The treatment of special features in domestic buildings was (as already pointed out) generally simpler than that of similar features in churches, although it followed much the same lines in both cases. On the whole, such things as doorways, windows, fireplaces, roofs and ceilings were handled in houses with much simplicity during the prevalence of the Gothic or mediæval styles. In this respect they present a striking contrast to the elaboration bestowed upon them in later years when houses were built for comfort and splendour, and when a study of the methods of the artists of the Renaissance enabled our English designers to indulge in determined efforts at magnificent design.

It may be that in house-building the work was purposely subordinated to that adopted in church-building: it may be that the fact of houses being subject to attacks from which the sacred character of churches preserved them, led to an avoidance of costly or elaborate ornament. But, whatever the reason, the richest of domestic doorways and windows cannot compare in splendour with the finer specimens of such features in churches or cathedrals; and, as a rule, their richness was restrained within severe and narrow bounds. In some of the more important dwellings, especially in the earliest times, considerable attention was bestowed upon doorways, and the employment of several “orders,” or shallow arches placed in receding fashion one behind the other, led to striking and even noble effects. Windows are such vulnerable points that they were in early times almost always small and plain. Ceilings were merely the constructional expression of the floors of which they formed the under side. Fireplaces were only so far ornamented as their construction seemed to suggest, especially in the earlier examples. It was not until the time of Elizabeth that the chimney-piece as a stately and predominating feature came into fashion.

During the mediæval period, throughout the whole of which it was necessary to guard against assault, External Doorways were simple in treatment, and were protected either by being placed in a recess commanded by openings through which arrows could be shot (called oillets), or by being surmounted at greater or less height by projecting stonework which concealed openings (called machicolations) through which missiles of various kinds could be hurled upon the heads of those attempting to force an entrance. In many cases, as at Warkworth Castle (Fig. 50), both these methods of defence were adopted. An oillet can be seen on the canted face to the left of the doorway; the machicolations are carried across between the two turrets. Frequently the entrance was further protected by a portcullis, or massive grille of wood, which slid up and down in a groove in the stonework. Nearly every castle and many of the fortified houses were thus defended, and there are innumerable instances in which the grooves may still be seen. These defensive arrangements are an interesting subject, but are outside the present purpose, except in so far as they affect the architectural treatment. Machicolations are sometimes found over doors in dwelling-houses, but more generally in connection with the gatehouse. They not infrequently occur at the summit of towers, and impart the characteristic appearance produced by the heavy projection which they necessitated. One result of the universal need for protection was that doorways were generally small; small, that is, in comparison with those that came into use in the seventeenth century. Even the principal doors of a house were restricted in size, and were generally in one sheet, not divided down the middle and hung on either hand. The commonest form of fastening was a stout oak bar, which when out of use was pushed back into a long recess in the wall, and when wanted was drawn across the door far enough for its end to fit into a shallow recess in the opposite jamb.

Early doorways are usually round-headed; sometimes the sweep of the arch was not fully semicircular but segmental. In important buildings like Rochester Castle and Hedingham, the arches were either of several orders or were richly ornamented with the zigzag or spiral mouldings characteristic of the period (Figs. 51, 52, 53). In houses of less importance, such as the prebendal house at Nassington, the treatment was simpler (Fig. 51a). In this case, although the arch is round, the label terminations show it to be of somewhat later date, probably early in the thirteenth century, or nearly a hundred years after those at Rochester and Hedingham.

