SIXTEENTH CENTURY HOUSE-PLANNING AS ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN THORPE'S
DRAWINGS.
One of the most valuable sources for obtaining knowledge of the
house-planning of the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. is the
collection of drawings in the Soane Museum, known as John Thorpe's.
This collection has given rise to a certain amount of controversy, and
will probably give rise to more, for there are so many objections to
any theory which can be advanced as to its origin and use. This is not
the place to enter upon the arguments for or against any particular
view; but as it may be advisable to adopt some kind of working
hypothesis, that which best fits the facts seems to be this--that the
drawings were drawn in a large book (with the exception of some few
which were stuck in), and that by far the greatest number, if not
actually all, were drawn by John Thorpe.[30] There were two men of
this name, father and son, and both may have had a hand in it. But
whether this hypothesis be accepted or not, it is certain that all the
drawings were made during the closing years of the sixteenth century
or the opening years of the seventeenth, and that they represent
either surveys of buildings then existing, or designs for new ones,
or exercises in ingenuity of planning. Whatever else we may or may
not have, we have here the Elizabethan and Jacobean ideas of what
houses were or ought to be, what accommodation they should contain,
and how it should be disposed. In this respect the collection is
particularly valuable, because we get everything at first hand; we
see some designs in course of development, and others as they were
finished, and entirely free from the manifold alterations which houses
themselves have necessarily undergone in the course of three centuries.
We also get in the elevations, or "uprights" as they were then called,
the designer's ideas of how the houses were to appear; but in this
respect we do not fare so well as with the plans, since the number of
elevations is far smaller.
[30] The arguments in support of this view are given in a paper by the
author, published in the _Architectural Review_ of February, 1899.
[Illustration: 213.--THE CHÂTEAU OF ANSSI-LE-FRANC, COPIED FROM DU
CERCEAU (PAGE 75 OF THORPE'S BOOK).]
There are, further, a few drawings which may be regarded as
studies--studies in perspective, in the five orders, and in the style
of foreign architects. For there is no doubt that Thorpe studied
books on architecture, both Italian, French, and Dutch, of which a
considerable number had been published during the latter half of
the sixteenth century. His exercise in the five orders is evidently
drawn from an Italian publication, which, however, has not yet been
identified. He has copied at least three designs from a French source,
one of Androuet du Cerceau's books, "Les plus excellents bastiments
de France," published in 1576-79. One of these designs is the Château
of Anssi-le-Franc, of which he gives the plan on page 75, and part of
the elevation on page 76. The plan is copied accurately except in one
or two trifling particulars, and so also is the elevation (Figs. 213,
214); but to the latter he has added three sketches of turrets, which
do not appear in the original, and which are designed in the Dutch
rather than the French style. On each side of the plan he has sketched
in pencil the main lines of another plan founded on the original, but
which looks as though it were meant to be adapted to English uses.
Another plan which he copied from Du Cerceau (on pages 77, 78) is the
Château de Madrit in the Bois de Boulogne. This is, with one little
exception, line for line like the original, but, curiously enough, here
again he has made notes in pencil indicating how he would have adapted
it for English habits. The third instance is part of the plan and
elevation of the "theatre" at Saint Germain (on pages 165, 166).
[Illustration: 214.--THE CHÂTEAU OF ANSSI-LE-FRANC COPIED FROM DU
CERCEAU, BUT WITH THREE TURRETS ADDED (PAGE 76 OF THORPE'S BOOK).]
Thorpe was also a student of Dutch publications. On page 24 he has a
design entitled "½ a front or a garden syde for a noble man" (Fig.
215), of which the central portion is copied from Plate 20 of Jan
Vredeman de Vries's "Architectura, ou Bastiment prins de Vitruve,"
published at Antwerp in 1577. He has departed from the original in
one or two small particulars; for instance, he has four-light windows
where Vries has two-light; he has mullions to his dormers where Vries
has none; he has added the final flourishes and pinnacle on the top of
the centre gable which Vries leaves plain, and his treatment of the
windows over the middle arch is different from Vries's; but with these
exceptions the original is followed faithfully as far as to the end of
the arcade, to the left of which the design is Thorpe's own. Thorpe has
written on the panel over the entrance "Structum ad impensum Dni Sara
Ao Dni 1600." This is the only drawing of his which has been traced
to Dutch sources, but nearly all his elevations, of which a few are
illustrated in this chapter, show some hankering after Dutch forms in
the gables. On page 60 of his book he has a few sketches, chiefly of
strap-work gables, which look as though they had been either copied
from a Dutch book or inspired by one.
