NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY GEORGE VIRTUE, IVY LANE, LONDON.

Miscellaneous Works.

LONDON: GEORGE VIRTUE, IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW.

architecture at Coventry, in that of St. Mary's Hall, a building of great curiosity, which is used for corporation assemblies. It was erected as far back as the beginning of the reign of Henry VI., and over the gate-house are figures of the king and queen in a sitting posture; within is a fine old chamber, having in the upper end a beautiful oriel-window containing many figures, in richly painted glass, with a number of Latin sentences on the walls.—(Leland's Itinerary.)

The cities of Exeter and Chester, as well as the towns of Dartmouth in Devonshire, and Colchester in Essex,* contain very ancient timber-framed houses on stone foundations. In the first of these are several built in the reigns of Elizabeth, and James I., (the Guildhall is of the latter era,) some are as early as King John's time, while others are that of Charles I., all ornamented with carved work, chiefly of scrolls, fruits, foliage, birds, fishes, masks, and animals of such grotesque and nondescript characters as it would puzzle a naturalist to classify. The stories of the houses here also project over each other; some are even in the Swiss character, but having, in addition, bay and oriel windows, as chiefly observed in certain houses in the High-street. One house in North-street is particularly interesting on account of its rusticated columns, and carvings of biped nondescript animals; and another in St. Catherine's-court, near the post-office, has a very curious ancient orielwindow, supported on the heads of a band of grotesque minstrels of the talbot, falcon, and monkey race, which was intended probably as a burlesque on some ecclesiastical fraternity of that day.‡ The town-houses of the nobility in London, in the fifteenth century, were generally very spacious, and on the plan of the old inns, while those of the citizens and merchants were of ordinary size, and generally constructed of wood, which continued to be the material in use down to a very late period.§ So slowly did any innovation take place in the system of building wooden town-houses, that Stow particularly notices a brick-tower, as the first of the kind, built by one Thos. Champanzey, (mayor of London, in 1534,) and a turret of timber by a citizen in Lime-street. Those structures, he says, which were attached to the houses, seemed to have given great offence, and their owners were reproached for a desire to overlook their neighbours; but who, says the credulous historian, "were afterwards afflicted with blindness for their presumption."

To be enabled to remove a house in case of bad neighbours, every one will admit is a desirable but a very difficult task: we will, however, give a statement from Stow, the London historian, to prove its practicability. "The Earl of Essex," says he, "having built a mansion in Throgmorton-street, and finding it much pressed upon by a house in the rear, caused the said house to be loosened from its foundation, placed upon rollers, and backed twenty-two feet into a garden belonging to my father, who, in common with the owners of the adjoining gardens, lost his land, without notice, and without compensation;" while it is added, "no man durst go to argue the matter." ||

*In the reign of King Edward III. Colchester contained three hundred and fifty-nine houses; some were built of mud, others of timber, and none having any but latticed windows. From an inventory in the reign of Edward I., in this town, a carpenter's stock was valued at one shilling, and consisted of five tools; other tradesmen were almost as poor, but a tanner's stock was worth £9. 7s. 10d., more than ten times any others. Tanners were principal tradesmen, the chief part of dress being made of leather.—(Eden's Introduction to the State of the Poor, p. 20 and 25; and from the Parliamentary Rolls.)

+ In the interior of the houses at Exeter, several of them have their ceilings highly ornamented in plaster, representing dining-tables, set out with all the various dishes, containing joints of meat, pies, fish, fowl, fruits, and various other edibles. One of this description may be seen at a colour-shop on Fore-street-hill, belonging to the late Mr. Barberg, now Mr. Davey.-(B.)

This was frequently the case between the monks and the regular priests, of which many instances might be given, one particularly in the front of a house at Norwich, near the cathedral, where there is a piece of carved work representing a monkey preaching from a pulpit to a flock of geese.-(Bloomfield's Norfolk.)

§ The Talbot Inn, in the Borough of Southwark, from whence the pilgrims set out to visit Thomas-à-Becket's tomb at Canterbury, as described by Chaucer, still exists, though some parts have undergone considerable alteration.--(F.)