Early in the thirteenth century arches became pointed, and doorways followed suit; accordingly the example from Aydon Castle in Northumberland (c. 1280), shows the later form (Fig. 54). It is a good instance of the very general practice of entering the upper floor through an external door approached by a flight of steps. The marks where the protecting roof abutted against the wall are plainly visible. As this doorway opened from an interior courtyard, special measures of defence were not considered necessary. Of still later date is the doorway of the Bishop’s palace at Mayfield, in Sussex (Fig. 55). This charming little drawing not only shows the unusually wide doorway, but also affords a glimpse into the great hall, with its Decorated window and the springing of one of the stone arches which carried the roof timbers. The Decorated period delighted in ogee arches, ball-flowers, and crockets, and it bestowed them upon the three doorways at Northborough (Fig. 56), which led from the screens of the hall to the buttery, kitchen, and pantry. The illustration is sketched from a point within the screens, and shows the inside of the front door on the extreme right. The manor house at Northborough is of very considerable interest in spite of the alterations which have been found necessary to adapt it to modern uses. It retains its old hall, now divided into two storeys; and the rather elaborate tracery of its windows can still be detected, although built up in order to accommodate the inserted floor. The house is approached across a court into which access is obtained through a vaulted gatehouse, which has suffered much mutilation. Most of the other buildings which form the court are of the seventeenth century, and the whole group is full of the suggestions prompted by time-worn buildings, especially where they reveal themselves to the traveller in some remote village. It became customary in the Perpendicular period to surround the pointed arch with a rectangular frame, as shown in the various examples in Fig. 57. The first step is taken in the doorway at Norrington in Wiltshire; the idea is more resolutely carried out in the others. The Norrington archway is boldly moulded, and it leads into a vaulted porch, a feature less frequently found in houses than in churches. The doorway from Eltham Palace has the spandrels, formed by the curved arch and the rectangular frame, filled with tracery, and it is surmounted by a bold square-headed label. The Lacock example shows a later type, in which the pointed head is flattened in the manner customary in Tudor times, a manner which lingered on, with variations, until well into the reign of James I. The fourth example, from Lenham, is of wood, unlike the others, which are of stone. It shows that the same treatment was applied to both materials alike. There is another good example of a late doorway in wood at Harrietsham, in Kent (Fig. 58). This sketch is valuable as affording a glimpse into the screens of the hall, with doorways on the right, leading to the servants’ quarters. The doorway from the excellent half-timber house at Eastington, in Worcestershire, is another good example in wood (Fig. 59). The beautiful doorways from South Wingfield (Fig. 60, a, b) are specimens of the best work of the Perpendicular period: that from Stanton Harcourt (Fig. 60, c) is a good example of a small stone doorway with its original oak door and iron hinges; it has a worthy companion in the little door at Lacock. The last example in Fig. 60, d, shows a more elaborately designed oak door from the school at Ewelme in Oxfordshire. The fittings of the doors are worthy of attention; the wood handle and iron knocker at Lenham, the knocker at Lacock, and the wood bolt at Stanton Harcourt. When the doorways were of stone, the doors were not hung in wood frames, but on stout hooks let into the stonework. It was impossible, therefore, to shut them tight; there was always space enough between the door and the stone to admit draughts and copious piles of snow. In later years, as we shall see, door frames become universal, but if found in mediæval houses they may be regarded as insertions, unless the whole construction is of wood as in the examples from Lenham and Harrietsham.

Windows.—In all early houses the windows were small, owing to the necessity for defence. On the ground floor they were little more than narrow slits, three or four inches wide; but in the rooms less directly exposed to attack, they were somewhat enlarged, although still far short in area of the minimum required by modern by-laws, namely, one-tenth of the floor space. They were unglazed, except in important houses, such as those belonging to the king. Indeed, examples are not infrequent, even in the fifteenth century, of windows never having been glazed. Sheets of horn were sometimes used in order to keep out the wind, without absolutely excluding the light. From the earliest times windows were closed by shutters, which sometimes covered the whole window, when it was not too large; and sometimes were provided for each subdivision; for as already remarked, domestic windows were often divided by cross-bars or transomes in order to obtain lights of reasonable size in regard to the shutters. Tracery was sparingly employed, and was usually not covered by the shutters; the openings thus left formed useful outlets for the smoke, but must have been considered by reflecting minds to be only a crude method of ventilation.