[Illustration: 215.--ELEVATION COPIED FROM DE VRIES. THE CENTRAL
PORTION IS COPIED; ALL TO THE LEFT OF THE ARCADE IS ADDED BY THORPE
(PAGE 24).]
This study of foreign books by one of the designers of the period is
a noteworthy fact, and it is equally worthy of note that the study of
them seems to have set him thinking, and to have suggested ideas to
him, which he jotted down in pencil near the copies which he made from
the foreign books. These are not the only instances of this habit, for
in other parts of his book are to be seen, by the side of carefully
finished plans, hasty sketches of some variation of the same main
ideas. Of the foreign books which he studied, some, therefore, were
Italian, some were French, and others Dutch: and it is curious to see
how the French books seem to have influenced his plans, and the Dutch
books his elevations. The French influence on those plans which, so
far as we know, were actually carried out, was not strong; but among
the plans which may be classed as exercises, are some with towers at
the corners, after the manner of those at Chambord, Chenonceau, and
Azay-le-Rideau, and a number with square turrets such as those of the
Château de Madrit. He may also have derived from the same sources
his extreme love of symmetry, and his adoption of the grand manner
apparent in some of his designs planned round a courtyard. These
French books may, therefore, have influenced his style, but they did
not dominate him so much as to cause him to copy the French type of
plan in designing an English house. The same may be said of the Dutch
influence on his elevations. Only in the one instance already mentioned
did he embody a whole piece of Dutch design into one of his own. But
in his chimneys, his strap-work gables, and his turrets or lanterns he
drew from Dutch sources. And there are two points to notice in this
connection--one is that the strap-work gable occurs much oftener in his
drawings than in houses actually built; the other is that had these
gables been adopted as freely as the elevations would indicate, the
houses would have been more Dutch than the Dutchmen's own buildings,
for in the latter the stepped gable is far more frequent than
strap-work, and produces an entirely different effect.
[Illustration: PLATE LXXXIV.
"SIR JARVIS CLIFTON'S HOUSE."
(PAGES 65, 66.)
1. Hall.
2. Vestibule.
3. Parlour.
4. Lodging.
5. Grand Staircase.
6. Chapel.
7. Buttery.
8. Butler's Room.
9. Back Stairs.
10. Lodging.
11. Kitchen.
12. Dry Larder.
13. Wet Larder.
14. Bakehouse.
15. Open Arcade.
16. Gatehouse.]
Let us, however, turn from these speculations to the drawings which
compose the great bulk of the book--namely, the plans and (in some
cases) elevations which show what kind of building an English house was
intended to be, and which ought to be compared with the examples
already given in Chapter III. The type of plan made familiar in those
examples is the type on which nine-tenths of Thorpe's plans are based.
The hall is the centre of household life, the parlour and family rooms
are at one end of it, the kitchen and servants' rooms are at the other.
But he has a certain number of plans in which the hall shows more or
less signs of becoming an entrance rather than a living-room; the
following examples show how the old type gradually changed into the new.
The first plan of the series (Plate LXXXIV.) is named "Sir Jarvis
Clifton's House." It shows a large symmetrical house with a forecourt
entered through an imposing gatehouse furnished with a turret at each
corner. Directly opposite to this lodge is the porch of the house,
which gives access in the usual way to the screens, and thence into the
hall, with its daïs shown at the upper end. The bay window at the end
of the daïs leads into a large vestibule from which the great staircase
and the parlour are approached; beyond the parlour, at the corner of
the building, is an isolated room marked "lodging" [_i.e._, bedroom].
The left-hand wing is occupied by the chapel, which is approached
through a vestibule leading out from the foot of the great staircase.
This completes the accommodation for the family so far as the ground
floor is concerned. On the other side of the hall are the servants'
rooms: first, two for the butler with a staircase to the cellar; then
a large vestibule (with a servants' staircase), which leads to another
"lodging"; to the kitchen, with a fine bay window and two fireplaces,
one large and one small, each having a little oven close to it; and
to the dry larder: beyond the kitchen is the wet larder, and beyond
this is the rest of the servants' department, of which the bakehouse
occupies a wing balancing the chapel wing. The mouths of the two ovens
of the bakehouse are shown, but the paper was too small to allow
their full extent to be indicated. There is no upper plan, but from
notes on this one it seems that the long gallery was over the arcade
at the back of the hall, and that the great chamber was over the
parlour and its vestibule. There is an arcade on either side of the
front porch, and another between the wings on the opposite side of the
house. It is worthy of note that although the front and back façades
are of different lengths, each of them is symmetrical in itself. This
variation is the result of considerable ingenuity in planning. The
whole plan is worth attention as a specimen of the usual type treated
in a broad and dignified manner.
