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EARLY ENGLISH FURNITURE
AND WOODWORK
VOLUME
A SUGCxESTED RECONSTRUCTION
OF THE
14TH
CENTURY RETABLE, OR PREDELLA,

ON THE OPPOSITE PAGE
{Reproduced by direct colour photography from
the original,
by
the
permission of
the
Dean
of Norwich Cathedral.)
CR GRiBBLC
The panels represent (i) the Scourging (2) the Bearing of the Cross (3) the Crucifixion
fragment)
and (5) the Ascension.
(4) the Resurrection
The ground and surrounds are decorated in modelled and gilded gesso.
The coats of arms on the small square panels, numbered i to 17, are (as nearly as can be
ascertained) of the families given below.
;
(a
Colour of
Banner.
Ground or
.\rms
Condition.
of.
Backing.
No.
Red
Red
Destroyed
Red
Red
Defaced
Almost destroyed
Black
Black
7
8
Black
Almost obliterated
Red
Red
Red
Clifford
Black
Black
Obliterated
Almost obliterated
Almost obliterated
Partly obliterated
Partly obliterated
13
Black
Complete
Howard
14
Red
Red
Red
Red
Destroyed
Destroyed
Destroyed
Destroyed
Despencer
(Bishop of Norwich, 1370-1406. ) Quarterly

argent and gules, the 2nd and yd quarters
fretty or ; over all a bend sable.
Perfect
Hales
Perfect
Morieux
Sable a chevron
1381.)
between three lions rampant argent.
(Record of family, 1381.) Gules, a bend argent
Traces of
(Record of family,
billet)!
9
10
II
12
sable.
(Doubtful traces of fess as ordinary.)
Kerdeston
Gernon
(Traces of fess) ?
(Traces of checkers and narrow fess) ?
Gules, a saltire engrailed argent.
(Record of Sir Nicholas Gernon, 1374.) Paly
ncbuly argent (or or) and gules.
(Record of Sir John Howard, 138S.) Gules, a
bend between six cross-crosslets fitchees argent.

15
16
17
18-28
Missing
(See pp. 120, 121, 122 and 124.)
2Sr~
if*!
^<
t
'S>.l
EARLY ENGLISH
FURNITURE &
WOODWORK
VOLl
e)'(e
BY
'^
HERBERT- CE^CINSKY
AND
ERNEST- R-
GRBBEE
GEORGE-ROUTLEDGE AND SONS LIMITED

^ÔADWA^- HOUSE-LUDGATE- HILL- LONDON
MCMXXII
- "^^r'
(7.1.
Printed in Great Britain at
The Mayflower Press, Plymouth.
William Brendon
&
Son, Ltd.
PREFACE
N
the attempt to write a history of English furniture and
showing
by an
development
its
initial difficulty
Even
which
is
not the case,
if
where to begin.
we know very
fourteenth century
nothing.
an orderly progression, one
in
little,
is
woodwork
confronted
Of woodwork prior
and
to the
of furniture practicalh'
isolated specimens, for illustration, were available,
they would be useless
for our present purpose.
have pointed
out, in other books on the subject, that an account of the evolution of furniture types,
especially
when an attempt
made
is
to date examples,
fashions which prevailed at various periods.
very early times may, or
know
may
we can produce
unless
must
solitary piece
be a chronicle of the
which has survived from
not, be indicative of the fashions of its time
we cannot
others of corresponding date and type, which establish
the fact.
We
original.
Thus, oak dressers and square-dial long-case clocks were made as late as the
last
must always bear
in
mind
also the possibility of a later
quarter of the eighteenth century, but
it
would only make
copy
of
an earlier
for confusion to illustrate
such pieces as examples of late-eighteenth-century furniture, although made at that
They
time.
Modem
are of the period but are not typical.

furniture, even
and when constructed
Tudor and Stuart

usage.
When
when made from
in the logical
periods,
is,
that most durable material, English oak,
and stable manner which
is
so characteristic of the
nevertheless, perishable, even with judicious wear and
neglect and ill-treatment are added,
it
is
not remarkable that so
comparatively, of the Tudor and Jacobean furniture has survi\'ed to our day
wonder
is
that any has persisted, even in the great treasure houses of England.
fashion alwaj's as capricious as
it
is
little,
the
With
at the present day, out-of-date furniture, in
any
form, must have been frequently in jeopardy during the chequered career through
which so much
of
has passed.
it
For practical purposes, we are compelled

to carry our enquiries
woodwork, and the

Closing, as this
somewhere, and
it is
hazardous
further back than the fourteenth century, in the case of
fifteenth as far as furniture
book does, with the end
to a period of rather
it is
much
to begin
is
concerned.
of the seventeenth century,
more than three hundred
we
are confined
years, and, with certain rare exceptions,
oak furniture or woodwork with which we are exclusively concerned.
To
justify the existence of this
book
as a contribution to the subject of English
Early FjigJish Funiiturc and Woodwork

furniturr and
woodwork,
it
has been necessary to break
personal predilection and bias from which no authors are

pieces,
indicate,
it
In the case of the earlier
free.
some pioneer work has been attempted, by not only dating the period of the incep-
tion ol the jiarticular fashions of each
tlie
new ground, apart from such
example
but also by endeavouring to
illustrated,
where practicable, and where one could be reasonably sure of one's own knowledge,
county or locality of
Apart from the interest attaching to such information,
origin.
necessary in determining periods either of fashion or manufacture, as the East
is
Anglian counties, for example, were often the
first
to adopt designs
much
Holland, which the Western districts only copied at a

It
must
remembered,
also be
century,
not to
if
the remoter country- districts,

chiefly
half of the seventeenth
first
between towns, and more especially between
close, intercourse
its
later date.
attempt to view the early part of our subject
in the
proper perspective, that, at least until the end of the
in its
and methods from
Trade traditions were preserved
was very meagre.'
by the town apprentice, who became, frequently, the roving " journeyman,"
or settled in the country districts as a small master.
It
followed, therefore, as a logical
conclusion, that fashions originated from the large towns

pro\-inces, often long after their
The only system

tion to truth,
is
\ogue
in
of dating, therefore,
in the
London had departed.

which can be attempted with any approxima-
that of the inception of fashions, not that of the actual manufacture
of pieces themselves.
This point can hardlv he over-emphasised
as closely as a semi-decade, for instance,
when the
actual date
and were perpetuated
chair
To date an oak
would be obviously absurd
When, however, we
was made.
if
chair
this implied the
learn from history that
events occurred at this period, which led to the introduction of a foreign fashion or detail
which the particular chair exhibits, such
close dating begins to possess a real significance.
This sj'stem acquires a further advantage as indicating only the inception of a type.
It
must not be forgotten
that, frequently, the provinces copied the metropolitan fashions
at intervals varying from twenty to thirty years after they

in
to
be made
London.
With the
earlier
more than doubtful

if
had ceased
we except
if
examples, until almost the end of the sixteenth century',

fashions existed at
the ecclesiastical Gothic.
all,
in the sense in
which the term
It
is,
institutions.
by another according
also,
The
to inter-association
important to remember that
tliis
used here,
England, from the point of view of furniture
production, was a collection of counties rather than a country.

influenced
is
it is
Each
locality
was
and proximity, and between such
paucity of intercourse did not exist in the case of early monastic
significance of this will be elaborated in Chapters II
and
III.
Preface
counties as Gloucestershire and Suffolk, for example, such intercourse was probably
Each
non-existent.
its
own
furniture
by trade
No
and woodwork
characteristics, favourite or peculiar details, dictated
traditions or abnormalities of timber growth or texture.
writer on the subject appears to have dealt with this question of origin at
as, at first sight,
there appears to be
little
or no data to
commence
all,
Although
with.
every reason to suppose, for example, that some proportion of the furniture
there
is
made
in Cheshire
would remain
in its place of origin, yet,
period of from two to three hundred years, this
augmented by the productions

breakage, that
becomes a nice point, at the present
it
We
when we have
amount would be
other counties, or
of
furniture, to distinguish the indigenous
to consider a
so likely to be
diminished by removal or
least
at
daj',
with secular
from the imported specimens.
have, however, a meagre groundwork with which to commence, in ecclesiastical
furniture of the
We
stalls.
must have possessed
locality, therefore, in greater or lesser degree,
movable type, and especially
in
such woodwork as pulpits or choir
can say in the case of fixed woodwork in churches, with a
approximation to the truth, that
this
is
the Church
itself
frequently establish this beyond doubt.
establishments prior to
campaign
The preserved records
Even
Country churches were comparatively
little
of the
affected
monasteries, abbeys and priories, as the activities of
monasteries,
by the
of
in the case of clerical
and during the period when Henry VIII was waging

power and property
the
against
and once made and
of local manufacture,
placed in position was not likely to be removed elsewhere.
fairly close
the same
strife
his
applies.
which destroyed
Henry VIII and
his son
were
directed, principally, against the larger clerical establishments.
By
reasoning from the fixed
country churches,
it is
though wide
and furniture
of the sixteenth
the movable furniture contained in
reser\'ations
have to be admitted.
Thus Kentish woodwork
and seventeenth centuries are unmistakable.
greater production and complication of influences, as in the East Anglian
With
but the
to
possible, with care, to reconstruct the local styles of the various
periods, even
counties,
woodwork
it is
not so easy to localise the work of Suffolk or Norfolk as that of Kent,
difficulty
is
partly removed
if
we reason from the
basis of
maximum
standards
of production in each case.
Where
'
Again
fashions
became widespread, and when the London manner was adopted.
clerical furniture
and woodwork
of the periods prior to the Suppression of Monasteries,
must be
excepted.
2
We
must except the
activities of
William Dowsing and his fellows from 1640 to 1650, when so
church rood screens were defaced or mutilated, especially in East Anglia.
many
of the
Early English Furniture and Ifôodwork

in
various
parts of
England,
manufacture becomes more

factors
little
is
case of
or no
modification, the task
localising
minor
The growth
of
oak
not the same in the Western as in the Eastern Counties of England.
In
in arriving at a decision.
timber imported from Holland we could expect, naturally, to find a
preponderance of furniture made from
wood
this foreign
in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex,
Welsh bordering
^liddlesex or Kent, rather than in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire or the
We
counties.
of
dilBcult, or e\-en liopeless, but in this case there are
which are often of great assistance
or walnut
the
witli
have some idea, from historical records, of the wealth and industrial
conditions of the various counties at different periods, as far back as the reign of
Henry
\',
districts,
and we would look, therefore,
for the richest secular
in the
wealthier
although this would, for obvious reasons, not apply, necessarily, to ecclesiastical
woodwork
Henry VHI, were
or furniture, as the monastic establishments, prior to
enormously wealthy even
in tlie
poorer counties.
In a general sense, also, the art of the secular
towns
work
of importance,
and radiated from them
in a
woodworker was centred
These principal
very traceable way.
towns wliere the trade traditions were fostered during the
in certain
fifteenth,
sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries were London, Bristol, Norwich, Ipswich, Coventry, Southampton,
From
Exeter, Shrewsbury, Chester, York and Winchester.
work was carried
to adjoining country districts,
perpetuated, with
little
or
no modifications, often
and the
and we are compelled to
original trade traditions
for ver^^ long periods.
sometimes possible to postulate a sphere of origin with

of manufacture,
these towns the apprentice-
far
were
It is, therefore,
more certainty than
a date
limit a statement of period to the date
when
a certain style originated in one of the centres mentioned above.
few words here are necessary to explain the association of names on the
of this book.
Since the publication, some
Furnitiirc of the Eighteenth Century,"
title
page
eleven or twelve years ago, of " English
have always had the idea
of writing another
book
which should cover the whole of the available ground of English furniture, with
The
contemporary woodwork.
illustration, involved
collection
of
suitable
some considerable labour and
with the Great European War,
still
examples, both for text and
research,
further protracted
its
and conditions associated
publication.
disturbing consideration that the longer a book of this kind
is
The author
learns,
One has
also the
kept in manuscript and
photographic form, the more one has the chance of improving

periodically, of further facts
its
it
by the addition,
and additional examples.
perhaps, more than his readers, from an examination and
comparison of a large number of pieces and photographs, providing that they are
Preface
authentic productions of their time.
especially in remote districts,
and
in
It is in
examination of these examples,
the
photography under the most
where the collaboration of Ernest Gribble has been so valuable.
up
the
this
book on
work
way.
and Woodwork
of the eighteenth century, thereby
In this
writing,
" Early English Furniture
and
first
book
this task
it
"
difficult conditions,
proposed to follow
It is
by another, dealing with
making the two books complete
in their
was necessary that one only should be responsible
has fallen to me.
may confess,
for the
at the outset, that without Ernest
Gribble this book would either never have been written, or would have been a ver}-
His knowledge and experience of English woodwork, especially
different production.
of the early
examples prior to 1530 has been more than an assistance
For many years he has employed the whole
indispensable.
it
has been
of his leisure time in visiting
churches and houses of the lesser type, in places practically unknown, and quite "
off
the map," photographing (often under conditions of incredible difficulty), detailing
and examining, with the eye
of a skilled craftsman,
examples
of English
woodwork,
remarkable alike for their obscure location and their high quality.
be a truism that the greater one's knowledge the more self-apparent
If it
ignorance,
is
can only say that the real profundity of mine on the subject of early oak
woodwork was never

Ernest Gribble's
so apparent to
name
figures
on
me
until after our collaboration
book as co-author with
this
my
had commenced.
own, but
acknowledge that he has supplied the bulk of the facts and the greater number
In the early chapters
photographs.
many
exploded
of
my
or persisted in spite of
pet theories.
Some
of these, however,
must
of the
his notes,
which have
have survived
his criticism
have merely written from
it.
cannot close this preface without a grateful acknowledgment to
one's
many
of the
owners of the examples illustrated here, who have, with unfailing courtesy and patience,
assisted
and by
me
in
gi\'ing
every way, by affording
me
has required that particular mention

distinct praise
is
photographing their possessions,
information as to their history and origin.
have been indebted to so many
facilities for
is
for the necessary
photographs which the book
almost invidious in
itself.
I feel,
due to those gentlemen who have taken photographs
however, that
in churches, as
every photographer will appreciate the enormous difficulty attendant upon work of
this character.
The Rev. Frederick Sumner has
verj-
kindly furnished the following
108, 109, 112, 113, 117, 147, 148, 152, 169, 170, 171, 172, 174, 175.
Sumner
/'
Figs. 3, 4, 5, 132, 133, 134, 135, 146, 154, 155, 156.

ix
Figs. 99, 107,
The Rev.
Mr. C.
J.
F. R. P.
Abbott
Figs.
Early English Furniture and JVoodwork

and Messrs.
Zi, 55. 66, 97, 98, 104, 105, 157, 158, 181, 182, 184, 263, 264, 265, 295,
F. Frith
I
Figs. 93, 94, 95, 96, 106, 138, 139, 159, 176, 177.
would
like to point
out here, that the collecting of the necessary photographs
book has occupied a space
for this
of over twelve years.
the owners of the pieces at the times
e.xamples
may
when
changed hands since
lia\-e
with several, but as
have not
and
have, therefore, noted the
name
this has
possession of," or "
The property
Many
of the
been the case, to
my
knowledge,
could not without an enormous amount of
and noted
its
of the owners at the time
To obviate a
This course was inevitable.
were taken.
are of
the photographs were taken.
trouble," ha\-e followed the history of each piece

I
The names here given
change of ownership,
when the photographs
needless repetition of " In the
have merely put the name of the owner imder
of," I
each example illustrated.

I
cannot
resist here a
in the Victoria
of the
much
way
in
strong word of praise of our national collection of furniture
and Albert Museum, and

which
this
at the
(as
painstaking knowledge and diligent research has been shown, so

in
to find out, on recent visits,
furniture at the
Museum
really
is,
miles, to inspect collections of early

is
how good and
So
many new
pieces
oak
in
collector), that
have been
representative the collection of
at the present day.
After travelling hundreds of
remote country
districts,
confronted with the handiwork of this or that well-known
refreshing, to say the least, to visit the
only to find that
" reproducer,"
Museum, where every courtesy and
it
is
assistance
afforded to the student, and where every piece can be examined under ideal conditions.
In conclusion,
if
the reader experiences only a part of the pleasure and profitable
knowledge from the perusal and study of

I
admiration
the buying methods of the Board of Education place their curators at serious dis-
amazed
is
my
circumstances of the utmost difficulty
advantage when pitted against the dealer or the private
one
to express
has been reinforced and improved during recent years.
remarkable merit have been acquired, and
of
same time
shall be
more than
this
book which
have gained
in its writing,
satisfied.
H. C.
1922.
CONTENTS
.....
Preface
CHAPIRR
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
PACE
Introductory
The Dissolution of Monasteries
The Early Woodworker: His
Life, Tools
and Methods.
The Plan of the Early Tudor House

The Development of the English Timber Roof
Gothic
Woodwork and Colour Decoration
....
.....
17
32
54
103
Timber Houses, Porches and Doors
176
The English Staircase
211
Wood
231
Panellings and Mantels
Bedsteads and their Development
Index
.......
355
371
"
There
is
no way of making an aged
art
young again
must be born anew and grow up from infancy

thing,
all
working out
fear
its
own
salvation
from
as a
it
new
effort to effort in
and trembling."
Samuel Butler, Erewhon.
PARALLEL HISTORY OF EUROPE

IN
THE
FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES
PARALLEL HISTORY OF EUROPE IN THE

1400.
FRANCE
ENGLAND
SCOTLAND
House
SAVOY
SWnZlvRLAND
Dukes
1308 The Helvetian

Republic
began with the
of
Lancaster
UOli
Interregnum
1400
Henry IV
1413
Henry V
Battle
1415
Agincourt
(legendary)
revolt of William
Tell against Gcssof
ler,
Governor
for
the
Emperor
Al-
bert
The
I.
Cantons joined
the League in the
GERMAN EMPIRE
BOHEMIA
AUSTRIA
140(1
HtJNGARY
Robert,
Count Palatine
Luxemburg
of
Slgismund
1410
(King
Bohe-
iif
mia, 1419)
Hun-
(King of
gary, 1392)
following order
14i4
James
Henry VI
Ul'l'
14:!:;
Charles VII
1451 Louis
House
of Austria
1308 Uri
US- James
1453 Wars of the

Koscs
II
1428 Siege of Or-
1438 Albert II
(King of Bohe-
1308 Switz
Joan of
leans.
Arc
House
14U0
James
Edward IV
14iil
III
mia
1308 Unterwalden|
York
of
14G1 Louis
XI
14U5
Amadeus IX
1465 War of the

Public Good
1472 Philibert
{479
} The Plague
1483
Edward V
1483 Charles VIII
1482 Charles
1332 Lucerne
1440 Wladislaus
Hun-
and
gary in 1437)
1440 Frederick IV
(He transformed
Podiebrad
1352
James IV
Line of Jagellon
Age"
of
1352 Claris
1489 Charles II
" Golden
The
1495
English
Expedition
1490
Wladislaus
Casimir I of Poland
1481 Fribourg
1496 PhUip Lack-
1481 Soleure
land
Tudor
1498
Xn
Louis
(called
148.-I
of
1353 Berne
1484 The " Sweat"

ing Sickness
of
son
to Italy
Woodworli
House
in
1452)
Zug
1471
148S
Corvinus
1351 Ziirich
Arch-Duchv
1483 Richard III
1458 Matthias
1458 George
Henry VII
People
Allied Cantons
1497 Philibert II
(The Fair)
the;
" Father of
1491 Orisons
1493 Maximilian
his
")
1491 Valais
1500.
1506
The" Sweat-
1501 Basle
"
ing
Sickness
again breaks out
1513
James V
1509
1501 Schaffhausen
1504 Charles III
Henry VIII
1513 Appenzel
1515 Francis I
1515
Hampton
Court commenced
Allied Cantons
1517 " Sweating

Sickness " again
1528,
in
1502 St. Gall
known
1503 Bienne
ness "
attacks
Germany. 1100 peo-
1526
Geneva
Mohatz
burg
1519 Charles V, Emperor of Austria
and King
of
Spain
Ham-
ple die in
Great Mor-
1516 Louis, killed at
1529 The English

" Sweating Sick-
Northern
thenasthe
'
1517 Reformation
of Luther
in 22
days
tality"
1526 Neufchatel
'
1529FallofWolsey
The House
Subjects
1536 Suppression
Monasteries
of
'
began
Mary
1543
(Beheaded 1587)
Edward VI
1547
Henry
* ^^^'^
ness "
inl603asjamesl.
Scotland and England united
Great Britain
1607)
as
in
Hand)
1560 Charles IX
India
On
the
French
side
Moratz
Granson
Orbe
1564
MaxlmiUan
II
1570 Massacre of
StT
1588 Armada destroyed
1574
,
Bartholomew
Henry
III
1575 The League
Company's Char-!
ter
1553 Emanuel
Philibert (Iron
'
1558 Elizabeth
1600 East
of
Sargans
II
1559 prancis II
Civil war by the
Guise faction
SweatmgSick-
Mary
I, who by marriage with the heiresi

Bohemia and Hungary united those Kingdoms to
the House of Austria
1556 Ferdinand
Rheinthal
1551 Last visita-
1567 James VI
(Succeeded to the
throne of England
1526 Ferdinand, Emperor in 1556
German
Turgow
de-
base the coinage
1553
the
Baden
Henry VIII
^,'
On
side
commences to
1547
Spanish
and German Branches
1542
of Austria divides into the
1589
Henry
On the
Italian side
Charles Lugano
Emanuel I (the
1580
Great)
Locarno
Bellinzona
IV
of Navarre (called
" the Great ")
1576 Rodolph II
FTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES.

1400.
NAPLES AND
rSCANY
PORTUGAL
SICILY
House
of
GREEK
XAVARRE
AKRAGON
CASTILLE
Anjou
John
1406
French
Emperors
II
ROME
(1395 Russia in- 1404 Innocent
vaded by
VII
Tamerlane
1410 Interregnum
POPES OF
RUSSIA
EMPIRE
the
1406 Gregory
Tartar)
XII
1414 Jane
Janella II
1412 Ferdinand
or
1409
Alexander
1410
John
XXIII
1416 Alfonso
V
1425 Blanche
House
of
Arragon
1435 Alfonso,
1433
King of Arra-
John
1424
and John II,

King of Arragon
1425 Vasily
Basil III
11
Paleologus
or
1417 Martin
1431 Eugenius
IV
Edward
1448Constantine,
Paleologus,
1447 Nicholas
the last of the
1455 Calixtus
gon and
1454
Sicily
Henry IV
Greek Empcr1458 Ferdinand

the Bastard in
1438 Alfonso
1458 John II
III
ors
1462 Ivan Basilowitz or John
(the African)
Naples
1474 Isabella m. 14/9 Ferdinand
II
Kingdom of Spain
John, King of
Arragon and
1479 Eleanor
1479
Empire of the
Turks
Francis
Phoebus
of
Foix
II
1464 Paul II
III
Sicily
1458 Pius
(In 1474 he delivered Russia
1471 Sixtus IV
from the Tar-
1484 Innocent
VIII
tars)
Ottoman Line
1494 Alfonso II
1481
1495 Ferdinand
1495
John
1483 Cathar and
II
Johnof Albret,
Emanuel
(the Fortunate)
II
who was
Discovery of America
1492
1496
Fredericli
III
expelled
by the French
Mahomet
1453
strip-
ped of Upper
Navarre
by
Ferdinand of
1492 Alexander
captures
II
Constantinople
VI
Castille
I
1481 Bajazet II
1500.
SPAIN
juse of
Medicis
gon and
31 Alexander
created Duke
the Em3y
peror Charles
House
1504 Ferdinand,
King of Arra-
1512 Selim I
Sicily,
till
John
1707
VII
Bourbon
Emperor
Germany
1572 Henry III

In 1589 he succeeded to the
C r t ez in
Mexico Pizarro
in
1556
Philip
1566 Selim II
defeated at Le-
Muscovy 1550
Julius III
1533 Ivan Basil- 1555

owitz or John
MarceUus
1555 Paul IV
(Conquered
Kazan and
panto
sumed
Czar
astitle of
1559 Pius IV
in 1545)
1566 Pius
Henry IV
Great
1572 Gregory
" the
called
HOLLAND
from
and
")
15
"4
thence
Amurath
1584 Fedor
XIII
III
1585 Sixtus
Lower Navarre
87
II
IV
(afterwards
II
conquered Portugal but lost
1534 Paul III
Czars of
cent
throneofFrance
under the title
Peru
of
1578 Henry the

Cardinal
bon
of
in
1519
Solyman I
The Magnifi-
1520
j
1555 Joan of
Albret and Anthony of Bour-
death in 1516
1557 Sebastian
74 Francis
1505 Vasily or 1513 Leo X

Basil IV
1522 Adrian VI
(Maximilian
grants him title
1523
Clement
of Emperor)
Ferdinand
reigns in Arragon until his
Dukes
Cosmo
II
bella in Castille
1516 Charles
69
1516 Henry
of Albret
1504 Jane and

Philip of Austria succeed Isa-
III
rand
1503 Julius II
of
Austria
seized the crown 1521

of Naples, and
Sicily and Naples remained
subject to the
Kingdom
of
Spain
1503 Pius III
joins theFrench
Ferdinand
1590
Monarchy
Urban VII
1590 Gregory
Philip II
of Spain took
of
possession
Portugal and
it
XIV
1581 William Of
1580
Orange
1591 Innocent
IX
remain ed
1584 Maurice B.
1592 Clement
subject to the
VIII
Spanish Crown
until 1640
1598 PhUip III
1595
Mahomet
III
1598 Basil Godu-
now
A CHART
OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE AND
ENGLAND
IN
(
The dates given are not those of
Norman
William I, 1066, to Stephen, 1154.

The circular-headed arch.
Henry
II,
Richard
1154 to 11S9.
I,
1189, to
Transitional,
Henry
WOODWORK
the accession of Kings)
or
Norman
III, 1272.
Romanesque.
to Pointed or Lancet.
Early English, Lanceolated.
Geometrical tracery begins to appear.
Edward
I,
1272 to 1307.
Transition from early pointed to geometrical pointed.
Tracery entirely geometrical.
Edward
II,
Edward
III,
Richard
II,
No
free
forms
in decoration of
windows.
1307 to 1327. Geometrical pointed. (Early English.)

Free forms appear in tracery and especially in decoration of mouldings.
1327 to 1377. Flowing or Curvilinear.

Culminating in the Flamboyant.
1377 to 1399.
(Decorated.)
Transition from Free Decorated to Rectilinear or Per-
pendicular.
Henry
IV, 1399, to
Henry
VIII, 1546.
Perpendicular or Rectilinear.
Introduction of the Linen-fold panel.

Introduction of the Italian Classical, superimposed on the Gothic,
1546 onwards.
afterwards developing into the Tudor styles.
Chapter
I.
Introductory.
woodwork from
present a history of English furniture and
times of which
we have
century, which
is
culties
The
available records, to the end of the seventeenth
the scope and purpose of this book, several initial
have to be considered, each
first is
of
word
the arbitrary character of the
would be comparatively easy
" furniture " as applied
fitted bookcases, or side tables
made
in type,
cence of the two which has dictated the
Another important factor
in the
woodworking
title of this
From
definition.
line of
furniture
demarcation
this inevitable coales-
book.
is
a knowledge of
the beginning of the thirteenth century
of the fifteenth, the ecclesiastical
Gothic was the only architectural and
Shortly after 1500, however, the influence of the Italian Renais-
style.
sance began to be
it is
understanding of our subject
early house-planning and general style.
end
marked, and
less
then, articles
Henry VIII, when
scanty in quantity and limited in purpose, the
between woodwork and furniture was even
until the
Even
like.
which should
would escape such
as fixtures,
In the early periods, until almost the close of the reign of
was primitive
At the present day
to formulate a definition of furniture
exclude decorative woodwork, such as panelling and the
such as
diffi-
which demands some attention.
to early examples, almost until the end of the fifteenth centur^^

it
the earliest
felt in
this country,
some
fifteen years later
than was the case
in
France, a circumstance probably due to the fact that not only was England insular by
situation, but also the English people were so in character.
were not so specialised at this date as
in the later centuries
the architect not only worked hand in hand
were frequently the same person.

patrons for
whom
European
and long
for the
Styles were usually fostered
Church, at
least,
they
and dictated by the
the aristocratic education, and Italy, alone of
had fostered the
countries,
when
of
classical styles in architecture
all
the
and woodwork,
Rome had risen and fallen to decay. Germany, France

Low Countries still cherished the Gothic as the national
the power of
Spain, England, and even the

style,
work
the master carpenter and
After the close of the fifteenth century, the grand tour to Itah'
integral part
since the days
in
woodwork
houses were built and furniture made, but always with the assistance
of a clerical adviser.
became an
Architecture and
after the classical
had submerged
it,
we
still
find traces here
and there

o\idencing the hold wliich the ecclesiastical Gothic retained upon the architecture and
woodwork
of tlu' time.
In the endeavour to trace the history of
up
to the close of the fifteenth century,
it is
development of English furniture
tiae
almost impossible, in England, to overrate
The monasteries and
the influence of ecclesiastical establishments.
were not only the principal patrons of the joiner and the woodworker
unknown
a state and a standard of refinement utterly
in construction,
but also limited
in
houses
they maintained
to the laity, even of the rank
Furniture of this period, as one would expect,
of the nobility.
religious
range and quantity.
is
not only primitive
Large banqueting or refectory
meals until almost the close of the
tables, forms or stools (which wei'e the usual seat at
seventeenth century), dower chests, Court cupboards or buffets, livery cupboards and
hutches, constituted the whole of the English-made furniture of the apartments of
this period,
and
whether
state, reserved for the lord
clerical establishment.
from the East,
The chair was a
of abbots or princes.
and lady
rare article, a sign of dignity
of the secular household, or the
head
of the
Foreign furniture was sparingly imported and merchandise
fabrics and the
like,
found way into England through the prosperous
republican trading cities of Venice and Genoa.
The standard
extreme.
of comfort in the houses,
The usual carpeting
for the floor,
even of the wealthy, was meagre
when
in the
the fashion originated, with the
sixteenth century, for anything beyond bare flags or boards, was a covering of strewn
rushes, rarely changed,
dogs,
who shared
and usually
littered
with the debris of feasts thrown to the
the living apartments with their masters.
IL
w-ere usual until the reign of Charles
With the
These rush-strewn floors
rich nobility, the walls were covered
with tapestries or fabrics, at a later date with panellings of wood.
had
to be contented with
rough plaster or timbering.
until late in the sixteenth century,
The trading
classes
Glass in windows was a luxury
and windows were not only kept studiously small,
but the pieces enclosed by the leading, whether diamond or rectangular quarries, were
also rarely larger
difficult}^ of
than about six inches by four.
making crown,
Apart from the prohibitive
or whirled glass, in sheets of
dimensions for these quarries.
It is
century' that the glass-blower
became
any
size
cost, the
precluded any larger
not until almost the beginning of the eighteenth

sufficiently expert
with the " pontil " to
make
crown-glass sheets large enough to yield the squares which are found in the great houses
of that period.
It
only represent
less
whirling the
must be remembered that the
largest dimension of the
than one-half of the circular glass plate, which
" pontil."
From
the
is
pane can
produced
'by
semi-diameter must be deducted the so-cafled
Introductory
" bottle-glass " quarries which the " pontil," or blowing rod, leaves
away from
as large as 15
than 3
less
Yet
the circular plate.
by 10
in.
in.,
at
Lyme
rarely,
if
evident from a study of their design.
is
illustrated in Figs. 41
which each
Park, Cheshire, for example, the panes are
in diameter.
ft.
light
and
42,
ever, glazed,
other
than church
Thus, the windows from Hadleigh,
have no glazing rebate, and,
in
any event,
would have required, would have been unobtainable
glass of the size
effect of the
and we know, when glazing became general, that tracery between mullions
was omitted.
In the windows at Sutton Place (Henry VII)
arched heads to each
windows.
To have
at this date.
broken up the openings with leaded bars would ha\'e destroyed the whole
tracery,
broken
it is
which means that they must have been cut from plates not
That fifteenth-century windows were

windows,
when
light,
The windows
windows were
at Sutton were as evidently intended for glazing as the Hadleigh
frames, for obvious reasons, and, even
Our
in the four centred
the last \-estige of Gothic tracery as applied to secular
Opening casements are never found
not.
sparingly used.
we have,
when
in
glazing was introduced, they are very
ancestors, evidently, did not care for fresh air in the
As a compensation
for the smallness of
home.
windows, the early fireplaces were huge,
with a staging of bars and irons on a stone dais for the burning of logs and
science of down-draughts
had
still
window
these unglazed
to be studied,
The
billets.
and smoky chimneys must have been
the rule rather than the exception.
The
life
of the artisan, until almost the
was rude, but
his desires
end
of the first half of the sixteenth century,
were few, and were amply
gratified.
Crops were abundant
in fifteenth-century rural England, and, in consequence, famines were
was
plentiful
and cheap,
so
cheap, in fact, that
it
unknown.
was very often thrown
Food
with the
in
wages, when masons and carpenters were engaged on work for the King or the Church,
probably coarse,
and certainly lacking
no green vegetables and very few
roots,
in variety,
but,
have been a happy and contented one at
meat
and bread, some
on the whole, the worker's
this
period.
How
his
fruit,
life
status
but
must
steadily'
deteriorated from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries will be described in a
subsequent chapter.
If
be
the artisan experienced no wants, he was,
summoned
any time
royal
to
work
for the
King
by no means, a
(unless he were in the
free agent.
employ
He
of the Church), at
or place, which suited the pleasure of the King's carpenter or mason,
mandate empowered such
artificer to
refused.
3
could
and the
imprison during their pleasure any
who
Early English Furniture and ffôodwork

The Trade Guilds, which reached
their liighest level at the close of the fifteenth
master could not take apprentices without the
century, possessed iniiciue powers.
number was always
Guild's sanction, and the
under the absolute dominion

of indenture
obey
to
is
all liis
and to repair
other than
sometimes retained, by which the apprentice binds himself to
gaming houses,
behests, not to frequent

to cliurch wlien ordered.
A workman
lose its true significance,
had a
"
could not change his location,
meaning up
who was
se\-enteenth century, implying a craftsman
without
the consent of the
journeyman," which
definite
his master,
brothels, or places of low resort,
when sununoned by the King's craftsmen,

The term
was
in turn,
e\on at the present day, the old form
of his master, and,
Guild and the Lord of the Manor.
began to
The apprentice,
limited.
in the later
years
to almost the close of the
licensed to travel from one place
to anotlicr without fear of detention, arrest or punishment.
The introduction
the Classical element from Italy infiuenced furniture and
of
architecture almost at the
same
period.
There were two reasons
designing of furniture was so soon apparent.

thing
why
its effect in
building was necessarily an immovable
a site was demanded, and consideration of expense had to be studied.
was movable
was comparatively easy
it
Added
entailed.
to this there
of
the
Furniture
manufacture, as no prohibitive cost was
was a considerable demand, towards the
close of the
sixteenth century, as the large houses of this period were so sparingly furnished that
it
was not uncommon
for the furniture to be
moved, from house
to house, with a
change
Henry VIII
in dis-
The second reason was the iron-handed methods
of residence.
of
persing the culture of the Church abroad, and, incidentally, the monastical possessions
with
it,
of the
in the dissolution of monasteries,
woodworking
of the inA'ention
ments found
crafts.
Much
removed one
of the furniture,
which had hitherto been cloistered
way
their
into the
homes
of
laymen.
in
of the best patrons
some
and teachers
of the traditions
and a
little
abbeys and ecclesiastical establish-
The culture
of the reign of Elizabeth,
however, reinforced by the enlightenment from the Continent, due to intercourse and
travel, did
much
and design
as
to
fix,
permanently, in the minds of the laity such ideas of luxury
had formerly been the exclusive possession
The invention
of better
methods
of construction,
of the
Church.
such as the table with four, six
or eight legs in lieu of the older trestle form, the chair with turned legs and under-
framings in place of the former box with arms and a back, the possibilities of framing,
all
made
for greater lightness of construction
and monasteries,
The monks and
without
sacrifice of strength.
until the close of the fifteenth century, time

friars
was
of little
In abbeys
moment.
were themselves often finished craftsmen, and their influence

4
Introductory
extended, in very marked degree, to their dependents.
England
in the fifteenth
century
could almost have been described as an agglomeration of differing communities, either
under the forcible control of the temporal lords
of the soil or the
These communities were as far removed,
of the Church.
more gentle influence
relatively,
considering
the
slowness of locomotion and the disturbed state of the country, torn in turn bv internecine warfare or religious
strife,
as
Vienna and London are
at the present day.
If
craftsmen, however, seldom changed their location, the Church possessed unexampled
the interchange of ideas from one part of England to another, and even
facilities for
from foreign sources.
With the
dissolution of monasteries
much
that was
new
in the
and the
workmen
the
of the religious brethren,
of the time,
of the guiding influence
too inexperienced to originate
turned with avidity to the new Classical manner as demonstrated
fine,
We
buildings of this period.
Classical,
and the withdrawal
get, in consequence, a
jumble
of the
Gothic
with original motives superadded, which render the furniture of
the sixteenth century exceedingly heterogeneous in character.
It is
nearer the fact
to say that fashions were too multiform to admit of classification, than to state that
We know
they were non-existent.
James
II,
William
It is
Anne and the
III,
warranty for dating a
that, with the furniture of the reigns of Charles II,
piece,
three Georges, the design
first
is
often sufficient
sometimes within as narrow a margin as a
single decade.
not so evident, however, what the factors are which render this close dating of
To begin
pieces possible.
was more or
had given,
less
with, during this period the trade of the
homogeneous.
The one town had assimilated the
in turn, the result of its
own
experience.
Villages
maker
art of another
The strong
during the
half of the eighteenth
alike in
first
London and
dition,
between
and the
many
last
less of
of the long-case clocks
danger
produced
quarter of the seventeenth centuries,
the most insignificant country villages, shows that this interchange
of ideas really existed.
production,
similarîy
and
and hamlets had borrowed
from the large towns, and even a journey to the metropolis was a matter
than of time.
of furniture
This was one factor which tended towards imiformity of
or the establishment of fashion.
There
is,
however, another necessary con-
without which we get endless repetition of the same patterns, \vhich after the lapse
of a
century or more render
that
is
it
impossible to dissociate the originals from the copies
a leisured class, influential
the taste of the
moment, and
obvious stipulations
a bygone fashion, and
and wealthy enough
to reject the
at the present
it
is
vogue
to define a fashion, to foster
of the preceding decade.
day we can only date
a piece
These are
by the currency
of
the latest characteristic which determines our estimate of

5
Furniture and JJôodwork

Early Ktiglish
cS
When
its'age.
\vc
reach the era of repetitions, well-made but bald copies of the
lurniture of twenty or fifty years before,
we
a technical knowledge of the species of the one
coupled with an instinct
for
wood used
It is idle to
at the various periods,
assume an appearance
One
look for mere evidences of age.
furniture ma\- wear for centuries in the one household,
and may
only
it is
spontaneity in creation and workmanship, which enables
us to detect the later copy.

