EXTERIOR FEATURES.
LAY-OUT OF HOUSES, LODGES AND GATEWAYS, DOORWAYS AND PORCHES.
There was a very remarkable amount of building done in the last quarter
of the sixteenth century. Plenty of money was available, much of it
acquired from the lands of the dissolved monasteries; the country was
at peace, and the strong rule of Elizabeth gradually produced a state
of prosperity hitherto unknown. Defensive precautions, save such as
seemed necessary against vagrants, were abandoned in all kinds of
houses. The outer courts, the inner courts, and the gatehouses, which
formerly were built for the sake of security, were now retained chiefly
for the sake of appearance, and because they added to the privacy of
the house. The porter at the gate exercised a certain amount of control
over those who wished to enter, and on occasion he closed his gates
against the populace, although sometimes without complete success, as
we learn from a scene in Shakespeare's play of "Henry VIII.," where the
people, in their anxiety to see something of the christening of the
infant Princess Elizabeth, managed to crowd in, in spite of "as much
as one sound cudgel of four foot could distribute" at the hands of the
porter's man.
Everyone who could afford it seems to have built in the time of
Elizabeth and James. The great nobles erected vast palaces like
Theobalds and Holdenby, like Audley End, and Knole and Buckhurst. Men
of smaller wealth built mansions like Kirby and Montacute, Wollaton and
Blickling. Squires built their manor houses in the villages, merchants
their homes in the towns, not infrequently, indeed, leaving the city
for some neighbouring parish, and there ending their days as lords of
the manor. When the condition of an existing house did not warrant
its actual removal, additions in the new style were made; something
had to be done to keep in the fashion. Throughout the length and
breadth of the land the same activity was displayed. From Yorkshire
and Westmorland in the north, to Cornwall and Kent in the south; from
Shropshire in the west to Suffolk in the east, we find work of this
period scattered up and down the country in mansion, manor house,
cottage and church.
A good deal of building was done in Henry VIII.'s time, but vastly
more in Elizabeth's. The examples left to us of the former period
are few compared with those of the latter; but in both cases it must
be remembered that the old gave way to the new. The builders of
Elizabeth's days removed the work of their grandfathers to make room
for their own, only to have this in its turn replaced in the times of
Anne and the Georges. Many as are the houses of the sixteenth century
which remain, we know that many others, of equal interest and beauty,
have been pulled down.
LAY-OUT.
It is not always easy in the present day to grasp the system upon which
the larger houses of Elizabeth's time were laid out. Modern methods of
locomotion, and modern ideas of convenience, have in many cases caused
the approach to the houses to be altered. It is the same with regard
to most of our ancient cities. The railway now brings us to a spot
which has no relation to the old landmarks of the place, and instead
of approaching our destination through the ancient arteries, which
were the growth of many years, we slip in through by-ways and slums,
or along a new street made expressly for the purpose. The approach to
one of the larger Elizabethan houses was an affair of time. Roads were
then of a very primitive description, and depended for their condition
upon the nature of the soil. "There is good land where there is foul
way," was a saying of the time; and conversely, where there was a hard
road there was likely to be stony land. From the main road a similar
rough track led, perhaps through an avenue of newly planted trees, in
a straight line towards the house. There was no gate-keeper's lodge at
the end of a finely gravelled road winding through a park. The lodge
was part of the outbuildings of the house, and until you arrived there
the road was generally left to take care of itself. After passing
through the lodge, there were often two courts to traverse before the
hall was reached. The lodge was on the great axial line of the house,
so that as you stood waiting, if all the doors happened to be open, you
could see right through the courts and the screens and get a glimpse of
the garden beyond.
[Illustration: 55.--HOLDENBY HOUSE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. PLAN OF LAY-OUT.
FROM A SURVEY MADE IN 1587.
A A. The Park.
B. Base-court.
C. First Court of House.
D D. Gardens.
E. Rosery.
F F. Terraces.
G G. Mounts.
