There are, alas! but few now remaining of the timber buildings of the
sixteenth century that are either so important in size or so
well-preserved as this beautiful old Lancashire house.
They were built at a time when the country had settled down into a
peaceable state; when houses need no longer be walled and loopholed
against the probable raids of enemies; when their windows might be of
ample size and might look abroad without fear. Many of them, however,
were still moated, for a moat was of use not only for defence but as a
convenient fish-pond, and as a bar to the depredations of wolves, foxes
and rabbits.
The advance of civilisation also brought with it a greater desire for
home comforts, and the genius of the country, unspoilt, unfettered,
undiluted by that mass of half-digested knowledge of many styles that
has led astray so many of the builders of modern days, by a natural
instinct cast these dwellings into forms that we now seek out and study
in the effort to regain our lost innocence, and that in many cases we
are glad to adopt anew as models of what is most desirable for comfort
and for the happy enjoyment of our homes.
Still, in these days we cannot build such houses anew without a
suspicion of strain or affectation. When they were reared, oak was the
building material most readily to be obtained, and carpenters’ work,
already well developed in the construction of roofs, now given free
scope in outer walls as well, seemed to revel in the new liberty, and
oak-framed houses grew up into beautiful form and ornament in such a way
as has never been surpassed in this country.
[Illustration: SPEKE HALL