[Illustration: 216--AN UN-NAMED PLAN (PAGES 117, 118).
1. Hall.
2. Principal Stairs.
3. Parlour.
4. Lodging.
5. Buttery.
6. Winter Parlour.
7. Back Stairs.
8. Kitchen.
9. Pastry.
10. Inner Court.
11. Open Arcade.
12. Outer Court.]
The Cliftons had been seated at Clifton, near Nottingham, for some time
prior to the reign of James I.; the family still resides there, but
there is nothing in the existing house to connect it with this plan of
Thorpe's. Sir Gervase Clifton lived from 1586 to 1666, and was created
a baronet in the year 1612. This plan must therefore have been drawn
subsequent to that year, as it is entitled "Sir Jarvis Clifton's."
There is nothing to show whether it is an original design or a survey
of an existing house: the clean way in which it is drawn points to the
latter assumption; but if it is an original design it is interesting as
showing at what a late date the old type of plan was still employed.
The next plan (Fig. 216) has no title. It shows a house with a
courtyard in front and two long wings at the back, forming a nearly
square block. The arrangement follows the established lines: a porch
leads into the screens and thence into the hall, which again has the
daïs indicated. Owing to the exigencies of the external treatment,
the bay window is not placed at the end of the daïs. A door between
the latter and the fireplace leads into a vestibule with the chief
staircase in it; beyond is the parlour, with a bay window looking
into a small courtyard, and beyond the parlour is another room. On
the servants' side is the buttery with its stairs, and then the
winter parlour, of which the bay window balances that of the hall. A
vestibule containing the back staircase separates these rooms from the
kitchen, which has a bay window looking straight across at the bay of
the parlour; beyond the kitchen are two rooms, the first of which is
probably a larder, while the other is certainly, on account of the
ovens, either the bakehouse or "the pastry." There is an arcade at the
back of the front wing, occupying one side of the inner court. The
fourth side of this court is enclosed by a wall, but the draughtsman
has indicated it in two separate positions, thus making it appear as
though there were a solid wing on this side. In this plan, also, the
only indication of the upper floor is given in the note written on the
hall, "Great chamber over this to ye Skryne" (screen).
The plan shown in Plate LXXXV. has no title, but it has the advantage
of having every room named; and its elevation is also drawn, which
was not the case in either of the two preceding examples. The plan
follows the familiar lines; it has a long narrow body, and at each end
a long narrow wing at right angles to it, with a staircase turret at
the internal angles. The porch and screens are in the usual relation
to the hall, beyond which are the parlour and two "lodgings," each of
which has a small inner room attached. The first of these lodgings
is a thoroughfare room, but there is an external door in the passage
connecting the two, which enables the hall to be gained by crossing the
court, thus affording an alternative route of a kind. On the servants'
side of the house are the buttery, the pantry, the winter parlour, the
larder, kitchen, bolting-house, and pastry. The kitchen has the usual
small oven; the pastry has the invariable two, one somewhat larger than
the other. The two wings are treated symmetrically on the principal
sides (towards the court), one incidental result being that the pastry
gets vastly more light than the kitchen. It has already been suggested
that the winter parlour was placed on the servants' side in order to
be near the kitchen. The bolting-house was the room where the meal
was bolted, that is, sifted. The "pastry" was, as its name implies,
the room in which were made pies, "cates," confectionery, and the
"pretty little tiny kickshaws" which Justice Shallow ordered when he
was furnishing his table for the entertainment of Sir John Falstaff.
The housewives of the time were accomplished in the making of such
dainties. The narrator of the _Progress of James I._ in 1603 remarks
upon the delicate fare provided by Sir Anthony Mildmay at Apethorpe,
rendered "more delicate by the art that made it seem beauteous to
the eye; the Lady of the house being one of the most excellent
Confectioners in England, though I confess many honourable women very
expert." When Queen Elizabeth was entertained at Elvetham by the Earl
of Hertford in 1591, a banquet was served in the evening "into the
lower gallery in the garden," when a thousand dishes were served by
two hundred gentlemen, with the light of a hundred torches, and among
the more notable dishes were some _tours de force_ in sugar-work,
representing the royal arms, the arms of all the nobility, figures of
men and women, castles and forts, all kinds of animals, all kinds of
birds, reptiles and "all kind of worms," mermaids, whales, and "all
sorts of fishes": all these, we are told, were standing dishes of
sugar-work. It is not suggested that the lady of the house herself
produced these masterpieces; but ladies were certainly skilful
in the making of cakes, and it was a recommendation in actual life, as
well as in one of the plays of the time, that the heroine could "do
well in the pastry."
[Illustration: PLATE LXXXV.
