60 TUDOR HOUSES IN DORSET. 



one is at Toller Fratrum. (Gotch, Early Renaissance A rchitcdure, 

 p. 127). 



Gables were often curved, and from gable to gable extended 

 a solid balustraded parapet. Mapperton and Bingham's 

 Melcombe have each an early gable with angle shafts. 



Turrets were an occasional feature; and roofs, instead of 

 being high pitched, were often flat leaded. 



The pointed arch of the doorway was now flattened and 

 surrounded with a rectangular frame and the spandrils filled 

 with tracery. There is an early one in South Street, Dorchester. 



A lofty protecting porch occupied the centre, the pilasters 

 and arch receiving much carving, classic statues and busts 

 being a favourite device. 



In stone houses the quantity of the detail depended on the 

 hardness of the material, the harder the stone the plainer the 

 work. 



CHAPEL. 



The larger houses often included a domestic chapel, the 

 priest of which received a small stipend, fed with the house- 

 hold, and attended to the library if one existed, or helped 

 with the accounts. Such chapels were perhaps added as the 

 owner increased in wealth, or acquired rank and importance; 

 and they were built on one side of the courtyard and com- 

 municated with the lord's apartments. 



In some cases the manor house stood adjacent to the parish 

 church, as at Hinton St. Mary, Radipole, Sandford Orcas, 

 Poxwell, Athelhampton, Hanford, Tolpuddle and many other 

 parishes. At Gorton, a Domesday manor, the free chapel 

 stands by itself a few yards from the house (illustrated before 

 restoration S. iv. 88). At Melplash the domestic chapel is now 

 the dairy (D.F.C., XXXII, p. xl.) Those at Clifton Maubank, 

 Herringston and Wolfeton no longer exist. 



Woodsford had an oratory or chapel of which the piscina 

 is in situ. (Hutchins' Dorset, Vol. I, pp. 451-2). 



GATEHOUSE. 



This feature was universal in the courtyard type of house, 

 affording the only access over the moat by means of a draw- 