The most curious wooden edifice was that erected upon the old London-bridge, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,

F

Harrison, the historian, who wrote in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when many of the wooden town-houses were existing, and in great perfection, makes certain pointed observations on the artisans, and the Domestic Architecture of that day. "I speak," saith he, " sith our workmen are growne generallie to such an excellencie of deuise in the frames now made, that they farre passe the finest of the old. And such is their husbandrie in dealing with their timber, that the same stuffe which in time past was reiected as crooked, vnprofitable, and to no vse but the fire, dooth now come in the fronts and best part of the worke. Whereby the common saieng is likewise in these daies verified in our mansion-houses which erst was said onelie of the timber for ships, that no oke can grow so crooked but it falleth out to some vse." Thus it appears that many forms which at first sight may be thought fantastical were founded in good sense, and, what is still more recommendatory in these times, in economy.

When James I. came to the throne, he soon saw the decay of our native forests, and the combustible nature of the wooden houses in the metropolis, and therefore became desirous of more lasting, as well as more uniform structures. In consequence of this, he passed a law in the second year of his reign, enjoining that all buildings which might be hereafter erected in London, were to be made more durable, uniform, and comely.

*

LANCASTRIAN PERIOD.

We have stated, that the domestic residences of the barons were greatly improved in cheerfulness and comfort, and the castles built less frowningly under the first and second Edwards, when they were compelled to obtained a licence from the crown to embattle. That architecture also attained a high degree of splendour in the early part of the reign of Edward III., we have the further authority of Piers Plowman, who says they had at that time

"Halles ful heygh, and houses ful noble,

Chambers with chymneys, and chapels gaye."-(Plowman's Crede.)

After this, we had Chaucer, the poet, who lived till the beginning of the Lancastrian period; he has given us a good description of the mansions of the nobility and gentry in his time, and from his being appointed clerk of the king's works at the royal palaces of Westminster,† the royal manors

called Nonsuch-house. It was wholly constructed of wood, framed in Holland, brought over in pieces, and united here with mortice, tenon, and wooden pins, not a nail being used in the whole fabric. Like most of the other buildings on the bridge, it overhung the eastern and western sides, and presented from the river two fronts not inferior in picturesque beauty to those exhibited towards the city and Southwark; the grotesque carving and enrichments-for which the Dutch are celebrated,—and its turrets and numerous windows, were exceedingly curious and interesting. It was taken down in 1738, but a scarce print of it may now be seen in Hollar's Views of London.

*

King James I., acting upon good advice, for the preservation of timber, and prevention of all future excessive increase of buildings in London and the suburbs, and for regulating all the buildings upon a safe, comely, and uniform plan, caused a proclamation to be issued, strenuously commanding, that from that time forward, all tenements and all new buildings should be made either of brick or stone; but neither that, nor divers other proclamations wholly to that purpose, prevailed; whereupon divers were censured in the star-chamber. From this time began the new reformation in building in London, and the first house of note was Colonel Cecil's house in the Strand, and after that, a house near Drapers' Hall, towards Broad-street; and then, a goldsmith's house in Cheapside, over against Salters' Hall, and a leather-seller's house in St. Paul's Church Yard, and, near the north gate; he was compelled thereto after his house was set up, being at first all timber.-(Stow's Survey of London.) However fires in cities and large towns are to be deplored as a calamity, yet they have generally been attended with future and more lasting improvements.-(B.)

This ancient palace, which is supposed to have been originally built by William the Conqueror, stood on the site of the present House of Commons. It was consumed by fire in 1299, but rebuilt by Edward I. It was again destroyed by fire in 1512, during the reign of Henry VIII., with the exception of the painted chamber, and was never afterwards reedified. (Stow.) This chamber, in which the House of Commons have sat down to our own time, has once more, by another conflagration, been entirely destroyed, which calamity took place in 1834. Some account of the original state of this oncenoted place may be interesting. "Near the monastery of St. Peter's Church, (Westminster Abbey,)" says Friar Simeon, "stands the most famous royal palace in England; in which is that celebrated chamber. on whose walls all the warlike his

of Sheene, Kennington, Byfleet, Clapton, and St. George's chapel, at Windsor, we may fairly conclude that he was possessed of a knowledge of architecture.*

That Chaucer was a close observer of the domestic buildings of this period, he has given us proofs. In his Castle of Pleasant Regard, he informs us, there were towers, turrets, and vanes attached to that edifice; some of which vanes were musical, and were objects of great attraction and beauty: they were probably afterwards introduced into the Lancastrian architecture, and from thence found their way to the Tudor. Thus he says,

In his famous dream he fancied the battle of Troy to be depicted on the glass of a bay or orielwindow of a chamber in which he lay, which shows that painting on glass was then known and practised.

