52 LITTLE HUCKLOW : ITS CUSTOMS AND OLD HOUSES. 



It will be seen that the size of the bay numbered i conforms 

 very nearly to the size of the bays numbered 2 and 3, and 

 that the half-bay, numbered h, is approximately a moiety of 

 the full bay which it adjoins. In these 3^ bays we get, as 

 I have said, the whole of the original building. The barn and 

 " shippon "* at the east end of the house marked " C " are not 

 so old as the house itself, though they mav have replaced 

 older outbuildings upon the same site. 



I have elsewhere tried to show that the bay of an English 

 peasant's house was a space of 1 5 x 16 = 240 square feet, and 

 it will be noticed how near the bays of the building which 

 I am now describing come to this rule. It is obvious that such 

 a rule, if firmly established, would be very useful in enabling 

 us to distinguish the older parts of similar houses from 

 later additions. And, in the days when houses were divided 

 piecemeal between children and wives, uniformity in the area 

 of bays would have been of great ser\dce — indeed, equality 

 of partition would have been almost impossible without it. 



Turning now to the house marked " A," it will be seen from 

 the plan that it is bounded on the south by a frail wooden 

 partition which goes from the roof to the floor. It is bounded 

 on the west by another man's land, on the north by the village 

 green, and on the east by the houses marked " B " and " C,'" 

 which belong to another person. Thus we have here the 

 singular fact that the owner of the house marked " A '•' has 

 not an inch of land adjoining it, except so far as he may claim 

 a share in the green on which the end of his house abuts. On 

 every side he is hemmed in by his neighbour's property. In a 

 word, the owner of this house has no privilege — a term to 

 which I shall refer again. There is a concealed tank or well 

 on the green in front of the door, but no garden, outbuilding, 

 or outside accommodation of any kind on the land surrounding 

 the house. And yet this house, when occupied, was a farm- 

 house! It contains on the ground floor a scullery with a 

 bakestone (a) and a large cheese-press (b), a pantry, or dairy, 



* Anglo-Saxon scifen, w stall or fold for cattle. 



