[1] See paper by Messrs Flower and Murie in _Journ. Comp. Anat. and
Physiology_ (1867); and Fritsch, _Die Eingebornen Sud-Afrikas_
(Breslau, 1873).
[2] An interesting notice of this form of worship occurs in the
journal of an expedition which the Dutch governor, Ryk van Tulbagh,
sent to the Great Namaqua in 1752, which reached as far as the Kamob
or Lion river (about 27 deg. S. lat.).
[3] On the religion and antiquities see Theophilus Hahn's papers,
"Graves of the Heitsi-Eibib," in _Cape Monthly Magazine_ (1879). and
"Der hottentottische Zai-goab und der griechische Zeus," in
_Zeitschr. fur Geogr._ (Berlin, 1870).
HOTTINGER, JOHANN HEINRICH (1620-1667), Swiss philologist and
theologian, was born at Zurich on the 10th of March 1620. He studied at
Geneva, Groningen and Leiden, and after visiting France and England was
in 1642 appointed professor of church history in his native town. The
chair of Hebrew at the Carolinum was added in 1643, and in 1653 he was
appointed professor ordinarius of logic, rhetoric and theology. He
gained such a reputation as an Oriental scholar that the elector
palatine in 1655 appointed him professor of Oriental languages and
biblical criticism at Heidelberg. In 1661, however, he returned to
Zurich, where in 1662 he was chosen principal of the university. In 1667
he accepted an invitation to succeed Johann Hoornbeck (1617-1666) as
professor in the university of Leiden, but he was drowned with three of
his children by the upsetting of a boat while crossing the river Limmat.
His chief works are _Historia ecclesiastica Nov. Test._ (1651-1667);
_Thesaurus philologicus seu clavis scripturae_ (1649; 3rd ed. 1698);
_Etymologicon orientale, sive lexicon harmonicum heptaglotton_ (1661).
He also wrote a Hebrew and an Aramaic grammar.
His son, JOHANN JAKOB HOTTINGER (1652-1735), who became professor of
theology at Zurich in 1698, was the author of a work against Roman
Catholicism, _Helvetische Kirchengeschichte_ (4 vols., 1698-1729); and
his grandson, JOHANN HEINRICH HOTTINGER (1681-1750), who in 1721 was
appointed professor of theology at Heidelberg, wrote a work on
dogmatics, _Typus doctrinae christianae_ (1714).
HOUBRAKEN, JACOBUS (1698-1780), Dutch engraver, was born at Dort, on the
25th of December 1698. All that his father, Arnold Houbraken
(1660-1719), bequeathed to him was a fine constitution and a pure love
for work. In 1707 he came to reside at Amsterdam, where for years he had
to struggle incessantly against difficulties. He commenced the art of
engraving by studying the works of Cornelis Cort, Suyderhoef, Edelinck
and the Visschers. He devoted himself almost entirely to portraiture.
Among his best works are scenes from the comedy of _De Ontdekte
Schijndeugd_, executed in his eightieth year, after Cornelis Troost, who
was called by his countrymen the Dutch Hogarth. He died on the 14th of
November 1780.
See A. Ver Hull, _Jacobus Houbraken et son oeuvre_ (Arnhem, 1875),
where 120 engraved works are fully described.
HOUDENC (or HOUDAN), RAOUL DE, 12th-century French trouvere, takes his
name from his native place, generally identified with Houdain (Artois),
though there are twelve places bearing the name in one or other of its
numerous variants. It has been suggested that he was a monk, but from
the scattered hints in his writings it seems more probable that he
followed the trade of jongleur and recited his chansons, with small
success apparently, in the houses of the great. He was well acquainted
with Paris, and probably spent a great part of his life there. His
undoubted works are: _Le Songe d'enfer_, _La Voie de paradis_, _Le Roman
des eles_ (pr. by A. Scheler in _Trouveres belges_, New Series, 1897)
and the romance of _Meraugis de Portlesguez_, edited by M. Michelant
(1869) and by Dr M. Friedwagner (Halle, 1897). Houdenc was an imitator
of Chretien de Troyes; and Huon de Meri, in his _Tournoi de
l'antechrist_ (1226) praises him with Chretien in words that seem to
imply that both were dead. _Meraugis de Portlesguez_, the hero of which
perhaps derives his name from Lesguez, the port of Saint Brieuc in
Brittany, is a _roman d'aventures_ loosely attached to the Arthurian
cycle.
See Gaston Paris in _Hist. litt. de la France_, xxx. 220-237; W.
Zingerle, _Uber Raoul de Houdenc und seine Werke_ (Erlangen, 1880);
and O. Boerner, _Raoul de Houdenc. Eine stilistische Untersuchung_
(1885).
