^sv* r-a.' 1 "Sff^^iftsia.r'fSm > 
 
 ^g5r!^Tr~^r*^^^ 
 
 '^^r -C 1 , % "^ "'" ^^^--rC, ^"T^ ' '^^v^^fc^^Ti^r^,, . ' 
 
 - ^ 
 
 --- - 
 
 
 f / " " - -* *. 
 
 -*>**>. r~ .--' " \^"^-' x* 
 
 - 1 :- : 
 
 THE PORCH, CROWN HOUSE, NEWPORT, ESSEX 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 a far better plan. He cut out thin pieces of wood into the 
 shape of desired pattern and arranged these in borders and 
 panels and then " rough casted " round them up to the level 
 of these inserted pieces. Then he removed the pieces of 
 wood, and lo ! there were left charming little recessed 
 patterns which he emphasized by colouring them with apple- 
 greens, ochre-yellows and earthy reds. 1 The scrollwork, 
 shells, figures, foliage and other devices were all moulded by 
 hand and with the tools of the craftsman, and often bear 
 witness to his artistic skill, though his figures were not 
 examples of perfect modelling. Later on moulds were 
 used. 
 
 We give an interesting example of external parge-work in 
 the house at Newport called the Crown House, which tradi- 
 tion says was inhabited by the fascinating Nell Gwyn, who 
 died in 1687. The date 1692, which appears on the house, 
 probably refers to its restoration and to the erection of the 
 porch. The plaster-work is excellent, but it is being sadly 
 worn by the severity of the English climate. Between the 
 windows on each floor is a panel formed by mouldings of 
 simple section. The modelling in those on the first floor is 
 of some sort of plant springing out of small vessels. Hori- 
 zontal panels are grouped on each side of the central 
 doorway, under the middle first-floor windows, with slight 
 enrichments therein. A kind of label runs over the top of 
 the ground-floor window heads with a dotted pattern above 
 and below. The lower panels are quite plain, but have an 
 inner panelled surface of plain plaster. The shell porch is 
 a very attractive feature, and in the panel over it a crown 
 appears. The house remains as a very good example of the 
 plasterer's art. 
 
 We shall refer to interior plaster-work in a subsequent 
 chapter. For the exterior of buildings decorative plaster- 
 work did not survive the seventeenth century, and owing to 
 1 The Art of the Plasterer, by G, P, Bankart. 
 109 
 
AV ' ~ 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 the severity of our climate and the destruction of old houses 
 not many examples are left. Wyvenhoe, near Colchester, 
 has a very fine example of parge-work covering the whole 
 front of the house above the ground floor. The plasterer 
 did not approve of his work being injured by village urchins 
 or wanton destroyers, so he usually confined his works of art 
 to the upper storeys where they were well out of the reach of 
 foolish and mischievous folk. At Saffron Walden on a 
 house there are some rather weird birds and foliage. Spar- 
 row's House, Ipswich, has some elaborate but rather childish 
 representations of Europe, Asia and Africa, with scrolled leaf- 
 age and masks, fruit and leaves, birds and flowers, and Neptune 
 riding a sea-horse, a swan and hunting scene. We can 
 find several other examples in Maidstone, York, Canterbury, 
 Earl's Colne (Colneford House) and in several other places, 
 but as these are principally in towns or on the walls of 
 homely cottages they scarcely come within the compass of 
 this book. 
 
 Many beautiful manor-houses are constructed of timber 
 and wholly plastered over. Such is the sixteenth-century 
 manor-house of Cavendish, Suffolk, reputed to have been 
 one of the early homes of the Devonshire family. Inside the 
 house there are two plaster escutcheons of the Cavendish 
 arms. The house has now been converted into a village 
 club. Another fine manor-house is Ballingdon Old Hall, 
 near Sudbury, Essex. 
 
 We give an illustration of an excellent example of parge- 
 work which can be seen in the picturesque village of Steven- 
 ton in Berkshire. In few parts of England can you find 
 more delightful bits of half-timbered domestic architecture of 
 the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries than in this 
 secluded village. Primitive porches, antique roofs and gables, 
 latticed windows and ancient doorways abound, showing the 
 abundance of oak trees that once grew in the district, and 
 proclaiming the dexterity of the village craftsmen. Inside, 
 
 112 
 
AT STEVENTON, BERKSHIRE 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 many of the houses are panelled in oak, with massive oak tie- 
 beams, quaint old staircases, solid flooring and original roofs, 
 as sound as when they were constructed three centuries ago. 
 We give an illustration of one of the most remarkable of the 
 old houses, dated 1657, with its pargeted front, its graceful 
 bay and oriel windows, its barge-boards, while within are two 
 curiously panelled and painted rooms. The pavement in 
 front is part of the old " Causey " or causeway, or flood- 
 path, extending the whole length of the village street and 
 planted with trees on both sides. Tradition states that it was 
 constructed by the monks who dwelt at the small priory in 
 the village, a cell of the abbey of Hellouin, in Normandy, 
 but an inscription in the church on a dole-board tells that 
 " Two sisters by ancient report gave a yard land one acre of 
 meadow four swathes one Taylers yeard one close and a 
 copps to ye maintenance of ye Causeway of Steventon." 
 This inscription puzzles the learned, and no one quite knows 
 what it means ; but at any rate the gift of the two sisters 
 yields ^30 a year, which serves to keep the causeway in 
 repair and for lighting it during winter. The plaster-work 
 on this old house is simple and effective, and is not unworthy 
 to appear as an illustration of the kind of decoration which 
 our forefathers loved to bestow upon their manor-houses and 
 on other less ambitious dwellings in the village community. 
 
EXTERIOR DETAILS 
 
 WE now pass on to admire the architectural details 
 of the manor-houses of England. Their plans, 
 the general views of their beautiful exteriors, 
 their harmony with their setting amidst the 
 shade of tall trees, or amidst the rugged hills of Derbyshire 
 or Yorkshire, the variety of the materials of their construc- 
 tion, the skill and care of their builders, have all been 
 noticed ; but it remains to examine the means whereby our 
 forefathers obtained these good effects and admire the loving 
 attention bestowed upon the picturesque details which made 
 their homes so fair and beautiful. A man may produce 
 fairly good work in many walks of life, and yet not attain to 
 success, because he lacks the ability and application to 
 master the details of his profession, and can never rise above 
 the common-place. It is so in architecture. We will, 
 therefore, endeavour to learn the secrets of the beauties of 
 these old buildings, cultivate the spirit which produced 
 them and understand the surpassing merits of their details. 
 First and most striking among the exterior details are 
 
 I. CHIMNEYS 
 
 The oldest houses had no chimneys. The fire burned in 
 the centre of the hall and the smoke floated like a cloud 
 over the heads of the guests and then made its escape 
 through the louvre. Fireplaces with chimneys were first 
 constructed in the solars and private family apartments of 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 HARRINOWORTH 
 
 the house, and then in the fifteenth century they began to 
 appear on one side of the hall, nearer to the dais than to the 
 screens, and when the dog-grate was 
 filled with burning logs it looked fairly 
 comfortable, imparted some heat into 
 the room and made it a little less chilly. 
 The chimneys as they grew followed the 
 architectural style of the period in which 
 they were constructed, being Decorated 
 or Perpendicular, and the Gothic style 
 and tradition are still discernible in the 
 chimney when the workmen were busy 
 devising new inventions. In the Cots- 
 wolds we find specially fine examples of 
 chimneys, which are the most character- 
 istic features of the houses in that district 
 of good masonry, and the old Gothic treatment is clearly 
 seen in houses at Burford, Kingham, Bredon, Bibury and 
 elsewhere. We give 
 an illustration of 
 the chimney at Har- 
 ringworth, which is 
 early and retains all 
 its Gothic details. 
 These chimneys 
 have usually octa- 
 gonal or circular 
 shafts pierced with 
 lancet openings and 
 crowned at the top 
 with a pyramidal 
 roof. Another ex- 
 ample is shown in 
 the old manor-house at Preston (p. 21). Sometimes the 
 chimney-stack appears in the centre of the ridge, at others 
 
 116 
 
 SANDFORD ORCAS 
 
 SANDFORD ORCAS 
 
on the apex of the gables, as at Sandford Orcas, a fine bold 
 octagonal stack enriched at the top by Gothic carving. In 
 the same manor-house there is the other chimney, oblong in 
 section, the cap of which is treated as a cornice enriched 
 with spiral ornament of Gothic design and lower down 
 adorned with mouldings. Sometimes the early chimneys are 
 battlemented, as at Stanton and Burford. 
 
 BRICK CHIMNEYS FROM NORFOLK. 
 
 The progress and development of chimney-stacks provide 
 an interesting study. They did not become common before 
 the sixteenth century, and were called into being by the 
 division of the great hall into an upper and a lower storey. 
 The plan in smaller houses was square or oblong, and as the 
 down draught was somewhat severe in these wide structures, 
 the chimneys were built large and lofty, and in the Cotswold 
 examples at Chipping Campden, Hidcote and Whittington 
 were adorned at the summit with classic ornamentation. 
 
 As the Tudor style progressed, the stacks bear witness to 
 
 117 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 the great creative powers of the English builders, showing 
 an unfailing exuberance of fancy in design and skill in work- 
 manship. Whatever the material they used, whether stone, 
 brick or terra-cotta, they tried to make this new feature of 
 the house dignified, elegant and beautiful. It is impossible 
 to say whence they procured the numerous designs of 
 
 WHITTINGTON 
 
 CHIPPING CAMPDEN 
 
 HIDCOTE 
 
 patterned and twisted shafts. These were essentially Eng- 
 lish, as there is nothing like them in the contemporary 
 buildings across the Channel. 
 
 The beautiful brick chimneys and chimney-stacks, among 
 which are some most elaborate designs, add much to the 
 general effect and grouping of the houses in East Anglia, some 
 of the earlier examples at East Barsham, Elsing and Great 
 Snoring being richly decorated with diaper or devices. The 
 stack at East Barsham forms a group of ten chimneys made 
 
 118 
 
ESCOTE GREEN. 
 
 'Dated: /6 
 
 BLAKESLEX HAL.U. 
 
 (^Kimhtyj- holt) 
 
 i CHURCHILL,. 
 BRICK CHIMNEYS FROM WARWICKSHIRE AND WORCESTERSHIRE 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 entirely of moulded brick ornamented with a great variety of 
 patterns. The later examples are generally plain octagonal 
 shafts as at Blakesley Hall, but with a variety of projecting 
 caps and bases. 
 
 In the Midlands we find 
 the same effort in procuring 
 variety of treatment, beauty 
 and ornament. Huddington 
 Court has a very elaborate 
 chimney-stack with a pedi- 
 ment of Gothic character, 
 from which rises a twisted 
 shaft of moulded brick. 
 Where the design is less 
 elaborate, as at Great Alne, 
 a good effect is produced by 
 the insertion of tiles, the 
 arrangement of corners of 
 projecting bricks and other 
 devices of the expert builder. 
 As the years rolled on new 
 fashions set in, and practical 
 considerations led the builders 
 to see that these immense 
 flues were not really required. 
 The illustration of the 
 chimney on Escote Green, 
 erected in 1669, shows that 
 by about that time the chim- 
 
 HEASLEY MANOR, ISLE OF WIGHT ney-stack had dwindled down 
 
 to a compact block somewhat 
 
 similar to our modern conceptions, though the arches and 
 arcades of brickwork give to it a slightly ornamental 
 character. We give some examples of southern stacks, 
 showing the work of Isle of Wight artificers, which lack not 
 comeliness and ingenuity. 
 
 I2O 
 
PORCHES AND DOORS 
 
 Christopher Wren constructed many beautiful chimneys, 
 but generally of small size and with no elaborate details. 
 After his death the followers of 
 the Italian school seemed to be 
 ashamed of this important feature 
 of the English house. In some 
 of the great houses they tried to 
 hide away the chimneys and keep 
 them entirely in the background 
 (see p. 38}, and in the middle of ___ 
 the eighteenth century the im- 
 portance of the chimney as a 
 beautiful architectural accessory, 
 upon which the Tudor builders 
 bestowed so much loving care and 
 skill, ceased to exist. 
 
 ST. BENEDICT S PRIORY, 
 KENT 
 
 2. PORCHES AND DOORS 
 
 The old English squire loved to dispense hospitality and 
 to give warm welcome to his friends. The door was a 
 symbol of hospitality. There he welcomed their arrival ; 
 there he speeded his departing guests. He loved to make 
 the entrance to his house fair and pleasant to the eye. From 
 the steps he greeted his tenantry when they came to con- 
 gratulate him on some happy event in his domestic life, or to 
 condole with him in his sorrows ; and there in the proudest 
 moment of his life he stood to present his young son on the 
 youth's coming of age, happy that the old line had not died 
 out and that his son would maintain the honour of the 
 family and carry on its old traditions. The porch and 
 doorway were associated with many happy comings and 
 goings, and some sad ones too. It held a place of honour in 
 the old manor-house. 
 
 In our chapter on the development of the English house 
 
 121 
 
COOMBE SYDENHAM, SOMERSET 
 
THE ENTRANCE TO WORMLEIGHTON MANOR-HOUSE 
 WARWICKSHIRE, DATED 1613 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 we noticed that the doorway always led to the screens. It 
 was thought worthy of a covering to protect from the weather 
 those who knocked for entrance. Over the door the squire 
 placed his coat-of-arms with mantlings, crest and supporters. 
 The porch increased in size and a chamber was built over it, 
 and it became an important feature of the Tudor manor- 
 house or mansion, completing the plan of the E-shaped 
 house. Barningham Hall, in Norfolk, erected in 1612, has 
 
 A STONE DOOR-HEAD AT WORMLEIGHTON MANOR 
 
 a grand four-storeyed porch in the centre of the west front. 
 Burlingham St. Edmund has an elaborate porch, a very 
 characteristic bit of Tudor work in three storeys, with 
 octagonal angle turrets, which, together with the gable, are 
 finished with rich finials. Kirstead (p. 95) has a three-storeyed 
 porch with an arched and pedimented entrance doorway over 
 which appears the date 1614. It has octagonal angle turrets 
 with a three-light window between them, and a small single 
 light in the gable. 
 
 In the West Country there are many inviting doorways 
 bidding us a hospitable welcome. The manor-house of 
 
 124 
 
PORCHES AND DOORS 
 
 Coombe Sydenham, in Somerset, has a noble porch of two 
 storeys. It is Jacobean with classical pilasters supporting a 
 decorated string-course. In the spandrels of the doorway 
 are carved heads. Above the string and below the mullioned 
 window is the coat-of-arms of the owners, and ball finials 
 crown the angles 
 and gable which is 
 of low elevation. A 
 very pretty piece of 
 work is the admir- 
 
 able porch and en- 
 trance of Wolverton 
 Manor in the Isle 
 of Wight (p. 83), 
 and joining on to 
 the region of the 
 CotswoldsisWorm- r 
 leighton Manor- 
 house which we 
 have already visited ^ 
 (p. 89). Here we 
 notice its beautiful 
 porch, dated 1613, 
 and bearing the 
 Spencer coat-of- 
 arms. Adjoining it 
 is the clock tower, 
 and although you can see no face, it regularly strikes thehours 
 and the quarters. A typical Tudor door head from the same 
 house is also illustrated. 
 
 Near at hand is the little village of Sulgrave, North- 
 amptonshire, once the home of the Washingtons, and here 
 is a charming porch, dated 1636, with a sundial over the door. 
 The four-centred arch of the doorway, the Tudor dripstone 
 and the neat gable make an attractive entrance to the house, 
 
 125 
 
 A PORCH, SULGRAVE, NORTHANTS 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 The dark stone is interspersed with the lighter material. 
 This is the ironstone of the district which runs with the 
 Cotswold oolite, and is peculiar to Northamptonshire. 
 