UN-NAMED PLAN AND ELEVATION. (PAGES 89, 90.)
1. Hall.
2. Parlour.
3. Lodging.
4. Lodging.
5. Principal Stairs.
6. Buttery.
7. Pantry.
8. Winter Parlour.
9. Back Stairs.
10. Kitchen.
11. Larder.
12. Bolting house.
13. Pastry.
14. Open Arcade.]
[Illustration: PLATE LXXXVI.
"SIR Wm. HASERIDGE."
(PAGES 147, 148.)
1. Hall.
2. Parlour.
3. Principal Stairs.
4. Vestibule.
5. Lodging.
6. Inner Room.
7. Buttery.
8. Lodging.
9. Winter Parlour.
10. Back Stairs.
11. Survaying Place.
12. Kitchen.
13. Dry Larder (Wet under).
14. Pastry.
15. Courtyard.]
[Illustration: PLATE LXXXVII.
ELEVATION OF PLAN ENTITLED "SIR Wm. HASERIDGE."
(PAGES 147, 148.)]
The elevation is treated, on the whole, in a quiet and dignified
manner, but the handling of it from the parapets upwards shows a
determination to obtain that picturesqueness of outline which was
considered essential. The means to this end are curved gables, quaint
pinnacles, and rather elaborate lanterns, of which there are two
alternative designs provided, as there are also of the small gables or
dormers on the parapet. The type of chimney shown is one of the more
reasonable which were employed.
The plan on Plate LXXXVI. shows a slight variation of the usual type,
inasmuch as the wings, instead of being narrow and only one room thick,
are two rooms thick. In other respects it follows the familiar lines.
On one side is the hall with its daïs and bay window; then the grand
staircase and a vestibule giving access to the parlour and a group
of two lodgings, the remainder of the wing being occupied by a room
which--if the ovens are anything but a repetition of those in the
corresponding wing--must be the bakehouse. On the other side of the
house are the buttery, a lodging, the winter parlour, the back stairs
and vestibule, the kitchen, dry larder, and pastry; the wet larder,
according to a note, is under the dry. There is no arcade here. This
plan is entitled "Sir Wm. Haseridge," and the upright (as the elevation
was called) has on it the initials D. H. and the date 1606 (Plate
LXXXVII.). This is important, as it shows that at that time the old
relation of the hall to the rest of the house was still retained. This
house, in spite of its title, has not been identified with any existing
building. A family of the name of Haselrigge has lived at Noseley,
in Leicestershire, since early in the seventeenth century, but the
existing house has nothing in common with this plan. The elevation is
treated in a simple manner, with very few foreign flourishes.
In the next example (Figs. 217, 218, 219) we have ground plan, upper
plan, and elevation: a valuable example, inasmuch as it is one of
the few cases in which all three drawings are given; the upper plan
is interesting, as it shows the position of the two chief rooms, the
gallery and great chamber. The disposition of the ground floor conforms
to the usual type, but is varied so as to enclose a small central
court, somewhat after the fashion of Barlborough (Fig. 49); but here
all the principal rooms are on one floor, whereas at Barlborough the
kitchens are in the basement. The accommodation here comprises the
hall, grand staircase, and parlour on the one side, and buttery, winter
parlour, back stairs, and kitchen on the other. There is a vestibule
to the kitchen, which probably would have been called the "survaying
place" had it been named, similar rooms being so designated in Figs.
224, 226. The use of the survaying place is not anywhere explained, but
most likely it was a serving room, where the dishes were overlooked
before being taken to the hall or the winter parlour. There is a
staircase from the kitchen which presumably led down to the larders,
pantries, and other subsidiary rooms. The manner in which the middle
bay window on the kitchen side serves to light the vestibule and the
back stairs (through a borrowed light) should be noticed as an instance
of the subordination of the plan to the uniformity of the exterior.
Here, for the first time, occurs an example of the use of sanitary
conveniences: it will be seen that neither downstairs nor up are they
placed in a manner that would be tolerated at the present day. Nor
indeed were they arranged at this period with anything like the same
attention to isolation and means of ventilation which was bestowed upon
such places in mediæval times. The central court is shown with a room
and staircase projecting into it, but this excrescence was very wisely
crossed out, for the court was small enough without it, and could never
have been either cheerful or conducive to health. The upper plan shows
the long gallery, 80 feet long by 20 feet wide, and the great chamber,
45 feet long by 23 feet wide. To these two rooms nearly the whole space
is sacrificed, there being in addition only two fair-sized bedrooms and
two smaller apartments, besides those which may have been contrived
in the roof. Both the gallery, the great chamber, and the parlour are
shown with an inner porch, such as occurs at Sizergh Castle (Fig. 148),
and at Broughton Castle, in Oxfordshire (Plate LI.), Bradfield, in
Devonshire, and a few other houses. The elevation (Fig. 219) resembles
that on Plate LXXXV. It is treated in a simple and unostentatious
way, but the most is made of such features as the bay windows,
chimney-stacks, and gables. The latter have the curly outline which is
prevalent in the Thorpe collection, but which, as already said, does
not appear in the same proportion among such of the actual buildings of
the time as have survived. The front chimneys are of the same pattern
as those on Plate LXXXV.
