THE MANOR-HOUSE
Evolution of a country house--Saxon house--Addition of separate
sleeping-chambers--Castles--Tudor houses--Old manor-houses--Secret
chambers--Rectories and vicarages--Duty of hospitality--Kelvedon
Rectory--Allington--Tithe-barns--Alfriston clergy-house--Almshouses--
Hermitages--Little Budworth--Knaresborough--Reclusorium or anchor-hold--
Laindon--Rattenden--Female recluses--Whalley.
The two principal houses in an English village are the manor-house and
the rectory, wherein according to the theories of the modern political
Socialist and agitator "the two arch-tyrants" of the labourers dwell,
the squire and the parson. There is much of interest in the growth and
evolution of the country house, which resulted in the construction of
these old, pleasant, half-timbered granges and manor-houses, which form
such beautiful features of our English villages.
[Illustration: SOUTHCOTE MANOR SHOWING MOAT AND PIGEON-HOUSE]
[Illustration: OCKWELLS MANOR-HOUSE]
In our description of the village in Anglo-Saxon times we gave a picture
of a house of a Saxon gentleman, which consisted mainly of one large
hall, wherein the members of the household lived and slept and had their
meals. There was a chapel, and a kitchen, and a ladies' bower, usually
separated from the great hall, and generally built of wood. In Norman
times the same plan and arrangements of a country house continued. The
fire still burnt in the centre of the hall, the smoke finding its way
out through a louvre in the roof. Meals were still served on tables laid
on trestles, which were removed when the meal was finished. The lord and
lady, their family and guests, dined at the high table placed on the
dais, as in a college hall, the floor of which was boarded. The
household and retainers dined in the space below, which was strewn with
rushes and called "the marsh," which, according to Turner's _History of
Domestic Architecture_, "was doubtless dirty and damp enough to deserve
that name." The timbers of the roof in the better houses were moulded,
the walls hung with tapestry, and at the lower end of the hall was a
screen, above which in later times was the minstrels' gallery. The
screen formed a passage which led into a separate building at right
angles to the hall, containing the cellar, buttery, and kitchen.
Parallel with this at the upper end of the hall was a building of two
stories, one used as a parlour, and the other was called the "great
chamber," where the lady and her guests retired after dining in the
hall.
[Illustration: RICHMOND PALACE]
Later on a greater refinement of domestic customs was introduced. In the
twelfth century a separate sleeping-chamber for the lord was added. The
next century saw him and his lady dining in a room apart from his
servants, a custom which was much satirised by the author of _Piers
Ploughman_, who wrote--
"Now hath each rich a rule
To eaten by themselve,
In a privy parlour
For poor man sake,
Or in a chamber with a chimney;
And leave the chief hall,
That was made for meals
Men to eaten in."
Evidently the author did not approve of the new fashion. But the
advantages of the custom were much appreciated by the squires and ladies
of the day, and this process of development led to a multiplication of
rooms, and the diminution of the size of the great hall. The walls were
raised, and an upper room was formed under the roof for sleeping
accommodation. There are many old farmhouses throughout the country,
once manor-houses, which retain in spite of subsequent alterations the
distinguishing features of this mediaeval style of architecture.
[Illustration: DOORWAY AND STAIRCASE, UFTON COURT]
The nobles built their castles as late as the fourteenth century; but
under the Tudor monarchs, when the government of the country was strong
and more settled, fortified dwellings were deemed no longer necessary,
and the great landowners built splendid country houses. English domestic
architecture then reached the period of its highest perfection. Instead
of castles men built palaces, the noblest specimens of our English
style, before it became corrupted. Hatfield House and Hampton Court are
its best examples.
During the fifteenth century the common hall had decreased in
importance; and now in smaller houses it disappeared altogether, and a
grand entrance hall usually took its place. The number of rooms was
increased enormously, and corridors were introduced. The principal
features of an Elizabethan house are the gallery and noble staircase.
[Illustration: THE PORCH, UFTON COURT]
Early in the seventeenth century Inigo Jones introduced the revived
classic style of architecture into England, and entirely altered the
appearance and arrangement of our manor-houses. Palladio was the
originator of this style. The old English model was declared obsolete,
and fashion dictated that Italian villas must supersede the old houses.
These new buildings were very grand with their porticos and colonnades;
but the architects cared little for comfort and convenience. Indeed a
witty nobleman suggested to the owner of one of these new houses that
he had better hire a lodging over the way and look at it.
