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interest both to Architect aud Antiquarian I purpose to-night to 

 deal with the first branch of the subject, to examine the records 

 in stone that past generations have left us, and to see evidences 

 in the solidity of their structures, of the sturdiness of their minds 

 and characters, and in their arrangements get some glimpses of 

 their social habits. 



Each nation possesses its own peculiar model of domestic plan ; 

 thus, Italy has its Villa, France its chateau, and England its 

 country seat or hall, and these differ in their arrangements just 

 as the occupiers differ in their habits of life. Each manner also 

 has had its development. 



During the six centuries commonly called the "Dark Ages " 

 the habits of the people were extremely rude and their domestic 

 buildings correspondingly so. 



The house of a Saxon of average degree consisted of a single 

 large apartment about 30 to 40 feet long, about half as wide 

 and low in height. This apartment was the Hall of universal 

 Northern usage, and answered as sole dwelling room, eating room, 

 kitchen, scullery, nursery, and sleeping room for lord and lady, 

 guest and serf alike, and also afforded quarters for sheep dogs 

 and wolf hounds. 



The Norman conquest produced no immediate difference of plan 

 for the peaceful cultivators of the soil — but in the 12th Century 

 there was some advance made. The houses were of two types, 

 one in the form of a parallelogram 2 stories high, the lower storey 

 vaulted, with no communication with the upper storey which 

 was approached by a flight of steps on the outside ; in this 

 storey was placed a fireplace, often the only one in the building. 

 The windows in the upper storey were larger than those below 

 which were small naiTow lights. Necham's account of a good 

 Manor House of his day, gives a Hall or Public Eoom, a Chamber 

 or Private Eoom, a Kitchen for cooking, a Larder for preserving 

 and storing meat, a Sewery for service of wine, ale and table 

 furnishings, and a Cellar for miscellaneous stores. The Hall was 

 on the ground floor, and the height of the 2-storey portion which 

 contained Cellar under and Solar over. The Saxons built 

 universally of wood and after the Conquest the same method 

 continued to be general. 



In the 13th Century considerable progress was made. The 

 nobles became weary of the dreary Donjon keep, and as the 

 general state of Society had greatly improved a general regard to 

 defensiveuess was all that was required for safety, and thus 

 originated the " Fortified Manor House " which contmued to be 

 the standard Hall down to the time of the Tudors. The Service 

 Eooms were enlarged aud subdivided, and a novelty — "Bed- 

 chambers " — was introduced. Stni all was rude and incomplete. 

 Staircases were very rare, external flights of steps, trap doors and 



