292 On the Old Porch-House at Potterne. 



abundant and almost inexhaustible, possibly the prevailing fashion of 

 wooden houses might have been prolonged to a much later date, had 

 not the Great Fire of London ^ in 1666 (of which the well-known 

 Monument is the memorial) put a sudden stop to the practice, and 

 caused the substitution of a less perishable material : for immediately 

 after the Fire of London a proclamation^ (which by many was 

 deemed arbitrary and unjustifiable) was made, enjoining the Lord 

 Mayor and other city magistrates to take care that no houses of 

 timber should be erected for the future.' And this new, though 

 enforced, fashion of stone and bi'ick houses in London very soon 

 spread through the country, to the utter abandonment of the mode 

 of building, which, till then, had monopolized the attention of archi- 

 tects and builders. 



With these preliminary remarks on the general subject of timber 

 houses in England, and wherein I have gleaned from the writings 

 of some of our best archaeologists, to wit, Mr Hudson Turner, Mr. 

 John Henry Parker, Mr. Albert Way, Mr. Clayton and others ; I 

 come now the more readily to the very excellent specimen of an old 

 timber house in our own county, which it is my present purpose to 

 describe. 



In the parish of Potterne, and in the very middle of the 

 village, abutting on the main street, stands an old old house, which, 

 though it has long attracted the notice of the archaeologist and the 



^ As some slight precaution against fire, so deservedly dreaded by those who 

 dwelt in streets of wooden houses, an old law had long since enacted that 

 " before every house there should be a tub full of water, either of wood or stone ; " 

 the like of which may be seen, rigidly enforced at the present day, in the towns 

 of Bergen, Trondbjem, &c., in Norway, where the majority of houses are of 

 timber. 



- Long before this, even in the reign of King John, a decree was made that 

 every alderman should, under penalty of fine, provide himself with a hook and 

 cord, whereby to demolish the wooden houses of the citi2ens in case of fire, 

 and nothing can give us a better notion what mean and flimsy hovels the citi- 

 zens of London were then contented with, if a hook and cord were implements 

 sufficient for pulling them down. 



'Hallam's History of England, vol. iii., p. 6. 



