By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 291 



householders iivere in the habit of giving lodgings to travellers, who 

 generally came on horseback.^ 



This was the ordinary arrangement of apartments in the house of 

 a gentleman of moderate fortune during the fourteenth and fifteenth 

 centuries ; and the dwellings of the more wealthy differed only in 

 having an upper floor, called the " soler," ^ which could only be en- 

 tered by one door, and was therefore more easily defended, and so 

 was considered the place of greater security ; a " chapel " of very 

 small dimensions, and a " kitchen," detached from the rest of the 

 buildings, generally vaulted and open to the roof, and as distinct as 

 possible from the rest of the house, as a security against fire. 



And such continued to be the general style of domestic architecture 

 in England until the sixteenth century, by which time it may be 

 said to have reached its highest degree of perfection, combining (as 

 it then did) much internal comfort and convenience, with very con- 

 siderable external beauty of decoration. At this period, the interiors 

 of the better-class houses presented many peculiar and attractive 

 features, both with regard to arrangement and decoration. They 

 were often lined with panelled wainscotting, had carved chimney 

 pieces o£ an elaborate character, and even emblazoned windows. 

 Moreover, in addition to the principal apartments mentioned above, 

 there was sometimes added a state bedroom, and sometimes even a 

 drawing room. 



At this period which has been called " the truly Augustan age o£ 

 Elizabeth,'' the science of construction of timber-framed houses was 

 thoroughly understood; and as the supply of material seemed still 



' " Everybody who could afford it, travelled on horseback. There were com- 

 panies of hackney men who provided horses for travellers at a fixed rate per 

 stage, and cooks accompanied them who provided for the culinary necessities of 

 wayfarers." In the middle of the fifteenth century, " hackneys were usually 

 hired at four-pence a day, equal to about seven shilliDgs of our money, 



" ffor cariage the porter hors schall hyre 

 ffoure pens a pece withinne the shyre.'" 



[Turner's Domestic Architecture, vol, iii., p. 47." 



* Solarium, probably from sol. There was also sometimes, above the gateway, 



a little room, called the soleret, the diminutive of soler; a term still retained 



in France in the suite of rooms just above the ground floor, universally known 



as the entre-tol. 



