[Illustration]
This picturesque specimen of olden architecture stands upon the Norton
Lees estate, on the northern verge of Derbyshire upon the adjacent
county of York; about a mile from Sheffield, and eight miles north of
Chesterfield, and but a short distance from Bolsover Castle, pictured
in No. 566 of _The Mirror_. "The estate, in the reign of Henry VII.,
was the property of the family of the Blythes of Norton, two of whom
arrived at great honours in the church; one of them, John, being the
Bishop of Salisbury, and the other, Geoffrey, Bishop of Lichfield and
Coventry."[1] The above was the mansion of the family: its
picturesqueness is of pleasing character; and our inquiry into the
probable age of the structure has naturally enough led us into a few
observations upon the early domestic architecture of this country. The
subject is, however, too rife with interesting details for the present
occasion; so that all we now purpose is by way of reference to the
specimen or illustration before us.
[1] Rhodes's Peak Scenery, Part IV.
The house at Norton Lees has been supposed by some persons to be as
old as the reign of Richard II.; but Mr. Rhodes observes, "that it was
erected many years after this period can hardly be doubted." Certain
features of resemblance assist its appearance of antiquity, as the
wooden framework, which is observable in the oldest specimens of
house-building in this country. According to Strutt, the Saxons
usually built their houses of clay, kept together by wooden frames;
shortly after the Norman Conquest plaster was intermixed with timber,
and subsequently the basement story was made of stone. The upper
apartments were so constructed as to project over the lower, and
considerable ornament both in carved wood and plaster was introduced
about the doors and windows and roof of the building. Nevertheless,
timber, with lath and plaster, and thatch for the roofs, constituted
the chief materials in the dwellings of the English from an early
period till near the close of the fourteenth century and beginning of
the fifteenth, when bricks began to be used in the better sort of
houses.[2] The mansion before us, as we have seen, is referred to the
first-mentioned period. Mr. Rhodes, however, observes, "though
composed of stone and wood, it is evident not one of the earliest
structures of this description: it is indeed highly probable that it
was built in the reign of the Seventh or Eighth Henry, but certainly
not sooner. At this period the halls or family mansions of the
yeomanry of the country had nearly all the same general character.
Previously, but little stone was used in any of them."[3]; It is true
that stone houses are mentioned nearly three centuries and a half
before the date of the hall at Norton Lees, as settled by Mr. Rhodes;
as we find them belonging to citizens of London in the reign of Henry
II.; "and," observes Mr. Hallam, "though not often perhaps regularly
hewn stones, yet those scattered over the soil, or dug from flint
quarries, bound together with a very strong and durable cement, were
employed in the construction of manorial houses, especially in the
western counties and other parts where that material is easily
procured. Harrison says, that few of the houses of the commonalty,
except here and there in the west country towns, were made of stone.
This was about 1570. Gradually, even in timber buildings, the
intervals of the main beams were occupied by stone walls, or where
stone was expensive, by mortar or plaster, intersected by horizontal
or diagonal beams, grooved into the principal piers. This mode of
building continued for a long time, and is familiar to our eyes in the
older streets of the metropolis, and in many parts of the country."[4]
Harrison, just quoted, says, "the ancient manours and houses of our
gentlemen are yet and for the most part of strong timber, in framing
whereof our carpenters have been and are worthily preferred before
those of like science among all other nations. Howbeit, such as are
lately builded are either of brick or hard stone, or of both."
[2] Britton's Architect. Antiq. ii. 86.
[3] Rhodes's Peak Scenery, Part iv. p. 4.--One of the oldest
of these structures at present in the kingdom, is Moreton
Hall in Cheshire, which, though a highly-ornamented
building, is entirely composed of wood, and was erected at
a time before stone was generally used even for the lower
apartments. The earliest date about this ancient remain is
1559.
[4] Hist. Middle Ages, vol. iii., p. 420.
The "Hall" before us may but ill accord with the present idea of one
of these ancient residences; but, to explain away this error, it may
be necessary to show in what respects the earliest "halls" (of which
but few specimens are extant,) differed from those which remain in
considerable numbers, to this day. A passage to this point will be
found in Mr. Hallam's valuable work. "It is," observes this able
historical writer, "an error to suppose that the English gentry were
lodged in stately or even in well-sized houses. Generally speaking,
their dwellings were almost as inferior to those of their descendants
in capacity as they were in convenience. The usual arrangement
consisted of an entrance-passage running through the house, with a
hall on one side, a parlour beyond, and one or two chambers above, and
on the opposite side, a kitchen, pantry, and other offices."[5] Such
was the ordinary manor-house of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
as appears not only from the documents and engravings, but as to the
latter period from the buildings themselves, sometimes, though not
very frequently, occupied by families of consideration, more often
converted into farm-houses, or distinct tenements. Larger structures
were erected by men of great estates, during the reigns of Henry VI.
and Edward IV.; but very few can be traced higher; and such has been
the effect of time, still more through the advance or decline of
families, and the progress of architectural improvement, than the
natural decay of these buildings, that I should conceive it difficult
to name a house in England, still inhabited by a gentleman, and not
belonging to the order of castles, the principal apartments of which
are older than the reign of Henry VII. The instances at least must be
extremely few. Single rooms, windows, doorways, &c. of an earlier
date, may perhaps not unfrequently be found; but such instances are
always to be verified by their intrinsic evidence, not by the
tradition of the place.[6]
[5] Hist. of Whalley. In Strutt's view of Manners, we have an
inventory of furniture in the house of Mr. Richard Fermor,
ancestor of the Earl of Pomfret, at Easton in
Northamptonshire, and another in that of Sir Adrian
Foskewe. Both these houses appear to have been of the
dimensions and arrangement mentioned. And even in houses
of a more ample extent, the bi-section of the ground-plot
by an entrance-passage, was, I believe, universal, and is
a proof of antiquity. Haddon Hall and Penshurst still
display this ancient arrangement, which has been altered
in some old houses. About the reign of James I., or,
perhaps, a little sooner, architects began to perceive the
additional grandeur of entering the great hall at once.
This apartment subsequently gave its name to the whole
house.--See an interesting paper on Old English Halls,
_Mirror_, vol. xviii. p. 92-108.
[6] Hist. Middle Ages, vol. iii., p. 423.--The most remarkable
fragment of early building which I have any where found
mentioned is at a house in Berkshire, called Appleton,
where there exists a sort of prodigy, an entrance-passage
with circular arches in the Saxon style, which must
probably be as old as the reign of Henry II. No other
private house in England can, I presume, boast of such a
monument of antiquity.
It need scarcely be remarked, in conclusion, that the Hall at Norton
Lees, as it appears to the reader, conveys but an imperfect idea of
the ancient structure. The walls of the lower story entirely of stone,
and the upper, stone and plaster intersected by wood, are original, as
is probably the enriched gable, with the pinnacled ornament at its
apex; beneath was originally a small bay window, which has been
stopped up: the other gable, it is reasonable to conclude, once
possessed similar enrichments. The chimneys are modern, since they are
neither pyramidal in their terminations, as was the fashion of the
14th and 15th centuries, nor have they the long polygonal shafts of
the Elizabethan and subsequent periods, which has caused chimneys to
be characteristically termed "the wind-pipes of hospitality." The
"Hall" would likewise appear to be divided into two tenements, which
but ill assorts with its original appropriation; though we are not to
consider these deviations as affecting the architectural character or
identity.
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