NOTES ON SOME OLD DERBYSHIRE COTTAGES. 9 



older rafter-built buildings, which were not dependent upon the 

 fastenings for their stability. 



The question will naturally be asked, What is the age of 

 these cottages? but to this I find it most difficult to give an 

 answer with any confidence. It is, I think, safe to assume that 

 they are older than the seventeenth century frame-built houses, 

 many of which are, or were until recently, standing in close 

 proximity to them, for it would scarcely be likely that the rafter 

 construction would be used for houses after the more roomy 

 framed work was in common use, even for farm buildings ; but 

 how much older they may be, it seems hard to say. It seems 

 to me probable, however, that this would be the ordinary form 

 of construction for small buildings in the country during several 

 centuries, though the great similarity of all the examples might 

 be brought forward as an argument against this ; the existence 

 of a timber building at Matlock, where stone and lime are in 

 such close proximity, seems to point to an early period. 



In conclusion, I must ask to be excused for occupying 

 the very valuable space of the Journal with these short and 

 fragmentary notes, but the subject of them seems to me to 

 deserve more consideration than they have yet received, as they 

 serve to bring before our minds the actual conditions of the 

 lives of our humbler forefathers, and they display a skill in 

 construction, with very rough materials and tools, as great in 

 its way as that which erected the splendid timber roofs of the 

 Norfolk Churches, and similar triumphs of mediaeval carpentry 

 with which we are familiar. 