[Illustration: 217.--AN UN-NAMED GROUND PLAN (PAGES 217,
218).[31]
1. Hall.
2. Principal Stairs.
3. Parlour.
4. Inner Room.
5. Buttery.
6. Winter Parlour.
7. Back Stairs.
8. Survaying Place (?)
9. Kitchen.
10. Inner Court.]
[31] In order to bring this plan within the limits of the page, the
terrace walls on either side have been brought nearer to the house than
they are on the original drawing.
[Illustration: 218.--UPPER PLAN OF FIG. 217 (PAGES 217, 218).
11. Great Chamber.
12. Principal Stairs.
13. Gallery.
14, 14. Bedrooms.
15. Back Stairs.
16. Inner Court.]
[Illustration: 219.--ELEVATION OF FIGS. 217, 218.]
The foregoing examples are a few out of a great number which conform
to the traditional arrangement of the hall. The vast majority of the
plans follow this type, but there are some, which we will now proceed
to consider, in which the hall receives a different treatment, thus
indicating that important change which resulted in its becoming a place
of entrance instead of what it had been for four centuries--the centre
of household life.
[Illustration: 220.--AN UN-NAMED PLAN.
1. Hall.
2. Parlour.
3. Principal Stairs.
4. Chapel.
5. Lodging.
6. Buttery.
7. Winter Parlour.
8. Back Stairs.
9. Survaying Place.
10. Kitchen.
11. Pastry.
12. Courtyard.]
On some of these plans the room which is usually called the parlour is
marked "dy pler" or dining parlour. This shows that even the eating
of meals, one of the functions for which the hall had always been
used, was being transferred from that apartment to smaller and more
comfortable rooms. The heads of the household, more particularly,
sought the quiet of a smaller apartment, and with them they took their
special friends, leaving persons of less importance to dine with the
household in the hall. There is a letter from a Mr. Marlivale, of
Chevington, written to Sir Thomas Kytson, of Hengrave, complaining of
having been placed to dine in the hall with the steward instead of with
the superior persons in the parlour. As Sir Thomas died in 1540, the
practice of withdrawing from the great hall must have begun previous
to that date. On one of Thorpe's plans he has marked a room as the
"Servants' dining-room," which indicates a further desertion of the
hall, and from the other end. The purposes for which the hall had been
used being thus provided for elsewhere, it became no longer necessary
to plan it on the old lines. The first change that took place was at
the end where the screens were. The screens, indeed, disappeared, and
in order to go from the front door to the kitchen department, the
hall itself had to be traversed. The following examples show various
instances of this change, but in the absence of particulars as to the
name and date of most of the plans, it has been impossible to arrange
them chronologically: what sequence there is, is a sequence of stages
in the development of the new idea of using the hall as an entrance.
The example in Fig. 220 has no name nor any writing upon it beyond the
numbers of the stairs. The curious point about it is that the screen is
in the side of the hall instead of at the end; otherwise it preserves
most of the old arrangements. Although the rooms are not named, they
are easy to identify. On the family side are the hall, with its daïs,
the parlour, staircase, chapel and "lodgings." On the servants' side
are the buttery, winter parlour, back stairs, kitchen and pastry. Owing
to the altered arrangement of the screens there is no thoroughfare
leading straight from the front door to the court beyond.
In the next example (Figs. 221, 222) we have a further departure
from the old type. Screens of a kind there are, but the front door
leads only to the hall (through a vestibule), and the hall has to be
traversed to gain the kitchen. The buttery is in an entirely novel
position, and the tendency clearly is to preserve the front door for
the family, and to relegate the servants to their own entrance. A
curious point is that the only way from the kitchen to the buttery,
to the upper floor, or to the outside, is through the hall. In spite
of these changes the daïs still remains, as though the old custom of
dining in the hall survived, notwithstanding the constant traffic which
the service of the kitchen must have entailed. The upper plan shows
the long gallery--apparently 62 feet long by only 10 feet wide--and
the great chamber, 40 feet by 21 feet, which is over the hall. The
draughtsman has apparently been led by the symmetry of his arrangements
into placing the gallery on the wrong façade in his upper plan.
