THE STYLE OF LOUIS XII. 23 



rudimentary type are applied to the turret windows, and the balustrades 

 and internal treatment of the loggias are pure Italian, while the newel 

 exhibits an inextricable mingling of the two styles (Figs. 10 and 17). 

 Other examples of transitional stair-towers may be studied in the chateau 

 of Meillant (restored c. 1503) and the ducal residence (now Palais de 

 Justice) at Nevers. 



OTHER CHATEAUX. A favourite device for the decoration of the 

 principal entrance was to surmount it with a niche containing an 

 equestrian statue of the owner. An example occurs at Blois with the 

 effigy of Louis XII. (Fig. 13), and another in the extremely rich and 

 characteristically transitional entrance of the palace at Nancy (Fig. 7), 

 forming part of the works carried out for Duke Rene II. of Lorraine, 

 probably by the mason-sculptors Mansuy Gauvain and Jacquot de Vau- 

 couleurs (1501-12). Other examples of transitional work may be seen 

 in the chateaux of Fontaine-Henri (the older wing), La Rochefoucauld, 

 Oyron (the lower storey of the left wing), and Ainay-le-Vieil. 



MANOR-HOUSES. Side by side with the castles there were unforti- 

 fied manors. Owing to the long anarchy of the English and civil wars 

 they were less common in France than in England, but grew in numbers 

 towards the end of the fifteenth century. Though unable to sustain a 

 siege, such houses were generally defended against marauding parties by 

 a moat or wall, which sometimes included the farm buildings as well. 

 The Manoir d'Ango, near Dieppe, of the time of Francis I. is a good 

 example of such an arrangement. Since in other respects they re- 

 sembled the castles, though on a less elaborate scale, when castles ceased 

 to be effectively fortified, the distinction between the two classes of houses 

 was merely one of size, and both came to be spoken of as "chateaux," 

 a term which lost all idea of fortification and was applied to any country 

 house of some importance, though not necessarily of great extent. 



The following may be mentioned as examples of the transitional 

 phase : The Manoir de Nollent, or Maison des Gensdarmes, and the 

 small chateau of Lasson, both near Caen ; the stair-tower of the manor 

 of St Ouen at Chemaze (1515) (Fig. 18), the house itself, which is a few 

 years earlier, showing little, if any, Renaissance influence. 



TOWN HOUSES: HOTELS. Town houses were either "hotels," the 

 residences of wealthy merchants or professional men, and town mansions 

 of the nobility, or " maisons," the dwellings of middle or lower classes. 

 The former comprised a court with buildings on one or more sides and 

 a screen-wall on the others. Such a screen, sometimes with a covered 

 way behind it, often occupied the street front and contained the entrance, 

 as in the Hotel de Cluny at Paris and the Hotel d'Assezat at Toulouse 

 (Figs. 150 and 151). Less frequently the principal block lay on the 

 street, an arched carriage-way leading through it to the court and the 



