LITTLE HUCKLOW : ITS CUSTOMS AND OLD HOUSES. 65 



Stair, one in the hall, and three in the kitchen. These rect- 

 angular apertures are of various sizes, the largest being about 

 I ft. 6 in. square; the depth is about i ft. In an old house 

 near Sheffield one of such holes is filled by a small oak cupboard 

 with figures carved on the door. Similar holes in walls, with 

 arched tops, resembling the so-called piscina: of churches, are 

 found in houses of the thirteenth century. One of these at 

 Stoke Say is near the jamb of the fireplace in the solar,* just as 

 here there is a hole near the jamb of the fireplace in the room 

 over the hall. 



The house is built of the limestone of the district, except that 

 the comer stones, the stonework of the windows and fireplaces, 

 and the corbels which hold beams are of ashlar, or " greatstone," 

 as it is called in the neighbourhood. The stairs are, however, of 

 limestone, much worn by use. The outer walls are rough-casted 

 with grey plaster, and until late years have been whitewashed ; 

 but the stonework of the windows has been coloured light red, 

 and the date and initials over the lower east window blue. 

 That these red and blue colours were laid on when the house 

 was built is rendered probable by the fact that they are the 

 lowest of numerous layers that have been scraped off. The 

 south windows are now coloured yellow, as many others in the 

 village are, the custom being to renew these decorations yearly 

 at the wakes. The inside walls have been coloured by a deep 

 tint of archil; they are now whitewashed. Our Enghsh 

 ancestors disliked bare stones, and they coloured them, often 

 with gaudy hues. I have seen the stone mullions of old houses 

 in Yorkshire coloured by archil on the outside. Few objects 

 in a landscape are more beautiful that an old whitewashed 

 cottage glistening in the morning or evening sun. 



On removing the plaster or whitewash from the inner parts 

 of the window-jambs certain marks were found. In the east 

 chamber on the south side of the window a pair of cross 

 scythes is incised, with the blades turned outwardly. 



On each of the stones forming the window-jambs of the 

 *T. Hudson Turner's Domestic Architecture in England, 1851, p. 160. 

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