HOUDETOT, a French noble family, taking its name from the lordship of
Houdetot, between Arques and St Valery. Louis de Houdetot went with
Robert, duke of Normandy, to Palestine in 1034, and the various branches
of the family trace descent from Richard I. de Houdetot (fl. 1229), who
married Marie de Montfort. Charles Louis de Houdetot received a
marquisate in 1722, and on his son Claude Constance Cesar,
lieutenant-general in the French army, was conferred the hereditary
title of count in 1753. His wife (see below) was the Madame de Houdetot
of Rousseau's _Confessions_. Their son Cesar Louis Marie Francois Ange,
comte de Houdetot (1749-1825), was governor of Martinique (1803-1809)
and lieutenant-general (1814) under the Empire. His son Frederic
Christophe, comte de Houdetot (1778-1859), was director-general of
indirect imposts in Prussia after Jena, and prefect of Brussels in 1813.
He acquiesced in the Restoration, but had to resign from the service
after the Hundred Days. He became a peer of France in 1819, and under
the Second Empire he was returned by the department of Calvados to the
Corps Legislatif. His half-brother, Charles Ile-de-France, comte de
Houdetot (1789-1866), was wounded at Trafalgar and transferred to the
army, in which he served through the Napoleonic wars. He retired at the
Restoration, but returned to the service in 1823, and in 1826 became
aide-de-camp to the duke of Orleans, becoming lieutenant-general in
1842. He sat in the Chamber of Deputies from 1837 to 1848, when he
followed Louis Philippe into exile. A third brother, Cesar Francois
Adolphe, comte de Houdetot (1799-1869), was a well-known writer on
military and other subjects.
HOUDETOT, ELISABETH FRANCOISE SOPHIE DE LA LIVE DE BELLEGARDE, COMTESSE
DE (1730-1813), was born in 1730. She married the comte de Houdetot (see
above) in 1748. In 1753 she formed with the marquis de Saint Lambert
(q.v.) a connexion which lasted till his death. Mme de Houdetot has been
made famous by the chapter in Rousseau's _Confessions_ in which he
describes his unreciprocated passion for her. When questioned on the
subject she replied that he had much exaggerated. A view differing
considerably from Rousseau's is to be found in the _Memoires_ of Mme
d'Epinay, Mme de Houdetot's sister-in-law.
For a discussion of her relations with Rousseau see
Saint-Marc-Girardin in the _Revue des deux mondes_ (September 1853).
HOUDON, JEAN ANTOINE (1740-1828), French sculptor, was born at
Versailles on the 18th of March 1740. At the age of twelve he entered
the Ecole royale de Sculpture, and at twenty, having learnt all that he
could from Michel Ange Slodtz and Pigalle, he carried off the prix de
Rome and left France for Italy, where he spent the next ten years of his
life. His brilliant talent, which seems to have been formed by the
influence of that world of statues with which Louis XIV. peopled the
gardens of Versailles rather than by the lessons of his masters,
delighted Pope Clement XIV., who, on seeing the St Bruno executed by
Houdon for the church of St Maria degli Angeli, said "he would speak,
were it not that the rules of his order impose silence." In Italy Houdon
had lived in the presence of that second Renaissance with which the name
of Winckelmann is associated, and the direct and simple treatment of the
Morpheus which he sent to the Salon of 1771 bore witness to its
influence. This work procured him his "agregation" to the Academy of
Painting and Sculpture, of which he was made a full member in 1775.
Between these dates Houdon had not been idle; busts of Catharine II.,
Diderot and Prince Galitzin were remarked at the Salon of 1773, and at
that of 1775 he produced, not only his Morpheus in marble, but busts of
Turgot, Gluck (in which the marks of small-pox in the face were
reproduced with striking effect) and Sophie Arnould as Iphigeneia (now
in the Wallace Collection, London), together with his well-known marble
relief, "Grive suspendue par les pattes." He took also an active part in
the teaching of the academy, and executed for the instruction of his
pupils the celebrated Ecorche still in use. To every Salon Houdon was a
chief contributor; most of the leading men of the day were his sitters;
his busts of d'Alembert, Prince Henry of Prussia, Gerbier, Buffon (for
Catharine of Russia) and Mirabeau are remarkable portraits; and in 1778,
when the news of Rousseau's death reached him, Houdon started at once
for Ermenonville, and there took a cast of the dead man's face, from
which he produced the grand and life-like head now in the Louvre. In
1779 his bust of Moliere, at the Theatre Francais, won universal praise,
and the celebrated draped statue of Voltaire, in the vestibule of the
same theatre, was exhibited at the Salon of 1781, to which Houdon also
sent a statue of Marshal de Tourville, commissioned by the king, and the
Diana executed for Catharine II. This work was refused; the jury alleged
that a statue of Diana demanded drapery; without drapery, they said, the
goddess became a "suivante de Venus," and not even the proud and frank
chastity of the attitude and expression could save the Diana of Houdon
(a bronze reproduction of which is in the Louvre) from insult. Three
years later he went to America, there to carry out a statue of
Washington. With Franklin, whose bust he had recently executed, Houdon
left France in 1785, and, staying some time with Washington at Mount
Vernon, he modelled the bust, with which he decided to go back to Paris,
there to complete the statue destined for the capitol of the State of
Virginia. After his return to his native country Houdon executed for the
king of Prussia, as a companion to a statue of Summer, La Frileuse, a
naif embodiment of shivering cold, which is one of his best as well as
one of his best-known works. The Revolution interrupted the busy flow of
commissions, and Houdon took up a half-forgotten project for a statue of
St Scholastica. He was immediately denounced to the convention, and his
life was only saved by his instant and ingenious adaptation of St
Scholastica into an embodiment of Philosophy. Under Napoleon, of whom in
1806 he made a nude statue now at Dijon, Houdon received little
employment; he was, however, commissioned to execute the colossal
reliefs intended for the decoration of the column of the "Grand Army" at
Boulogne (which ultimately found a different destination); he also
produced a statue of Cicero for the senate, and various busts, amongst
which may be cited those of Marshal Ney, of Josephine and of Napoleon
himself, by whom Houdon was rewarded with the legion of honour. He died
at Paris on the 16th of July 1828.
