DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE 



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latter there is little to be found in Surrey, although it occurs now and 

 then in simple forms. 



Surrey is not rich in internal plaster work ; for some reason the 

 small houses do not possess the ceilings and friezes that would be found 

 as a matter of course in other counties. This is strange 

 when we remember what an important part plaster 

 played in the decoration of Nonsuch. Perhaps the 

 fact that the sand is what is called hungry, and ill | 

 adapted for plaster, may have something to do with ' 

 this. I 



There are the usual ceilings at Loseley and Ham af 

 House and fine Elizabethan ceilings of interlacing beam I 

 and strap work at Eagle House,^ Wimbledon, ceilings 

 at 25 High Street, Guildford, and an armorial ceiling 

 at Braboeuf Manor. The state room at Slyfields has 

 a famous arabesque wagon-shaped ceiling and there t 

 are others below of the style used by Inigo Jones. » 

 There is an elegant Georgian ceiling at Reigate Priory, %' 

 and probably many others of that date not readily gl' 

 accessible to archaeologists. °^ 



The ordinary material used for dwelling houses { 

 up to the middle of the seventeenth century was oak, I 

 in the usual post and panel construction ; the Wealden 

 district supplying oak in abundance. Fire and natural 

 decay account for the disappearance of most of the 

 important early houses of this class. Such a house as 

 that of the Ormondes at Vachery near Cranleigh, 

 where Queen Philippa was entertained, must have 

 been very extensive. When such houses ceased to 

 be constantly inhabited they would rapidly decay and would finally be 

 taken down and smaller and more useful buildings made from the 

 material. The old surveys show that kitchens and all manner of 

 domestic offices were in outbuildings, as were lodgings for guests, re- 

 tainers and attendants. These were probably less substantially built than 

 the hall and its belongings, and were the first to go. 



The old farmhouses and cottages frequently contain the skeletons 

 of fifteenth and even of fourteenth century timber houses. The old 

 open-roofed hall often exists in these, although it has long been 

 divided by floors and partitions. A careful examination of the roof 

 will often show the smoke and discoloration from the open fire in 

 the centre of the hall, an arrangement universal in all early domestic 

 work. 



Great Tangley, the best example of an ornamental timber house 

 left in the county, was built round a fifteenth century open hall of 

 which the massive tiebeam remains in one of the bedrooms. 



i' 



Fig. 6. Section of Tile 



Facing Imitating 



Brickwork. 



* This house belongs to the end of Elizabeth's reign, if not to that of James I. It is mentioned 

 as a " fiiir new house " in a survey of the manor of Wimbledon, 1 61 7. Sun: Arch. Coll. x. 151. 



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