 \ ' 
 
 THE ENTRANCE DOOR, THE OLD HALL, BARNHAM BROOM 
 
 NORFOLK 
 
 The two-storeyed entrance porch of some of the later manor- 
 houses of the Tudor period often show evidence of classical 
 inspiration, and the " orders " were employed as mere decora- 
 tive adjuncts. " Such details disclosed a whimsical incon- 
 
 126 
 
PORCHES AND DOORS 
 
 gruity in the attempts to imitate features which were becom- 
 ing * fashionable,' although imperfectly understood. This 
 breaking out into hybrid classicism, when the whole structure 
 is otherwise homely Tudor, appears to be the result of the 
 
 AT WOOTON WAWEN WARWICKSHIRE 
 
 second wave of architectural renaissance which came from 
 Germany. The builders of the day, not sufficiently daring or 
 skilful to fling aside their traditional methods, but desirous 
 of showing that they were not trammelled by insular notions, 
 availed themselves of the Flemish pattern books which could 
 be readily purchased at Antwerp and cheaply copied at home. 
 
 127 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 Whereas in the larger mansions of the time of Elizabeth this 
 led to a coarseness and ostentation which are frequently 
 displeasing, in the smaller houses these very imperfections 
 are not without their attraction and human appeal." 1 
 
 THE MANOR-HOUSE AT ATWORTH, WILTSHIRE 
 
 We give an illustration of the entrance door of Barnham 
 Broom Old Hall, a fine example of English woodwork, with 
 its mouldings and panels showing a good specimen of the 
 linen pattern, the origin of which we will discuss when we 
 come to examine the inner panelling of our old manor-houses. 
 
 1 Domestic Architecture of England during the Tudor Period, by T. Garner and 
 Arthur Stratton. 
 
 128 
 
WINDOWS 
 
 In the later manor-houses and other domestic dwellings 
 the porch ceased to have that prominence which the Tudor 
 builders gave to it. Inigo Jones, Wren and his successors 
 completely altered its appearance, took away its sides, placed 
 a modest circular roof on supporting brackets and elaborately 
 carved the tympanum with foliage and other devices. We 
 have seen a good example of the shell porch in the Crown 
 House, Newport, Essex (p. 107). We give another example 
 from Wooton Wawen, Warwickshire, a Queen Anne type 
 with modelled fruit over the door. The sketch of the gate- 
 way, with porch and door, at Atworth, in Wiltshire, shows 
 a classic development which is observable in the neighbour- 
 hood of Bath. 
 
 The doorway, for reasons which I have mentioned, has 
 always been the object of the greatest solicitude on the part 
 of our builders, and upon it the best workmanship is most 
 often found. If there be no ornament elsewhere, some 
 effort seems always to have been made to make the doorway 
 attractive and beautiful. 
 
 HANDFORTH 
 
 ROUND A DOOR FRAME 
 3. WINDOWS 
 
 Old houses have usually small windows. This is partly 
 accounted for by the closeness of the timber framing, and also 
 by the scarcity and cost of glass. Aubrey tells that " Glass 
 windows, except in churches and gentlemen's houses, were 
 rare before the time of Henry VIII. In my own remembrance, 
 before the Civil Wars, copy holders and poor people had 
 none in Herefordshire, Monmouthshire and Salop : it is 
 so still." The old name " window" discloses this lack of 
 K 129 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 glass ; it is the eye, or opening, for the wind ; and was 
 originally constructed more for the admission of air than of 
 light. Sometimes we see the remains of the wooden shutters 
 or their iron hinges. Noblemen who had three or four 
 houses used to carry their windows about with them with 
 their other baggage. Sometimes horn was used in lieu of 
 glass. There is an old account amongst the manuscripts pre- 
 served at Loseley Park, Surrey, of the time of Henry VIII, 
 which has several items relating to horn for windows. Thus 
 we read, " a thousand lantern horns for the windows of 
 timber houses"; and again, "gilding the lead or lattice work 
 of the horn windows." 
 
 In the days of Elizabeth windows became larger and were 
 filled with glass. Bacon inveighed against the large windows 
 of some houses, " so full of glass that one cannot tell where 
 to become to be out of the sun or cold," and when Bess of 
 Hardwick built her mansion the wits said of it: 
 
 Hardwick Hall, 
 More glass than wall. 
 
 Many of the illustrations show charming windows that 
 give light to the interiors of our manor-houses and form 
 pleasing features of the exterior views. Bay, oriel, mullioned, 
 latticed, or dormer, they are all beautiful, save the modern 
 sash window which has been too often inserted in place of 
 older and more excellent work. In the Cotswold region the 
 windows are always stone mullioned, with lead-latticed panes 
 and wrought-iron casements. A hood-moulding runs over 
 each window, returning at each side after the Tudor fashion, 
 and is sometimes extended so as to form a string-course. 
 We have already noticed that the number of lights in the 
 windows decreases in each succeeding storey. In many of 
 the seventeenth-century houses the heads are arched, forming 
 little spandrels on each side, causing them to resemble 
 Perpendicular panels. These windows are set flush with the 
 
 130 
 
WINDOWS 
 
 wall, so as to form on the inside those charming deep recesses 
 which make pleasant seats like those we remember in many 
 an Oxford College. 
 
 Bay windows are always charming whether in stone or 
 timber houses. It was usual to emphasize the dais end of 
 the hall by a bay on one or both sides of the house. Such 
 windows are seen in the hall of Christ Church, Oxford, and 
 of many other colleges, and at Ballingdon, Essex (p. no). 
 
 Oriel windows frequently appear 
 corbelled out from the main wall, as 
 shown in the illustration. They are 
 often supported on brackets built into 
 the wall. We give an illustration of 
 a bracket at Huddington. 
 
 Sometimes the bay windows are 
 brought out square from the front of 
 the house, and are sometimes set in 
 the centre of the gable, as in the case 
 of Shipton Manor (p. 57) and Whit- 
 tington (p. 5) ; but this arrangement 
 is unsatisfactory, and appears awkward 
 and unpleasing. 
 
 Dormers are a characteristic feature 
 of the Cotswolds. The origin of dormers, whether in stone 
 or timber houses, is evident. When the floor of the upper- 
 most storey was inserted some three or four feet from the 
 foot of the roof there was no room for the windows under 
 the eaves ; hence the side walls were carried up and a series 
 of smaller gables constructed with windows in them. There 
 are good examples of dormers at Brad Street, Kent (p. 83), 
 and at Nunupton, Herefordshire (p. 102). 
 
 Later dormers were constructed entirely in the roof, as at 
 Penn (p. 104) and Kirstead (p. 95). 
 
 In East Anglia we find the Gothic traditions closely fol- 
 lowed in the windows. Some of the lights have the flat- 
 
 HuDDINGTON 
 
 WINDOW BRACKET 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 arched Tudor head, and others have three-centred arches 
 with labels over the windows. 
 
 In the sixteenth century we find square heads with labels 
 
 over them, having square 
 terminations or returns. In 
 the seventeenth they have 
 moulded pediments over 
 them. Mullions and tran- 
 soms were used throughout 
 the Tudor and early Stuart 
 times ; the common arrange- 
 ment consisted of two lights 
 one above the other ; some 
 have three, but the smaller 
 ^. manor- houses have only 
 mullioned windows of three, 
 four or five lights. 
 
 In half-timber houses the 
 construction was simple. 
 They were merely openings 
 left between puncheons and transoms of the timber con- 
 struction. The frames were beautifully moulded by the hand 
 of the craftsman. In the larger houses the windows were 
 transomed. Bay windows in the Surrey and Kent timber 
 houses are not earlier than the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries, and lack the grace of the earlier joinery. 
 
 A WINDOW FROM NORFOLK IN 
 MOULDED BRICK 
 
 4. ROOFS AND GABLK.S 
 
 None of the manor-houses we have seen are roofed with 
 the humble thatch. This picturesque roofing was reserved 
 for smaller dwelling-places. The material used, of course, 
 differs in various parts of the country. Tiles are perhaps 
 the most common, which when mellowed by age, with moss 
 
 13* 
 
ROOFS AND GABLES 
 
 HANGING TILE PATTERNS FROM 
 SURREY AND SUSSEX 
 
 and lichens growing upon them, form one of the chief 
 charms of an English landscape. Much ingenuity has been 
 exercised in the construction of these roofs, and most pic- 
 turesque are they in their 
 grouping and arrange- 
 ment. You can recognize 
 the earlier roofs by their 
 steepness. The later six- 
 teenth-century roof was 
 much flatter. Another 
 sign of early work is the 
 long uninterrupted sweep 
 of the roof without dor- 
 mer windows or gables 
 and terminated by hips. The hips are extended over the 
 lean-to buildings. As we have already pointed out, the 
 walls of timber-framed houses were frequently hung with 
 tiles, but these are lighter and smaller than those used for 
 roofing ; and the old tiles are thicker and more unevenly 
 burnt than modern ones. The wall tiles were usually 
 plain or of the " fish scale " pattern, which consists of 
 the lower halves of circles connected by a short hori- 
 zontal piece, and overlapping the row beneath. Sometimes 
 they were arranged in diversified patterns, as in the 
 
 illustration. Modern 
 machine-made tiles can 
 never equal the old hand- 
 made products. There 
 is a picturesque uneven- 
 ness about the laying of 
 these old tiles. Their 
 varying colour adds to 
 the beauty of the roofs 
 and produces a peculiar 
 and subtle charm. There 
 
 WWVv 
 
 HANGING TILE PATTERNS 
 
 133 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 is a great variety in old ridge-tiling, and the saddle-back hip 
 tiles at the junction of two planes of the roof are a notable 
 feature. 
 
 Horsham slabs were extensively used in Sussex and in the 
 neighbouring counties. This stone easily flakes into plates 
 like thick slates and forms large grey flat slabs on which 
 " the weather works like a great artist in harmonies of moss, 
 
 lichen and stain. No roof- 
 ingsocombines dignity and 
 homeliness, and no roof- 
 ing except thatch so surely 
 passes into the landscape." 
 It is to be regretted that 
 this stone is no longer 
 used for roofing. The slabs 
 are somewhat thick and 
 heavy, and modern rafters are not adapted to bear their 
 weight. If you want to have a roof of Horsham stone 
 you can only accomplish your purpose by pulling down 
 an old house and carrying off the slates. Perhaps the 
 small Cotswold stone slabs are even more beautiful, and 
 the old halls of Lancashire and Yorkshire have heavy 
 stone roofs which somewhat resemble those fashioned 
 with Horsham slabs. We have already noticed the in- 
 genuity of the builders who adapted the slope of the 
 roof to the materials they used. They observed that 
 when the sides of the roof were deeply sloping the heavy 
 stone slates strained and dragged at the pegs and laths, 
 and fell and injured the roof. Hence they determined 
 to make the slope less steep, and when the rain refused 
 to run off well and penetrated the house they adopted 
 the plan of cementing their roofs and stopped them with 
 mortar. 
 
 The construction of the roofs of our manor-houses is an 
 interesting study, and testifies to the conservatism of the 
 
ROOFS AND GABLES 
 
 English workman. The carpenters of the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries followed closely in the footsteps of the 
 
 GABLE, HANDFORTH HALL, CHESHIRE 
 
 mediaeval craftsman. They preserved the tradition handed 
 down to them by their fore- 
 fathers, and framed hammer- 
 beam roofs, king-posts, collar- 
 beams with purlins and all the 
 intricacies of the ingeniously 
 constructed house-covering after 
 the fashion of their ancestors. 
 
 We have frequently alluded 
 to the gables that adorn our 
 houses and are such attractive 
 features. In timber - framed 
 houses the gables are flush with MERSTONE, ISLE OF WIGHT 
 
AT MORETON PINKNEY 
 
 THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 the roof, and have projecting barge-boards, of which we give 
 
 some examples. The wide projection was for the purpose 
 
 of protecting the walls from rain. 
 Much ingenuity was expended in 
 their construction and decoration. 
 We have already noticed that in 
 mediaeval and early Renaissance times 
 > they were cut into curves and cusps 
 i at the edges. In the sixteenth century 
 they were pierced with tracery in the 
 form of trefoils or quatrefoils, and 
 in the seventeenth the perforated 
 designs are more fantastic, and cor- 
 respond to the details of Jacobean 
 
 carving. The Bridgnorth example on p. 69 is dated 1580. 
 
 The barge-boards are simple in design, but much labour has 
 
 been bestowed upon the panelled 
 
 structure with the curved braces. 
 
 The Lower Brockhampton gable 
 
 is later. 
 
 A very fine gable is shown in 
 
 the illustration of Handforth 
 
 Hall, a house which we have 
 
 already visited, one of Cheshire's 
 
 fine black and white buildings. 
 
 As the inscription states, the 
 
 main part of the house was built 
 
 in 1562, but it is not all timber 
 
 and plaster now, some parts 
 
 having been encased in brick and 
 
 painted to represent the old style. 
 
 This gable, however, is original, WOLVERTON> ISLE OF WIGHT 
 
 and is a fine piece of construction. 
 
 In stone and brick houses the gable wall rises above the 
 
 roof, and is coped with stone to prevent the wet penetrating 
 
 136 
 
ROOFS AND GABLES 
 
 into it. The coping rests at the bottom upon a kneeler, and is 
 crowned at the apex by a finial. Examples of kneelers are 
 
 KINGSTON, ISLE OF WIGHT 
 
 OWLPEN, GLOUCESTERSHIRE 
 
 shown in the illustrations taken from Moreton Pinkney and 
 Merstone and Wolverton, both in the Isle of Wight. 
 In Jacobean times the kneelers as well as the apex of the 
 
 AT MERSTONE 
 ISLE OF WIGHT 
 
 MOOR HALL 
 GLOUCESTERSHIRE 
 
 137 
 
 OWLPEN 
 GLOUCESTERSHIRE 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 gable were adorned with finials. A considerable amount 
 of variety was introduced into the design of finials and 
 kneelers, and examples of several of them 
 are given from some of the houses which 
 we have already seen Whittington, Moor 
 Hall, Kingston and Merstone, Owlpen 
 and Hidcote. 
 
 In the eastern counties we find some 
 beautiful moulded work in brick. Below 
 we see a bold attempt at decoration, the 
 crow-steps and the turrets at the end of 
 the gable. These turrets seem to have 
 been of no practical utility, and are placed 
 there purely for ornamental purposes. The 
 little cornice is beautifully moulded. We 
 have given several examples of crow-steps, 
 another result of foreign influence, which 
 not un- 
 
 WHITTINGTON 
 GLOUCESTER- 
 SHIRE 
 
 impart a 
 pleasing effect to 
 many picturesque 
 gables. 
 
 The example from 
 Owlpen shows the 
 curved gable which 
 was originally intro- 
 duced into England 
 by the Flemish im- 
 migrants. We have 
 already seen many 
 houses with this 
 feature, but of a 
 more elaborate cha- 
 racter, with segments 
 of circles alternated 
 with straight pieces. 
 
 BRICK DETAILS FROM NORFOLK. 
 
ROOFS AND GABLES 
 
 The English mason did not admire these fantastic gables 
 which the Dutchman loved, and tried to simplify them. 
 Only in large mansions, like Wollaton, do we find this 
 foreign influence strongly developed, where the masons 
 seem to have determined to leave no single bit of plain 
 surface on the walls. Projecting bands, pedestals, pilasters, 
 panels, niches, pediments, fantastic gables, obelisks and 
 statues contribute to this mass of over-decoration which was 
 distasteful to English simplicity, and which finds no place in 
 the houses that we love to admire. 
 
 i39 
 

 THE BOUDOIR, RAYNHAM HALL, NORFOLK 
 
1 
 
 VI 
 INTERIOR DETAILS 
 
 hospitable door of the manor-house invites an 
 entrance, and we will at once proceed to inspect 
 its interior treasures of art and architectural 
 beauty. We enter through the porch and door 
 that leads to the " screens," and then through a door in the 
 same which leads to the hall. According to the usual 
 arrangement, the buttery, kitchen and servants' quarters are 
 on the right as we enter if the hall is on the left hand. The 
 illustration of Ditcheat Priory (p. 29) shows this plan. In 
 this instance there are two buttery hatches. The screen on 
 the left is evidently Jacobean work and bears the date 1613, 
 but the house is much older, having been built by John 
 Grimthorpe in 1473. It was one of the principal manors 
 of Glastonbury Abbey, and was frequently occupied by the 
 abbot. It is now the seat of General Leir-Carleton, who 
 has done much to restore its original features. The floor 
 of this passage was paved with tiles, but he has recently 
 refloored it with stone after the ancient manner. The 
 three coats-of-arms on the end wall over the table are 
 modern. 
 
