EXAMPLES OF TRANSITIONAL WORK 111 



Another type of the quaint mixture of the old and the new 

 is to be seen at Ipswich in the well-known Sparrow's house, and 

 in the less ornate example shown in Fig. 66. Here the ancient 

 practice of overhanging the upper stories is utilised to obtain 

 the strong horizontal lines which are characteristic of the classic 

 style ; but instead of the walls being full of windows, their blank 

 spaces are larger in extent than the windows, and they are 

 panelled in a simple fashion. Above the bold cornice spring 

 three sharply pointed gables, which give an old-fashioned 

 appearance to the house. The original windows are mullioned, 

 but some of them (and probably all at first were alike) have an 

 arched central light of double the width of the others. Xo doubt 

 this treatment was introduced in order to vary the monotony 

 of a series of windows composed entirely of small rectangular 

 openings. It was very generally adopted, but the curved side 

 lights are a variation not often found ; the more frequent form is 

 that employed in the picturesque Grammar School at Oxford 

 (Fig. 67) which was built in the year 1658 for the education of 

 freemen's sons, on the foundation of Alderman John Nixon. 

 The steep gables appear to be later additions, the original 

 arrangement was the flatter and more carefully devised gable 

 over the middle window. The arcade on the ground floor is 

 quite Jacobean in feeling. 



At Saffron \Yalden, in Essex, there is a row of houses of 

 ancient aspect, with projecting corbelled gables. One of them is 

 dated 1676, which probably gives the period when the modelled 

 plasterwork was applied to an existing front, for some of the 

 woodwork is Gothic in character. They are interesting examples 

 of the ornamental plasterwork which at one time abounded in 

 the eastern counties (Figs. 68 and 69). 



The red brick inn at Scole, in Norfolk (Fig. 72), is another 

 example of the mixture of classic cornices and quasi-pilasters 

 with curved gables, and it gives a good idea of how local designers 

 strove to modernise their buildings and were yet unable to shake 

 off the old fetters which bound them to the traditions of their 

 youth. There used to be, stretching across the road, a very 

 substantial and picturesque sign attached to this inn, a wonder- 

 ful piece of allegorical design. 1 It was dated 1655, which may 

 be taken as the date of the building itself. 



1 Illustrated in " Early Renaissance Architecture in England," by the 

 present author (Batsford). 



