LITTLE HUCKLOW : ITS CUSTOMS AND OLD HOUSES. 67 



once led to the upper rooms and served them both. At 

 Padley the winding stair has been removed, but the two 

 doorways at its summit, one for each upper room, will be seen 

 in the photograph, and it will also be seen that one doorway 

 is higher than the other, as at Little Hucklow. If a portion 

 of the turret at Little Hucklow were removed, so as to exhibit 

 a section, two doorways would also be seen, one higher than 

 the other. At Padley, as at Little Hucklow, the floor of one 

 upper room is higher than the other. 



4. In each house the winding stair is exactly opposite the 

 entrance, and in each house the entrance is in one of the 

 long sides. 



5. In both houses there is a fireplace in each of the two 

 larger rooms, and none in the smaller. 



In a word, the house at Little Hucklow is a later, plainer, 

 and diminished copy of the house at Padley — that is to say, 

 both houses belong to> the same type. We may call it the 

 " hall-and-bower " type. 



The land on the south boundary of my house belongs to 

 one man, and the*- on the west boundary to another man, so 

 that, having a bit of land on the north and east sides, I am 

 better off than the owner of the house marked " A," who has 

 no land on any side. Land adjoining a house is here called 

 " privilege," and perhaps I ought to consider myself lucky in 

 having such an advantage on two sides, even though my 

 neighbours tell me that my privilege was formerly stolen from 

 the village green. 



In old times there were in England houses which were not 

 divisible amongst co-heirs. Bracton, who died in 1 268, has 

 told us that when several co-heirs were entitled to a messuage 

 it was to be divided into shares, unless they could agree that 

 one should take the whole and pay compensation to the rest. 

 Even when the property was held by military tenure, " a hall," 

 he tells us, " is sometimes divided into two or more parts, 

 and sometimes a chamber is divided from the hall, and so 

 with regard to the several buildings (donnis) in the court 