 We have seen the exterior of the Gloucestershire manor- 
 house of Whittington Court, with its graceful gables, built 
 by Richard Cotton in the first half of the sixteenth century. 
 Here is a view of the entrance hall with its old nail-studded 
 door divided into panels, its panelling and old-time furniture. 
 The house has been carefully restored, and the archway 
 
 14* 
 
k>^^'ilMi' //:;,,,. 
 
 *.,\ v \;v- S...I.HIIM',I| i 
 
 . ^ ^ ; _ _ .,,..,,J^5..^p})J!!l 
 
 -$^^^r\\4 x -^^- ; ^7 : ^ v ' 
 
 ,<\I^I|U 
 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 in front of the drawing is modern. The sun shining through 
 the open door can scarcely look upon a fairer home. Some 
 of the details of this house we shall notice later. 
 
 The interior of 
 Stanton Old Hall 
 shows the severe yet 
 dignified plainness of 
 a north - country 
 dwelling, and, unlike 
 the rich decoration 
 inside Cartledge Hall 
 (p. r 66), corresponds 
 exactly with the quiet 
 exterior illustrated 
 on p. 49. The room 
 at Raynham Hall, 
 Norfolk, is given to 
 show a charming 
 typical interior of the 
 , later Renaissance, 
 which it is interest- 
 ing to compare with 
 the Jacobean rooms 
 illustrated. The 
 house, an undoubted 
 . WARWICKSHIRE example of the work 
 of Inigo Jones, was 
 
 built as early as 1636, though the type of work it heralded 
 did not become general till after the Restoration. 
 
 Wormleighton Manor, in Warwickshire, the home of the 
 Spencers, has already been visited (pp. 89 and 123). This 
 interior doorway is a characteristic feature with' the arms of 
 the family above. These are beautifully wrought in relief, 
 but the shields have unfortunately been " picked out " by 
 the village painter. Not much respect has been shown to 
 
 144 
 
 WORMLEIGHTON MANOR, 
 
MANTELPIECES AND FIREPLACES 
 
 the appearance of the doorway, or to the right-hand shield, 
 as the wall on the right has been built into the doorway in 
 order to make a bathroom, which, however necessary, ought 
 
 THE KITCHEN, KINGSTON MANOR, ISLE OF WIGHT 
 
 not to have obscured the appearance of this noble door or 
 obliterate half of the coat-of-arms. 
 
 The plain interior of Kingston Manor, with its uneven 
 stone-flagged floor and long table, is now used as a kitchen, 
 though it is surmised that at one time it formed part of the 
 original hall, long since divided. 
 
 I. MANTELPIECES AND FIREPLACES 
 
 The story of the gradual introduction of fireplaces has 
 already been partially told. We have seen the smoke 
 emerging from the louvre, the first building of a fireplace in 
 
 L 145 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 the solar, the great open yawning chimney in the hall, the 
 huge fireplace and dog-grate. The Tudor builders began to 
 bestow much elaboration upon their chimney-pieces, which 
 were fashioned of wood or stone, or in the great houses 
 of marble. There is an immense variety in their construction 
 and ornamentation. An architectural expert thus well 
 describes them : " The idea was to flank the fireplace 
 
 asiiii^?%^si 
 
 ; IT 1 tin 
 ' LI \ \ 1 1 1 1"! 
 
 AT WHITTINGTON COURT 
 
 opening with columns carrying an entablature consisting of 
 architrave, frieze and cornice, the projection of the latter 
 forming a convenient shelf. On the top of this composition 
 was another of the same kind, but with smaller columns and 
 more delicate proportion. The space enclosed between the 
 columns, which in the lower half was the fireplace, was occu- 
 pied in the upper half by some kind of carved subject. This 
 was very often the arms of the family, or his own special 
 achievement." 1 Until the time of Elizabeth these mantel- 
 
 1 Early Renaissance Architecture in England, by J. Alfred Gotch. 
 
 146 
 
MANTELPIECES AND FIREPLACES 
 
 pieces were fairly simple in design and were characterized by 
 refinement and a suppression of elaborate ornament, but the 
 German masons, who found much work in England, intro- 
 duced coarse and ridiculous details, and " the incessant 
 repetition of the same trick of design suggests the hand of the 
 
 iii)l>IW.I.I.iltt'Ji^WMMWW^I*W h 
 
 4- a 
 
 sz 
 
 A STONE MANTELPIECE, WHITTINGTON COURT 
 
 tradesman rather than the artist, the German pattern book 
 rather than the fresh spontaneous fancy of the English 
 designer of the sixteenth century." l There are, however, 
 some wonderful mantelpieces at South Wraxall, Loseley, 
 Cobham, Hatfield, and the finest in England are at Knole. 
 
 The illustrations of the mantelpieces at Whittington Court 
 made of stone show the character of the earlier work. In 
 
 1 Renaissance Architecture in England, by R. Blomfield. 
 
SHELDON HALL. WARWICKSHIRE 
 
A PLASTER CHIMNEYPIECE, SOMERSET 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 Jacobean times the decoration became more elaborate, as the 
 plaster fireplace and overmantel from a house in Somerset, 
 erected in 1629, plainly show. A very characteristic Jaco- 
 bean oak carved mantel exists at Sheldon Hall, Warwickshire, 
 with a stone opening. 
 
 Our ancestors were fond of figure subjects for their mantel- 
 pieces. One of the illustrations shows two ponderous figures 
 of men clad in armour. Other figures are frequently 
 
 DOGS AND TOASTING FORK AT WARNHAM COURT, SUSSEX 
 From the collection of Mr. P. J. Lucas 
 
 found, especially in large and important houses. At South 
 Wraxall manor-house there is an elaborate stone chimney- 
 piece. Pairs of caryatides adorned with flowers hold up the 
 lower entablature, and above are statues representing Arith- 
 metica, Geometria, Prudentia and Justicia. Apollo and the 
 Nine Muses appear at Hardwick Hall with E.R., and the 
 Queen's supporters, the lion and dragon. Subjects taken 
 from Holy Scripture are not unusual, such as Christ blessing 
 little Children, the Descent from the Cross, the Lamentation 
 over Jerusalem, the Agony in the Garden, and the Troubles 
 
MANTELPIECES AND FIREPLACES 
 
 of Job. Latin mottoes, of which the Elizabethans seem to 
 have been very fond, are frequently inscribed along the 
 lower entablature. 
 
 The Somerset plaster example shown in the illustration is 
 not the only specimen of the art of the parge-worker employed 
 in the making of mantelpieces. An interesting one is found 
 at Calgarth Old Hall, Windermere. Two shields, with 
 armorial bearings 
 and crests above, 
 occupy the main 
 filling of the 
 panels, and at the 
 top is the motto 
 
 FIDE NON FRAUD. 
 
 The manor-house 
 of West Down, 
 North Devon, has 
 some wonderful 
 plaster mantels, 
 representing some 
 strange event 
 which it seems 
 difficult to identify. There is a winged figure in a chariot 
 drawn by two very spirited horses, a church on a hill in 
 the distance, several figures walking in procession, and two 
 colossal figures on each side of the large panel, one of which 
 holds an anchor. Here is a strange riddle for the solution of 
 the curious reader. The true interpretation may be as 
 follows : The general subject symbolizes Human Life. 
 The car drawn by antelopes is the Triumph of Time. The 
 other figures, beginning with the go-cart, are the Ages of 
 Human Life, of which there are six. The figures carrying 
 baskets on their heads, flowers in one and fruit in the other, 
 refer to the beginning and end of life, possibly symbolizing 
 Spring and Autumn. The anchor is the symbol of hope in 
 
 35- v 
 
 A FIREBACK. AT LOUGHTON HALL, ESSEX 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 the future for the nascent life. The figure holding a disk, 
 or mirror, is a symbol of the vanity of life. The church 
 in a walled enclosure represents Religion, and probably its 
 upper portion means the New Jerusalem. Here is the 
 crown of life and its future. The artist has combined 
 several notions and fancies, but his subject is made up 
 of old ideas, and this is often found in the work of the 
 sixteenth century. The famous Plas Mawr, Conway, has 
 
 AN EARLY FIREBACK. 
 
 some remarkable plaster-work. It was the home of the 
 Wynne family, who entertained Queen Elizabeth and com- 
 memorated the royal visit by much elaborate decoration. 
 One mantel is divided by beads into nine panels, flanked by 
 enriched turret-like three-quarter pillars, the royal arms, 
 bearers and crown on the central panel, and E.R. on shields 
 on the left and right. The other panels are filled with 
 rosettes and bosses. A chained portcullis appears in the top 
 left-hand panel. In the banqueting-hall there is a mantel 
 made up of all the ornaments used in the ceilings of all the 
 rooms in the house. Another mantel has E.R. in large letters, 
 
STAIRCASES 
 
 one on each side of a rosette girt by the garter with the 
 motto HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE. Two weird caryatides 
 stand on each side of the mantel. Yet another mantel has a 
 huge shield of arms, quartered three stags' heads, three spread 
 eagles, three fleurs-de-lis, three masks with chevron, and the 
 initials R.G. and date 1567. Later on the art of the 
 plasterer exercised itself more on the ceilings of the rooms 
 than on the mantelpieces. 
 
 An important adjunct to the fireplace were the firedogs 
 and firebacks. In some Norman fireplaces these were 
 absent ; there is no recess for their accommodation. The 
 back of the fireplace sloped backwards from the base as at 
 Conisborough Castle, and the logs must have been placed on 
 end against the slope. The oldest firedogs now in existence, 
 with rare exceptions, are not earlier than the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, and these have I.H.S. inscribed upon their upright 
 standards, and may have been used in some monastery. In 
 Tudor and Elizabethan houses there were always dogs and 
 backs of an immense variety of design. We give one 
 example from Loughton Hall, Essex, and some from the 
 collection of Mr. C. J. Lucas, of Warnham Court, Sussex. 
 One of them is a cup-dog for placing a cup of mulled ale 
 in the framework at the top, which could be raised or 
 lowered. The backs are of cast iron, and usually the arms 
 of the family are cast on them. In the region of Sussex, 
 once the " Black Country " of England, where iron ore 
 was plentiful, many curious backs are discovered in farm or 
 manor-house. 
 
 2. STAIRCASES 
 
 In mediaeval houses the staircase was similar to that in an 
 old church tower and was placed at the dais end of the hall 
 in a turret. You ascended the stone steps which wound 
 round the centre shaft or newel. A spiral staircase of this 
 kind King Henry III erected for his palace at Clarendon. 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 Little Wenham Hall, erected in the time of the first 
 Edward, had in one corner of the tower a turret with a newel 
 staircase. At Penshurst you can still see the open archway 
 at the dais end of the hall leading to the upper fourteenth- 
 
 SHELDON HALL 
 
 STAIRCASE NEWELS, HARVINGTON HALL 
 WORCESTERSHIRE 
 
 century rooms. These were the usual staircases of mediaeval 
 times. Those of the sixteenth century resembled them and 
 were of the " corkscrew " type, built of stone or brick and 
 destitute of ornament, The story of the subsequent progress 
 of the staircase is remarkable. The builders of our houses 
 
, 
 
 HALL l' TH WOOD, TONGE, LANCASHIRE 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 suddenly broke away from all preceding traditions. The old 
 stone newel turret staircases were abandoned. Perhaps our 
 old squires and gentry grew tired of mounting these inter- 
 minable steps. Perhaps some of the foreign masons told 
 them of some wonderful staircases which 
 they had in their own country in the 
 chateaux in the valley of the Loire. 
 Perhaps the famous John Thorpe de- 
 vised their plan out of his ingenious 
 brain. He has left us some good de- 
 signs and drawings of staircases now 
 preserved in the Soane Museum, and 
 there are many actual staircases con- 
 structed in accordance with these plans. 
 Ere long in many a manor-house arose 
 a broad staircase of oak with heavily 
 carved newels, pierced balustrading and 
 rich carving. It was 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 upper floor, and 
 therefore demanded a dignified means of 
 approach. 
 
 The idea of this staircase is really that 
 of a glorified ladder. Instead of the sides of the ladder we 
 have "strings," or narrow pieces of wood, and instead of rungs 
 treads and risers forming steps. One string was fastened 
 to the wall, and the foot of the other secured into a stout 
 upright post, or newel, as also was the top ; into the same 
 newel that received the top of the first string the foot 
 of the second was secured at right angles, this process 
 being repeated as the staircase ascended. At about two 
 feet above the top of the string, and parallel to it, was 
 
 '56 
 
 NEWEL AT WHIT- 
 TINGTON COURT 
 
^\ /. 'E,i '" . - ' - _ 
 
 I.Y)/ ,^'^^-^^i^-- '\.-^.: 
 
 ' V x^~.-^ - v " 
 
 SHELDON HALL ? WARWICKSHIRE 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 the handrail, and between the handrail and the string 
 were balusters. 1 Thus were the early staircases constructed. 
 The newels were massive, as you will see from the illustra- 
 tions of those at Whittington Court, Harvington Hall and 
 Sheldon Hall. Our ancestors were considerate for old people, 
 and did not make long flights of steps. There were usually 
 only six steps and then a landing. The staircases were 
 arranged round a central well-hole, but in some cases this 
 central well-hole was occupied by a solid block of masonry. 
 The newels were decorated with carving, or with a pattern in- 
 scribed upon them, as in the Whittington example. The 
 tops were usually raised high, as at Harvington, and carved 
 figures were frequently placed upon them, as at Aldermaston 
 Court. 2 Animals that appear in the armorial bearings of the 
 family, warriors, boys playing instruments, Hercules and 
 the Furies, and knights in armour, as at Hartwell, were 
 some of the favourite subjects. The strings and hand- 
 rails were carved with a pattern or moulded. The balusters 
 were usually turned to resemble a pillar, or they were 
 pierced with a design, or converted into a series of 
 arches. The newels of the second and upward flights had 
 pendants, as in the fine staircase at Hall i' th' Wood. Every- 
 thing that art could devise was done to enrich the effect, and 
 the ingenuity of the Jacobean carvers introduced further 
 embellishments, rich panelling and other devices to enhance 
 its stateliness. A good example of the Jacobean staircase 
 is that at Sheldon Hall, of which we give an illustration. As 
 it frequently led to the Great Chamber, which, besides being 
 the principal chamber of the Elizabethan and Jacobean house 
 and the chief resort of the family, was the place where the 
 squire received his guests, it was made as attractive and 
 perfect as possible. 
 
 1 Early Renaissance Architecture in England, by J. A. Gotch. 
 
 2 The old manor-house was burned down, but happily these carved figures 
 were rescued and placed in the new mansion. 
 
 58 
 
THE STAIRCASE, MELBOURNE HALL, DERBYSHIRE 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 The steps were made very wide, often six or seven feet, 
 very different from the restricted stairs in modern houses, 
 wherein often the element of cost is severely considered. 
 They were shallow and easy of ascent, again differing from 
 many modern stairs, to ascend which is good exercise, but 
 brings little comfort to the aged and infirm ; and their 
 massive appearance and elaborate decoration gave dignity to 
 the house. 
 
 When the Italian ideas influenced our English builders 
 the design and conception of the staircase were changed. 
 Instead of the stately designs of the Tudors the later imitators 
 of the Palladian school introduced long continuous flights of 
 winding stairs,' frequently built into the wall, without any 
 visible means of support on the other side. These were 
 scarcely an improvement, and we prefer the older plan 
 and arrangement. The eighteenth-century staircase at Mel- 
 bourne Hall appears in our illustrations in order to show 
 one of the finest achievements of the art of the period. It 
 is not continuous ; the balusters are varied, a plain one 
 alternating with a spiral, and the whole effect is dignified and 
 restful. 
 