H. Site of Old House.
K. Church.
L L. Ponds.
M. Stables.
N. Porter's Lodge.]
The accompanying plan of the lay-out of Holdenby (Fig. 55), from a
survey made in 1587, gives a good idea of the surroundings of the
larger Elizabethan houses. The road between two villages ran along
the north side of the park, and from this road branched another one
which led up to the house. While it traversed the park it was allowed
to wind according to the undulations of the ground, but when it came
to within a quarter of a mile of the lodge it was made perfectly
straight, and so ran through the midst of "the green"--"a large, long,
straight, fair way," as Lord Burghley called it. It led directly to
the porter's lodge, which was a building separate from the house, and
self-contained, and it passed the long range of stabling on the right.
The porter's lodge opened into the first court, the "base-court," as
it was called, walled round, and entered on its two sides by large
gateways. At the further end of the base-court stood the house, raised
a few steps above the general level, where Lord Burghley "found a great
magnificence in the front or front pieces of the house, and so every
part answerable to other, to allure liking." The house was built round
two great courts, the first 128 feet by 104 feet, the second 140 feet
by 110 feet, comparable in point of size to those at Hampton Court,
and a good deal more intricate in detail. To the north of the house
itself were two walled gardens, of nearly an acre each, and beyond
these were spinneys, or small woods, and the little village with its
inn. The ground on the south side of the house sloped pretty steeply
away, and was laid out in a series of terraces. At the top of these,
and flanking the whole length of the base-court, the house, and the
orchard beyond, ran a broad straight path. In the midst of the terraces
a great platform was run out at the level of this long path, containing
a rosery laid out with paths in a simple geometrical pattern. At
the extreme end of the long path was a cross-path leading each way
to a prospect mount, up at least one of which wound a spiral path,
ending (in all probability) in a banqueting house, such as Lord Bacon
describes in his essay "Of Gardens," and such as the Parliamentary
Commissioners describe as being at Nonesuch in the year 1650. At the
foot of the terraces lay fishponds amid orchard-trees, and, in a small
enclosure of its own, the church. Close to the church was the site of
the old manor house, the home of Sir Christopher Hatton's fathers, but
which he found far too insignificant a dwelling for the Lord Chancellor.
Such were the surroundings of one of the most splendid palaces of
Elizabeth's splendid courtiers, and an examination of the contemporary
survey shows upon what a large scale the house and its appurtenances
were laid out. The house covered nearly two acres; the base-court
more than one acre; the green more than seventeen. In comparison
with the house the village is a mere collection of outhouses, not so
extensive as the range of stabling. The garden has not acquired all the
architectural adjuncts in the way of stone terraces, and garden-houses,
lead vases, statuary and _jets d'eau_, which became fashionable a
hundred years later; but it has a fine simplicity about it and a
largeness of scale which are in keeping with the house it belongs to.
[Illustration: 56.--DODDINGTON HALL, LINCOLNSHIRE. BLOCK PLAN.]
Theobalds, in Hertfordshire, was the model upon which Sir Christopher
Hatton professed to have founded his own more magnificent house at
Holdenby, and there is an interesting account, written by John Savile,
of King James's visit to Theobalds on his first coming to London
in 1603.[12] It is an early example of descriptive reporting which
would do credit to one of our great daily papers. Theobalds was the
house of Sir Robert Cecil, afterwards Lord Salisbury, and had been
built and embellished by his father, the great Lord Treasurer. The
writer particularly mentions the approach to the house, which stood
back from the highway, unlike the "manie sumptuous buildings" in the
neighbourhood, most of which belonged "to the cittie marchants." It
was reached by a most stately walk raised above the general level, and
beset about either side with young elm and ash trees extending from the
common street way to the first court belonging to the house. In order
to obtain full particulars of the proceedings, Savile stationed one of
his party at the upper end of the walk, another at the upper end of the
first court, while a third stood at the second court door, and he also
arranged with "a gentleman of good sort" to stand in the court that led
into the hall, and furnish particulars of the ceremonies invisible to
the others. After the king had at length entered the house, the crowd
of sightseers surged even into the uppermost court, apparently without
protest from the porter, and to their view the monarch graciously
displayed himself at his windows for the space of half an hour,
previous to going into the "laberinth-like garden to walke."
