THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HOUSE-PLAN FROM ABOUT 1450 TO 1635.
NOTE.--The plans are drawn to a uniform scale of 50 feet to the inch.
The principal buildings erected during the sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries were houses, and it is mainly in connection with
domestic architecture that we must seek to trace the development of the
new style. There were but few churches built after the dissolution of
the monasteries, and we have no examples of sufficient importance to
show how ecclesiastical architecture would have been affected. There
are chapels, chantries, and fittings, such as screens, pews, pulpits,
and fonts, but nothing on a large scale. We have already seen how
such comparatively small and isolated features were affected. It is
necessary, therefore, to look to the numerous houses that were built in
order to see what progress the new ideas made.
The character of a house is largely determined by its plan, and
the plan is the expression of the wants and habits of the inmates.
Accordingly we find that the wants and habits of English people,
being far less susceptible of change than their taste in ornament
and decoration, caused the plan of their houses to follow the old
lines long after the superficial decoration had taken on itself the
foreign fashion. The one quality which the Italian influence gradually
introduced into the plan was symmetry, and this could be obtained
without sacrificing the arrangements which seemed essential to English
habits. In later days an Italian feature, the open loggia, was often
made use of in the form of an arcade, but even this had its English
precedent in the cloisters of the monks.
What were the essential points about the plan of an English house? The
most important place was the hall, which was the nucleus of the whole
series of apartments. Then there was the kitchen with its adjuncts; and
there were the private apartments for the family, of which the chief
was the "parlour." The arrangement which naturally established itself
was that the kitchen should be located at one end of the hall and the
parlour at the other. This relation of rooms had existed from a very
early period, and it is in the developing of this idea with more or
less elaboration and skill that house-planning consisted down to the
time of Inigo Jones, when the hall gradually ceased to be the centre of
household life, and became merely an entrance.
To the central group of hall, kitchen and parlour were added what
other rooms were required for convenience or defence; but in regard
to the latter, precautions against attack had already become less
necessary in Henry VIII.'s time, and they were practically disregarded
in Elizabeth's, when considerations of stateliness and display chiefly
influenced the design, at any rate as far as the larger houses were
concerned.
Nothing will help to show how the central idea of an English house
developed, while tenaciously adhering to its essence, so much as
a comparison of the plans of a number of houses built during the
sixteenth century and the early part of the seventeenth. But in order
to bring them into relation with what preceded them, the series
commences with the plans of two houses that were built in the fifteenth
century, before there was a trace of Italian influence to be found in
English work. All the plans are those of fair-sized houses, chiefly of
the manor-house class, and they are from examples scattered up and down
the country; therefore whatever characteristics they possess may be
taken to have been of fairly wide distribution.
[Illustration: 33.--GREAT CHALFIELD, WILTSHIRE. PLAN (TEMP. HENRY
VI.).]
The first example is Great Chalfield, in Wiltshire (Fig. 33), where
the work is all of good Perpendicular character. The house was built
towards the end of the reign of Henry VI., at a time when precautions
against attack were still necessary; it was therefore surrounded by
a moat. Much of the work has disappeared, and alterations have been
made in what is left, but the arrangement of the hall is still plain,
although the kitchen is not recognisable. The almost invariable
disposition of the hall was as follows: it was an oblong apartment
with one end cut off by a screen, which formed the entrance passage
called "the screens." From this passage the hall was entered on one
side, while from the other side access was obtained to the kitchen,
the buttery, the pantry, and the rest of the servants' department.
This arrangement may still be seen in use at many of the colleges in
Oxford and Cambridge. The hall itself was usually lighted from both
sides, and was a lofty apartment with an open roof, that is, with all
the timbers showing. The effect of this disposition was that the hall
divided the house into two separate portions; there was no thoroughfare
above it or around it, but only through it. At the end opposite to
the screens was the daïs, a platform raised some few inches above the
general floor level, where the family sat at meals, in the same way as
the dons sit in many colleges at the present day. The daïs was usually
lighted by a bay window, which formed a convenient recess for a serving
table. There are still a few houses where the daïs survives, but in
most cases it has been cleared away and the floor has been lowered to
the general level. That it was of universal adoption is proved by its
being shown on practically all contemporary plans. The fireplace was
placed in one of the side walls, and was generally somewhat nearer to
the daïs end than the other. It obviously could not be placed at the
screen end, because the screen itself did not go up to the roof, but
was covered by a gallery, usually known as the minstrels' gallery,
though it may be doubted whether in many instances it was used by the
votaries of the _gaie science_. Nor could the fireplace be conveniently
set in the end wall on the daïs, since it would have interfered with
the table; it was necessarily placed therefore in one of the side walls.
These features, then, may be looked for in every hall of the time--the
screen, the daïs, the bay window, and the fireplace--and in some cases
a good deal of ingenuity was displayed in contriving to obtain them in
their due relation to each other.
From the daïs end of the hall access was obtained to the family
apartments, which were few in number at first, but gradually increased
with the ever-growing desire for comfort and refinement.
At Great Chalfield the hall conforms to the dispositions detailed
above, but the bay windows serve rather as means of communication with
other rooms than merely as windows.
[Illustration: 34.--OXBURGH HALL, NORFOLK. GROUND PLAN (1482).]
[Illustration: 35.--OXBURGH HALL, NORFOLK. ENTRANCE TOWER (1482).]