 3. PANELLING 
 
 Our forefathers knew well how to make their houses 
 comfortable, and no method was more effectual than by 
 covering the walls with wood. Plaster walls covered with 
 wall-paper always make the room draughty, chilling the air 
 that has been warmed by the fire and thus creating a draught. 
 Panelled rooms are always warm and snug and comfortable. 
 Moreover, they are pleasant to the eye, especially when 
 designed with all the skill and art of the Tudor carpenter. 
 
 The story of the development of panelling is interest- 
 ing, but it would require more space than we can give to 
 recount it fully. The earliest form of panel was much longer 
 than that afterwards in use. In the fifteenth century much 
 
 1 60 
 
PANELLING 
 
 timber was required, the uprights of the frames being 4 
 inches in width and 3 inches in thickness. The uprights 
 were 1 8 inches apart, cross-pieces being added at intervals of 
 about 4 or 5 feet. The spaces were filled with boards, and 
 the frames moulded on the upper and two sides, not at the 
 bottom of the panel. The top of the panel was ornamented 
 by cuspings. Possibly on account of the scarcity of timber 
 
 o o 
 o o 
 
 O (I 
 
 o o 
 
 CART-LEDGE HALL HALL i TH WOOD 
 
 WOOD PANELLING 
 
 the size of the frames and panels was gradually decreased. 
 The height of the panel in the illustration at Owlpen is about 
 17 inches by 12^- inches, that at Cartledge 15^ inches by 13^ 
 inches, and the thickness of the framing about one inch. 
 
 "he latter example shows that the panels assumed a 
 square shape. The illustrations show also the characteristic 
 mouldings of the period. Carving was used to deco- 
 
 ite the panels. At Cartledge there is an interesting 
 :arved panel over the fireplace representing the sea, earth 
 ind sky, with the temptation of Adam and Eve. A very 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 characteristic form of adornment 
 was the linen-fold pattern, of which 
 an illustration is gi ,en on page 126. 
 The history of this design has been 
 ably traced by Mr. Aymer Vallance. 1 
 He has not discovered any examples 
 earlier than the middle of the 
 fifteenth century and believes that 
 it was first devised by French or 
 Flemish artists. It was not orig- 
 inally intended to imitate folded 
 linen, but was evolved naturally 
 out of the exigencies of joinery 
 construction. It began in its simplest 
 
 WOOD PANELLING 
 
 SHELDON HALL 
 WOOD PANELLING 
 
 form with a vertical line 
 branching out at either 
 end into two oblique 
 lines like a capital letter 
 Y, upright at the top 
 and inverted at the bot- 
 tom. A slight curving 
 in the arms of the Y 
 
 1 The Magazine of Fine Arts, January, 1906. 
 162 
 
PANELLING 
 
 produces the ogival outline of the extremities of the 
 matured linen pattern. By degrees additional lines and folds 
 were introduced, the ends decorated with ornament, until at 
 last the pattern became exaggerated and less satisfactory. In 
 its prime it was a very beautiful and effective design for 
 adorning the surface of panels. 
 
 Heads were often carved in circular medallions on panels, 
 the background being 
 filled in with foliage. 
 Later on, in Elizabethan 
 times, it was fashionable 
 to limit the carving and 
 decoration to the top of 
 the panelled surface and 
 to leave the lower part 
 entirely plain. The illus- 
 trations of the panels at 
 Cartledge and of that at ' 
 the Lancashire house of 
 Hall i' th' Wood show 
 this arrangement. In all 
 this work the decoration 
 was cut into the surface 
 of panels. The Jacobean carpenter was very proud of his 
 carving, and introduced into his panels round-headed arches 
 with pilasters, imposts and bases decorated with the pro- 
 fusion of ornamental carving which delighted his soul. The 
 illustration of the panelling at Sheldon Hall exhibits good 
 examples of his skill. 
 
 Instead of the natural beauty of oak timber, later on, 
 fashion decreed that this dark panelling should be painted. 
 White colour or light blue was favoured, and this barbarous 
 custom existed for many years, and disfigured the original 
 work left to us by our ancestors. We prefer now to remove 
 these coatings of paint which a debased taste ordered to be 
 
 163 
 
 CUPBOARD DOOR 
 KINGSTON MANOR, ISLE OF WIGHT 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 smeared over the oaken panels, and to exhibit them in their 
 natural beauty and condition. 
 
 The skill of the carpenter is shown also in the grand old 
 cupboard doors, such as that at Kingston Manor in the Isle of 
 
 Wight, in screens which 
 were often elaborately 
 decorated, in porches 
 attached to rooms as at 
 Broughton, Oxfordshire, 
 chests and furniture as 
 well as in mantelpieces, 
 doorways and other in- 
 terior details to which we 
 have already referred. 
 
 A very unusual feature 
 is shown in the illustra- 
 tion of an object in Cart- 
 ledge Hall, Derbyshire. 
 It is a clock-case con- 
 structed in the panelling 
 and evidently of the 
 same date. The side and 
 .front shown in the 
 sketch, as well as the 
 pierced top, are made to 
 open all the way up. 
 The pierced top allows 
 the face of the clock to 
 be seen. 
 
 Another way of covering the walls of rooms was the use 
 of tapestry, and many old houses have most curious and 
 valuable pieces stowed away in cupboards or still hanging on 
 the walls. Few can tell their history, where they came from, 
 or who designed and fashioned them, and many owners are 
 in complete ignorance of the value of their possessions. 
 
 164 
 
 CARTLEDGE HALL, DERBYSHIRE 
 
CEILINGS 
 
 Not long ago in a country house on the top of a cupboard 
 in the attics lay in dusty oblivion some pieces of tapestry 
 that were worth ^17,000. 
 
 4. CEILINGS 
 
 The art of the plasterer found a grand field for its exercise 
 in the ceilings of the manor-houses and mansions, and so 
 great were his skill and his energy, so eagerly was he sought 
 after, that there are few houses of any note which have not 
 some specimens of his handicraft. When Henry VIII invited 
 to this country Italian plasterers who had been adorning 
 their native palaces, they were attracted (as we have noticed) 
 by the series of plastered panels of half-timber houses which 
 cried aloud for decoration, and covered them with heraldic 
 devices, figures, heads, foliage and other designs. The 
 Italians taught the English folk the secret of their skill ; but 
 the English plasterer did not slavishly copy the designs of 
 the Italian artist. After his fashion he developed the art on 
 his own lines and according to his native sentiment, evolving 
 his own plans and schemes and methods. He was a very 
 important person, and had in London a Livery Company of 
 his own, with a royal charter granted by Henry VII and 
 confirmed by subsequent sovereigns. Good artists in plaster 
 were in great request. Charles Williams, the most famous of 
 our native craftsmen, who had studied the work of the 
 foreigner in Italy, did some of the wondrous work for 
 Henry's Palace of Nonsuch. Sir John Thynne secured his 
 services for his noble house of Longleat, Wiltshire. The 
 fame of his brilliant workmanship travelled far, and soon Sir 
 William Cavendish and his lady, the renowned " Bess of 
 Hardwick," were, begging Sir John to send to them this 
 cunning craftsman, who, they heard, had made " dyvers 
 pendants and other pretty things, and had flowered the Hall 
 at Longleat." In the early period of this art the English 
 plasterer adopted as his first idea of a good ceiling a system 
 
 165 
 
r\ 
 
CEILINGS 
 
 of interlacing squares with radial ribs. Then, with growing 
 boldness, he made the ribs arched, and from their junction 
 hung a pendant. At first painting was extensively used, but 
 
 in the Elizabethan . 
 
 time it was entirely 
 abandoned. Then 
 curvilinear, interlac- 
 ing and knotted 
 forms appear, the 
 ribs being embossed 
 with running orna- 
 ment, modelled or 
 impressed. A fine 
 adaptation of scroll- 
 work is also a char- 
 acteristic of the 
 style. 
 
 The plaster ceil- 
 ing at Cartledge 
 Hall, Derbyshire, 
 belongs to this 
 period, when so 
 many of our noble 
 English mansions 
 were being erected, 
 an age that gave 
 birth to Hatfield, 
 Longleat, Audley 
 End, Chatsworth, Hardwick and many other of the grandest 
 English seats. Cartledge Hall stands on a high and 
 desolate moorland, and externally is homely and unpre- 
 tentious, but picturesque. The interior is remarkable for its 
 oak panelling and rich plaster-work. The room illustrated 
 is divided lengthwise by a long beam, which is plastered 
 over, mouldings being formed on the sides and a running 
 
 167 
 
 DETAIL OF THE CEILING 
 CARTLEDGE HALL 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 pattern on the under side. The ornamental ceiling on the 
 half next the fireplace has unfortunately fallen in, and this 
 defacement greatly detracts from the rich appearance the 
 room must originally have possessed. The pattern of ribs 
 is typical of Early Renaissance work, and the squares are 
 ornamented at each corner with leaves or fleurs-de-lis, while 
 the panels are filled with rosettes or twisted knots and 
 snakes. The design, though without anything specially dis- 
 
 
 WARREN HOUSE, STANTON, GLOUCESTERSHIRE 
 
 tinctive about it, is quietly effective, but a far richer ceiling 
 exists in another room. This is coved to form a variety of 
 curved surfaces, and one side is a spreading vine tree, filling 
 in the panels which support the ceiling ribs, which is 
 balanced on the other by the model of an oak tree, springing 
 from the angle of the room, with a squirrel sitting on one of 
 the branches. The bleak exterior of the house (p. 52) 
 does not prepare us for the beauty of the interior decora- 
 tion, of which the fine oak panelling is a charming feature. 
 It was customary to fasten the ceilings to thick laths made 
 
 1 68 
 
CEILINGS 
 
 of oak. This thickness of the laths is a sign of early work. 
 The plasterers of later times used thinner laths, as they 
 found that the plaster pressed between the laths gained a 
 firmer hold. The earlier artificers used reeds and fibre or 
 
 THE OLD HOUSE, SANDWICH, KENT 
 
 rye straw as a foundation of their work ; but the abundance 
 of fine cow-hair used in the construction of later works of 
 art did away with the necessity of such aids. The tenacity 
 of this cow-hair is certainly remarkable. In the projected 
 portions of the ceilings there is a considerable quantity, the 
 hair being more generously used there than in the other 
 
 169 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 parts. Many ceilings have stood for three centuries without 
 developing a crack, much more without falling. Modern 
 ceilings, as ordinarily contracted for, endure about four 
 years, then develop cracks, and down they fall. The cause 
 of this is that modern builders do not introduce the same 
 amount of hair into the plaster, and are content to use for an 
 entire ceiling that which would scarcely have sufficed for a 
 single square foot of an ancient one. 
 
 The ceiling at Warren House, Stanton, is also Elizabethan, 
 constructed about the year 1590, and the very beautiful ex- 
 ample from the Old House, Sandwich, shows a development 
 of design and is Jacobean of the date about 1610. The 
 method of construction is interesting. The heavier ceilings 
 were first floated up in plain plaster, and then the finishing 
 coat with all the projections downward put on afterwards. 
 The tenacity of the hair allowed of this being done with 
 safety, but the first coat was left very rough in order to sup- 
 port the second, and the power of the adherence of the latter 
 must have been very great. The moulded portions were 
 what architects call " run," that is, worked by a trammel, and 
 then the enrichments stamped in the soft plaster. 
 
 With Inigo Jones came a new style of plaster ceiling 
 which was formed on Italian models. He used heavy 
 moulded ribs of far greater size than in the preceding 
 period. The designs were stifFer and more cumbrous, 
 such as the ceiling of the salon in Raynham Hall, Norfolk. 
 Paintings began to be used in the centre of the ceiling sur- 
 rounded by plaster-work, as in the illustration of the fine 
 ceiling at Potheridge House, Torrington, Devonshire. Some 
 details of the modillioned cornice are not unlike that in the 
 White Room at Westwood Park, near Droitwich, Worcester- 
 shire, erected before the time of Grinling Gibbons, and it 
 can be classed with other good work of the kind in this 
 country. The modelling is free and good and is certainly 
 the work of a skilful hand. During Wren's time English 
 
 170 
 

 POTHERIDGE HOUSE, TORRINGTON, NORTH DEVON 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 plaster-work flourished, and many extraordinarily good 
 ceilings were wrought. After his death it deteriorated 
 rapidly. Cornices, friezes and architraves were enriched 
 with meaningless ornaments. Italian workmen came to 
 England when William III reigned, and the fashions of 
 Versailles ruled the style, but the work of the English 
 plasterer, who imitated the foreigner, was less delicate 
 and more clumsy. During the eighteenth century the 
 brothers Adam introduced a new style which was graceful 
 and refined, but lacked originality. They were very proud 
 of their work, and one of them not very modestly de- 
 clared : " We have introduced a great diversity of ceilings, 
 friezes, and decorated pilasters, and have added grace and 
 beauty to the whole, by a mixture of grotesque stucco and 
 painted ornaments, together with the flowing ralnceau with 
 its fanciful figures and winding foliage. If we have any 
 claim to approbation, we found it on this alone : that we 
 flatter ourselves we have been able to seize with some degree 
 of success the beautiful spirit of antiquity, and to inform it 
 with novelty and variety, through all our numerous works." 
 True artists are seldom satisfied with their work. Perhaps 
 Master Adam was an exception. In the nineteenth century 
 plaster-work suffered with other arts, and now, at last, shows 
 signs of a true revival. 
 
 5. WINDOWS 
 
 We have already admired the windows of the house, their 
 mullions and transoms, and other architectural features. Bay, 
 oriel, dormer, all give diversity to the plan and structure of 
 the manor-house. We may add a few words about the 
 glazing. Much of the beautiful glass that once adorned 
 their windows has perished, but some has been wonderfully 
 preserved. When visiting Great Chalfield Manor, a house 
 that was almost a ruin until it was rescued from its deplor- 
 able condition by the present owner, Mr. R. Fuller, we 
 
 172 
 
WINDOWS 
 
 discovered high up in an upstairs room a fragment of 
 ancient glass with the inscription : 
 
 Love God, and drede shame ; 
 Desire, worship and kepe Thy Name. 
 
 Ockwells Manor, near Bray, Berkshire, has a unique series 
 of beautiful windows contemporary with the house, which 
 was built by Sir John Norreys in the reign of Henry VI. 
 There are eighteen shields, showing the arms of the founder 
 of the house, his sovereign, patrons and friends a liber 
 
 PATTERNS OF LEAD GLAZING 
 
 amicorum a not unpleasant way for light to come to us. 
 As Mr. Everard Green happily says : l "Sir John Norreys 
 believed that friendships were duets in the psalm of 7ife, and 
 by means of heraldry he recorded his friendships, thereby 
 adding to the pleasures of memory as well as to the splen- 
 dour of his great hall. His eye saw the shield, his memory 
 supplied the story, and to him the lines of George Eliot, 
 
 O Memories, 
 O Past that IS, 
 
 were made possible by heraldry." 
 
 >/<?, Vol. 56, p. 324, where a full description of the shields will 
 
 be found. 
 
 173 
 
PATTERN OF LEAD 
 GLAZING 
 
 THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 The common pattern of lead glazing was the diamond 
 lattice-shaped pane, but there is an immense variety ; some 
 are octagonal, or sexagonal with small diamond panes 
 grouped around them, as in the example at Broadway. 
 
 Walter Gedde published in 1613 A 
 Booke of Sundry Draughtes, Principally 
 serving for Glaziers, in which he gives 
 over a hundred pages of designs. 
 These are very complicated and intri- 
 cate, and the Elizabethan or Jacobean 
 glazier preferred simpler arrangements 
 for his windows. Professor Lethaby 
 in his book on Leadwork records some 
 very intricate examples of lead glazing. 
 The diamond panes, or patterns based upon a variation of the 
 diamond and square, seem to have been the earliest form of 
 glazing. Occasionally when square panes are used the tops 
 of the lights are rounded, so as to give a little artistic variety. 
 Patterned leading sometimes fills the oval windows in the 
 gables. Ventilating unglazed panes were introduced, filled 
 with an open leadwork pattern. The glass that appears in 
 old windows is remarkable. We like to have our windows 
 filled with clear transparent glass. Our 
 forefathers were content with a less 
 perfect manufacture, and the colour of 
 their glass varied from pale amber to 
 bottle-green. 
 
