LESSONS IN ARCHITECTURE. 





In convenience of domoatio arrangement, the ccutlet of the 

 lords progressed more slowly than the ma-.wr-tioute* dispersed 

 through tho country. The former were strongholds which at 

 onoe overawed and protected tho 

 .* ; the latter were the centres 

 of rural occupation. Both belonged 

 to the same proprietors, for the lord 

 of a castle would possess perhaps 

 several manor-houses in various 

 parts of his estates, as the residences 

 of his overseers, and the granaries 

 for his produce. Built at places loss 

 exposed than the towns to attack, 

 those houses could often be erected 

 with a greater regard to utility than 

 to defence ; and hence their arrange- 

 ments in process of time became BO 

 far superior to those of the castle 

 keeps, that the occupants of tho 

 latter would leave them, when they 

 could, to sojourn for a time at a 

 manor-house in the country. Thus 

 becoming accustomed to greater 

 domestic convenience, they desired, 

 on their return, to introduce similar 

 arrangements, as far as possible, 

 within the castle walla ; and in tho 

 thirteenth century, when a greater 

 degree of peace and order began to 

 prevail, we find that tho nobles often 

 erected buildings on the manor- 

 house plan within the castle enclo- 

 sure. Besides this, they occasion- 

 ally fortified the manor-houses after 

 the castle manner, to adapt them 

 to a more frequent and permanent 



residence than they could otherwise have made in them. The 

 manor-houses, however, were still destitute of arrangements in 

 accordance with our modern ideas of comfort and propriety. 

 Their chief advan- 

 tage over the cas- 

 tles was in the pos- 

 session, by gradual 

 development, of 

 offices suited to 

 tho general range 

 of domestic affairs. 

 The addition of pri- 

 vate apartments 

 even for the chief 

 members of the 

 household was still 

 almost unknown, 

 as it was not yet 

 required by the 

 tastes and habits 

 of a comparatively 

 barbarous age. 



From this sketc'i 

 of the abodes of 

 tiie higher classes 

 down to the close 

 of the thirteenth 

 century, an idea 

 may be formed as 

 to what was the 

 condition of tho 

 lower. In the towns 

 the citizens inha- 

 bited rude tene- 

 ments of a single 

 storey, built of 

 wood and clay. In 

 the country tho 

 people dwelt in sheds scarcely fit for the beasts of the field. 



OSBORNE HOUSE (RURAL ITALIAN STYLE). 



EXAMPLE OP THE PALLADIA* STYLE. 



And 



although six centuries have elapsed since the period of which 

 we have been writing, the latter remark is still true of the con- 

 dition of the rural population in many parts of the country. 



Bat we mast confine ourselves in the present paper to the 

 dwellings of the nobility and gentry, reserving this hocsec of 

 the general population for consideration in another article. 

 Coming to the fourteenth century, 

 we find a great advance hi the gene- 

 ral arrangement* of the house* o! 

 the great. The erection of more 

 commodious residence within the 

 castle walls continued throughout 

 this period. The disposition to 

 combine convenience with strength 

 was rapidly on the increase, and the 

 growing submission of the barons to 

 the authority of the laws favoured 

 the arts of peace. But Architecture, 

 OB a science, found its chief scope 

 in ecclesiastical buildings, and there 

 was yet no foundation of settled 

 style in the homes of the nobility. 

 A great improvement in the accom- 

 modation was mode by the addition 

 to the presence-chambers of with- 

 drawing apartments for the heads 

 of the household, and it now, for 

 the first time, became the practice 

 to partition some of these apart- 

 ments as bed-chambers. But the 

 large hall was still put to its former 

 uses, serving for the general meal- 

 room of the residents, most of whom 

 still slept upon its floor at night. 

 The common hall was regarded ae 

 the most important part of the edi- 

 fice. Its dimensions were imposing, 

 its timber roof so highly ornamented 

 in many cases, as to excite admira- 

 tion at the present day. A splendid specimen of these ancient 

 edifices exists in the Great Hall at Westminster ; and another 

 good example, attached to the house of a merchant prince at 



a later date than 

 that now before us. 

 is found in Crosby 

 Hall, in the City of 

 London. 



Among the mi- 

 nor improvements 

 of the time must 

 be mentioned the 

 substitution of 

 glazed windows for 

 the open lattice 

 throughout the va- 

 rious chambers, 

 and the addition of 

 hearths or fire- 

 places to these as 

 well as the larger 

 apartments. There 

 was no attempt 

 yet at regularity 

 of ground-plan, but 

 the common hall 

 usually occupied 

 the centre of the 

 domestic buildings, 

 the private apart- 

 ments being placed 

 at one end, and the 

 kitchen and offices 

 at the other. 



In the fifteenth 

 century we reach 

 a transitional pe- 

 riod, in whicii both 

 comfort and elegance began to be studied in domestic edi- 

 fices. The wealth of the country was rapidly on the in- 

 crease through its rising commerce, and the invention of gun- 

 powder rendered castles and fortified houses comparatively 