At Oxburgh Hall, in Norfolk (1482), we have another type of defensive
house (Fig. 34). It was built round a court, as well as being
surrounded by a moat. The entrance was through a lofty tower into the
court, on the opposite side of which was the hall of the usual type.
The kitchen was to the right on entering, in the extreme south-west
corner of the building--not exactly the aspect we should choose in the
present day. So many changes have been made in the use to which the
rooms in these old houses have been put, and in the way of approaching
them, that too much stress must not be laid upon the details of the
plan, but the relation of the hall and kitchen at Oxburgh must have
been always the same. The rest of the building is made up of small
rooms surrounding the court, not arranged on any elaborate plan, but
put to whatever use was required. It will be seen that although there
is a considerable amount of uniformity in the arrangement of Oxburgh
Hall, there is no strict symmetry. The entrance tower is in the centre
of the front, but the windows on either side of it do not tally with
each other. The entrance to the hall is not on the axial line of the
tower, nor is the setting of the windows and doors in the court by any
means regular. As we advance in time, we shall find that all these
points were very carefully attended to, especially towards the end of
the sixteenth century. The plan here illustrated was made in 1774, and
a few years subsequently the south side of the court, containing the
hall and kitchen, was pulled down. Other alterations have been made
since then, but there is still much of the original work left. The
great entrance tower (Fig. 35) shows still a certain hankering after
defensive features; there is a curtain arch thrown across between
the turrets, from behind which missiles could be hurled upon unwelcome
visitors, and the openings in the turrets are of the smallest. The
windows generally are of few lights, the heads are pointed and cusped,
the parapets are corbelled out and battlemented, and the whole work
is of Late Gothic character without any trace of the new style in its
decoration.
[Illustration: 36.--EAST BARSHAM, NORFOLK. GROUND PLAN (CIR. 1500-15).]
At East Barsham (about 1500-15) we get indications of the new style in
the treatment of parts of the ornament. The general feeling, however,
is still Gothic. There is not much of the plan to be made out, but
what there is shows a large entrance tower, with the porch of the hall
exactly opposite to it (Fig. 36). The hall has a bay window at the daïs
end, and, contrary to custom, a fireplace in the end wall. The kitchen
is to the right on entering, and is approached by a passage from the
middle of the screens. The whole arrangement is in the main of the
usual type, so far as it can be traced. The new feeling is indicated in
one or two panels which bear a head, but most of the ornament is still
of the Gothic type with cuspings, etc. At the neighbouring parsonage
of Great Snoring, which resembles East Barsham in general treatment,
some of the ornament is more decidedly Italian, with the characteristic
balusters and foliage.
[Illustration: PLATE XI.
COMPTON WINYATES, WARWICKSHIRE (ABOUT 1520).
GENERAL VIEW.]
Compton Winyates, in Warwickshire (about 1520), is a very complete and
charming example of its period. The plan conforms in its main features
to the ordinary type (Fig. 37). A certain amount of regularity is
imparted to it by reason of its being built round a rectangular court,
but of symmetry in it there is hardly a trace, and there is still
less in the grouping of the structure. Everything is as irregular
and picturesque as the most romantic could desire; the mixture of
materials--stone, brick, wood, and plaster--lends a delightful variety
of texture, tone, and colour, and makes the house, next to Haddon,
one of the most alluring in the country (Plate XI.). But our concern
at present is more particularly with the plan. This shows a courtyard
entered through a gateway which is opposite, though not exactly
opposite, to the door of the screens. On the left of the screens are
the buttery, the kitchen passage, and a staircase; on the right, of
course, the hall, from the upper end of which access is obtained to the
family rooms, the chapel, and--what previous plans have not shown--the
grand staircase. Of course, with the lofty hall cutting the building
in two halves, at least two staircases were necessary to get to the
upper rooms; as a matter of fact there were usually more than two, as
there are here: difficulties of planning being often removed, or at
any rate lessened, by this rather costly expedient. It will be seen
that the hall has a range of rooms at the back of it, and that its two
side walls are not, as usual, both external. The sides of the court
are formed, as they were at Oxburgh, of a number of small rooms, which
originally (in all probability) led into one another, the passage being
a later addition. The ornament, in which the house abounds, is all of
Late Gothic character (Plate XII.). There is no actual Renaissance
detail in the external work, although much of it looks as though it
were quite ready for the change.
[Illustration: 37.--COMPTON WINYATES, WARWICKSHIRE. GROUND PLAN
(CIR. 1520).]
[Illustration: PLATE XII.
COMPTON WINYATES, WARWICKSHIRE
THE ENTRANCE PORCH]
[Illustration: 38.--SUTTON PLACE, NEAR GUILDFORD. GROUND PLAN
(1523-25).]
[Illustration: 39.--SUTTON PLACE, SURREY. DETAILS (1523-25).]
So far, although we have come to nearly the close of the first quarter
of the century, we have seen but little effect from the new style.