(if
and
are comparatively helpless,
piece
of maiden ladies for example,
of great antiquity after
twenty years
by
of usage
healthy children or careless persons.
Of the two factors referred to above, the homogeneity
The
important.
industries,
leisured classes could not originate
and promote
development
their
furniture produced in
tlie
of ideas
between the craftsmen
one on the other
is
do not speak
England and Finland
practically
nil.
This
is
make
finished
between
of the similarity
at the present day, because interchange
two countries
of the
the most
is
they could only patronise existing
wealth alone was unable to
We
craftsmen from agricultural labourers.
of a trade
is
rare,
and the influence
exactly the condition which must have
Towns
prevailed during the early part of the sixteenth century and before that time.
and
villages
were scattered
relatively farther than Berlin
roamed from
one county was far removed from the other,
and London are
his native place or
county was
of the
at the present day,

in
and
often
the artisan
who
danger of being taken up for a rogue
and a masterless man.

It will
be seen, therefore, that to take a piece, irrespective of
and to attempt
of
its
design,
copied,
to
is
found a theory as to
absolutely hopeless.
and probably was,
in
its
its
place of origin,
antiquity, solely from certain characteristics
The chair made
Hereford some
fifty
in
Middlesex in 1550 might be
At the present day
years later.
the two placed side by side would be referred to the same date.
There
a strong
is
reason for supposing that this copying, at subsequent periods, actually did take place.
The nobles possessed
its
it
town houses, and probably several country mansions
in
Until the end of the sixteenth century, furniture of any kind was exceedingly
addition.
rare
their
was no uncommon
country seat, to take
were specially
liable to
practice,
much
when
a noble family
of the furniture
removed from London
from the town house with
such removals, as we shall see
later.
It
it.
to
Chairs
was, therefore, quite
probable that the country joiner would come into contact with the work of his fellow-
craftsman
in
London, and would either be directly commissioned to cop}-
ductions or would assimilate his ideas
The general nature
his pro-
bj' association.
of the problem, of resolving the subject of

6
Enghsh
furniture
Introductory
and woodwork into an orderly progression, has been outlined
subdivisions
and
furniture,
the
first
suggest
themselves
two are evident, and
be imagined.
With the
The reasons
and the hke.
chairs, stools, settees
namely,
sequence,
logical
in
in the foregoing.
in all three the liability to
panelling,
Three
movable
for the distinction of
overlapping of examples can
third category, that of chairs, with their kindred pieces, settees,
stools, benches, forms, etc., the separate character is
not so obvious, yet they occupy
a place apart, not only during the early period, but practically throughout the entire
history of English furniture.
If furniture of
any kind was
the
for
a demonstrable fact, and for several reasons.
is
rare until the end of the
As before
even greater degree.

the table
This
Tudor
period, chairs were so in
bench or stool was the usual substitute at
stated, the
and
chairs were seats of honour, reserved for the lord
by
were
flanked
were
usually
early
Tudor house,
The
honoured guest.
exceptionally
benches
or
served in the
On
stools.
long
the
two chairs were placed
tables
facing the
dais,
which
Great Hall,
refectory
his lady,
sometimes
of
the
hall
for
period
meals
such a general feature of the
is
for the lord
and lady
These
of the house.
chairs were greatly prized, for their associations rather than for their intrinsic worth,
and were often removed from house to house.

that chairs were often dated
or standing cupboard
is
chest,
suggested by the fact
rule,
only by the Court
two important pieces designed
to hold the family
an honour shared, as a general
and the
This esteem
valuables both while in residence and in transit.
The
stool continued to be the usual seat for meals until almost the close of the
reign of Charles II,
by the amount
and the great store
of fine carving lavished on
William the Stadtholder
Huguenots
in 1689,
of France, following
by the
set
them
chairs of the family
before,
when
on the Revocation of the Edict
also indicated
With the
at this period.
and even some years
is
accession of
the persecution of the
of Nantes, exiled
many
thousands of the French weavers, who brought their art to
this country, a fashion for
gorgeous fabrics was inaugurated.
and the
Again the
chair, the stool
settee were excep-
tionally favoured, as being particularly suited for the display of elaborate silks
velvets.
During nearly the whole
was quite
It
is
distinct
of the joiner,
century the craft of the chairmaker
and was a much more favoured industry-
nearly always chairs which originate the fashions, and mould them for other
furniture to follow.
it is
from that
of the eighteenth
and
We
get the cabriole leg, in
adapted to tables and similar
many
articles of furniture.
carving, of chairs of the earher periods
than with other furniture.
its
is
nearly always
Greater originality
7
is
forms, with them, long before
The
finer,
design, especially of the
and certainly more
spirited
frequently displayed, and novelties
Early English Furniture and IJôodwork

hoop-back chair of Queen
of construction attempted (such as, at a later date, witli the
Anne
unknown
days) which are either quite
It is
these reasons,
\\\v
to, or
impractised by,
distinct character of the chairmaker's craft as
that of the furniture joiner, and the difference between the
and that
of
the
maker
of
tlie joiner.
work
compared with
of both, in their nature,
panelHng and semi-constructional woodwork, which have
dictated the three subdivisions of this book.

coalesce, but as a general rule
it
Here and there
it
will
be found that they
remarkable how the stream of development ffows
is
without any serious deviation into side channels.
One
examples
of
in
two methods n^mains
in the orderly
statement of our subject
to take
their periodic progression irrespective of the three subdix'isions referred
to above, the other to consider each in turn with
book as a whole.
It will
due regard to the homogeneity
be found that the latter method
is
the best in practice,
of the
if
for
no other reason than because panelling, furniture and chairs influence each other in
only a slight degree, whereas the true evolution of English furniture
each of the three channels before mentioned.
for a better understanding, not only of
developed, but
arise.
why
threefold, along
This plan has the necessary drawback
of requiring periodical returns to a previous starting-point, but
make
is
when English
it
will
furniture
be found to
and woodwork
each phase came into being and the factors which caused
it
to
Chapter
The
WO
Dissolution of Monasteries.
acts of oppression
in history as
II.
and greed on the part
of
Henry VIII stand out
remarkable, not only for the autocratic power on the
part of the King which they exhibit, but also for the far-reaching effect
which they had on the development
The
in
of these
first
the case of the smaller
is
of English furniture
and woodwork.
the suppression of the monasteries, which began,
establishments,
as
early as
1536
other
the
is
debasing of the coinage, a further description of which, together with some of

effects, will
its
be given in the following chapter.
During the
had grown
the
fifteenth century, the
to an
enormous extent.
which clustered round
St.
power and
Figs, i
and
Alban's Abbey.
superstition of the people, the abbeys
size of the
2 give
Church and the monasteries
an idea of the number of buildings
Trading on the love, but
and convents had been so enriched by
bequeathed at a donor's death or extorted under
dire threats of spiritual
more, the
still
gifts either
punishment, that
at the close of the century
it
landed wealth of England.
These establishments were, with few and notable exceptions,
has been calculated that they possessed one-third of the
dens of gluttony and vice, but they included in their orders practically
architects, physicians, scribes, teachers
may
and craftsmen
the lawyers,
Middle Ages.
Knowledge
be said to have been non-existent apart from the Church.
stated so well in Chapter
but few of the

Ages,
men who
VI
of his " Six Centuries of
As Thorold Rogers has
Wovk and Wages
"
"
We know
designed the great cathedrals, churches, and castles of the Middle
those buildings which are the wonder of our age for their vastness, their exquisite
proportions, and their equally exquisite detail.

accident, who the builder was, he
is
a clergyman. It seems as though
skill in architec-
ture,
of the
all
structure,
but
for
endurance, were so
as
it
were by
almost always
and intimate acquaintance with
was necessary, not only
But when we do know,
all
which
for the design of the
good
workmanship
and
common an accomplishment,
that no one was at the pains to proclaim his

The
illustrations of
Bodiam
Castle in this chapter are from photos
by Messrs. Everett and Ashdown
of Tenterden, Kent.
Earlx English Furniture and IJôodwork

own
another.
Ljr
^^^
^^^
JBB J HB" "]^|
^^Bt'-_- '.L-^Bjf.'i
It
It
ecclesiastic.
^H
Tower
the
one
to
William
that
recorded
is
of
we owe the designs
tliat
and
Castle
reputation
the
record
to
known
is
Rochester
(){
or
roiiiitation
of
the Third's architect at
Wykeham was Edward
Windsor, as well as his own at Winchester and

Oxford, and of various handsome churches which
were built during
his
long
episcopate.
probable that Wa^-neflete designed the beautiful buildings at Magdalen College

is
alleged that Wolsey, in his youth, planned the matchless tower,
It
and
it
which has charmed
But no one knows who designed and
every spectator for nearly four centuries.
is
carried
out a thousand of those poems in stone which were the glory of the Middle Ages, and
have been made the subjects

in
and stupid limitation
of servile
our own."
Henry, whose extra\-agance was boundless, had cast

longing eyes on the wealth of
began
his
Church's
act
when he
the Church, and
of suppression, in
1536, on the plea of the
and mismanagement, he had no other idea
\'ice
than to capture these riches for his own private use.

all
thieves, he
in the worst
had
to dispose of the produce of his robberies
market
the stolen goods,
in other words, to find receivers for
who were prepared
to deal,
wêre sufficiently attractive to the buyer,
The
seller.
years,
his
result
Like
was that the proceeds
and the King had
if
the terms
and ruinous
to the
of the royal thefts
were dissipated
in
about four
to turn his attention to the currency of the realm to replenish
exhausted treasury.
By
these
means the condition
and afterwards by his
son,
of the artisan
Edward VI.
was steadily deteriorated, both by Henry
With the suppression

ments a horde
of
of the
monastic establish-
monkish vagrants was
let loose
men
on the highways and byways of England,
who
in
possessed nearly
masonry,
all
the
skill in
woodwork,
in carving, illuminating, writing
the other arts.
They were turned away
forty
and
shillings
'
gown
per
See note at end of chapter.
and
" with
man
"
as

Burnet
" History
his
in
The vagrancy laws were stringent
tion."
not
remarks,
pithily
roam
beyond
place
his
a craftsman could
habitation
of
ihejReforma-
of
employment
or
without the consent of his Guild and of the Lord of the Manor,
without the gra\-est
man,"
risk of
being apprehended as a " masterless
rogue and a vagabond,
vagrancy was death,
if
punishment
and the
for
not mutilation. There were over a hundred
offences in the calendar for which a
man,
in the fifteenth century,
could be put to death (stealing a sheep was one of them) and hanging was, perhaps, the
kindest punishment in the penal code.
\ith these unfrocked
had made the
monks departed
fifteenth century tlie
of citizenship, these
monks
Tortures and mutilation were
many and ingenious.
the skill in building and woodwork, which
Forbidden to work, denied any rights
Golden Age.
deteriorated into thieves and outlaws, where they did not
escape beyond the seas, to follow their crafts in other, and more tolerant, countries.
To quote Thorold Rogers

the condition
government.
was
of its guild capital
We
"
first
to trace the process
impo\-erished by the issue of base money.
by the land
thie\'es of
Edward's regency.
with a new and more need}' set of employers

It
have been able
English labour has been continuously deteriorated
of
It
again
It
b}'
Next
by which
the acts of
was robbed
it
was next brought
in contact
the sheep-masters who succeeded the monks.
was then, with a pretence, and perhaps with the
intention, of kindness, subjected
to the quarter sessions assessment, mercilessly used in the first half of the seventeenth
century, the agricultural labourer being
residuum of
all
labour.
and the extinction

so long.
The
of those
still
further impoverished
agricultural labourer
immemorial
The poor law professed
was then further mulcted by
rights of pasture
to find
by being made the
and
fuel
him work, but was
enclosures,
which he had enjoyed
so administered that the
reduction of his wages to a bare subsistence became an easy process and an economical
expedient.
their
own
When
the
monarchy was
authority, relieved their
restored, his employers,
own
of his
estates
who
fixed his
from their ancient dues
wages by
at the expense
poor luxuries by the excise, tied him to the
by the Law
of
prohibitive corn
Settlement,
law.
Saltoun,
and starved him by a
The freedom
bought by the servitude
of
of the few
the many.
an ardent republican
for
argued
that
the
people
was
Fletcher of
a narrow
class,
doom
of the
suggested hopeless slavery as the proper

labourers,
soil
existed
only
to
"
Early English Furniture and JFoodwork

work, ami that plulost)phical politicians should have the power to limit their existence
by
labt)ur.
poor their
of other
or
Throughout the eighteenth century the most enlightened

i">ity,
occasionally
workers
tlieir
patronage, sometimes would assist
them
the
at the cost
but beyond a bare existence, never imagined that they had rights
remembered that they had
The weight
suffered wrongs.
To crown
every direction, and with searching severity.

felony and conspiracy were denounced against
better their lot
men gave
by endeavouring
all
of taxation fell
on them
in
the whole, the penalties of
labourers
who
associated together to
to sell their labour in concert, while the desperation
uhich poverty and misery induce, and the crime they suggest, were met by a code more
sanguinary and brutal than any which a civilised nation had ever heretofore devised
or a high-spirited one submitted
to.''^
In these religious houses of the fourteenth
nor expense, were of
moment
'
fifteenth centuries neither time,
in the production of their
grandest cathedrals, or tiny churches.
with
and
"
The wealth
works
of the
of art,
whether
for the
Church was immense,
for
The Act by which any combination of workmen, for their own protection or betterment, could be punished
imprisonment or mutilation, was only repealed after 1S20. Geo. IV, Cap. 129.
fine,
*/
"""
..^;^"
Fig. 1.
ST.
ALBAN'S ABBEY BEFORE THE REFORMATION.
This illustration gives some idea of the number of monastic buildings which clustered round an Abbey.
From an original drawing by Charles H. Ashdown, Esq., F.R.G.S.

she drew at will upon the fear and superstition of the earth
as her power.
For centuries her treasures were
for the
and her
spirit
was
as great
most part wisely and munificently
expended, and the noble buildings she erected and the good deeds she performed cannot
be contemplated, even now, without admiration.
She opened her gates to the poor,
spread a table to the hungry, gave lodging to the houseless, welcomed the wanderer
and high and low
learned and
illiterate
alike received shelter and hospitality.
Under
her roof the scholar completed his education, the chronicler sought and found materials
for history, the minstrel
chaunted lays of piety and chivalry
wood
the sculptor carved in
or cast in silver
on some new legend what was at

institutions so charitable
lands abundantly
and the whisperings

longer enjoy
and
least
some popular
meant
useful, the rich
for his loaf
saint,
and
and the painter conferred
to be the immortality of his colours.
own
conscience,
and chantries were added
where the saints were
to churches,
Church
and hospitals erected and endowed,
departed donor's soul, and the poor and
fed."
"^
Fig. 2.
A KEY TO THE ILLUSTRATION ON OPPOSITE PAGE.

13
of the
by bequeathing wealth which he could no
solicited in favour of the
hungry were clothed and
To
and the powerful devised both money and
an opulent sinner was glad to pacify the clamours

of his
his raiment,
Fig. 3.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.
ATHERINGTON CHURCH, DEVON.

West Side
An example
of a Devonshire
of Chancel Screen.
Early Sixteenth Century.
Rood Screen with Rood Loft
boarded on the front and with applied tracery.
On the eastern (chancel)

On the western (the side shown here)
complete.
side the loft
is
the front
decorated with elaborate niche-work. The detail (Fig. 5) shows the Italian ornament
in the vaulting of the screen, a sure indication of the sixteenth century.
is
Mr. Fredk. Sumner, Photo.
14
The
"
No
on
its
monuments
its
own
lay brothers or
and craftsmanship
of art
artisans, its
own works under

monks
masons, sculptors, carvers or joiners and employed them
the skilled direction of
is
executing.
Possibly
probable
when
That these craftsmen were
its prelates.
certainly they
seem
to
have either disappeared when

both
skill
in
designing and in
came under the baneful
the higher dignitaries of the Church
Wolsey and Cromwell, and many,
as at Reading, Colchester
and Glastonbury,
perished at their hands, the guiding spirit of English architecture and
wings and
The Church
as long as materials lasted.
the monasteries were suppressed, or to have lost their
notice of
Aônasteries
better conditions could have prevailed for the execution of works which should
persist as
created
of
L>issoIutiori
woodwork took
fled.^
That these
religious houses
had increased
in
number out
of all proportion to the
population, and in wealth and power to such degi'ee as to be a menace to King and
State,
unquestionable.
is
in size,
The policy
of the public
wealth or number, but no one
will credit
good
may have
dictated reduction
Henry VIII with any higher
notice
than the replenishment of his own exchequer. "-
That
art lived
and grew only
in the
shadow
Church cannot be doubted when
of the
fourteenth-century castles and cathedrals are compared.

to withstand
armed
from which the
assaults,
latter
were protected
character, but the interiors of castles were often as rude

exteriors.
We
meet with exceptions,
True, the former were built
and
their
as at Tattershall Castle, where, in the fifteenth
Henry VI, embellished
the thirteenth-century castle of Baron de Tatershale both outside and
it
their sacred
from ornament as
free
century, Ralph, Lord Cromwell, Lord Treasurer of England under
Gothic manner of his age.
by
But the twelfth-century Abbey
of
in, after
the fine
Kirkstead was near by
had, in fact, been foimded by the original builder of Tattershall,
and there
is
no doubt
that the decorative work, the windows, the heraldic vaulting and the stone chimneypieces (the latter of which
underwent such extraordinary vicissitudes some years ago,
being rescued actually from the housebreakers' hands, after removal, by Earl Curzon
of Kedleston)
were the work of the neighbouring monks.
teries supplied
The great abbeys and monas-
both the designing and executive ability for the more ornate secular
houses and castles of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

assert, for
invoked
One would venture
to
example, that the aid of the neighbouring Abbey of Robertsbridge was not
in the decoration of the late fourteenth-century Castle of
Bodiam
illustrated in
the pages of this chapter.

'
Alan Cunningham,
"
William
The jewelled canopies to some

and sold by the rapacious monarch.
-
of
WvkelKiin."
of the
tombs
in the earliest
15
chapels of Westminster
Abbey were
despoiled

The guiding and directing
Church
inflmMice of the
very apparent in such woodwork
is
and furniture prior to 1520, wliieh has persisted to the present day, and
Gothic woodwork and furniture
equally noticeable in the later work.

ecclesiastical in jirojier habitat as
century, contain
absence of
by
when
new
workmanship.
woodwork,
It is possible
known
when
as a general rule,
and there
is
An
rigid quahties of
era of house building also sets in at this
internecine strife ceases, and fortified castles began to be replaced
Gothic
dwelling-houses or mansions.
details,
ornament borrowed from France and Italy

3,
Gothic vaulting.
it
Briefly,
4 and
may
5,
is
by
such as two- and three-centred arch in
door-heads, crocketing and cusping in lattice and spandril,
Atherington Church, Figs.
an
that such was not appreciated nor
from the somewhat
as Tudor, free
the ecclesiastical Gothic, begins to arise.

period,
necessarily,
towards the middle of the sixteenth century,
e\-en the \-er\- wealthy, luitil

style, generally
is,
is
Secular houses, prior to the sixteenth
in origin.
is
or no furniture or
little
fine detail or
desired,
it
absence
its
but the free
persist,
still
superadded, as in the fine screen from
where Renaissance detail
is
superimposed on
be said that, with the dissolution of monasteries,
departs the former fine tradition in English furniture and woodwork, and the Gothic
ceases to be the national style of England.
'Note.
Literal
extracts from Act
I,
Edward VI,
ditions of the lower classes at that period, than
That
if
any man
or
woman
able to
any comment can
work should refuse
should be branded with a red hot iron on the breast, with the
two years of any person who should inform against such
and water
or small drink,
and such
away from
to
and labour
and
to
and should
ivith the letter
'
S'
and
if
be adjudged the slave
for
the master should feed his slave with bread

;
and should cause
he runs
work by
him unto."
become his slave for
away
and
his slave to
the second time,
suffer
life,
and
after being
shall be con-
pains of death, as other felons
do."
It is
furthermore enacted that the master shall have power
give the service of his slaves to
persons be adjudged
and
'
that he should put
victed thereof by two sufficient witnesses, he shall be taken as a felon
ought
'
his master for the space of fourteen days, he shall
branded on the forehead or cheek
showing the con-
labour and live idly for three days, he or she
letter
idler ;
as
be.
refuse meat as he should think proper
beating, chaining or other-wise, in such leork
" If he runs
more illuminating,
C. Ill, will be
to
him
" To
bequeath,
sell,
let
out for hire, or
any person whomsoever, upon such condition and for sueh term of years as
for slaves, after the like, sort
and manner as may do
of
any
the said
other his moveable goods
chattels."
The master
his discretion."
shall also
have power
" To put a ring of iron
about the neck,
arm
or leg of his slave, at
Chapter
The Early Woodworker
endeavour to
III.
His Life, Tools and Methods.
present
the
and conditions
life
from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries,

trade guilds and the
like,
is
the woodworker
of
his
methods,
the scope and purpose of the present
The term "woodworker" has been chosen,
chapter.
tools,
as this includes
not only the carpenter and joiner, but also the kindred crafts of the
sawyer, the maker of furniture and the carver in wood, under the one generic heading.
At the outset several
present themselves, in the attempt to institute
difficulties
An
comparisons between the various periods.
accurate standard of values, which
shall hold good, equally in the fourteenth as in the eighteenth centuries, for example,
is
very
and
services, for
and the
have to consider,
which a monetary standard
in the fourteenth
levels,
We
difficult to postulate.
than
relative
it
will
first,
the remuneration for labour
not apply (as monej' bought far more
did in the eighteenth century), the difference in subsistence
number
of the
hours worked in the woodworking trades at the
different periods.
The
institution of
trade guilds dates from ver^^ early times.
early a date as the fourteenth century are
that these guilds must have existed.

in
known from
Guild halls of as
records and remains, and
Whether they were formed
show
to protect the workers
the various trades, as far as labour conditions were concerned, or whether they
were more in the nature of educational establishments, under the protection and
subject to the domination of the Lord of the Manor,
know
it
is
not possible to
saj'.
We
that the mediaeval woodworker was protected from time to time by sundry
Acts of Parliament, regulating his wages and hours of labour, and that, on the whole,
working
his
life
was
far
from onerous.
His desires were fewer than at a later date.
Bread, meat and beer constituted his staple
planted in Lancashire where they became popular as a food.
only in
the
late
sixteenth
Holland, as an article of
Houghton,
in
Green vegetables were unknown
in
1681, gives
D
in
Potatoes were introduced by Sir Walter Raleigh from Virginia, and were
England.
first
diet.
his
century.
diet, until
" Collections
in Vol.
I,
p.
in
This, however,
is
Green vegetables were not introduced from
almost the early part of the seventeenth century.
Husbandry and Trade," a periodical
213, edit.
1728, the
17
first
notice of
first
turnips
published
being used

for feeding sheep.
Both
were much smaller
in size
The
cattle
and sheep,
in the fourteenth
and
fifteenth centuries,
than at the present day.
lack of griên vegetables, coupled with the insanitary conditions of
absence of
an\-
attempt at cleanliness of
person,
and the lack
life,
the
knowledge of
of
medicine or surgery (the mediccval physician would not compare, for a moment, in
knowledge
of his art, with the veriest
quack
at the present day)
in great measure, for the prevalence of plagues.
ravaged England
and 1369, and
in 1348, 1361
probably accounted,
In the fourteenth century, the plague

in the
next century in 1477, 1478 and
From
1479.
1455
to
England suffered
1485
from
and
war,
civil
Bosworth, Henry
after
Tudor' s army
brought
from Wales, a
with
it,
new
disease
known as
" sweating
the
sick-
which afterwards
ness,"
penetrated to
and
the
but
which,
Germany
Netherlands,^
curiously
attacked
enough, only
Englishmen.
who
Those
interested
are
these
in
mediaeval conditions of
life
and labour cannot
do
better
James
than
Thorold
E.
Rogers'
read
erudite
"Six Centuries
of
book,
Work
and Wages," especially

Chapter
Rogers
Fig. 6.
THE PiT-SAW
The two workers are known
It is the
'
as the
IN USE.
^_^
^j^^
XH.
Thorold
refers, in detail,
profuscness
of
"top-sawyer" and the "under sawyer."
top-sawyer "
who
guides the saw.
diet
and
the
extra-
The Early lVood\orker
His
Lifi^ Tools
and Methods
ordinary uncleanliness of person in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and to the
In 1528 and 1529 the visitation was
prevalence of plagues.
Mortality," and
died
for
ravaged the Continent as well as England.
it
twenty-two
in
the
conditions,
cited
days
in
Hamburg
England,
to
time,
last
known
had
abo\-e,
propagation on an extensive
to
in
The
alone.
1665.
It
is
plague
as the " Great
Over 11 00 persons
came
and
again,
more than probable that the
be coupled with a famine year, to allow of
scale,
and famines were very
rare
during
the
its
later
Middle Ages.
Workers
in
wood appear
to
have been divided into three
classes during the four-
teenth and fifteenth centuries.
We
have the King's
men,
higher
crafts-
were paid at
wiio
although
rate,
it
a
is
probable that they were more

in
nature
the
directors
of
Thus
than general workers.

in
1358,
June 6th
Rolls), ,'John
(Patent
de Tidolaye
is
appointed to carry out certain

repairs in the King's Castle
of Haddeleye, " b\' view
and
disposition of Master William
de Herland, the King's carpenter " to take the necessary
workmen and
carriages
for
the work, at the King's wages,
" to stay therein as long as

shall be necessary
all
those
and
found contrariant
and commit them

till
arrest
to prison
further orders."
Fig. 7.
From
the
above
it
THE CUTTING OF OAK.
is
evident that the King's car-
A.
summary powers
c.
B.
penter had
to collect
men
D.
for the King's
E.
Boards cut across the tree.

The trunk showing annular rings and medullary rays.
A board cut by the method (A) showing the annular rings.
The cutting
The cutting
9
of quartered boards without figure.

of quartered boards with the mcdullar>- ray figure.
Early English Furniture and
Wm
work,' and
probable that these
is
it
JWoodwork
were culled from the general class of

artisan,
the
for
being
may have
although they
at a higher rate
Next
time
when
only,
been paid
so engaged.
order come the wood-
in
workers attached to the Church,
who
appear to have been lay-brothers as

a general rule,
Mi' V
Fig. 8.
DRIVING
IN
THE RIVING-IRON, OR
"
THROWER.
and
to
have been
free
from the power of the King's mastercraftsmen.

tained
The monasteries mainnumbers
large
carpenters,
joiners,
money, but lavishly
in
duce and accommodation.

high standard, both in
tistic
in pro-
From
the
and
ar-
skill
inspiration (monastic fifteenth-
century work
as
and
carvers
probably paying very
illuminators,
little
masons,
of
much
is,
obviously, a labour
of love, as of duty)
which
the ecclesiastical workers possessed,
transcending even||those of the King's

Fig. 9.
OPENING THE LOG WITH THE " THROWER.
men,
of
it is
certain that their conditions
must have been easy and
life
enviable.
The
third class of artisans were
those engaged in
work
for the laity,
from the yeoman farmer to the belted

knight and baron, under the guidance,
and subject
to the
dominion of the
Trade Guild or the Lord
No
Fig. 10.
RIVING FOR PANEL-STUFF OR PALE-FENCING.
of the
Manor.
artisan could leave his village or
' The proviso, in these royal mandates,

is
always inserted, that the King's carpenter has
power to collect workmen, " other than those in
the fee of the Church."
The Early JVoodworkcr

locality
sanction
\\ithout
His
a vagabond, a " masterless
be arrested and summarily hanged without

labour were harsh and stringent.
one of plenty and of reasonable
days
was
(or
leisure.
in the year.
Even
The Windsor records do not
on the Continent,
it is
indicate, in
the
but there
time,
in
possible
shortest
no
is
suggestion of extra pay-
ment
for overtime,
al-
though such payments

do occur
in the records
where a great number

of
hours are worked
in
the one day.
marked
distinc-
tion appears to be
labour
in
made
hours
of
summer
as
between the
compared with winter.

Five o'clock in the morning
eight
to
in
the
evening, in summer, was
the
rule,
but
allowance
had
general
liberal
to be
made
schenes "
for "
(the
Fig. 11.
non-
midday
customary
any way, that the workmen were
impatient, and his work
be executed
life,
work on Saturday afternoon and on Sunday
King was usually
to
could
six received 5d.
no work was done. True;
had
who
workman had an easy
paid for days on which
the
workman
His hours were long, and holidays were few.
at the present day,

to
"
In this regard the laws regulating
In other particulars, the
until the last fifteen years)
morning.
trial.
man
Windsor, four carpenters received 6d. per day, and
in 1408, at
for 365
and Methods
from the Lord or the Guild, and a strange
without employment was a rogue and
Thus
Life^ Tools
USING THE ADZE.

Xole the natural bent growths
of timber, or
" knees."
Early English Furniture and JJôodwork
Fig. 12.
JOINERS' PLANES OF
I.
3.
5.
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
long or " trying "-plane or " jointer.'
Rabbet plane for large

Smoothing plane.
2.
rebates.
4.
6.
Large round plane for working hollow mouldings.
Compass plane for shaped

Compass plane.
surfaces.
Rijks Museum, Amsterdam.
meal, hence the modern word luncheon), for " drinkynges "^ and for " sleep\mges,"-
occupying in
all
from three to three and a half hours.
The standard wage
of the country artisan, in the fifteenth century, appears to
have been 6d. per day.

living there
In
London
was proportionately dearer.
this
was increased from 25
Comparisons
of wages,
actual N'alue of the currency alters.
but
His hours of actual labour cannot have exceeded
eight in the day, although in the ne.xt century this
even more.
to 30 per cent,
reckoned
in
number was
e.xtended to ten
and
money, however, are misleading, as the
Before 1543 (when Henry VIII
first
began to debase
the currency) silver contained 18 dwts. of alloy to 12 ozs., and the pound was coined
into 45 shillings.
In 1546
it
was debased
to the extent of 8 ozs. in 12
It
would be
out of place here, to trace the far-reaching effect of this iniquitous procedure on the
'
^
This custom has survived in Hertfordshire, where the morning draught

This time was allowed in summer onlv.
is
known
as a " beever."
The Early JFcodworker
His
Life^ Tools
and Methods
lA
5a.
6a
5s.
4.
Fig. 13.
THE PLANES SHOWN
IN FIG. 12
SEEN FROM ABOVE.

part of the King to swell his private revenue, but one of the results was to destroy
the East x\nglian woollen and textile trades with the
that date, being
for
made by weight
Low
Countries.
Payment, at
instead of by tale, the exchanging of this debased coin
commodities constituted a fraud
of the worst
kind on the Netherland merchant, a
fraud to which the English trader was an unwitting accessory, with the result that
when
the cheat was discovered, the English currency was not depreciated in exchange value
it
was refused absolutely, and the English trade with the Continent was ruined.
There
is
an apparent
rise in
the wages of artisans from the fifteenth to the eighteenth
centuries, reckoned in terms of currency, but, actually, the conditions

for the worse.
As Thorold Rogers remarks
in
and Wages," " the fifteenth century and the

golden age of the English labourer,
the cost of the necessaries of
and
at
life.
if
we
Chapter XII
first
Work
quarter of the sixteenth were the
are to interpret the wages which he earned
At no time were wages,
no time was food so cheap.
changed steadily
of " Six Centuries of
by
relatively speaking, so high,
Attempts were constantly made to reduce these
wages by Act of Parhament, the legislature frequently

23
insisting that the Statute of
Early English Furniture and IFoodwork
20
IS)
22
23
^4-
25
Fig. 14.
PLANE IRONS, SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.

Labourers should be kept.
and
finally
But these
were
efforts
futile
the rate keeps steadily high,
becomes customary, and was recognised by Parhament."
To estimate the
currency increase
real \-alue of this depreciation in wages,
in rate,
though accompanied by a
from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries,
to formulate a subsistence table, to include the food
which a man with
children would require for a year, and to calculate the
number
of
necessary
it is
a wife
weeks
and two
of the
man's
labour at the various periods which was necessary to purchase this year's pro\-ision.
It is of little
constant in
all
moment whether
the estimates.
centuries, although plentiful,
the
list
As stated
it
remains
and
fifteenth
be complete or no, providing that

before, food during the fourteenth
was coarse and lacking
in \-ariety.
The
artisan of the
eighteenth century had accustomed himself to greater variety, and, possibly, could not
have existed on the fourteenth-century monotonous dietary

not affect the point at issue here.
scale,
but this fact does
Let us take, for purposes of comparison, a
list
com-
prising 3 quarters of wheat, 3 quarters of malt, 2 quarters of oatmeal, with the necessary
amounts
year.
of beef
It will
skilled artisan
and mutton
for the family, before referred to, for the space of
one
be found that, in the late fifteenth century, fourteen weeks' wages of a
were sufficient to purchase this amount, whereas in 1530
over twenty weeks' wages, and
in 1564, after the
in 1597,
would take
proclamation of Elizabeth regulating
wages, forty-four weeks' wages would scarcely buy the same amount.
two weeks' wages were required, and
it
In 1593,
fifty-
a year of severe famine, when wheat rose
24
The Early JVoodworkcr
His
Lifc^ Tools
and Methods
to 56s. lojd. the quarter,
wages were only from

IDS. od. to ;f6 5s. od.
per year.
a
In 1593 (not
famine
wheat
with
year)
at i8s. 4jd. the
we have
quarter, as
al-
ready stated, one year's
wages only bought that

which
for
of
fourteen weeks was

1495.
In
year of 1593,
also,
sufficient in
this
we
labour
the
see the first indica-
tion of a year being paid

for as
of
one of 312, instead
365 days,
rates
at
varying from 10
8s. od.
to 11 2S. od. per year.
In the famine year of

1597, with wheat at 56s.
lojd. as compared with

iSs.
\\^.,
wages only
advanced by
the
los. to 15s.
year.
Privation,
during this year,
among
12
i^-
18
the workers must have
been extreme.
Fig. 15.
In 1651,
SIXTEENTH-CENTURY TOOLS.
with wheat at 51s. 4d.,

7.
the sawing of a hundred
Iron pincers.
ii, I2,'i3, 14, i5, 17
9 and 10. Compasses (a "compas").

From the Barend Expedition.
8,
15.
An
awl
and
18.
Files
and Rasps.
(a pricker).
of planks (six-score feet,
always calculated as a day's work)

8s.,
the under
man
7s.
(See Fig.
is
paid at 15s. per week, the top-sawyer receiving
6.)
In 1661 the wages are substantially the same as ten years before, but wheat advances
from
51S. 4d. to 70s. 6d.

E
In 1682 wheat
is
25
only 43s. 8d., but wages are reduced.
Early English Furniture and Uôodwork

In
1684,
War-
at
wick, with wheat at

old.
Thorold
cite
(to
Rogers
42s..
again)
skilled
artisans are paid is. per
day, free-masons (equivalent
our modern
to
piece-masters)
4d.
is.
The
and plasterers 8d.

winter pay
day
id.
is
per
The day
less.
is
one of 12 hours, from 5
morning to 7 or
in the
8 o'clock p.m., according

to
the
this
is
From
season.
allowed half an
hour for breakfast, one

hour fornonschenes, one
hour for " drinkings,"
and, between
May and
August, half an hour for

sleep.
The yearly
which
Fig. 16.
VARIOUS TOOLS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

28.
A
A
2g.
Gouge.
27.
hammer-head.
The tang
is
bent,
31.
carpenter's fat bowl.
Wooden handle
32.
missing.
33.
Gouge.
wages are only
missine.
fourteen
with
weeks' wages, in
IIS. 6d.,
costs
14
the
skilled
1690
and
Ditto.
30.
Wooden handle
A chisel (chyssel). Wooden handle missing.

An oil-stone (whetting-stone).
1495 was pur-
in
chased
store,
and those
;î5 13s. od.
of a
farm hand are about 10
8s. od.
or
artisan's
less.
In
1725 the artisan's wages are 15 13s. od. per year, but the cost of the 1495 subsistence
standard
is
16
From 1805
himself, a wife
is
unknown
end
2s. 3d.
to 1830 the
wages
of a skilled
woodworker were
and two children even on the most meagre
of the sixteenth,
now
insufficient to
scale.
Pauperism, which
and only begins to be noticeable
at the latter
begins to be the rule rather than the exception.

26
support
The Early Jfôodworkcr

The
Poor
original
Law
engaged
also those
work, but could not
in
wages which they
His
Life^ Tools
and Methods
was
relief
who
inaugurated, not only to relieve those
were unemployed, but
who were
on the
live
During the
earned. ^
our present
nineteenth century, to bring
enquiry up to date, arose the custom of the
poor seeking doles from the back doors, or

kitchen regions, of the wealthy houses, in
the shape of cast-off clothing, stale loaves,
fragments of joints of meat and dripping,

and, in
many
as 1880, this
country villages even as late
custom
of
begging was not
regarded as disgraceful in any way.
Regular
attendance at the village church was imposed, as a condition, on the recipients of

this charity.
Some
reference
must be made,
in this
chapter, to the tools and methods of pre-
paring
timber,
during
the
sixteenth centuries, but the subject
wide
to
permit
more
and
fifteenth
than
is
too
brief
unnecessary to illustrate the
felling
any
other
of
-description.
It is
of
timber,
wood than
nor to
deal with
oak, as this was exclusively used
in the early periods.
The branches having
been lopped from the trunk, with the axe,

those of growth suitable for cutting into
" knees,"
for timber roof-braces, being care-
fully reserved for
such use, the log
is
40
39
41
taken
Fig. 17.
to the saw-pit for cutting.
In Fig. 11, to
See in Thorold Rogers' " Six Centuries of Work and

Wages," Chapter XI\', the account of the Speenhamland
TOOLS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Acts of 1795 and 1800 introduced by Mr, Whitbread.
Braces (morteys wymbyll).

Screw-drivers (eighteenth century).
34, 37, 38.
35, 36.
39, 40, 41.
Augers (foote wymbyll).