The treatment of house windows corresponded with that adopted in churches. First they were round-headed, as at Castle Hedingham (Fig. 61), and Rochester (Fig. 51, b). Then they became pointed, with, perhaps, a dividing mullion, as at Little Wenham Hall (Fig. 64, b). The plain pointed heads were then bent into a trefoil shape, as at Chacombe Priory (Fig. 62), or were made with a flat summit and curved shoulders, as at Alnwick Castle (Fig. 63). Tracery was occasionally introduced, as at Little Wenham (Fig. 64, a). This illustration and that from Chacombe, as well as the view of Oakham Castle (Fig. 15), show that the forerunner of the mullion was a shaft dividing the lights. In subsequent examples the mullion will be found fully established.

The stone window frame itself was placed at the outside face of the wall, and as the latter was of great thickness, the space inside was furnished with stone seats, which are well shown in the example from Alnwick Castle (Fig. 63), where also the sinking to contain the shutters is plainly visible. The shutter itself is shown in the Little Wenham example (Fig. 64, b), and in the window at Stokesay (Fig. 23). The glazing of all these windows may be considered as inserted in later years; but whether glazed or not, the lights were protected by iron bars down to the end of the sixteenth century.

A Decorated window of the fourteenth century is given in the illustration from the palace at Mayfield (Fig. 55), and again in that of Penshurst (Fig. 71). The charming window from the porch at South Wingfield of the Perpendicular period (Fig. 65), has unusually elaborate tracery, but it serves to emphasise the resemblance between domestic and ecclesiastical architecture, as also do the larger windows from the same house—the bay, and the window in the gable of the state apartment shown in Figs. 36 and 37.

An excellent example of the late fifteenth century is to be seen at Abingdon Abbey, in the very interesting guest-house (Fig. 66). These lights were not glazed, but were furnished with iron bars and shutters. During the fifteenth century, owing to the less urgent need for defence, windows increased in size, and by the end of that century windows of six or eight lights, or even long ranges of lights, were not infrequent.

One of the most striking features of domestic architecture, and one which in the hands of Elizabethan designers often dominated the composition of their façades, was the BAY WINDOW. By the later architects it was repeated symmetrically so as to help the rhythm of the design. But in mediæval times, with which we are now dealing, it was treated as an isolated feature, and was seldom used except to add to the amenities of the daïs in the great hall. In this position it gave a little extra space, conveniently situated for the reception of a sideboard. Its lights were brought down low enough to afford an outlook, whereas the other windows of the hall were kept up some 10 or 12 ft. from the floor. Even when used singly and without any idea of symmetrical repetition, the bay window was a commanding feature, and was frequently the occasion of such happy architectural grouping as may be seen at Brympton D’Evercy, in Somerset (Fig. 67).

It is not easy to say when bay windows were first introduced, but apparently not earlier than the middle of the fourteenth century; they were, however, generally adopted during the fifteenth, and the Perpendicular style affords many beautiful examples. Among them may be mentioned South Wingfield (Fig. 36), and Fawsley in Northamptonshire (Fig. 68). The ceilings of these bays were not infrequently vaulted in stone, with elaborate tracery and cusps, as is the case in this fine window at Fawsley, the Deanery at Wells, the oriel at Great Chalfield in Wiltshire, and many others. The great bay at Fawsley is of unusual interest, inasmuch as there is a small chamber above it, which was originally approached by a narrow newel staircase. Owing to its remote position, tradition has assigned this chamber as the secret place where the celebrated Martin Marprelate tracts were printed.

Bay windows were occasionally introduced on an upper floor, being corbelled out from the face of the wall; such windows are called oriels. There is a good example at Sherborne in Dorset, of Perpendicular date (Fig. 69). The earliest known example of an oriel window is at Prudhoe Castle, in Northumberland; it is not actually corbelled out, however, but rests on a crosswall below.