Just a suggestion in the ornament at East Barsham, and a slight
tendency towards a symmetrical treatment of the plan; yet whatever
symmetry there may have been at East Barsham was thrown to the winds at
Compton Winyates. In the next example, Sutton Place, near Guildford,
only a few years later in date (1523-25),[9] we find symmetry in plan
and elevation, and ornament which is strongly marked with Italian
character. The entrance was as usual through a tower, and faced the
hall door exactly opposite, on the axial line (Fig. 38). Such accuracy
of alignment was so infrequent at this date, and it results in the hall
door being placed so far from the end wall where the screens ought to
be, that a feeling of doubt creeps in as to whether we see here the
original arrangement unaltered. The hall, too, is of such a height as
to embrace two tiers of windows, another most unusual treatment. In the
ordinary way the windows would have been made lofty in proportion to
the hall. If the existing dispositions have come down unaltered, they
are a striking testimony to the manner in which routine of design was
broken in order to obtain external symmetry. Apart from this point,
the plan adheres to the usual lines. The hall connects the two wings,
and the sides of the court are formed by a series of small chambers
approached either through each other or from the outer air. The
internal walls have either been removed or altered, but the external
walls remain to show that the wings enclosing the court were only one
room thick, and not of sufficient width to allow of a corridor.
[9] _Annals of an Old Manor House_, by Frederic Harrison.
There is, however, an important point to be noticed, and that is the
symmetrical treatment of the court. Not only is there a little bay
window halfway along each side, but the bay window of the hall, which
comes in the angle of the court, is balanced by another bay in the
other angle, although there is no important room to be lighted by it.
Such an arrangement was often adopted in subsequent plans, but this is
the first instance which we have seen of it.
[Illustration: 40.--SUTTON PLACE, SURREY. PART ELEVATION OF
COURTYARD (1523-25).]
While the plan adheres in the main to the customary lines, the
ornamentation has taken quite a new departure. The windows are of
Perpendicular type, and have the old-fashioned cusping in the heads,
but the hollow of the moulding is occupied with ornament drawn from
Italian, or perhaps Franco-Italian, sources (Fig. 39). The house was
built by Sir Richard Weston, and, in accordance with the custom of the
preceding half century, his rebus, or an attempt at it in the shape
of a tun, appears as a diaper in various places and in the horizontal
string-course; but instead of being shrouded in vine leaves or other
old and well-established devices, it occurs among ornament of the
new type. This is a point worth noticing, inasmuch as it shows that
this ornament was made for the place, and was not purchased out of
ready-made stock. The amorini which are introduced over the doors have
not the same individuality, nor have the half-balusters which divide
them into their panels, but they were no doubt made by the same men
who did the tuns and Sir Richard's initials, which also help to form a
diaper in places. All this ornamental work is in terra-cotta, but there
is nothing to show where the patterns were cast, whether in England
or abroad. The battlemented parapet is not yet discarded (Fig. 40),
and the large octagonal shafts are crowned with a variation of the
dome. Some of the panels are Gothic quatrefoils, and in the parapet
of the central block over the front door the Italian amorini disport
themselves (a little clumsily) in panels with Gothic cusping. The whole
of the ornament is a curious and interesting mixture of the old and new
forms.
Another house with many of the same characteristics is Layer Marney
Tower, in Essex (1500-25). There is not enough left of the plan to
enable us to draw any deductions from it, but the character of the
work is very similar to that at Sutton, only a little more pronounced
in its Renaissance feeling. The lofty entrance tower recalls that at
Oxburgh; its general appearance, its pointed doorway and windows with
their mouldings, and also the cusped panels of its string-courses are
all distinctly Gothic (Fig. 41). But closely associated with the Gothic
panelling is the classic egg and dart enrichment. The large mullioned
windows, though of Gothic descent, are Renaissance in detail, while the
parapets, with their egg and dart strings, and their dolphins climbing
over semicircular panels filled with radiating ornament, are thoroughly
Renaissance of the French type (Plate XIII.). In the moulded chimneys
we go back to the ordinary patterns in vogue in nearly all houses
of the time, whether touched with the foreign influence or not. The
decorative detail here, as at Sutton Place, is in terra-cotta.
[Illustration: Plate XIII.
DETAILS FROM LAYER MARNEY TOWER, ESSEX.]
[Illustration: 41.--LAYER MARNEY, ESSEX. ENTRANCE TOWER (1500-25).]
Both these houses were built by men who had spent some time in France.
Sir Richard Weston was there more than once, and was among those who
were present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Sir Henry Marney, who
built Layer Marney Tower, was one of those attending upon Charles
Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, when he took a great army to France in
1522.[10] But whether they took advantage of these journeys to bring
back French or Italian workmen with them is not known. Unfortunately
there is no documentary evidence to produce, and any opinion that may
be formed can only be speculative. One thing is clear; namely, that no
school was established over here of men working in the new style. The
instances of its use are too few and isolated for that.
[10] "Architectural Notes on Layer Marney Hall, Essex," by C. Forster
Hayward. _Trans. Essex Archæolog. Soc._ Vol. III. pt. I.
[Illustration: 42.--HENGRAVE HALL, SUFFOLK. GROUND PLAN (1538).]
At Hengrave Hall, in Suffolk (1538), the main dispositions conform to
the usual type, but without any attempt at exact symmetry (Fig. 42).