27
Early English Furniture and IFoodwork

which
later reference will be
noticed
^^^-
two
of
these
" knees,"
trimmed with the adze.
^^^^^^^
^^^^^
^^^^^
made,
Fig. 6 illustrates
from very early times, with certain exceptions
which
will
The cutting
wood
be noted later on.
oak timber, to produce
of
and durable quahty,
of fine figure
one demanding considerable
A SMOOTHING PLANE.
the log into boards in the

in
Fig.
7a
be noticed in the illustration
(c),
The annular
cause the board to cast.
of the log before cutting, with the annular rings
radiate from the log-centre or heart.
maximum
The
out.
wood
figure of the
The
very sharp angle.
Thus the
log
figure,
is
shows the operation.
also the
medullary rays which
is
hkely to scale
splits his
oak
figure has per-
but the method
is
not the best of
its
kind.
was
"
cut into quarters (hence the term " quartering
first
first
board each way was cut straight.
to follow the ray direction,
Fig.
and between each a wedge-
each new angle being followed.
of
The diagram.
7d shows the method of cutting mild oak without
but the ray comes at right angles to each board, with the result that the timber
liable to internal shakes.
The operation
of splitting or riving,
the seventeenth century, as

10
will
at cutting his boards obliquely across the ray, at a
shaped piece was cut away to allow

Fig. 76,
which
7b shows the end section
Church doors the hard
used to describe the cutting of figured oak) and the
Each succeeding one was cut
illustrated
have worn away, leaving the ray standing
effect is picturesque,
The mediaeval sawyer aimed
rings,
from the sawyer, always
of the early
sisted while the softer parts of the timber
out of the wood.
Fig.
exposed, but the projecting ray
is
many
in
and
cut
boards are cut exactly parallel with this ray,
If
river of timber, as distinguished
with the ray, and
parallel
To
the most economical way,
is
but the planks produced in this manner are not durable.
way
is
on the
skill
part of the sawyer or the river.
18.
(Possibly late sixteenth or early seventeenth century.)
the
roughly
the operation of the pit-saw, a tool used
^^
l^^^^^îaBBHBM
Fig.
be
will
show
was practised a good deal up
many examples
this operation in three stages.
of the early
The quartered
log
is
work show.
to the
end of
Figs. 8, 9
inserted between
and
two heavy
the upper one fixed on the slope so that the log can be wedged tightly into the
aperture, supported on stout framings fixed into the ground.
The riving-iron, or
rails,
" thrower," as
it is
technically termed,
is
then driven into the end of the log with a

28
The Early IVoodvcorker

club, or " beetle."
wooden
shaped
"
The
thrower
in section, in other words, has a
and has a socket
His
"
is
JLife^ Tools
and Methods
wedge-
sharp fore edge,
end into which a long loose
at one
handle can be inserted as a lever.
home,
After the thrower has been driven
handle
is
inserted and the thrower wrenched to widen
the split
(Fig. 9).
the riving
of
the
completed.
is
splitting
worked down the
It is
shows the operation
Fig. 10
panel -wood or hedge -stakes.
for
pale-fencing, at the present day,
same way,
log until
Oak
riven in exactly the
is
as riven timber withstands weather better
than sawn.
Fig. II
smoothing
" knees "
shows the use of the adze, the primitive

used
tool
of
oak,
for
growth, before referred

side of the adze
dubbed
from
selected
worker
into shape,
The
timber.
large
wood
two
curved
of
be noticed on either
to, will
one has already been roughly
the other
is
awaiting the same
41-
treatment.
Fig. 19.
Woodworking
fifteenth century,
in the
TWO VIEWS OF A PARING
and were handed down from father
(Eighteenth century.)
tools
were greatly esteemed
to son with other possessions.
Ixworth
in Suffolk, of
WILLS
1472
The following
is
a copy of the will of
Thomas
CHISEL
Vyell, of
AND EXTRACTS FROM WILLS RELATING TO IXWORTH

AND IXWORTH THORPE.
Radulph Penteney al' Sporyer de Ixworth 1462
Lego ad vsum gilde S'c'i John i's Bapt'e
IN
Thomas Vyell
Ixworth.
iijs iiijd.
1472.
In die no'i'e.
Amen.
Thomas
Vyell of Ixworth the yeld', the xj day of the
ye yeer of oure lord m'cccclxxij of very sad and hoole mynd and
good avysemente, make myn testament in this wyse. Fyrst I beqweth and bytake
myn sowle to almyghty god, to yet blessed lady and to all the Seyntes of heven, and
m\'n body to be beryd in the parysh cherche of Ixworth be for sayd befor the auter
of Seynt James.
Also I beqweth to the heych awter there ijs. Also I beqweth to ye
moneth
of October,
29

beqwcth to ye pryor of Ixworth ijs, to
the Suppryour xxd. Also th Sire Edmund Stowc xxd, to eu'y chanon preste ther xijd
and to echo mov\-se vj. Also I beqweth to the newe freers of Thetford to a trentall
Also I beqweth to the
xs, and to the same hows ijbs of whettc and a combe of malte.
holde hows of the same town to a trentall sx. Also the sreets of Babwell to a trentall
xs.
Also I beqweth ni\ii mass hyngfatte to ye gylde of Seynt Thomas, so that myn
wyffe and John my brother have the kepyng thereof ther lyve. Also I beqwethe and
stepyll
(if
the
samo cherche
^j
Also
marcs.
myn howssold.
I beqwethe to Thomas myn sone, myn splytyng saw'^ myn brood axe- a litggyng
a Jffcllvng belte* a twybyll^ a sqwer^ a morteys wymbyW a foote wymbylP a drawtc
assigne to m\-n beforcseyd wyffe alle the ostylments of
Also
ielte^
-wymbyll^ a compas^"
Thomas myn
and hande sawc^^ a
myn
sone
place that
Also
kytting sawe.^'^
dwelle jn wt.
geve and beqwethe to
the purtenance and to his heyers
all
owtyn heyers the seyde place to remayne wt.

the purtenance to John myn sone, and to his heyers wt. owtyn ende. So that myn
beforeseyde wyfe have the seyde place wt. the purtenances outo the tyme myn assyned
-eyer be of age to meynteyne it by him selffe.
As I gave and beqwethe to Crystyan
myn wyffe by forsey mj'n place wt. the purtenances that was John Knotts for terme
of her lyffe, and aft her decesse to remayn to John myn sone to his heyers and assignes
wt. owtyn ende.
But yeffe it happe the seyde John to Hereryte myn other above
seyd place, thanne I wolde and assigne that place wyche John Knotts hadde be solde
and dysposyd for myn and for myn frendes sowly, to execucion for this myn laste wylle
and testaments. I make and ordeyn befor seyde wyffe and John Vyell myn brother.
Avt.
owtv-n ende, and yeffe he deye wt.
Note.
Bury
Archaeology,
\'ol.
Examples
of
and West Suffolk Archaeological Institute and Suffolk Institute

I,
p. io8.
woodworkers' tools from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries
are illustrated in Figs. 12 to

tion, the
all of
ig.
Those
Dutch
origin,
but the relations between England and the
and seventeenth
suppose that carpenters' and
joiners' tools
Nova Zembla implements may

seen.
'
'
'
A
A
They
are,
An
Low
centuries, that there
were identical
are,
probably,
Countries were so
is
ever\' reason to
two countries.
in the
many
years,
handed down from father
unquestionably sixteenth century, and
rip-saw with large teeth.

broad axe.
They
The
be considerably earlier than the date when they were
found, as tools were preserved for
from the Barend Expedi-
remains of which were discovered in Nova Zembla in 1593.
close during the sixteenth
have
of the earlier date are
adze.
A feUing a.xe.
A pole-axe; a mattock a pick-axe, an axe with two heads.
A square for truing up edges.
;
30
'
An
An
may
we
date from the earlier
auger cr a brace for boring holes.
large auger.
auger with a guide for accurate boring.
" A compass or
" A hand-saw.
12
to son, as
divider.
cross-cut saw.
The Early
The
decades.
Jfôodijcorker
His
and Methods
Lifc^ Tools
collection of eighteenth-century planes
is
and nearly
interesting,
all
are
carved and dated, an indication of the esteem in which they were held by their owners.
They
tools
differ
is
very
little
ver\' gradual,
from those
and
in use at the present da\',
especially after they reach an
as the evolution of
efficient stage,
there
and seventeenth centuries
to suppose that the planes of the sixteenth
is
no reason
differed materially
from these examples of the eighteenth.

Perfection and accuracy of finish
however, lacking in these tools as compared
is,
with those of the present day, and methods must have been even more primitive, and
with these implements and methods that the carpenters, joiners and carvers,
3'et it is
made
hammer-beam
roofs, which, in design, decoration
enormous time
envy
in\'olved) are the
The primitive
day.
and
those marvels of timber construction, such as chancel and rood-screens
and execution
of the cultured
worker
(to
in
joiner used glue or other adhesive sparingly,
say nothing of the
wood
at the present
and only when wide
panels were imperatively demanded, such as the painted lower panels in decorated
chancel screens.
his design.
He
As
a general rule,
subdued, but
his panels
were too wide for
his construction that his
timber he altered
pegs,,
work has withstood the ravages
remaining to-day, mellowed with the passage of time, with colours
still
as beautiful as
when
it
left his
hands.
has succumbed only to
It
purposed destruction, such as at the hands of the iconoclasts

the
his
secured his joints with mortise and tenon, pinned with wooden
and so durable and perfect was

of the centuries,
if
of the
Reformation and
Commonwealth.
When we examine
traceried
such examples as the canopied
and vaulted chancel and rood-screens, the
stalls,
sedilia
roofs, alike in constructional as well as decorative qualities,
the tabernacle work, the
and the elaborate timber

whether
in stately edifices
such as Beverley Minster, or in small churches such as Ludham, Ranworth, South wold,
Bramfield, Ufford and
choice
art
is,
many
in itself, invidious,
which the woodworker
other of the East Anglian ecclesiastical buildings,
we
can dimly apprehend the love for his work and his
of that time
wood\\-ork in the fifteenth century.
To
must
ha\'e had, in the golden age of English
originate
and
to construct, in as perishable
material as wood, examples of supreme beauty which shall defy the centuries, imphes
an honesty of method, and a love both of his

his art,
and directed
his eftorts,
passage of time and devotes
work which
shall be " fvtt
craft,
and
of the
Church which fostered
coupled with a care and patience which ignores the
all efforts to
the ultimate goal, the production of wood-
and fvne."
31
Chapter IV.
The Plan
HE
of
last fifteen
of the Earlv
years of
Tudor from the
tlie
fifteenth century witnessed the rise of the
battlefield of
Henr\- and the policy of the
crown
Bosworth, when the arms of the Seventh

first
Earl of Derby,
who
obtained his
of
Richard Crookback on the head of the victorious Richmond,"
England
established the line which persisted for one hundred and seventeen years, until
had
for
During
to look to Scotland for a king to occupy* its throne.
tectural
House
1485, " as a reward for his invaluable services in placing the
in
title
Tudor House.
work was almost wholly
this period, archi-
There was
of a secular character.
little
or no reason
adding to the numbers of the great monasteries or religious houses, and half a
century later Henry
work
VIH
I PARLOUR
The accession
r I
nnc AT HAa
LI A
GREAT
his
of suppressing these institutions
and bridling the power

pRivATti
began
of
of the clergy.
new dynasty
also
tended to beget an
era, of building of
mansions, for the favourites of the
House
of the
first
During the
of Tudor.
century and a quarter following the
Henry VIII, building must
accession of
ha\'e
on
been indulged
an elaborate
in, bj-
scale.
the wealth}',
To
instance
but a few of the great houses of this

period
B A
>
we have Buckden
in
1484,
Apethorpe about 1500, Oxburgh Hall
three years
MOAT
complete
Bosworth, and
before
at
the
accession
of
in-
Henry
Tudor, Sutton Place in 1523, Compton
Wynyates
1538,
in
1520,
Hengrave Hall
Layer Marney Towers
in
in
the
Fig. 20.
OXBURGH HALL
1482
first
year
of
the
sixteenth
century,
7)
simultaneouslj'with Apethorpe,
Plan.
32
Parham
The Plan of
Old Hall
in
1568
15 lo
in
(Fig.
21),
Deene Park
To
the last year of the sixteenth century.
Kirby
The opening
building, with Aston
concerning
ment
may
be added Moreton Old Hall
in 1580,
and Doddington
in the
by
of a
it
will
be found that the develop-
The evolution
either
towers, in the days
Oxburgh,
Fig. 20).
the porch
the
side
when
house-plan
early
Tudor plan
The entrance
the capability of defence against
to the successful house-plan,
had the
^^
(see
'
Through
-^
)
open courtyard
was reached, and almost

opposite, on
The
of the
quadrangle with central open courtyard.
armed aggression was a necessary adjunct

on
directly
the other side of
the quadrangle,
was the Great
Hall, the principal,
if
not the
only living room of the family.
The
was entered from a
hall
door on the
the right,
side,
usually
on
which gave on to
corridor, known
species of
a
in
the parlance of the time as " the

skreens," formed
ing
the
oft
hall
by
partition-
(see
Fig.
24
showing the screen at Ockwells
Above
Manor).
" the skreens,"
which was ceiled to single-story

height,
was the Minstrel's gallery

Fig, 21.
(see Fig.
Hall
at
F
25, the screen in the
Wadham
in the
had an important bearing both on the home
of the aristocratic classes.
form
in 1595.
appear to be out of place in a book
in the direction of greater privacy for the family.
porch, usually flanked
rooms
may
with furniture and woodwork,
of house-planning at this period
was invariably
Manor
Cothelstone
22),
to follow.
this architectural digression
itself solely
was always
(Fig-
saw Shipton, Salford and Burton Agnes
and Hatfield shortly
and the furnishings
life
this list
Montacute and Shaw House
in 1570,
of the seventeenth century
Although
1549
Early Tudor House
Keele Hall in 1571, Lake House in 1575, and Nettlecombe Court in
(Fig. 23),
in 1559,
in
the
PARHAM OLD HALL
College,
From
33
the Moat.
(1510).
porter's
E urriiturc
Early English
Oxford).
and
Tlu' hall
huge
To
oriel
of
of
the
houses, reached to an open-timbered roof,
house
on
the
dais,
was
screen
the
window.
the right
in all tlu' earlier
intersected
effectiiall\-
opposite end
itsi'll",
and JJôodwork
and
ground
both
hrst
flanked
generally
at
At the
lloors.
by
end
one
Behind the dais were the private apartments of the family.
tlie
on
screen,
cnitering,
were the domestic
kitchen,
the
offices,
buttery, etc.
These Great Halls were not only contrived

often formed a part of smaller
yeoman
dwellings.
houses and mansions
in large
they
In the latter case, the roof timbers,
while constructional, were only sparingly decorated as befitted the quality of the house
itself.
Fig. 26
shows one
originally a part of a Great Hall, but
several rooms.
The
Bablake Schools at Coventry,
of these open-timber roofs in the
staircase,
now
floored into
another view of which
two
is
and partitioned
stories
shown
off into
was probably
in Fig. 27,
inserted in the last quarter of the seventeenth century.
The
character.
staircases,
To
of
which there were several, were small and unimportant
the right and
left of
in
the quadrangle, flanking the hall on either side,
were
the
chambers,
guests'
or
" lodgings " as they were styled.
notable
absence
was
feature
the rooms
corridors,
of
the
leading the one into the other (see

Figs. 28
and
yates).
It
29,
Compton Wyn-
was not
until nearly
the end of the sixteenth century,
when the
came
Italian plan
into
vogue, with the Italian detail and
ornament, that the corridor be-
came a part
By this
time the hall had gradually
dwindled
much
The
of the English house.
in
size
and had
lost
of its original significance.
staircase
had grown
in corre-
[mtij/ynkstj
sponding degree, and was usually

constructed in the hall itself, which
^.
Fig. 22.
DEENE PARK
'
thus
(1549).
began to take
functiou,
The South Front.
34
as
a Toom
new
on
to
hold a
The Plan of
giving access
staircase,
to
the upper floors.
that this office has persisted to
the
It is
Early Tudor House
hardly necessary to
point
out
present day.
tlie
In place of the former Great Hall, the
Long Gallery became a general
feature in
the planning of the later Tudor houses, and while the open quadrangle form was
frequently preserved, one side, usually the

of double
and the
At
first floor.
Sutton Place
left
(Figs.
From
" or "
we
150 to 200 feet was no
is
uncommon
length for these
only of single-room depth.
find the general plan alters
" form.
Gallery, either on
30 and 31) has both Great Hall and Long Gallery (Fig. 32)
flank of the courtyard
a later stage
of the "
on entering the porch, was constructed
room depth, the outer length being taken by the Long
the ground or the

galleries.
left
from the open quadrangle to that
This development, however, does not materially affect
our subject, whereas with the dwarfing of the hall and the origination of the Long
cfci
Fig. 23.
COTHELSTONE MANOR
South Front.
35
(1568).
(e/cm/kv
,
wmmm
Fig. 24.
OCKWELLS MANOR.
into the HaU.
screen looking
View from the
The Plan of
Gallery,
and such other private apartments,
get additional wall surfaces where
wooden panelhng, was necessary

full
Early Tudor House
the
as the dining-room
some kind
to comfort.
of covering,
With
and the parlour, we
whether
of tapestry or of
the Great Hall, of huge size and
house-height, any nakedness of wall, of rough stone or exposed brick, was not
keenly
felt,
some means
but as the home
life
of the family
of finishing interior si:rfaces
was transferred
to smaller apartments,
was found necessary, and panellings were
the device generally adopted.
The usual
table,
furniture of the dais in the Great Hall
type probably borrowed
of great length,
seldom
less
from the
than twelve
feet.
earlier
was the
"
so-called " refectory
monastic refectories,
This was placed lengthwise on the dais.
Fig. 25.
OAK SCREEN
IN
THE HALL OF WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD.

Early seventeenth centurj'.
37
generally
Ear/y English Furniture and Jfôodwork

and behind
side
by
it
wore
tlie
chairs of
tlir
lord
and lady
The body
single stools or long benches.
of the house, flanked
of the hall
long tables of similar description to the one on the dais.

ser\-ing tables,
three-tier "
hall
or
for the
the
Standing
way
dower
}-)ri\-ate
was occupied by several
Against the walls were the
one or two livery cupboards, and, at a later date, the enclosed two or
" or "
Court Cupboard."
was generally occu]Med by a large
coffer,
on the other
chest.
The
apartment
of linen or fabrics.
The
floor of the recessed oriel in the
chest, usually erroneously called a marriage
true marriage coffer
was smaller, and always reserved
of the lady, as a receptacle for the
household treasures in
Chairs were very rare pieces in these earlier " Great Halls,"
Fig. 26.
TIMBER ROOF
IN
THE STAIRCASE HALL AT BABLAKE SCHOOLS, COVENTRY.

Late fifteenth or early sixteenth centurj'.
38
The Plan of
excepting as seats of state on the dais.
sometimes of oak boards, was always
Early Tudor House
Tlie floor, generally of

left
bare
rushes being a later degree of effeminacy.

the hall
the
The
flags,
fireplace corresponded in size with
by
six in height, the
hearth raised some four to six inches, and garnished with steel andirons and
support huge
but
the covering with strewn or plaited
the opening rarely less than eight feet in width
itself,
good honest
rails to
logs.
In the earlier houses, as in the fourteenth-century Hall at Penshurst Place, the
hearth was built in the centre of the Hall

placed, the
fire,
of
huge
logs,
floor,
upon which coupled raking andirons were
being built against these andirons.
Fig. 27.
OAK STAIRCASE
IN
BABLAKE SCHOOLS, COVENTRY.
Late seventeenth centurj-.
39
The Hall
roof
had a
Early English Eurriiturc and JJWoodwork

outlet,
central
which some of
the
after
is
or
" smoke-loo ver,"
tlie
smoke escaped, that
hall
itself
was well
by
tilled
and the inmates partially smoke-cured.
At
Penshurst
the
central
hearth
is
octagonal, of large paving bricks with
flattened
feet across.
curb.
although
" English
Mansions
it
eight
The smoke-louvre has been
removed,
shows
measures
It
Joseph
Nash,
in
of the Olden Time,"
in situ in his
drawing of Pen-
hurst.
On
festivals,
such as Yuletide, when
the revels were high, and "horse play"

the rule rather than the exception, the
Fig. 28.
COMPTON WYNYATES
(1520).
minstrels' gallery
Plan.
the
untenanted,
its
name being
sackbut,
fife
or tabor.
At
other
times
it
of
was
rather a complimentary than a practical one, the only
chamber instruments being the older forms

of
ladies.
was the usual refuge
The
^'irginal,
of the viol, or the
the
forerunner of the harpsichord and the
Fig. 29.
COMPTON WYNYATES.
The West Front.
40
more primitive kinds
The Plan of
was
piano,
the
Early Tudor House
and
of early Elizabethan introduction only,
The
of continental origin.
psaltery was rare at any time, in England, and was almost exclusively confined to the
religious houses.
Next
from the monastic establishment and the mansion or
in progression
comes the Guild
where the
Hall,
Hall, Coventry,
the
shadow
very strong
both in design and
crafts united in giving of their best,
workmanship, to the beautifying
of their guild house.
ecclesiastical influence
is
Sometimes,
castle,
as
evident, but,
at St. Mary's
when
built
under
were generally constructed of stone.
of the Church, these Guild Halls
Lavenham, on the other hand, which had a
large woollen
and
textile trade
with
Flanders in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, has a purely secular Guild Hall,
constructed of timber and plaster (generically
known
as " half-timber").
It is
shown
in its sadly restored condition,
with numerous bay windows

J'i
added, in Fig. 33.
timber and
This
was
building
method
n\'^y^l
plaster
favourite
throughout
i\>
^^
iu-.
m$
England
from 1400 to 1550, especially

in lesser houses of the superior
yeoman, or small landowner

type.
It
developed,
in
the
direction of overhanging stories,
the carving of visible joist ends,
corner
mullions and
to an
barge - boards,
posts,
door spandrils,
extreme decorative
limit.
It is
probable that this carving
was
not, in
cuted
built,
when
its
entirety, exe-
the
house was
but was added from time
to time, as
the owner found
himself possessed of the neces-
sary leisure or funds.
It is
jejciiyky
imFig. 30.
possible, otherwise, to account

for the carvang of every
G
SUTTON PLACE
window
(1523).
South Front Entrance.

4'
Early
EriglisJo
Furniture and JToodwork

mullion-member
cottages
tiny
at
(although a very prosperous
Lavenham
town
in
the early sixteenth century)
in
and elsewhere
East Anglia.
in
detail of the
The very decorative

with
story-overhang,
tenoned
timbers
the
into
wall-plate,
supported on the projecting
was carried
extreme
to
gained
carpenters
floor
first
joist ends,
limits, as the
in
this
in
skill
domestic timber work. Thus, at Laven-
ham, there are three overhanging

on
gable
the
additional
return
requires the
Fig. 31.
joist-ends
and
be taken
to
and return
front
to allow of
two
113^3).
a diagonal
beam was
used,
Conjectured original plan.
either a "
beam,"
the
beams,
end
and often the
the rooms below,
of
ceiling, the
the
first
century-,
"
outer
which
of
joists
supported
were
themselves,
on
left
dragon-beam
the
corner
exposed to
floor
rooms.
In Fig. 34, a very fine panelled
from Thistleton Hall, Burgh,
As
post.
the
forming
all
ceiling
beam
will
room
of the mid-seventeenth
be noticed the springing of this diagonal
Apart from the modern treatment of the chimney opening, and the
door, this panelled
room
is
period, flanked with simple
worthy
well
the refined chimney-pieces of
its
of consideration.
It is
a typical example of
date, reaching to ceiling height in the low
moulded
panelling,
by the plastering and whitening

it
rooms
of the
and with the somewhat sombre character
of the ceiling.
often styled, Grey Friars, from

or as
Franciscan Monastery, at Coventry (two views of which arc given
Ford's Hospital,
is
" or " dragging-
form
they were frequently elaborately moulded,
called
space between the joists being the actual reverse side of the floor boards of
dragon-beam."
relieved
was
sets of
at right angles to each other,
joists
SUTTON PLACE, GUILDFORD
overhang on the
floor
both on
elevations,
an
This double overhang
wall.
through,
and
elevation,
first
faces
its
is
proximity to the
in Figs. 35
and
36),
a fine specimen of half-timber work of the early sixteenth century, of the more
42
The Plan of
was endowed by William Ford
elaborate kind.
It
alms house, for
five
poor
and modified at various
the
in 1529,
men and one woman.
dates,
and the
Early Tudor House

and
built, specifically, as
an
This endowment has been enlarged
hospital, at the present day,
is
used only for
women.
The courtyard, which can be seen
in width.
floor.
The
and
about forty
From
this lead several staircases to the
front,
with
its
dormer bays, one
plaster.
of the
by twelve
inmates on the
is
exceptionally rich and varied in detail.
is
glazed on
For a further description
century half-timber work,
rooms
feet in length
first
three dormers, each bayed out and supported on coves, and
with very richly carved barge-boards,

these three
in Fig. 36, is
its
Of
return ends, the others being solid in timber
of this
charming example
of early sixteenth-
cannot do better than to quote from Messrs. Garner and
Stratton's " Domestic Architecture during the Tudor Period."
Fig. 32.
SUTTON PLACE, GUILDFORD.

The Long
Gallery, 1520.
43
Early Efjglish Furniture and IVoodwork

" Tlie
west front presents some of the most beautiful sixteenth-century half-
timbor work to bo found
in
the country.
The
wliole front
with age. abo\e a stone plinth and covered witli a
marked horizontal
lines of
the
sills
tile roof.
is
timber framed, black
In spite of the strongly
and cove mouldings, the numerous upright oak
posts and the three projecting gabled dormers, produce in effect an apparent height
far in excess of
of a central
what might be expected from
modest dimensions.
This simple scheme
doorway and symmetrically disposed windows on the ground
three dormers abo\-e,
the
its
charm and
tlie
wealtli of
no one part seems
with
floor,
middle one naively out of the centre, has been vested with
ornament which the wood-carver's
to be over-elaborated,
the beauty of the whole."
..." The
and each, without
craft could
telling too
produce
all
yet
much, enhances
resources of the craftsmen engaged were such
Fig. 33.
THE GUILD HALL, LAVENHAM.

Early sixteenth century.
44
The Plan of
that the design of the tracery varies in every
in scale, the entire
carried
in
head above the springing
up continuously behind
heavier work.
and not
it,
But perhaps the
the
window
is
as
it is
so ornate
and so small
cut out of one piece, the glass being
let into
richest detail
Early Tudor House
is
the tracery
as
itself,
is
lavished upon the barge-boards of
the gables, some of the running floral patterns being exceptionally fine."
inner court, though very small,
is,
customary
..." The
perhaps, the most beautiful and richest part of the
whole building, and does not seem to have suffered from either alteration or neglect.
Wealth and variety
of
ornament here too characterise the tracery
of its
windows and
to the original
scheme some-
the detail of the mouldings.
At the eastern end

what
of the building are
irregular in character
some additions
with this exception the whole hospital appears to be of
Fig. 34.
OAK-PANELLED ROOM, THISTLETON HALL, BURGH, SUFFOLK.

Mid-seventeenth century.
George Symonds, Esq.
45
Early Englis h Furniture and

one date.
Owr
and
traces of
st)nK'
the entrance
its
original use
panelletl ceiling antl a lew
to the (luarries in the "
doorway
is
may
room that
still
is
Iroodwork
said to have been the chapel
be discerned, such as the remains of a
fragments of stained glass, which bear so close a resemblance
Commandery
" ^^'orccster, that they
may
well be
by the same
hand.
Tlu'
common
hall of the liospital
the east end of the court, and the
on the walls
of
till'
must have been the room over the doorway
names
of the various
donors are
but lx)th this and the original chapel are
inmates."
Fig. 35.
FORD'S HOSPITAL, COVENTRY.

Exterior View,
West Front,
46
1529.
still
now used
at
to be deciphered
as ordinary
rooms
The Plan of
Not
known
far
as
from Ford's Hospital,
Coventry Cathedral,
some half-century
wall-plate
earlier in date
and corner
post.
The
shadow
Early Tudor House
shown
marked with a
joist-ends are
local custom.
It
probably
It is
similar coving,
has a small double overhang on
and carved barge boards are worthy
details of the buttress-uprights
in Fig. 37.
now
than Ford's Hospital, and possesses a richly carved
but there are evidences of extensive restoration,
richly pierced
Church,
of St. Michael's Parish
the fine old house
The projecting
which appears to have been a

floor level,
is
in the
the
if
first
not of partial rebuilding.
of close examination,
and the
under the windows are also exceptional.
In the small illustration. Fig. 38, on the
same page, one
Fig. 36.
FORD'S HOSPITAL, COVENTRY.

\'ic'\v
of
Courtyard from the Entr.incc.

Early i6th century.
47
of these half-timber houses
Early English Furniture and Woodwork
^"^ras
Fig. 37.
AN OLD HOUSE AT COVENTRY FACING

COVENTRY PARISH CHURCH (NOW
THE CATHEDRAL).
Showing the carved corner-post and
plate with
wall-
cove under, hiding the joist-ends,
story-overhang and pierced and carved bargeboards.
The
the end gable
buttress-plasters under the
window
sill
of
are interesting details.
Late fifteenth century.
Fig. 37.
Fig. 38.
A SUFFOLK HALF-TIMBER HOUSE
IN
PROCESS
OF DEMOLITION.
Note the
Showing wall-plate with projecting joist-ends under.
The roof is of the
and purlins, and absence of ridge purlin.
principals
braced tie-beam kind.
windows are shown

of the house.
The openings on the
intact.
first floor
Part of the stud-partitioning
still
strong collars as well as tie-beams.
Mid-sixteenth century.
Fig. 38.
+8
to receive
the
strong wind-brace reinforces the gable-ends
remains.
The
roof has
The Plan of
shown
is
process
in
the
Early Tudor House
of
demolition. In the photo-
graph can be seen the
\M
joists
wall-plates
above,
the
purlins.
The com-
rafters
have been
mon
removed,
but
the
roof
been
con-
without
any
framing has
structed
This was a
ridge purlin.
'm,
common
custom
many
these
of
hence
the
which
many
with
houses,
ridge-sag,
of
these
houses exhibit.
Figs. 39
.-*^'^î-':
also
principals
braces,
and
^4-
with
projecting
and 40 show
two oak carved corner

posts from an old house
Bury
in
now
The
owner has had
arms introduced into
Figs. 39
^^*-^^'/î
Edmunds,
demolished.
original
his
St.
and
40.
OAK CARVED CORNER-POSTS

FROM AN OLD HOUSE AT
BURY ST. EDMUNDS (NOW
DEMOLISHED).
Fig. 39 has the arms of Heigham
impahng Cotton, and Fig. 40
impaUng Calthorp.
Fig. 39. 5 ft. I J ins. high by iif
ins.
wide.
Fig. 40, 5
ins.
ft.
2 J ins. high
by ijf
wide.

Fig. 40.
Fig. 39.
49
Early Fjiglish Furriitiar and JJôodwork

the
(lrc()niti\-r
Fig. 40.
It
is
schcmr, those of Heigham impaling Cotton in Fig. 39 and Calthorp in

possibK' Ironi these posts to reconstruct the
grounci lioor rooms.

of 2
ft.,
They measure nearly
It.
3 ins. each,
approximate height of the
and allowing a brick plinth
with a deduction of a 6-in. step from the ground to the floor
seen that rooms at

level to the
tliis
imder side
date must luu'e been

of the joists,
and
this in a
It will
be achisable to bear this measurement in
clocks
is
considered, as
when
the
tall
less
than 7
ft.
levels, it will
in height
from the
floor
house of considerable importance.
mind when
a later chapter on long-case
clock went out of fashion, in great mansions,
"If
Fig. 41.
FRAMEWORK OF WINDOW FROM AN OLD HOUSE AT HADLEIGH,

7
ft.
3 ins.
be
wide by 5
Fifteenth century.
ft.
ESSEX.
11 ins. high.
Victoria and Albert
50
Museum.
The Plan of
during the years from 1735 to 1750,
numbers during the eighteenth centurj^

relegated, with the result that bases
to permit of
them standing upright
is
it
the
Early Tudor House
to houses of this type,
which persisted
in
especially in country districts, that they were
had
to be cut
in these
and hood superstructures removed
low rooms.
This, however,
is
a detail for
later consideration.
The same elaboration

of the
windows
of these
of traceried carving
timber houses.
Figs. 41
was often carried
into the designing
and 42 show the exterior and
interior
views of an oak window from an old house at Hadleigh in Essex, of the later fifteenth
century.
The
fact is
worthy
of notice that there
is
no sign
of a glazing rebate or
Fig. 42.
THE INSIDE VIEW OF THE WINDOW FRAMEWORK, FIG. 41, SHOWING SHUTTER REBATE
AND ABSENCE OF GLAZING REBATES.
51
fillet.
Early English Furniture and Jf'ôodwork

It is possible
window apcrtnrrs
keep out draught, but
to
open, as the tracery on both sides
left
may have
that sheets of parchment, or oiled linen,
window was
this
been nailed over the
originally
carved and the mullions moulded.
is
must be deferred
at greater length
It is
and
Interesting
for shutters only.
Doors and door framings were treated on a similarly elaborate

tion of these
to be
The rebates shown
remains of decorated plaster-work can be seen on the inside face.
on the interior faces are
made
to a later chapter
scale,
but considera-
where the subject can be dealt with
detail.
obvious from a study of these half- timber houses, built for the moderately
wealthy, that the low rooms which they contained must have limited the height of the
furniture
made
desirable for
for
two reasons.
In the periods
comprehended, cosiness, or even

also, in
when the
little
to
over-ventilation,
and,
was found that a greater height than
it
maximum) made
was very
science of heating
was preferred
stulfiness,
the designing of these gabled houses,
feet per story (as a
eight
This low ceiling-pitch was, obviously, found
them, very severely.
these houses, with their steeply pitched
tiled roofs, disproportionately lofty.
The window framing from the old house
way
as the
even
Bury
St.
Edmunds
at Hadleigh, Fig. 41, shows, in the
corner-posts, that
timber-houses of the most elaborate kind.
in the
portant, even for the fifteenth century,
when
was
under
at its zenith, yet the total height
is
of the lower parts of the upright timbers,
much more than one
cannot add
they were made.

for
timber kind,
race
An
Doors
is
allow for the cutting
as
If
where they rested on the
made
and
armour must
fit
this period,
to a nicety,
It
may
would be
apartments
be over or under
for
we
which
they were intended

house of the
has the stature of the English
and
ceilings
the
will
kept purposely low
evidence of which must be
show,
on tombs suggest the same thing, but here the evidence
of these figures
room
for a secular
quite an exceptional height for an Englishman in the fourteenth

Effigies
w-all-plate,
usually less even than this.
is
since the fifteenth century, or were doors
beyond question,
and im-
we
six feet.
fifteenth-century door
examination of suits of armour of
fine
Enghsh woodworker
foot, to give the total height of the
rarely over six feet in height,
is
in pitch,
the craft of the
curious point suggests itself in this connection
grown
window
This
also show, although not so convincingly, that
low ceilinged rooms.
rooms must have been low
same
think, that six feet
and
is
was
fifteenth centuries.
dubious, as the scale
life-size.
interesting, at this juncture, to trace the
in the direction of greater comfort,

52
were
this
development
of the private
not to anticipate later chapters
The Plan of
of this book.
The
brief outline here given,
the
however,
Early Tudor House

will
be enough to introduce the
reader to the early Tudor household of the wealthy type, at the date
Henry was beginning
to resist the
somewhat unequally between the

arts,
such
power
of the
as the fulmination against Luther,
VHI
here),
or
how much
and the game
of Ipswich
Church, to divide his talents
which earned
(how much
properly belongs to Erasmus,
of statesmanship,
and other favourites
the eighth
exercise of kingcraft, the marriage state, the literary
successors, the title of " Defender of the Faith "
Henry
Roman
when
which caused the
whom
it
it is
rise
for the
of this
King, and his
was the work
of
hardly necessary to surmise
and
fall
of the great butcher
pleased the royal fancy to uplift and to cast
down.
53
Chapter V.
The Development
HE
Enghsh Timber Roof.
of the
tinibiT roof, from the thirteentli to the sixteenth centm-ies,
Enghsh carpenter, demonstrating equally
triumi)h of the
and inventive
ability, that
some
such
is
his skill
space must be devoted to
little
its
consideration.
Until almost the end of the fourteenth century, the joiner was
He
content to follow the mason at a respectful distance.

things as canopies, tombs, sedilia and
were coloured
and general
in
close imitation
of
stone,
cutting his framing from planks.
other alternative than to
builds a
the tensile strength.
he
He makes
is
fashioning
make
his
the timber
his framing,
top,
tenoning and mortising his
The mason has no
frame and panel in one, from the solid stone.
Gothic church
wood
to crushing weights,
made from wood
or a tie-beam
but
it
In
has not
made from
stone,
one from the crushing weight of the superstructure, the other
strain.
with the timber roof, as applied to churches and sacred buildings, that the
early joiner
little
collapse, the
from the sagging
very
they
if
box with framed ends, front and
other words, stone offers greater resistance than
It is
chests,
would deceive an eye judging by form
panels, either in grooves or rebates.
rails, fixing in liis
would both
and even the early
of the solid block the piece
The carpenter
worker constructs.
and
like,
such
in
details only.
The mason hews out
stjdes
the
him
imitated
first
There
emancipates himself from the stone mason's traditions.
hiatus in the evolution, where the timber roof
is
employed
is
in secular houses,
although such decorations as religious symbols, winged angels, and with rare exceptions, painting in colours,
is
left unceiled,
or lesser degree,
and with
has
are absent.
its
The
secular timber roof,
that
one which
is,
timbers exposed, and, therefore, ornamented in greater
a comparatively short
life
in
England.
With the
decline of the
Great Hall and the advent of the Long Gallery, the custom arose of ceiling
in,
at
paratively moderate heights, and ornamenting the ceiling with moulded plaster.
method had the advantage

apartments of moderate
of permitting of the subdividing,
size,
whereas with the open timber
the partition
roof,
waUs being taken up
such subdivision
54
under a large
is
comThis
roof, into
to ceiling height,
not possible, without forming
The Devclopmcy/t of
number
Barn
the English
Timber Roof
of cubicles, the decorative effect of wliich in a house
would be disastrous.
good examples
partitions offer
of this cubicle effect.
Concerned, as we are here, with origin rather than purpose, there

line of
The
builders of churches
and cathedrals were not altogether
nor the artisans engaged on work to private palaces wholly secular.
and Eltham were
built for a great Cardinal
present roof for Richard
ecclesiastical,
both
Anthony Bee's Hall
II.
at
it
In no case, however, does roof construction
The development
be in palace or church.
for
clerical,
Hampton Court
William Rufus, and
Durham
Castle
is
entirely
and workmanship, whereas Middle Temple Hall
inception
in
Westminster Hall
(although late, dating only from the reign of Elizabeth)

degree.
a very narrow
demarcation between an ecclesiastical and a secular building, especially in the
earlier periods.
its
is
is
same
secular in about the
differ, in essential details,
whether
of the English timber roof, therefore,
can be traced without any deviation, whether in buildings erected for Royalty, the
Church or the
The evolution
laity.
of the constructive principles is the
same
in
all
cases.
It
may
not be out of place here to assume that both the technical terms used in
describing the parts of a timber roof, and the principles and problems which arise in
its
unknown
construction, are
tion of both.
It
must be borne
to be both simple
the inaccurate
is
to the general reader,

in
mind that
and complete, and the
it is
and
to attempt a simple explana-
not possible, in such an explanation,
diîsion line
between the incomplete and
frequently very narrow.
For our present purpose, we can consider roofs under three heads only,
The end
and central-ridged or pitched.