 Heraldic glass was fashionable in all 
 Tudor houses, and the squire loved to 
 see his coat-of-arms quartered with 
 those of his wife in his windows, with his and her initials 
 blended together, and sometimes, as at Ockwells, the arms of 
 his friends also. If Queen Elizabeth in her many wanderings 
 honoured him with a visit, the royal arms, the Tudor rose 
 and E.R. would very shortly appear in stained glass or 
 
 PATTERN OF LEAD 
 GLAZING 
 
WINDOWS 
 
 carved on panels or plastered on his ceilings. There were 
 some noted artists in glass, such as the Dutchman Bernard 
 DininckhofF, who was 
 working in England at 
 the close of the sixteenth 
 century, and Robert 
 Wright, who made all 
 the old glass at Hengrave 
 Manor in 1567. An 
 old account states that he 
 was paid four pounds 
 for the " making of all 
 the glasse windows of 
 the Manour-place, with 
 the sodar, and for xiij 
 skutchens with armes." 
 A fine piece of armorial 
 glass is illustrated from 
 Franks House, presum- 
 ably the work of an 
 English hand. 
 
 These windows with 
 their " skutchens " im- 
 
 press upon the manor- 
 house the stamp of 
 
 , . . LEADED PAINTED GLASS, FRANKS 
 
 ownership, the person- 
 
 rJ r KENT, 1591 
 
 ality of the family. They 
 
 light again the lamp of memory, recording the traditions, 
 marriages and friendships of the owners, as do the carved 
 arms and initials over the doorway. Too many of them are 
 broken and gone like the family who once owned the manor ; 
 an additional reason for the careful guardianship of those 
 still remaining. 
 
 I 
 
VII 
 METAL-WORK 
 
 "^UBAL CAIN, the first artificer in metals, has had 
 many worthy followers in England who have 
 added to the beauty of the manor-houses of this 
 country. The local blacksmith was a cunning 
 man who could work well and wonderfully, producing 
 refined and highly decorated objects in iron, marvellously 
 constructed framework for inn-signs, richly ornamented iron 
 gates, as well as various beautiful things for the village 
 church, and much else that we love to see to-day and fain 
 would imitate. 
 
 LEADWORK 
 
 The ancient plumber or lead-worker adorned our country 
 houses with many evidences of his skill. He has an ancestry 
 of nearly two thousand years, and in his early days used to 
 cover our houses, castles and churches with roofs of lead 
 which were meant to last for ever. His art has fallen into 
 desuetude, and cheap cast-iron stack-pipes, rain-water heads, 
 cisterns and fountains have replaced the picturesque forms 
 which delight us when we see them in old houses and 
 gardens. We must look for some of the triumphs of his 
 skill in the buildings of the sixteenth, seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries. As early as the fourteenth century, 
 so Viollet-le-Duc states, in England, and in no other country, 
 lead pipes were used to convey the water from the roof to 
 the base of the wall. These were usually square, and hence, 
 he says, they could expand when the water froze, whereas 
 
 176 
 
LEADWORK 
 
 a circular pipe could only burst. These pipes and heads and 
 roofs were all made of cast lead, and not of milled or rolled 
 
 4.:_. :^> 
 
 
 '' 
 
 THREE EXAMPLES FROM WARWICKSHIRE 
 
 lead, a process which came into existence in the time of Wren, 
 who did not favour it. The old lead was cast in sand, and 
 this sand was naturally used for the impression of dates, 
 
 N 177 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 letters and patterns which add beauty and interest to our old 
 buildings. 
 
 CANONS ASHBY 
 NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 
 
 OWLPEN MANOR 
 
 The gutters of many old houses 
 are adorned with little lead parapets, 
 the front edge being cut into notches 
 like that at Owlpen. Sometimes this 
 decoration takes the form of small 
 battlements, or has a pattern cast on it, 
 or a scroll of flowery ornament. 
 
 Much ingenuity is displayed in the 
 treatment of pipe-heads, which took 
 the place of the mediaeval gargoyle. 
 The " lamp of memory " shed light on 
 them, as on them were often repre- 
 sented the arms of the family or the 
 initials of the builder, or the date when 
 they were erected. Haddon Hall has 
 a remarkable series of great variety of 
 design and date. Professor Lethaby 1 
 writes : 
 
 " The general form of these is con- 
 structed like a box from cast-sheet 
 
 1 Lcadwork, p. 140. 
 
 178 
 
LEADWORK 
 
 HALL I TH 
 WOOD 
 
 lead, the cornices are beaten to their shape over a pattern ; 
 
 and the top edge is cut into a little fringe of crenellations. 
 
 Cast discs of ornament, badges, pendent 
 
 knobs, and initials are arranged on their 
 
 fronts, on the funnel-shaped portion leading 
 
 to the pipe, and on the ears of the pipe, and 
 
 the side flaps of the head itself. The more 
 
 elaborate heads have an outer casing of lead 
 
 with panels pierced through it of delicate 
 
 tracery work of Gothic tradition which shows 
 
 bright against the shadow." 
 
 A very fine pipe-head appears at Canons 
 Ashby, moulded and bent into a vase-like 
 form and elaborately decorated with a leaf- 
 shaped ornament and a human face. It bears 
 the initials E. D., evidently an ancestor of Sir 
 Alfred Dryden, the present owner. Quite as 
 elaborate are the three examples taken from an old house in 
 Warwickshire, which describe themselves. Notice the arms 
 of the owner at the top ; the elaborate shell and 
 scroll pattern that runs along the gutter ; the 
 beautifully decorated lead bands that fasten the 
 pipe to the wall, on the ends of which are stamped 
 the fleur-de-lis^ a hound and rosette. The horn 
 and device above are probably a merchant's mark. 
 We notice the curious way in which the band in 
 the Canons Ashby example is bent back and curled 
 like the scroll of a mediaeval text. 
 
 The pipe-head at Hall i' th' Wood, in Lanca- 
 shire, is of simple design, dated 1648, with the 
 initials A. N. A. It would have been well if the 
 lead-worker had clung to this simplicity, and not 
 wandered away in later times and tried to excel 
 in producing tours-de-force of workmanship. The 
 PACKWOOD head and pipe at p ac k wooc i House, Warwickshire, 
 
 form a charming model. 
 179 
 
 HOUSE 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 Lead was used for many other objects. Our ancestors were 
 evidently not afraid of lead-poisoning, as they frequently 
 made their cisterns of this substance, the sides of which they 
 decorated with panels and ornaments, flowers and animals. 
 We give an illustration of one that bears the date 1744, and 
 
 A LEAD CISTERN 
 
 is typical of the period. Pumps, too, were made of lead and 
 adorned with arms and flowers and initials. In the garden 
 we shall see some leaden statues and vases and urns, if the 
 landscape gardener has left any of these relics when with 
 ruthless hand he swept away the formal garden. 
 
 IRONWORK 
 
 Ironwork in England has had many vicissitudes. Its 
 story would take too long to tell fully. The mediaeval 
 smith could fashion well and worthily. He made elaborate 
 hinges, knockers, chests and grilles ; rich scrollwork he 
 hammered out, and in the thirteenth century used stamps 
 and dies which could be impressed on hot iron, producing 
 grand effects. Many fine railings for tombs were wrought 
 by him, and doubtless he would have achieved many triumphs 
 
 180 
 
IRONWORK 
 
 of artistic workmanship if wars and frequent disputes had 
 not distracted him from his proper work, and turned his 
 
 RUSHALL HALL 
 STAFFORDSHIRE 
 
 DITCHEAT PRIORY PACKWOOD HOUSE 
 SOMERSET WARWICKSHIRE 
 
 attention to the battlefield where his brawny arms were in 
 much request as a fighter and a mender of weapons and 
 armour. Hence true smithcraft languished, though it never 
 
 NUNUPTON COURT, HEREFORD 
 
 died out. No great revival took place in the Tudor and 
 early Renaissance period. Henry VIII introduced foreign 
 smiths into England, and sent ironfounders into Sussex, 
 
 OWLPEN MANOR KINGSTON MANOR OWLPEN MANOR 
 GLOUCESTERSHIRE ISLE OF WIGHT GLOUCESTERSHIRE 
 
 181 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 which then produced much of the metal of which the curious 
 and elaborate firebacks were made. But genius showed 
 itself in many villages where the smiths wrought cunningly 
 
 such objects as the 
 elaborate hinge at 
 Ditcheat, or that 
 at Nunupton Court, 
 which might have 
 been fashioned by a 
 Gothic artist for a 
 church door. He 
 especially showed 
 his cleverness and 
 originality in de- 
 signing knockers for 
 the entrance doors. 
 Rushall Hall, Staf- 
 fordshire, furnishes 
 a good example. 
 The latch also gave 
 him opportunity for 
 good work, ex- 
 amples of which can 
 be seen at Pack- 
 wood House, War- 
 wickshire, and at 
 Kingston Manor in 
 the Isle of Wight. 
 
 Another example 
 of 'good ironwork 
 is shown at Owl- 
 
 OWLPEN MANOR . . 
 
 pen ; it is shaped 
 
 like a shield with a row of fleurs-de-lis at the top. The 
 background, which appears dark in the drawing, is of deep 
 red velvet. There is, however, nothing very striking about 
 
 182 
 
IRONWORK 
 
 these efforts, nothing that can rival the achievements of the 
 carpenter and mason. 
 
 As regards gates, in the sixteenth and seventeenth cent- 
 uries smithing 
 had almost died 
 out in England. 
 Garden gates 
 were constructed 
 of wood, with, 
 later, occasional 
 bars of iron, and 
 iron cresting. 
 That at Owlpen 
 is probably later 
 than the gate it- 
 self. The curi- 
 ous gate at Pack- 
 wood represents 
 a style prevalent 
 about latter part 
 of the seventeenth 
 century. 
 
 Architects like 
 Inigo Jones and 
 his imitators 
 cared nothing for 
 smithcraft. Sir 
 Christopher 
 Wren did not en- 
 courage it, and 
 it was not until 
 the accession of William and Mary to the English throne, 
 and the advent of one man, a famous and ingenious smith, 
 that the art revived. This was Jean Tijou, a Frenchman, 
 who had fled to Holland on the Revocation of the Edict 
 
 183 
 
 ONE OF A PAIR OF GATES TO THE FORE- 
 COURT, PACKWOOD HOUSE, WARWICKSHIRE 
 
UliUUlllUU 
 
 1 
 
 SANDYWELL, GLOUCESTERSHIRE 
 
IRONWORK 
 
 of Nantes in 1685, and came to England with "Dutch 
 William." He did much work at Hampton Court, and 
 
 PACKWOOD HOUSE, WARWICKSHIRE 
 
 set an example which was followed by Thomas Robinson, 
 the brothers Roberts, Bakewell, Warren, and others, who 
 produced some of the finest pieces of ironwork in the country. 
 
 185 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 The elaborately constructed gates at Sandywell, Glouces- 
 tershire, are good examples of smithcraft, or the simpler 
 specimen of those at Packwood, of which one gate is shown ; 
 or the beautiful gates at the manor-house of Studley, War- 
 wickshire (p. 38). 
 
 Another opportunity for smithcraft was found in the 
 
 weathercocks, without 
 which no manor-house 
 was deemed complete. 
 The vane usually ap- 
 pears on the stables or 
 other out-building. It 
 assumed divers shapes 
 an anchor, a horse, 
 hound, ship, the crest 
 ^ of the family, and many 
 other forms, and the 
 shaft that supported it 
 and held the iron rods 
 pointing north, east, 
 south and west, was 
 decorated with much in- 
 genious scrollwork and 
 other adornments. The 
 smith was very busy at 
 Packwood, and probably 
 fashioned the fine vane as well as the gates. 
 
 Some very curious and beautiful examples of smithcraft 
 are found in St. Mary's House, Bramber, Sussex (see p. 81). 
 That above is a window grille, and the work is probably of 
 foreign origin. Indeed the various pieces of ironwork on 
 the house would seem to have little connection with each 
 other. 
 
 The many beautifully wrought window-fasteners to be 
 found frequently in old houses present an unbroken tradi- 
 
 186 
 
 ST. MARY S HOUSE, BRAMBER, SUSSEX 
 
IRONWORK 
 
 tion of fine smithcraft from mediaeval days, till the sash 
 window abolished the fitting. The most complete set which 
 we have seen is in a house in the High Street of Guildford, 
 and several old manor-houses retain these graceful examples 
 of the smith's art. 
 
 But he fell on evil days. The brothers Adam and his 
 followers designed their own decorations and cared naught 
 for the craftsman, who languished and died out. During the 
 early Victorian era his art was almost forgotten, and it was 
 left to the men of the present generation, to Mr. J. Starkie 
 Gardner and others, to revive the glories of their craft and 
 
 ' D 
 
 make it again the means for the expression of true art. 
 
 187- 
 
VIII 
 GARDENS AND SURROUNDINGS 
 
 f ^HE ideal manor-house is set in a framework that 
 
 is worthy of it. It fits its site with due orderly 
 accompaniment of garden and terraces. It was 
 planned for use and comfort, but it never forgot 
 to harmonize itself with its surroundings and to have a 
 garden full of old-fashioned flowers, with clipped hedges and 
 a paved or gravelled walk where the squire and his lady 
 could take the air sheltered from cold winds. It is easier to 
 discover a good manor-house garden than one attached to a 
 more magnificent mansion. The country squire a century 
 ago had the good taste not to follow the whims and fashions 
 of his richer neighbours, nor to encourage the efforts of 
 " Capability " Brown and other revolutionists to destroy the 
 old pleasance and cultivate landscape gardening. This wild 
 mania swept like a pestilence through the land, destroyed 
 gardens wholesale, and "left the house a poor forlorn object 
 set in a field of formless slopes and serpentine paths without 
 relation to its surroundings." 1 
 
 Perhaps a lighter purse preserved the squire from the 
 enormities of his wealthier neighbours, but we will give him 
 the credit of better taste and a true affection for the beauties 
 of his old-fashioned garden. 
 
 In not a few cases, unfortunately, the garden has fallen on 
 evil days. The bowling-green, where the old squire and his 
 
 1 English Houses and gardens in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, by 
 M. Macartney. 
 
 188 
 
GARDENS AND SURROUNDINGS 
 
 guests delighted to play a quiet game at bowls, and the lawn, 
 once kept neat and trim, are a mass of rank grass. The fish- 
 
 ?^^ 
 
 1 
 
 1 , , 
 
 KS;^! 
 
 m~w "H 
 
 4 
 
 GARDEN, 
 OWLPEN 
 MANOR, 
 
 . ,;-..W 
 
 .._, ^ 
 
 \ ''-'-.. ;Oi V 
 
 @*.|- ;@^ .: 
 
 ''-&>;$ . &* : <S^ 
 
 ponds are overgrown with weeds and rushes. Some of the 
 old flowers struggle through crops of weeds. Hedges and 
 shrubs have grown wild. Dead trees complete a scene of 
 
 189 
 
CUT YEWS, OWLPEN MANOR, GLOUCESTERSHIRE 
 
GARDENS AND SURROUNDINGS 
 
 desolation which matches the fate of the family that has 
 become extinct or has been compelled by poverty to let the 
 house of their ancestors and live in retirement abroad, while 
 the home becomes a farm and the garden is left to take care 
 of itself. Happily all manor gardens are not like that. 
 
 VEGETABLE CARPEM 
 
 SCALE OP FEET 
 
 PLAN OF HOUSE AND GARDEN AT CHASTLETON MANOR 
 OXFORDSHIRE 
 
 Owlpen Manor has a delightful garden which is typical of 
 many others. Two views are shown of this. First there is 
 the plan of the garden, and secondly the approach to the 
 house along a sunken path with clipped yews on either side. 
 The velvet lawns and parterres, the ingenious way in which 
 
 191 
 
THE TERRACE GATEWAY AND STEPS, PACKWOOD HOUSE 
 
GARDENS AND SURROUNDINGS 
 
 the garden is divided and arranged, form fitting surround- 
 ings to this beautiful Tudor house. 
 