[12] _Nichols' Progresses of King James I._, Vol. I. 135.
LODGES AND GATEWAYS.
Sometimes the lodge formed part of the buildings enclosing the first
court, in which case one or two rooms or "lodgings" of the wing on
either side of the gateway would be devoted to the porter, in the same
way as the entrance to most of the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge is
still arranged. But very frequently it was separated from the house by
a court enclosed by a wall, as it was at Holdenby, and again at the
much smaller house at Doddington (Fig. 56). This wall was sometimes
high and solid, and sometimes coped "leaning height," as John Thorpe
has it on one of his plans, or sometimes pierced with ornamental
patterns.
[Illustration: 57.--STOKESAY CASTLE, SHROPSHIRE. THE
GATEHOUSE.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXII.
STANWAY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE (ABOUT 1630).
THE GATEHOUSE.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXIII.
WESTWOOD, WORCESTERSHIRE.
THE GATEHOUSE.]
The lodge itself was generally large enough to accommodate the
porter and his family, having two rooms downstairs and perhaps three
above, but occasionally there were even three floors, as at Stanway
in Gloucestershire (Plate XXII.), while at Hamstall Ridware, in
Staffordshire, the lodge was merely a gateway between two flanking
turrets only seven feet across inside. At Stokesay Castle, in
Shropshire, is a charming lodge or gatehouse of timber and plaster,
added in Elizabeth's time to the ancient castle (Fig. 57); and at
Westwood in Worcestershire the lodge is formed of two separate brick
buildings connected by an open timber roof and some pierced stonework,
displaying the mullet or five-pointed star of the owner (Plate XXIII.).
[Illustration: 58.--COLD ASHTON HALL, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. ENTRANCE
GATEWAY.]
[Illustration: 59.--WINWICK, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. GATEWAY TO MANOR HOUSE.]
The smaller houses had merely a gateway of more or less pretensions,
such as may be seen at Cold Ashton, near Bath (Fig. 58), a charming
little entrance on the roadside leading straight up by a paved walk
to the front door of the house; or at Winwick, in Northamptonshire
(Fig. 59), the stately remnant of a house now much curtailed in size.
This example is treated in a more important manner than usual, the
masonry flanking the archway on either side being of considerable
width, and elaborately ornamented with sunk patterns and carving. The
well-proportioned columns are disengaged from the wall behind them, and
the whole treatment of the lower part as far as the top of the cornice
calls to mind some of the Roman arches to be met with in Italy. The
pediments above the cornice are hardly equal to the structure upon
which they stand, but they give that variety and piquancy of outline
which was considered indispensable in work of the time; moreover, the
circular gable over the archway affords room for a panel containing the
owner's arms, although, by an irony of fate which would have annoyed
him deeply, the bearings are now indistinguishable. This gateway vies
in importance with those at Holdenby (Fig. 61), but the house at
Warwick could never have been more than a good-sized manor house. At
Cold Ashton the gateway is more in scale with the house, and although
the central feature above the cornice is mutilated, the arms still
remain. The effect of this roadside gateway is heightened by the
circular steps and the mounting-block. At Oundle, in Northamptonshire,
there is an example of a small gateway in the front wall of some
almshouses (Fig. 60) which, in spite of its insignificant size, imparts
considerable interest and even dignity to the group of which it is the
central feature. In large houses the entrance courts not infrequently
had archways in their side walls to afford access to the gardens or
the orchard. The base-court at Holdenby has already been mentioned
as having a gateway in each of its sides, apart altogether from the
gatehouse or porter's lodge. These two gateways still remain (Fig.