" gabled-roof,"
flat
which
roof
is
is
known
as
of a pitched roof forms a gable, hence the
formed by laying beams squarely across the
joists,
are
on the beam-thickness.
is
nailed,
fixed,
any piecing
Sometimes the
and on
this
Tiles or slates cannot be used
joists are
at intervals
framed into the beams, producing a
Transversely again across the
boarding the
on a
walls,
the joist-length being supported
in
flat roof,
Rich examples have the
ribs
joists,
close
final roof covering, of lead or zinc, is laid.
as
we
shall see later.
ance be desired, the under side of the close-boarding

or carvings.
term
Transversely across these beams, timbers of lesser
panelled roof of the Somersetshire type.
boarding
lean-to
frequently, but erroneously, used.
according to the strength required.

size,
flat,
is
If
a finished appear-
decorated with apphed tracery
moulded and carved, with bosses or
foliations
at the intersections.
Unsatisfactory as a
flat
roof
is,
in collecting rain
55
and snow, as
it
can only be pitched
1.
Low-pitcli
roof
with
cambered-
2.
Cambercd-beam
beam
beam,
firrcd up. (Firrcd-
type.)
beam
arch-
without
ties
3. Firrcd-beam roof with

braced to wall-posts.
^^W
o
4. Arch-braced tie-beam roof.

post arch-beamed.
King-
5.
Arch-braced tie-beam roof Queen.
6.
High-pitched
roof
(hypothetical).
posts arch-braced.
J% '^
4
7.
High-pitched roof with tie-beam.
High-pitched roof with collar-beam.
9. Tie - and - collar

braced king-post.
^^
10. Tie-and-collar-beam
braced queen-posts.
roof
with
II.
Tie-beam roof with
instead of collar.
scissors truss
roof
with
12. Roof with scissors-braced collar

without tie-beam.
Fig. 43.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH TIMBER ROOF.

56
beam
Roof
13-
braced
with
collar
and
scissors truss above.
tie-bear.i strength14. Roof with

ened by wall-posts and braces, collar
with collar-beam
15. Roof
braced to wall-posts.
arch-
also arch-braced.
iG.
The
own to
Roof with hammer-beams.
Ijraces of the collar are
taken
17. Roof arch-braced to wall-posts

without collar or hammer-beams.
arch-braced hammer-beams.
19.
Double
hammer-beam
with hammer-posts
roof
arch-braced king-
posts from collar to ridge.
False double-hammer-beam roof.

collar-braces are taken to the back
of the upper tier of hammer-beams,
which, therefore, carry no weight.
20.
The
18. Hammer-beam roof with hammerBoth hammerposts and wall-posts.

beams and collar are arch-braced.
21. False single-hammer-beam roof

(Eltham Palace type).
(pendentive)
The hammer-posts bear on the tenons
only of the hammer-beams, not on the
beams themselves.
y
22. Hammer-beam
roof
without
wall-posts.
The arch-braces are con-
tinued past the hammer-beam to the

and act as wall-posts.
with
roof
23. Arch -braced
(The progenitor of the
posts.
rib of Xo. 24.)
wallarch-
24.
with
Compound hammer-beam
large
Hall).
corbels
Fig. 44.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH TIMBER ROOF.

57
arch-ribs
roof
(Westminster
Early English Furniture and IVoodwork

to allow of a
sliglit
to the gutters, the points of stabiHty to
fall
be considered are only
threefold.
The
(2)
The beams and
(3)
The ends
walls
rest
It
top, shall be efificiently protected against rot or decay.
its
beams
completel\- framed roof, the
wall-plates,
With
which are
laid
on the wall-head.
and thus
to
from the supporting walls, dictates the cambered beam, that
is,
one with either a natural or an
artificial
deeper in the middle than at the ends.
wards
are mortised at their ends to receive the'
roofs of large span, the liability of the principal
pull awa\- the ends
is
of such thickness that they will not sag.
beams, where they are housed into the wall, or where they
of tlic
upon
must be
joists
obvious that on these beam-ends the stabiHty of the whole roof depends.
is
With a
to support the dead-weight of the roof.
must be strong enough
(i)
with
(i.e.
its
camber upwards),
beams
upward curve or bend
in its length, or
Such a beam, fixed with
resists
any tendency to
to sag,
its
sag, in a
one which
concave side down-
very efficient manner.
E.xamples of cambering will be noticed in the tie-beams illustrated in this chapter.
The outer covering
of a flat roof,
by atmospheric
to perish
been found to be more
whether of
action, or to be injured mechanically.
lasting,
snow
will percolate, or
is
liable
have
Slates or tiles
but their use necessitates the lean-to or the pitched
Tiles or slates, with their overlap,
roof.
lead, zinc or other material,
must be on a
be driven under the overlappings.
slope, otherwise the rain
and
Their use, therefore, dictates
either the lean-to or the pitched roof, as a logical necessity.
Both these types
of roof introduce a
downward and outward
new
pressure, or thrust,
principle, the necessity of resisting the
which tends
to force either the supporting
walls out of perpendicular, 1 or the roof itself off the walls.
type largely used in the

wall only
The
known
aisles of churches, this
with the pitched-roof
it is
later type of pitched-roof
With the
outward thrust
is
lean-to roof, the
exercised on the one
thrown on both.
commences,
at its apex, with a longitudinal
beam
from which sloping battens are carried down to
as the ridge-purlin, or ridge,
the tops of the outer walls, where they are notched into long timbers fixed thereon,
known
called the
These battens, which form the skeleton sides of the
as wall-plates.
common
Where,
rafters.-
Brookland Church, near
Romney
in
Kent
for greater strength,

(see small illustration
some
on page
60), is
roof, are
of these rafters are

a good instance of where
the thrust of the nave roof has pushed both the outer walls and the aisle columns out of the perpendicular.
^
The earhest type
of pitched roof has the rafters halved together or " finger-jointed "
apex, without ridge-purlin.
This type
is
known
as a coupled rafter-roof.
5S
'^
and pegged at the
The Development of
made
thicker than the others, at regular intervals, they are
known
as principal rafters,
Should the rafters be of such length that they are likely to
or principals.
by longitudinal beams,
are supported, generally at half their length,
parallel with the ridge-purlin.
Timber Roof
the English
single-framed
roof
it
is
they
or purlins, running
roof without either principals or purlins
with both principals and purlins,
sag,
known
is
as
termed
double-
framed.
A
it
roof such as the one described above
would be
liable to
sag in
its
length from
wind pressure would tend
excessive
ridge
its
push
to
would have two elements
it,
and down
together with
the supporting walls, or to collapse the two sides together.

to close up, or flatten out,
it is
usual to
beams
fix
known
If it
its
wall-plates, either off
To
correct this tendency
as tie-beams
the principals at a short distance from the ridge, they are
be desired to support the ridge-purlin
still
known
purlin, they are
known
is,
as king-posts.
these ties
If
;'
if
between
as collar-beams or
further, posts are fixed
the top of the tie-beam, or the collar, to the under side of the ridge.
are central with the tie-beams, that
outside faces, and
across the short span.
are fixed at the level of the wall-plates, they are
collars.
its
weakness
of
When
from
these posts
when they
are fixed directly under the ridge-
Where they
are fixed one on either side of the
centre of the ridge, into the principals, and at the other end into the tie-beam or the
collar,
they are known as queen-posts.
To minimise
the wind-strain on the sides of a high-pitched roof, and to remove
the tendency of the entire roof being pushed
off
the wide walls, vertical posts are
tenoned into the tie-beam or principal and carried down to the wall, on to stone
brackets or corbels.
wall-posts,
is
insertion of
known
roof with straight
a post-and-beam
as
many windows,
across
its
With
roof.'-
shortest span, reinforced
side walls
by
weakened by the
these wall-posts are very necessary to carry the thrust
of the roof
below the wall-plate
may
pitched roof
beams
level.
be either high or low.
One formed
entirely of
cambered
tie-
beams, with the top camber increased by " firring-pieces," or long wedge-shaped battens
fixed to the top of the tie-beams to increase their slope,
Its pitch
is,
end
into
and the other
into
one
known
as a firred-beam roof.
obviously, a low one.
Where a beam
wise,
is
or collar
its
is
under
principal
Also known as main

The term is also used
by a short
reinforced
side
or
an
at
angle
wall-plate,
piece of timber fixed bracket-
of
approximately 45
such reinforcing piece
collar -beams.
to signify a tie-beam roof with cither king- or queen-posts above.
59
degrees,
is
known

as
is
brace.
\\'hon
JJ'ôocIwork
brace
this
cut in the shape of a segment
of a circle or an o\'al,
it is
known
as an arch-brace.
series of
beams
into
horizontally,
projecting,
of
interior
tlie
the hall or room, either from the
wall-head
rafter at
or
from the
principal
a higher level, acting as
cantilevers in supporting
braces,
posts or
and thereby relieving the
wall-plates of
some
constitutes
hammer-beam
Where
of
the thrust,
a single row only
is
roof.
fixed.
BROOKLAND CHURCH, KENT.

An
principal,
but
with
coinciding
usually
wall-head,
at the
each
illustration of the effect of roof-thrust.
sometimes with each
alternate one, the roof
is
known
as a single
hammer-beam.
Where an upper row
above the
tenoned into the principals
at
first,
about purlin
level,
the roof
is
exists,
called a
double hammer-beam.
To
act as parts of the construction, in
capacity as cantilevers,
their
it
is
essential
that the braces and posts strengthening the

principals
should
be
fixed
almost
at
the
ends of the projecting hammer-beams, bearing
upon
their
upper surfaces.
In some instances,
however, the hammer-beams, especially the
upper
tier,
are
introduced
merely
for
decorative effect, and the arch-braces bear
only at the junction of the hammer-beams
Fig. 45.
HARMONDSWORTH BARN, MIDDLESEX.

Interior showing the roof timbers.
191ft. 8 ins.
Span 37
W'idth between posts, 18

3 ins.
ft.
ft. i in.
Length
Height 37 ft.
ins.
with the principals.

false
13 trusses.
60
hammer-beams.
These roofs are termed
The hammer-beam
Fig. 46.
YORK GUILD HALL.

A
very rare type of a double-aisled roof with posts to the

Mid-fifteenth century.
93
ft.
long
by 43
ft.
span.
61
About 30
ft.
high.
floor.
K(ir/y
itself
takt's
no
strain,
and
Furniture and
Ef/o/is/j
I'ullils
no
|)nri)osc;
nu'ivlx'
it
Jfôoc/ucork
into
j)rojt-cts
the
air,
uselessly.
Another
is
shown
Palace
is
varietj' of false
in Fig. 44,
Xo. zi.
an examjile.
hannner-beam, one whic
This
is
Instead of
known
the\- are takt'n
down be\ond them,
hammer-beams
arc tenoned into tiiem.
is
is
not on
tlu-
hammer-beam
constructionally bad, as
roof
was
recentlx' restored
A compound
roof
at wall-plate level.
is
itself,
tlie
is
not constructionally sound,
as the pemlentivi' type.
The
liannner-posts bearing on the
tlie
in
li
decorative moulded
The support
but only on
its
tenon,
finials,
roof at
Eltham
hammer-beams,
and the ends
of the
to the hammer-post, therefore,

ft is
obvious that this method
OlBce of Works discovered when the Eltham Palace
and reinforced.
one where the span
The hammer-beams,
is
too wide to be bridged
by tie-beams
in a roof of this kind, carry vertical posts
tenoned into principal rafters at their upper ends, and the tie-beams arc fixed at about
Fig. 47.
LONG MELFORD, SUFFOLK.

The
roof of the
Lady Chapel
62
{1496).
The Development of
purlin-level
and
are, therefore,
collars rather than true tie-beams.
of
compound
or
double-aisled
in
the English
Timber Roof
effect,
Examples
roofs are
illustrated here in Fig. 44, Nos. 21
and
24.
Westminster Hall and Needham Market

Church, shown later in Figs, go and 83, are
examples of these double-aisled
roofs.
In view of the above explanation
it
is
unnecessary to enter into a description of

single-thrust or lean-to roofs.
are the same,
No
and are
The
principles
self-e\'ident.
better understanding of the details
of timber roof construction can be gained
than by the study of roofs of barns of the
^^'^^^^wtSft'
Fig. 48.
LONG MELFORD, SUFFOLK.

The Nave.
more elaborate type, such

worth Barn, shown here
as
Harmonds-
in Fig. 45.
roofs are necessarily devoid of
the decorative character

in
Barn
much
of
usually found
those of churches or mansions, and
there are, in consequence, no unnecessary

details or parts to distract the attention.
Barn
roofs
from their
have
also another
utilitarian,
as
advantage
distinct
from
decorative, character, they exhibit early

details
and constructional methods per-
sisting
to
a later
date.
for use only, their evolution
Being made
is
necessarily
Fig. 49.
slow, as a perfect principle, once devised,
STOKE-BY-NAYLAND, SUFFOLK.
The Nave.
was adhered
Late fifteenth centurv.
63
to, irrespective of
changing
Ear/y English Furniture and TFoodwork

fashions, or desires for novelty in decoratixc
Tlie
effects.
supporting
posts,
which are
the barn equivalents of the domestic

posts, ha\-e an
lloor,
advantage
hamnnr-
in reaching to the
wliereas, in tlie great hall, they
be an obstruction.
Fig. 45,
roof,
such as
in
therefore, truly double-aisled at
is,
floor level,
The barn
would
and
it is
this
form
of construction
which must ha\-e inspired the hammer-post
and hannner-beam.
cantilevering the
when
was
The
stable properties of
hammer-beam would
follow
the carrying of the posts to the ffoor
interdicted.
Unfortunately, the support-
ing of hammer-posts on the tenons only of

the
hammer-beams
pendentive
(the
type
Fig. 50.
WETHERDEN, SUFFOLK.
Roof
of
South Aisle
1400).
(r.
such as at Eltham and
Earl Stonham),
must
from
have
originated
same
the
source.
York Guild
46,
is
shown here
Hall,
a remarkable
example
supported by posts from the

in effect, a hall
is,
floor,
with nave and
England
that this form
beam
Roof
of
North
Aisle.
lo
roof
prototype.
ft.
ins.
is
earlier
it
64
aisles,
and
in fact
it
is
no doubt
than the hammer-
must have been the
York Guild Hall
kind of roof construction.
span.
forming,
the present day.
at
Although unique now, there
MONKS ELEIGH, SUFFOLK.
a roof
probably, the only roof of this kind
existing in
Fig. 51.
of
in Fig.
was not completed
is
late for this
Begun
until
in 1446,
nearly
fifty
The development of
Timber Roof
the English
years later, and records exist which state
York who were
that the merchants of
convicted of
were
illegal practices
fined,
not in money, but in kind, having to find
timber and oak wainscot for the Hall.
The
roof
is
low
in pitch,
outward thrust, the great
with
little
stresses being
almost entirely downwards, carried on

the massive octagonal-section oak posts
The nave
with their stone bases.

the
firred-beam
The
type.
aisles
is
of
are
constructed
with simple lean-to roofs.
The problem
of the entire roof, therefore,
is
one more of
size
than constructional
Fig. 52.
ROUGHAM, SUFFOLK.
Roof
of
South
difficulties,
Aisle.
involving complicated stress
The
calculations.
principles governing
even of gigantic
roofs,
where the
size,
from wall-head
timbers are supported
were fully understood, and their
level,
appreciated
advantages
There
are
many
this
date.
other
than
at
factors,
inexperience or timidity on the part of

the mediaeval carpenter, which
dictated this
aisle-column form of the
York Guild Hall
may have
roof.
careful study,
and memorising of
the roof sections illustrated in Figs. 43
and 44
Fig. 53.
TAWSTOCK,
Aisle Roof.
48
ft.
long by y
The western type
N.
ft.
DEVON.
span.
tions
is
recommended,
as in the illustra-
which follow, of actual
roofs, the
Fifteenth century.
essential
of panelled roof.
6s
details
cannot
be
shown
so
Early ENglish Furniture and Wôodwork

clearly, as
in
photographic
the
difficulties,
superimposed bracing or
of
all
Apart from lighting considerations, with concomitant
diai^ram fonii.
occultation
iK)sts,
of
ll:c
one
beam
or
with
collar,
by the succeeding one, renders the
single photograph, therefore,
all
Space considerations preclude a redundancy of
The succeeding
shown
the details of a roof cannot always be
illustrations
study
close
the points of a roof, from the one view-point onl}', nearly impossible.
its
With a
distinctly.
illustration.
have, -for convenience
progressive order, from the simple to the complex.
only,
While there
true e\-olution of the timber roof actually took place
been
not
no doubt that the
is
somewhat on
arranged in
these lines,
it
assumed
be
simple roof
must
that
earlier
is
a
in
date than a more elaborate
We
one.
have no com-
plete record of very early
roofs
the greater
number
have perished, disappeared
and been
long
At one period
since.
the
forgotten
history
of
in
English
carpentry, examples could
have been illustrated to
show
development
the
from type to type, each

true
the date
to
inception, but
has passed,
ago.
of
that
its
time
many centuries
Thus the gigantic
roof of Wêstminster Hall,
from the closing
dating
years
of
century,
the
fourteenth
is
an
early
example when compared

with others existing at the
Fig. 54.
ST.
present day, but it
OSYTH, ESSEX.
Roof
of
North
is
late in
the history of the English
Aisle.
66
The Development of
timber
An enormous
roof.
dawn
to bridge at the
of timber-roof consti'uction.
posts to the floor in the
Timber Roof
span of 68 feet between walls would have been impossible
which the present one replaced
roof,
the English
same manner
was constructed with two
in 1395,
as in
conjectured that the original
It is
Harmondsworth Barn
or
aisles
and with
York Guild
Hall,
already illustrated.
With the above
stipulation,
we can commence with
therefore,
roof of the tie-beam or firred-beam description,
examples from
No
construction.
between the
and
between
a
resulted
hammer-beam and
attempted, nor
is
it
possible
difference
and
building
had
change
in
in
constructional design due

to such character,
was not the
many
are
which
there
fact,
examples
in
which both the sacred and

the secular elements enter
That many,
very largely.
if
not
of
all,
clerical
sources,
but
able,
the earUer
inspired from
roofs were
this
is
prob-
not
does
concern us here at present.

Fig. 47
the
the roof of
Lady Chapel
Melford
is
is
'in
of the
type,
and
at
Long
This
Suffolk.
cambered-beam
possesses,
in
addition, a rare diagonal
beam from which two

df
joists
run
at
^'^' ^^*
sets
right
LAVENHAM, SUFFOLK.
North
67
Aisle
(r.
1500).
ft.
span, 95
ft.
double-aisled
to
types.
secular
sacred
an orderly progression,
ecclesiastical
the
if
illustrate, in
type to that of the ornate
distinction has been
secular
the
Even
this simple
and
low-pitched
the
long.
make an v.
Fig. 56.
KELSALE, SUFFOLK.
Roof
of
Nave.
Span
21
ft.
6 ins.
Early
fifteentli
century.
Fig. 57.
MONKS ELEIGH, SUFFOLK.

Roof
of
Nave.
Span 19
ft.
ins.
68
Early fifteenth century.
The Deve/opmer/t of
angles
to
in
the dragon-
of
not used in referring to
is
timbering
the
or
of
joisting
principle,
joists
is,
referred to on page 42, although
the term
the
This
other.
another form
effect,
beam
each
to
Timber Roof
the English
roof,
of
each other,
is
at
the
two
right
same
The
floor.
of supporting
rafters
but only
in
sets
of
angles
to
each case,
however. The tie-beams to this roof are

arch-braced to wall-posts, supported on
the capitals of the slender wall columns.
Fig.
48
the
is
the same church,
beam
nave roof from
also
of
The
construction.
camberedridge
and
Fig. 58.
HORWOOD,
The Roof
purlins
the
are
common
framed
The
DEVON.
between
rafters being
pegged to the
common
N.
of the N. Aisle.
are
clerestory
beams,
tenoned into and
Both principal and
ridge.
rafters
the
elaborately moulded.
windows
are high,
somed, and the columns of the
and tranaisles
are
delicate in proportion for the height of the
nave, but with these low-pitched roofs there
outward
practically no
there
is,
thrust,
and the
is
little
the wall-posts, to which the tie-beams
are arch-braced,
take up very efficiently.
These wall-posts and the slender columns

below them, rest, alternately, on the junctions
Fig. 59.
and the apex
LAPFORD, DEVONSHIRE.
Roof
of the
Fig.
Nave.
69
49
of
is
each arch of the
aisles.
the nave roof of Stoke-by-
Early English Furniture and Wôodwork

Nayland
Clnirch,
in
Suffolk,
another cambered-bcam roof,

but here arch-braced to wallposts resting on stone corbels
mstead
the
of
columns.
The low
and
of this roof,
of
capitals
rafter-pitch
also the joint-
ing of the arch-braces, can be

clearly set'n in the illustration.
The
roof has been considcrabl\'
restored,
beams
and some
replaced,
of the tie-
the
witli
mouldings omitted.
original
Fig.
50
is
the aisle
roof
Fig. 60.
of
Wetherden Church, a low-
TAWSTOCK,
N.
DEVON.
The Roof of tlie Chapel. 40

by 15 ft. 9 ins. wide.
with
pitch
cambered
carving
slight
beams
long
ft.
are
lean-to.
The
enriched
with
square rosettes and bosses,
of
with heraldic shields covering the intersections of the tie-beams with the purlins.
Only the alternate beams are arch-braced

to the wall-posts those between are merely
;
The
tenoned into the carved wall-plate.
winged angels applied
each
at the foot of
of the wall-posts are finely executed.

Fig. 51
the aisle of
the
beams
is
another lean-to roof from
Monks Eleigh Church.
Here
are square sectioned, without
camber, and rest on the wall-plates, which,

in turn,
corbels,
are
supported on plain stone
and the
last
two main beams
are braced to the wall-posts, the spandrels

Fig. 61.
filled
HITCHAM, SUFFOLK.
The Roof
with early fifteenth-century pierced
and carved tracerv.
of the Chancel.
70
The Development of
the English
Timber Roof
Fig. 62.
CROSBY HALL.
Erected 1470, and re-erected in Chelsea, London, S.W., 1908.
Walter H. Godfrey, Architect.
Fig. 52
is
the S. aisle roof of
Rougham
Church, with each
beam arch-braced on
the S. wall, but, on the nave side with braces only to each alternate beam, carried
down
to posts
and corbels
at the junction of each arch of the aisle.
Fig. 53, the aisle of Tawstock, N.
Devon, shows the fifteenth-century western type
of panelled roof.
Fig. 54
beams and
beam
is
is
the roof of the N. aisle of St. Osyth Church in Essex.
rafters are
moulded, and the former elaborately carved.
Here both the
Each
alternate
arch-braced to the wall-posts, these only having heavy carved pendentives at
the intersections.
Fig. 55
with
is
alternate
wall-post
is
the N. aisle roof of
Lavenham Church,
beams, only, arch-braced
to
the
in Suffolk,
wall-posts.
a richer example,
The
foot
of
carved with the figure of a Saint, standing on the stone corbel.

71
each
The
Early English E'urniture and JVoodwork

famous pew
of the Spring family, seen
in the distance at the side of the chapel
screen, will be illustrated to a larger scale

in a later chapter.
and 57 are the braced-
56
Figs.
rafter types, in each case, scissor-braced
above the
rafter
is
collar.
In Fig. 56 each sixth
arch-braced to corbelled wall-
the rafter being framed
posts,
to
the
post with a sole-piece notched to the
twin
wall-plate,
and the intermediate
strutted
with ashlar-pieces
from the wall-plate.
In Fig. 57 there
are
rafters
nor wall-posts.
are neither arch-braces

Fig. 63.
CROSBY HALL.
''''
are
shown
Fig 59
is
in
Horwood
Fig. 58,
ceiled in to barrel-form
coved and barrel
roof,
is
roof,
and shows the development
wards the next form, the
'^".'^
^
..
T. dotted
H .. H lines
r
>f''*i."
h' original scissors-bracmg.
show
The
the finish of the
The parts shaded show the additions made by Mr. Walter
H. Godfrey when the hall was re-erected. Erected in 1470 for
Sir John crcsby, d. 1475.
,
ppollv
'
is
close-boarded
The
in.
typical of Devonshire
attempt a
at the present day, to
many
without
The
which
Fig.
Examples
roof.
Tawstock Chapel.
60,
Fig. 61
a rare double-
is
mask hammer-
side-covings really
This arch-braced rafter, or barrel-
and Somerset Churches, although
it is
timber roofs into types of
classification of
unsafe,
localities,
drastic exceptions.
and
roof of Crosby Hall, Figs. 62, 63
64, enters into the logical
timber-roof development here, and also serves to show
between a roof and a
ceiling.
Practically
purely decorative, but the sectional view,

to Mr.
and
barrel,
to-
irch-braced inStcad of
above the rood-screen.
beams, which carry the longitudinal hammer-plate.
form of roof
in
straight-braccd rafter
Lapford
Fig. 59,
an early type of high-pitched
This
the visible
all of
how narrow
for the
is
sequence of
the division line
woodwork
of this roof
is
drawing of which we are indebted
Walter H. Godfrey, the architect under whose supervision Crosby Hall was
removed from
its
former
old garden at Chelsea,
site in
Bishopsgate to
shows that
drawing, the dotted lines at
AA
it is
and
present location in Sir
Thomas More's
really of the scissor-braced rafter variety.
show the
state at the time of the removal,
its
BB
original bracing,
the
72
new
which was
scissor-brace
in
In the
a very decayed
which was inserted by
The r)evelopment of
At the same time the king-post C was
Mr. Godfrey, to strengthen the original bracing.

also introduced.
the Hall before
the
visible
by the
in
part
demolition in igo8, and Fig. 62 shows
its
it
of
in its state as re-erected.
which
of
be defined as the covering of a room or hall which
even when carved
joists,
be
be
but
constructional,
described
having
as
joists of the
floor
and decorated, with the
do
above,
floor-boarding
should
can
therefore,
may
and supported by either roof timbers or the
fixed to,
filled
from an idealised sketch made by Herbert Cescinsky
Actually, a ceiling
of ceilings.
Thus,
is
only this original scissor-bracing which removes this roof from the category
It is
is
Fig. 64
Timber Roof
the KrjglisJj
not
constitute
mereh'
true
roof,
interstices
ceiling,
Crosby
decorative.
decorative
ceiled
above.
of
no
Hall,
which
the
arched-ribs with their wall-posts are the onh' visible constructional members.
nave roof
Fig. 65, the
This
roof.
pitch,
and
of
Haughley Church,
Suffolk, introduces the tie-beam
in
distinguished from the cambered or firred-beam types in being higher in
is
consequence, possessing a ridge-purlin, but without
in
the tic-beam
In this example,
collars.
introduced between each alternate principal only, and
is
and above, from the beam
to corbelled wall-posts,
to the purlin.
is
braced below
The intermediate
principals are arch-braced to wall-posts
At the junction
direct.
of each brace
with
its purlin,
and each principal with
th
ridge.
an
ornament
is
applied
f^!^
pendentive
in the
form of a carved
66
a secular roof
floral
boss.
Fig.
house
is
Lad\^
in
Lavenham,
in
The tie-beams
are
Street,
process of restoration.
from a
cambered, and the rafters are halved at

their intersections without a ridge-purlin.
To compensate
is
fixed
stiffened
the
under the
a collar-purlin
collars,
and
this
is
by a braced king-post from
centre
The end
for this
of
the
cambered tie-beam.
of the tie-beam, visible in the
illustration, illustrates
the
decay often
Fig. 64.
met with
in these early
remedy" which
L
it
is
timber roofs, to
necessary to
take
CROSBY HALL, BISHOPSGATE.

From an
73
idealised sketch
by Herbert Cescinsky made
in 190S.
Early
Furniture and Jlôodwork
E^/(y//sb
Fig. 65.
HAUGHLEY, SUFFOLK.
The Roof
the roof apart to repair
been marked to
it.
of the
Nave. Span 24 ft. 6 ins.

In the illustration,
it
Length 5S
will
ft.
4 ins.
be noticed that each joint has
facilitate the re-erection.
Of similar type
the nave roof of Edwardstone Church in Suffolk, Fig. 67, where
is
the sag of the tie-beams, in spite of their camber,
may
be noticed.
All four braces
from
the king-posts are tenoned into the collars, instead of the lateral braces being carried
past
them
to the purlins, as in the pre\'ioas example.
collars are
braced to the rafters, which,
Fig. 68
is
purlins.
in turn, are ashlar-strutted
The tie-beams ha\e an acute camber, and
The
collars are high
So rare
Monasteries, that
is it
and small
in scantling,
to find the queen-post
are arch-braced to corbelled
and the roof
fine pulpit,
the presence of these posts
which
will
is
without ridge-
type of roof before the Dissolution of
may
be taken as an almost
indication of the latter half of the sixteenth century, or even later.
has a
from the wall-plates.
the nave roof of St. John's Church, Henley-in-Arden, of the arch-braced
queen-post type.
wall-posts.
In addition to this support, the
St.
infallible
John's Church
be illustrated in a later chapter on the development of
the English oak chest.

74
-^m^m
u:
hJ
13
CO
ij
ti>
bi
^z;
o
b
a
2
O
a,
to
.
P^ CO
60 -S
.S
Q
<:
Q
>
;v
,?'
'o
K.
P4
<
X
z
u
>
H
U
CC
CO
><
O 3
Q
<
i)
"^
.til
bi
5
u
CO
D
O
S
g $
O y-
o
1:1,
CC
a
a
b
O
<
'
Fig. 68.
ST.
JOHN'S, HENLEY-IN-ARDEN,
The Nave Roof.
WARWICKSHIRE.
Braced queen-post type.
The Development of
Fig. 6g has a
with
moulded collar-beam,
arch-braces
large
fixed
to
the
in
the
tenons of the hammer-beams,
pendentive
Timber Roof
the English
The pendentive
manner.
ornaments have been cut away to make
room
for the later flooring.
As pointed
out earlier in this chapter, this penden-
hammer-beam form
tive
roof
of
not sound construction, as the strain

carried
the
is
is
on the tenon only, instead of
hammer-beam
Fig. 70
itself.
shows the chancel roof
of
Ufford Church, in Suffolk, which intro-
duces the pendentive hammer-post type.

This
is
a framed collar-truss roof.
The
have a very
slight
crenellated
collars
camber, and arc braced above to the

principal rafters,
dant posts.
and below
From
to the pen-
these latter, archFig. 69.
braces are taken to the wall-posts slot-
HOUSE
THE BUTTERMARKET, IPSWICH
IN
Known
tenoned into the principals below purlin-
as " Sparrowe's House."
View sliowing the

level.
From the pendentive posts, shields
roof timbers.
Span
18
ft.
ins;
Length 30
ft.
ins.
are fixed at a parallel slope to the pitch

of the roof, with curious devices painted
fixion
and the Passion.
On
upon them,
illustrating
symbols
the right-hand side, in the illustration, the
of the Cruci-
first
shield has
the scourges, the second the pincers for withdrawing the nails from the hands and feet,
the third the dice-horn which was used for the casting of the
Crown
of Thorns,
and on the
fifth
the dice are represented.
On
shows the spear with which the soldier pierced the Saviour's
the fourth
the
the other side the
first
lots,
side, together
with the
sponge on a pole and the ladder used to ascend the Cross, the second the Crucifixion
hammer, the
third the thirty pieces of silver (in three piles), the fourth a Crusader's
sword crossing with a Saracen's scimitar, and the
fifth
shows the dice again.
Winged
angels centre each of the great carved cornice.

Fig. 71
is
the nave roof of St. Osyth Church, of which that of the N. aisle has
already been shown in Fig. 54.
This roof
is
77
constructed of timbers of light scantling,
Early English Furniture and JFootki-ork

with a ridge and thrrr
jnirlins.
Of these three the central one has a collar-beam
arch-braced to haunner-beams, which
The roof
is
sides of the
simple, without car\-ing, and
hammer-beams, and the
from the top of the
hammer-beam
Fig.
jz
is
The
wall-jilate.
This
moulded only on the
])urlins.
may
The common
wall-plate, the
under
rafters are ashlar-strutted
be described as one of the earliest types of
roof, thougli of late date.
a richly- decorated roof from Southwold Chancel.
hammer-beam and
common
tnrn are braced to wall-posts without corbels.
in
rafters,
braced-collar type,
boarded
in
below the
It
collar
is
of the single
and across the
thus forming panels between the collars, the principals and the purlins.
collar-panelling
is
omitted, and the boarding taken to the ridge, in the bay at the
western end, this being directly over the rood-screen.

painted, that of the
Nave having
The
entire Chancel roof
the open timbering without decoration.
is
richly
This example
is
an instance of the dual ownership of the church, dating from \'ery early times, the nave
being the property
of,
and maintained by, the parishioners, the chancel belonging to
Fig. 70.
UFFORD, SUFFOLK, CHANCEL ROOF.

Framed
collar-truss with pendeutives, braced to wall-posts.

78
The Development of
The
the church.
latter,
therefore,
is
The chancel was generally enriched
Timber Roof
the English
nearly always more elaborate than the former.

to its decorative limit before
any beautifying
of
the nave was commenced.
The nave
may
roof of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, Fig. 73,
be described as a vaulted hammer-beam.
a cornice,
is
by a groined
tenoned to the
free
vaulting, carried
is
purlin,
which
is
down
simple, with ridge
to cornice, with
to slender columns,
and two
effect,
with caps and bases, placed

corbels.
The
roof,
purlins, without collars, arch-braced
winged angels applied, over the cornice,
Framlingham has
becomes, in
ends of the hammer-beams, the latter being masked
between the clerestory windows and supported on carved

the vaulting
one of a rare type, which
above
from ridge
at the feet of the arch-braces.
a similar roof. Fig. 74, to St. Peter Mancroft, but differs in being
of the arch-braced collar type.
The
collars are fixed at purlin level.
supports the cornice and hammer-beams, to any extent,
is
doubtful.
That the vaulting

It is
mainly,
if
not entirely, a decorative detail.

Fig. 75 has
cambered
collars arch-braced to
hammer-beams.
Fig. 71.
ST.
OSYTH, ESSEX, NAVE ROOF.
Collar-beams braced to hammer-beams.

79
The base
of each of
as
"a
^
K
O S
a ^
tf3
aj
(U
o
bi o
h 7,
<
S
(n
DC
U
s
rt
bo
c
m
u
rt
'^1
--
Xi
c
O
GJ
(1
Oi
^
H
CO
u
<
Q
bp J
E P
.
X
H
D
O
in
8"
The Development of
the English
Timber Roof
Fig. 74.
FRAMLINGHAM, SUFFOLK.
Roof
the wall-posts, above the corbel,

Saint.
Each hammer-beam
example
of
of this
is
is
to suggest a
carved
1500).
form
of the
Law
of a
prone winged angel.
Another
will be noticed, later on, in the instance
Library at Exeter.
a roof of similar type to the preceding, with a resemblance strong enough
common
collars are
In no instance, however,
origin for both.
Here the one
in order has the carved
collar
hammer-beam
not cambered.
Wetherden Church,
in
Suffolk,
hammer-beam pendentive
type.
with carved
and each
in the
embellishment of hammer-beams
facsimile of another.
and the
(c.
niched, and carved with the standing figure of a
is
Westminster Hall and the roof

Fig. 76
Vaulted hammer-beam type
Nave.
of the
floral bosses,
is
braced direct to
intervening.
Each
its
is
one church roof a
wall-post, but the next
wall-post
moulded king-post connects each
is
without corbel
collar to the ridge.
has an elaborate roof, Fig. 77, of the double
The collar-beams
is
are
moulded and cambered, centred
arch-braced to the upper

81
tier of
hammer-beams,

braces being taki-n so far back as
tlu'
to constitute a false haninier-bcam roof.
Each
king-posted to the
lidLjc-
i'roni t'acli principal, just
below
collar
inirlin.
is
junction with the
its
braced
luunmt"r-i)c)st
past the next
is
carried
by tenons
fixed only
tier,
and terminating
in
pendentives carved
wall-posts correspond with the
posts and are car\'ed in the
Although
this
is
considered
classed,
from
next
tliis
hammer-
same manner.
a rich and elaborate

as
example
an
constructional carpentry,
the
The
form of standing Saints.
the
roof,
down,
ends of the lower hammer-beams,
at the
in
hammer-beam, a
it
of
cannot be
Fig. 75.
point of \-iew, with
illustration,
Fig.
78.
ROUGHAM, SUFFOLK.
Here
Roof
Nave. Collars braced to hammer-beams.

Late fifteenth century- Span 19 ft.
of
we have
the true double
hammer-beam
to each intermediate principal, alterna-
ting with
arch-braced collars to single
hammer-beams, each
fixed to the princi-
pal at the level of the upper tier only,
and bracketed, rather than braced, back

to the principal itself
detail.
Each
collar
a most unusual
with
its
bracing
is
centred with a heavy carved pendant.
The base
each wall-post
of
with an efhgy of a Saint,
is
carved,
in a
manner
similar to the preceding example.
fn Fig. 79
roof of Earl
of
Fig. 76.
KERSEY, SUFFOLK.
Roof
of
Nave.
single
is
illustrated the fine
Stonham Church,
hammer-beam
richly moulded, crenellated
Alternate arch-braced hammer-beams.
82
Suffolk,
form,
with
and cambered
collar-beams, arch-braced to the
nave
hammers
The Development of
the Rriglish
Timber Roof
Fig. 77.
WETHERDEN, SUFFOLK, ROOF OF NAVE.

Roof
of
Nave.
Span
hammer-beam, pendentive
Length 59 ft. o ins.
False double
21
ft.
II ins.
type.
Middle fifteenth century.
and centred with king-posts above and

in
the
are
triangle
filled
with
corbels.
The spandrels
pendants below.
formed by the principal, the hammer-post and the hammer-beam

tracery in
those of pendentive
and
carved
The
type,
masonic
and the base
cornice,
rich
True
devices.
of
hammer-beams
each wall-post
is
which cannot be clearly seen
alternate
carved with figures
in the illustration, has
a carved and pierced band with winged angels above and below, and
to the
hammer-post by carved spandrels.
richest in the
This example
may
with
is
connected
be classed as one of the
East Anglian churches, and Norfolk and Suffolk easily transcend any
other counties in the beauty and elaboration of their ecclesiastical woodwork, Devon,
perhaps, alone excepted.
The
type,
roof of
Eltham Palace
Hall, Figs. 80
and
81,
is
of this
and although beautiful from the decorative point
defects of this
method
of construction.
pendentive hammer-beam
of view,
it
has the inherent
This roof had decayed badly and the work

83

of restoring
it
was commenced, about 1913, under the superintendence
Baines of H.M. Office of Works.
The
Sir
Frank Raines' report
("
its
to
jointed to
joint
is
it
two members but run
The collar-beams
the ridge.
To quote from
construction.
Report to the First Commissioner of H.M. Works,
the Condition of the Roof Timbers of Westminster HaU,

principal rafters are not in
was not so much
chief source of trouble, however,
the decay in the timbers as the inherent faultiness in
intersect
in
CD.
7436,"
is
p. 27),
etc.,
"
on
the
one length from the wall-plates
these principals about half-way,
(them) by means of mortices and double tenons.
the hammer-post, which
Frank
of Sir
and are
Immediately under
this
also double-tenoned into the principal rafters, thus
acting as a further source of weakness at a point in the principal rafter where the
greatest strength
is
required.
To make
this
weakness worse, the hammer-post
supported upon the hammer-beam, but continues down past

pendant, while the
"
etc.,
The roof
is,
beam
is
in reality,
secured to
it
by
The
not
terminating in a heavy
a tenon joint " (see Fig. 44, No. 21).
an elaborate collar-beam type
superimposed as ornaments.
it,
is
result of
my
of roof
with the arched
examination of
this roof last
has shown
me
ribs,
year
that
it
has failed exactly as

a collar-beam type of
would
roof
be
ex-
pected to fail, namely,
by thrusting out the

and
walls
by
the
fracturing of the principal rafters
at
the
junction of the collar-
beam.
Thus, in the
Eltham Palace
many
pals
roof,
of the princi-
have sprung out-
ward at their feet a distance of eight inches

in
the
of the
Fig. 78.
HITCHAM, ROOF OF NAVE.