According to a note on the ground plan it should be at the back, and
the elevation confirms this disposition. Owing to the situation of
the hall it can no longer obtain light from the sides, nor can there
be any bay window to the daïs: the only light it receives is from a
large window at one end, which must be greatly darkened by the arcade
in front of it, carrying the gallery. The great chamber is subject in
a less degree to similar disadvantages, receiving light only from one
end. The treatment of the exterior is somewhat after the fashion of
Wollaton, but of a plainer kind; there is a central block surrounded by
rooms roofed at a lower level, and at each corner is a pavilion. It is
quite possible that this is merely an exercise in design, and that it
was never carried out, nor even thoroughly digested.
[Illustration: 221.--GROUND AND UPPER PLANS, UN-NAMED (PAGE 85).
1. Hall
2. Parlour.
3. Principal Stairs.
4,4. Lodging.
5. Kitchen.
6. Buttery.
7. Back Stairs.
8,8. Open Arcade.
9. Great Chamber.
10. Gallery.
11. Stairs.
Other Rooms on Upper Floor are Lodgings.]
[Illustration: 222.--ELEVATION OF PLANS IN FIG. 221 (PAGE 85).]
[Illustration: 223.--UN-NAMED PLAN AND ELEVATION (PAGE 34).
1. Hall.
2. Parlour.
3. Withdrawing Room.
4. Closet.
5,5. Lodging.
6. Principal Stairs.
7. Buttery.
8. Back Stairs.
9. Kitchen.
10. Larder.
11. Bolting-house.
12. Pastry.]
[Illustration: 224.--"FOR MR. WILLm. POWELL" (PAGES 265, 266).
1. Hall.
2. Dining Parlour.
3. Principal Stairs.
4. Lodging.
5. Inner Lodging.
6. Winter Parlour.
7. Buttery.
8. Survaying Place.
9. Back Stairs.
10. Kitchen.
11. Larder.
12. Court.]
In the next example (Fig. 223) the idea of the entrance hall is
further developed. The front door opens into a passage off which the
hall is approached, but without a dividing wall. There is no daïs,
and the parlour is entered from the passage instead of from the
upper end of the hall. The latter apartment is still central, and
divides the family rooms from those of the servants. There are fresh
designations bestowed upon some of them: the parlour and the lodgings
we know, but in addition to these there is a "closset" and a "wth," or
withdrawing room. The buttery is as near to its old position as the
new arrangement allows, and beyond it is the familiar kitchen, with the
larder, the pastry, and the bolting-house leading out of the latter.
The elevation is again perfectly simple, and calls for no remark beyond
pointing out the alternative methods shown of roofing the two central
turrets. The sketch plan and elevation should be noticed, jotted down
at the side of the main subject, and embodying a smaller version of a
somewhat similar idea.
[Illustration: 225.--MR. JOHNSON Ye DRUGGIST (PAGE 31).
1. Hall.
2. Parlour.
3. Principal Stairs.
4. Buttery.
5. Back Stairs.
6. Kitchen.
7. Courtyard.
8. Open Arcade.]
The plan and elevation entitled "for Mr. Willm Powell" (Fig. 224)
have not been identified with any existing building. The elevation is
treated more after the English manner, particularly in regard to the
gables, than any of the preceding. In the plan the hall is frankly made
an entrance hall, without any attempt at making it a living-room. It
still occupies a central position, but there are no screens, no daïs,
and no bay window. The rooms are all named: the family side includes
the dining parlour--now so named for the first time--a "lodging," and
an "inner lodging." The opposite wing contains the winter parlour,
the buttery, now attached to the servants' entrance, the "survay,"
or serving place, the kitchen, and larder. The house would seem to be
built of wood and plaster, since all the walls are drawn some 6 inches
thick, the fireplaces only being of the ordinary thickness.
The plan for "Mr. Johnson ye Druggyst" (Fig. 225) shows a further
variation of the hall, which here has a screen and passage at each end.
The daïs idea has entirely disappeared, and the bay windows are placed
for effect only: the central position is still retained, as also are
the two wings, divided into the usual rooms. There are two front doors,
one to each passage at the ends of the hall. The buttery occupies the
old relation to one of these passages, while the other takes up the
space which would formerly have been devoted to the daïs. The relation
to each other of the several rooms in the two wings follows the old
lines; it is in the hall that the essential change appears. A note on
the plan says that the gallery, 80 feet long and 15 feet wide, occupies
the whole length of the front façade, in the centre of which is a
turret; there is also a turret in the middle of each side, over the two
staircases. The small sketch at the side of the finished plan should be
noticed, as it is another instance of how the draughtsman jotted down a
rough variation of the same general disposition of rooms. There is also
a sketch for a mullion.
