House and Garden 
BROUGHTON HALL, MARKET DRAYTON 
and Burghley House, importing Flemish and German 
artisans to load them with bastard Italian Renais¬ 
sance detail. Nothing could he worse than some 
of these vast structures, with their distorted gables, 
their chaotic proportions, and their crazy interpre¬ 
tation of classic orders. But what may he called 
the typical Elizabethan mansion, whose builder’s 
means or good taste would not permit of such a 
profusion of these architectural luxuries, is un¬ 
equaled in its combination of stateliness with 
homelikeness, in its expression of the manner of 
life of the class for which it was built. And in the 
humbler manors and farmhouses the latter idea is 
even more perfectly expressed, for houses were 
affected by the new fashions in architecture generally 
in proportion to their size. 
Timber was the material most generally used, 
except in the great stone districts, before and during 
the early part of Elizabeth’s reign. William Har¬ 
rison, an old chronicler of that time, says that most 
of the houses were of timber, though stone and 
brick were beginning to be used by the great nobles, 
the latter, however, being very expensive. Harrison’s 
statement was probably based on observation in his 
own neighborhood, as in some parts of England stone 
had been generally used long before his time. In 
the thickly wooded districts, what is sometimes 
called the “black and white’’ style was brought to 
its perfection. Heavy timbers were used and the 
framing made very strong and stout, so that houses 
of this kind have in many cases lasted better than 
those of stone or brick. The spaces between the 
timbers were filled with a sort of basketwork of 
osiers and plastered thickly within and without, 
flush with the framing. With these white surfaces 
contrasting with the fanciful patterns of the dark 
woodwork, the effect of these houses was very 
quaint and picturesque, as is seen in the fine example 
of Carden Hall, Cheshire. Where wood was not so 
plentiful the timbers were smaller and more widely 
spaced and the plaster surfaces larger. It was this 
typeof house which so astonished the Spanish Ambas¬ 
sadors in Mary’s reign when they compared these 
abodes of Englishmen with their profuse diet. “These 
English,” they said, “have their houses made of sticks 
and dirt, but they fare commonly so well as the king.” 
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