The entrance leads into a court, round which a corridor is taken. This
feature adds much to the comfort and convenience of the house, but it
is a refinement in planning which was very seldom introduced. On the
opposite side from the entrance is the hall, with the old position
of the screens still preserved; to the right of the screens lies the
kitchen wing. There is the usual bay window at the daïs end of the
hall, and the family apartments are on the left. Owing to alterations
the minutiæ of the original plan cannot now be traced; the general
disposition alone can be recognised. The accompanying plan is from
one made in 1775, since which time the whole of the kitchen wing has
been pulled down and other alterations have been made. The general
disposition shown on it may be taken as being like the original, and we
see that the entrance is not in the middle of the side of the court,
and that in order to obtain a symmetrical façade a wing was carried
out to the right, whereby the entrance comes nearly in the centre,
though not quite, and is balanced on either hand by projecting turrets
corresponding one with the other.
[Illustration: 43.--HENGRAVE HALL, SUFFOLK. WEST FRONT (1538).]
The house was originally moated, and beyond the moat was an outer
court, surrounded by low buildings, used as offices and stables. It was
entered through a gateway or lodge, where the keepers and falconers had
their quarters. The general treatment of the architecture still follows
the old lines (Fig. 43). The windows, as a rule, have few lights, they
have flat-pointed heads, and their total area is relatively small in
proportion to the plain surface of brick wall. The chimneys are of cut
and moulded brickwork of the prevailing type; the turrets are crowned
with a dome-like finish, similar to that which had been used at Henry
VII.'s chapel thirty years before. The parapets are battlemented, and
the strings are narrow and not of classic profile. In the entrance
gateway we find the new note struck (Plate XIV.). The archway is
Perpendicular in character, but above it is a triple bay window,
supported on corbelling, full of Renaissance detail, while amorini in
Roman armour carry long scrolls in their hands, and serve as supporters
to a shield of arms (Fig. 44). The whole of the corbelling terminates
at the bottom in a foliated pendant. This inextricable mixture of the
old-fashioned Perpendicular detail with the new-fashioned Renaissance
ornament is quite characteristic of the period, and shows that the
masons, while clinging to the style with which they had been familiar
since their youth, were endeavouring to make closer acquaintance with
the foreign forms so much in demand. The names of the masons who did
this work are on record: they were John Eastawe and John Sparke,
evidently Englishmen.[11]
[11] _Hist. and Antiq. of Hengrave_, by John Gage.
[Illustration: 44.--HENGRAVE HALL, SUFFOLK.
CORBELLING OF BAY WINDOW OVER ENTRANCE ARCHWAY.]
Of the houses so far mentioned, Oxburgh Hall, East Barsham, Sutton
Place, Layer Marney, and Hengrave are all built of brick. On the other
side of the country, and in a house constructed of entirely different
materials, we get--at Moreton Old Hall in Cheshire (1559)--the same
kind of plan with which we have now become familiar (Fig. 45). This
house is of timber and plaster, as many of the old houses in that
district are. It is surrounded by a moat, and has--at any rate on the
ground floor--but few windows looking out over the country; they face
into the court where possible. The relative positions of the hall, the
kitchen, and the private apartments are here more clearly discernible
than in some of the preceding plans, inasmuch as the family rooms have
undergone but little serious alteration. The proximity of the two large
bays of the hall and parlour is curious, and was the factor which
caused the hall bay to be placed so far away from the daïs end.
[Illustration: PLATE XIV.
HENGRAVE HALL, SUFFOLK (1538).
ENTRANCE GATEWAY.]
The observations of contemporary writers are of much value when
considering subjects of historical interest. It is therefore worth
while to reproduce the advice of a certain Andrew Boorde, Doctor of
Physicke, in regard to the arrangements of a house, which he offers
in the fourth chapter of his _Compendyous Regyment, or a Dyetary of
Helth_, published in 1542. In this chapter he proceeds to "shewe under
what maner and fasshon a man shulde buylde his howse or mansyon in
exchewyng thynges the whiche shulde shorten the lyfe of man." He dwells
upon the necessity of a good soil and good prospect, which latter
advice was frequently neglected, a great number of houses in those
times being built in a hole. The air, he says, must be pure, frisky,
and clean, the foundations on gravel mixed with clay, or else on rock
or on a hill. The chief prospects are to be east and west, especially
north-east, south-east, and south-west; never south, for the south wind
"doth corrupte and doth make evyll vapoures." He holds it better that
the windows should open plain north than plain south, in spite, he
says, of Jeremiah's saying that "from the north dependeth all evil."
[Illustration: 45.--MORETON OLD HALL, CHESHIRE. GROUND PLAN (1559).]
He then enters upon particulars of the plan, and it will be observed
how exactly his suggestions, so far as they go, agree with the plans we
are examining. "Make the hall," he says, "under such a fashion that the
parlour be annexed to the head of the hall, and the buttery and pantry
be at the lower end of the hall; the cellar under the pantry, set
somewhat abase from the buttery and pantry, coming with an entry by the
wall of the buttery; the pastry-house and the larder-house annexed to
the kitchen. Then divide the lodgings by the circuit of the quadrivial
court, and let the gatehouse be opposite or against the hall door (not
directly), but the hall door standing abase, and the gatehouse in the
middle of the front entering into the place. Let the privy chamber be
annexed to the great chamber of estate, with other chambers necessary
for the building, so that many of the chambers may have a prospect into
the chapel." The necessity for these particular arrangements, so far
as health is concerned, does not seem quite obvious, especially the
directions not to have the hall door exactly opposite to the entrance
gateway; and it may be supposed that this particular passage in his
treatise was suggested by what he had frequently seen rather than by
what science led him to prescribe. When he goes on to dwell upon the
necessity for removing "fylth," he was probably taking a more original
attitude, as also when he recommended the stables, slaughter-house,
and dairy to be kept a quarter of a mile away from the house. The
bakehouse and brewhouse should also be isolated, he thinks; but in all
these respects his advice was not universally followed, for the whole
of these particular places are to be found attached to the house on one
or other of contemporary house plans. His next advice is applicable to
Moreton Old Hall. "When all the mansion is edified and built, if there
be a moat made about it, there should be some fresh spring come to it,
and divers times the moat ought to be scoured and kept clean from mud
and weeds. And in no wise let not the filth of the kitchen descend into
the moat." Most of Dr. Andrew Boorde's advice is practical and to the
point, and he is not so much in bondage to ancient authorities as many
of his contemporaries were, in spite of his reference to Jeremiah. The
rest of his chapter refers to the gardens and other surroundings of the
house, which need not now be dealt with.
