The Growth of the
ENGLISH HOUSE
_WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR._
ARCHITECTURE OF THE RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND. Illustrated by a
Series of Views and Details from Buildings erected between
the years 1560 and 1635, with Historical and Critical Text.
Containing 145 folio Plates reproduced from Photographs,
together with measured drawings, plans, details, &c., dispersed
throughout the text. 2 vols., large folio, in cloth portfolios,
gilt, $50.00 net; or 2 vols., handsomely bound in half morocco,
gilt, $60.00 net.
“A work of national importance. Though these halls are with
us now, it would be rash to say that we shall have them for
ever, but while these volumes remain we shall always have _a
splendid memorial of the most splendid remains of the England of
the past._”--_The Daily News._
EARLY RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. An Historical and
Descriptive Account of the Development of the Tudor, Elizabethan, and
Jacobean Periods, 1500–1625. With 87 Collotype and other Plates and
230 Illustrations in the Text from Drawings by various accomplished
Draughtsmen, and from Photographs specially taken. Medium 8vo. $9.00
net.
This work is quite independent and distinct, both in plan and
illustration, from the author’s larger work, and is in no sense
a reduced or cheaper edition of it. Of the 317 Illustrations
only about twelve are taken from the larger book.
[Illustration: SHELDONS, WILTSHIRE.]
The Growth of the
ENGLISH HOUSE
A Short History of
its Architectural Development from
1100 to 1800
By
J. ALFRED GOTCH,
F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A.
Author of “Architecture of the Renaissance in England,”
“Early Renaissance Architecture in England,” &c.
London, B.T.Batsford
New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons
M CM IX
_Printed at_ THE DARIEN PRESS, _Edinburgh_.
PREFACE.
The object aimed at in the following pages is to tell the story of the
growth of the English house from its first appearance in a permanent
form down to the time of our grandfathers, when it lost much of its
interest. Although it is a history of domestic architecture, no deep
architectural knowledge is required to understand it; technical terms
are avoided as far as may be, and of such as are used a glossary
will be found at the end of the volume. The reader unacquainted with
architecture will be able to follow the story without difficulty; but
he who already knows something of our English buildings will of course
be better able to link it up with the general development of English
architecture. It is the main stream of progress which is followed, but
there are many pleasant backwaters and interesting tributaries which
it is impossible to explore in the space at command. Those who are
desirous of pursuing the subject more minutely will have no difficulty
in finding books dealing with particular periods--Mediæval, Tudor,
Early Renaissance, or Late Renaissance. Hitherto, however, the panorama
has not been unrolled from end to end in one volume.
To render the subject intelligible numerous illustrations are
essential, and thanks are due to all who have kindly contributed in
this respect, especially to the publishers, Messrs Batsford, whose
assistance in this and other respects has been invaluable. In view of
the many admirable books which appear from year to year, it becomes
increasingly difficult to avoid familiar ground; indeed the mediæval
period presents very few fine examples which have not at one time or
another been figured. The reader is therefore requested not to be
impatient if he meets with a number of old friends in the early part
of the book, and to be equally considerate if, in the periods where
examples are more abundant, he misses some of the best-known houses,
inasmuch as the aim has been, so far as was compatible with the proper
treatment of the subject, to illustrate the text with unfamiliar
buildings.
In order not to distract attention, footnotes and references have been
avoided, and with a view to help those who are not conversant with
the subject, there will be found, in addition to the short glossary,
a chronological list of the principal buildings tabulated under the
reigns of the English monarchs.