[Illustration: 226.--AN UN-NAMED PLAN (PAGE 72).
1. Hall.
2. Dining Parlour.
3. Buttery.
4. Grand Staircase.
5. Survaying Place.
6. Kitchen.
7. Scullery.
8. Larder.
9. Back Stairs.]
In Fig. 226 is a yet further variation of the treatment of the hall.
It is no longer in the centre of the building, but becomes an ordinary
thoroughfare room in one corner. The front entrance leads into a
corridor, and immediately opposite to it is the great staircase. This
is an entirely novel treatment, and indicates a complete revolution
in the planning of houses. The hall is no longer the central feature,
but gives place to the staircase. For the rest, the old apartments
remain; there is the buttery lying between the staircase and the hall,
inconveniently mixed up with the family rooms, equally inconveniently
cut off from the kitchens. The dining parlour lies beyond the hall and
far away from the kitchen, and the kitchen is approached through the
"survaying place," and attached to it is a new room, the "scullery." So
far as the main lines go, the house is simple and dignified, but the
plan is neither so striking nor so convenient as those of the old type.
[Illustration: 227.--"SIR JO. DANVERS, CHELSEY." GROUND PLAN (PAGES
21, 22).
1. Waste Hall.
2. Hall.
3. Parlour
4. Chapel.
5. Kitchen below.]
The last plan of the series is that of a house for "Sir Jo. Danvers,
Chelsey" (Figs. 227, 228), and there are two points to be specially
noticed in it--one is that the kitchen and its offices are all
underground, the other is that the hall is of the type usual in many
Italian houses; it extends right through the house from front to back,
and has smaller rooms opening from it on each side. In Italy, the
hall and the room over it occupy the whole of this space, and the
staircase is among the rooms at the side, but at Sir John Danvers'
house the staircase is in the hall itself, thus dividing it into two
portions, the outer one of which is named "waste hall," and curtailing
the effective space of the chamber over it. The device of placing the
kitchen and offices in a basement was not often adopted in English
houses; space was generally plentiful, and the native taste was rather
in favour of the long and low treatment. But occasionally, where space
was limited, or where some special notion controlled the design, as
at Lyveden New Building, or where the Italian manner was closely
followed, the basement was utilized for the purpose of the kitchens.
The sketch-elevation of Sir John Danvers' house points towards a more
complete acceptance of classic treatment; it is widely different from
the extensive façades and returned wings which are associated with the
idea of an Elizabethan or Jacobean house. Sir John built a house (but
whether to this particular plan, or not, is not certain) at Chelsea,
on the site of one which had been the residence of Sir Thomas More;
and he seems to have done so in the early years of the seventeenth
century. It is more than likely that he was attracted by the Italian
model, since we learn from Aubrey[32] that "'twas Sir John Danvers of
Chelsey who first taught us the way of Italian gardens. He had well
travelled France and Italy, and made good observations.... He had a
very fine fancy, which lay chiefly for gardens and architecture." There
is another rough sketch of an elevation on page 178, accompanied by a
plan, where the Italian treatment is still more marked. The centre of
the façade consists of two rows of columns, superimposed, and forming
an open _loggia_ on each floor; they carry a pediment of flat pitch.
This sketch is of considerable interest, since it connects Thorpe, who
is the representative of Elizabethan and Jacobean design, with the far
more Italianized style of his successors.
[32] John Aubrey's _Natural History of Wiltshire_.
[Illustration: 228.--SIR JO. DANVERS, CHELSEY. UPPER PLAN AND
ELEVATION (PAGES 21, 22)..]
[Illustration: 229.--AN UN-NAMED ELEVATION, "MENT FOR ONE OF THE
SYDES OF A HOUSE ABOUT A CORT AND MAY BE MADE A FRONT FOR A HOUSE"
(PAGE 115).]
Two other elevations are illustrated, in addition to those which have
accompanied some of the foregoing plans, in order to show the kind
of feeling which pervades most of the sketches in Thorpe's book. They
are both isolated examples, not attached to any plan, and not named.
Indeed, the first of them (Fig. 229) was probably merely a sketch, as
it bears the note, "ment for one of the sydes of a house about a cort
and may be made a front for a house." It is quite English in character,
and is singularly free from the curly gables and fantastic pinnacles
which appear on most of Thorpe's elevations, and were derived from
Dutch sources. The sections through the wings should be noticed, as
this is the only instance in the whole collection in which anything
like a complete section is given. The section on the right hand is
evidently taken through the hall, and shows its open-timbered roof of
hammer-beam type.