[Illustration: OLD MANOR HOUSE, UPTON COURT]
The old manor-houses are often surrounded by a moat, and not unfrequently
contain secret rooms and underground passages, which were often used as
places of refuge in troublous times. Those held by recusants usually had
two or three hiding-places ingeniously contrived, which must have baffled
all pursuers, and were needed for the concealment of the Roman Catholic
priest, in the days when his services were proscribed. There are two
cleverly designed hiding-places at Ufton Court, Berkshire, which was held
by the Roman Catholic family of Perkins. In a subterranean vault under an
old house at Hurley, in which the bones of monks were discovered, the
supporters of William of Orange used to meet to plan his succession to
the English Crown. The walls of many of the manor-houses and halls in
Lancashire and Yorkshire could tell of many a plot for the restoration
of the Stuarts to the throne, and of many a deep health drunk to "Bonnie
Charlie," while the chorus rang--
"He's over the seas and far awa',
He's over the seas and far awa',
But of no man we'll stand in awe,
But drink his health that's far awa'."
The rectories and vicarages scattered over the country have passed
through the same transformation as the manor-houses, which they much
resembled. The rectory was often surrounded by a moat, with an entrance
protected by a gatehouse. The duty of entertaining strangers and
travellers was always duly recognised by the clergy, and entailed a
heavy charge upon their income. Those who lived off the main roads used
to provide accommodation for an occasional guest, but the rectors in the
more frequented districts had frequently to entertain many travellers.
There _is_ a description of the rectory-house of Kelvedon, Essex, in a
deed dated 1356, which runs as follows:--
"One hall situate in the manor of the said abbot and convent
[Westminster] near the said church, with a soler and chamber at one end
of the hall, and with a buttery and cellar at the other. Also one other
house in three parts, namely a kitchen with a convenient chamber in the
end of the said house _for guests_, and a bakehouse. Also one other
house in two parts next the gate at the entrance of the manor for a
stable and cow-house. He [the vicar] shall also have a convenient
grange, to be built within a year at the expense of the prior and
convent. He shall also have the curtilage with the garden adjoining the
hall on the north side enclosed as it is with hedges and ditches."
[Illustration: WINDOW OF SOUTH WING, UFTON COURT]
Here the house for guests is an important feature of the clergyman's
house; and about the same date, in 1352, we find the Bishop of
Winchester ordering the prior and convent of Merton to provide "a
competent manse for the vicar, viz. a hall with two rooms, one at one
end of the hall, and the other at the other end, with a drain to each,
and a suitable kitchen with fireplace and oven, and a _stable for six
horses_, all covered with tiles, and completed within one year, such
place to remain to the use of the said vicar and his successors." Unless
the vicar was a very sporting parson he would not require a stable for
six horses, and this was doubtless intended for the accommodation of the
steeds of his guests.
The descriptions of these old rectory-houses are interesting. The Rector
of Allington, Kent, possessed a house consisting of "a hall, parlour,
and chamber over the parlour, stairs-head, beside the parson's
bedchamber, parson's lodging-chamber, study, chamber behind the chimney,
chamber next adjoining westward, buttery, priest's chamber, servants'
chamber, kitchen, mill-house, boulting-house, larder, entries, women's
chamber; gatehouse, still beside the gate, barn next the gate; cartlage,
barn next the church, garden-house, court." The barn next the church was
probably the tithe-barn. Tithe was then paid in kind; hence a barn was
required to contain the dues of the parishioners. Sometimes these
tithe-barns are very large and long, especially when the tithe-owner was
the abbot of some monastery. Near Reading there is still standing the
barn of the abbey, and at Cholsey, in Berkshire, there is one of the
finest specimens of the kind in England.
[Illustration: STONE TITHE BARN, BRADFORD-ON-AVON]
There still remain several of these old pre-Reformation parsonages and
rectories. The most noted is the clergy-house at Alfriston, Sussex,
which has been carefully preserved. It follows the usual type of
fourteenth-century house, and consists of a fine hall, the lower part
divided off by a screen, a soler of two stories at one end, and a
kitchen at the other. It is built of oak framework, filled in with
"wattle and daub." There is a large chimney and grate in the hall, and
huge beams support the thatched roof. Parsonages of mediaeval times
remain at West Dean, Sussex; at King's Stanley and Notgrove,
Gloucestershire; Wonstone, Hants; Helmsley, Yorkshire; and at several
other places. The Rectory of Shellingford, Berks, though much disguised
by modern additions, is an original fourteenth-century house.
In many villages there are old almshouses founded by pious benefactors
for "poor brethren and sisters." As we enter the quiet courtyard paved
with cobble stones, the spirit of olden days comes over us. The chapel
where daily prayer is said morning and evening; the panelled
dining-hall, with its dark oaken table; the comfortable rooms of the
brethren; the time-worn pump in the courtyard--all recall the memory of
old times, when life was more tranquil, and there was less hurry and
busy bustling.
