THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



LESSONS IN ARCHITECTURE. XIX. 



DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. I. 



THE history of domestic architecture in our own country illus- 

 trates in a very striking manner the rise of civilisation and the 

 extinction of barbarism. We have not to travel back more than 

 a few hundred years to find domestic 

 comfort a thing entirely unknown, and 

 the abodes of princes entirely destitute 

 ^f conveniences which are now consi- 

 dered necessary in the house of every 

 peasant. Our Saxon forefathers lived 

 in the rudest possible style. The homes 

 even of kings and lords consisted simply 

 of one large apartment or " hall," in 

 which all the details of domestic lifo 

 were carried on by themselves and their 

 immediate attendants. Privacy was a 

 thing entirely unknown. After the pur- 

 suits of the day the chase or the fight 

 they assembled around one common 

 board, taking place according to their 

 rank in the household ; and in the seli ? - 

 same apartment all members cf the 

 household afterwards disposed them- 

 selves for sleep. It was only occasion- 

 ally that one end of the common hall 

 was separated from the rest by a screen, 

 affording a rude retiring chamber for 

 the lord and lady of the house, with a 

 few privileged attendants. 



Almost the only out-offices attached 

 to the hall were the sheds or pens for 

 the cattle and the swine. The dogs, 

 more cherished, were allowed a place 

 in a corner of the hall itself ; and 

 another corner was frequently occupied 



by the store of provisions. Sometimes, however, the latter 

 would be placed in receptacles or cellars dug out under the hall. 

 Its flooring was of earth, its walls of wood and clay, and its 

 roof of thatch. For 

 the admission of 

 light, openings 

 were left in the 

 sides, and closed 

 by wickerwork 

 when night came 

 on ; for warmth, a 

 log-fire was lighted 

 in the centre of the 

 apartment, and the 

 smoke escaped by 

 holes in the roof. 



Such were the 

 rude habitations of 

 the higher classes 

 of our ancestors 

 before and even for 

 Borne time after the' 

 Norman conquest. 

 Domestic architec- 

 ture,^ will be seen, 

 had as yet no exist- 

 ence in the land. 

 The high civilisa- 

 tion of the Romans, 

 who had been in the 

 country nearly four 

 hundred years, had 

 failed to leave any 

 permanent impress on the barbarous tribes which either inha- 

 bited or ravaged these islands in the following centuries. The 

 Roman towns which had been founded in Britain, with their 

 commodious buildings and stately villas, were razed and de- 

 stroyed on the departure of the people who erected them. No 

 existing models were in the land to tempt the aspirations of 

 Saxon or Danish rulers to anything better than the practices 

 of the barbaric North; nor, indeed, could they have found oppor- 



HADDON HALL (TUDOR STYLE, FIFTEENTH 

 CENTURY). 



HATFIELD HOUSE (ELIZABETHAN STYLE, SIXTEENTH CENTT7RY). 



tunity, amidst their constant warfare, for the culture of the 

 arts of peace. 



The Norman Conquest introduced little essential improvement. 

 The residences of the great became imposing, from the neces- 

 sity that they should be constructed for purposes of defence 

 and security. Castles arose in all parts of the country ; but 

 they were built for warlike and not for 

 domestic uses. So far as domestic ar- 

 rangements are concerned, they could 

 boast of little accommodation superior 

 to that of the Saxon common hall. The 

 abode of the residents was within the 

 principal tower or keep, and this was 

 usually divided into floors, each consist- 

 ing of a single apartment. On the base- 

 ment were the cellars and the dungeons ; 

 above, the entrance-hall, where stores 

 wore often kept; over that, the common 

 hall, where the inmates cooked, feasted, 

 and, for the most part, slept together ; 

 while the uppermost story was the dor- 

 mitory of the lord and his guests. The 

 door to this uncomfortable residence 

 was on the second floor, and entered by 

 stairs, which were raised and lowered at 

 will, so that the edifice was inaccessible 

 except to the inmates ; the walls were 

 pierced with but few openings to admit 

 light, as these tended to weaken them 

 against an enemy ; and the roof was 

 surrounded by a high crenellated para- 

 pet, from which defenders of the castle 

 could fight against assailants below. 



In keeps of larger dimensions, the 

 floors were sometimes divided by a par- 

 tition, and the additional apartments 

 thus gained wero used as council-cham- 

 ber, chapel, etc. ; but in no case was there anything approach- 

 ing the modern idea of private apartments. Examples of these 

 Norman keeps are found in that portion of the Tower of London 



known as theWhite 

 Tower, and in the 

 castles of Roches- 

 ter, Colchester, etc. 

 The comparative 

 immunity of the 

 clergy from the 

 strifes and the dan- 

 gers which com- 

 pelled the nobles to 

 regard their homes 

 merely as warlike 

 posts and fortifica- 

 tions, led to the 

 development of a 

 more convenient 

 plan of residence 

 in monastic esta- 

 blishments. The 

 chief distinguish- 

 ing characteristic 

 of these places, as 

 far as domestic ar- 

 rangement is con- 

 cerned, was exhi- 

 bited in the addi- 

 tion of apartments 

 and out-offices for 

 the storage of pro- 

 visions, cooking, 



etc. ; and it is to this source that we must look for the germ of 

 the numerous and commodious offices which became attached to 

 the mansions of the nobility at a much later date. In some few 

 castles of the twelfth century we find indications of the separa- 

 tion of the culinary apartments from the common hall by parti- 

 tions at one end ; but these examples were exceptions to the 

 general rule, and it was not until the thirteenth century that 

 this degree of convenience became generally provided. 



