MTTLE HUCKLOW : ITS CUSTOMS AND OLD HOUSES. 55 



make room for a doorway between this chamber and the 

 chamber over the scullery. Moreover, there are old sockets 

 or mortices in the " crucks " showing that tie-beams and angle- 

 braces have crossed them for the purpose of strengthening the 

 wall, which was originally a gable end or outer wall. It is 

 very likely that the side walls, now seven feet high, were 

 originally lower, and that the roof was thatched, as some 

 houses in the village have been within living memory. It is 

 even possible that the thatch extended down to the ground. 



The houses marked " B " and " C " now belong to the same 

 owner (not the owner of the house marked " A "), but have 

 been separately occupied as long as can now be remembered. 

 The scullery and pantry of the house marked " B " are under 

 one of the chambers of the house marked " C." The scullery 

 and pantry of the house marked " C " form an outshoot, with 

 no chambers above them, and were evidently added at the time 

 when the original house was divided into portions. To effect 

 this division a line stone-mullioned window of four bays, or 

 lights, was built up, and other changes made which cannot 

 now be traced, though the large recess in the pantry of the 

 house marked " C " makes it likely that a window corresponding 

 to the built-up window stood there. A modern window on the 

 south side of the house marked " C " has been omitted from 

 the plan. 



Such an intermixture of dwellings must often have caused 

 trouble. Disputes about rights of way, light, and air, to say 

 nothing of questions about repairs of roofs and walls, can 

 hardly fail to have been a source of annoyance and expense 

 to the owners of such property. Yet one cannot but admire 

 the ingenious way in which these three houses were made out 

 of one. See, for example, how neatly the three pantries of 

 the three houses, with their adjoining sculleries, are clustered 

 or fitted together. When a man's house adjoined his neigh- 

 bour's land it was difficult for him, without trespass, to rebuild 

 his wall, to whitewash it, or repair it. Hence some property- 

 owners in this neighbourhoad have claimed what they call a 