The construction of wooden houses, formed of stout uprights placed at short intervals, lent itself freely to the introduction of long ranges of window lights such as those in a street front at Glastonbury (Fig. 70), where the framing of the walls served also as the frame of the window.

Fireplaces occur in some of the earliest buildings; that is, large recesses specially contrived in the walls, with an outlet for the smoke carried up for some distance in the masonry. This arrangement appears to have been adopted very generally, and was by no means a luxury of later times. It is true that the alternative method of a central hearth in the middle of the floor was also of frequent occurrence. But both ways of heating were in vogue at the same time. The wall fireplace is not the successor of the central hearth, but if anything its predecessor. When it is remembered that in the early keeps the various rooms were placed one over the other, it is clear that the facilities for the escape of smoke from the lower rooms would have been but small had the fire been on a central hearth. There would indeed have been no exits for it but the small windows. Accordingly most keeps are provided with fireplaces in the walls. A good example is furnished at Castle Hedingham (Fig. 6). On the other hand, in the great halls of the fortified manor houses, which were usually of one storey, it was an easy matter to contrive an opening in the roof immediately over the central hearth. This opening was protected by a ventilating turret called the louvre, which kept off the rain, but allowed the smoke—or as much of it as was not wafted about the room—to escape through it. As the roofs were constructed of wood, so too of necessity was the louvre, and owing to the lapse of time and to other destructive agencies, both roofs and louvres of the early periods have perished. In some houses, such as Stokesay, the central hearth of the great hall still remains, while in the smaller rooms fireplaces of contemporary date are also to be seen. It is clear that the central hearth was not considered an intolerable nuisance, inasmuch as it survived until the end of the fifteenth century and later: the great hall at Richmond Palace, built for Henry VII., had one; so too had Deene Hall, already referred to, which was built in the reign of Edward VI. The louvre for the central hearth had a direct successor in the lantern light so often seen in Georgian houses; the connection between the two may be seen in some of the halls of the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, where it is evident that the lantern light stands in the same place as the ancient louvre, and is but a modernised version of that feature. An excellent example of a central hearth in a great hall may still be seen at Penshurst Place in Kent (Fig. 71). This, although of later date, about 1350, is typical of all such cases.

Although the early keeps were usually warmed (if warmed it may be called) by fireplaces, there are exceptions such as the Peak Castle, where there are no signs of such accommodation. How these places were heated is not apparent, but as flues of lath and plaster were occasionally used, and the hoods of fireplaces were sometimes formed of wood, it is probable that a perishable expedient of this nature was adopted.

Chimneys.—It has already been pointed out that in quite early times, as at Castle Hedingham, the fireplace flue was not carried up to any great height, but was shortly conducted to an orifice in the face of the wall (see Fig. 6). There is a fireplace of even earlier date, similarly contrived, at Colchester Castle. It is doubtful whether any example of a chimney-shaft of Norman times is to be found. One of the earliest remaining chimney-shafts is at Abingdon Abbey on the Thames in Berkshire (Fig. 72), a well-known river landmark. The large square stack contains a single flue, which rises from the fireplace of the upper room, and delivers its smoke through the vertical openings at the summit. In the fireplace of the lower room the earlier method was adopted, and the smoke emerged from the little projection in the wall to the left of the base of the large stack: a plan of the orifice is given in Fig. 73. The date of this work is about the middle of the thirteenth century. The fireplace which is served by the large flue is shown in Fig. 74. Of much the same date are the fireplaces at Stokesay, of one of which the remains are shown in Fig. 75. The wooden kerb or frame supported by the corbels appears to be of the original date, and must have carried a wooden hood. But as a rule these hoods were of stone as at Abingdon Abbey. The earliest fireplaces were flush with the wall, but it was soon found necessary to introduce a projecting hood in order to catch the smoke—a contrivance familiar to us, though on a small scale, in many modern fire-grates.