[Illustration: 230.--AN UN-NAMED ELEVATION, "THE GARDEN SYDE,
LODGINGS BELOW AND GALLERY ABOVE. J. T." (PAGE 108).]
The second example (Fig. 230) is nearly as simple in its treatment,
but the gables break out into rather extravagant curls. The general
treatment, with the large gables, the dormers, and the projecting
chimney-stacks, is not unlike that of the west front of Kirby (Figs.
77, 107), but this elevation does not tally with the plan of Kirby,
which is not subject to the same accurate symmetry. This drawing bears
the note, "The garden syde, lodgings below and gallery above. J. T.,"
and as it is initialed by Thorpe, it helps to identify as his many of
the other elevations.
[Illustration: 231.--AN UN-NAMED PLAN (PAGES 145, 146).
1. Entrance.
2. Hall (Kitchen below).
3. Parlour.
4. Lodging Chamber.
5. Inner Chamber.
6. Buttery.
7. Woodyard.
8. Closet.
9. Stairs.
10. Open Space.
11. Terrace.]
One other plan is given (Fig. 231) as an example of Thorpe's ingenuity
in planning. It consists of three rooms arranged within a circular
balustrade and surrounded by a circular terrace. The angles formed
where the three rooms join are occupied by three towers, one of which
contains the porch, the other two the staircases. On the ground floor
one of the rooms is the hall, one the parlour, one a bedchamber. The
kitchen was to be under the hall. It should be observed how the large
fireplaces are arranged so as to occupy some of the triangular space
enclosed by the three rooms; and how the odd corners left are devoted
to the buttery, a closet, and a wood store. The bay window is different
in each room, and is so planned as just to extend outwards as far as
the surrounding balustrade. Having thus examined the main features of
the design, observe how a number of alternative sketches have been
made for filling in with cupboards the angles made by the circular
walls of the turrets and the walls of the rooms: observe also that on
one of the circular staircases an equilateral triangle has been drawn,
evidently as an alternative way of treating the turrets, and observe
further how in the parlour and bedchamber a suggestion is made to have
a semicircular recess at one end, such as was not infrequent late in
the seventeenth century, but which never occurs in an Elizabethan
plan. All these points are interesting, because they show how the
draughtsman elaborated his design; and when he had finished this, he
sketched a variation of the same idea at the side, in the upper part
of the sheet. He was also undecided about the position of his steps
on to the terrace, for he drew them first in three sets, opposite to
the three bay windows; afterwards he sketched another set in pencil
(shown by dotted lines on the drawing) in a more convenient situation
just opposite the porch, and wrote on the old set "Stayres heare," and
on the new "or heare." On his main staircases, too, after drawing the
steps, he has crossed out three or four and written "half-pace," which
means "half-landing."
It will not be uninteresting to add to these illustrations of Thorpe's
plans a list of the names of apartments, &c., to be found in his book
appended to one or other of the drawings.
Hall.
Parlour.
Dining parlour.
Dining chamber above hall.
The dining chamber.
Winter parlour.
An ordinary winter parlour.
The great parlour with the great chamber over it.
Great chamber.
Gallery.
The long gallery.
Withdrawing chamber.
Lodging.
A nobleman's lodging, _comprising_
His ante-camera.
Bedchamber.
Wood, coal, and privy.
Servants' lodging.
Officers' lodgings.
A bed chamber.
An inner chamber.
Chaplin.
His study.
Study.
Chapel.
Outward chapel.
Library above.
Buttery.
Butler's lodging.
Pantry.
Pantler's lodging.
Breakfast room.
Kitchen.
The great kitchen.
A privy kitchen.
Dry larder.
Wet larder.
Pastry.
Work room for the pastlers.
Bakehouse.
Privy bakehouse.
Meal house.
Bolting house.
Survaying place.
Scullery.
Spicery.
Trencher.
Pewter.
Milk house.
Brew house.
The boiling house.
Porter's lodging.
Hynds' hall.
Lesser hall for hynds.
Servants' dining-room.
Waiters' chamber.
Waiters' bedchamber.
Steward's lodging.
His clerk.
Brush.
Wood, coal, and stool.
Cellar.
Wine cellar.
A wine cellar and for beer.
Privy wine cellar.
The Queen's wine cellar.
My lord's wine cellar.
A cellar for beer.
Entry.
An entry through all.
Lobby.
Ante-camera.
Closet.
A well light.
A little court for light, &c.
Common vault.
Court.
A tennis court.
A large terrace.
Terrace.
A back walk.
Garden.
Orchard.
Woodyard.
Kitchen garden.
Washyard.
Stable.