See memoir by Emile Delerot and Arsene Legrelle in _Memoires de la
societe des sciences morales ... de Seine-et-Oise_, iv. 49 et seq.
(1857); Anatole de Montaiglon and Georges Duplessis in _Revue
universelle des arts_, i. and ii. (1855-1856); Hermann Dierks,
_Houdons Leben und Werke_ (Gotha, 1887); Albert Terrade, _Autour de la
statue de Jean Houdon_ (Versailles, 1892); P. E. Mangeant, _Sur une
statuette de Voltaire par J. Houdon_ (Paris, 1896).
HOUFFALIZE, a small town occupying an elevated position (nearly 1100
ft.) in the extreme south-east of the province of Luxemburg, Belgium,
much visited during the summer on account of its fine bracing air. There
are the ruins of an old castle, and some remains of the still older
abbey of Val Ste Catherine. The parish church dates from the 13th or
14th century. It contains two old black marble tombs to Thierry of
Houffalize and Henri his son, the latter killed at Woeringen in 1288.
Houffalize is on the eastern Ourthe, and is connected by a steam tramway
with Bourcy on the line from Libramont to Bastogne, Spa and Liege. Pop.
(1904) 1486.
HOUGHTON, RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES, 1ST BARON (1809-1885), English poet
and man of letters, son of Robert Pemberton Milnes, of Fryston Hall,
Yorkshire, and the Hon. Henrietta Monckton, daughter of the fourth Lord
Galway, was born in London on the 19th of June 1809. He was educated
privately, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827. There he
was at once drawn into a literary set, and became a member of the famous
"Apostles" Club, which then included Tennyson, Hallam, Trench, J. W.
Blakesley, afterwards dean of Lincoln, and others. After taking his
degree, Milnes travelled abroad, spending some time at Bonn University.
Thence he went to Italy and Greece, and published in 1834 a volume of
_Memorials of a Tour in some Parts of Greece_, describing his
experiences. He returned to London in 1837, and was in that year elected
to Parliament as member for Pontefract. His parliamentary career was
marked by much strenuous activity. He interested himself particularly in
the question of copyright and the conditions of reformatory schools. He
left Peel's party over the Corn Law controversy, and was afterwards
identified in politics with Palmerston, at whose instance he was made a
peer in 1863. His literary career was industrious and cultured, without
being exceptionally distinguished. Church matters had always a claim
upon him: he wrote a striking tract in 1841, which was praised by
Newman; and took part in the discussion about "Essays and Reviews,"
defending the tractarian position in _One Tract More_ (1841). He
published two volumes of verse in 1838, _Memorials of Residence upon the
Continent and Poems of Many Years_, _Poetry for the People in 1840_ and
_Palm Leaves_ in 1844. He also wrote a _Life and Letters of Keats_ in
1848, the material for which was largely provided by the poet's friend,
Charles Armitage Brown. Milnes also contributed largely to the reviews.
His poetry is meditative and delicate; some of his ballads were among
the most popular of their day, and all his work was marked by
refinement. But his chief distinctions were his keen sense of literary
merit in others, and the judgment and magnanimity with which he fostered
it. He was surrounded by the most brilliant men of his time, many of
whom he had been the first to acclaim. His chief title to remembrance
rests on the part he played, as a man of influence in society and in
moulding public opinion on literary matters, in connexion with his large
circle of talented friends. He secured a pension for Tennyson, helped to
make Emerson known in Great Britain, and was one of the earliest
champions of Swinburne. He helped David Gray and wrote a preface for
_The Luggie_. He was, in the old sense of the word, a patron of letters,
and one who never abused the privileges of his position. Milnes married
in 1851 the Hon. Annabel Crewe (d. 1874). He died at Vichy on the 11th
of August 1885, and was buried at Fryston. His son, the second Baron
Houghton, was created Earl of Crewe (q.v.) in 1895.