A sort of compromise between a wall orifice and a chimney-shaft is to be seen at Aydon Castle (Fig. 76), where there are also several simple fireplaces with stone hoods, of about 1280 (Fig. 77, a, b). The wall orifice was, no doubt, found to be insufficient for its purpose, and the chimney-shaft was further developed. It should be borne in mind that not every room was provided with a fireplace; consequently the chimney-shafts were nearly always isolated features; chimney-stacks combining several flues grouped together followed in later years, when it became customary to warm more rooms. As in all other mediæval work, the ornamental treatment of chimneys varied with the changes of style. Of the late Decorated period is that at Northborough (Fig. 78); of yet later date are those in the Vicar’s Close at Wells (Fig. 79), and that at Harringworth (Fig. 80).

Fireplaces in the meanwhile changed with the progress of years. The hood which had been adopted in order to catch the smoke when the recess for the fire was shallow, was in turn abandoned when the recess was made deeper, and it became no longer necessary. The hoods had been rather plain, gaunt features, devoid of superfluous ornament. As the amenities of life increased with the diminishing need of defensive precautions, so also did the desire for embellishment, and during the Perpendicular period, a great amount of attention was bestowed upon the decoration of fireplaces. The stone work which surrounded the recess was panelled and cusped, and enclosed by shafts supporting a cornice—the forerunner of our familiar chimney shelf (Fig. 77, c, d). Heraldry began to play an important part in the decoration. At Aydon may be seen (Fig. 77, a) the first uncertain step in the direction to which Tattershall (Figs. 81, 82) and Fawsley (Fig. 83) subsequently led. The richness to which the fifteenth century attained was, however, far outdone by that which the Elizabethan designers achieved a century later.

There are no remains extant of quite early domestic Roofs or Ceilings; but from the appearance of the stone walls, it is tolerably certain that they were built of wood. Stone vaulting very seldom occurs except in a few rooms on the ground floor, and in such cases it was probably adopted as a safeguard against fire. The little keep or tower at Longthorpe in Northamptonshire has its ground floor stone-vaulted: so, too, have many of the peel-towers of Northumberland. But the great keeps at Rochester, Hedingham, and elsewhere, had roofs and floors of wood. The huge beams which carried the floors no doubt showed in the room below, but there is no evidence that in early times any special attention was devoted to ornamenting the ceiling. In the fifteenth century the constructional beams were moulded and arranged with some regularity, as plenty of examples prove; and this, if any, was probably the method adopted in early times.

The great halls of manor houses, which, as already said, were usually of one storey, were covered with fine open timber roofs, and although no early examples are left, there are plenty of the fifteenth century and even earlier. The construction of such roofs is probably more or less familiar to most people. The outer covering of lead, slates, or tiles rested on the rafters, which were supported on longitudinal beams called purlins; these in their turn were carried by strongly framed supports called principals (i.e., principal rafters), which spanned the hall from side to side at intervals of twelve feet or thereabouts. Sometimes, though rarely, as at Mayfield Palace (Fig. 55) and Ightham Mote in Kent, the principal was a great stone arch.[3] But as a rule, it was of massive timber framed together, and it was in the construction of this feature that the most obvious opportunities for ornamental treatment occurred. In churches it was carried occasionally to the most astonishing lengths; but in houses this exuberance was restrained, and as a rule the open timber roofs of houses, although extremely handsome, were quite soberly treated. A fairly early example of the thirteenth century is to be seen at Stokesay (Fig. 20). Of the fourteenth century may be mentioned Drayton House in Northamptonshire (Fig. 84), now quite hidden by a ceiling of much later years, and Penshurst Place (Fig. 71). Of the fifteenth century is Little Sodbury (Fig. 85), while of the late fifteenth is Eltham Palace (Fig. 86).

