It was satisfying and beautiful because every bit of ornamental detail 

 grew out of the necessary structure. The plainer framing of cottage and 

 farmhouse became enriched in the manor-house into a wealth of mould- 

 ing and carving and other kinds of decoration. External panel ornament 

 gained a rich quality by the repetition of symmetrical form, while the 

 overhanging of the successive stories and the indentations between pro- 

 jecting wings and porches threw the various faces of the building into 

 interesting masses of light and shade. Then, in delightful and restful 

 contrast to the " busy " wall-spaces, are the roofs, with their long quiet 

 lines of ridge and their covering of tile or stone, painted by the ages with 

 the loveliest tinting of moss and lichen. 



Within, these fine old wooden houses show the good English oak as 

 worthily treated as without. For the whole structure is of wood from 

 end to end, built as soundly and strongly as were the old wooden ships. 

 The inner walls, where they were not panelled with oak, were hung with 

 tapestry. Ceilings of the best rooms were wrought with plaster ornament ; 

 lesser rooms showed the beams and often the thick joists that fitted into 

 them and upheld the floor above. Where, as was usual, there was a 

 long gallery in the topmost floor, its ceiling would show a tracery of oak 

 with plaster filling, partly following the line of the roof. The whole 

 structure, blossoming out in its more important parts into beautiful 

 decorative enrichment, showed the worker's delight in his craft, and 

 his mastery of mind and hand in conceiving and carrying out the possi- 

 bilities offered by what was then the most usual building material of 

 the country. 



Such another house as Speke is Moreton Old Hall in Cheshire, but 

 the latter is still more richly decorated, with carved strings, some of which 

 were painted, and wood and plaster panels of great elaboration, and lead- 

 quarried windows of large size and beautiful design. 



The destruction of large numbers of these timber buildings in the 

 eighteenth century can never be sufficiently deplored. There was a time 

 when the fashion for buildings of classical form was spreading over 

 England, when they were considered barbarous relics of a bygone age, 

 and when the delightful gardens that had grown up around them were 

 alike condemned and in many cases destroyed. 



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