True double hammer-beam type. Late i6th century.
Span 24 ft. 6 ins.
8+
short length
timber between
the collar-beam and

Length 48
ft.
the wall-head."
The Developtnent of
"... Throughout
the whole roof
distortion of the hammer-posts,
the English
Timber Roof
the dropping of the hammer-beams, the
and the springing
of the principal rafters, are consider-
able."
Sir
Frank Baines has kindly furnished two photographs
taken while the work of restoration was
ments
to each truss
the roof.
may
in progress.
is
roof,
In the latter, the steel reinforce-
unique, being taken while the
removed, thereby allowing of the entry of
shows the
Eltham Palace
be noticed, and some idea formed of the defective state of
This photograph
Fig. 82
of the
fine roof of the
light
were temporarily
from above.
Middle Temple Hall, of the double pendentive
Fig. 79.
EARL STONHAM, SUFFOLK, ROOF OF NAVE.

Single
tiles
hammer-beam, alternate pendentive type

Span 17 ft. 6 ins. Length 68 ft. 3 ins.
[c.
1460).

hammer-post type.
This
is
a late example of a timber roof of this kind, dating, as
and 1570.
does, from the years between 15(12

roof.
It
measures 100
ft.
in length,
42
ft.
a Renaissance, rather than a Gothic,
It is
in width,
it
and with a height
of 47
Although
ft.
the Hall l)uilding has the usual high pitch of roof, full advantage has not been taken
under the
This collar-purlin
collar-le\-el.
and the
is
below the
to the lateral tie-beams,
by arch-braces
reinforced
by four turned queen-posts, two on each
are stiffened
collars
central purlin has been fixed
in above, giving the effect of a flat ceiling
and boarded
collars
manner.
of this fact, as in the earlier fifteenth-century
side of the
archbracing.
The
lesson of
the Middle
Eltham Palace
Temple
Hall.
pendentive only
It is
arch-braces, rest full on the
has, evidently, been learned in the case of thi? roof of

in effect.
The hammer-posts, with
Some
dates, in 1697, 1755, 1791
defects.
It is
and 1808, but much
and
alterations.
This
is
The
of the
in the
to the wall
work
at the earlier dates
in
in design.
we have, perhaps, the most remarkable church
otherwise insignificant church of
a true double-aisled roof,
was
roof has survived with very few structural
not only rich in detail, but also sound
In Figs. 83, 84, 85 and 86
England,
down on
and renovation to the Hall has been necessary, at various
restoration
the nature of additions
The
hammer-beams, with separate pendentives below.
wall-posts are unusually long, thereby distributing the thrust well

faces.
their
Needham Market,
and a comparison
of this
Barn, Fig. 45, will show the same constructive principal.
roof in
not far from Ipswich.
with that of Harmondsworth

In
Needham Market Church,
however, the hammer-posts only reach to the beams, whereas at Harmondsworth they
continue to the
more
floor.
This remarkable roof
clearly in Fig. 85.
The crown
is
built with a lantern, or clerestory,
of the roof
below the clerestory windows to the wall-plate.

large
cambered collar-beams are
fixed,
is
shown
really low-pitched, with a sharp slope
Below the lantern or clerestory
level,
not from wall to wall in the form of true
beams, but between the vertical hammer-posts, a tenon three inches
in thickness being
taken through the hammer-post, with the principal rafter as an additional
tie.
hammer-posts, which are of unusual height, are stiffened with longitudinal braced
and
at the wall,
hammer-post
itself.
ties,
Although, apparently, a pendentive hammer-beam, the pendants
Winged
projection of the
The
above the large cornice, a principal ashlar-post corresponds with the
below are suspended, the hammer-posts bearing upon their beams instead
at their ends.
tie-
angels
mask
of
on tenons
the junction of post and beam, but in Fig. 86 the
hammer-beam beyond
its
post can be clearly seen, and also the distinct
character of the pendant below.

86
The Development of
As an example
repay close study-
the English
of intricate construction, the roof of
The
Timber Roof
Needham Market Church
will
sectional diagram, illustrated in Fig. 84, will assist the compre-
hension of the principles on which this roof has been constructed.
The low-pitched
roof-crown has a certain nominal outward thrust in the direction A, but this can be
ignored, as
tall
it
is
so small in amount.
hammer-post, which
indicated
by the arrows
at
BB
B.
would cause the hammer-beam
line
its
direction of the
The tendency
which
to pivot
is
is
downward
hammer-beam
transmitted, via the
is
at its projecting end, the direction of
pressure on
The
for the
shown
b^'
pressure on the
to the wall-post,
hammer-beam
the arrows C C.
is
to be depressed
Such depression
on the wall-post at D, thus exercising an upward
outer end, which would be transmitted to the principal rafter on the
E, thereby effectively counteracting the
via the hammer-post to the
hammer-beam.
downward
The junction
pressure of the clerestory,

of the principal
with the
Fig. 80.
THE ROOF AT ELTHAM PALACE.

Pendentive type of hammer-beam.
Photo by H.M.
87
Office of
Works.

hammer-post
is,
weak part
really, the
latter being invalidated
hy the
of the
insertion of three tenons
and the main tie-beam, the three-inch tenon
hammer-post to the principal

are strong
enough
to correct
whole construction, the strength of the
at F.
of the
from the principal, the purlin,
beam being taken through
The small tie-beams, G, inadequate
any tendency
in
when
by the upward pressure
upon
it,
as
does, nearly the whole of the superimposed weight of the roof.
it
partially relie\'ed
Actually, in spite of the rake of the principal and the

the clerestory
down
to the wall-head, there
as they appear,
the hammer-post to bend in the length-
wise direction of the roof, which might occur owing to the enormous
e\-en
is little,
or no
downward
common
rafters
from below
outward thrust from
Fig. 81.
Office of
Works, taken when
tiles
were removed during the recent work
to the roof.
strain
of the principal, carrying,
THE ROOF AT ELTHAM PALACE.

Photo by H.M.
the
of restoration
this roof.
Fig. 82.
THE HALL OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE.

1562-70.

Its
stability
depends solely on the permanence of
against decaj', especially in
Ww
the liammcr-beams are, in
roalit\-,
As an e.xample
pression.
The great
in a
is
cur\-ed rib, as in Fig. 44, No. 24,
members
The huge
in
the others are in com-
a truly astonishing achievement.
when used
Chapter VII of
timber building, and the stress of the entire roof
is
the ground, tenoned into the ends of the principal rafters.
in
conjunction with the
this
for the purpose,
Above
on
which the continuation
this springing, the arch-rib rises, in
itself,
carried on great posts from
These posts appear, on the

is
which was especially selected
sections, to its apex,
Fig. 83.
ft.
Uouble-aisled hammer-beam type, with clerestory.

span.
17 ft. between hammer-posts.
39 ft. long over
Built about 1460.
ins.
90
a solid abutment,
of the arch-rib to the corbel
two
This Hall
to the collar.
NEEDHAM MARKET, SUFFOLK, ROOF OF NAVE.

29
The view
volume, shows the rib
outside of the Hall, as great timber buttresses; on their inside faces

a branch growth on the original tree
and
on the part of the fifteenth-century
moulded arch-brace, springing from the wall-corbels
probably
cornice
of timber-roof construction in England.
Gainsburgh Great Hall, illustrated
as a great
is
the onl\- tensional
of clever construction
hammer-beam, marks the zenith

of
and the safeguarding
joints,
liammer-beams and the wall-posts.
carpenters this roof of
its
all.
where
is
moulded.
it is
tenoned
The Uevelopmcnt of
into the collar.
rafter,
At the point
they are housed into
of junction of the
it
the English
two sections
Timber Roof
of the rib with
it
is
questionable
when
it is
that the original carved corbels have disappeared and have been replaced
cast iron in the ornamental style of a
It
to
more ignoble
modern
remembered
by others
of
Surely even cast
girder railway bridge.
use.
has been pointed out, at the outset of this chapter, that the chronological
arrangement of timber roofs does not show their progressive development.

remaining examples of the English timber roof
(1395)
With
be seen that the corbels have no function
will
other than an ornamental one, and e\'en this latter
was never put
principal
with long slotted tenons, secured by wooden pegs.
the solid abutments to this arch-rib,
iron
th(-
is
the earliest.
but which
is
The
roof of the Exeter
certainly later)
order, but to adopt this
The
roof of the Exeter
of being copied
from
Westminster Hall
Library (the date of which

in 1484,
is
obscure,
would follow
in
method would involve taking the most complicated and the
roof construction can be solved
The
Law
to be considered,
and Gainsburgh Hall, completed
largest timber roof in existence
type of Gainsburgh Hall.
still
Of the three
Hugh
and
to
descend from this to the comparatively simple
latter, also, is a
by means not
Law
timber-framed building, and problems of
possible in the case of walls of stone or brick.
Library, Figs. 87, 88 and 89, has every appearance
Herland's great roof in Westminster Hall.
Similar winged
Fig. 84.
SECTIONAL DIAGRAM OF NEEDHAM MARKET ROOF WITH STRESSES INDICATED.

Ernest R. Gribble, Veli.
91
Early English Furniture ami JJ'ôodwork

angels are car\-ed on
commences from the

corbel,
Hall,
wliere
it
howcwr,
and with
tiie
tlie
ends of the hammer-beams, the same form of great arch-rib

with the hammer-post and continues to the wall
collar, intersects
the arch-brace from the hammer-post.
joins with
hammer-beam
lower portions of the
well
compound
away from
roof
is
itself, in
the
its
same manner
tenoned into the principal.
wall-end, thus bracing the upper
hammer-beam, the
as one of
It is
an upper
here where the
spandrel
Hall.
In
the
behind
the
Exeter Roof
below the hammer-beam
it
rib
this
is
is
above
the
latter
tier in a
first
kept further
actually tenoned
double hammer-beam
There
hammer-beam
quite small, with
is
is
and
important difference between
the Exeter and the Westminster Hall examples occurs.

traceried
at about half its height
In the Exeter roof the rib
roof together.
back, and instead of intersecting with the

into the rib
hammer-post
the arch-rib int(>rsects with the
In Westminster
is
as
no large raking
in
Westminster
a simple pierced panel,
and
solid.
Above the cambered

waggon
formed under the
ceiling,
which
collar
is
collar-
is
arch-braced to the great
purlin, thereby
forming the ribs to this
purlin,
barrel ceiling.
its
In Westminster Hall, with
enormous height and pitch
there
is
braced
of roof,
an upper and a lower

together with
collar,
collar-posts
and
completely traceried up to the ridge.
Between
trusses
of
each
the
principal which
brace,
of
the
Exeter roof
finishes
four
is
main
a sub-
with a forked
cut from the solid, on a small
carved hammer-beam, projecting at an
upward angle from the

tilt
wall-plate, this
dispensing with any braces below.
Across this sub-principal, at

is
a small moulded purlin,
the intersection
its
centre,
and from
two raking struts are
taken to the jimction of the arch-ribs

Fig. 85.
with the wall-plate. The central meeting-
NEEDHAM MARKET.
^'ie\v
showing windows
point of the principal purlin and raking
of clerestory.
92
The Development of
the English
Timber Roof
~^
gj^^^j^^^J^^?62i:
Fig. 86.
NEEDHAM MARKET, SUFFOLK.

View showing
details of
hammer-beams, hammer-posts, tie-beams and
93
ashlaring,
and carved cornice.
Early Efiglish Furniture and JJôodwork

struts
is
covored by a boss
beliind this sub-principal, whicli
From
the representation of a himian head.
witli
car\-ecl
is in tlie
form of a large flattened arch-brace
(see Fig.
two other braces, with traceried spandrels, carry down from the great purlin to the
8i)),
hammer-posts, at somc^ distance from the hammer-beam, joining others wîich
rise to
the
of the great arch-rib (see Fig. 87).
a])e.\
Although obviously designed
in imitation of
from
its
clumsy manner, with heaA'y baulks
of
differs largel\- in its construction
model.
Westminster Hall,
framed
It is
timber,
this
Exeter roof
very solid and rather
in a
and lacks the grace and
scientific
devising of the Westminster original.
The
roof
is
carried, mainly,
on the huge piece
which contains,
of timber,
one piece, the wall-post and the lower section of the inner or large arch-rib.
in the
This
is
tenoned into the principal, and has a solid abutment from which the upper sections
of the rib continue.
The
principal rafter
is
tenoned into the hammer-post at
its
upper
extremity and at the other end into an extension of the hammer-beam on the wall side
of the arch-rib.
The hammer-beam proper, being tenoned
has no definite connection with this extension piece, which
face,
on to the upper end of the wall-post, held firmly to
beam
is
into the arch-rib on its inner
its
is
fixed
tenon by pegs.
extension piece takes the thrust from the principal rafter.
same, as both are contained in the one solid timber,

internal rib-brace, wiiich
is
and
is
tenoned into the hammer-beam at
This false hammer-
The
tenoned into the lower section of the arch-rib or the wall-post,
by being mortised
real
hammer-beam
which
are here the
supported by the lower

its
one end, and into the
wall-post at the other.
The main collar-beam
which bridges the hammer-posts at their upper extremities
the upper section of the arch-rib, and the upper rib-braces with their solid abutments
are
all
framed together with tcnon-and-mortise
reinforced
by moulded laminations, with butt
of the rib itself.
common
baj-s.
rafters
Above the
joints.
The main
arch-rib
is
further
joints arranged so as to overlap well those
These laminations are secured to the
rib
by wooden
Both the
pegs.
and the ashlaring are concealed behind the plastering between the
collar
is
the typical Western form of
waggon
ceiling
which has already
been described.
This Exeter roof
Westminster Hall, as
is
remarkable, as
for its
many
sidered to bring this chapter to
The
among
much
for its details of similarity to that of
points of variation.
its
The
latter has
now
to be con-
conclusion.
roof of Westminster Hall, drawings of which are given in Figs, go
other claims to distinction,
is
easily the largest

94
and
91,
and the most elaborate example
The Development of
the English
Timber Roof
Q
\A
00
K
U
H
U
U
<
K
DO
<
95

The Hall
of its kind existing.
year logg, he held Court
in the
We
that
it
"\'()rk
luixe
was
(iuild
hill.
and
it
of the original roof of the Hall,
this
ioxm.
of
wooden posts
construction
by 68
in 1394, in tlie reign of
in that year,
William Rufus, and at Whitsuntide,
was then
styled.
but
conjectured
it is
to the floor, in the
Considering the standard of roofing science at the date
for a \ast hall, 23S feet in length
was
built for
Palace of Westminster, as
double-aisled form, witli
Hall was built,
It
was
in the
no exact knowledge
in
I
itself
John Godmeston,
is
of
when the
the only one which can be imagined
feet in span.
Richard W, that
Clerk,
the Palace of Westminster to be repaired."
is
it
was decided
appointed
Hugh
renew the
roof,
Great Hall
in
Herland, the King's Master Carpenter,
Fig. 88.
looking up at a Bay.
96
to
" to cause the
THE ROOF OF THE EXETER LAW LIBRARY.

Mew
manner
The Development of
the
English
Fig. 89.
THE ROOF OF THE EXETER LAW LIBRARY.

Detail of a Truss.
97
Timber Roof

was entrusted with the control
all
of the work, to enroll
men
of the various trades
parts of England, excepting in the fee of the Church, and
to " arrest
from
and imprison
any contrariants."*
The timbers
of the Hall roof are of Sussex oak, Qitercus pedunculata, chiefly
the King's forest or
wood
made by
the timbering could only have been

roof at close quarters, or
now
the timbers
The
of Pettelwode.
was used
assertion that chestnut
who had
those
from
for
either not inspected the
had been deceived by the surface colour or bloom which
exhibit, the result of a superficial surface rot.
Elevations of a principal truss, and a bay are illustrated in Figs, go and gi,
together with a plan of the Hall.
this page.
to act as
general view
impossible, here, to give
It is
To begin
roof.
with,
it
main tie-beams or principal
its
also given in the illustration facing
more than a
was obviously impossible
brief description of this
roof, therefore, begins
by the main and upper
bracing, the collar-post and the
collar
to
main purlin
level.
compound main and upper
This upper structure
is
with an upper
beams, the ridge

purlins,
crown-post supporting the heavy ridge, together with the principal and
down
wonderful
to obtain timbers of sufficient length
The
rafters.
triangulated framed structure, formed
with
is
and the
common
rafters
carried on triangulated cantilevers,
formed by the hammer-posts, the hammer-beams, the wall-posts with their arch-braces,
the lower principal rafters and the
compound
the great curved rib or arch-brace
is
the feet of the wall-posts and rising to

secting both the
hammer-beam and
wall-plate.
To
tie
the whole roof together,
introduced, springing from the stone corbels at

its
apex
at the centre of the
the hammer-post on
its
main
collar, inter-
way.
Those who have read and understood the construction principles of the various
which have already been described,
roofs
will see that in
types have been compounded into the one.

given here, necessarily to a minute scale.
139
'
Extract.
Jan. 21.
Westminster Hall several
Sections of the various roof
The
following
list
of sizes
are
and scanthngs
Patent Rolls.
17 Rich.
WESTMINSTER HALL.
Appointment
members
of
John Godmeston
II.
M.
3.
clerk to cause the great Hall to be repaired, taking the necessary masons,
carpenters and labourers wherefor whenever found except in the fee of the church, with power to arrest and
imprison contrariants, until further order and also to take stone, timber, tiles and other materials for the same
at the King's charges and to sell branches, bark and other remnants of trees provided for the said hall, as well
as the old timber from it and from an old bridge near the palace by view and testimony of the King's controller
of the said works for the time being accounting for the
fees at the discretion of the Treasurer of
moneys
so received
and receiving
in that office
wages and
England.
By
98
Bill of Treasurer.
1^
The Development of
the English
c
WESTMINSTER HALL.
An
eleventh-century Hall with a late fourteenth-centurj- Roof.
99
Timber Roof
Fig. 90.
WESTMINSTER HALL ROOF.

SECTIONAL VIEW OK A PRINXIPAL SHOWING THE GREAT ARCH-RIB.
The view
of the Principal,
Bay and
Details from a drawing
by H.M.
Office of
Works, prepared
..,-
ti ^^.
Elevation of
gTCALE OF Details
Office or VJok.k^
Gate
Westminster-
q/tok-EY^
c/
J'1lZ.t\om
C C
Fig. 91.
WESTMINSTER HALL.
VIEW OF A BAY AND PLAN OF HALL,
from an original measured and detailed drawing by Ernest R. Gribble and W. Rennie, igio.
:,"C/KLE
OF PEET
Bay

may
this
be of
giving some idea of
ser\-ice in
wonderful roof:
tlae
gigantic dimensions of the timbers in
Cross Sectio>
Hammer-beams
Hammer-post
2l"X24i"
Lower
Upper
(of
two members)
principal rafter
.....
principal rafter
Arch-rib
Lamination
of rib
Inner bracing-rib
....
.
Common
Wind-braces
Ridge
Crown-post
Queen-posts
Some
.....
.....
.....
.....
.....
hammer-post measuring
ft.
ins.,
maximum
nearly 4
ft.
15' 0" to 20' 0"
14' 3"
maximum
15' 0" to 18' 0"
17' 6"
18' 10"
22" X 9"
I4i"x9"
.
26' 0" to 32' 0"
8" X 6"
24i"xi6"
20' 0"
10' 6"
5" thick
14" X 11"
13" X 12"
23' 9"
17' 9"
II' 3"
38^^ ins.
may
by 25
one.
is
supported
be gathered from the fact that a single
ins. in section at
weighs three and a half tons.
abutment, with a length of
This sectional measurement
is
also not the
Actually the hammer-post must have been fashioned from a trunk
in diameter.
With Westminster
concluded.
28' 6"
idea of the enormous weight of the timber in this roof, which
almost entireh' from the wall-heads,
21
26' 4"
14" X 12"
13" X 10"
rafters (laid flat)
Wall-posts
161" X 13"
16" X 12"
9" X 16I-"
....
....
Lower
40' 0"
9" X 13"
15" X 8"
Upper and lower purlins

Main purlins (consisting of 4 members) :
Top inner
Top outer
Laminating purlin
abutment 38J")
22" X 12"
9" X 12"
8" X 12"
Wall-plate (compound)
21' 6"
25" X 24r'
(at
Collar-beam
Length.
21' 0"
I.
Hall, this review of the English timber roof can be fittingly
Here, almost in the heart of London,
we have
the greatest triumph of
mediaeval carpentry which England has ever possessed, a testimony alike to the
fourteenth-century woodworker and to the qualities of English oak.
Chapter VI.
Woodwork and Colour
Gothic
is
only during recent years that some degree of accurate knowledge
has been
regarding the original states of
acquired,
and woodwork which has persisted
furniture
as artistic legacies
from centuries gone by.
century, especially,
much
We know
of restoration.
Decoration.
now,
for
much
example, that nearly
During the nineteenth
all
was often ruthlessly
who has
taste,
seen this original
tone of the raw metal, can

former.
There
fail
also a real
is
of frequent cleaning to
gilt silver
and compared
the guise
the early silver, of the
decorative kind, was gilded, and yet, under the mistaken impression that
late addition, this fine water-gilding
the
the present day,
to
harm was done under
irreparable
of
stripped.
No
it
was a
one, of
any
with the cold uninteresting
it
to appreciate the superior decorative qualities of the
purpose served by this gilding
remove the inevitable tarnishing
it
obviates the necessity
which
to
silver is
condemned,
and, apart from the saving of labour, frequent cleaning with powder, however refined,
must ultimately ruin
the original finish intended by the silversmith, and

respected.
as
it
To
In any case, this gilding was
chasing or delicate ornament.
fine
strip the gold
from the
its
fine early silver is
integrity should have been
about as just to the craftsman
would be to remove the over-glazings from a Reynolds or Gainsborough

There
is little
was decorated
in
doubt that much of the Gothic, and even the
polychrome.
later
portrait.
oak woodwork,
In the case of the former, there are examples remaining,
such as will be illustrated, in only a small degree, in this chapter, which show that this
must have been the usual
finish, in
nearly every case.
We
have no right to assume
that chancel screens, pulpits, and even roofs, of the fifteenth century, decorated in
polychrome, were the exception.
There
is
hardly a Gothic screen to be found, in
churches of this period, without traces of colour being visible in the quirks and interstices.
To say
that this
is
later
in the case of secular panellings,
character of the oak,
show that there was an

in another
way,
is
absurd, although,
such over-painting, in the desire to relieve the sombre
may have
are examples of stencilled
made
daubing which has been removed,
been of frequent occurrence.
Yet even here there
and other ornamentations on panellings
original desire for colour decoration.
by inlay, to achieve a
103
relief
why
still
existing which
The attempt was often
should decorative painting

liaxc
been ignored
Tliat nearly
all
either originally or at a later date,

figure, or mednllar\- ray of
it is
cut,
paint
is
and
\vt'
know from
quartered oak,
this ra\' does not
applied,
oak work, especially panellings, has been painted,
wood
e\'idence of the
tlu'
darken appreciably with exposure to the
howewr, and allowed
removal, to have darkened the ray, and
some
to reinain for
in
some
years,
a lead
be found, on
will
it
in the Victoria
been
We hardly ever find
quite black.
it
figured oak, even of the seventeenth centur\', without this darkened ray.
oak rooms
When
air.
cases, especially after the paint has
allowed to remain for a êry long time, to have turned
to be present in every one of the
wood when
lighter than the surrounding
is
The
itself.
This will be found
and Albert Museum, thereby
proving that they must haê been painted over, either originally, or at some later period.
The crudest daubing
will
achieve the same result as the most artistic decorative
say when this painting was original and where of subse-
painting, and
it
quent date.
In a later chapter,
is
difficult to
dealing with secular panellings, will be found two
mantels from the Herefordshire mansion of
Rotherwas, where the panels are emblazoned

in colours.
They were made
delighted in bright
Why
costumes.
an age which
in
hues in fabrics and in
should certain panels have
been relieved by bright colours, and the
mainder of the woodwork
left in
sombre oak
Whether painted decoration on

was the
panellings
can
onlj'
of conscientious stripping
removed too much
Parlour at
over
Thame
carved
in
comprehenAbbot's
decorated in colours
woodwork,
Wolsey's Closet at
enough
and scouring has
frieze of the
is
secular
century or two
to allow of a
The
sive statement.
or the exception,
rule
be surmised.
re-
and
Cardinal
Hampton Court
polychrome.
is
bright
Stone, plaster and
wood can be found, painted over

patterns or repeating designs, in
in pictorial
many houses
Fig. 92.
MICHAEL- AT-PLEA, NORWICH,

PANEL OF PAINTED REREDOS.
in
ST.
England, and
it
can be said that such
polychrome decoration
even
Late fifteenth centurj'.
104
if
it
was not unusual,
were not general.
and Colour Decoration
Gothic Tfôodwork
With church woodwork,
especially that prior to the
there exists a wealth of evidence to
show that
dawn
of the sixteenth century,
was not only
this
originally decorated
with colours and gilding, and even ornamented with raised gesso
but also that the carving was finished

such decoration being applied.
is,
in nearly all examples,
The
(or rather left unfinished)
late seventeenth-century
lead, puts in the finer details of veining
water while the preparation
work
is
who, with
It is the gilder
is still
to destroy all its finish.
and the
To
moist.
In the
and without
To examine and
originally decorated,
remained.
Much
it,
with his pointed
the design
is
necessary to view
but examples
still
mellowing influence of four centuries,
church must have been rich

It is difficult, if
earliest
if
woodwork
left flat, specifically
of the fifteenth century,
exist,
if
which, with due allowance for the
show that the fifteenth-century
if
not positively rioting with colour.
not impossible, to visualise the church of the fifteenth century, as

of the social life of the English
The church was not only the place
the nave was also the hall or meeting-place of the village or parish.
many
upheld from
of
The
villages,
its
if
not in
This was the church proper, and e\'en at the present

all,
the chancel
is
church property, maintained and
funds, whereas the nave belongs to the parish, and
additions or renovations are paid for with parish money.
whj^ the chancel
when
It is
is
This
is
any expense
nearly always richer in decoration than the nave.
this dual
ownership of the village church evolves, that the chancel opening
the chancel screen, a massive
sanctuary bejônd
The
life
is
cill
is
is
provided
in
placed across to remind the undevout that the
not to be invaded, but approached with reverence.
was rude, but not
diet
of
one of the reasons
screened off from the nave, and although an opening (rareh* a door)
and
this
churches must have been mere shrines or sanctuaries which evolved into the
day, in
or serf,
used with
the original gold, colours and gesso
will serve to
in decoration,
chancel with or without chapels.
is
sticks,
of the earlier Gothic
woodwork
as
it
people before the accession of the Tudors.

;
of whiting or
not complete.
was at that period, without an accurate knowledge
worship
beyond the
and preparation from
and surfaces are
Fillets
finish
has perished either with time, neglect or through wilful damage and
deplorable ignorance,
it
carved and gilded furniture
heavy preparation
strip the gold
to appreciate the liner
it is
like
same way some
demands the gesso-worker and the luminer.

for decoration,
his
instances,
with the intention of
completed by the carver, with no attempt at
clean cutting of his gouge.
many
in
was limited
as
hard as
in variety.
whether
it
of
craftsman or hind, franklin, freeman
became under the Tudors.
As a compensation, food was
Desires were few
plentiful
and cheap.
(A
u
o
2
<
u
Q
Z
<
CO
.J
<
H
m
Sill
<
Q
U
S
<
K
U
CO
U
as
o
z
06
Fig. 94.
CHESTER CATHEDRAL, THE CHOIR, WEST.
Fig. 95.
CHESTER CATHEDRAL, THE CHOIR STALLS, DETAIL

Late fourteenth centun'.

There was
for
little, if
Henry Mil
any want, even among the vagrant
to set the spectre of
broad England.
The population
suffered from plagues, due, in
The Golden Age
side with
want or
of English
brutal as they afterwards became.

influence of the Church,
mighty
abbe\',
shadows,
and
must have
and the
priories
Over
lot of
all
by a
to
total lack of
for the craftsman,
least,
woodwork could not have
Laws were harsh and
serious oppression.
probability, to an
all
and certainly contributed
Yet the age must have been a happy one, at
however humble.
remained
It
famine stalking through the length and breadth of
incredible lack of cleanhness of person

sanitation.
class, at this date.
strict,
existed. side
by
but not savagely
handicrafts was the guiding and gentle
who
the craftsman
shadow
lived in the
of a
and abbeys were numerous enough to cast many such
been a happy
if
uneventful one.
If
the warlike expeditions of

either in England, or in
his lord,
the
English
provinces
the
across
Channel, called him to arms, and
caused him to exchange tool and
apron for long-bow and leather jerkin,
was but a diversion
this
in a
what stagnated existence.

of
some-
In times
peace he had his guild, or met
church at
his fellows in the village
close of day,
liquor
when strong
ale or other
was by no means unknown.
This was his leisure
life,
enlivened
with occasional feast or saints' days,
when carousing was

indulged
the
liver,
and
flock should,
more deeply
All legends agree that
in.
Churchman
good
still
of this
his flock,
day was a
as a
good
dutifully followed his
example.
The reaction
in the
of this life is seen
craftsman's work, especially
in that of the
woodworker.
There
Fig. 96.
CULBONE, SOMERSET, CHANCEL SCREEN.
is
more than
chancel
Fourteenth century.
lo8
skill
screens,
evidenced
pulpits,
in
timber
Gothic Jlôodwork
roofs
and
the embellishments of the village church.
all
produce something
fine,
There
is
the earnest desire to
which should defy the centuries, and the
and rivalry which prompted the craftsmen
of
spirit of
emulation
one village to vie with, or to out-do the
inhabitants of a neighbouring hamlet in the enrichment and the beautifying of their

church.^
In no instance
inspiration or
ecclesiastical
skill,
is
this
thoroughness of workmanship, as distinguished from either
more evident than
woodwork
in the colour decoration as applied to
of the fifteenth century.
or in conception (although in both qualities

The Church, which was,
it is
It is
not that
unrivalled) so
it
is line
much
Gothic
in execution
as in the fact that
this date, was torn by violent schisms in the last quarter

two Popes, Urban VI at Rome, and Clement VII at Avignon.
England adhered to the former, Scotland to the latter. The Council at Pisa, in 1409, elected .\lexander V, and
'
of the fourteenth century.
of course,
Cathohc at
In 1377 there were
at this date there w-ere actually three titular heads of the Church.
Fig. 97.
LAVENHAM, SUFFOLK, CHANCEL SCREEN.

Late fourteenth century.
Mr. C.
109
J.
Abbott, Photo.
Fig. 98.
DETAIL OF THE CHANCEL SCREEN,
what has
persisted
in spite of neglect
and iconoclasm
Fig. 97.
most brutal and ignorant
of the
kind, or purposed and law-sanctioned destruction, not on one, but on three noted
occasions at least
has the colours and gilding mellowed by time, but as pure and trans-
parent as the day they were applied.

the
may
That the same
Van Eycks we know, but we do not know
the
be said of the pictures of
immense trouble which Jan Van Eyck
took to make his colours and his vehicles pure and permanent.
With whiting prepared from

impurities
by
elutriation,
for its decoration. 1
dry, until the grain
finely
and with
size
powdered chalk and carefully freed from
made from parchment,
all
the oak was prepared
Coats were applied in succession, each carefully rubbed down,
when
The
parts
was
filled
and the surface rendered
level
and smooth.
intended for gilding were then prepared with bole-armoniac (called bole armeny in
documents
employed
of the time) a yellowish
unctuous clay, which, curiously enough, was also
at that time for the staunching of blood.
earth, impregnated, as
it is,
It is this
with oxide of iron, which gives this old gilding
lustre.
The
into
according to whether the ornament was to be in
it,
raised gesso
brownish or yellowish
was formed
either
Grounds prepared entirely
by building up on
its
warm
ground, or by cutting
relief or intaglio.
in oil colours are also not
its
uncommon.
The chancel
Gothic IVoodwork
screen of Bramfield, Fig. 126, will serve to
show how
was nearly
delicate
all of this
original gesso.
Of pigment mediums, both
oil
and tempera,
yolk of egg or
size,
appear to have
been used indifferently, according to whether a luminous or a non-reflective

desired.
the
Colours darken, after years,
Jan Van Eyck
not being sufficiently refined.
oil
first
to use oil colours for his pictures,^
way
of refining his oil
illuminating,
"
'
Note
if
not
my
may
'
is
oil
mediums, but
this
is
was
due to
usually credited with being the
and Margaret Van Eyck's account
be quoted here from the " Cloister and
of her brother's
the Hearth," as
being
literally correct.
brother Jan's pictures
his colours bright as the
it is
when used with
finish
day they
left
time, which fades
Later research has established the fact that the use of
by no means certain whether they used
oil
The reason
the easel.
mediums
for
oil
with pigments
many
all
other paintings, leaves
is,
he did nothing blindly,
is
older than the
Van Eycks, and
of their pictures.
Fig. 99.
ATHERINGTON, DEVON, CHANCEL SCREEN.

Mr. Fredk. Sumner, Photo,
Ill
Fig. 100.
GRUNDISBURGH, SUFFOLK, CHANCEL SCREEN.

Fig. 101.
GRUNDISBURGH CHANCEL SCREEN, DETAIL.
Fig. 102.
BARKING, SUFFOLK,
S.
CHAPEL SCREEN.
Fifteenth century.
Fig. 103.
BARKING, SUFFOLK,
N.
CHAPEL SCREENS.
Fifteenth centur}-.
Fig. 104.
LAVENHAM, SUFFOLK,
N.
CHAPEL SCREEN, DETAIL.

Mr. C.
J.
Abbott, Photo.
7^.
II
Fig. 105.
LAVENHAM, SUFFOLK,
N.
AISLE PARCLOSE SCREEN, DETAILS.
Mr. C.
J.
Abbott, Photo.
Gothic IJôodwork
nothing
or
saw
He
in a hurry.
His panel was prepared, and prepared again
done.
it
trusted to no hirehng to grind his colours
Most
a year before he laid his colour on.
sucked up and
Above
warn you
that vegetable dross into
impure
its
to use but little
very heart, which
No
death to colour.
oil is
them
take your
Bad
oil,
it
oil
he did
it
himself,
show you how
I will
are quite content to have their
sooner than not be in a hurry.
lost,
Gerard,
all,
of
painters are always in a hurry.
and never
is
work
boil
it
boiling
it
our business to clear away
and pour
it
melts
;
for
into a bottle with water.
muddy that is muck from the oil. Pour the dirty

water carefully away, and add fresh. When that is poured away you will fancy the
oil is clear. You are mistaken. " Reicht, fetch me that " Reicht brought a glass trough
with a glass lid fitting tight. When your oil has been washed in a bottle, put it into
You will soon see the
this trough with water, and put the trough in the sun all day.
In a day or two the water will turn
But
water turbid again.
^_
_^^^
..^
^^
mark, you must not carry

this
game
sun
will turn
too
far,
your
When
varnish.
or the
it
too luscious, drain
and cork
Grind
your
colours,
with this
up
own
caretight.
prime
and lay them on

and they shall
oil,
Hubert would put
live.
sand or
to
it
as
is
and not
clear as a crystal,
fully,
"W^^j^
oil to
salt in the
clear the
But
used
Jan
" Water
give
oil
do
will
water
quicker.
to
say,
it
best,
water time."
Van Eyck was never

hurry, and that
world
in a
why
the
not forget him
will
in a hurry
is
Jan
'
"
The old luminers
Fig. 106.
of
Gothic woodwork appear
HEREFORD, ALL SAINTS' CHURCH, STALLS.

Late fourteenth or early fifteenth
115
centurj-.

to
have learned much the same
Their palette was restricted
lesson.
and here and there one
of mineral or vegetable basis
pigments, together witli
gold
used
accordance
in
reverse
rarelv colour
emplo>-ed
witli
(or)
red
and black
and
upon
their
(gules),
(sable).
Thus the arms

crosses, all or
It
as
(vert),
Yellow
rigid,
of the
colour.
green
emblazonry,
of
application.
ranks, in heraldry, as a metal.
upon metal was not
law
the
emblazonr\-
heraldic
in
tinctures
sequence
with
and
well,
That
this
of
"; of Leycester of
on
metal,
or
the
(azure),
would be
well
acquainted
and metals we get the following

white
for
for
work
silver
(argent),
of lesser importance.
gold
It
law of emblazonry of metal on colour or colour
even among heralds themselves,
kingdom
were nearly always
gold)
colour
they
colours
(3f
sometimes used
is
These
probable that these luminers were also
is
blue
the earth colours,
completed the gamut.
powder (brush
or
leaf
in
may
be seen in early coats.
Jerusalem are " argent a cross potent between four
De Tabley,
" azure, a fess gules
between three
Fig. 107.
CHUDLEIGH, DEVON, THE WESTERN TYPE OF ARCHED SCREEN.

ii6
fieurs-
Fig. 108.
CHUDLEIGH, DEVON, DETAIL OF SCREEN.

Photo.
Fig. 109.
BRADNINCH, DEVON, DETAIL OF SCREEN.