61), although most of the house and its adjuncts have disappeared,
leaving them stranded in a position that is hardly intelligible without
the aid of a plan showing the original arrangement. They bear the
date 1585, and a shield of arms containing fourteen quarterings of
the owner, Sir Christopher Hatton. In general treatment they resemble
the similar gateways in the forecourt at Kirby, which also belonged
to Sir Christopher, and they are more remarkable for their size and
stateliness than for the beauty of their detail: but it should not
be forgotten that the walls which supported them on either side,
and which connected them with the great house, are gone, and that,
denuded of their original surroundings, they appear much more heavy
and cumbrous than when they were a small part of a large scheme.
Much smaller than the base-court at Holdenby was the forecourt at
Kenyon Peel, in Lancashire, a half-timber house with a symmetrical E
front, and approached through a two-storey stone gatehouse, joined
to the house itself by stone walls. The gatehouse is rather gaunt,
like many of the stone buildings in that district, but in the little
gateways in the side of the court (Fig. 62) an effort has been made
to produce something less severe. The mixture of the stonework and
the black-and-white work of the house is effective, and the small
court, with its formal paved walks leading from the gatehouse to the
porch, and from one side doorway to the other, is full of interest;
especially as the house lies amid the chimneys of a busy part of
Lancashire, and is surrounded by the abomination of desolation which
accompanies the spread of populous places. The initials G. R. occur in
the topmost step of the coping, and the date 1631 on the lintel of the
doorway.
[Illustration: 60.--GATEWAY TO ALMSHOUSES, OUNDLE,
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.]
[Illustration: 61.--HOLDENBY, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. GATEWAYS TO
BASE-COURT (1585).]
[Illustration: 62.--KENYON PEEL, LANCASHIRE. GATEWAY AT SIDE OF COURT
(1631).]
[Illustration: 63.--DODDINGTON HALL, LINCOLNSHIRE. ENTRANCE DOORWAY
(1595).]
ENTRANCE DOORWAYS AND PORCHES.
The lodge or the gateway, as the case might be, was generally adorned
in some conspicuous place with the arms of the family, the squires
of the time being as proud of their various cognizances as Justice
Shallow was of his twelve luces. Five out of the eight examples already
illustrated are so adorned. The same shield that appears on the gateway
is also frequently to be seen over the door of the house itself, which
is reached after crossing the court. The doorway generally formed part
of a somewhat elaborate piece of ornament, for, however simple (and
sometimes even monotonous) the general treatment of the house was, the
front door was made handsome. At Doddington, in Lincolnshire, while the
bulk of the house is of plain brickwork, including the parapet, the
doorway is treated with a considerable amount of elaboration (Fig. 63).
[Illustration: 64.--PORCH AT CHELVEY COURT, SOMERSET (CIR. 1640).]
[Illustration: 65.--DOORWAY AT NAILSEA COURT, SOMERSET.]
The door stood more often than not in a projecting porch, which,
although sometimes only one storey in height, as at Chelvey Court, in
Somerset (Fig. 64), was usually higher, and was frequently carried
up the full height of the building. It is round these doors that we
find pronounced classic features employed in the shape of pillars and
pilasters, friezes and cornices, and pediments. But it was seldom that
the English mason did not introduce into his design some departure
from strict classic treatment, suggested by his native traditions. At
Chelvey the doorway has a flat-pointed head resting on an impost, such
as usually accompanies a semicircular arch: there is also a keystone
which protrudes from the straight lintel instead of crowning the arch,
which in the ordinary way would be there. The twisted columns support
pilasters of a different scale, which in their turn, however, are
relieved of anything to carry. The broken pediment encloses a shield
of arms, which rests in the usual fashion upon a base carried by the
keystone. Over all is a pierced parapet divided into square panels by
shallow pilasters. The spirit of the whole composition is Jacobean,
but the treatment betokens a late date, with its twisted columns and
broken pediment; and the arms confirm the conjecture prompted by the
character of the work, though the exact date is not recorded. It is
evident, however, that even in Somerset, the home of good masons, the
lesson of making appropriate use of classic features had not yet been
mastered. The treatment of the doorway at the neighbouring house of
Nailsea Court (Fig. 65) is more logical and pleasing. There is a quaint
mixture of pointed arch and classic cornice and corbelled bay-window;
and the manner in which the central projection in the cornice is made
the starting-point of the corbelling to the bay is a happy illustration
of the freedom with which the new features were handled.