 The plan of the gardens at the typical Elizabethan manor- 
 house of Chastleton (p. 191) is of much interest. A forecourt, 
 which has a drive for carriages, gives access to the house, but 
 the chief feature is the old circular garden to the east of the 
 house. Inside the yew hedge is a ring of trees cut into 
 numerous quaint animal and geometrical forms, many now 
 scarcely to be distinguished. 
 
 Many manor-houses have avenues leading to them, such 
 as West Court Manor, though it no longer leads to a 
 drawbridge over a moat, as it once did. In some cases the 
 avenues remain but the house has disappeared, destroyed 
 during the Civil War of the seventeenth century. The great 
 French gardener, Le Notre, who designed some of our English 
 gardens, was devoted to avenues, the beauty of which we had, 
 however, long realized before he influenced garden design. 
 But these trees are outside the garden. Our forefathers 
 loved arbours or bowers overspread with creepers, with vines 
 and roses ; and in some few old gardens we find pergolas, 
 which modern fashions have again decreed us to erect. They 
 came to England with the Italian modes, and are named after 
 a kind of grape which was trained over a trellis. We 
 usually clothe our pergolas with crimson rambler. Par- 
 terres added diversity to the garden. These were of several 
 kinds, the most common and beautiful being that formed of 
 regular geometrically shaped beds with raised box edging, 
 filled with flowers and separated from each other by little 
 paths. There is a charming example of this at Warbrook, 
 Eversley, a house built by John James, assistant architect to 
 Sir Christopher Wren. Another form of parterre was con- 
 structed of grass plots cut into several pieces by intersecting 
 paths. These were described in the old gardening books as 
 Parterres a I ' Anglaise. 
 
 Another charming feature of the old garden was the 
 
 o 193 
 
THE ENTRANCE GATEWAY, EYAM HALL, DERBYSHIRE 
 
GARDENS AND SURROUNDINGS 
 
 terrace. In some cases where the slope of the ground was 
 steep there were two or three terraces, as at St. Catherine's 
 Court, Bath (p. 2). 1 he hillside was cut away so as to form 
 a level lawn with a level horizontal terrace walk above it. 
 These terraces form agreeable shelters from the wind, and 
 roses, shrubs and flowers thrive better than in any other 
 part of the garden. Flights of steps 
 lead up from the lower lawn to the 
 upper terrace, along the edge of which 
 runs a delightful balustrade, which 
 acts as a parapet if the terrace is sup- 
 ported by a perpendicular wall. A 
 pier stands on each side of the steps, 
 sometimes supporting a fine iron gate, 
 as at Packwood House. These gate- 
 piers are usually square and plain, sur- 
 mounted by an urn, or a stone ball, an 
 obelisk, or the crest of the family. 
 
 The entrance gates to the garden 
 may here be mentioned, of which we 
 give several examples. The gateway 
 at Eyam, Derbyshire, is imposing 
 with its stone balls and imposts of 
 great size, its posts quaintly decorated, 
 its wooden gates of plain character and 
 semicircular steps. 
 
 We give an illustration of a gate- NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 
 pier at Canons Ashby of plain character surmounted by an 
 urn. Owlpen Manor has some attractive gates (pp. 54 and 
 182) which, except for the iron scrollwork at the top, are 
 constructed of wood, the whole being painted white. 
 
 The garden was usually surrounded by a wall to guard its 
 peace and preserve its seclusion. In this wall the builders 
 often placed a doorway. There is a fine stone doorway in 
 the wall of the garden at Winsley, Wilts, over which is 
 
 e/i St< 
 
 A GATEPIER AT 
 CANONS ASHBY 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 placed an heraldic beast representing the crest of the family. 
 It is dated 1657, but the door and opening have been 
 renewed. 
 
 The topiary art was largely used in the old formal gardens 
 and often carried to excess. A writer in the Guardian, 
 September 29th, 1713, says : 
 
 "How contrary to simplicity is the modern practice of 
 gardening : we seem to make it our study to recede from 
 
 nature, not only in the 
 various tonsure of green 
 into the most regular and 
 formal shapes, but even 
 in monstrous attempts 
 beyond the reach of the 
 art itself; we run into 
 sculpture, and are yet 
 better pleased to have 
 our trees in the most 
 awkward figures of men 
 and animals than in the 
 most regular of their 
 own." 
 
 It was an absurd fashion 
 to hack trees into end- 
 less shapes, but a few 
 carefully cut yews and 
 box-trees in the form of 
 peacocks are a comely 
 
 feature of the formal garden, as in the beautiful new garden 
 that Mr. E. Robinson Cox has caused to spring up around 
 the grand old manor-house of South Wraxall in place of the 
 old garden which time and neglect had almost obliterated. 
 
 Sometimes religious symbolism finds its expression in the 
 number and arrangement of trees. Thus, at Cleeve Prior 
 we find the twelve apostles and four evangelists typified in 
 noble yew trees which are themselves symbolic of the 
 
 196 
 
 DOORWAY IN GARDEN WALL 
 WINSLEY, WILTSHIRE 
 
GARDENS AND SURROUNDINGS 
 
 Resurrection. Fancy has woven an extraordinary concep- 
 tion in the beautiful gardens at Packwood, where we find 
 the Sermon on the Mount set forth in clipped yew. There 
 is a mount, a favourite feature in old gardens, and on its 
 summit an arbour formed in a great yew tree, representing 
 the Saviour ; four tall yews stand for the four evangelists, 
 and six on each side for the twelve apostles, and leading 
 up to these are " the multi- 
 tudes," yews, box, Portugal 
 laurels, which are supposed 
 to be listening to the holy 
 words of our Lord. 
 
 The garden at St. Cath- 
 erine's Court, Somerset, 
 illustrated on p. 2, shows 
 a good example of clipped 
 yews and a stone terrace, 
 and the bird's-eye view of 
 the garden at Chipping 
 Campden shows the lay-out 
 of the garden in relation 
 to the house (p. 15). 
 
 No feature of an old 
 garden is more charming 
 than the sundial. We give 
 some examples of these 
 attractive details of garden 
 architecture. They are 
 sometimes attached to a 
 
 A SUNDIAL DATED l66o AT 
 PACKWOOD HOUSE 
 
 of various forms and shapes, 
 wall as at Marston Magna, 
 Somerset, where the dial bears the motto, " As shadowe so 
 man's life doth goe." A very picturesque dial is seen in the 
 manor-house garden of Sutton Courtenay. Sometimes we 
 have single figures supporting globes and spheres, and at 
 Compton End, Winchester, there is a cross-dial mounted 
 on a pedestal. The mottoes that sundials bear show much 
 
 197 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 varying taste. There is usually a pathetic note struck, 
 a memento morl sentiment. The following are some 
 examples : 
 
 Non numero horas nisi serenas. 
 
 Carpe Diem. 
 
 Suprema hcec multis forsan tibi. 
 
 Festinat suprema. 
 
 Nee momentum sine tinea. 
 
 AT SUTTON COURTENAY 
 
 AT COMPTON END 
 WINCHESTER 
 
 It will be seen from these examples and from the other 
 numerous mottoes inscribed on the mantelpieces, over the 
 entrance door, along the panelling, that the old squire was 
 very proud of his knowledge of Latin, and liked to adorn his 
 house with many apt and profitable inscriptions. He loved 
 his jokes, ingenious puns upon his name, as at Loseley House, 
 near Guildford, where the gentleman, named More, who 
 built the house made many rebus allusions to his name, 
 
 198 
 
 
GARDENS AND SURROUNDINGS 
 
 A^S 5HADOWE SO. M AN5. LIFE POTfl 
 
 representing a mulberry tree (moms] in one of his rooms, 
 and round this morus tardi moricus, morum cito moriturum. 
 
 Pieces of water form a pleasing adjunct to a garden. 
 Many manor-houses have preserved their moats, which add 
 beauty now, where in former days they gave security. The 
 illustration of Crowhurst (p. 27) shows this charming feature 
 of an old manor-house. Fishponds are nearly always found 
 in the grounds of an old house in order to provide fish for 
 Lent and for Friday's dinner. Coarse fish are not ap- 
 preciated by modern folk, and the 
 fishpond has lost its utility ; but 
 it remains a thing of beauty, and 
 when, as at Barkham Manor, 
 water-lilies have been made to 
 grow in it, and all kinds of lovely 
 plants adorn its banks, and when 
 rock-gardens are formed at its 
 head, and a rustic bridge is made 
 to cross it, it becomes a very 
 charming feature. In some of the 
 great gardens of mansions you find artificial canals, cascades 
 and fountains, as at Chatsworth, the work of Grelly the 
 French artist, but these schemes which entail a knowledge 
 of engineering are too ambitious for the ordinary country 
 squire. 
 
 The formal garden often boasted of some statuary. In the 
 pleasances of the great, during the prevalence of the Italian 
 style, large stone or plaster statues of Roman soldiers in 
 armour were frequently erected. At an earlier date, towards the 
 end of the eighteenth century, leaden figures became fashion- 
 able, a fashion that is being revived. Professor Lethaby 
 quotes Gray's letter, wherein the poet writes, " How charm- 
 ing it must be to walk in one's own garden, and sit on a 
 bench in the open air with a fountain and a leaden statue and 
 a rolling-stone and an arbour," and adds, "a statue that 
 
 199 
 
 A WALL DIAL AT THE 
 
 MANOR HOUSE, MARSTON 
 
 MAGNA, SOMERSET 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 would be tame in stone, or contemptible in marble, may well 
 be a charming decoration if only in lead, set in the vista of a 
 green walk against a dark yew hedge or broad-leafed fig, or 
 where the lilac waves its plumes above them, and the syringa 
 
 thrusts its flowers under their 
 arms and shakes its petals on the 
 pedestal." A charming descrip- 
 tion truly ! We give an illustra- 
 tion of a life-size figure of a 
 shepherd playing a flute which 
 appears in the garden of Canons 
 Ashby. London gardens had 
 many examples, and in our country 
 gardens we find there attractive 
 statues representing Father Time, 
 flower girls, Hercules, Pan, ne- 
 groes, Venus and " all heathen 
 goddesses so fair," Mars, besides 
 real heroes or illustrious person- 
 ages. Sad has been their fate. 
 They have been treated with great 
 disrespect by their owners, and 
 are getting very scarce. A very 
 pleasing example has been recently 
 introduced into the garden of 
 South Wraxall Manor. Some 
 others were recently sold at 
 Christie's and realized large sums. 
 
 The fortunate possessors of the once despised leaden statue 
 will begin to prize their treasures and not part with them 
 easily. 
 
 A feature of many an old house was the forecourt, of 
 which Canons Ashby furnishes us with an example. 
 In most instances it has disappeared. In large houses 
 there were two or three of these courts. You could not 
 
 AT CANONS ASHBY 
 
 200 
 
GARDENS AND SURROUNDINGS 
 
 drive in your coach up to the entrance door because a tire- 
 some forecourt guarded by gates and paved with stone 
 obliged you to get out of your coach and walk in the pouring 
 rain to the door. Our forefathers being practical people, saw 
 
 AT CANONS ASHBY 
 
 this inconvenience, and the forecourt was doomed ; but in 
 some old houses it still remains, as in the illustration of 
 Canons Ashby. 
 
 We have described the manor-house garden, but we have 
 not told of its wealth of flowers, its glorious roses of the 
 old-fashioned sorts Sweet Briar, Cabbage, York and Lan- 
 
 201 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 caster, Moss, old White Damask, the double white brother 
 of pretty pink Maiden's Blush. The weather-toned brick 
 walls look almost colourless by contrast with the rich crimson 
 flowers of the Pyrus Japonica. That border on each side the 
 central path of the walled garden with its fountain in 
 the centre is gay with Sweet Williams, irises, peonies, pinks, 
 carnations, wallflowers and Canterbury bells. It is a fair 
 and beautiful place this manor-house garden and its sun- 
 dial chants an endless song : 
 
 Amydst ye flowres 
 I tell ye houres. 
 Tyme wanes awaye 
 As flowers decaye. 
 Beyond the tombe 
 Fresh fflowrets bloome, 
 Soe men shall ryse 
 Above ye skyes. 
 
INDEX 
 
 NOTE. The use of black figures denotes that the page reference is to an illustration. 
 A reference in the text will usually be found near an illustration, even when it has not been 
 thought necessary to index it specifically. 
 
 BAY WINDOWS, 31, 50, 76, 132, 
 
 57> 89, 9i> iu> H3 
 BERKSHIRE, Appleton Manor- 
 house, 18 ; Charney Bassett, 
 22 ; Ockwells Manor, 173 ; 
 Steventon, 113 
 BESS OF HARDWICK, 130, 165 
 BOORDE, DR. ANDREW, Dyatary 
 
 of Helth, 32 
 BOOTHBY FAMILY, 18 
 BOOTHBY PAGNELL MANOR-HOUSE, 
 Norman, 18, 19; plan of, 31, 
 
 19 
 BOTT'S GREEN HOUSE, 8, 74, 7 ; 
 
 features of, 8 
 BRACKETS, 24, 68, 84; from Tong-, 
 
 69 
 BRADLEY HALL, 76, 77 
 
 BRERETON, URYAN, of Handforth 
 
 Hall, 78 
 BRICK CHIMNEYS from Norfolk, 
 
 117; from Warwickshire and 
 
 Worcestershire, 119. (See also 
 
 CHIMNEYS) 
 BRICK DETAILS from East Kent, 
 
 98-9 
 BRICK HOUSES, 86-102, 87-104 
 
 BRICKMAKING, 86 
 
 BRICKWORK, 36 ; in East Anglia, 
 
 go, 138 ; in Kent, 94 
 BRICKS AND MORTAR, 88 
 BRIDGNORTH, gable at, 136, 69 
 BROAD STREET, Kent, 83; dormer 
 
 at > I 3 I 5 gable at, 84 
 BROADWAY, lead-glazing-, 174, 
 
 ABEL, JOHN, architect of timber 
 
 buildings, 70 
 ADAM, THE BROTHERS, 36, 172, 
 
 187 
 ALDERMASTON MANOR, 14; newels 
 
 at, 158 
 
 ANGLE-POSTS, carved, 68 
 ANNE OF DENMARK, connection 
 
 with Inigo Jones, 34 
 APPLETON MANOR, Berks, 18 
 ARMORIAL BEARINGS, see COATS- 
 
 OF-ARMS 
 ATWORTH MANOR-HOUSE, 128; 
 
 porch, 129 
 AVENUES, 193 
 
 B 
 BACON, LORD, on Renaissance 
 
 rooms, 35 ; inveighs against 
 
 large windows, 130 
 BALLINGDON OLD HALL, 112, 
 
 111 ; bay windows at, 131 
 BARGE-BOARDS, 24, 69, 70, 134 ; 
 
 indicate age of building, 70, 
 
 136 
 BARKHAM MANOR, fish-pond at, 
 
 199 
 BARNHAM BROOM OLD HALL, 
 
 description of features, 92, 93 ; 
 
 entrance door, 128, 126 
 BARNINGHAM HALL, four-storeyed 
 
 porch at, 124 
 BARNS, mediaeval, 20 ; at Preston 
 
 Bermondsey, 21 
 BATT, HENRY, of Oakwell Hall, 
 
 52 
 
 203 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 BROCKHAMPTON HALL, see 
 LOWER BROCKHAMPTON 
 
 BRONTE, CHARLOTTE, association 
 with Oakwell Hall, 54 
 
 BROWNLOWE, LAURENCE, builder 
 of Hall i' th' Wood, 80 
 
 BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, Newport Pag- 
 nell, 18 ; Perm, 131, 104 
 
 BUILDINGS, harmony of, with 
 their surrounding's, 40 
 
 BUR (West Bower Farm), 46-8, 
 47 ; supposed birthplace of 
 Jane Seymour, 46 ; turrets 
 with old glass, 46-8 
 
 BURFORD, battlemented chim- 
 neys at, 117 
 
 BURLINGHAM ST. EDMUND, three- 
 
 storeyed porch at, 124 
 
 CALGARTH OLD HALL, mantelpiece 
 at, 151 
 
 " CANE STONE," 40 
 
 CANONS ASHBY, forecourt, 201 ; 
 gate-pier, 195 ; leaden statue, 
 200; pipe-head, 179, 178 
 
