We now have to consider cottages erected of different materials and
constructed in a totally different manner to those which we have
hitherto described, and this variety in methods of building naturally
leads to a distinct treatment of details and decoration.
[Illustration: AT HUNDRED ELMS, NEAR HARROW.]
We find all along the Kentish sea-coast houses and cottages, the
chief materials entering into the construction of which are flint,
sometimes cut so as to form the surface of their walls, and sometimes
left irregular in shape, and the wall surfaces chiefly formed by the
mortar in which the stones are embedded. This is called flint rubble.
Where the flint is cut to a surface the angles, doorways, and window
openings are constructed of stone or brick, and these are the portions
of the building which receive ornamentation and give the character
to the design, but where the flint is uncut and used as rubble, not
unfrequently the whole surface is covered with a coating of plaster
which is adorned in various ways, sometimes by simply drawing over it a
toothed implement like a saw, sometimes by stamping or “pargeting,” and
occasionally by mixing the plaster with coloured materials of several
shades and arranging them in patterns.
This last method is somewhat akin to what the Italians call
“sgraffito.” I do not think that genuine sgraffito was ever executed in
England, but that in some parts of this country they obtained a very
similar effect by other means. In genuine sgraffito a layer of dark
coloured plaster is placed over the wall, and when that is dry a layer
of white or lighter coloured plaster is spread over it while wet: this
second coating is scraped away in places so as to form a pattern or
design over the darker material.
The ornamentation of which we give a sketch from Calais-Court, near
Dover, appears to have been done by coloured plasters placed side by
side, not one over the other. We are not, however, quite sure about
this, as the lower portions of the work have either been destroyed or
never executed, so that it is difficult to examine it closely. The two
wheel patterns are very curious and are probably inspired by the wheel
windows of ancient churches. One of them is not unlike the east window
of Barfreston church a few miles away. This kind of imitation of wheel
windows is not uncommon in old decoration. The church of Chastleton in
Oxfordshire has a floor of encaustic tiling entirely composed of this
ornamentation. It is difficult to ascribe any exact date to this work
at Calais-Court; it is probably not earlier than the sixteenth century.
The house or cottage has been so much pulled about and altered, at
later periods, that it is impossible to say whether it forms a portion
of a larger structure or was always of its present humble proportions.
The first example we give is from a farm called “Hundred Elms,”
between Harrow and Sudbury. It is now used as a stable with a loft
over it. I think it was originally a dwelling-house, though as the
whole of the interior has been dismantled and altered, its purpose
cannot be distinctly traced; its great peculiarity is that everything
is constructed of brick, the window-mullions and tracery being very
neatly cut out of that material and put together with no little skill.
It is thought that the Archbishops of Canterbury, in early times, had
a residence at Hundred Elms (in the fourteenth century), and that
afterwards they removed to Headstone, where there still exists a moated
grange, now a farm-house.
[Illustration: AT CALAIS-COURT, KENT.]
The Rev. W. Done Bushell in the “Harrow Octocentenary Tracts” has
entered into all the arguments connected with the question, and they
are very interesting, but too long to quote here, nor would they help
us in ascertaining the history or purpose of this interesting little
building, as the Archbishops must have left Hundred Elms farm some two
centuries before it was built, as it is evidently a sixteenth century
work.
Brickwork in England, it should be observed, is rarely found in
houses before the commencement of the sixteenth century. Although
brick-making was never quite abandoned, yet it was very little used
during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. The only
important brick church erected during this period is Holy Trinity
at Hull, which is of fine red brick. The thirteenth century walls of
Yarmouth show dressings of white brick, used like stone, and brick
vaulting constructed exactly after the manner of stone is to be seen in
the ground floor of the Bishop’s Palace and the Chapter House of the
Blackfriars monastery at Norwich. At the commencement of the sixteenth
century brick was probably regarded as a luxury and was more expensive
than stone. This explains the fact that the palaces and great mansions
of the nobles are erected of this material in all districts where it
could be procured. In the second quarter of the century, it became
the practice to build all the better class of houses of brick in the
eastern and home counties of England, though not so in the north or
west where fine building stone was much more easily procurable. It
is, however, very remarkable that even in the eastern counties, where
beautiful brick was to hand, we scarcely ever find this material used
for churches. There was evidently an idea prevalent in the minds of
our forefathers that churches should be built of stone, and houses of
brick, and this prejudice, to a great extent, prevails to the present
day, and is very curious because it does not pertain in any other
country in Europe. I think nearly all girls and women dislike brick
churches, yet why they should do so it is difficult to understand. We
should like some of our clever girls to tell us.
(_To be continued._)
HIS GREAT REWARD.