J. A. G.
WEEKLEY RISE, _near_ KETTERING,
_September_ 1909.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION--THE NORMAN KEEP 1
II. THE KEEP DESCRIBED 7
III. THE FORTIFIED MANOR HOUSE OF THE THIRTEENTH
CENTURY--THE DOMINANCE OF THE HALL 24
IV. THE COURSE OF MEDIÆVAL BUILDING IN THE FOURTEENTH
CENTURY 44
V. THE LATER MANOR HOUSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES 67
VI. MEDIÆVAL DOMESTIC FEATURES--DOORWAYS, WINDOWS,
FIREPLACES, CHIMNEYS, ROOFS AND CEILINGS,
STAIRCASES 87
VII. EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY--COMING OF THE
ITALIAN INFLUENCE 126
VIII. LATE SIXTEENTH CENTURY--SYMMETRY IN PLANNING 141
IX. ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN HOUSES--EXTERIORS 157
X. ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN HOUSES--INTERIORS 186
XI. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY--PERSONAL DESIGN--TRANSITIONAL
TREATMENT 205
XII. CLASSIC DETAIL ESTABLISHED--INFLUENCE OF THE AMATEURS 221
XIII. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY EXTERIORS--THE PALLADIAN STYLE 233
XIV. LATE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH
CENTURIES--INTERIORS--DETAILS AND FEATURES 259
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF BUILDINGS 303
GLOSSARY 309
BRIEF LIST OF BOOKS 313
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS 315
INDEX 325
[Illustration: Norham Castle, Northumberland.]
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY--THE NORMAN KEEP.
Those who, in the course of their wanderings through the remote
districts of England, whether on business or on pleasure bent, have
seen the lonely tower on the hillside, or the grey ruins of some
ancient dwelling gleaming through the spaces of encircling trees, have
no doubt often speculated as to the precise significance of these
remnants of antiquity. They may have dismissed them from consideration
as being relics of a past order of things having no connection with
the concerns of the present day. Yet to the dweller in a modern house
these maimed survivals have as much interest as have his own ancestors;
and the home to which he returns after his travels can trace its
descent step by step from those rugged masses of stone which roused his
interest as he passed them by.
It is not difficult for any one to trace a likeness between the house
of to-day and that of, let us say, the time of Elizabeth; but the
resemblance between an Elizabethan manor house and a Norman castle or a
Northumbrian peel-tower is not by any means so obvious, yet the descent
of one from the other can be clearly established. It is the object of
the following pages not only to show how this can be done, but to trace
briefly the continuous changes which have transformed, in the course
of some seven or eight centuries, the gaunt and desolate keep into the
comfortable mansion or villa of our own experience.
Everybody knows that an Englishman’s house is his castle, but it should
also be remembered that in early times an Englishman’s castle was his
house. Castles were not necessarily military strongholds; many of them
were so, but many of them, again, were nothing more than fortified
houses, and it is in these fortified houses that we must seek the first
germs of our own homes, the earliest evidences of domestic architecture.
In this inquiry we need not trouble ourselves about Roman villas;
they were exotic, and there is no reason to believe that they had
any influence on English houses. Nor need we spend much time on
the centuries which elapsed between the extinction of the Roman
civilisation and the Norman Conquest. The country was widely populated
during those years, but any one who has climbed the bleak downs
whereon its inhabitants clustered, or scrambled up the vast earthworks
which were the strongholds of its chieftains, may well wonder how the
race survived. Some kind of shelter from the weather there must have
been, probably in the shape of wooden buildings. But such primitive
structures cannot be considered as architecture, and we will now
concern ourselves only with buildings of a permanent nature on which a
certain amount of trained skill has been bestowed, buildings, in fact,
which convey definite information as to their arrangement, and may be
classed, more or less, as works of art. Such buildings--at any rate so
far as they are dwellings--are not to be found of a date prior to the
Conquest, nor, with few exceptions, for more than half a century later.
The “castles” of the Conqueror were probably merely the huge earthworks
which he found scattered throughout the land. Any new works which he
caused to be made were probably of wood. It was not until the middle of
the twelfth century that stone buildings superseded to any great extent
these wooden structures; at least few existing remains can be dated
earlier than then; and it is in the midst of the great ditches of these
earthen “castles” that many of the stone keeps of that time were built,
the encircling outer mounds being further strengthened by stone walls.
The few remains of the stone castles built during the reigns of the
Conqueror and his sons do not provide us with any definite link between
themselves and their predecessors of wood, although it is probable
that they embodied in a permanent form the kind of accommodation
previously provided in more perishable materials; the most important
part of this accommodation being the hall. They certainly do not seem
to have had any long ancestry on the other side of the Channel, for
it is doubtful whether any building of this nature in Normandy can
be dated prior to the Conquest. But although the exact causes which
determined their shape are still to seek, it is clear that the fashion
became established of erecting stone castles, wherein the keep was the
principal building.