 "CAPABILITY" BROWN, 188 
 
 CARK HALL, Renaissance door- 
 way at, 67 ; Tudor gabled 
 house, 67, 43 
 
 CARTLEDGE HALL, 50-2, 52 ; ceil- 
 ing, 166-7 ; clock case, 164 ; 
 panelling, 161 
 
 CARVING, JACOBEAN, 163, 129. 
 (See also references to Mantel- 
 pieces, Panelling, and Porches) 
 
 " CAUSEY " OF STEVENTON, 114 
 
 CAVENDISH HOUSE, 109 ; plastered 
 timber, 112 
 
 CAVENDISH, SIR WILLIAM, of 
 Hardwick, 165 
 
 CEILINGS, 165-72, 166-71 ; method 
 of construction, 170; at Barn- 
 ham Broom, 92 ; Hall i' th' 
 Wood, 82 
 
 CHARNEY BASSET MANOR-HOUSE, 
 22 ; hall with wings, 22 
 
 CHASTLETON HOUSE, 30-1 ; plan 
 of, with garden, 191 ; circular 
 garden at, 193 
 
 CHESHIRE, Handforth Hall, 136, 
 
 79, 135 
 
 CHIMNEYPIECE, see MANTELPIECES 
 
 CHIMNEYS, 115-21, 116-21 ; fires 
 in, 8 ; at Bradley, 76 ; Cark, 67 ; 
 Preston, 22; Wilderhope, 56-8; 
 from the Cotswolds, 116-17, 
 1 18 ; Kentish houses, 97 ; War- 
 wickshire and Worcestershire, 
 119; St. Benedict's Priory, 
 Kent, 121 
 
 CHIMNEY SHAFTS, 116 
 
 CHIMNEY-STACKS, beautifying of, 
 1 17-20 ; decline of importance, 
 121 ; elaboration, 117-20; at 
 Harton Manor, 76 ; Nunupton 
 Court, 99 
 
 CHIPPING CAMPDEN, 14 ; old view 
 of, 15; chimneys at, 117, 118; 
 garden at, 197 
 
 CISTERNS, LEAD, 180 
 
 CLARENDON PALACE, 18; spiral 
 staircase at, 153 
 
 CLEEVE PRIOR, yews at, 196-7 
 
 CLOCK-CASE, at Cartledge, 164 
 
 COAT-OF-ARMS, on the chimney- 
 piece, 146, 149 ; on the fire- 
 back, 152 ; on glass, 173, 175 ; 
 on lead, 178; on the porch, 
 124, 122-4, M4 
 
 COMPTON END, sundial at, 197, 
 198 
 
 CONDOVER HALL, 58, 102 
 
 COOMBE SYDENHAM, Jacobean 
 porch, 125, 122 
 
 COTSWOLD STONE, 134 
 
 COTSWOLDS, architectural charac- 
 ter of the, 46; chimneys, 116, 
 118; dormers, 131 ; Whitting- 
 ton Court, 4, 5 
 
 COURT, quadrangular, rooms 
 arranged round, 30, 33 
 
 COW-HAIR, use of, in construction 
 of ceilings, 169-70 
 
 COXE, Judge, of Lower Lypiatt, 
 
 35 
 CRABBE, GEORGE, 90 
 
 CROMPTON, SAMUEL, at Hall i' th' 
 Wood, 80 
 
 204 
 
INDEX 
 
 CROWHURST PLACE, 26, 27 ; moat 
 
 at, 199 
 CROWN HOUSE, NEWPORT, 107 ; 
 
 external pargework at, 109 ; 
 
 shell porch at, 108 
 CROW-STEPPED GABLES, 88, 92, 
 
 94, 93. 132 
 
 CUPBOARD DOORS, 65-6, 164, 163 
 CUP-DOG, 153, 150 
 CURVED BRACES, 136, 69 ; at 
 
 Harton, 76, 75 
 CURVED GABLES, 94, 138, 97, 
 
 101, 103 
 
 D 
 
 DAUNT, JOHN, of Owlpen, 54 
 
 DE STANTON FAMILY, 48 
 
 DENHAM, SIR JOHN, 58 
 
 DERBYSHIRE, Eyam Hall, 195, 66 ; 
 Haddon Hall, 178; Melbourne 
 Hall, 159 ; Padley Hall, 20 ; 
 Stanton Old Hall, 117, 49, 
 
 143 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF OLD HOUSES, 8 
 DEVONSHIRE, West Down Manor- 
 house, 151; Potheridge House, 
 
 171 
 DINGLEY, JOHN, of Wolverton, 
 
 62 ; Sir John, 64 
 DININCKHOFF, BERNARD, artist in 
 
 glass, 175 
 
 " DINING PARLOUR," 33 
 DITCHEAT PRIORY, 28,^29; buttery 
 
 hatches and screen, 141 ; hinge, 
 
 182, 181 
 DOG-GATES, 52 
 DOOR, at Barnham Broom, 128, 
 
 126 ; Hall i' th' Wood, 82 
 DOOR-HEAD (stone), at Worm- 
 
 leighton, 124 
 DOORWAY (garden), at Winsley, 
 
 i95 196 
 
 DOORWAYS, see PORCHES 
 DORMERS, 131 ; at Broad Street, 
 
 83 ; Kirstead, 95 ; Nunupton, 
 
 102 ; Penn, 104 
 
 DORSET, Sandford Orcas, 51, 116 
 DOVECOTS, at Parham Old Hall, 
 
 90 ; Shipton Hall, 56 
 DRIPSTONES, 50, 58, 125 
 
 E-SHAPED HOUSE, 33, 62 
 
 EAST BARSHAM, 90 ; decorated 
 
 chimney-stack at, 118-20 
 EAST HENDRED, five manors of, 14 
 ELIZABETHAN HOUSE, the, 33 
 ELSING HALL, 106 ; chimney, 118 
 ESCOTE GREEN, chimney-stack at, 
 
 120, 119 
 
 ESSEX, Ballingdon Old Hall, 131, 
 11 1; Crown House, Newport, 
 no, 129, 107, 108; Falkbourn 
 Hall, 88 ; Loughton Hall, 153 ; 
 Saffron Walden, 112; Sandon 
 Manor-house, 18 ; Wyvenhoe, 
 112 
 
 EVESHAM, a barge-board from, 70 
 EYAM HALL, 66 ; history of, 67 ; 
 entrance gate at, 195, 194 
 
 FASCIA BOARD, 69 
 FINCHAMPSTEAD, two manors at, 
 
 J 4 
 FINIALS, 137-8; at Kingston, 
 
 I.O.W., 137; Merstone, 137; 
 
 Moor Hall, 137 ; Owlpen, 137 ; 
 
 Whittington, 138 
 FIRE-BACKS, 153, 151-2 
 FIRE-DOGS, 153, 150 
 FIRES IN CHIMNEYS, 8 
 FIREPLACES, 18; at South Wraxall, 
 
 60-2. (See MANTELPIECES) 
 FISH-PONDS, 199 
 
 FLEMINGS, THE, in Eastern Eng- 
 land, 70; re-introduction of 
 
 brick by, 86, 88 
 FLINT HOUSES, 104, 105 
 FLINT IN CHALK DISTRICTS, 104 
 FLINTWORK WITH BRICK OR 
 
 STONE, 104-6, 105 
 FORECOURTS, 200-1 ; at Canons 
 
 Ashby, 200, 201 ; Chastleton, 
 
 193 ; Wolverton, 62 
 FRANKS HOUSE, armorial glass 
 
 at, 175 
 
 G 
 
 GABLES, 70, 135-9, 132-7; crow- 
 stepped, 88,93,95, 132; curved, 
 
 205 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 94, 101, 103; in East Kent, 
 98-9 ; foreign influence on, 94, 
 138; seventeenth-century, 94; 
 at Bradley Hall, 77; Bridgnorth, 
 136, 69 ; Broad Street, 83 ; 
 Littlebourn, 94, 97-9 ; Sarre, 
 44 
 
 GALLERY, feature of Elizabethan 
 house, 33 ; at Oakwell Hall, 
 
 52 
 
 GALLERY, MINSTREL, 22 
 
 GARDENS, 188-202 ; cut yews at 
 Ovvlpen, 190 ; forecourts, 200, 
 201 ; gateways, 195, 192, 194 ; 
 pergolas in, 193 ; plan of, at 
 S. Catherine's Court, i ; at 
 Chastleton, 191 ; at Owlpen, 
 189; sundials, 197-9; terraces, 
 '95-7. 155 gateways, 195, 192, 
 194 ; gateway at Eyam, 194 
 
 GATEHOUSE, at Sandford Orcas, 
 
 50,51 
 GATEHOUSES, TIMBER, 24, 25 ; 
 
 Tudor, 51 
 GATE-PIERS, at Atworth, 128 ; 
 
 Canons Ashby, 195; Owlpen, 
 
 55 ; Packwood, 195 ; Studley, 
 
 38 ; Wooton Wawen, 127 
 GATES, 183-6 ; to gardens, 195 ; 
 
 at Lower Lypiatt, 35, 37; 
 
 Studley, 38 
 
 GATEWAY, see GATES, etc. 
 GLASS, heraldic, at Franks House, 
 
 *73, 175; leaded, 173 
 GLOUCESTERSHIRE, Campden 
 
 House, 14, 15 ; Lower Lypiatt, 
 
 37; Moor Hall, 138; Owlpen, 
 
 54, 55, 137, 162, 178, 182, 
 190 ; Sandywell, 184 J Wans- 
 well Court plan, 32 ; Warren 
 House, 168 ; Whittington 
 Court, 4, 58, 5, 118, 138, 142, 
 146-7, 156 
 
 GREAT CHALFIELD, ancient glass, 
 172-3; masks, 60; moat, 28; 
 plan, 31, 34 
 
 GREAT CHAMBER, THE, 158 
 GREAT LYTH, THE, 101-2, 103 
 GREAT SNORING, 90 ; chimney, 
 118 
 
 GREAT TANGLEY, Surrey, 26, 82 
 
 GRIMSHAW HALL, timber and 
 plaster house, 75, frontis- 
 piece 
 
 GROBY OLD HALL, 98, 100 ; his- 
 torical interest, 99 
 
 GUNPOWDER PLOT CONSPIRATORS, 
 72-4 
 
 GUTTERS, wiih lead parapets, at 
 Owlpen, 178 
 
 GWYN, NELL, association with 
 Crown House, Newport, no 
 
 H 
 
 H-SHAPED HOUSE, 33 
 
 HADDON HALL, pipe-heads at, 
 178 
 
 HALF-TIMBER, see under Timber 
 
 HALL, chief apartment of old 
 houses, 17, 24, 31 ; disuse 
 of, 33 ; at Charney Basset, 
 22 ; Lower Brockhampton, 22, 
 
 23 
 HALL i' TH' WOOD, 78-82, 80 ; 
 
 panelling, 163, 161 ; pipe-head, 
 
 179 ; staircase, 158, 155 
 HAMPSHIRE, Warbrook, Ever- 
 
 sley, 193 ; Warneford plan, 
 
 32 
 
 HANDFORTH HALL, 76-8, 79 ; 
 
 carving round door frame, 129 ; 
 
 gable of, 136, 135 
 HARDWICK, mantelpiece at, 150 
 HARRINGWORTH, chimney at, 
 
 116 
 
 HARTON MANOR-HOUSE, 76, 75 
 HARVINGTON HALL, newels at, 
 
 i5 8 > 154 
 
 HEASLEY MANOR, I.O.W. , chim- 
 ney-stack, 120 
 
 HENGRAVE MANOR, old glass at, 
 
 175 
 HERALDIC DECORATIONS, see 
 
 COAT-OF-ARMS 
 
 HEREFORDSHIRE, Lower Brock- 
 hampton, 23, 25, 134 ; Nun- 
 upton Court, 131, 1O1-2, 182; 
 timber houses in, 72 
 
 HIDCOTE, chimneys at, 117, 118 
 
 HINGES, 182, 181 
 
 206 
 
INDEX 
 
 HONFORDS OF HONFORD, 76-8 
 
 HORSHAM STONE, 134 
 
 HUDDINGTON COURT, Worcester- 
 shire, 72-4, 71 ; chimney-stack 
 at, 1 20, 119; window-bracket, 
 
 I 
 INTERIOR DETAILS, 145-175, 146- 
 
 175 
 
 INTERIORS, 141-5, 140-5 
 IRONSTONE, in Northamptonshire, 
 
 126 
 IRONWORK, 180-7, 181-6 ; de- 
 
 cline of, 187 ; fittings, 182, 186 ; 
 
 gates, 183-6 ; weathercocks, 
 
 1 86 
 
 J 
 
 JACOBEAN HOUSE, THE, 34 
 JONES, INIGO ; ceilings of, 170 ; 
 disuse of common hall in time 
 of, 26 ; Palladian adaptations 
 b y. 34-55 porches of, 129; 
 Raynham Hall by, 144, 140 
 JONES, JOHN, of Chastleton, 30 
 
 K 
 
 KENSWORTH MANOR, early Nor- 
 man house, 18 
 
 KENT, brick and flint work in, 
 94; Broad Street, 131, 83; 
 Franks House, 175 ; Little- 
 bourne, 97, 98-9 ; The Old 
 House, Sandwich, 169 ; Pens- 
 hurst, 154 ; St. Benedict's 
 Priory, 84, 41 ; Sarre, 94, 44, 
 98 ; Slurry Court, 96 
 
 KINGSTON MANOR, Isle of Wight, 
 64-6, 64 ; cupboard door at, 
 163 ; finial at, 137 ; kitchen at, 
 145 ; latch at, 181 
 
 KIRSTEAD OLD HALL, 92-4, 95; 
 dormers, 131 ; three-storeyed 
 porch, 124 
 
 KITCHENS, 18, 31 ; at Kingston, 
 
 6 5. 145 
 
 KNEELERS, 137-8, 135-6 
 KNILL COURT, timber house, 72 
 
 KNOCKERS, 181-2, 181 ; at Rus- 
 
 hall, 182, 181 ; Owlpen, 181 
 KNOLE, fine mantelpiece at, 147 
 KNOCK MANOR, 60, 61 
 
 LANCASHIRE, Cark Hall, 67, 43 ; 
 
 Hall i' th' Wood, 78-82, 80, 
 
 155, 161, 179 
 
 LANDSCAPE GARDENING, 188 
 LATCHES, 182, 181 
 LATHS, thickness of, in early 
 
 work, 169 
 
 LAWKLAND HALL, 8, 9 
 LE NOTRE, French gardener, 193 
 LEAD-GLAZING, 172-5 ; patterns 
 
 of 83, 173> 174 
 LEADED PAINTED GLASS, at 
 
 Franks House, 175 
 
 LEADWORK, 176-80, 177-80; cis- 
 terns, 180 ; gutters, 178; pipe- 
 heads, 178-9; pipes, 177 
 
 LEICESTERSHIRE, Groby Old Hall, 
 98, ico 
 
 LETHABY, PROFESSOR, on lead- 
 work, 199 ; on pargeting, 
 106-7 
 
 LINCOLNSHIRE, Boothby Pagnell, 
 
 3 1 . 19 
 LINENFOLD PATTERN, 126 ; history 
 
 of, 162-3 
 LITTLEBOURNE, 97 ; gables at, 
 
 94-6 ; brick details from, 98, 
 
 99 
 LITTLE WENHAM HALL, 86-8, 154, 
 
 87 
 LONG, Robert, of South Wraxall, 
 
 60 ; Sir Thomas Long, 60 
 LONGLEAT, 30 ; plaster-work at, 
 
 165 
 LORD OF THE MANOR, importance 
 
 of the, 12 
 LOSELEY PARK, MS. at, 130; 
 
 mantelpieces at, 147 
 LOUGHTON HALL, fireback at, 
 
 153, 151 
 LOWER BROCKHAMPTON HALL, 
 
 gable of, 136, 134; gatehouse 
 of, 24, 25 ; hall of, 22, 23 
 LOWER LYPIATT HOUSE, 35-6, 37 
 
 207 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 M 
 
 " MAGPIE " HOUSES, 78 
 
 MANOR, THE, definition of, 14 ; 
 division of, 14 ; plan of, 13 ; 
 story of, 1 1-14 
 
 MANOR-HOUSE, THE, barns of, 
 18-19; details of exterior, 
 IJ 5-39; interior, 141-75; evo- 
 lution of, 17-39 J fourteenth- 
 century, 24 ; fifteenth-century, 
 description of typical, 24-5 ; 
 Jacobean, 34; Norman, 17-18 ; 
 quadrangular form of early, 18; 
 "Queen Anne, "36; Saxon, 17; 
 situation of, 14 ; Tudor, 28-34 
 
 MANTELPIECES, 145-53, 140, 
 146-9 ; at Hall i' th' Wood, 82 ; 
 Huddington Court, 74 
 
 MARSTON MAGNA, sundial at, 197, 
 199 
 
 MASKS, CURIOUS, at Great Chal- 
 field, 60 
 
 MATERIALS OF CONSTRUCTION, 
 40-5. (See also under separate 
 names, as Stone, Brick, Tim- 
 ber, etc.) 
 