[Illustration: PLATE XV.
MORETON OLD HALL, CHESHIRE.
ELEVATION OF ENTRANCE GABLE.]
[Illustration: PLATE XVI.
MORETON OLD HALL, CHESHIRE.
ELEVATION OF GABLE ON FRONT.]
The prevailing treatment of the ornament at Moreton is still Gothic
(Plates XV., XVI.), in spite of its date being beyond the middle of
the century. Nevertheless the influence of the new style is seen here
and there, especially in the carved pendants of the overhanging work.
The fine bay windows were made, as an inscription tells us, by Richard
Dale, carpenter, in 1559, a further testimony to the fact that it was
English workmen who did most of the work of the time, even when it
shows signs of foreign ornament. Although the bulk of the house was
built in 1559, considerable alterations were made nearly half a century
later, in 1602; and to this date may be assigned the long gallery,
with its continuous row of mullioned windows reaching from end to end
almost without a break. The effect is very quaint, but the room must
always have been uncomfortable, whether in summer by reason of the
heat, or in winter by reason of the cold; and as a comment upon the
effect of time on the stability of these timber houses, nothing can be
more striking than an attempt to walk quickly down the seventy feet of
billowy floor which the gallery presents.
With our next plan we enter upon the Elizabethan era, an era marked
by an extraordinary amount of house-building, which led to a great
degree of attention being bestowed upon the planning. This attention,
it is true, does not seem to have been directed so much towards comfort
or economy as towards magnificence and display. No doubt comfort of
a kind was aimed at, but people did not then require comfort as we
understand it, and designers were not likely to be much in advance
of their clients. The sacrifices of common sense to architectural
effect were nevertheless few. The relative positions of the principal
apartments were settled by considerations of convenience, not of
external grouping. The kitchens, for instance, were always fairly in
touch with the hall, not, as in later days, when Palladian architecture
was in vogue, located some hundreds of feet away in a detached wing,
connected by a curved colonnade, and balanced on the other extremity by
the stables or the remainder of the servants' rooms, in a similar wing.
Nor were the servants' bedrooms hidden away in the roof with windows
looking out on to the back of a solid pediment, or even looking inwards
and only lighted by borrowed light. It was the architects of a more
strict Italian school who were reduced to such expedients in the early
part of the eighteenth century; but in the late sixteenth the prevalent
style was sufficiently elastic to enable the dictates of common sense
to be obeyed. No doubt bay windows were placed in useless situations in
order to balance others that were useful. Lofty windows were sometimes
divided by floors halfway up their height in order that the uniformity
of the front should not be interrupted; but the rooms themselves
were cheerful enough and had good prospects. The features which the
Elizabethan designer had to marshal were smaller and more manageable
than those which fell to the lot of his successor in the days of Anne
and the Georges; and this was particularly the case with his windows.
In a mullioned window an additional row of lights in the width, or even
the height, can be managed without attracting undue attention, but the
sash window has to conform to the size and situation of its brethren.
Economy of planning, in the sense of avoiding waste spaces, or saving
the footsteps of the inmates, was not much studied. The only evidence
we have of its consideration lies in the occasional lopping off of
extravagant features, or the substitution of a reduced set of plans for
one of more extensive area.
The real aim of the designers seems to have been magnificence and
display--sometimes on a large scale, sometimes on a small. The
principal means used for this end was symmetry--not so much a symmetry
of detail as a symmetry of parts, of large features rather than of
small. We shall find this quality in almost every kind of plan, and an
extremely valuable quality it is if not carried to excess. The symmetry
of the Elizabethans was generally under control. It was sometimes
wasteful and its results were occasionally amusing, but they were never
ridiculous or fatal to the comfort of the house.
Up to the present the plans we have examined have not--with the
exception of Sutton Place--shown any determined attempt at a
symmetrical treatment, only a certain hankering after it. With Kirby
Hall (1570-75) we get a more resolute effort in this direction (Fig.
46). The entrance gateway and the screens are on an axial line running
through the house and its green court. The inner court is quite
symmetrically treated, door answering to door, and window to window;
but the exterior façades were left to take care of themselves, and no
attempt was made to balance one mass by another.
[Illustration: PLATE XVII.
KIRBY HALL, NORTHANTS.
ELEVATION OF SOUTH SIDE OF COURTYARD (1570-75).]
[Illustration: 46.--KIRBY HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. GROUND PLAN
(1570-75).]