[Illustration: PLATE XXIV.
DOORWAY AT CHIPCHASE CASTLE, NORTHUMBERLAND.
PORCH TO THE MANOR HOUSE, UPPER SLAUGHTER, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.]
[Illustration: 66.--DOORWAY AT GAYHURST, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.]
[Illustration: 67.--DOORWAY AT COLD ASHTON, SOMERSET.]
[Illustration: 68.--DOORWAY AT CHENEY COURT, SOMERSET.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXV.
WARDOUR CASTLE, WILTSHIRE. THE GRAND STAIRCASE.
HATFIELD HOUSE, HERTFORDSHIRE. DOORWAY IN COURT (1611).]
At Chipchase Castle, in Northumberland (Plate XXIV.), a square porch is
combined with a canted bay above it. The doorway follows the more usual
pattern; it has the circular arch resting on imposts, a projecting
keystone carried up to break the lines of the cornice, and is flanked
on either side by a circular column, which endeavours to justify its
presence by carrying an obelisk. The obelisks serve the useful purpose
of breaking the severe line of the splay which joins the octagonal
bay to the square porch below it, and they, together with the shield
of arms and the carving on the columns and the voussoirs of the arch,
impart considerable richness to the whole composition. At Gayhurst, in
Buckinghamshire, the columns, which are primarily introduced for the
sake of ornament, are made to do actual duty by supporting a slight
projection of the storey above them (Fig. 66); and there are two tiers
of them, a fact which helps to increase the importance of the entrance.
In this, as in similar cases, the cornices are continued along the
sides of the projecting porch, and are stopped against the face of the
main building. At Upper Slaughter, in Gloucestershire (Plate XXIV.),
the porch has more of the appearance of being an excrescence, the only
connecting member being the string over the upper windows of the
house, which is returned along the sides of the porch. The cornices
of the porch are in this instance only just returned round its outer
angles, and not carried back to the main building. The pilasters are
merely ornamental adjuncts: there is no pretence about them of doing
any work; the head of the upper window breaks unceremoniously into
the frieze of the cornice, the keystone of the arch is carried up so
that the lines of the lower cornice may break round it, and the whole
treatment shows that the designer was free from any morbid craving
after correctness. In the doorway at Hatfield, in the side of the court
(Plate XXV.), the work is handled in a more formal manner. There is
the semicircular arch, with its impost, and the two flanking pilasters
carried up in order to break the cornice, while a central projection
follows up from the keystone. There is no crowning pediment, but
in its place is a strap-work pattern terminating at the top with a
point which finds itself in the centre of one of the triglyphs in the
entablature which makes the circuit of the whole house at the first
floor level. The archway at the foot of the grand staircase at Wardour
Castle (Plate XXV.) is treated with still greater propriety; the
designer has allowed himself to take no liberties with his copy, but
the severity is relieved by the informal manner in which the steps wind
away to the left. This is an accident arising from the fact that the
staircase is of an older date; it is covered with Gothic vaulting, and
at its upper end the original pointed arch has been made semicircular,
and the stone round it has been recessed so as to surround it with a
square moulded frame in the manner prevalent at the beginning of the
seventeenth century. At Cold Ashton we have a simple pedimented doorway
in a shallow projection between the two wings of the house (Fig. 67),
and at Cheney Court there is another simple form of doorway; it has
no pilasters, but a curved pediment, supported on corbels, forms a
hood (Fig. 68)--a mode of treatment adopted towards the close of the
Jacobean period, and handled here with a pleasant freedom, a panel
being contrived in the middle of the frieze to contain the family
arms. At Woollas Hall (Fig. 69) there is a boldly projecting porch,
thrusting itself out beyond the main face of the house, and giving from
its oriel on the top floor a wide view over the surrounding country.