See _The Life, Letters and Friendships of Richard Monckton Milnes,
first Lord Houghton_ (1890), by Sir T. Wemyss Reid.
HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING, an urban district in the Houghton-le-Spring
parliamentary division of Durham, England, 6 m. N.E. of the city of
Durham. Pop. (1901) 7858. It is well situated at the head of a small
valley branching from that of the Wear. St Michael's church is a
cruciform Early English and Decorated building, with a picturesque
embattled rectory adjoining. Bernard Gilpin, "the Apostle of the North,"
was rector of this parish from 1556 to 1583, and the founder of the
grammar school. The principal public buildings are a town hall, market
house and church institute. Houghton Hall is a fine mansion of the late
16th century. In the orchard stands a tomb, that of the puritan Sir
Robert Hutton (d. 1680), of whom a curious tradition states that he
desired burial beside his war-horse, the body of which was denied
interment in consecrated ground. The main road from Durham to Sunderland
here passes through a remarkable cutting in the limestone 80 ft. deep.
The district affords frequent evidence of ice activity in the glacial
period. The town is the centre of a large system of electric tramways.
The population is mainly dependent on the neighbouring collieries, but
limestone quarrying is carried on to some extent.
HOUND, a dog, now used, except in poetry, only of dogs of the chase, and
particularly of the breed used in hunting the fox, the "hound" _par
excellence_. Other breeds have a defining word prefixed, e.g.
boar-hound, stag-hound, &c. (see DOG). The O. Eng. _hund_ is the common
Teutonic name for the animal, cf. Du. _hond_, Ger. _Hund_, &c., and is
cognate with Sansk. _cvan_, Gr. [Greek: kyon], Lat. _canis_, Ir. and
Gael. _cu_.
HOUNSLOW, a town in the Brentford parliamentary division of Middlesex,
England, 12(1/2) m. W. by S. of St Paul's Cathedral, London, on the
District and London & South Western railways. Pop. (1901) 11,377. It has
grown into an extensive residential suburb of London. Its situation at
the junction of two great roads from the west of England made it an
important coaching station, and some 500 coaches formerly passed through
it daily. A priory of friars of the Holy Trinity was founded at Hounslow
in 1296, and existed till the dissolution of the monasteries. The priory
chapel was used as a church till 1830, after which its place was taken
by the existing church of the Holy Trinity (1835). Hounslow Heath, west
of the town, had, according to the survey of 1546, an area of 4293
acres. It was the site of Roman and British camps, and in the wars of
the 17th century was the scene of several important military rendezvous.
It was a favourite resort of highwaymen, whose bodies were exposed on
gibbets along the road. In 1784 the base-line of the first
trigonometrical survey in England was laid down on the heath. In 1793
large cavalry barracks were erected upon it, and it is also the site of
extensive powder mills. It began to be enclosed towards the end of the
reign of George III. In Osterley Park, N.E. of Hounslow, Sir Thomas
Gresham built a mansion in 1577, and this was rebuilt with great
magnificence by Francis and Robert Child c. 1770. Hounslow is divided
between the parishes of Heston and Isleworth. Pop. of urban district of
Heston and Isleworth (1901) 30,863.
HOUR, the twenty-fourth part of a civil day, the twelfth part of a
natural day or night, a space of time of sixty minutes' duration. The
word is derived through the O. Fr. _ure_, _ore_, _houre_, mod. _heure_,
from Lat. _hora_, Gr. [Greek: hora], season, time of day, hour (see
CALENDAR).
HOUR ANGLE, the angular distance of a heavenly body from the meridian,
as measured around the celestial pole. It is equal to the angle at the
pole between the hour circle through the body and the meridian, but is
usually expressed in time.
HOUR-GLASS, a device for measuring intervals of time, also known as
sand-glass, and as log-glass when used in conjunction with the common
log for ascertaining the speed of a ship. It consists of two pear-shaped
bulbs of glass, united at their apices and having a minute passage
formed between them. A quantity of sand (or occasionally of mercury) is
enclosed in the bulbs, and the size of the passage is so proportioned
that this sand will completely run through from one bulb to another in
the time it is desired to measure--e.g. an hour or a minute. Instruments
of this kind, which have no great pretensions to accuracy, were formerly
common in churches. In the English House of Commons, as a preliminary to
a division, a two-minute sand-glass is still turned, and while the sand
is running the "division bells" are set in motion in every part of the
building, to give members notice that a division is at hand.