117
Early Efiglish Furuiturc and JJôodwork

de-lys
or"
d'argoit, a
Richard de Rokesale (temp. Edward
of Sir
uno
fesse
II)
" d'aziire, a six lioncels
de gules."
Pictorial representations of figures were usually coloured " proper," that
the natural hue, especially of
flesh,
tempera was employed.
it
is
in the
majority of instances.
impossible to state, with accuracy, whether
The Van Eycks have been credited with the
medium, but the evidence
for this
is
dubious.
The
late Professor
was, perhaps, the greatest European authority on the

that the
medium used by
century.
Van Eyck
first
oil
or
use of an
oil
Ernest Berger (who
school)
was
the brothers was an emulsion of egg and varnish.
ceivable that oil could have been

It is referred to
unknown
by Theophilus
as a
medium
of opinion
It is incon-
before the end of the fourteenth
in the twelfth century,
and
in the Cathedral
accounts of Ely, Westminster and elsewhere, there are references to purchases of

painting.
That
oil
with
but the heraldic system of alternation and counter-
change was adhered to where possible,
Of vehicles or mediums
is
was a treacherous medium unless thoroughly
purified
Fig. 110.
BARKING, SUFFOLK,
E.
SIDE OF CHANCEL SCREEN.
ii8
was
also
oil for
known
Gothic IVoodwork
in the fifteenth century, or before,
and the greatest care was taken
in its refining.
obviate the danger of the darkening or discolouration of pigments, a tempera

of
egg emulsion was often preferred,

If
the Chancel
as the Sanctuary.
is
ment administered
also of greater
it is
to
this the Eucharistic sacrifice is offered
communicants.
These Altars were
of
instance, in obedience to the clerical law.
mand
It
remained for a
that these stone altars should be taken
tables,
under pain
of severe penalties,
down and
and very few
wood,
by stone
churches, but in the fourteenth century these were replaced
importance
round which the liturgy
Its chief treasure is the Altar, the centre
From
medium
work being subsequently varnished.
older in inception than the Nave,
Church has grown.
of the
tlie
and the sacrain
the earliest
in nearly every
later secular edict to
replaced with plain
of the early
examples remain at
These early altars must
have been richly decorated,

surmounted, frequently, by
retable
or
reredos
of
carved wood or sculptured

stone, painted
and
gilded.
In the case of high altars

this reredos often occupied
the
full
height and width
of the chancel.^
Side altars
were also placed in the nave

or aisles, as at Ranworth,
and sometimes on the rood

These
loft.
subsidiary
were usually dedi-
altars
cated to particular saints,

and, unlike the high altar,
were
they
enriched
and
maintained at the expense

of the parishioners.
The reredos was some'
As
Chapels.
in
some
of the
Fig. 111.
Oxford
BARKING, SUFFOLK, W. SIDE OF CHANCEL SCREEN.

119
com-
wooden
the present day.
To
Early English Furniture ami Uôociworlz

times
in
the form
(if
a triptych, witli central
folded back or closeil.
triptych form was
The coloured
Of
in the
churches of Italy and
frontispiece to this
It
was owing
in 1S47,
said,
it is
with
Germany than
volume shows a fragment
of the last years of the fourteenth century,
was discovered
The
painted super-altars very few have survived.
(lothic
more usual
and hinged side panels which could be
its
to the efforts of the Norfolk
now
face
in
England.
of a coloured retable
preserved in Norwich Cathedral.
downwards,
It
in use as the top of a table.
and Norwich Archceological Society that
it
was
rescued and preser\-ed, although in a deplorably mutilated and incomplete state.

Originall\-, this super-altar
was formed by
five horizontal
three-quarters of an inch in thickness, with an applied
with pegs.
The
five panels
at the intersections, of
l^repared
ground
moulded framework, fastened
were formed by four vertical moulded mullions, mitred
which only one remains.
of gilded
boards of quartered oak,
and
In the five panels, on a carefullv
finely patterned gesso, are
shown
(i)
The Scourging
Fig. 112.
RANWORTH CHANCEL SCREEN WITH PAROCHIAL ALTARS.

Gothic Jfôodwork
at the Pillar
and
(5)
panel
The Ascension.
may have
On
The Bearing
(2)
The upper part
(3)
The
Crucifixion
(4)
The Resurrection
of this super-altar is missing,
the bordering framework the beads were, originally
in gold as a relief.
of the top length
heraldic paintings on glass.
and
red,
band
of
in alternate blue
The outer framing has a
and the whole
them the date
and the central
been somewhat higher than the others.
chamfers between picked out
sections,
of the Cross
These
is
flat
gilt,
with the
fillets
or
with small flowers stencilled
ornament, of which the corner
missing, on which are the remains of small
are, evidently, the coats of the donors,
of the production of the altar-piece
can be deduced.
Mr.
St.
and from
John Hope,
M.A., in a paper read at the meeting of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society,
in 1897 (Society's Proceedings, Vol. XIII), stated that he
coats and banners as remain.
They show the arms
of
had deciphered such
of the
Henry Despencer, Bishop
of
Norwich, 1370-1406, Sir Stephen Hale, Sir Thomas Morieux, Sir William Kerdeston
(or a later
member
of the
same
family), Sir Nicholas
Gemon and
Sir
John Howard.
Fig. 113.
RANWORTH, NORFOLK, DETAIL OF FIGURES
IN
BASE OF CHANCEL SCREEN.

121

It
is
more or
to resolve this painted super-altar into
difficult
less,
alone.
inspiration, but in
Dr. Tancred Borcnius
is
any
of opinion that
school, as
it
may
it
stands,
be French
in
the closing years of the fourteenth century, the greater part of
France, at least those districts from which this work could have emanated, were English
possessions.
Dr. Borenius also points out that the possibihty of
not be ignored.
and
it
is
known
It
may
it is
prior in date even to
He was
artist,
that an English school of religious painting did exist at this period,
be an almost solitary survival of such work.
works.
English origin must
be the work of a Church luminer rather than of a pictorial
the works of which have perished in nearly every case.
may
its
Hubert Van Eyck,
It
This Norwich retable, therefore,
must be remembered,
also,
at least to the period of his better
that
known
court painter to the reigning Prince of Burgundy, Philip the Hardy,
from 1410 to 1420.
True, he must have been between forty and fifty years of age at
Fig. 114.
RANWORTH CHANCEL SCREEN
Fig. 115.
N.
RANWORTH CHANCEL SCREEN
ALTAR
AND REREDOS.
REREDOS.
122
S.
ALTAR
Fig. 116.
RANWORTH, DETAIL OF PAINTED VAULTING.
Fig. 117.
Fig. 118.
RANWORTH, SOUTH PARCLOSE.
RANWORTH, DETAIL OF FLYING BUTTRESS.

Mr. Fredk. Sumner, Photos.
123
Early ErigUsh Furniture and

tliis
and must have had
date,
that he was iniluenced
was the
We know
case.
and lngland
b\- this
in
tlie
last
a long painting career
Norwich school of
tliat
behind him, but
religious painters
JFood-work
it is
more probable
than that the reverse
was considerable intercourse between Burgundy
tliere
\ears of the reign of Richard
This Norwich retable
II.
is
contemporary with the wonderful roof of Westminster Hall already referred to and
described.
considered judgment must conclude that this retable
and painting, one
of the few,
if
inspiration, considering that
must have inspired much
workmanship
not the only remaining example of a school of religious
painters of the late fourteenth century.

its
of English
is
it
is
remarkable for
It is as
its
technique as for
within half a century of Cimabuc and Giotto.
of the fifteenth-century
which have now to be considered and
work
in the
It
panels of chancel screens,
illustrated.
In the Church of St. Michael-at-Plea, Norwich,
is
a reredos
formed
of several painted
panels which, although upwards of a century later than the Norwich example,
Fig. 119.
SOUTHWOLD, SUFFOLK, CHANCEL SCREEN.

124
still
Gothic Uôodwork
show the same manner perpetuated
One
in this pictorial decoration of
of these panels, representing the Crucifixion,
south wing of the reredos.
There
ground as at Norwich Cathedral, but

of the figure of Christ
is less
same
the
is
archaic, as one
shown here
in Fig. 92.
The drawing
and flowing manner.
free
would expect
at this date.
St. Michael-at-
Plea possessed a magnificent screen in earlier times, of which this panel
Of
formed a part.
nothing
this screen
now
forms the
It
intricacy in the patterning of the gesso
more
in a
is
Church woodwork.
remains,
if
we except
may have
In
these panels.
1504 the will of Katherine, widow of Alderman Thomas Bewfield, leaves 5 marks for
the painting and gilding of the rood-loft.
at this date,
and was
sum
or
mark
of gold
weighed eight ounces
pounds, thirteen shillings and fourpence in the
in value sixteen
coin of this time, a large
A mark
in the reign of
Henry VII and up
son began to debase the coinage, as in those days
improbable that a gold mark was indicated
to the date
money purchased
in this bequest, as the
and gilding
much.
of a rood-loft.
fifteenth century, the purpose of
which has
already been described, that both Gothic
woodwork and
its
colour decoration reach
their highest limits in England.
was
and
to
also to support a rood-loft,
beam
the
of
Christ,
with other
Mary and
rood
is
St.
At
in
at
festivals,
of
later
of
St.
The
John the Evangelist.
devotion
or tapers
and
flanked,
of great antiquity,
much
on the rood-
representations
being of Saxon origin,

of
altar,
which was displayed the image
crucified
date,
Their use
guard the sanctuary of the
the name
itself
and was the object
in the
Middle Ages.
numbers
of lighted candles
were fixed to the rood-beam,
some churches,
as at Burford,
Oxon,
a light was kept burning continually on

the rood-loft.
uses,
These
lofts,
among other
southwold, parclose screen.
were often the pulpits and the reading
125
It is
for the painting
with the chancel screens of the
It is
his
present-day value
would be well over one thousand pounds, an exaggerated sum
of such
so
when
Fig. 121
SOUTHWOLD CHANCEL SCREEN.

Detail of figure paintings.
Late fifteenth centurj-.
126
Fig. 122.
SOUTHWOLD CHANCEL SCREEN.

Detail of figure paintings.
127
Fig. 123.
ST.
ANDREW'S, BRAMFIELD, SUFFOLK, CHANCEL SCREEN

Width, 20
ft.
Height, 8
in.
It.
10 in.
Fig. 124.
Fig. 125.
BRAMFIELD SCREEN.
BRAMFIELD SCREEN.
Detail of figures.
Detail of figures.
128
Fig. 126.
BRAMFIELD, SUFFOLK, DETAIL OF PAINTED VAULTING.
Fig. 127.
BRAMFIELD, SUFFOLK, DETAIL OF GESSO-DECORATED TRANSOM.

129
Fig. 128.
YAXLEY, SUFFOLK, CHANCEL SCREEN.

Width
bL-t\vecn arch 3
ft.
10
in.
Overall 12
it.
Fig. 129.
YAXLEY SCREEN, DETAIL.

Top
of
cill
to top of transom 4
ft.
3 in.
10 in.
Gothic JFôodwork
desks of the Middle Ages, and the primitive musical instruments of the time, including
tlie
organ, were played from them.
There
rood-lofts,'
is
no doubt that
and
their
many
superstitious practices were indulged in from these
removal was ordered in Commonwealth times, and William
th.c Reformation " mav be quoted heiê.

Gilbert Burnet,
hardly
be
unduly
biassed
these matters. Writing of the year 1537, he says
as Bishop of Salisbury, would
" They discovered many impostures about relics and wonderful images to which pilgrimages had been wont
'
The
following extract from Burnet's " His/oi-v of
At Reading they had an angel's wing, which brought over the spear's point that pierced our Saviour's
As manv pieces of the cross were found as, joined together, would have made a big cross. The rood of grace
at Boxley (Bexley), in Kent, had been much esteemed, and drawn many pilgrims to it. It was observed to bow
and roll its eyes, and look at times well pleased or angry, which the credulous multitude imputed to a Divine power;
but all this was discovered to be a cheat, and it was brought up to St. Paul's Cross, and all the springs were openlv
showed that governed its several motions. At Hales, in Gloucestershire, the blood of Christ was shown in a phial,
and so, after good presents were made, the
and it was believed that none could see it who were in mortal sin
deluded pilgrims went away satisfied if they had seen it. This was the blood of a duck, renewed every week, put
and either side was turned towards the pilgrim, as
in a phial very thick of one side, and thin on the other
the priests were more or less satisfied with their oblations. Several other such-like impostures were discovered,
which contributed much to the undeceiving the people."
to be
made.
side.
Fig. 130.
LUDHAM, NORFOLK, CHANCEL SCREEN.

Dated
1493.
131

Dowsing, the Commissioner of Parliament appointed to East Anglia, did
his
work
of
destruction very effectually, with the result that the wonderful screens of Ranworth,
Southwold, Bramfield and elsewhere were ruthlessly despoiled of their

against the use of altars had already gone forth under
lofts.
The edict
Edward VI and had been obeyed
even more thoroughly.^

" He (Kidlcy) also carried some injunctions with him against some remainders of the former super1550,
and for exhorting the people to give alms, and to come often to the sacrament, and that altars might be
removed, and tables put in their room in the most convenient place of the chancel. In the ancient Church their
but the sacrament being called a sacrifice, as prayers, alms, and all holy oblations were,
Ubles were of wood
This gave rise to the opinion of expiatory sacrifice in the mass, and therealtars.'
called
to
be
they came
Ridley only advised the curates to do
fore it was thought fit to take away both the name and form of altars.
this
but, upon some contests arising concerning it, the council interposed, and required it to be done, and sent
with their order a paper of reasons justifying it, showing that a table was more proper than an altar, especially
Burnet, " History of the Reformation."
since the opinion of an expiatory sacrifice was supported by it."
*"
'In
stiticin,
'
Fig. 131.
LUDHAM, NORFOLK, CHANCEL SCREEN.

Detail of painting and buttresses.
132
^jg>^<>'**âpyg< ^K^ >JE< *j^ ^jg^t *j^ ^Jgf k^K kj|^< ,gi tjfv ijc/ tjg/ tjjg/ gi^ H|p jroi
<
Fig. 132.
ATHERINGTON, DEVON, DETAIL OF VAULTING.

(See also Figs.
3,
and
5.)
Fig. 133.
ATHERINGTON, DEVON,
E.
SIDE OF
FORMER CHANCEL SCREEN.

Mr. Fredlj. Sumner, Photos.
pMrly English Furniture and JFoodwork

These rood-lofts were reached, sometimes by a wooden stairway, more often
stone stairs from the
aisles,
when
was part
It
aisles, or
even built into the outer walls of the north and south
the screen stretched, as

of the ritual,
it
did in
At
his
and
loft,
Wagner has nobly commemorated
St. ]\Iichael-at-Plea is
messuage
many
cases, right across
in this parish
buried
and to descend by the
this
Good Friday
Thomas Porter who by
the Chapel of St.
lamp
for ever
on the
aisles.
stairs
on the
ritual in " Parsifal."
his will
dated 1405, " tied
... to find a wax candle burning on the rode-loft daily at
matins, mass and \-espers, before the image of the Virgin."

lies in
nave and
on Good Friday, for the worshippers to ascend one of these
staircases, to pass across the rood-screen
opposite side.
b\-
John
in the
rode-loft, to
same church,
John Hebbys, mercer, who
in 1485, " charges his
burn daily from
six in the
house to find
morning to ten
in the
forenoon."
In
some
of these rood-lofts, particularly those in the south-western counties,
where
Fig. 134.
ATHERINGTON, DEVON, DETAIL OF BRESSUMMER, W. SIDE.

Mr. Fredk. Sumner, Plioto.
134
Gothic JVoodwork.
they were often of great
it
size,
an altar was frequently installed
in the loft, in
which case
was used as a small chapel.
Whether the
it is difficult
earlier chancel screens
to say.
remains of paint
If
were always enriched with colour or gilding

exist,
a.s,
for
example, in the original part of
the late fourteenth-century screen at Appledore in Kent, this
woodwork was painted over
the
to tone with the Church.
may
only indicate that
Traces of the original bright
red with which the entire nave of this church was daubed have been found under
numerous coats
white-
of
The chancel and
wash.
chapel screens do not appear

as integral parts of church
woodwork
before about the
years of the fourteenth
first
Some crude
century.
ex-
amples, such as at Pixley

Herefordshire, and
in
the
fragment at Ivychurch
in
Romney Marsh may
the
be
earlier.
is
massive
little
The timbering
and
there
is
attempt at ornament
beyond rough moulding

muUions.
of
It is difficult to
imagine, however, in an age
where the love
colour
of
was one
of its chief charac-
teristics,
that great masses
of
oak timbering would ha\'e
been
left,
in
the
natural
wood, with no attempt at

decorative painting,
how-
ever crude.
Fig. 135.
In the early years of

the
fourteenth
carvings
century,
ATHERINGTON, DEVON, DETAIL OF TABERNACLE

WORK ON W. SIDE.
Early si.xteenth century.
and tracery are
Mr. Fredk. Sumner,
^35
Photc
Karly English Furniture and JVoodwork

The wood-
already well advanced in the decoration of these chancel and chapel screens.
worker follows closely

of solid
wood
same
in the
stonemason, hewing his ornament from masses
in the steps of the
some noteworthy
fashion, bnt achieving
show comparatively few
thirteenth-century choir stalls at Winchester, which
Bishop Fox
of the renovations of
The canopies
sixteenth century.
stalls are typical of late
work
of
of the
results, as in the late
the early
in
of these choir
thirteenth-century wood-
more elaborate kind, such
main
supporting
possessed.
beautifully
are
posts
William
as
Wykeham's Cathedral would have
The
traces
crocketted and niched, the intermediate balusters
The
turned in simple and graceful form.

characteristic, however,
to
each
stall,
is
chief
the pinnacled canopy
crocketted above and
below
filled
with arches and tracery cut from solid timber.

This
is
the stonemason's method.
There
is
or no construction in these huge canopies

are
hewn out with
the
maximum amount
little
they
of time
and patience which could have been expended

on them.
It is
otherwise with such examples as
the grand canopies at Chester, Figs. 94 and 95, for
example, which are about a century later
Here we have construction
fully developed,
a due appreciation of the qualities of

tracery, pinnacle
stone.
intricate.
canopies
and crocket,
The design
is
in date.
as
with
wood
in
compared with
amazingly delicate
and
Contrasted with the lofty choir these
appear
rather as
lace-work
than
as
creations of the woodworker.
From Cathedral
same system
Fig. 136.
applies.
into the fifteenth
to lowly parish
As the fourteenth grows
and again
PART OF OAK SCREEN DOORS FROM

A FORMER BISHOP'S PALACE AT EXETER, ccuturles, we get progrcssive
7
ft.
10
in.
high by 3
ft.
5 in. wide.
church the
into
the sixteenth
skill in
construction
w ith methods of ever-growing ingenuity, combined
Mid-fifteenth centurj'.
Victoria
and .Mbert Museum,
with a Corresponding economy of material, until,

136
Gothic IVoodvcork
ill
the
later
and debased Gothic,
become ahnost impossibly
traceries
delicate in
proportion and bewildering in the intricacy of their ornament, as at Westminster
Abbe^^
An
of the
for
example.
account of colour decoration in Gothic clerical woodwork
development
of the
ornament and construction
itself.
is,
perforce, also one
Whether colour and
gilding were an integral part of the early work, or whether such decoration
as a super-refinement, after the climax of the carpenter
it is
not possible to say, after so
much
and carver has been reached,
painting, whether original or of later date, has
been removed.
Fig. 137.
PILTON,
DEVON, PARCLOSE SCREEN.
N.
lo
ft.
was applied
high by 13
ft.
wide.
137
Fig. 138.
BOVEY TRACEY,
S.
DEVON, SCREEN.
Fig. 139.
HALBERTON,
S.
DEVON, SCREEN.
l.ate fifteenth century.
138
Fig. 140.
CHULMLEIGH, DEVON, SCREEN.

Liite fifteenth century.
'"
'
>il
MIUI
111
~'
I
^ yr******^'*'**'^'
Mi i
Fig. 141.
Fig. 142.
CHULMLEIGH, DETAIL OF BASE.
CHULMLEIGH, DETAIL OF VAULTING.

'39

In the
;uâ:u.v
iUU!.
ujS
Culbone
little
in
parish church of
Somerset
the
is
fourteenth-century screen
far
as
Appledore Church,
in
is
removed
Marsh,
Romney
as the
very
of
illus-
Another
trated here in Fig. g6.
example
little
similar detail,
which shows that the type must

have been general at
this date.
The main frame
of these simple
screens consists
of
cill,
and a head or upper
posts
plate,
all
mortised and tenoned together.
The heavy
traceried heads
are
tenoned to the balusters instead

of being
grooved between vertical
mullions
Fig. 143.
the
These heads
COLDRIDGE, DEVON, SCREEN.
are,
later
pierced
with
fashion.
therefore, cut
from the one piece
Detail of vaulting.
Late fifteenth
in
of
circles
timber,
and
with
centurs".
simple patterns, without cusping.

In some of these early screens the shafts are turned
the\' are
of the
moulded.
There
is
rarely
in others, as in
this
example,
any other decoration beyond a crude moulding
framework.
In the fourteenth-century screen at

in constructive
Lavenham,
Fig. 97,
methods, but Suffolk at this date was
development than Somerset.

pinnacles tenoned
marked advance
in a far greater state of artistic
between head-beam and transom, with crocketted ogival arches
tenoned into the beam above, and are
The
we have
Here the moulded mullions are crested with crocketted
abutting on to them and bracing them firmly together.
shaft.
filled
These arches, at their centres, are
with tracery supported on a central slender
detail can be studied in Fig. 98.
At Atherington,
Fig. 99, the tracery
grooved into the mullions, both the ogee and the tracery being cut from the
Interlaced cusped arches are introduced into the lower panels, supported on
ribs
which mask the panel-joints.
It will
be noticed that
all
is
solid.
moulded
these early screens of this
type have square heads, the mullions being mortised directly into the beam, and with
140
Fig. 144.
LAPFORD, DEVON, SCREEN.

e,*' << rfâ ^ ^l

!
f^
'
.
* ftf^^ "ti ff
Fig. 145.
Fig. 146
LAPFORD, DEVON, DETAIL OF VAULTING.
LAPFORD, DOUBLE VAULTING.

Looking up.
Mr. Fredk. Sumner, Photo
Early Kuglish Furniture and JJôodwork

traceried spandrels in thr uiijicr ]M)rtion of
these openings weiv completely
At (irundishnrgii,
noted.
Figs.
tillccl
with
tlie
ojienings only.
In
some
rare instances
tracer\-.
loo and loi, a furtlicr advance in construction
Alternate niullions are carried throiigli from
cill
head
to
in the
form
is
to
be
of posts
with the intermediate mullions acting as framing members, dividing each bay into two
lights or openings.
The
tracer}', carried
to the tracery,
is
taken through these interapplied,
and supported on abutments formed on the mullions.
Unlike
Lavenham and Atherington,

decorated archway.
to the head,
The crocketted ogival arches are
mediate mullions, which are forked over
pegged
up
it.
the entrance from nave to chancel
The chancel
is
through a finely
begins, at this date, to lose its former rigidly exclusive
character.
The chapel screens
at Barking, Figs. 102
and
103,
show
a further development in
Fig. 147.
SWIMBRIDGE, DEVON, SCREEN.

142
Gothic JfôocPdcork
design, the tracery with
its
applied ogee arches being arranged in double and triple
pendentive form, although the original carved
are enriched with applied tracery, grooved into the posts
moulded
rib.
At Lavenham,
somewhat
earlier date, the tracery
of the stall canopies of the period.
and
influence in these
and
is
is
solid,
to
some
is
here fast losing
The
stall
show the standard reached before
its
many
of the gables are missing
Apart from the strong suggestion
two examples, the Gothic
with
In the N. aisle parclose screen, Fig. 105, of
The applied mouldings
degenerating into mere ornament.
Fig. 106, will
from the
pinnacled or gabled in a manner reminiscent of
the pendants have disappeared.
all
and divided by an applied
Fig. 104, the traceried heads are cut
applied arched ribs, grooved into the mullions.
The lower panels
finials are missing.
of foreign
former logical character,
canopies of All Saints, Hereford,
this decline.
Here the ogival arched
heads break forward and form niches, richly traceried above and crocketted below.
There
is
the straight
beam above, with both
shafts
and pinnacles tenoned
into
it.
There
Fig. 148.
SWIMBRIDGE, DEVON, DETAIL OF SCREEN BASE.

Jlr.
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Fredk. Sumner, Photo.
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i^
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Gothic Uôodwork
not the massive grandeur which
is
is
noticeable in
tlie
design of
where the canopies are hewn from great masses of timber.
by constructional methods, although with some

The chancel screen
the West.
It is
formed
between head and
at Chudleigh, Figs. 107

of five bays, the arched
post.
The tracery
of
Here the
loss in dignity
and
W'inchester
effect
is
ported on three moulded shafts, with caps and bases.
the
still
of stout section,
There
is
a strong suggestion of
remaining in
which are carried
behind the foliated spandrels
into
the
In
posts.
the base panels, formed by
crocketted
tenoned into a
large ribs
bottom
a
rail
of
series
carved
quatrefoils
with
simplicity
but with considerable
in
below
inscriptions
executed
with
painted figures
circles, are
with
with
tracery,
taste.
similar treatment will be
noted
the screen from
in
Bradninch,
Fig.
109,
but
here the character
is
what
muUions
later,
the
some-
being taken through to the

cill,
with
the
quatrefoil
tracery
applied
panels.
The painted figures
over
the
are in late fifteenth-century
costume.
The screens surmounted
by
coldridge, devon, parclose screen.
rood-lofts offer different
Early sixteenth century^

145'
tongued
grooved into the head and sup-
hea\'y solid traceried
heads,
achieved
and splendour.
the fourteenth-century influence
is
stalls,
108, introduces the arched type of
moulded heads
each bay
tlie

constructional
survived
the
overhang,
those
where
tliat
tlie
side.
is
where
hung
lolt
The
rood-lofts
destruction
jvurposed
single
and west
These
j^roblems.
cill
the
over
or base
Puritan
of
loft
the
times,
projected
line
of
were,
or
arc,
the
of
on
for
two
the
screen
very
classes,
The heads
Tlie loft,
the
its
with
equally on
its
east
The
posts, with
Southwold, Fig. 121, or with flying buttresses as at Ludham,
floor,
are
stiffened
cill
and the beam, and
by the
are traceried, either between, or
where
those
was nearly always continued across the whole width,
Fig. 131, are strongly mortised into the
four feet from
have
nave side only, and
forming a step or threshold across the opening from nave to chancel.

solid buttresses as at
few
insertion of a
on moulded
at a distance of
heavy
rail or
ribs fixed to the
about
transom.
transom below.
overhang was on both sides of the screen, was supported on
placed transversely across the beam, either notched over, or tenoned into
it,
joists,
these
Fig. 152.
BRUSHFORD, SOMERSET, CHANCEL SCREEN.

146
Gothic JVoodvcork
turn being tenoned into the bressummers which supported the fronts of the
joists in
These beams were housed, generally, into the walls
loft.
extended right across the nave, into those of the
lofts
given
these
the
to
by means
joists
brackets
of
Further support was
aisles.
posts
the
to
where the
of the chancel, or,
the
of
and on
screen,
The handrails or upper beams
the groining or vaulting was applied.
of the
were fixed into the walls in the same manner as the bressummers, and
rood-loft
The
the upright muntins were tenoned between.
\-aulting,
which sprang from the
was formed by shaped
face of the posts to the base of the rood-beam,
pegged
ribs,
and tenoned into the beam above, grooved or rebated to receive the
to the posts,
panels.
The groined screen

this type, the
deep tracery being pierced
ribs of the groining,
suffered
bay into a
and decoration.
much
no
in
and in, shows an early development
The
mutilation, but
Mullions are inserted to support the
triple light, small
east
side,
which
beautiful carving in the spandrels, and especially
decorated with crockets,

in
in
the
screen,
construction
its
of the
and the mortise
ribs,
former rood-loft
now
these
beams were
Fig.
in
fixed
across
arch,
which
is
that whimsical creation
shows the vaulted side
by a modern
cresting.
The
where the panels are missing from the
the stone arch, which can be seen on the
the position of an earlier rood-beam, of
when
not vaulted, exhibits some
full of
is
replaced
vaulting can be seen,

in
is
and the carving has
upon the entrance
quaint bird form, and
which the medifeval woodworker delighted.
of
beads being pegged to both faces
delicate carved ogees are missing
the
of
arcaded form and stiffened by the inner
which are fixed to the posts.
tracery, breaking each

for strength
of Barking, Figs,
a date
prior to
left,
may
indicate
that of the screen
itself,
chancels without lofts or screens below (see
Fig. 149).
The decorative painting
of these fifteenth-century screens varies considerably in
different localities, not only in quality, but also in type.
made between
general distinction
The East AngUan screens
those of the East and the West.
may
are distin-
guished by their hghtness of structure, and delicacy and refinement of proportions

tracery, cusping,
and similar
details.
They
are
more
lofty than those of the
country, and in design and treatment are more restrained.

are narrower than those of the West.
quality and detail, a lavish use being
The
made
The
painting, as a rule,
lofts,
is
be
where they
in
Westexist,
exceedingly rich in
of little blossoms in gold
and colour,
as in
the vaultings and the mouldings at Ranworth (Figs. 112 to 118) and Bramfield (Figs.
123 to 127).
strong sense of general colour

147
is
also preserved,
which prevails over
W^^^t,
Fig.
TAWSTOCK,
N.
153.
DEVON, THE GALLERY.
Length id
ft.
(3
in.
the entire harmony.
Thus Ludham,
Figs. 130
whereas at Bramfield blue predominates,

of heraldic colouring, of metal
The use
in
and
131, has red as the principal note,
each instance relieved with gold.
on colour, or colour on metal,
is
Fig. 154.
148
rule
usually rigidly observed.
of gilded gesso with tiny patternings of geometrical or free form,
HOLBETON, DEVON, SCREEN.
The
is
the chief
Gothic JVoodmork
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Fig. 155.
HOLBETON, DEVON, DETAIL OF BRESSUMMER.

characteristic
and
a
122,
gromid
or
for
of
the
finer
Yaxley, Figs.
the
painted
moulding members, or
examples,
as
at
or
Southwold, Figs,
iig,
This gesso ornament was used, both
12S and 129.

devices,
Bramfield,
as
of the buttresses, as at
the
actual
decoration
of
fillets
Southwold.
Fig. 156.
HOLBETON, DEVON, DETAIL OF TRACERY.

Mr. Fredk. Sumner, Photos.
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At Ranworth, a small Norfolk

is
probably the
finest in
JVoodvcork
head
village at the
East Anglia.
It is of
Ranworth Broad, the screen
of
the late fifteenth century, of delicate
proportions, and extends across the chancel in the form of eight bays, the opening of
the chancel being contrived in the central two.
Beyond the
screen are retables on
the north and south, with subsidiary altars below, and projecting into the nave are
parclose screens with flying buttresses, Figs. 117
altars.
of
The groining
to the loft. Fig. 116,
and
118,
was formerly
which shield the parochial
in the
form
of a
which the outer members have disappeared, together with the
groining seen in the illustration continued
downwards
in
double vault,
loft
itself.
The
pendentive form, then sprang^
The mutilation has been
partially
masked
upwards and outwards
to the loft-beam.
by the modern
Originally the effect of this double vault must have been unique
cornice.
in its rich decorative effect.
The
parclose screens are of panelled framing, the principal
posts assisting in the support of the loft-beam.
those behind
by
The outer sconce-posts
richly decorated flying buttresses, one of
which
is
are braced to
shown
in Fig. 118.
Fig. 158.
L.AVENHAM, SUFFOLK, THE OXFORD PEW.

Mr. C.
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J. .\bbott,
Photo.
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Gothic JVoodwork
Fig. 160.
UFFORD, SUFFOLK, THE FONT COVER.

153
Early English Furniture ami JFoodwork

double groining was sup-
TIk'
by
ported
the
the
of
floor
original effect of
doublethe
chancel,
the
complete with their
retables
deli-
pierced
niches,
tabernacled
cately
The
screen, with
this
before
vaulting
joist
loft.
pendentive
painted
its
an
of
bressummer or
intermediate
in
insertion
the
cusped arches, and decorated vaultabove, the whole surmounted
ing
by a
equal
of
rood-loft
must
of
design,
of
extreme
have
richness
one
been
The
beauty.
figure
the whole of
paintings upon
the
charm
screen are of wonderful
of
colour and spirituahty of drawing.
They appear
in
have been painted
to
tempera upon a gesso ground.
The
figures
upon the North wing,
Fig. 114 (Retable to the

St.
John), are St. Etheldreda, St.
Mary
St.
of
Egypt,
dossal,
upheld by an angel on
representations
apostles,
Gothic
each.
UFFORD FONT COVER, DETAIL.

154
in
their
the
devices.
floral
panels
lower
the
central, portion of
Fig. 161.
to
of
the
witli
form
the
in
is
panel painted with
In
and
Agnes
St.
The background
Barbara.
each figure
^^tWwi^feijijysBaK
Chapel of
of
screen
the
following
names
characters
the
in
are
twelve
order,
written
in
accompanying
Gothic Jfôodwork
Fig. 162.
UFFORD, SUFFOLK, THE PAINTED ROOF.
/Sancte Symon (emblem: a
Sancte Thoma (emblem

North
side
of doorway.
Bartholomee Sancte
fish).
St.
Simon.
spear).
St.
Thomas.
St.
Bartholomew.
St.
James
St.
Andrew.
St.
Peter.
(knife
and book),
Sancte Iacobe
(pilgrim's staff
Sancte Andea
(cross
Petre
and book).
and pouch at
his girdle;
(keys and book).
the Greater
n w
Here
<
z
is the
Chancel opening-
ScE Paule (sword and book).

ScE JoHES
(chalice
and dragon).
+
St.
Paul.
St.
John.
St.
Philip.
St.
James
St.
Jude.
St.
Matthew
f^
en
ScE Philippe (basket

ScE Jacobe
ScE Jude
CO
(fuller's
of loaves).
club).
(boat).
Sce Matthee (sword).
the Less.
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Gothic IVoodwork.
The
ratable to the South Altar, Fig. 115 (Chapel of our Lady), depicts saintly
motherhood.
St.
Salome with SS. James and John, the Virgin Mary with the Holy
Child, St.
Mary Cleophas with her
Margaret,
all
Simon and Jude, and
four sons, James, Joses,
with angels above supporting flowered dossals.
On
St.
the parclose screens
the outer sides are painted with saints and fathers, the two most masterly paintings
being
St.
The
Michael on the South, Fig. 117, and
George on the North.
St.
detail of the paintings of the twelve apostles, six of
113, are both choice
dark brown and red.
and
The under robes
curious.
The patterning
of these robes
which are shown
are gilded
is
and outlined
in Fig.
in black,
an instance of the love of the
early painters for quaint conceits in the introduction of figures of beasts or birds into
An example
their floral or conventional ornament.

St.
Simon on the extreme
diaper patterns.
left.
The small
The backgrounds
of this
can be seen in the robe of
are of dark green
and
red,
with
flowers introduced everywhere, on the mouldings
floral
and the
panels of the vaulting, are faithful representations of the wild blossoms of the locality.
Though sadly mutilated, the screen
at Southwold, Fig. 119, presents, even in its
present condition, a good example of the refined design and skilful construction of the
mediaeval woodworker, and the taste in painted decoration and gesso work of the
artist craftsman.
shows, also, the high level to which these arts attained in the late
It
fifteenth century.
It
extends the whole width of the Church at the
nave arcade, forming chapels to the North and South
aisles,
from the chancel by elaborate canopied parclose screens
of
The portion spanning the nave
120.
of
is
first
column
of the
these being partitioned
which one
somewhat higher than that
is
shown
in Fig.
of the aisles,
and
very graceful proportions, the detail of the base panelling, and applied mullions
ornamented with diagonal pinnacles, richly moulded and capped, being extremely
The groining
of the destroyed loft, judging
the pierced vaultings with their carved

at
is
Ran worth.
screen,
The fragment
by the
finials,
of the groining,
undoubtedly formed part
delicate
beauty of the fragments of
was probably
which
of the loft front,
is still
fine.
of similar
form to that
attached to the head of the
which was evidently designed with
a series of vaulted niches, probably decorated with
floral
forms, and the panels with
figures of saints.
The decoration
which, though
whole
still
of the chancel screen
is
much
of great beauty, are less ornate,
of the wainscotting. Figs. 121
a fine spirit and sense of decoration.
and
122,
richer than in those of the aisles,
and comparatively quiet
is filled
in tone.
The
with painted figures, drawn with
Those on the principal part
of the screen, repre-
senting the twelve apostles, are painted against a dado of beautifully modelled and gilt
157
Early Efiglish Furniture and

gesso diapers,
formed
the
patterns Jx'ing
little
of the \iur leaf
JWoodwork
and
frnit in
an
ogee and iliamond in alternate panels.
The
cresting
the
to
dado
forms
delicate
traceried
designs.
The colouring
and pierced base

bliu\ green
is
of
consists
of
of
\'ar>-irg
the panelled
a combination of red.
and gold, arranged
in beautiful
and harmonious coimterchange, a
figure
having a green or blue robe being against
an upper background
versa
blue
(e.g.
St.
Philip has
background
behind
of
behind
tracerv above
red and
a red
\'ice
cloak,
nimbus,
red
and red at the
Fig. 166.
ST.
PETER MANCROFT, NORWICH, FONT COVER.

The next panel
base.
is
occupied by St.
Matthew who wears a purple
robe, with
red behind the nimbus, dark blue behind

the tracery above, and blue at the base).
The
under-robes
gold
in the
same manner
are painted
and
as
of
the
at
figures,
Ranworth,
with rich designs in black
red, after the style of the elaborate
fabrics
robes
of
are
the
period.
embroidered
These coloured
with
patterned
borders and are finished with decorated

collars
and gold and jewelled
The
paintings,
as
far
clasps.
as
can
be
Fig. 167.
SWIMBRIDGE, DEVON, FONT COVER.
ascertained in
are as follows
>58
their
:
defaced condition,
Gothic lVoodu:ork
'SorVi Sxic (Fig. 1 2 1.)

I.
St. Philip, cross, staff
3.
St. ]\Iatthew
3.
St.
and basket
of loaves.
holding a sword.
James the
Less, holding a club.

{Fig. 122.)
St.
James the Less repeated
4.
St.
Thomas, holding spear and book.
5.
St.
Andrew, with cross
in this illustration.
(saltire)
and book.
{The illustrations do not shoic the following.)

6.
St.
Peter with keys.

Chancel Opening
-^
1;
?
7.
St.
Paul, with sword and book.
8.
St.
John, holding chalice with dragon issuing from
9.
St.
James the Great, with
staff.
10. St.
Bartholomew, with knife and book.
11. St.
Jude, boat in
12.
Simon, spear and oar.
St.
On
left
hand
it.
in right,
the Screen across the
N.
compass and square.
aisle.
THE HEAVENLY HIER.\RCHY.