[Illustration: 69.--WOOLLAS HALL, WORCESTERSHIRE. PART OF ENTRANCE
FRONT (1611).]
[Illustration: 70.--PORCH AT GORHAMBURY, HERTFORDSHIRE (1568).]
[Illustration: 71.--HAMBLETON HALL, RUTLAND.]
The ruins at Gorhambury, near St. Albans, a house built by Sir
Nicholas Bacon, the father of Lord Bacon, present another treatment,
which can still be made out in spite of the modern brick buttresses,
and the brick arch which has been inserted below the original one of
stone (Fig. 70). There is a projecting porch of two storeys, with
all its three external faces carefully treated, the front being made
rather more elaborate by the introduction of niches with statues. The
employment of statues and busts as decorative features was a favourite
device of the time. They were almost invariably of classic origin, and
attired in classic garb, the most modern personages usually admitted
to this distinction being those three of the Nine Worthies who were
of Christian extraction. In the spandrils of the arch are circular
medallions with busts, and in the parapet are the royal arms. There
was also over the arch (we are told) a grey marble panel with four
Latin verses, stating that the house was finished in the tenth year of
Elizabeth's reign by Nicholas Bacon, whom she made a knight, and Keeper
of her Seal. Below these verses was the aphorism "Mediocria firma,"
that is, "Firm is the middle state." Statues, busts, and inscriptions
are all characteristic of the taste of the period, and will be more
particularly dealt with later on in connection with the design of
chimney-pieces. The house which was thus finished in the tenth year of
Elizabeth, that is in 1568, was begun (according to an account in the
possession of a local antiquary) on the 1st day of March, 1563, thus
taking five years to build. It was not of vast extent, but it comprised
two courts, one for the house, the other for the kitchens. The porch
illustrated was approached in a direct line across the larger of these
courts, and led into the screens in the usual way; the windows visible
to the left of the porch lighted the great hall at the daïs end. There
is very little left of the old walls, but the extent of the hall can
be made out, as well as the position of a clock tower; and at some
little distance there remains another niche with a headless statue in
it, no doubt that of Henry VIII., which we are told was put up on the
occasion of the Queen's second visit to Gorhambury. Her first visit was
paid in 1572, four years after the completion of the house, on which
occasion the Queen told the Lord Keeper that he had made his house too
little for him, whereupon he replied, "Not so, madam, but your Majesty
has made me too big for my house." He was, however, resolved not to be
open to such a reproach again, and on receiving an intimation that the
Queen would visit him a second time (in 1577) he is said to have built
a gallery of lath and plaster 120 feet long by 18 feet wide, beneath
which were cloisters, and in the middle of their length the statue of
King Henry in gilt armour. This enlarging of the house for the express
purpose of receiving the Queen was only one of numerous instances,
which will be referred to in a subsequent chapter, as also will the
proportion of the long galleries so distinctive of the period.
[Illustration: 72.--CHASTLETON, OXFORDSHIRE. GROUND PLAN (CIR. 1603).
1. Hall.
2. Little Parlour.
3. Great Parlour.
4. Nursery.
5. Chamber over Kitchen.
6. Pantry.
7. Parlour.]
The gallery, was panelled with oak gilt, and on the panelling were
Latin inscriptions, so aptly selected that it was considered worth
while to collect them in a small volume, illuminated with much
beauty. In the orchard was a banqueting-house, which in its turn was
adorned with busts and inscriptions. These all related to specific
subjects--grammar, arithmetic, logic, music, rhetoric, geometry, and
astrology; and each subject was not only depicted on the walls, but
was further illustrated by appropriate verses and the pictures of such
learned men as had excelled in it.[13] Although most of them were
selected from the ancients, yet Sir Nicholas Bacon was sufficiently
catholic in his taste to admit such modern names as Lilly, the
grammarian, and Copernicus, the "astrologer," the latter of whom had
only been dead some thirty years.