The symmetry of plan was carried out in the elevations too, at least
so far as the courtyard is concerned. The south side, in which the
projecting porch stands, is quite symmetrical, the great windows of the
hall on the right being exactly balanced by similar windows on the left
(Plate XVII.). The hall reaches from floor to roof, but the left wing
had two storeys, and the floor of the upper one occupied one row of the
glazed lights. This expedient cannot be justified on the principle of
causing the exterior treatment to indicate the internal arrangement;
but it can hardly be denied that the general effect would be marred
were the left-hand windows divided into two tiers. The door below the
windows to the left is a later insertion. A curious fact about this
front is that the two outside gables, which contain much delicate
detail, are partly blocked by the roofs of the side wings, which abut
against them; yet it is quite certain, from the character of the
detail, and from the badges which are used as ornaments in the wings,
that the whole court was built at the same time, ends and sides, and it
is equally certain that the whole building operations were comprised
within the five years 1570 to 1575.
[Illustration: PLATE XVIII.
KIRBY HALL. JOHN THORPE'S GROUND PLAN.
_From the Soane Museum Collection._]
Although no attempt seems to have been actually made to carry symmetry
of treatment into the external façades, yet an examination of the plan
made by John Thorpe, the surveyor, at the time that Kirby was built,
shows that such a treatment was contemplated on each of the four faces
(Plate XVIII.). There are other points of interest which Thorpe's
plan elucidates. Having entered through the principal doorway, in
the north or upper side of the plan, and having traversed the length
of the court, we find a projecting porch through which the screens
are reached. The arrangement is the typical one which we have seen
in all the plans yet examined, and which tallies almost exactly with
Dr. Andrew Boorde's advice, already quoted (see page 57), with the
exception that he was opposed to the hall porch being exactly opposite
the entrance gateway. On the right (as the plan lies) are the buttery
and pantry, and the passage leading to the kitchen department; on the
left is the hall. The details of the kitchen department are shown more
clearly than in any of the foregoing houses, which have all undergone
alterations. They comprise the kitchen, with its large fireplace; "the
pastry," where the ovens are; the dry larder under it; the surveying
place; and the wet larder. Close to these, and approached by the
kitchen passage, is the winter parlour, a room which occurs on many
plans of the time in close proximity to the kitchen. This endeavour
to get a living room conveniently situated for winter use is one of
the refinements which were now creeping in. Returning to the screens,
and passing into the hall, we find the daïs marked on the plan, the
fireplace in the side wall, but no bay window: there is one indicated,
but it was not carried out. From the daïs the family apartments are
reached, together with a great staircase. Next to the head of the
hall, as Dr. Andrew Boorde has it, is the parlour (pler); the other
rooms are not named. The division of "the lodgings by the circuit of
the quadrivial court" is shown on Thorpe's plan, but most of the cross
walls are now gone. It will be seen that these lodgings consist of a
number of groups of two or three rooms (which were called "lodgings"),
each group being entered from the court by a door, and each room
communicating with its neighbour, so that the complete circuit of the
building could be made through them. The object of this grouping
was to give a small suite of rooms to every guest, in which he could
establish himself with his principal attendants; in the case of a large
retinue it could overflow into the next group. It was necessary to
traverse the open court to reach the places of general resort, such as
the hall, the "great chamber of estate," and the gallery; but it is
evident that this was not felt to be a drawback, since the practice was
widespread. The next point to notice is that here we have the first
instance of the open terrace, or arcade, or loggia. It occupies the
north side of the court, thus being open to the full midday sun. The
long gallery, which was one of the principal features of an Elizabethan
house, and frequently affected the planning, inasmuch as endeavours
were made to obtain a gallery of the greatest possible length, was over
the western or left-hand side of the court: it was 150 feet long by 16
feet wide. The upper floor was to be reached, according to Thorpe's
plan, by four large internal staircases, and two external ones on
the west front. As a matter of fact, indications actually remain of
five principal staircases, besides a subordinate one, and they are
more conveniently placed than those shown on the old plan. The great
extent of the rooms, and their being placed round a court, necessitated
several means of access, and it must not be forgotten that the upper
part of the hall interposed an impassable barrier between the two sides
of the house on the upper floor. The time was soon to come when the
height of the hall was to be restricted to that of other rooms on the
same floor, but at Kirby the traditional lofty hall was still retained.
The detail at Kirby is thoroughly Elizabethan, but there are a few
windows, dated 1638, 1640, which were inserted by Inigo Jones, and he
remodelled the north wing. His work, however, is easily distinguished
from that of earlier date. The house was built by a Sir Humphrey
Stafford, the head of a family seated at Blatherwyck in the immediate
vicinity. It was begun in 1570, and it bears on the parapet of the
courtyard the dates 1572, 1575; in the latter year Sir Humphrey died,
having practically completed his house, which was then sold by his
heir to Sir Christopher Hatton. Not only are the parapets dated, but
amid the ornament of the various bands which make the circuit of
the courtyard, and in the gable over the porch, occur the Stafford
cognizances. Their presence indicates the extent of the work of
Stafford, and proves that practically the whole place was built between
the years 1570-75, though the Hattons probably made some trifling
alterations during the last ten years of the century, and subsequently
employed Inigo Jones to partly modernise the house fifty years later.
The detail is unusually free and fresh, and has more variety than
Elizabethan masons generally bestowed upon their work. The gable over
the porch in the courtyard has no counterpart in England; the coping
of the parapet round the whole court has an unusual but effective wave
ornament (Plate XIX.).