The Drayton example is interesting inasmuch as there are two types of principal: the main principals carry the purlins, which in their turn carry the intermediates; they are strengthened and supported where this additional load comes, by curved braces or struts, which rest on the wall at the foot of the main principals. Curved braces were very commonly employed; they occur both at Little Sodbury and Eltham, and in the latter case the curves are so designed as to form a feature in the decorative effect. In this example it will be seen that a more determined effort at design has been made, the whole work has been more carefully thought out than in the others. It is, moreover, of the hammer-beam type; that is, the main arch of the principal does not spring from the wall itself, but from a projecting piece of timber (the hammer-beam), which is supported by a curved strut springing from the wall.

The open timber roof survived in places down to the early years of the seventeenth century. But the fashion of having lofty halls then gradually fell into disuse; halls were surmounted by a room above them, and the need for a handsome roof disappeared, its place being taken by a flat, decorated ceiling.

Ceilings, such as we conceive the word, were not known in mediæval work, at any rate not until late in the fifteenth century. The ceiling was, in fact, the underside of the floor above, and its ornamental character was obtained by a regular disposition of the constructional timbers, and by working mouldings on the latter. The effect was massive and handsome, the ceiling (for want of a better word) being divided into large deeply recessed squares or oblongs by heavily moulded beams. Crowhurst Place in Surrey has a good example of this treatment (Fig. 87). In some instances the underside of the floor joists (i.e., the smaller timbers which rested on the beams and carried the floor boards) was carved, as in the curious example from a house at Lavenham in Suffolk (Fig. 88).

The origin of the ceiling as distinguished from the underside of the floor, appears to be found late in the fifteenth century, or early in the sixteenth, when the practice was introduced of covering the lower sides of the floor joists with flat boarding and dividing the level surface into panels by means of applied mouldings. Such a ceiling is found in the Bede House at Lyddington in Rutland, formerly a country house of the Bishops of Lincoln (Fig. 89). The junction of the ribs was sometimes ornamented with a carved boss such as is shown in Fig. 90, also from a house in Lavenham. This simple method of treating ceilings was developed in course of time into the elaborate plasterwork of Elizabethan houses. The room at Lyddington has a very remarkable wood cornice fashioned after the manner of the fan tracery prevalent at the end of the fifteenth century (Fig. 91). But this kind of ornament was not at all general, and it may be doubted whether any other instance of it can be cited.

Staircases.—There is little to be said about mediæval staircases. They were almost universally of the corkscrew type, the steps winding round a central newel, as at Tattershall Castle (Fig. 43). There was but little opportunity for embellishment, and accordingly none is to be found, the nearest approach being the treatment of the stone handrail already shown in Fig. 44. The steps were usually of stone, the undersides being sloped off to afford as much head room as possible below them. In some instances when the summit of the staircase was reached, the roof of the enclosure was vaulted with some attention to appearances, but beyond this the ornamental treatment did not go. There are a few instances of these staircases being vaulted all the way up in brick, the steps themselves being then built up on the top of the vaulting. This was a clever and ingenious piece of brickwork, but was not especially ornamental. Indeed we have to wait until the time of Elizabeth for any display of fancy in the treatment of staircases; up to that time they were strictly utilitarian in character.

The Walls of mediæval houses were frequently left bare, but when they were covered three methods seem to have been adopted. The earliest was to apply a thin layer of plaster, a method which has survived to the present day. But whereas nowadays the plaster is of sufficient thickness to cover all the irregularities of the wall and to be brought to a perfectly true and even surface, in early times it was quite thin, and although it stopped all the crevices, it retained the main irregularities of the wall, and produced a pleasant variety of effect. The plaster was frequently decorated with coloured lines or simple patterns, and occasionally with figure subjects. The next method was to cover the walls with wainscot, that is, with oak panelling. Of this treatment few, if any, examples survive; but, judging from other Gothic woodwork, the panels must have been of considerable size set in framing of large scantling. This work was also frequently painted in colours and patterns. The third method and the last in point of date, was to cover them with hangings—tapestry or arras, as they were generally called, from the town where they were chiefly manufactured—“the costly cloths of Arras and of Tours,” as Spenser calls them.