"Full clere, and not an hole yerased,

That to beholde it was greate joy;
For wholly all the story of Troy
Was in the glaisinge ywrought thus,
Of Hector, and king Priamus."

This we may infer was a description of the poet's own bed-chamber, probably at Woodstock: that there were oriel-windows then, and before this time, we have authority to show ;+ and also that those windows were "ffloryssede with imagerye." Near the end of the Plantagenet reign, John of Gaunt's Palace, in Lincolnshire, which was then erected, was the most remarkable domestic structure of that period: this building had also a pendant oriel-window, but of a very curious kind. From this edifice, and the noble triple corbelled gateway to Lancaster castle, built by John of Gaunt, we must form our ideas of the early architecture of the Lancastrian period, as we have no very considerable or sufficient remains, or even authority to draw from.§ Stokesay or Stoke Castle, in Shropshire, may, however, be described as the type of a very numerous class of manor-houses of the fifteenth century. The building is a parallelogram, inclosing a court of one hundred and thirty feet by seventy, and is protected by a moat. The house and offices, with the entrance-tower and gateway, occupy three sides of the court, the fourth is inclosed by a low wall only. The hall, fiftytories of the whole Bible are painted with inexpressible skill, and explained by a regular series of texts, beautifully written in French, to the no small admiration of the beholder, and display of royal munificence."-(F. S.)

* Chaucer lived at Woodstock, near Blenheim, in Oxfordshire. Warton informs us, that his house was a quadrangular stone mansion, and that it commanded a view of the ancient magnificent Norman palace near that place. Its last remains, chiefly consisting of what was called Chaucer's bed-chamber, with an old carved oaken roof, evidently original, has since been destroyed.-(W.)

+ The origin and derivation of oriel-windows is unknown, (probably Eastern, being common in the Oriental houses,) but they are of great antiquity. In Conway castle, in Wales, there is an oriel, built by Edward I., in 1284; which is the earliest we are acquainted with in this country. The castles raised by that monarch for the security of his new dominions in Wales, are among the first that combined the fortress and the palace in an integral structure: previous to this time all the Welch castles were constructed of wood. Conway castle includes two courts within the body of the building. The great hall, (thenceforward indispensable in every royal and noble habitation,) occupying one side of the lower area. The separate apartments of the king and queen are to be distinguished both at Conway and Caernarvon. In the former, tradition points out the " queen's oriel," a room with some pretensions to elegance, opening upon a terrace, and commanding a beautiful view of the surrounding scenery.—(W.)

Syr Libeaux Diasconios.

§ John of Gaunt was Duke of Lancaster, son of Edward III., and father of Henry IV., the first monarch of that line of which we are treating. His palace was erected in 1390; part of it still remains, and is thus noticed by the historian of that county. "The old hall, or palace, of John of Ghent, as it is commonly called at Gainsborough, is a timber-framed edifice, forming three sides of a quadrangle, open to the south, with a chapel on the north side, it was once moated round, and had large gardens and fish-ponds."-(M.) A fish-pond to a country mansion, before the Reformation, in consequence of such frequent fast-days, was a necessary appendage.

four feet long and thirty-four wide, is lighted by four arched windows on one side, and three on the other. It has no chimney, and the massive rafters of the high-pitched roof, are blackened with the smoke from the hearth in the centre. The hall communicated at one end with the great chamber, and at the other with the offices. A high polygonal tower rises at one of the angles, surmounted by an embattled parapet, and pierced with loop-holes, which gives a castellated appearence to the edifice. This tower contains three large rooms in as many stories, communicating by a spiral staircase. A similar tower at the opposite angle appears to have been left incomplete.

