318 



DATE-STONES 



(Fig. 231), -a building of great interest, 

 possessing doorways of curious seven- 

 teenth-century detail ; and another good 

 specimen is at Trinity Hall, Cambridge 

 (Fig. 233). The old ' hall was altered 

 about the year 1742, when it was de- 

 scribed as " very gloomy and dark," and 

 as being " roofed with old Oak Beams, 

 very black & dismal from y e Charcoal 

 w dl is burnt in y e middle of y e Hall ; and 

 over it in y e middle of y e Roof was an 

 old awkward kind of Cupulo to let out 

 y e Smoak." l The new cupola was con- 

 sidered, presumably, more elegant and 

 less awkward than the old one. The 

 reference to the ancient method of 

 warming the hall by a fire in the middle 

 of the floor is interesting, as showing 

 how long the old practice lingered in 

 places where those in authority were 

 averse to change. A further example 

 is shown in Fig. 234. 



While fancy still played a part in 



the work of local masons, the little date-stones shown in Fig. 235 

 were built into some unpretentious houses in the Midlands ; but 

 a hundred years later the diligent pursuit of correctitude had 

 banished such touches from the work of architects, and masons 

 had lost the feeling which gave rise to them. They are, how- 

 ever, quite suggestive, and provide ideas for the perpetuation of 

 the owner's name and the date of his work facts which are 

 of interest in respect of all buildings. The example from 

 Amersham is rather more ambitious, but hardly more successful 

 (Fig. 236). 



Another feature of interest to be found on many an eighteenth- 

 century house is the sundial. A specimen from High \Yycombe 

 is shown in Fig. 237, but almost every market town, and not 

 a few villages, can produce examples as good. Sometimes an 

 appropriate sentiment or an apt quotation was inscribed on the 

 dial, but the number of cases where this occurs is not quite so 



1 From a description by Cole, quoted in Willis and Clark's "Architectural 

 History of the University of Cambridge." 



FIG. 234. Cupola at 

 Caius College, Cambridge. 