[Illustration: Plate XIX. KIRBY HALL, NORTHANTS. DETAIL OF PORCH.]
There are, of course, the usual classic columns applied with a liberal
hand, and all the horizontal string-courses have classic profiles. The
carving of the friezes is interesting, inasmuch as it is somewhat out
of the common in detail, and its component parts were evidently carved
in large numbers, and used as occasion required, for in many places
where the length of a carved stone was too great for its intended
position it was ruthlessly shortened to fit, and the carving was
mutilated.
So far all the plans have shown a courtyard round which the house was
built, first adopted, no doubt, from reasons of defence, and afterwards
retained because it had become customary. We now come to another type
of very frequent occurrence, in which two narrow parallel wings are
connected by a narrow body, thus forming a figure like the letter H.
It is in effect a curtailment of the older plan by leaving out the
"lodgings" which enclosed the court; but there is no change in the
old idea of placing the hall in a central situation and flanking it
at one end by the family apartments and at the other by the kitchen
and servants' rooms. At Montacute, in Somerset (1580), the original
relation of hall and kitchen is preserved, but the intermediate rooms
have been allotted to modern uses (Fig. 47). It should be observed that
the passage at the back of the hall was formed by inserting between the
wings the porch and part of the walls from an earlier house at Clifton
Maubank in the year 1760. This passage, which is a great convenience to
the house, must therefore not be looked upon as part of the original
plan. The detail of the part thus inserted is of Late Tudor character.
The profiles of the mouldings are Gothic, the carving inclines towards
Italian, the parapets have cusped panels, the pinnacles have the
spiral twist so dear to the Tudor mason, and a battlemented moulding
beneath the heraldic animals which they support (Plate XX.). The
treatment is quite different from that of the house itself. Another
point to remark about the plan is that all thoughts of defence are
here abandoned, and the windows look freely out on all sides. Indeed,
far from desiring to exclude people, the builder, Sir Edward Phelips,
wrote up over his door, "_Through this wide-opening gate, none come too
early, none return too late._" It will also be noticed that in order
to get a truly symmetrical disposition of windows, the bay is removed
from the end to the middle of the hall, which is another indication of
a tendency to depart from the ancient arrangements.
[Illustration: 47.--MONTACUTE HOUSE, SOMERSET. GROUND PLAN (1580).
1. Hall. 2. Drawing-room. 3. Large Dining-room. 4. Small Dining-room.
5. Smoking-room. 6. Pantry. 7. Kitchen. 8. Servants' Hall. 9. Porch.
10. Garden-house.]
It is true that there is a court at Montacute, but it is enclosed by an
open balustrade and not by solid buildings; it is there for delight and
not for defence, and everything in the planning shows that the builder
considered he could occupy his house in security.
[Illustration: 48.--MONTACUTE HOUSE, SOMERSET. WEST FRONT, WITH COURT
AND GARDEN-HOUSES (1580).]
On the top floor, over the hall and running from end to end of the
building, is the gallery; it is lighted at each end and down so much of
the side as is not blocked by the wings of the house, which of course
it cuts off from the staircases and the other rooms. The treatment of
the elevations is as symmetrical as that of the plan (Fig. 48). The
area of window space is in excess of that of wall space, the strings
are of some depth and of classic profile, and the whole appearance
contrasts strongly with that of Hengrave. Along the topmost floor in
the spaces between the windows are eight statues, which, with a ninth
in the central gable, are said to represent those Nine Worthies whom
Holofernes and his companions tried to represent in a more dramatic
manner before the Princess of France and her lively attendants.
[Illustration: PLATE XX.
MONTACUTE HOUSE, SOMERSET.
PART OF ENTRANCE FRONT SEEN FROM WING.]
It has already been observed that the plan of Montacute is shaped
roughly like the letter =H=. This type of plan is very frequent,
and is the same in its essence as the [sideways letter] =E= plan, of which many
writers have made more than is needful. The [sideways letter] =E=
plan is in fact the same as the =H= with the side strokes
curtailed. To make a just comparison, either the centre stroke of the
[sideways letter] =E= should be omitted or it should be added to
the cross of the =H,= inasmuch as it represents the projecting
porch, which was present equally in each arrangement. The fact that the
[sideways letter] =E= plan resembles the first letter of Elizabeth
is probably a coincidence merely, and not a compliment to the queen. At
the same time it would have been quite in accordance with the spirit
of the time to have taken such a way of expressing loyalty, only in
that case we should have expected to find fewer plans of the =H=
variety, and more of the other; but as a matter of fact there are few,
if any, houses with a perfectly straight front such as the back of the
[sideways letter] =E= demands.
[Illustration: 49.--BARLBOROUGH HALL, DERBYSHIRE. PLAN OF PRINCIPAL
FLOOR (1583).]
At Barlborough, in Derbyshire (1583), we get again a different type.
The house is built round a court, but an extremely small one, now
filled with a modern staircase (Fig. 49). All the windows look out into
the open country. Instead of extending itself along the ground, the
house provides its accommodation by extending itself vertically, and
the kitchen and servants' rooms are placed in the basement. This was an
idea introduced, it is said, from Italy, but it is one which, though
sometimes met with, did not commend itself to Elizabethan builders
when space was plentiful. The hall is on the principal floor, and is
approached from outside up a long flight of steps. The screens led to
the staircase which penetrated to the kitchen in the basement. The
hall had its bay window at the daïs end, from which the great chamber
was approached. We have still, therefore, the old idea of the hall
as a living room, and part of a series of rooms communicating with
each other; not yet as an entrance from which the living rooms are
approached.