HOURI, the term for a beautiful virgin who awaits the devout Mahommedan
in Paradise. The word is the French representative of the Pers. _huri_,
Arab, _hawra'_, a black-eyed virgin, from _hawira_, to be black-eyed,
like a gazelle.
HOURS, CANONICAL, certain portions of the day set apart by rule (canon)
of the church for prayer and devotion. The Jewish custom of praying
three times a day, i.e. at the third, sixth and ninth hours, was
perpetuated in the early Christian Church (Acts ii. 15, iii. 1, x. 9),
and to these were added midnight (when Paul and Silas sang in prison),
and the beginning of day and of night. Ambrose, Augustine and Hilary
commended the example of the psalmist who gave praise "seven times a
day" (Ps. cxix. 164). The seventh (Compline, _Completorium_) was added
by Benedict. These hours were adopted especially in the monasteries as a
part of the canonical life, and spread thence to the cathedral and
collegiate chapters.
Since the 6th century the number and order of the hours have been fixed
thus: matins, lauds, prime, terce, sext, none, vespers, compline.
_Matins_ theoretically belongs to midnight, but in Italy it is said
about 7 or 8 A.M. and in France often on the preceding evening in
accordance with the statement "evening and morning were one day." At
matins is said the _Venite_ (Ps. xcv.) and a hymn, followed by a
_Nocturna_ or night-watch (on Sundays three) which consists of twelve
psalms. After the _nocturna_ comes a lesson divided into three parts,
one biblical and two patristic, and finally the _Te Deum_.
_Lauds_ is proper to sunrise, but is mostly grouped with matins. It
consists of four psalms, a canticle, psalms 148-150, a hymn, the
Benedictus (Luke i. 68-79) and prayers.
_Prime_ (6 A.M.), _Terce_ (9 A.M.), _Sext_ (noon) and _None_ (3 P.M.)
are called the Little Day Hours, are often said together, and are alike
in character, consisting of a hymn and some sections of Ps. cxix.,
followed by a prayer. On Sundays the Athanasian Creed is said at prime.
_Vespers_ or _Evensong_ consists of five varying psalms, a hymn, the
_Magnificat_ (Luke i. 46-55) and prayers. It belongs theoretically to
sunset.
_Compline_, technically 9 P.M., but usually combined with vespers, is a
prayer for protection during the darkness. It consists of the general
confession, four fixed psalms, a hymn, the _Nunc dimittis_ (Luke ii.
29-32), prayers and a Commemoration of the Virgin.
The term "canonical hours" is also used of the time during which
English marriages may be solemnized without special licence, i.e.
between 8 A.M. and 3 P.M.
HOUSE (O. Eng. _hus_, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut.
_huis_, Ger. _Haus_; in Gothic it is only found in _gudhus_, a temple;
it may be ultimately connected with the root of "hide," conceal), the
dwelling-place of a human being (treated, from the architectural point
of view, below), or, in a transferred sense, of an animal, particularly
of one whose abode, like that of the beaver, is built by the animal
itself, or, like that of the snail, resembles in some fancied way a
human dwelling. Apart from the numerous compound uses of the word,
denoting the purpose for which a building is employed, such as
custom-house, lighthouse, bakehouse, greenhouse and the like, there may
be mentioned the particular applications to a chamber of a legislative
body, the Houses of Parliament, House of Representatives, &c.; to the
upper and lower assemblies of convocation; and to the colleges at a
university; the heads of these foundations, known particularly as
master, principal, president, provost, rector, &c., are collectively
called heads of houses. At English public schools a "house" is the usual
unit of the organization. In the "houses" the boys sleep, have their
"studies" and their meals, if the school is arranged on the
"boarding-house" system. The houses have their representative teams in
the school games, but have no place in the educational class-system of
the school. It may be noticed that in Scotland the words "house" and
"tenement" are used in a way distinct from the English use, "tenement"
being applied to the large block containing "houses," portions, i.e.,
occupied by separate families. "The House" is the name colloquially
given to such different institutions as the London Stock Exchange, the
House of Commons or Lords and to a workhouse.
In the transferred sense, "house" is used of a family, genealogically
considered, and of the audience at a public meeting or entertainment,
especially of a theatre. A "house-physician" and "house-surgeon" is a
member of the resident medical staff of a hospital. In astrology the
twelve divisions into which the heavens are divided, and through which
the planets pass, are known as houses, the first being called the "house
of life." The word "house," "housing," used of the trappings of a horse,
especially of a covering for the back and flanks, attached to the
saddle, is of quite distinct origin. In medieval Latin it appears as
_hucia_, _houssia_ and _housia_ (see Ducange, _Glossarium_, s.v.
_housia_), and comes into English from the O. Fr. _huche_, modern
_housse_. It has been supposed to have been adopted, at the time of the
crusades, from the Arabic _yushiah_, a covering.