On
the Screen across the S. aisle.
David, Amos, Isaiah, Jonah, Ezekiel, Moses, Elias,

Jeremiah,
Of the enrichments
again
much
in evidence,
Xahum, Hosea, Baruch.

of
Fig. 168.
the mouldings the wave-design
is
showing gold stencilled flowers on the
black or dark green undulations, and the wild pink rose on the
white.
MICHAEL -AT -PLEA,

NORWICH, THE POSTREFORMATION TYPE
OF FONT COVER.
ST.
Early seventeenth century.
barber 's-pole pattern in a running chequer of red and
black, a red
member with
with a twisted
gilt
a little flower at inter\-als in gold,
gesso pattern, are
all
and a gold bead decorated
introduced with beautiful
effect.
In the hollows
surrounding the panels, on the sides of the buttresses, and running up the tracery, as at
Ranworth, are
little
flo^^"er-forms
upon a white ground
blue with
warm brown and
pink with green leaves, suggestive of the blue cornflower and the wild dog-rose, so
abundant
in the fields
and hedgerows
of the Eastern Counties.
L^p the faces of the buttresses, which are richly encrusted with gesso, are the
remains
of
Gothic
forms,
representations
'59
of
cusped
and
traceried
niches
with

minute
in
black
their
small
painted
figures
upon
and
work
tabernacle
also
gold,
even
glass
still
remaining amongst the rich
The following extract from Dowsing's Journal,
a.d.
1643, gives a terse account
"windows," some with
i)icces of
patterning.
of the destruction
which took place
" Southwold, April the 8th.

pictures.
Andrew and
St.
orders to take
down
down
V^'e
East Anglian Church.
brake down one hundred and thirty superstitious
four crosses on the four corners of the vestry
and
thirteen cherubims,
to take
down twenty
and gave
and
angels,
to take
the cover of the font."^
Of beautiful examples
127,
in this fine
of vaulted screens,
one of the best preserved.
is
originally designed with parochial altars to
was
It
perhaps that at Bramfield, Figs. 123 to
Of
the two bays at the north and south as at Ranworth, but these have disappeared.
the destroyed rood-loft there
no
is
pictorial record,
but this must have been of elegant
pendentive desiga and exquisite proportions, and was probably enriched with paintings.
consists of ten bays, its mullions springing into a beautiful
The screen
and forming cruciform panels elaborately cusped.
Fig. 126,
The
a rich blue, reUeved with white and g^ld.
little
is
drawn
delicately
depicted,
in black.
transom, Fig. 127, are especially

painted with dainty
floral
tracery
pattern
The buttresses
in
and
Mar3', with their
St.
show
of
the
the
gold
in
to
fine
saints
rich
gesso
each panel
in gold,
with detail
mouldings
of the
fine gilt gesso decoration,
On
and blue
but
in
the
of
which are
in
Evangelists
the
fair
preservation,
a dado behind the figures, the
alternate bays,
gilt
is
have
wainscotting
the figures of
The tracery
decoratively inscribed.
crockettings, the hollows red
the mullions are also adorned with
background,
quality of the painting.

are
in
of the screen, the
The panels
gesso.
places from purposed defacement,
suffered
and
full of life,
and are encrusted with
rich,
is
forms upon dark red and white grounds, and a pattern of
gold fleurs-de-lys on blue.

beautiful
The predominating tone
upon the blue background, a tiny angel

Of the lower portion
vaulting,
flowers painted in sprays along
the mouldings and groining are exquisite in drawing and

of the vaulting
heme
on
its
names
fillets
and
and ornamented with tiny
gilt flowers.
Of the saints pictured on the panels, such as are
still
recognisable are given on
page 162.
'
The
significance of this will be noted later in this chapter.
160
Gothic JVoodwork

o
a
Oh
ass
z
o
>
u
a
z
o
H
o
z
u
o
u
o
0.
o
^ >
Q
c
.
bo
> %
o =
< o
><
>
o
CQ
i6i

Hramfield Screen.
'Sovlh Side.
?
(Effaced).
(Effaced).
St.
Mark.
St.
Matthew.
Cluuicd opening.
n S
PI z
r a-
South Side.
St.
Luke.
St.
John.
St.
Mary Magdalene.
(Effaced).
That Bramfield Church was most

decorated in
lavishly
no
doubt,
colour there
is
and another extract from
Dowsing's Journal of 1643, shows the
havoc wrought by Puritan vandals.

" April
7th,
Twenty-four
1643.
and
picture of Christ and twelve angels on
the roof (rood), and divers Jesus's in
capital letters (IHS) and the steps of
the Altars to be levelled by Sir Robert
superstitious pictures, one crucifix,
Brook."!
At
Yaxley,
Figs.
128
and
129,.
the destroyed loft-vaulting reveals the

construction,
screen having
this
originally of the
double-sided groined
The tracery has
type.
niche
bases
been
lost
its
ogees,,
and canopies, but some
idea of the wealth of ornament which

existed
head
icsa;!":..
the
Fig. 171.
KENTON, DEVON, PULPIT.
may be gained from the elaborate
to the
opening and the tracery of
wainscotting
panel from the
left,
below.
Fig. 129,
The
shows the

162
'
third
Suckling, " History of Suffolk."
Gothic JVoodwork
Fig. 172.
KENTON, DEVON, DETAIL OF PULPIT.

only
remaining ogee which possesses the original rich applied crocketting.
screen has suffered so severely,

buttresses which exist
richly ornamented.
upon some
wavy
is
sufficient of the
figure of St.
as
is
and
of the mullions still
gilt
show
work remaining
is
it.
The
traces of having been once
figures in the panels are reminiscent of
The painting
and pattern enrichment, and
Mary Magdalene
decoration clings to
this
also the dehcate treatment of the httle sprays of flowers
design upon the mouldings.
refined taste, in drawing
there
of its painted
The gilt gesso dados behind the
Southwold and Bramfield,

in the
much
Although
to enable
shown here
in
of the figure subjects
in spite of
one to appreciate
much
shows
obliteration,
its fine spirit.
The
an embroidered and scalloped stomacher
she holds a richh* adorned pot of ointment in one hand, while with the other she clasps
the jewelled
Dorothy and
lid.
The other
figures
on the panels are SS. Ursula, Catherine, Barbara,
Cecilia.
163
Early English Eûrniturc and Woodwork

in Norfolk, Fig. 130, the screen (dated 1493) is of fine design, rich in
At Lndham,
detail,
and aglow with gold and
screens, suffered
the vaulted
from
ill-usage
is
as usual, formed of
two
The mullions
of fine design
The
neglect.
cill
with
all
these East Anglian
almost entirely perished, and
is
structure, measuring about 15^ feet across
The tracery
of these.
is
composed
and nearly
opening being,
of simple crocketted ogees
and
by pierced buttresses enriched with recessed
are supported
The carving
panels delicately cusped.

is
common
diîded into eight equally spaced bays, the chancel
13J feet in height,
rich cusping.
and
The
loft is missing.
It has, in
colour.
of the tracery in the wainscotting of the screen
and workmanship, but unfortunately the ornament and crocketting
on the ogee-pinnacled canopies
of the panels
have disappeared, together with the
finials
of the intermediate buttresses.
The
They
figures are
are represented in dignified
The
grace and charm.
in composition, finely
extremely decorative
and natural
names
inscriptions of the
lettering are at the base of each panel,
and yet
positions,
and from
drawn and coloured.

the mediaeval
full of
of the saints in decorative black
left to right are
represented SS.
Mary
Magdalene, Stephen and Edmund, then follows Henry VI, succeeded by four fathers
of the Church, SS.
Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine and Gregory, and SS. Edward the
Confessor, Walstan, Lawrence and Apollonia
behind the traceried heads of the panels
below
is
is
fill
painted in blue with gold decoration, while
a patterning of red and green alternately.
glorious colour-scheme of the whole

foliated motif of the running leaf
which ends, " made
The general impression given by the
a rich effect of red and gold.
In the beautiful
which decorates the moulded transom
in the yere of
The West-country screens
is
The background
the remaining spaces.
ower Lord God
are, as a rule,
is
an inscription
MCCCCLXXXXIII."
not so lofty as those of East Anglia, and
the proportions are generally heavier.
Carving details are usually very elaborate with
infinite variety in the use of vine-trails
and other Gothic ornaments
and vaultings,
its
This
as at Atherington, Figs. 132 to 135.
is
Fig. 132.
evident in the Renaissance ornament which
The
influence of the Renaissance
Gothic details persist for
many
was
felt
a magnificent screen, with
The presence
canopied and vaulted rood-loft practically intact.
century
is
fills
it is
very early in Devonshire, although
years in clerical woodwork.
recognisable in an unmistakable
the Norfolk or Suffolk work
is
lacking.
come from a former Bishop's Palace
of the sixteenth
the spandrels of the vaulting.
influence from other counties to be found in this Devonshire
but the fact that
in frames, cornices
There
curiously
woodwork.
way shows
Thus the two screen
is
It is rich,
that the variety of
doors. Fig. 136, said to
at Exeter, but, obviously, belonging to a

164
little
have
church
Gothic JJôodwork
any reference
screen, do not need
work.
comparison of
show almost an
but technical
to a place of origin to
skill of
and
stamp them
two examples.
It is
certainly loses in dignity as
it
Devonshire
as
with the Atherington screen, Fig. 133, will
this illustration
identity of design in the
later Gothic as depraved,
it
usual to describe the
advances
in intricacy,
the highest order can be seen in the gorgeous bressummers with their
bewildering wealth of carving, as at Atherington, Fig.
134,
Chulmleigh, Fig.
Coldridge, Fig. 143, Lapford, Fig. 145, and Swimbridge, Figs. 149 and 150.
same
The
time, the tendency towards
monotony,
in these richly carved
work must have been
creation of this elaborate
probably in the neighbourhood of Exeter.
by
these screens frequently impress
their
beams,
restricted to a very
will
142,
At the
be noticed.
narrow
locality
Apart from their almost barbaric splendour,
enormous
size.
At Bovey Tracey,
Fig. 138,
Halberton, Fig. 139, Chulmleigh, Fig. 140, Lapford, Fig. 144, Swimbridge, Fig. 147,
and elsewhere, they stretch across

the whole width of nave and
aisles.
In lofts enriched with tabernacle or
niched
work,
as
at
Atherington,
Fig. 135, these Devonshire screens
must have
been
especially
rich,
although only a few have survived.
Atherington
very
is
elaborate
example, richly carved on both east
and west
is,
by
far,
sides,
the most ornate.
Among
examples
Pilton,
although the latter
is
Fig.
the
pretentious
less
the parclose screen at

137,
same resemblance
again
in
with
the
the
circular-
headed tracery to Fig. 136.
This
is
the arch-headed type of the West, in
square framings with foliated spandrels in the comers.
The painted decoration

Western screens
in technique
is
of the
usually broader
than in those of the
Fig. 173.
SOUTH BURLINGHAM, NORFOLK, DECORATED PULPIT.
East, the figures executed with less
165

Some border on
attention to small detail.
Ugborough.
execution
Cluulleigli, Fig.
much more
is
the crude, but in others, as at Ashton,
and Bradninch,
io8,
jiowerful,
and such
Fig. 109, the
draughtsmanship and
costume
figures as are depicted in the
of their time are particularly interesting.
At Bovey Tracey,
Fig.
and Halberton,
138,
across the church, passing under the
Halberton there are
It is difiicult to
arches of the north and south
tabernacled shrines which
little
Avas a favourite device in
first
Devonshire churches, and
how much
imagine
have been marred by the remo\'al
of the
is
The
tradition
is
solid
ornament
manner.
148,
it
At
This
found elsewhere.
if
the loft front was elaborately

striking.
from those
with
in Fig. 142,
its lierne ribs,
At Lapford,
present.
East Anglia.
of
At Coldridge,
in the panels.
is still
example,
for
bossed
Fig. 143,
Figs. 144, 145
introduced into these groined spandrels in similar
is
This screen
to those at Atherington.
and reaches from the
earlier,
pronounced
\-ery
but the feeling of stone
146, Renaissance
manner
is
ever,
if
At Chulmleigh,
of their rood-lofts.
and pierced with tracery
their intersections
and
rarely,
%'aultings of these De\'onshire screens differ greatly
this tracery
the aisle columns.
would have been, must have been exceedingly
it
The stonemason
on
mask
aisles.
appearance of these great screens must
Fig. 140, the effect of this additional height, especially
carved, as
139, the screens stretch right
Fig.
is
planted clear from the
aisle
columns,
wall of the north aisle to that of the south in the Devonshire
Swimbridge, close by, has a very similar screen, although possibly somewhat
but on the evidence of such details as the seaweed ornament of
may
easily
fine screens
have been designed hy the same hands.
have been
locally,
Unfortunately,
and very ignoranth^ restored.
Halberton
its
base. Fig.
many
is
of these
an instance
of this, with the result of an incongruous jumble of parts patched together.
That these
is
rich screens
unquestionable.
were further elaborated with colours,
Greens and reds appear to have been largely used, but gold,
amount, was exceptional.
compared with Norfolk and
Devonshire was not a rich county

Suffolk,
church was usually maintained by

usually in the form of bequests.
East Anglian screens,
The Renaissance
is
much
the
same way
aud the decoration

gifts of
any
of the rood-screen in the parish
money from
Probably for
in
the charitable or the devout,
this reason, gold,
which
is
so general in
so infrequent in those of Devonshire.
of Italy intrudes itself into
of the sixteenth century, but in a
In
in their original state,
Church woodwork
manner somewhat different from
as with a parasitic
growth on a noble
tree,
its
secular introduction.
which gains
until the tree eventually perishes, so the Renaissance grafts itself

166
in the first years
in strength
on the Gothic, and
Gothic JVoodwork
submerges
finally
begins with motives, introduced sparingly and with taste, as
It
it.
in the panels of the Atherington vaulting, but later
of the tracery,
which
the tracery
In
In this later
151.
and twisted.
spiral-fluted
work the
At Brushford,
earlier
turned shafts
in Somerset, Fig. 152,
cut from the solid and merely dowelled on to the spiral-turned shafts.
is
the
screen
this
now
begins to debase the character
former logical basis of design and degenerates into meaning-
loses its
less patterns, as at Coldridge, Fig.
recur, but these are
it
debasing of
forms can be noticed very
the
tracery
The
clearly.
solid
panels of the base have the linen-fold pattern,
which
such a sure indication of the sixteenth
is
century.
In some instances, however, the Renais-
sance
used with discretion and taste.
is
In
the gallery at Tawstock, Fig. 153, for example,
the ornament has
work
the Gothic character in
and grapes, and
vine-trails
156, the
154 to
still
tracery
with carved
filled
is
extraordinary-
of
at Holbeton, Figs.
richness,
Gothic
in
character but used in a Renaissance manner.
The ornament
of the
beam, Fig. 155, as a
foil, is
pure Renaissance, yet the association of the
two does not appear to be incongruous, and

the effect of the whole screen
is
extremeh'
Such experiments, however, were
ricli.
to the
fatal
Gothic as an ecclesiastical style, the
greater in proportion to their success.
This
final
phase of the Gothic produced
some very noteworthy
results,
spite of the
the former fine tra-
ditions.
157,
decline
of
The Spring Pew
and the Oxford Pew
at
however,
Lavenham,
in the
in
Fig.
same Church,
Fig. 158, are of this late stjde, but the fiair for
the Gothic
is
Fig. 174.
not extinguished so soon in East

E.
Anglia as
in
and a lack
the West.
There
is
a loss in meaning
of appreciation of material,
however,
167
DOWN, DEVON, FONT PEDESTAL.

Sixteenth century.

even more evident
doubt as
Pew than
Spring
in the
which
to the material of
other work of the same date.
in
early fifteenth-century Gothic
tlie
unmistakably of stone or wood. E\-en
in the earlier
when accompanied by an absence
is
is
constructed.
is
examples, where the woodworker
emancipating himself from the stonemason's traditions, there

conceptions, even
There
no
It is
is
just
a sturdy vigour in his
of refinement in his details
and con-
rare to find an artistic tendency stopping short at the
struction,
l^nfortunately,
logical.
proportions become refined, they do not rest until they reach such a stage of
If
An
be inartistic.
fragility' as to
strength, but
it is
if
it
appear inadequate neither the eye nor the mind
material must also be equally frank.

like
wood, and
it
will
appear unsafe, and
from timber.
century which
too
it is
the Gothic
It is
both
fulfils best,
can become debased very
its
appearance
its
does not really possess.
it
artistic
will
be
many
Tracery
wood.
is
is,
absence of their
lofts.
superimposed mass,
of the screens,
effect
The
is
screens which
The
result
now
is
we have
perhaps, one of the most
carries nothing
The
\-ast
it
and mind.
Thus
off
not woodwork
marred by the
mere tortured
same
to
not a defect
is
and mutilated the

is
date,
It
filigree
masquerade as tracery.
in stone or
becomes mere lacework
itself
which would atone
for
many
in
com-
At Westminster, on the other hand, the
grand
stall
168
com-
constructional
purely that of the work of a pastry cook rather than of a woodworker.

to the
work.
where posts support
at Chester the stall canopies possess a delicacy in
even were they present.
worth while to turn back
artistic
vaulting which
superabundant ornament
size.
of a
lace to possess constructional stability, such as will
parison with the size of the choir

faults
employed
by sheer height and
and one does not expect
satisfy eye
is
expanse of a Cathedral carries
wood by overpowering
parison,
is
said of the Oxford Pew, of about the
nothing and where Renaissance ornament
lofts
the Spring Pew, there
In
and never has, and tracery which
The same may be
it is
That, however,
but of the A'andals who broke down their
which
must suggest the carrying
that vaulting which
which they formerly possessed.
a style which
It is
just considered are
inoperative and useless.
made
fifteenth
cases, a suggestion of construction
Lavenham Spring Pew
not
is
only pierced fretwork,
ornate expressions of the later Gothic, yet one has the feeling that
but confectionery.
Similarly,
and early
of the late fourteenth
and constructional demands.
offers, in
to look
it
the eye.
false to
The
satisfied.
is
stonework, which has, by accident, been
like
woodwork
This
be of ample
passive dignity and even grandeur,
easily, especially in
but when cut by the carver

it
much
may
Construct a bridge of steel and grain
the early Gothic woodwork, apart from
wholly satisfactory
whether of wood or stone
erection,
It
effect
is
may
be
canopies of Winchester, Fig. 93, and to
Gothic Jfôodwork
compare them with those
ful,
as examples of
of
Westminster Abbey, Fig. 159.
what was
much
of this
fifteenth century, considerable allowance
works as the great font cover
font covers
most ornate
of the
and with
amazing intricacy
and
cornice,
is
is
it
must have been
shown, in better
wonder-
This
in
very necessary in the case of such
and
161, one of the
most remarkable
England, and certainly the largest and the
made
of pinnacles
is
at this period.
and niches,
and has been much
a superb
later
for the absence of the gilding
it
It is
octagonal on plan,
rich carving of vaulted base
a magnificent production of the fifteenth-century woodworker.
lost its decorative painting
gilding
must be made
of Ufford, Figs. 160
examples of the later Gothic woodwork
its
latter are truly
abnormally delicate woodwork of the
originally existed.
wooden
The
and should not have been done, in wood.
In offering a criticism of
and colouring where such
ornament
restored.
With
to the churchy.
its original
The painted
It
colour and
roof above
detail, in Fig. 162.
Fig. 175.
WARKLEIGH, DEVON, RENAISSANCE SCREEN.

Mr. Fredk. Sumner, Ptioto.
169
has
it
and Uôodwork
Eijr/y Fj/'>//sb Furriitiar
Decoration
haw
must
colours and gold
in
been a necessary part of a font cover such
Constructed of wood, visible as such to the eye at a moment's glance,
as this.
The
to be impossibly fragile.
fact that
it is
it
appears
telescopic further intensifies this impression.
Constructed of metal, this delicacy of ornament would be justified to the observer.
and
In wood, jxiinted
gilded,
would acquire an appearance
it
even although such covering were somewhat
The
sham.
above
jxiinting of the roof
is
in the
effigy of the heraldic pelican'- the
symbol
later chapter, in the panel of a pulpit in
Niches are pro\'ided

saints,
in
each
tier,
nature of a deception
merely decorative
timbers with the font cover suspended below.
of strength in its parts,
at its apex,
Redemption, which we
Aldington Church
in
artistic
applied to harmonise the
The cover depends,
of the
an
from an
shall see in a
Kent.
the lower series intended to hold the effigies of
but these ha^'e disappeared, long
since.
The cover has been scraped and scoured
until the merest vestiges of if^ original colouring remain, but of the four original panels
which
exist,
two have remnants
have been applied
of the free floral designs in colour
to the entire cover.
and gold which must
In the upper portions of these panels are the
remains of gilded gesso backgrounds, patterned with incised and dotted diapers.
floral
dado with a gold ground above, behind each
niches,
must have made a
The second and
lower
in the
series.
and with
and
which formerly stood
effective setting to the figures.
The backgrounds of the lower
upper
tier
red and green
is
used
series are in blue
and red counter-
the red being above the blue of the
All the canopies to these niches were groined in gold with panels of blue
flowers in the centre.
little gilt
The
buttresses, pinnacles, tracery
and other
tabernacle-work were in gold ground with decoration of white, green and red.
pelican was in blue
and gold with
which must have made

its
in the
third tiers of these tabernacles also exhibit evidences of having con-
tained images, originally.
change
rich
effigy
The
traces of black
this Uftord
and white.
Of
The
this original colouring,
font co\'er such an exceptional example, even of
time, only the merest indications remain.
The font has always been an object 'of importance and reverence
of the Christian religion.
are not
unknown,
persisted from
as, for
Constructed of stone, in nearly every case (although lead fonts
example, the one in Brookland Church
Saxon times, and possibly from still earlier periods.
existed, were usually
made from wood, and have
at the hands of iconoclasts. ^
authorised, and there are

1
in the history
At no
nearly
period, however,
all
in Kent),
The covers, where such
perished, either with time, or
was the destruction
of font covers
numerous ordinances from Bishops ordering them
See Dowsing 's Journal in relation to the destruction at Bramfield.
170
many have
to be safe-
Gothic JJôodvcork
The
guarded and provided with locks or similar security.
cover, to protect the font
containing the holy water, was almost of as great an importance as the font
These covers vary,
in different
churches and
districts,
So
be subsequent replacements, and
it is
from the elaborate example at
perished, howe\'er, that the latter
may
possible that each parish church, originally,
was
many have
Ufford to the mere disc of wood.
itself.
provided with a font cover of some degree of elaboration.
The usual form was pyramidal,
with moulded ribs at the angles, which developed by the addition of a deep moulded or
carved base.
ribs, as at
From
this stage the font cover
evolved by the addition of crocketting to the
The next stage was the deepening
Ashbocking, Fig. 163, and Pilton, Fig. 164.
of the cover below the pja-amid
and the introduction
of pinnacles
and traceried panels,
as at Barking, Fig. 165, finally culminating in magnificent covers such as at Ufford.
The
later
development
of the font cover
is
canopy supported on posts
at the
corners, as at St. Peter Mancroft, Fig. 166, instead of being suspended from the roof.
The lower
stag--,
which forms the fon"
lid,
telescopes into the dome.
Fig. 176.
CARTMEL PRIORY,
LANCS., STALL CANOPIES.
171
Unfortunately,
Karly English Furniture and IVoodwork

only the posts and
At Truncli
tion.
canopj- are original
tlie flat
in tlie
same county,
is
the
dome with
its
niches are restora-
another example of this kind, unrestored but
very incomplete.
At Swimbridge,
Fig. 167, there
is
a different development, the cover being formed
as an octagonal-framed casing to the font, with doors above which open, for access to
the font
The ornament
itself.
is
manner, which indicates
well car\Td, in the Renaissance
the early years of the sixteenth century.

In St. Michael-at-Plea
size
is
the
little classical
and importance which occurred
cover, Fig. 168, showing the decline in
after the Reformation.
complete departure from the Gothic traditions at this date.
demonstrates, also, the
It
It is possible
that this stone
font original^ possessed a rich cover, which has disappeared and been replaced
The following extract from Bloomfield's History of Norfolk
present one.
and must
refer to this font either
fashion, although "sitting
meant
sitting
" 1504.
it
curious,
remembered) must have
In any case the present cover could not have existed.
the Church of
in
Norwich, and founded a mass for eight years, every working day
at 8 o'clock in the morning,
to
it
Alderman Thomas Bewfield was buried hy the font
daily to attend
is
without a cover, or with one of a totally different
on the font" (eight persons, be
on the steps below it.
St. Michael-at-Plea,
(1745)
by the
and
sit
and
his executors
were to find eight poor
men and women
on the font and pray for his and his friends' souls, and each
have fourpence every Saturday'.
Pulpits of the fifteenth century, of which comparati\'ely few examples exist, were
generally polygonal on plan, and constructed of two curbs, an upper and a lower, formed
of several sections,
tenoned or
" fingered " together at points
between the posts, and into
these the angle-posts were tenoned, with the panels inserted in grooves.
existed, these were
curbs.
formed
The Western type
of a post
as at
tenoned to the
floor joist
Where stems
and braced by
Bovey Tracey and Cockington,
Figs. 169
ribs to the
and
170, are
heavier in design and construction than those found in the Eastern counties, and are
decorated with an abundance of carved foliage, vine-trails and niche-work.

ington, which
is
At Cock-
the later of the two, the balusters and foliated groined heads are applied
to the panels.
These Devonshire pulpits repeat the work of the screens

is
to
in a great
measure, which
be expected, as in Bovey Tracey and Halberton, for example, the pulpits stand
immediately
in front of the screen
and are almost a part

172
of
it.
That these pulpits were
Gothic JVoodwork
Fig. 177.
CARTMEL PRIORY,
LANCS., CHOIR STALL CANOPIES, DETAIL.
173

and
originallv paintrcl in colours

colour, but this
may have
they
is
almost
all of
g.ild
much
been cast from
is
Bovey Tracey
unquestionable.
The niched
later date.
figures are in plaster,
Cockington pulpit
lost originals.
polygon on plan, but with
flat
panels,
pulpit at a date subsequent to the fashion for the decoration of
At Kenton,
Figs. 171
and
boyant, but extremely rich.
The painting has
and
being a painted
in
woodwork with
coloured, which adds further to
a definite significance here,
a stone pulpit copied in wood, and
it
The enlarged
colours, to complete its effect.
its
is
This
is,
shows
flam-
in effect,
monochrome
painting, either in
detail, Fig. 172,
colours.
ornate character.
beyond mere decoration.
demands
pecuUar
It is
172, the pulpit, of late-fifteenth-century work,
It is
but
of the early
is later,
sixteenth century, with balusters and groined heads applied to the panels.
in being a sept-sided
bright with
is
or in
this carved-stone
character very clearly.
The South Burlingham
pulpit. Fig. 173,
is
a very beautiful and complete example
The general
of East Anglian colour decoration of the fifteenth century.
The colours follow the heraldic system
3'et rich.
their ogival tracery
and crocketted pinnacles, are
The
with sprigs of flowers in gold.

the cusping,
in red,
is
of counterchange.
in red
and
gilt
effect is simple,
The
panels, with
on a green background,
central portion of the panel, immediately beneath
with a diapered pattern of the same gold flowers.
The panels are
reversed in rotation, in their colour-scheme, the next having crocketting in green and
gold on red.
and on
painted ribbon threads behind the styles, just below the crocketting,
this are inscriptions in black letters,
on a ground
of
decorated with a
white.
wavy
on the white bands,
and red
flowers.
The
buttresses,
green.
cresting
The base has

The
is
and
in
the next the
above the
first
wave
is
buttresses, are
green and white, with gold
recessing, are decorated with gilt gesso,
The spandrels and the
faces of all the tracery are
a white hollow, with green blossoms,
and mouldings
cornice has small gilt flowers in relief in the cavetto,
gilt.
foliated ornaments,
design in red and white, with gold flowers on the red, and green
in diaper patterns with tiny flowers.

in gold.
initials
The mouldings, between the panels and the
one panel, and
in
with red
This pulpit
is
remarkable as much for
and
and the castellated
beauty as for
its
in red
its
state of
preservation.
With the introduction
of the
Renaissance into
extinguishing of the Gothic, this chapter
may be
clerical
concluded.
woodwork and the
Examples
are assorted, sometimes with notably fine results, as at Atherington
of
final
where the two
and Holbeton, more
often with detriment to the character of both, as at Brushford and Coldridge, have already
been given.
It
remains only to consider,
in rapid review,
174
some examples where the Gothic
and Colour
Gothic JJôodwork
motives are comparati\-ely negligible, and where the Renaissance has
charming gallery
ornament the
is
at Tawstock, Fig. 153, the Gothic
string.
The
fine font pedestal at
is still
full
Dccoi'ation
sway. Thus
present in the vine-trails which
East Down, Fig. 174, on the other hand,
pure Renaissance with the sumptuous carvirg of the West (unmistakable
character) above the arches.
with elaborate carvings
masked by ornate
Warkleigh, Fig. 175, has a
will
the West, a character which
Church woodwork,
same
period,
semi-balusters, very similar in style to the aisle-panellings in St.
be illustrated
suggestion of Frencli influence,
Towards the
fine screen of the
in its rich
upper panels, and the alternate muntins of those below
in the
Vincent at Rouen, which
date.
in the
if
is
in
There
a later chapter.
not of actual origin,
in this later
much
always a strong
Church woodwork
of
not nearly so evident in the secular work of the same
close of the sixteenth century the Renaissance,

loses
is
of this foreign element, as at
where adopted
for
Cartmel Priory, Figs. 176
and
177,
how
the Italian style changes in development, in the hands of the Church woodworker,
where the
stall canopies,
superimposed on
stalls of
much
earlier date,
show
in the early years of the
seventeenth century.
in the \'ine-trails of the
coh;mns, but this became a faN'ourite motive, even with secular
There
is
a strong concession to the Gothic
work, during the earlier years of the seventeenth century, especially in Lancashii'e and
Warwickshire.
Though
Examples
carried
will
be found in the later pages of this volume.
beyond the proper scope
of this chapter,
which
with the Gothic, this incursion into the Renaissance period

only in bridging from the
the
way
for the chapters
last
may
is
concerned only
be of service,
phase of the Gothic to the later work, and
which are to
follow.
'75
in
if
preparing
Chapter VII.
Timber Houses, Porches and Doors.
house built of framed oak, with spaces between
tlie
tl"ie
timbers
filled
with brick " Hogging " or plaster, had not been peculiar to England
to almost the
end
\\-oodwork in the
title
up
of the seventeenth century, the inclusion of

of
this
book would have necessitated some
description and illustration of the
timber "
timber house.
not only characteristically English in conception, but
is
variety in type and in abnormalities of timber growth, and at the
Actually, " halfit
exhibits great
same time, owing
to the nature of the materials employed, allows of rich embellishment in the
mu
lilil
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^1
iSSigMjl
',
..;^WJp[''
1 1 1 1
m-
Fig.
178.
LAVENHAM, SUFFOLK.
The Wcolhall, East Front.
176
way
of
Timber Houses^ Porches and Doors

moulding, carving and
much
for the
tracer}',
which the qualities of stone or brick forbid.
says
many examples of work, some as

No one who has not made a diligent
sturdy qualities of English oak that so
early as the thirteenth century, are with us to-day.
pilgrimage,
It
among
e\'en tiny villages, especially in
East Anglia, the Northern Welsh
bordering counties, and in Somerset and Devon, and has not examined the interiors of
small,
and apparently
of the wealth
England.
there
is
and richness
in
timber and woodwork which i"emain, from the fourteenth,
and sixteenth centuries,
fifteenth
One
is
remote England, can have any idea
insignificant churches in
as priceless legacies
from the mediccval carpenters
of
not only amazed at both the quantity and quality of such work
such abundance of evidence to show that
much
of
it
must have been executed
as a labour of love, good-fellowship, or of reverence for things sacred.
We know that
the
craftsmen of the one hamlet vied with those of neighbouring villages in making their
parish church a
monument
of beauty,
and
in
improving on existing examples, until
Fig. 179.
PAYCOCKES, COGGESHALL, ESSEX.

Late fifteenth centurj-.
177
Noel Buxton, Esq.
Fig. 180.
LAVENHAM, SUFFOLK.
Houses at corner of Lady Street and Water
Street.
Fig. 181.
THE GUILD HALL, LAVENHAM.

Porch and projecting Bay.
Fig. 182.
THE GUILD HALL, LAVENHAM

Detail of Porch.
CO
.
<
s
z
bi
>
< o
J a.
u
J p
< u
S I
D G
O
U
X
H
s>*ml?;
<
a
w
>
<
CO
00
J
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X
b
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O
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.
bX)
179
o
a.

we
get such triumphs of woodworking
the chancel screens at Bramfield, South-
skill as
The task
wold, Ludhani, Ranworth, Atherington, Llananno and elsewhere.
carpenter and car\-er being completed, they gave
adornment
and tiny Gothic patterns

of the church
who,
to the artists,
in turn, filled
who decorated each moulding-member with
the panels with figures of saints, and

like colours
way
of the
was a task
and gilded
in raised
which
in
" In those days the
gesso.
men took
all
jewel-
Each gave what
a pride.
he could, and the interiors were thus enriched with carved choir-stalls, stained glass
windows, tapestries, lamps and chalices of chased
ments and altar-cloths
fifteenth-century craftsmanship, and
-%yU\
whose
and gilded and illuminated
of needlework,
Nowadays no price is too high
missals.
to
pay
for
such products of
happy indeed
is
the collector
some unlikely
the Gothic has unearthed, in
flair for
vest-
silver,
corner,
a piece of work of the latteners, the luminers, the orfevers, the

of that golden epoch. "^
ymagers
tapisers, the verrours or the
Beside these evidences of love
of,
or reverence for the Church,
which inspired the mediaeval craftsmen to give of their

without reward, we
see, in
finest
timber houses of the elaborate East-
Anglian type, similar signs of work being done for the sake of
much
the community,
The
love.
chief point
of this period,
nothing
is its
left to
positions as in
sawn
of
which must have been a labour
which
Joints are
work which
is
made
manner, as described
the
is
scamped
Even the wood
in the
in the
durable than that cut across the trunk or
When
century work, where
it
has
paint
is
is
oak be desirable or
is
more
log, in the
obviously
removed from
fifteenth-
remained from the time when
it
completed, we find the ray figure in the wood, with
was
first
the
" splash "
darkened nearly to black by the action of the
This oak was never intended to be
lead.
chapter on " The
simply from the knowledge that quartered oak
economical manner.
work
as carefully in unseen
fully visible.
Early Woodworker," whether figure

not,
Nothing
conscientious character.
chance.
in the best
student of
strikes the
of
left
bare
yet
it is
Fig. 185.
OAK CORNER-POST
7
ft.
15 ins.
i\
ins. high,
prepared just as carefully as

figure of the
wood
if
the piece
had
to rely
for its decorative effect.
wide across cap.
'
John Warrack, Introduction to " The Cathedrals of Great

180
Britain.'
on the
Fig. 186.
LAVENHAM GUILD HALL, BAY WINDOW.

About
14S6.
J^.
Fig. 187.
HOUSE
IN
LAVENHAM, SUFFOLK.
Square Bay with MuUioned
Window and Entrance
Door.
Figs.
188 and 189.
ALSTON COURT, NAYLAND, SUFFOLK,

Bay Windows.

A. M. Fenn, Esq.
Figs. 190, 191
and 192.
BOXFORD CHURCH, SUFFOLK.

Porch
ceiled;
ol
heavy timbers, with
unique
example
in
interior vaulted
England.
above tie-beam missing, but mortise

collar-beam between
trefcil
of head.
Mid-fourteenth century.
S3
Saint's
still
and
niche
visible
in
SUFFOLK CHURCH PORCHES.
Fig. 193
LITTLE CLACTON
Early fifteenth century
Fig. 195.
RAYDON
ST.
MARY.
Fig. 194.
OFFTON-CUM-LITTLE-BRICETT
Mid-fifteenth centurv.
Fig. 196.
GREAT BLAKENHAM
Fig. 197.
GAINSBURGH HALL, LINCOLN. THE GREAT HALL

2
185
LAVENHAM WOOLHALL. INTERIOR Of HALL.

See Fig. 66 showing this Hall in process of
Length, 26
ft.
2 ins.
width, 22
ft.
i;e.stqra,tiop.
5'ins.
'
''
'
" V^
Late fifteenth centirrf
186
I
,
I-
'v?.-
'î^
Fig. 199.
CARVED CEILING BEAMS FROM A HOUSE
WATER
IN
STREET, LAVENHAM.
In the following pages, some examples of rich half-timber houses, and porches
sacred and secular
are
each noteworthy in
its
They have been chosen from hundreds
shown.
way, but space considerations have forbidden more than a brief
Those who have
description of this fascinating branch of the woodworker's craft.

read,
is
and studied, the chapter on
to follow in this one.
especially
level
when
it
"
The timber
Timber Roofs "

roof
is reall}'
has collars without tie-beams.
downwards, with
will
be prepared for
The
vertical timbers
is
and
is
The framed house
is
That brick nogging

1S7
is
reinforced
a complete unit before any
even commenced.
that
from the eaves-
their horizontal plates, act as buttresses to resist the
massive stone or jointed brick.
the timbers
much
the upper story of a timber house,
thrust of a pitched roof, a task which, in the case of a church,
joists at the floor-levels,
of examples,
outward
undertaken by walls of
by
filling of
its
floor-beams and
the cavities between
stiffens the
vertical studs
is
Early English Furniture and Jlôodvsork

'^s^tm^str-.
Fig. 200.
CARVED CEILING BEAMS FROM PAYCOCKES, COGGESHALL, ESSEX.

late fifteenth century.
Noel Buxton, Esq.
unquestionable, but the timber liouse must be of ample strength and stability without
such
aid.
The examples shown,
They
are,
in this chapter, ha^'e
mainly, from two counties, Suffolk and Essex.
merely an outline of a vast subject.

but also
been especially chosen for their richness.
in different localities.
development
at distinct periods,
Local tree-growth had a good deal to do with their
in particular directions.
The houses shown
are intended to give
Timber houses vary not only
large
book could be written,
subject of the English timber house, and then the available
exhausted.
They
in the
field
would
be,
easily,
on the
by no means,
succeeding pages are exceptional, but they are

i88
tfm^^^mwm
Fig. 201.
ENLARGED DETAIL OF
FIG. 200.
the decorative limits to which the
illustrated here with a set purpose, to illustrate
timber house attained.
With the timber house,

bay windows, and
unnecessary
remembered,
as necessary adjuncts,
examples of exterior porches, doors,
interior decorated beam-ceilings are given.
Length}' descriptions are
the illustrations are, for the most part, self-explanatory.

also, that the
attempt
is
made
its
proper elucidation.
logically or otherwise
use, in building, to
There
is,
must be
here, in a single chapter, to outline, in a
sketchy manner, a subject which demands a far greater space than

book, for
It
therefore,
no attempt
is
possible in this
at order, chrono-
the illustrations are merely intended to show the decorative
which oak was put
in
the fifteenth and si.xteenth centuries, in
England.
Fig.
178
is
the fine Woolhall at
rigorously restored in 1913.
Lavenham,
The barge-boards
189
in
Suffolk,
are missing,
which was somewhat
and the projecting bay
Fig. 202.

