298 History of the English Landed Interest. 



Some of tlie old surveys in the reign of Elizabeth contain 

 illustrations of village buildings. Mr. Hubert Hall, in his 

 Society hi the Elizabethan Acje^ gives a coloured illustration of 

 an Elizabethan hamlet, taken from the original plan of the 

 manor of Bradwell in Essex. ^ The few houses scattered over 

 the small fields give the impression conveyed by Csesar when 

 describing a Germanic village. The parish church at one side, 

 and the cha2')el of ease at the other, point to the freshly insti- 

 tuted subdivision of parishes into chapelries ; the highway'' 

 terminating at the parish church vividly illustrates the isolation 

 of country life, and the three shades of green and one of brown 

 are intended probably to distinguish the different kinds of culti- 

 vation.^ The chief features of the houses that composed the 

 hamlet were the enormous chimneys to which the rest of the 

 small building seemed attached as an afterthought, though the 

 reverse was probably the state of affairs ; the windows were 

 mullioned, the roofs tiled, and the one or two rooms all on the 

 groundfloor. It is interesting to note that even thus early 

 thatch had been replaced by other materials. A copyhold 

 house was only distinguished from a copyhold cottage by its 

 greater size, its red roof, and its enormous chimney stack. 

 Even the better building could not have consisted of more 

 than two rooms, the smaller of which occasionally had a lower 

 roof and was probably a subsequent addition. The copyhold 

 barn consisted of a plinth of brickwork timbered above with 

 a thatched roof. 



The plan shows no traces of gardens about any of the houses, 

 though probably there was an odd half-hidden corner to most 

 of them which would be devoted to herbs, if not onions and 

 cabbages. The hedgerows of the fields appear full of trees, 

 many of which were likely to have been the common species 

 of fruits, such as apples, pears, and quinces. Further and more 

 minute details, though adding to the picturesqueness of the 

 hamlet, would have scarcely been considered proper or useful 



' Society in the Elizabethan Age, 3rd cdn., pi. 1. 



- The green commons were coloured dark green on the Hitchen 

 manorial map, and the Lammas meadows light green. Vide Seebohm, 

 Engl. Village Community. 