Architecturally considered, the term "house" is given to a building
erected for habitation, in contradistinction to one built for secular or
ecclesiastical purposes. The term extends, therefore, to a dwelling of
any size, from a single-room building to one containing as many rooms as
a palace; thus in London some of the largest dwellings are those
inhabited by royalty, such as Marlborough House, or others by men of
rank, such as Devonshire House, Bridgewater House, Spencer House, &c.;
and even those which, formerly built as habitations, have subsequently
been devoted to other purposes, such as Somerset House and Burlington
House, retain the term. In Paris the larger houses thus named would be
called _hotel_.
So far as the history of domestic architecture is concerned, the
earliest houses of which remains have been found are those of the
village of Kahun in Egypt, which were built for the workmen employed in
the building of the pyramid at Illahun, and deserted on its completion.
They varied in size from the habitations of the chief inspectors to the
single room of the ordinary labourer, and were built in unburnt brick
with open courts in the larger examples, to give light and air to the
rooms round. The models found in 1907 at Deir-Rifa opposite Assiut in
Upper Egypt, by Flinders Petrie, and assumed by him to be those of
"soul-houses," suggest that the early type of building consisted of a
hut, to which later a porch or lean-to, with two poles in front, has
been added; subsequently, columns replaced the poles, and a flat roof
with parapet, suggesting the primitive forms of the Egyptian temple.
The only remains of early houses found in Mesopotamia are those within
the precincts of the Temple of Bel, at Nippur, occupied by the king; but
beyond the fact that the walls were built in unburnt brick and were
sometimes of great thickness, nothing is known.
The houses in Crete would seem to have been small in area, but this was
compensated for in height, as the small plaques found in the palace at
Cnossus show houses in two or three storeys, with gable roofs and
windows subdivided by mullions and transomes, corresponding with those
of the 15th to 17th centuries in England. The stone staircase in the
palace rising through two storeys shows that even at this early period
the houses in towns had floors superposed one above the other; to a
certain extent the same extension existed in the later Greek houses
found in Delos, in two of which there was clear evidence of wooden
staircases leading within to the roof or to an upper storey. The largest
series hitherto discovered is that at Priene in Asia Minor, where the
remains of some thirty examples were found, varying in dimensions, but
all based on the same plan; this consisted of an entrance passage
leading to an open court, on the north side of which, and therefore
facing south, was an open portico, corresponding to the _prostas_ in
Vitruvius (vi. 7), and in the rear two large rooms, one of which might
be the oecus or sitting-room, and the other the thalamos or chief
bedroom. Other rooms round the court were the triclinium, or dining
room, and cubicula or bedchambers. The largest of these houses occupied
an area measuring 75 X 30 ft. Those found in Delos, though fewer in
number, are of much greater importance, the house in the street of the
theatre having twelve rooms exclusive of the entrance passage and the
great central court, surrounded on all four sides by a peristyle; in
this house the oecus measured 26 X 18 ft. In a second example the
prostas consisted of a long gallery, the whole width of the site, which
was lighted by windows at each end, the sills of which were raised 8 ft.
or 9 ft. from the floor.
[Illustration: PLATE II.
_Photo, Neurdein._
FIG. 4.--MUSICIAN'S HOUSE, REIMS.
_Photo, F. Frith & Co._
FIG. 5.--JEW'S HOUSE, LINCOLN.
_Photo, Neurdein._
FIG. 6.--HOTEL DE CLUNY, PARIS.]
[Illustration: PLATE II.
_Photo, Neurdein._
FIG. 7.--HOTEL DE JACQUES COEUR, BOURGES, FACADE.
Fig. 8.--HALF-TIMBERED HOUSE AT HILDESHEIM.
_Photo. F. Frith & Co._
FIG. 9.--HOUSE OF JOHN HARVARD'S MOTHER, STRATFORD-ON-AVON.]
The remains of the houses found in the Peiraeus are of the same simple
plan as those at Priene, and suggest that the Greek house was considered
to be the private residence only for the members of the family, and
without any provision for entertaining guests as in Rome and Pompeii.
From the descriptions given by Vitruvius (ii. 8) it may be gathered that
in his time many of the houses in Rome were built in unburnt brick, the
walls of which, if properly protected at the top with a course of burnt
brick projecting over the face of the brickwork, and coated inside and
outside with stucco, were considered to be more lasting than those built
in soft stone. Vitruvius refers also to Greek houses thus built, and
states that in the house of Mausolus, at Halicarnassus, the walls were
of unburnt brick, and the plastering with which they were covered was
so polished that they sparkled like glass. In Rome, however, he points
out, such walls ought to be forbidden, as they are not fit to carry an
upper storey, unless they are of great thickness, and as upper storeys
become necessary in a crowded city such walls would occupy too much
space. The houses in Pompeii (q.v.) were built in rubble masonry with
clay mortar, and their walls were protected at the top by burnt brick
courses and their faces with stucco; they were, however, of a second- or
third-rate class compared with those in Rome, the magnificence of which
is attested in the descriptions given by various writers and
substantiated by the remains occasionally found in excavations.