Sometimes we meet with a curious little house built of stone or timber,
erected along the great highways, near some bridge or ford, wherein a
"holy hermit" once dwelt, and served his generation by directing
travellers to the nearest monastery or rectory, and spent his days in
seclusion and prayer. Such indeed is the traditional idea of the
hermit's life; but the real hermit of the Middle Ages did not always
live a very lonely or ascetic life. He was supported by the alms of the
charitable and did no work, but lived an idle life, endured no
hardships, and escaped not the scoffs of the satirical. _Piers
Ploughman_ tells us of workmen--"webbers and tailors, and carters'
knaves, and clerks without grace, who liked not long labour and light
wages; and seeing that lazy fellows in friars' clothing had fat cheeks,
forsook their toil and turned hermits. They lived in boroughs among
brewers and begged in churches." They had a good house, with sometimes a
chaplain to say daily Mass for them, a servant or two to wait on them,
and plenty of food and drink provided by a regular endowment or the
donations of the charitable. They did not shut themselves up in their
cells and hold no intercourse with their fellow-men; and herein they
differed from the recluses who were not supposed to go outside the doors
of their anchorages. Both males and females were enrolled as recluses,
but only the latter seem to have taken upon themselves the vows of
complete seclusion.
Several of these hermitages remain. There is one at Little Budworth, in
Cheshire, in the park of Sir Philip Egerton. Warkworth has a famous one,
consisting of a chapel hewn out of the rock, with an entrance porch, and
a long, narrow room with a small altar at the east end, wherein the
hermit lived. At Knaresborough, Yorkshire, there is a good example of a
hermitage, hewn out of the rock, consisting of a chapel, called St.
Robert's Chapel, with groined roof, which was used as the living-room of
the hermit. This chapel was the scene of Eugene Aram's murder. At
Wetheral, near Carlisle; Lenton, near Nottingham; on the banks of the
Severn, near Bewdley, Worcestershire, there are anchorages, and also at
Brandon, Downham, and Stow Bardolph, in Norfolk. Spenser in the _Faery
Queen_ gives the following description of a hermit's cell:--
"A little lowly hermitage it was,
Down by a dale, hard by a forest's side,
Far from resort of people that did pass
In traveill to and froe; a little wyde
There was an holy Chappell edifyde,
Wherein the hermite dewly wont to say
His holy things, each morne and eventyde;
Hereby a chrystall streame did gently play,
Which from a sacred fountaine welled forth alway."
Within the churchyard of many a town or village church, and usually
attached to the church, stood a reclusorium, or anchor-hold, wherein a
recluse, male or female, once resided. At Laindon Church, Essex, there
is a fine specimen of a house of this kind attached to the west end.
Generally the anchor-hold was a small room, built of wood, connected
with the church. Frequently there is a room over the porch of a church
which may have been used for this purpose, the recluse living usually in
the church. At Rettenden, Essex, there is a room over the vestry which
has evidently been an anchor-hold. There was a window, now blocked up,
through which the recluse could see the high altar, and the celebration
of the holy mysteries, and another for him to look out, hold converse
with his friends, and receive their alms. The church of St. Patricio,
near Crickhowel, South Wales, has an anchor-hold; also Clifton Campville
Church, Staffordshire; Chipping Norton Church, Oxfordshire; Warmington
Church, Warwickshire; and many churches have rooms over the porch which
were formerly used by recluses. The church itself was frequently the
habitation of the anchorite. There is a notice of a hermit who lived in
St. Cuthbert's Church, Thetford, and performed divine service therein.
Of female recluses we gather many details in the _Ancren Riewle_ of
Bishop Poore of Salisbury, who left very minute directions for the
regulation of their austere and solitary lives. The little cell had an
altar where the anchoress frequently prayed, and through a window saw
the elevation of the Host in the daily Mass. The walls were covered
with mural paintings. There was a table, a fire, and a cat lying before
it. An unglazed window with a shutter was covered by a black curtain,
through which she could converse with anyone outside without being seen.
She was not allowed to put her head out of the open window. "A peering
anchoress, who is always thrusting her head outward, is like an untamed
bird in a cage," says the good bishop. The long hours of solitude were
spent in devotion, working embroidery, reading her few books, talking to
her servant or to those who desired to speak with her through the
curtained window.
The poor caged birds must often have wished to break the bars of their
cage, and occasionally they escaped from their solitary confinement. In
the churchyard of Whalley, Lancashire, there are two cottages which
stand upon the site of a reclusorium, founded by Henry, Duke of
Lancaster, in 1349. Here in the reign of Henry VI. lived one Isole de
Heton, who wearied of her lot, and left the anchor-hold, an example
which was followed by several of her successors. A scandal having
arisen, the hermitage was dissolved.
Many a sad story of ruined hopes and broken hearts could these walls
tell, which were the living tombs of many a devout or erring sister,
who, wounded in the world's war, sought the calm seclusion of a cell,
and found there the peace which elsewhere they had failed to find.