The keep was the domestic part of the castle; it contained the rooms
used by the owner and his family. Surrounding it at some distance was
the outer wall strengthened according to circumstances by projecting
towers and entered through a fortified gatehouse. The extent and
intricacy of the defences varied according to the importance of the
castle; but these matters belong rather to military architecture than
to domestic, and all that need be said is that those retainers who
overflowed from the towers and other permanent buildings were housed
in temporary wooden buildings within the courtyard.
Wooden buildings were indeed the ordinary dwellings of the time. There
must have been many more people outside than inside the castles, even
if we regard the castles which have survived as only a small part of
those which actually existed. The ordinary manor houses, as well as
the homes of the peasantry, were built of wood and have in consequence
entirely disappeared. It is true that there are many wooden houses (or
houses of wood and plaster) still to be found in all parts of England,
but they are all of a much later date. It is doubtful if a single
specimen of the twelfth century survives. It must also be remembered
that not infrequently the inferior rooms of a stone house, such as the
kitchen, were built of wood.
The keep, then, is the earliest form of English house built in
permanent fashion. It was not, as some suppose, a prison or dungeon,
or even the last refuge of a beleaguered garrison; it was the ordinary
home of the family. In examining the ruins of a castle where the keep
is the principal remnant, it is not necessary to postulate a vast array
of other buildings, and to wonder what they were, and whither they
have disappeared. It was probably the only considerable building, the
remainder of the establishment consisting of a wall of enclosure and
various minor buildings, mostly of wood.
What, then, was the accommodation in these keeps, these homes of our
ancestors of the twelfth century, of the men who slew Thomas à Becket,
of the barons who revolted against Henry II.?
[Illustration: 1. Castle Rising, Norfolk. The Keep.]
The keeps were massive rectangular structures several storeys in
height, with walls of great thickness. Their size varied according to
the requirements of the owner. Some were about 90 ft. square, others
but 30 or 40 ft. They were not necessarily exactly square, but, as a
rule, their sides were of nearly equal length. The White Tower of the
Tower of London, begun by order of the Conqueror in the later years of
the eleventh century, measures 118 by 107 ft. The keep of Rochester
Castle, built about 1130, is 70 ft. square. Castle Hedingham in Essex,
built about the same time, is 60 by 55 ft.; the keep of Dover Castle
(about 1154) is 90 ft. square; Castle Rising (Fig. 1), probably a few
years later in date, is 75 by 60 ft.; Kenilworth, dating from the third
quarter of the century, is 87 by 54 ft.; while the Peak Castle in
Derbyshire, erected about 1176, measures some 40 by 36 ft. These are
all outside measurements, and as the walls were very thick, seldom less
than 8 ft., and sometimes as much as 16 or 20 ft., the available space
within them was much less than their total area. Nevertheless, after
deducting the thickness of the walls, there remained in the largest
such huge rooms as that in the Tower of London, 90 ft. long by 37
ft. wide; in the medium-sized, such as Hedingham, rooms 38 by 31 ft.;
while in the smallest, such as the Peak Castle, the space was 22 by
19 ft., equal to the drawing-room of an ordinary house of the present
day. But although the rooms were spacious, they were few in number,
and badly lighted. As a rule there was but one room on each floor;
some of the more important, however, such as Rochester and Castle
Rising, had two large rooms on each floor and one or two smaller, but
this was the exception rather than the rule. Occasionally a chapel was
added; sometimes it occupied part of the floor space inside the walls;
sometimes, as at Coningsburgh, it was contrived within the thickness of
the wall itself, augmented by hollowing out one of the huge buttresses.
But the chapel was always small--space was too valuable for it to be
otherwise; and it was used not only for sacred purposes, but also not
infrequently as a private room for the lord.
There are many examples of Norman keeps remaining in various parts
of the country, but it will be sufficient to describe two of them
as being typical of their fellows. One, although not of the largest
size, was yet a fine building; it is Hedingham Castle in Essex: the
other is small, the Peak Castle in Derbyshire. The former is among the
very few of existing keeps that can be dated earlier than the reign
of Henry II. who came to the throne in 1154. The chaotic times of his
predecessor, Stephen, saw the erection of many castles which became
the scenes of frightful oppression and outrage; but after his death
they were razed to the ground, and apparently with great thoroughness,
since no examples, it may be said, are to be found which can be safely
dated between the years 1135 and 1154, during which period he nominally
reigned over England.