Vitruvius refers to upper storeys, which were necessary in consequence
of the limited area in Rome, and representations in mosaic floors and in
bas-relief sculpture have been found on which two or three storeys are
indicated. The plans of many Roman houses are shown on the _Marble
Plan_, and they resemble those of Pompeii, but it is probable that the
principal reception rooms were on an upper storey, long since destroyed.
The house of Livia on the Palatine Hill was in two storeys, and the
decoration was of a much finer character than those of Pompeii; this
house and the House of the Vestals might be taken as representative of
the Roman house in Rome itself. In those built in colder climates, as in
England and Germany, account has to be taken of the special provision
required for warming the rooms by hypocausts, of which numerous examples
have been found, with rich mosaic floors over them.
Of the houses in succeeding centuries, those found in the cities of
central Syria, described in the article ARCHITECTURE, are wonderfully
perfect, in consequence of their desertion at the time of the Mahommedan
invasion in the 7th century. Very little is known of the houses in
Europe during the dark ages, owing to the fact that they were generally
built in wood, with thatched roofs. The only examples in stone which
have been preserved are those in the island of Skellig Michael, Kerry,
which were constructed like the beehive tombs at Mycenae with stone
courses overlapping inside until they closed in at the top. These houses
or cells were rectangular inside and round or oval outside, with a small
low door at one end, and an opening above to let the smoke out.
The houses, even in large towns like London, were built mainly in wood,
in some cases down to the 17th century; in the country, the smaller
houses were constructed with trunks of trees in pairs, one end of the
trunk being sunk in the ground, the other bent over and secured by a
ridge piece, thus forming a pointed arch, the opening of which was about
11 ft. The pairs were fixed 16 ft. apart, and the space included
constituted a bay, any requisite increase in the size of the house being
made by doubling or trebling the bays. The roofs were thatched with
straw on battens, and sometimes with a collar beam carrying a floor,
which constituted an upper storey. The end walls were closed with wooden
studs and wattle-and-daub filling. The pairs of trees were known as
forks or crucks. Vitruvius (ii. 1) suggests a similar kind of building
in ancient times, except that the interlaced twigs were covered with
clay, so as to carry off the rain. In Yorkshire there was another type
of house, known as a coit, which was a dwelling-house and barn (shippon)
united; the latter contained the cow-stalls with loft above, and the
former was in two storeys, with a ladder inside the room leading to the
upper floor.[1]
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Houses at Cluny.]
Passing now to structures of a less ephemeral character, the earliest
houses of which there still remain substantial relics are those built in
stone (see MANOR HOUSE). The Jew's House at Lincoln, 12th century, is
one of the best-known examples, and still preserves its street front in
stone, with rich entrance doorway and first-floor windows lighting the
principal room, which seems invariably in those early houses to have
been on the first floor, the ground floor being used for service and
stores (see Plate I. fig. 5). To the 13th century belongs the old
Rectory House at West Dean, Sussex, and to the 14th century the
Parsonage House at Market Deeping, Lincolnshire. The principal examples
of the domestic architecture of this early period in the country are
castles, manor houses and farm buildings, as town houses occupied sites
too valuable to be left untouched; this, however, is not the case in
France, and particularly in the south, where streets of early houses are
still to be found in good preservation, such as those at Cluny (fig. 1)
and Cordes (Tarn), and others at Montferrand, Cahors, Figeac, Angers,
Provins, Sarlat (fig. 2), St Emilion, Perigueux, Soissons and Beauvais,
dating from the 12th to the 14th centuries. One of the most remarkable
examples is the Musician's House at Reims (see Plate I., fig. 4), with
large windows on the first floor, between which are niches with
life-size figures of musicians seated in them. Generally speaking, the
ground storeys of these houses, which in many cases were occupied by
shops, have been transformed, but occasionally the old shop fronts
remain, as in Dinan, Morlaix and other old towns in Brittany. Houses of
the first Renaissance of great beauty exist in Orleans, such as the
house of Agnes Sorel; and the example in the Market Place illustrated in
fig. 3; in Tours, Tristan's house in brick with stone quoins and
dressings to windows; in Rouen, Caen, Bayeux, Toulouse, Dijon and, in
fact, in almost every town throughout France. Of houses of large
dimensions, which in France are termed _hotels_, there are also many
other fine examples, the best known of which are the hotel de Jacques
Coeur (see Plate II., fig. 7), at Bourges, and the hotel de Cluny at
Paris (see Plate I., fig. 6). In the 15th and 16th centuries in France,
owing to the value of the sites in towns, the houses rose to many
storeys, the upper of which were built in half-timber, sometimes
projecting on corbels and richly carved; of these numerous examples
exist at Rouen, Beauvais, Bayeux and other towns in Normandy and
Brittany. Of such structures in English towns (see Plate II. fig. 9)
there are still preserved some examples in York, Southampton, Chester,
Shrewsbury, Stratford-on-Avon, and many smaller towns; the greatest
development in half-timber houses in England is that which is found more
particularly throughout Kent, Sussex and Surrey, in houses of modest
dimensions, generally consisting of ground and first floor only, with
sometimes additional rooms in the roof; in these the upper storey
invariably projects in front of the lower, giving increased dimensions
to the rooms in the former, but adopted in order to protect the walls of
the ground storey from rain, which in the upper storey was effected by
the projecting eaves of the roof. In the north and west of England,
where stone could be obtained at less cost than brick, and in the east
of England, where brick, often imported from the Low Countries, was
largely employed, the ordinary houses were built in those materials,
and in consequence of their excellent construction many houses of the
16th and 17th centuries have remained in good preservation down to the
present day; they are found in the Cotswolds generally, and (among small
towns) at Broadway in Worcestershire and (of brick) throughout Essex and
Suffolk. Among the larger half-timber houses built in the 15th and 16th
centuries, mention may be made of Bramhall Hall, near Manchester; Speke
Hall, near Liverpool (see Plate III., fig. 10); The Oaks; West Bromwich;
and Moreton Old Hall, Cheshire, one of the most elaborate of the series
(see Plate III., fig. 11).