[Illustration: 50.--BARLBOROUGH HALL, DERBYSHIRE. ENTRANCE FRONT
(1583).]
The detail at Barlborough is of a simple kind; the house was not of a
large size and did not require much elaboration (Fig. 50). The actual
classic treatment is confined to the front door, which is flanked with
columns. The parapet is battlemented, the strings are narrow, and the
windows are not overwhelming in size. The roof is flat, and there
are none of the gables which are so marked a feature of the time.
Picturesqueness of outline, however, which was always sought for, is
here obtained by carrying up the bay windows as turrets, a treatment
which lends much distinction to an otherwise simple exterior.
[Illustration: PLATE XXI.
DODDINGTON HALL, LINCOLNSHIRE.
ENTRANCE FRONT WITH GATEHOUSE (1595).]
Twelve years later than Barlborough we get at Doddington, in
Lincolnshire (1595), a plan which reverts to the type of Montacute
(Fig. 51). It has the usual characteristics of the simplest kind--wings
one room thick; the entrance at the end of the hall, leading on the
left to the buttery, pantry, and kitchens; the parlour at the head of
the hall, and the principal staircase adjacent. Here, however, as at
Montacute, the hall is only one storey in height; it has a room above
it--the great chamber: and on the top floor the gallery extends over
the whole central part from wing to wing.
[Illustration: 51.--DODDINGTON HALL, LINCOLNSHIRE. GROUND PLAN (1595).]
There is an entrance court in front of the house enclosed by a wall. It
is approached through one of the quaint gatehouses of the time, which
were a reminiscence of a more turbulent state of society, when it was
necessary for all who went to the house to do so under the eye of the
porter, but which in the calmer times of Elizabeth were occupied by
some of the numerous functionaries who ministered to the pleasures of
the rich. The detail at Doddington is of the plainest, the only attempt
at richness being round the front door. The windows are of reasonable
size, the strings are narrow, and are all of the same quasi-classic
profile. The parapet is perfectly plain, and the roof is without
gables, the skyline being broken, as at Barlborough, with turrets,
formed by carrying up the porch and the two projections in the internal
angles of the front (Plate XXI.). The house is an example of a plain
and business-like type, which may be accounted for by the fact that
it was built for a business man, one Thomas Tailor, registrar to the
Bishop of Lincoln.
[Illustration: 52.--BURTON AGNES, YORKSHIRE. GROUND PLAN (1602-10).]
With the opening of the new century we get at Burton Agnes, in
Yorkshire (1602-10), a repetition of the same leading idea which we
have been following for a hundred and fifty years (Fig. 52). We have
the screens at the end of the hall, the kitchens on the left, and the
bay window, the family rooms and grand staircase at the head of the
hall. The family apartments have increased in number. The tendency was
towards having separate apartments for various uses, and on plans of
the time we not infrequently find a "dining parlour" specially named.
The introduction of this refinement marks the dwindling importance of
the hall. The latter is ceasing to be the centre of family life, and
becoming merely an entrance. The daïs end is no longer the comfortable
place it was, with its bay window and the fireplace close by: it is
becoming pierced with doors, and draughty. The family find it more
comfortable to have a separate room for their meals, and the servants'
quarters are becoming more self-contained. The old usages of the hall
are being discontinued.
[Illustration: 53.--ASTON HALL, NEAR BIRMINGHAM. GROUND PLAN
(1618-35).]
[Illustration: 54.--ASTON HALL, WARWICKSHIRE. NORTH WING.]
This change is quite apparent in the last plan of the series, that of
Aston Hall, in Warwickshire (1618-35). The hall is still central, the
kitchen is in one wing, the family rooms in the other, supplemented by
a row at the back of the hall (Fig. 53). But the hall itself is now
merely an entrance--it has ceased to be a living-room; it is entered
from the middle of the side, no longer at the end, where indeed the
fireplace now finds itself: there is no daïs and no bay window. This
is a revolution which it has taken more than a century to produce,
counting from the first appearance of the Italian influence. The change
no doubt was effected from the inside more than the out: from the
gradual alteration of habits, rather than from the wish to Italianize
our English plans. But the two tendencies co-operated with each other
and combined to lead English designers further and further away from
the old traditions.
Although the hall shows a departure from the old lines of planning,
the general arrangement adheres to them. The symmetrical wings, the
mullioned windows, the turrets (Fig. 54), the forecourt with its lodges
at the corners, and the open arcade on the south front, are all in
keeping with Elizabethan and Jacobean methods, and offer a striking
contrast to the work at Rainham Hall, in Norfolk, which was built by
Inigo Jones in 1630, five years before Aston was finished.
The disappearance of the hall as a living-room, and its adoption as a
vestibule, mark a great change in our domestic architecture. The tie
with the mediæval past is loosened, and with the almost contemporaneous
departure of the mullioned window it is severed altogether; there
is nothing now to prevent English designers from assimilating their
buildings ever more and more to the models which they sought direct in
Italy, without being diverted from their purpose by what they passed in
intermediate countries.