Of the Lancastrian architecture at a later period, down to that of Henry VI., there are still existing some examples, such are Tattershall castle, Ockwells, in Berkshire, and the noble gateway of Oxburgh-hall, in Norfolk, a very curious and imposing structure, with lofty towers having triple arched panels, and step-battlements. But at the commencement of this king's reign, his right to the throne having been contested by Edward IV., Duke of York, they were involved in a thirty years' reckless war, which proved so desolating, that no fewer than sixty villages within twelve miles of Warwick, some of them large and populous, with manor-houses, were destroyed and abandoned, besides many strong and superb castles; and their noble owners, who might have rebuilt them, either killed or ruined. After the termination of the contest, King Edward IV. visited all the provinces of his new dominions, and caused upwards of fourteen hundred noblemen and gentlemen, who were either impeached or convicted of adhering to King Henry the Sixth's interest, to be put to death.*

The number of artificers who fell was so great, that this class became exceedingly scarce; and from the restrictive acts that were afterwards passed by Henry VI. against apprenticing boys to trades, for the promotion of agriculture, (unless the parent was possessed of twenty shillings a year in land,) paralyzed the progress of Domestic Architecture and the arts in England until the reign of Henry VII.+

* In the quarrel between these two families, the Earls of Devon adhered to the house of Lancaster, and three brothers successively died either in the field or on the scaffold; but there still survived a lineal descendant of Hugh, the first Earl of Devon, a younger brother of the Courtneys, who have been seated at Powderham castle, above four hundred years from the reign of Edward III. to the present day. (Cleveland's History.) It is now in the possession of the Right Honourable William Courtnay, Earl of Devon.-(B.)

+ State of Living in England from the reign of Edward I., Plantagenet, to Henry VI., of the House of Lancaster.-Accustomed to judge of the Norman or feudal period by historians and works of fiction, in which are found accounts of remarkable festivals, tournaments, and exploits of chivalry, many are so inconsiderate as to transfer the manners of the seventeenth to the fourteenth century, not being at all aware of the usual simplicity with which the gentry lived from the time of Edward I. to Henry VI. During this period, they drank little wine, had no foreign luxuries, rarely or never kept male servants, except for husbandry, and seldom travelled beyond their own county. Even their hospitality must have been greatly limited, if the value of manors was really no greater than we find them in many surveys. Twenty-four seems a sufficient multiple when they would raise a sum mentioned by a writer during the reign of Edward I., to the same real value expressed in our present money; but an income at that time of £10 or £20 was reckoned a competent estate for a gentleman; at least, the lord of a single manor would seldom have enjoyed more. A knight, who possessed £150 per annum, passed for extremely rich.-(Macpherson's Annals, p. 424, from Mat. Paris.) Yet this was not equal in command over commodities to £4,000 at present. But this income was comparatively free from taxation, and its expenditure heightened by the services of his villiens: such a person, however, must have been among the most opulent of country gentlemen. Sir John Fortescue speaks of five pounds a-year as a fair living at this time for a yeoman.-(Difference of Limited and Absolute Monarchy, p. 133.)

At this time the yeomanry usually lived in a dwelling, the walls of which were framed with timber, lathed and filled in between the interstices with clay mixed up with dried grass; they had seldom any chimneys, and contained few conveniencies. The farmer and his wife slept on straw pallets, covered only with a sheet and coarse coverlet, or upon a straw mattress and a bolster of chaff. Their servants slept upon straw, but had not always a coverlet to throw over them. All dined off wooden trenchers, and ate their pottage with a spoon of the same material. Even a substantial yeoman did not possess more than four or five pieces of pewter-plate, and the sum of money which he could raise was insignificant: only the gentry could afford to eat wheaten bread the year through. The servants and the poorer class of people ate bread made of barley and rye, and, in dear years, the bread was made of beans, peas, or oats. Labourers' wages in the reign of Henry VI. was one shilling and sixpence per week, and butcher's-meat a farthing and a half the pound.-(Fitzherbert on English Husbandry, 1522.)