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--House at Sarlat.]
On the borders of the Rhine, as at Bacharach and Rhense, and throughout
Germany, hall-timber houses of the most picturesque character are found
in every town, large and small, those of Hildesheim (see Plate II., fig.
8) dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, and in some cases rising to
a great height with four or five storeys, not including those in the
lofty roofs. Houses in stone from the 12th to the 16th century are found
in Cologne, Metz, Trier, Hanover and Munster in Westphalia, where again
there are whole streets remaining; and in brick at Rostock, Stralsund,
Lubeck, Greifswald and Dantzig, forming a very remarkable series of 15th
and 16th-century work.
Of half-timber work in Italy there are no examples, but sometimes (as at
Bologna) the rooms of the upper floors are carried on arcades, and
sometimes on corbels, as the casa dei Carracci in the same town. The
principal feature of the Italian house is the courtyard in the rear,
with arcades on one or more sides, the front in stone or brick, or both
combined, being of the greatest simplicity (examples in San Gimignano
and Pisa). At Viterbo are small houses in stone, two of which have
external stone staircases of fine design, and the few windows on the
ground floor suggest that the rooms there were used only for stores.
Houses with external staircases, but without any architectural
pretensions, are found throughout the Balkan provinces.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Detail of house at Orleans.]
The introduction of the purer Italian style into England in the 17th
century created a great change in domestic architecture. Instead of the
projecting wings and otherwise picturesque contour of the earlier work
the houses were made square or rectangular on plan, in two or three
storeys, crowned with a modillion cornice carrying a roof of red tiles;
the only embellishments of the main front were the projecting courses of
stone on the quoins and architraves round the windows, and flat
pilasters carrying a hood or pediment flanking the entrance doorway. In
the larger mansions more thought was bestowed on the introduction of
porticoes (scarcely necessary in the English climate), with sometimes
great flights of steps up to the principal floor, which was raised above
a basement with cold and dark passages; a great saloon in the centre of
the block, lighted from above, took the place of the great entrance hall
of the Tudor period, and the rooms frequently led one out of the other,
without an independent entrance door. On the other hand, in the ordinary
houses, the deficiency in external ornament was amply made up for by the
comfort in the interior and the decoration of the staircase and other
rooms. Towards the close of the century the square mullioned and
transomed windows, with opening casements, gave way to sash windows,
introduced from Holland, and these with moulded and stout sash-bars gave
a certain character to the outside of the houses, which are valued now
for their quiet unpretentious character and excellent construction. In
the closes of many English cathedrals, on the outskirts of London, and
in some of the older squares, as Lincoln's Inn Fields and Queen Square,
are examples of this style of house. The substitution of thin sash-bars
in the 19th century, and their omission occasionally, in favour of
plate-glass, deprived the house-front of one of its chief attractions;
but the old English casements and oriels or bow-windows have been again
introduced, and a return has been made to the style which prevailed in
the beginning of the 18th century, commonly known as that of Queen Anne.
[Illustration: PLATE III.
_Photo, Frith & Co._
FIG. 10.--SPEKE HALL, NEAR LIVERPOOL.
_Photo, F. Frith & Co._
FIG. 11.--MORETON OLD HALL, NEAR CONGLETON, CHESHIRE.]
[Illustration: PLATE IV.
From Garner and Stratton, _Domestic Architecture of England during the
Tudor Period_, 1910. By permission of B. T. Batsford.