 MELBOURNE HALL, eighteenth- 
 century staircase, 160, 159 
 
 MERSTONE, kneeler at, 135 
 
 METAL-WORK, 153, 176-87, 150-1, 
 177-86 
 
 MEUX FAMILY, 65 
 
 MINSTREL GALLERY, 22 
 
 MOATS, at Boothby Pagnell, 18 ; 
 Crowhurst, 199, 27 ; Great 
 Chalfield, 28 ; Huddington 
 Court, 71 ; Lower Brockhamp- 
 ton, 24 ; Parham, 91 ; Ram 
 Hall, 66 ; Wolverton, 62 
 
 MOOR HALL, finial at, 137 
 
 MORETON PINKNEY, kneeler at, 137 
 
 MOTTOES on mantelpieces, 151 ; 
 on sundials, 198, 202 
 
 MOULDING, lapel, at Kingston, 65 
 
 MOULDINGS, brick and plaster, 92 
 
 MULLIONED WINDOWS, 130; at 
 Broad Street, Kent, 83 ; Kir- 
 stead Old Hall, 95; Oakwell 
 Hall, 53 ; Ram Hall, 65 ; Ship- 
 ton Hall, 57 
 
 N 
 
 NEWELS, of stone (central), 153-6; 
 of wood, 156-8, 154-9 
 
 NONSUCH PALACE, plaster-work 
 at, 165 
 
 NORFOLK, brickwork in, 86, 90, 
 138; brick porches in, 124; 
 Barnham Broom, 93, 126 ; El- 
 sing Hall, 106, 118; Kir- 
 stead Old Hall, 92, 124, 131, 
 95 ; Raynham Hall, 144, 170, 
 140 
 
 NORMAN HOUSES, 17-18, 19 
 
 NORREYS, SIR JOHN, of Ockwells 
 Manor, 173 
 
 NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, Sulgrave, 
 125 ; Canons Ashby, 179, 195, 
 
 200, 201 
 
 NUNUPTON COURT, decayed con- 
 dition of, 99; chimney -stack- 
 at, 99 ; gables at, 99 ; timber 
 porch at, 99, 101, 1O2 ; dormers 
 at, 131 ; elaborate hinge at, 
 182, 181 
 
 O 
 OAK, see general references under 
 
 Timber and Wood 
 OAKWELL HALL, Birstall, 52-4, 
 
 53 
 OCKWELLS MANOR, windows at, 
 
 173 
 
 OLD SHOYSWELL, tile-hung, half- 
 timbered house, 84-6, 85 
 
 ORIEL WINDOWS, frontispiece, 
 4 l, 83; at Solihull, 75, 73; in 
 gateway at South Wraxall, 60 
 
 OWLPEN MANOR, 54, 55 ; gable 
 at 137 5 garden, plan of, 189 ; 
 gate to garden, 195, 182 ; 
 knocker, 181 ; lead gutter, 178 ; 
 yews, 190 
 
 OXFORDSHIRE, Coggs Manor- 
 house, 22 ; Cottisford, 22 ; 
 Broughton Castle, 164 
 
 PACKWOOD HOUSE, clipped yews 
 at > T 97 > garden gateway and 
 steps, 192 ; gates, 183, 192 ; 
 
 208 
 
INDEX 
 
 latch, 181 ; pipe-head, 179 ; 
 sundial, 197 ; vane, 185 
 
 PADLEY HALL, 20 
 
 PANELLING, 160-5, 157> 161-4, 
 166 
 
 PARGETING (Parge- work), ex- 
 terior plaster, 106-14, 107-13 
 
 PARHAM OLD HALL, 90-2, 91 
 
 PARTERRES, 193, 191 
 
 PAYNELL FAMILY, 18 
 
 PENN MANOR-HOUSE, 102, 104 ; 
 dormers at, 131 
 
 PERGOLAS, 193 
 
 PIPE-HEADS, 177-9, 1?7~9 > arms 
 or initials on, 178 
 
 PITCHFORD HALL, half-timber 
 house, 75, 102 
 
 PLASTERED BRICK, 92, 95 
 
 PLASTER MANTELS, 151-2, 149 
 
 PLASTER-WORK, 106-12, 151-2, 
 165-72 
 
 PORCHES, 121-9, 122-7; foreign 
 influence on, 126-7; at Barn- 
 ham Broom, 93 ; Bradley 
 Hall, 77 ; Kirstead, 95 ; Nun- 
 upton, 102 ; Stockton, 105 ; 
 Shell Porches, 129, 127 ; at 
 Crown House, Newport, 
 108 
 
 POTHERIDGE HOUSE, DEVON, 
 
 ceiling- at, 170, 171 
 PRESTON BERMONDSEY (or Pluck- 
 
 nett), 20, 21 ; barn, 22 ; 
 
 octagonal chimney, 22 
 PRIESTS' HOLES, 76 
 PUMPS (lead), 180 
 
 Q 
 
 QUEEN ANNE " 
 37> 104 
 
 R 
 
 HOUSES, 35-6, 
 
 PIPE- 
 
 RAINWATER-HEADS, Si 
 
 HEADS, 176-80 
 RAM HALL, 66, 65 ; moat and barn 
 
 at, 66 
 RAYNHAM HALL, ceiling at, 170; 
 
 Renaissance interior at, 144, 
 
 140 
 
 ROOFS, 132-5 ; construction of, 
 133 ; covered with stone slabs, 
 50, 134, 49, 51 ; with tiles, 133 ; 
 hipped, 133-4, 104 ; signs of 
 period, 133 
 
 RUSHALL HALL, door-knocker at, 
 182, 181 
 
 RUSKIN, 4-6 
 
 SAFFRON WALDEN, plaster-work 
 
 on house at, 112 
 ST. BENEDICT'S PRIORY, Kent, 
 
 84, 41 ; chimney-stack at, 121 
 ST. CATHERINE'S COURT', 2 ; ter- 
 race gardens at, 195, 197 
 "ST. MARY'S," BRAMBER, 82-4, 
 
 81 ; window grille at, 186 
 SANDFORD ORCAS MANOR-HOUSE, 
 
 50; Tudor gatehouse at, 51; 
 
 chimney-stacks at, 117, n 
 SANDON MANOR-HOUSE, 18 
 SANDWICH, ceiling of The Old 
 
 House, 170, 169 
 SANDYWELL, gates at, 186, 184 
 SARRE, brick and flint gable at, 
 
 94, 44 ; brick details from, 98 
 SAXON HOUSES, 17 
 " SCREENS," the, 26 
 SHELDON HALL, mantel at, 148 ; 
 
 newels, 154 ; panelling, 162 J 
 
 staircase, 157 
 SHELL PORCH, the, 129 ; at Crown 
 
 House, Newport, no, 108; 
 
 Wooton Wawen, 129, 127 
 SHIPTON HALL, Shropshire, 56, 
 
 57 ; bay windows at, 131 
 SHOYSWELL FAMILY, 85-6 
 
 ,, HOUSE, see OLD 
 
 SHOYSWELL 
 SHROPSHIRE, timber houses of, 
 
 75-6 ; variety of materials, 102 ; 
 
 bracket at Tong, 69 ; Condover 
 
 Hall, 58, 102 ; Great Lyth, 76, 
 
 103; Harton Manor-house, 75; 
 
 Pitchford Hall, 75, 102 ; Shipton 
 
 Hall, 131, 57; Wilderhope 
 
 Manor, 59 ; Wyle Cop, 75 
 " SKUTCHENS," 175 
 SMALLMAN FAMILY, 56 
 
 209 
 
THE MANOR-HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 
 SMITHCRAFT, decay and revival of, 
 
 183-4 
 SOLARS, 18 ; fireplaces first in, 
 
 "5 
 SOLIHULL MANOR-HOUSE, 74-5, 
 
 73 
 
 SOMERSET, Coombe Sydenham, 
 
 122 ; Marston Magna, 199 ; 
 Preston Bermondsey, 21 ; St. 
 Catherine's Court, 195-7, 2 ; 
 West Bower Farm, 47 
 
 SOUTH WRAXALL MANOR, 60 ; 
 mantelpiece, 150 
 
 SPARROW'S HOUSE, Ipswich, 
 plaster-work at, 112 
 
 SPENCER FAMILY, 89 
 
 SQUIRE, mediaeval house of a, 24, 
 26 
 
 STAFFORDSHIRE, Bradley Hall, 77 ; 
 Rushall Hall, 181 
 
 STAIRCASES, 153-60, 154-9 > 
 carving of, 158; construction 
 of, 156-60 ; eighteenth - cen- 
 tury, 160, 159 ; Jacobean, 158, 
 157; mediaeval circular, 153-4; 
 newels of, 153-8 ; steps of, 160 
 
 STANTON OLD HALL, 48, 49 ; 
 plain interior of, 144, 143 
 
 STATUES, leaden, 200 
 
 STEVENTON, half-timbered build- 
 ings at, 112; plaster house at, 
 
 "4, 113 
 
 STOCKTON MANOR, stone and 
 flint house, 106, 105 
 
 STONE HOUSES, 46-67 ; districts 
 famous for, 46 
 
 STONE-SLAB ROOFING, in Derby- 
 shire, 50, 51 ; in Sussex, 134 
 
 STUDLEY MANOR-HOUSE, 36, 38 ; 
 iron gates at, 186, 38 
 
 STURRY COURT, 94, 96 
 
 SUFFOLK, Cavendish Manor, 109 ; 
 Little Wenham Hall, 86-8, 
 J 54> 87; Parham Old Hall, 
 90, 92, 91 ; Sparrow's House, 
 Ipswich, 112 
 
 SULGRAVE, porch with sundial, 
 125 
 
 SUNDIALS, 197-8, 202, 197-9 > 
 mottoes on, 197-8, 202; variety 
 
 of form of, 197 ; at Hall i' th' 
 Wood, 80 ; over door at Sul- 
 grave, 125 
 
 SUSSEX, Old Shoyswell, 84, 85 ; 
 St. Mary's, Bramber, 82, 8l, 
 186 ; Shrub Place, 42 ; Warn- 
 ham Court, 150 
 
 SUTTON COURTENAY, three man- 
 ors, 14 ; sundial at, 197, 198 
 
 T 
 
 TEMPLE, SIR WILLIAM, 3 
 
 TERRACES, 195, 2 
 
 THORPE, JOHN, architect, 34, 156 
 
 Tijou, JEAN, master of smith- 
 craft, 183, 186 
 
 TILE-HANGING, on walls, 84, 133, 
 85 ; patterns of, 133 
 
 TILE-ROOFING, 133-4 
 
 TIMBER GABLES, 70, 135-6, 69, 
 
 135 
 
 TIMBER HOUSES, 68-86, 25-7, 
 71-83 I in the forest districts, 
 68 ; in Herefordshire, 72 ; in 
 Shropshire, 75 ; signs of period 
 of, 68-70 
 
 TOPIARY ART, 196 
 
 TUDOR HOUSES, 28-34, 5 49> 5* 5 
 building of, 30 ; porch im- 
 portant feature of, 124 
 
 VANES, 186 ; at Packwood, 185 
 
 W 
 
 WALLS, flint, with brick or stone, 
 
 104-5 5 tiled 8 4> J 33 
 WANSWELL COURT, 31 ; plan of, 
 
 32 
 
 WARNEFORD MANOR-HOUSE, 31 ; 
 
 plan of, 32 
 WARNHAM COURT, fire-dogs and 
 
 toasting-fork at, 153, 150 
 WARREN HOUSE, Stanton, ceiling 
 
 at, 170, 168 
 WARREN, smith, 35, 36 
 WARWICKSHIRE, Bott's Green 
 
 House, 8, 74,7; Grimshaw Hall, 
 
 75, frontispiece ; Packwood 
 
 210 
 
INDEX 
 
 House, 179, 181, 183, 185, 192, 
 197 ; Ram Hall, 65 ; Sheldon 
 Hall, 148, 154-7, 162 ; Soli- 
 hull, 73 ; Studley, 36, 186, 38 ; 
 Wormleighton Manor, 89, 123 
 
 WATTLE AND DAUB, use of, for 
 Saxon houses, 68 
 
 WEST BOWER MANOR, now Farm, 
 see BUR 
 
 WEST DOWN MANOR, plaster 
 mantels, 151 
 
 WESTMORLAND, Calgarth Old 
 Hall, 151 
 
 WESTWOOD PARK, Worcester- 
 shire, 170 
 
 WHITTINGTON COURT, 4, 5 ; his- 
 tory of, 58-9; chimneys, 118; 
 entrance hall, 142 ; finial, 138 ; 
 mantelpieces, 146-7 ; newels, 
 
 156 
 
 WILDERHOPE MANOR, 56-8, 59 
 WILLIAMS, CHARLES, artist in 
 
 plaster, 165 
 WILTSHIRE, Atworth Manor, 128; 
 
 Great Chalfield, 28, 60, 172, 
 
 34 ; Knook, 61 ; Longford 
 
 Castle, 106 ; Longleat, 165 ; 
 
 South Wraxall, 60, 147, 196; 
 
 Stockton Manor, 105 
 WINDOW - BRACKETS, 131 ; at 
 
 Huddington, 131 
 WINDOW -FASTENERS, 1 86; in a 
 
 Guildford house, 187 
 WINDOW-FRAMES, 132, 122, 132 
 WINDOW-GRILLE, at "St. Mary's," 
 
 Bramber, 186 
 
 WINDOWS, 129-32, 132 ; bay, 131 ; 
 frontispiece, 5, 41, 47, 91, 109, 
 ill, 113; dormer, 131, 83, 
 104 ; in Cotswolds, 130-1 ; in 
 East Anglia, 131, 132 J oriel, 
 131 ; frontispiece, 41. (See also 
 MULLIONED WINDOWS) 
 
 WINSIEY, doorway in garden 
 wall, 195, 196 
 
 WOLVERTON MANOR, 62-4, 63 ; 
 kneeler at, 136 ; porch of, 
 
 i 2 5 
 WOOTON WAWEN, shell porch at, 
 
 129, 127 
 
 WORCESTERSHIRE, Harvington 
 Hall, 154 ; Huddington Court, 
 1 20, 131, 72, 119; West wood 
 Park, 170 
 
 WORMLEIGHTON MANOR, 89, 125, 
 
 89, 123-4 ; clock-tower, 123 ; 
 
 door-head, 124 ; porch, 123 
 WREN, SIR CHRISTOPHER, 35 ; 
 
 chimneys of, 121 ; plaster-work 
 
 in time of, 170-1 ; porches of, 
 
 129 
 
 WRIGHT FAMILY, 67 
 WRIGHT, ROBERT, artist in glass, 
 
 175 
 
 YEWS, CLIPPED, 196-7, 190 
 YORKSHIRE, Cartledge Hall, 50, 
 144, 52, 161, 164, 166-7 5 Lawk- 
 land Hall, 8, 9 ; Oakwell Hall, 
 
 53 
 
 WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD. 
 PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH 
 
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