[13] _Nichols' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth_, Vol. II.
[Illustration: PLATE XXVI.
CRANBORNE MANOR HOUSE, DORSETSHIRE.
THE PORCH (ABOUT 1612).]
Another kind of entrance is afforded by the arcaded porch, of which a
simple example is to be seen at Hambleton, in Rutland (Fig. 71), and
a more elaborate one at Cranborne, in Dorset (Plate XXVI.), where it
was added, along with other "modern" features, to an old manor house
dating from the thirteenth century, in order to bring the house into
the prevailing fashion.
[Illustration: 73.--DOORWAY AT LYDDINGTON, RUTLAND.]
So far all the entrances which have been mentioned were in the main
face of the building, the front doors being in the centre of the
façade. As the front door almost always led into the screens at the end
of the hall, it followed as a matter of course that the hall itself
occupied only a little more than half the length of the façade. In
some instances, however, the hall was made to occupy the centre of it,
and in such cases the porch could no longer be central, but was moved
to one side, and made to balance a corresponding projection which
served as the bay window of the hall: the doorway was then placed, not
in the front face but the side face of the porch, as may be seen at
Chastleton, in Oxfordshire (Fig. 72), and Burton Agnes, in Yorkshire
(Fig. 52). The main approach was therefore still on the axial line, but
on mounting the final steps, instead of going straight forward into the
porch, you turned either to the right or left (in the two instances
illustrated it was to the left) and so through the porch to the
screens. At Chastleton the old arrangement remains perfect; the screen
is there, and also the daïs with the bay window at the end of it. At
Fountains Hall, in Yorkshire, the same idea is carried out, but as the
ground slopes very steeply, the principal floor is some feet above the
ground at the entrance. The doorway is central, and immediately on
entering, a straight flight of steps leads off to the right up to the
main floor, which it gains just in time for a turn to the left to lead
into the screens.
[Illustration: 74.--DOORWAY AT BROADWAY, WORCESTERSHIRE.]
In situations requiring less ornamental treatment, a very pleasing type
of doorway came into use, and lingered on in remote places far into
the days of regular classic architecture. Such doors abound in the
stone villages of Somerset and thence northwards through the Cotswolds
and Oxfordshire, up to Northamptonshire and Rutland. They are usually
flat-pointed, and the jambs have two moulded orders, the inner one
going round the flat-pointed head, while the outer one forms a square
frame round it, as in the example from Lyddington (Fig. 73). There is
not much of the classic manner about such a door, especially when, as
in this instance, the label is returned down the ends of the head. But
the section of the jamb-mould is an adaptation of the contours found in
classic work, and the label not infrequently was treated in the manner
of a cornice, instead of being returned, as it is in this example and
that from Broadway in Fig. 74. There is a small doorway of this kind
at Aylesford Hall, in Kent (Fig. 75), which shows a curious mixture,
for the head has a fairly high-pointed Gothic arch, while the label
is of classic profile, and is ornamented with dentils: the spandrils
are filled with shields of late design, one of which bears the date
1590, thus showing how long the old traditional forms lingered in
places. The masons of the time made use of a type of door which was
chiefly of Gothic descent, but they varied its features at will. The
head was either high-pointed, flat-pointed, or elliptical, as their
fancy dictated; and the label was either moulded after the fashion of
their youth, or in accordance with the newer forms which they saw in
use around them. It is in such unimportant matters as these, where no
one was particularly concerned about the result, that we see how the
workmen availed themselves indifferently of the old forms or the new.
[Illustration: 75.--DOORWAY AT AYLESFORD HALL, KENT (1590).]