House and Garden 
means of trifling additions and small vari¬ 
ations of details. One old house near Minster 
Vicarage has two such gables, bearing the 
initials R. K., 1693. The inn near the 
churchyard, called the “White Horse,” also 
is adorned with the same sort of graceful 
gables. Such houses show Dutch feeling 
which is evident in Norfolk, but the brick and 
flint work here belongs to a different school 
from that which flourished in the East Anglian 
villages. 
arch, and supporting the rooftree. 1 he 
roof is formed of branches and rough thatch. 
Aisles are formed by low walls of stakes and 
wattle, placed a little back from the columns 
or stems of the forks, and in these aisles are 
placed beds of rushes called gwelys, where 
the inmates sleep. A fire burns in an open 
hearth in the centre. The building was not 
unlike a small Gothic cathedral, if Medusa’s 
head had been turned upon it and changed 
the timber into stone. 
ON THE WAY TO SHFRK 
Danish and Scandinavian influence is seen 
even in a large number of English farmhouses 
which have the dwelling-house, the barn and 
cow-house under one roof, while the German 
and the Frisian farmsteads find their counter¬ 
part in our rural houses. Even that curious 
structure, the tribal house of the Celtic race, 
throws light on the evolution of our dwellings. 
This Welsh house was built of trees newly 
cut from the forest. Six well-grown trees 
were set up in pairs, their upper branches 
reaching over to each other, forming a Gothic 
We English are a mixed race. Well sang 
the late Laureate: 
“ Angle and Norman and Dane are we,” 
and in no way do we show better our mixed 
natural characteristics than in the growth 
and origin of our houses. 
French influence is considerable in Scot¬ 
land. The two countries were ever closely 
connected, both royally and politically. The 
English were not always loved across the 
Tweed, and the cunning Frenchman took 
I 35 
