SMITHSON'S HOUSE-PLANS 



35 



The other specimen of Smithson's planning is one of the H type, 

 with the hall in one of the wings (Fig. 15). This is a departure from 

 the old arrangement, which would have placed the hall in the central 

 block, and thus have brought the buttery (which opens from the 

 screens) into close touch with the kitchens. The hall becomes here 

 more of a passage-room and less of a living-room than under the 

 ancient disposition. There are no sitting-rooms for the family on 

 the ground floor, but the principal staircase leads to the great 

 chamber on the upper floor, thence to the long gallery and a distant 



FIG. 17. Elevation of a House, not named. 



From the Smithson Collection. 



" withdrawing-chamber," as well as to the chapel and several bed- 

 rooms. 



Both these houses are rigidly symmetrical in their external treat- 

 ment, and it is interesting to note how, in addition to preserving such 

 old-established rooms as the great chamber and long gallery, they 

 depend for their external effect upon old features, such as mullioned 

 windows, arcaded entrances, turrets, and the breaking up of the various 

 fronts with substantial projections and large bay-windows. These 

 devices were customary among the designers of the time of Elizabeth and 

 James I., but they were gradually to be superseded by other methods. 