Ceiling, iS
wide by 19
ft.
ft.
Beam, 14^
deep.
ins.
by
CEILING BEAMS.
11 ins.
Joists, 7 ins.
wide by
5 ins.
deep.
Noel Buxton, Esq.
windows on the
first floor
have been cut
in the zeal of its restorers.
some indication
of judicious restoration.
become
derelict.
richly carved oak
elaborate
beamed
Fig. 180
is
Lavenham Woolhall remains
It
was
is
much
better
Originally, a fine specimen of a wealthy weaver's

it
had been transformed
restored, a few years ago,
was discovered hidden behind

ceilings in this
as
East Anglia of the mid-fifteenth century.
as Paycockes, at Coggeshall in Essex, Fig. 179,
house of the late fifteenth century,

to
this, liowever,
of the half-timber building in
The house known

example
In spite of
Lavenham has been somewhat unfortunate
off.
house
will
into cottages,
and allowed
and a considerable amount
plaster.
of
Further illustrations of the
be given later on in this chapter.
from Lavenham, old houses at the corner

190
of
Lady and Water
Streets,
Fig. 203.
LAVENHAM GUILD HALL. THE MAIN HALL.

32
ft.
by
17
ft.
Fig. 204.
LAVENHAM WOOLHALL, SOUTH WING.

iS
ft.
6 ins.
by 15
ft.
in.
CEILING BEAMS.
Early English
and IJôodwork
Eûrriiture
Fig. 205.
OAK-BOARDED CEILING FROM A HOUSE AT LAVENHAM

Late fifteenth or early sixteenth century.
E. Garrard, Esq.
here shown partially restored.
On
the ground floor, at the nearest
tration, will be noticed the framings of old
on the
first floor
in the illus-
Similar windows also existed
shop windows.
on the Water Street elevation, but they have been covered with
joist-ends,
comer
plaster.
The projecting
overhang, and their bracketted supports from the slender
wall posts, in buttress form, with carved capitals, should be noted here as exceptional
details,
although of the shafts only a vestige remains.
Two
and
182.
views of the projecting porch of

This
is
a rich example, although the original door
of the corner bracket
and the niched corner-posts
even for the late fifteenth century.

of 1914,
when
number
improve the elevation
One
Lavenham Guild Hall
of
is
is
are
shown
missing.
in Figs. i8i
The carving
exceedingly choice in secular work,
The photographs were taken
new bay windows were added
prior to the restoration
in a regrettable
endeavour to
of the fine old Hall.
of the corner-posts to the
Lavenham Woolhall,
192
together with
its
dragon-beam

and overhanging story-bracing
is
illustrated
in
Fig.
Tlie corner-post of tlie Guild Hall
given in Fig. 183.
is
together with two of the modern bay windows which
184,
were added at the time of the 1914 restoration.
One
can be seen in Fig. 185.
of these mid-fifteenth-century corner-posts
enriched band
is
a Gothic head with crocketted central mullion and the tracery above
becomes shallower
as
it
off.
apex of the post.
rises to the
has supported a dragon-beam g

has been cut
Below the
Originally,
width.
ins. in
Viewed cornerwise
portion of the top of this post
sprang outward and upward, as
it
this post
in the
Lavenham Guild
Hall post. Fig. 184.

erected in about the year i486 for one of the Cloth
Lavenham Guild Hall was

Guilds of Corpus Christi.
At
Countries was very large, and
Henry
the English woollen trade with the
this period
Lavenham was one
VHL in debasing the English silver coinage,
remains to-day, a feeble shadow only of
and
186.
centres.
annihilated this trade, and
The
act of
Lavenham
this rich Guild Hall only
Of
one of the
bay windows remains,

badly restored
this is in a
state.
weaving
former wealth and glory, the home of horse-
its
hair cloth-weaving, in itself a dying industry.

original
of the
Low
It
It
shown
is
in
Fig.
shows the transom
type, flanked with top lights.
The window-head is supported

by
" false-tenons "
overhanging
heavy
cill
floor joists.
The
wrought from
is
the solid, and
the
into
is
finely moulded
and carved.
window
corbelled
house
in
shows
187
Fig.
from
Lavenham,
mulhoned
of
the
type, with carved
transom and
cill.
The bay
is
square on plan, and without

Fig. 206.
ELMSETT CHURCH, SUFFOLK.

Oak boards with
The door
at the
Gothic
side,
with
and
spandrel,
its
head
Fig. 207.
CHANCEL DOOR, NEEDHAM

MARKET CHURCH.
applied iron straps.

2
side lights.
193
shows
the
Earlv English Furniture and

domestic fashion of the
brackets from
tlie
last half of the sixteenth century.
tlie
reign of
Edward
a lialf-timbered house, dating from the closing
is
between 1475 and 14S0.
a good example of a
manner
possesses a Great Hall with mullioned windows, glazed with heraldic
of its time,
it
emblazonry
of coats of
and subsequent
arms
t)f
well-known Norfolk and Suffolk families, of
own
its
dates.
The house has grown by additions made
room was panelled with oak
at later periods in its history.
in 1631, at a date
when
Above
\\ith fine old stained glass.
with a waggon ceiling of oak.
windows
are
shown
type, well restored, and the
By
The dining-
dissensions between Cavalier
is
the Solar, and adjoining
is
188 and 189.
in Figs.
first
shows some
of
the
Both are
of late fifteenth-century
of the heraldic glass of the sixteenth
one
is
features
of
Alston Court.
Among
portant
both
im-
the
features
timber
and churches
of
houses
of
the
fifteenth century
were
the
elaborate timber
porches.
In the latter
these were often of the
most ornate description,
and
both externally
The
internally.
house porch was closed
by a door
at its en-
trance, hence the need
BARKING CHURCH, SUFFOLK,

VESTRY DOOR.
room
permission of the owner, Mr. A. M. Fenn, two of the
century which
Fig. 208.
and
This room has finely carved beams
Parliamentarian were beginning to become acute.
corbelled
It is
Built round an open courtyard, in the
yeoman's house of the superior kind.
and a window
Here, as in Fig. i8o, the
joist-ends on either side of the door are carried on slender buttresses.
Alston Court, Nayhind, Suffolk,

years of
IJôociwork
for
ornament
interior
keenly
in
its
was not so
felt,
194
timber
Fig. 209.
KEY CHURCH, IPSWICH,

PRIEST'S DOOR.

being
more ornate outside than
Church porches, havmg
the door at the other end,
houses,
in.
were
as
rule,
Boxford
Church,
porch
ornate
with
embelHshed
often
has,
Suffolk,
Figs. 190 to 192.
It
open-timber roofs,
probabl}',
from
dates
middle
the
fourteenth century, and
is,
therefore,
antiquity as for
its
rich character.
for its
The
roof
is
lions.
tie-beam in
Over the cambered
still
trefoil
Suffolk
collar-beam
Four
the arched head.
porches
of
remarkable
the
front
niche, the evidences of
to be seen on the
of
the
and
traceried with central mul-
are
signs of an original Saint's
are
as
of
slender triple columns,
vaulted to
window openings
the
most
the
views of which are given in
England,
in
fine
of
fifteenth
the
above,
these
OAK ENTRANCE DOOR WITH

WICKET.
Width
ft. i in.
of small door, 3
ft.
Height of wicket door from wood

threshold, 5
ft.
6 ins.
Fig. 211.
THE LEFT-HAND CARYATID

OR BRACKET TO THE PORCH
CORNICE.
Fig. 212.
THE RIGHT-HAND BRACKET.

Leonard G. Bolmgbrcke, Esq.
FI3. 212.
Fig. 211.
195
in
centurv are
STRANGERS' HALL,
NORWICH.
of large door, 5
which
the
interesting
Fig. 210.
Width
are
illus-
Fig. 213.
Fig. 214.
ir^^'^SS^î^g^:
Fig. 213.
BRENT ELEIGH CHURCH, SUFFOLK.

4
ft.
wide by
ins.
to springing of arch.
ft.
3^
ft.
2 ins. to apex.
Flat vertical boarded type, with applied ribs and tracery.
Fig.
214
CHELSWORTH CHURCH, SUFFOLK,

9
ft. 2
ins.
high by 4
Framed mullion type with
ft.
S.
DOOR.
7 ins. wide.
inserted traceried heads.
Fig. 215.
EARL STONHAM CHURCH, SUFFOLK.

Moulded
ribs with inserted tracery.
196

trated in Figs. 193 to 196.
in scantling as the
It
century advances.
Mention has already been made,
an integral part
showing
at various stages, of the Great Hall
of the early English house, but, so far,
apartment
this
be noticed that the timbering becomes Hghter
will
timber structure.
in a
entertained in this Hall.

fifteenth
Gainsburgh Hall, already referred to
1484,
It is a
and records
good,
if
its
yeoman's house
period.
more
here
shown
typical,
if
less
in Fig. 197.
of the late
company with many
fine
ornate instance of a Great Hall
judgment,
is
given
Fig. 217.
Fig. 216.
THE REVERSE OF THE DOOR,
DOOR.
of riven oak, with applied tracery.
197
in
Crookback was
somewhat exceptional, example
of the fifteenth century, restored with greater
BOXFORD CHURCH, SUFFOLK,

Boarded type,
is
state that Richard
century, suffering from ignorant restoration, in
timber houses of
in a
in
such
is
no example has been illustrated
the chapter on the timber roof, and fully described therein,
Gainsburgh was completed
which
FIG. 216.
EAST ANGLIAN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY DOORS.
1
1
'1
h\
Fig. 218.
HADLEIGH,
S.
Fig. 219.
DOOR
STOKE-BY-NAYLAND, SUFFOLK,
"
|-
r
F
Mit^'>ai
.-""^l
Late fifteenth
1w
1^
S.
DOOR,
centiir)'.
#1
,^
/w[
W^
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Fig. 220.
ST.
ft.
MICHAEL-AT-PLEA, NORWICH.
3 ins.
wide by 6
ft.
ins.
-J
Fig. 221.
4
to springing of head.
DEDHAM, SUFFOLK,
Ns
DOOR.
',
Fig. 223.
Fig. 222.
BOXFORD, SUFFOLK,
WALDINGFIELD, SUFFOLK.
N.
DOOR.
^t*^
Fig. 225.
Fig. 224.
FRAMLINGHAM CASTLE, SUFFOLK.
KERSEY, SUFFOLK, W. DOOR.
'99

in
this
In Fig. 66
igS.
Fig.
hall
shown
was
in
[process of restoration, as
an example of cambered
tie-beam
with
king-post
and collar-purlin type
The
roof.
gallery
of
and
the door at the end of the

hall are
the
modem
former
insertions,
necessitating
the removal of the braces
from the tie-beam to the
main
As
post.
already
pointed out in the chapter
on " The Plan of the Earlj'
Fig. 227.
Fig. 226.
THE REVERSE SIDE OF THE
STOWMARKET, SUFFOLK.
6
ft.
4i
ins.
to ape.x
DOOR.
wide.
ft.
Fig. 226.
Tudor House," the
position at this date,
importance which
case occupied a subsidiary
stair-
had
and
lower door, on the right-
hand
case with triangular treads
of solid oak.
Timber houses admit,

struction,
beams,
From
of
which
a
the
decoration
the
joists
house in Water
Street,
mission of Mr. Garrard, the

joists
rare,
and beams, shown
'
Fig. 228.
although the ceiling from

is
even
Fig. 202
shows an~
ceiling
the floor above.
Lavenham, by
an example as rich
Paycockes,
GREAT HEALINGS, SUFFOLK.

finer in design
7 ft. 2 ins.
tion.
the
Fig. 199, are taken.
in
and 201,
of
of
per-
beautifully carved series of
even in Suffolk to find
Figs. 200
side opens to a stair-
from their method of con-
lavish
forin
the
Here the
wards attained.
after-
it
acquired
not
to apex
ft.
It is
as'this,
Coggeshal'l,
and execu-
3 ins. wide.
arrangement
of
moulded
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Early English Furniture and JVôodwork

beams and
Corpus
joists
Christi,
from the same house.
and
Fig. 204
Fig. 203
is
from the Lavenham Guild Hall
ofi
from the Woolhall showing the dragon-beam.
In very rare instances the joists of the floor above were covered on the under face
with close boarding, as in Fig. 205, to form a
The small
ceiling.
ribs
have a value beyond:
that of mere decoration, in stiffening the boards and preventing sag.

is
of finely figured quartered oak, V-jointed, of
ness.
The
ribs are
moulded and have
car\'ed
The boarding here
about three-eighths of an inch in thick-
There
cusped bosses at their intersections.
are signs of painting, probably original, in the quirks of the mouldings of this ceiling:
\\'ith the
is
Gothic pre-eminent, until the early years of the sixteenth century, there
not the difference one would e.xpect to find in decorative treatment between doors
of churches, castles or
can
or brick
Stone
timber houses.
be built in sections,
in
the
form of a lancet arch, whereas with timber

it is
necessary to cut the shapes from huge
The high springing
pieces of oak.
door heads, which

stone-built
castles,
is
of the
usual in churches and

is,
therefore,
usually
absent in timber houses, where the head

flattened.
We
is-
cannot compare early church
doors of the fourteenth century with those

in
timber houses of the same date, as the
latter
do not
exist.
The early and rather crude types of

doors of the fourteenth century were constructed externally of vertical boards with
dowelled, rebated or tongued and grooved

joints.
with
They were laminated,

horizontal
internally,,
close-boarding, the
whole
being fastened together with heavy wrought

nails,
generally
decorated
with
elaborate
ironwork, the design and the fixing spikes

of
Fig. 231.
in the construction, as at
Elmsett Church, Fig. 206.
Chancel Door.
which assisted
Another
type
was
constructed
with
horizontal spaced battens fixed across the202
IIHIII
111!
Fig. 232.

Carved Oak Doors and Surround.
ID
ft.
5i
ins. to
apex
ft.
2 J ins. to
springing
Early sixteenth centurj'.
ft.
11 ins. wide.
Noel Bu.xton, Esq.
Early English Furniture and Jfôodwork
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inner face of the vertical boards, long nails being driven through from the face and
The
clinched over the battens.
the board.
were usually dowelled to pre\-ent the sagging of
joints
further advance in bracing was the halved-framing of vertical and hori-
zontal, or diagonally arranged, battens, constructed to
and half-mullions were applied
The
later
to enrich the face in
framed doors were constructed
of
form a complete frame.
many
Tracery
instances.
two massive curved
styles,
chosen from
the naturally bent growth of the timber, mortised together at the apex, and with the
bottom
tenoned into them at the base.
rail
Vertical mullions grooved to receive panels
were framed within, and further strengthened by
rails,
halved over the inner face of
the mullions, and either tenoned or dovetailed into the styles.
The framed door with transom

The
which were introduced the

beasts),
figures
of
saints in tabernacled niches

of Christ or the
forms
the
and was, otherwise, similarly constructed.
faces,
with carved quatrefoils, vine-trails
birds
and
Apostles,
and
were decorated, upon their
styles
grotesque
followed,
of
crowned by the
A,
figure
Holy Mother.
Doors can be roughly arranged, chronologically,

in the following order
Laminated boarded.
Laminated boarded with applied mullions.
Boarded and ledgad.
Boarded and
half-jointed
framed on the
inside.
Framed with mullions and
panels.
Framed mullions and panels with transom.

Completely panelled.
As a general
rule,
large
late in the history of
doors with a wicket are
door development.
All these doors copy the traceried

their
time,
tracery
general
patterns
parallel lines.
are
in
of
very
effect,
both
developing
windows
closely,
nearly
of
the
on
Towards the sixteenth century, doors
constructed in a similar
framed with heavy
styles
way
and
to
panellings,
Fig. 235.
OAK DOOR AND FRAMING

rails,
grooved to
(in
Victoria and Albert
Museum
Early English
receive panels.
eentin\-
tN'jies
It
is
at this date that
we
of decoration, the Unenfold
and JVoodwork
Eûrriiture
get the hite-fifteenth
and early-sixtcenth-
and the parchemin panels.
At
all
periods
the donble doors of large size are usually furnished with a smaller door, or wicket, as
Here the
at the Strangers' Hall, Fig. 210.
later
overhanging porch cornice
by grotesque brackets, carved with considerable vigour, shown

Figs. 207 to 209
Needham Market
now
is
show the fifteenth-century types
in Figs. 211
supported
is
and 212.
of chancel or priests' doors.
the older solid construction with heraldic carvings in low relief,
considerably defaced, Barking vestry door has the moulded mullions with applied
tracery between, and
by heavy
Key Church
priest's
door has the vertical moulded ribs secured
iron nails with facetted heads.
The door
Brent Eleigh, Fig. 213,
of
is
of the vertical
boarded kind, iron nailed to a
strong cross-battened framework behind, and with moulded ribs and tracery applied.
Chelsworth south door, Fig. 214,
is
of the
framed mullion type, with quatref oiled band
round, and headed with tracery in the mullion grooves.

in the solid, with signs of niche-work in the
Boxford south door. Fig. 216,
The tracery
band.
is
applied,
is
Earl Stonham,Fig. 2i5,is traceried
upper panels,
cut flush and defaced.
similar to Chelsworth, with the
and the oak appears
same
quatrefoil
to be riven instead of sawn.
217 shows the framing and cross-battening of the back.
a restoration.
no\\-
The lower
rail of
Fig.
the door
Hadleigh south door, Fig. 218, has the same traceried band, on
its
is
outer
framing, but carried vertically into the moulded transom, with some effect of distortion,
as the border continues, in
is
its
full
width, above.
richly carved with figures of saints
vertical
muUions
into a
hea^y bottom
and
angels.
rail, in
Fig. 2iq,
It is
from Stoke-by-Nayland,
framed on the fronts with lorg
long straight
lines,
Michael-at-Plea, Fig. 220, has a mid-fifteenth-century door in
where the
ribs
Fig. 221 from
are lanceolated
Dedham
is
and intersected,
in direct
copy
without transom.
the earlier manner,

of a
Gothic window.
an example of the niched or tabernacle form, where saints
are carved with projecting canopies over, here almost obliterated.

is
St.
the long crocketted stem of 1450.
Below and above
These doors are completely traceried, with a fixed
lunette above the transom, below which the two doors open.
Waldingfield, Fig. 222, has the narrow vertical panels moulded to a central ridge,
the embryonic Unenfold which marks the latter half of the fifteenth century.
same
detail
Fig. 224,
is
may
be noticed in the north door of Boxford, Fig. 223.
of simple
Kersey west door,
framed muUioned type with tracery car\'ed from the
large doors, with wicket, from the ruined castle of
panels completely moulded, with applied
ribs, fixed
Framlingham,
The
solid.
Fig. 225,
with large square-headed
The
have the
nails.
It
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207

remarked, at
will be
this period, that there
church and castle doors, excepting
is
no distinct
line of
demarcation between
the flattening, or four centring of the arched
lor
head.
Stowmarket Church,
Fig. 226, has the early linenfold type of door,
mullions and with sharply ridged panels between.
The back view,
imusual.
Fig. 227,
framed with
The ribboned and niched border
is
shows the half-lapped battening tenoned into the
outer framing, together with the dovetail-jointing of the uprights on the arch-springirg.
Great Bealings, Fig. 228,
framed with broad transom below the lancet-head, with
is
solid-carved tracery and ridged panels.
Two
from the
rich doors
Stoke-by-Nayland doors the
in
years of the sixteenth century are illustrated in Figs.
Both are framed with slender mullions and broad transoms.
229 and 230.
it is
first
di^-iding
bead
whereas
in buttress-form,
is
dawn
turned and richly car^'ed in patterns which suggest the
England.
This
is
the later type of the two, broader
and
at
In the
East Bergholt,
of the
Renaissance
and with
flatter in the arch,
the moulded panels finished in the true linenfold manner, whereas at Stoke-by-Nayland,
merely suggested.
this detail is
Stoke-by-Nayland chancel door. Fig. 231,
con-
is
structed of planks or boards, carved with the linenfold, and with moulded framing
applied,
early
x\ fine
construction in a late door.
pair of linenfold doors from Paycockes, Coggeshall, of the framed early-
sixteenth-century type,
rails
and four upright
is
shown
styles,
in Fig. 232.
At the back
a framing of four cross-
is
tenoned and mortised, the three panels to each door being
On
diagonally cross-braced, the bracings half-lapped to the inside upright styles.

front, the linenfold
figures, of a
is
carved in bold
relief,
and the
side posts are
the
surmounted by two
Crusader and a monk, which support carved and moulded capitals under
the elaborate wall-plate.
The
beautiful door-posts
and brackets.
Fig. 233, are taken
Lavenham, and show the decorative use
Street,
from a house
of figure sculpture, in the
of the timber houses of the last years of the fifteenth century.
The doors
in
Water
enrichment
are of consider-
ably^ later date.
Another
fine
door from Paycockes
an interior door put to an exterior use.
is
given in Fig. 234.
The mason's-mitrirg
It
has the appearance of
of the
moulded
styles
on
the outside framing, and the scribing of the central muntins, can be seen in the illustration.
ings
It
should be unnecessary to point out that the modern method of mitring mould-
by cutting
period.
at their ends to an angle of 45 degrees
was
\-ery rarely practised at this
Cutting one moulding, in reversed profile over another,

208
or scribirg
as
it
is

termed
or butting with square edge and then working the return of the moulding
the mason's-mitre, were practically the only methods which were used
the solid,
woodwork
The modern mitre appears, and then only
of this period.
in
in
in exceptional
instances, towards the middle of the sixteenth century.
To
century belongs the oak door with
this early sixteenth
Church Farm,
Clare, Suffolk, Fig. 235,
which
may
surround, from
its
be taken as a representative specimen
of a timber house door of the unostenta-
The construction
tious kind.
door
is
On
exceptional.
of
this
a framed back
the front boards are nailed, each with a

slight overlap over the next, or clinker-
boarded, to use the technical term, the

left-hand edge of each (that
which
of
the one
not hidden by the overlapping
is
the
is,
moulded with
being
next)
The
scratch-bead.
original iron strap
hinges, which are missing, were cut in
across
the
width
of
the
boards,
at
varying depths according to the forward

projection, as the boards, in cross-section,
are arranged thus
Each board
is
nailed to the framing
behind, with four courses of clout-headed

iron nails.
Tliere
of
are,
course,
no
vertical ribs, as the construction forbids.
may
This series of oak doors
be
closed with the parchemin panel, which

is
contemporary with the
Southwold,
Figs.
parchemin pattern
and
the
linenfold
and
At
237,
the
shown on the
front
236
is
linenfold.
on
unusual degree of enrichment

sixteenth-century door.
back,
the
in
On
an
Fig. 238.
OAK DOOR.
an early-
From Norwich
the front
By
are several pureh* Renaissance motives
Castle
Museum
permission of Frank Leney, Esq
309
Karly English Furniture and JJôodwork

introduced into
two upper
upjier panels,
tlic
cross-rails.
square framed with
two
Fig. 238
\-ertical
cross-rails as follows
\VilHa(m)
Lowth
and on the back the same influence
is
noticeable in the
an interesting door from Norwich Castle Museum,
is
moulded mullions, and with an inscription carved on the
Maria
Prior XV'III
Plena
The
Gracie
Plater
Mis(ericordie)
Remembyr
William Louth, or Lowth, referred to was the
eighteenth Prior of Walsirgham.
We
have progressed, thus
to the (ireat Hall with

ceiling,
and
important
haA-e,
far,
from the timber house with
its
porch and
its
door^
open timber roof and the smaller chamber with carved beamed
thereby, prepared the
in the history of
way
English domestic
next two chapters
for the
woodwork
where
it is
the
most
proposed to deal
with the subject of wall-panellings at some length, and, in a more restricted fashion,
with the growth
in
importance of the staircase, the development of which had the
of radically altering the plan of the
Tudor house, and,
in a lesser degree, its elevation
There are definite types of panelling, both in point of date and
also.
permit of illustration and explanation, whereas this

cases.
It is
not that the latter do not vary
this, staircases are
is
locality,
which
only approximately true of stair-
they differ with every example.
effect
not as plentiful as panellings, for obvious reasons.
Added
to
In the usual
house, one, or at the most, two stairways were sufficient for access to the upper floors,
whereas nearly every room was panelled as a
rule.
It is possible,
them roughly
one
might almost say, the concealed
into the early
and unimportant
nevertheless, to class
the heavy and ornate, and the latest development where the staircase becomes very
refined
and
and delicate
in its proportions.
The
into the eighteenth century, a period
book.
last
phase carries us past the seventeenth
which
is
beyond the scope
of the present
Chapter VIII.
The
T cannot
be
quantity
upon
insisted
responsible
is
English Staircase.
vary accordingly.
that the one
is
in
type,
what we know as
Houses are
quantitative production.
It is
of
only
tliat
and
chairs
it
and the
We
in the proportion of the
have
what
known
is
and
styles, in direct ratio to
in
occasional table, as
woodwork and
of principal
we
rooms
many
Panellings of
to the
house
we reach
a fashion, and with
its
name
a writing-table
implies, has
its
many
uses.
fulfils
No two
show a progression
to illustrate ever\' staircase
decorative qualities, has one function only,

its rise, in size
It is possible,
factors
in
however, e\'en
its
Wenham
stone,
is
if
in the limited
In
is
many
Hall, the stair
is
of
compared
in the
would be neces-
such really existed, which
is
doubtful,
space available here, to give a general

briefly, the
in this direction.
purely utilitarian, a method of access to a floor above

the
Norman
dwellings, as in
Boothby Pagnell and
outside the house, totally unprotected from the weather
other than by a crude pent-roof.

;of
and
important houses of Great Britain.
development
early domestic staircase
from the one below.

Little
of design,
it
importance of the English staircase, and to describe,
which dictated
The
being identical, as a general rule,
in the
of
In tracing the evolution of the
with other woodwork of the house, and, therefore, do not attain to a distinct type
really important examples.
one function, whereas an
Staircases are, from their special character, few in number,
rise
itself,
get ever-recurring types of tables,
space considerations forbid more than an illustrated description of
idea of the
of the
proceeds along two main lines
furniture
Thus
English staircase, which, apart from
sary, in order to
and
single units, as a rule,
similarity, therefore, in
and, with production in quantity,
of decorative value.
importance.
Furniture
as a defined style.
Development
utility
number
to furniture for these rooms,
like,
in
only when they are built in the mass, as in rows or terraces,
a direct copy of others.
and when we come
fashion
production
large houses of a certain period, especially in details, but rarely identity.
rooms multiply
necessary for the inauguration of a fashion.
is
becomes stereotyped,
its
frequently,
development
for
too
In houses and castles built for defence, the stairway,
never conspicuous, being generally concealed
in a separate turret, in the

same way
as the tower stairs are in
many
parish churches, which lead to the belfry,
and
above, to the roof of the tower.

Stairs of this kind
before the
method
nearly always of the central newel or vise description, and
art-
of supporting the staircase
by means
and wedged into a wall-plate with carriages and outside
of risers, cantilevered from,
strings,
was devised, the
or central-newel stair was usual in dwelling-houses, even of the superior kind.
example
characteristic
exists at Hales Place, Tenterden, Kent,
which
risers are fixed into a central newel,
the ground, and reaching from floor to roof.

exist
which have been
round a growing
built
is,
spiral
very
where the treads and
actually, the trunk of a tree, fixed into
In Wales, even at the present day, houses

tree, into
which the
have been housed.
stairs
These staircases have, from their central position, a prominence which was not intentional,
but merely accidental.
The
early
two
parts,
into
Tudor house, with

and two,
if
Great Hall, of roof height, was effectually divided
its
not more staircases were required for access to the upper
floors.
At Pariiham Park there
rises to
a mezzanine floor, which does not exist at the other end of the Hall.
when
are two, ver^- inconspicuous in character, one of
which
only
It is
the Great Hall dwindles in size, and especially in height, that the one principal
and begins
stair serves for the house,
to
assume an importance which
it
had, hitherto,
not possessed.
The entrance door
at Little Wolford, Fig. 239,
opens to the passage dividing the
Great Hall from the buttery and servants' regions, the " skreens " as
stone newel stair
is
shown
At
in Fig. 240.
here (one of several in the house)
is
it is
The
termed.
Breccles, Fig. 241, the staircase illustrated
of oak, the risers being fixed into the wall at
one
end, and into the oak newel-post at the other.
The
years.
stability of staircases appears to
The main
At Durham
Great Chalfield, have treads and
for
many
risers
supported
Chequers Court has also a staircase of
this kind.
stairs at Breccles, as at
on walls or framings at either end.
have troubled the mediaeval builder
Castle the newels are very high, reaching from floor to floor, acting as
direct supports to the stair.
In the early independent staircases, the outside strings are
always needlessly massive, as at the Charterhouse, Chilham and Tissington.
The
problem was sometimes- solved by a supporting spandrel, with posts, on the outside of
the
stair, as at
staircases
strings.
is
Chequers.
begin
to
be
It is
only towards the end of the seventeenth century that
constructed
with
That the necessary strength
shown by the
fact that they
in
and with
open
soffits
underneath
riser,
string
and carriage was provided,
light
have persisted with httle or no sag away from the
Fig. 239.
LITTLE
WOLFORD MANOR, WARWICKSHIRE.
The Screen from the Main Entrance Door.

Fig. 240v
LITTLE
WOLFORD MANOR, WARWICKSHIRE.

The Stone Central-Newel Stairway.
214
The
En(ilish Staircase
side walls, even although, at
newel-post
the
date,
this
had become
purely
almost
ornamental.
Beachampton Farm,
242, has a typical,
some-
if
what ornate, example

oak staircase of the
The newels
years
century.
and
string, all
heavy
by
and beams, with the
posts
strings
of the long flights resting
One
retaining walls.
heraldic newel finials
That
in Fig. 243.
case
an
are massive, with
large handrail
supported
of
first
seventeenth
of the
Fig.
on
of the
is
given
this stair-
original to the small
is
and decayed manor house

which
it
is
at present,
in
The
very doubtful.
which the
lion holds,
royal
device
Tudor
rose.
The
also not
complete
worked
into
shield,
has the
staircase
;
is
crowned
of
in
it is
is
patch-
another
of
simpler and shghter character.
There are numerous instances

of this transplanting of stair-
cases
from larger houses to
dwellings of lesser importance.
One
exists, at Little
HawkenFig
bury Farm, near Pembury,

in
Kent, which
is,
241.
BRECCLES HALL, NORFOLK.
obviously,
Oak Kewel
disproportionate to the house
Staircase.
Mid-sixteer.th century.
215
Early English Eiirniture and JJôodwork

it
the
\Mth the demolition
in.
is
preserwxl,
as
a complete and
state
original
as
somewhat
when
house for which
in the
tlie
town.
it
it
this
in
as
must
It
has been adapted to
ha\-e
been a
fine
example
kind
nearly
fine
and reconstructions, but
clumsily, with man>- additions
remains of the original to show that
refixed
of
Lewes Town Hall has a
possible.
case which was remox'ed from a house in
habitat
removed and
integrity,
their
in
rule,
and
lead
bricks,
stones,
would be treated merelj- as materials, elaborate staircases
like
were
where
houses,
large
of
stair-
its
new
sufftcient
woodwork
of
was made.
Tall newel finials were the usual finish to these early-seventeenth-century staircases.
At Charlton,
Fig. 244, they
have been replaced, with a considerable
The newels
small carved pinnacles.
by
loss of dignity,
are nearly always square, with fiat
ornament
of
strapwork, sometimes interlaced and cut by the carver, and decorated with applied
bosses or split balusters, as at Aston, or
Charlton,
feature of
h.
imitation of applied fretwork, as at
left in
early-seventeenth-century staircases
these
nearly always contrived in a series of short
flights,
as the flights reach from landing to wall.
Even
is
that they are
which impUes a small staircase
hall,
at Wolseley Hall, Fig. 253, the post-
Restoration staircase has this feature of not more than about tweh'e treads divided by
square landings.
century.
The long
At Hemsted,
flight
does not appear, in authentic work, until the eighteenth
Fig. 245,
where the staircase dates from about 1850, and the
balustrades onlj- from the last few years, the long flights look wrong, compared with
the detail of the newel, handrail and pierced panel.
arrangement
is
possible, but in a
been smaller and the long
than the great staircase.
imply turnings
in the
one
it is
method
stair at
of breaking
not unusual to find a long
and
this hall
Hemsted from
no other
would
first
ha\'e
to second
up by frequent landirgs much better
flight
stairs,
landings do not always
broken up by landings and newels
filled
with a panelled spandrel.
possible to illustrate staircases in great numbers,
that particular localities possessed their peculiar types.
can sa3^ that
size,
a rule, the newel-posts are continued to the floor, and the spaces
line, but, as
it
The
With the seventeenth-century
between, below the string,
Were
house of the seventeenth century,
flights avoided.
floors, Fig. 246, illustrates this
In a staircase hall of this
in nearly
it
Unfortunately, although we
every house of importance, the staircase
original to the structure, or
if
is
contemporary with
the contrary be the case, such fact
not always certain that these staircases are
customary, in the erection of
might be discovered
many
of the
century, for wealthy owners to instruct
local, either in
known, we are
design or make.
It
was
important houses during the seventeenth
London
216
is
architects,
who employed
labour from
The English
Fig. 242.
BEACHAMPTON FARM.
The
Staircase.
Date about 1603.
217
Staircase

parts of England often far
house
We know
itself.
JfWoodwork
removed from the
this to
equally with Inigo Jones in the
be the fact
first half,
Wren and
with Thorpe, Kent, Ware, Gibbs,
end
others, at the other
of the seventeenth,
and the early years of the eighteenth

Panelling was
much more
make than was

interior
centuries.
frequently of local
the case with staircases and
woodwork
It is
and
of similar character.
unsafe, therefore, to state, positively,
that a staircase in a Lancashire house, for
example,
is
ship of the neighbourhood.

instance, vary far
than in distinct
in a general
more
localities,
although there are,
way, great differences between
of the later styles,
lighter in construction
much
earlier
new manner
this
districts of
is
and
staircases,
when
become
stairs
and more
proportion, originate in the

at a date
Styles, in this
at different periods
Midland and East Anglian
many
workman-
either of the design or
delicate in
Home
Counties
than the influence of

manifested
other
in
England.
The following examples may be taken

as representative of the great
house manner
of their period, but, as before pointed out,

is
it
unwise to postulate a locality of origin.

Fig.
247
is
a fragment of one
of
the
staircases formerly in the early-seventeenth-
century house of Lyme, before
by Leoni some hundred years
it
was
later.
rebuilt
It
shows
the richly carved and pierced panels of this

date,
framed
between
vertical
moulded
Fig. 243.
BEACHAMPTON FARM.
Enlarged View of the Staircase Newel
mullions.
bearing
21S
The newels
signs,
are coarse, but vigorous,
however,
of
finial
replace-
The
nient.
The balustrade
is
now
fitted to
floor above, containing the present
a short stair from
drawing-room.
tlie
Its
Er/qiish
Staircase
o
central hall to the mezzanine
date
is
about 1603, and
it
may
be given as an example of Cheshire woodwork.
At Thorpe
Hall, Northamptonshire, the staircase,
the seventeenth century,
were solved.
heavy
strings
From
is
interesting as showing
which dates from the middle
how soon
of
constructional problems
the second to the third floors, Fig. 248, the stairs are massive, with
and handrails strongly tenoned into
large newels, in short flights to
minimise any tendency to sag away from the side walls.
Fig. 244.
CHARLTON HOUSE, KENT.

Detail of Staircase on First Landing.
Date 1612-15.
219
Above,
to the top landing,
c
o
bo
Z
Q
U
U
O
J4
Fig. 247.
LYME PARK, CHESHIRE.

Portion of Staircase from the Early-Seventeenth-Centurj- House.
Capt. the Hon. Richard Legh.
221

"Fig. 249, the
construction
is
much more daring
form of a central newel-post with

however,
is
in the air, contri\('(i
risers
in conception,
tenoned into
it.
although based on the old
The outer verge
of the stair,
with shaped strings, in a spiral form, instead of risers
housed, at their other ends, into a wall.
This spiral staircase
of course,
thoroughly
constructional and rigid, but such de])artures from established precedent
show that
great strides had been
examples as
made
this are rare,
in the science of staircase
is,
construction at this date.
but they show, nevertheless, the degree of
skill
Such
which had been
acquired at this period.
Forde Abbey, Fig. 250, has the heavy staircase of

intersecting with the cappings of large newels,
heavy
Fig. 248.
staircase from second to third floors.
222
period, with broad handrail
strings,
THORPE HALL, NORTHANTS.

Date about 1650.
its
and massi\'e carved and
The English
pierced balustrade panels.
Numbers
of these fine staircases can be found in
the large houses of England of this period.
At Tredegar,
a few years later in date, but hardly in style,

in character
ings.
This
distance
and the
may have
had
flights are
this
fine
Figs. 2-51
the piercing of the
and 252,
panels
is
many
which
of
is
more open
unbroken, whereas at Forde they are divided by land-
been due to exigencies of planning, however, where a greater forward
to be traversed to reach the
the stair had to be " less steep in

of
Staircase-
its
Tredegar staircase with
same
height, or, in the familiar parlance, where
going."
Fig. 252
shows the landing detail
vigorous carving of the free
scrolling
in
Hall, in Staffordshire, Fig. 253, these pierced panels are replaced
by
its
the panels.
At Wolseley
Fig. 249.
THORPE HALL, NORTHANTS.

CentraUXewel Staircase at Top Landing.
Date about 1650.
223
Fig. 250.
FORDE ABBEY, DORSETSHIRE.

The Great
Staircase.
Date 1658.
224
Fig. 251
TREDEGAR PARK, MONMOUTH.

The
Staircase.
Date about 1665.

2
225
The Viscount Tredegar.
Early English Eûrniture and Jlôodwork
Fig. 252.
THE TREDEGAR PARK STAIRCASE.

Detail of Landing Newels and Panels.
twisted balusters and the ramps of the handrail are steeper in pitch.
as a
good example
One
detail, that of panelling the walls
many
be made, in
first
of the
all cases,
wooden
many
elevation
for
many
some degree
is
years,
and
will
be
Large allowances must
of uniformity
might have occurred,
aim was an agreeable, imposing or symmetrical

itself.
It is impossible, otherwise,
where the distance from the
so great as to render a hot dish on the table an
warming up
of these great staircases
many
the staircase hall been designed
defects, such as at Nostell Prior3\
impossibility without an interim
many
it,
Had
the interior planning had to take care of
kitchens to the State dining-room
that
itself, persists for
planning exigencies.
of the great houses the chief
to account for
be taken
with a dado capped with a semi-handrail,
staircases of the next century.
and the house planned round
but in
may
of the post-Restoration period.
following the lines of that of the staircase
found in
It
have had
226
in transit.
to be
It is
small wonder, therefore,
awkwardly or ingeniously contrived,
The
Fig.
253
WOLSELEY HALL, STAFFS.

The
Staircase.
Date about 1670.
227
Eriqlish
Staircase
o
Fig. 254.
CASTLENAU HOUSE, MORTLAKE (NOW DESTROYED).

A
Date about 1680.
Portion of the Staircase.

Victoria and Albert
Museum.
The English
Staircase
o
with the result that
is
it
surprising they do
an even
not vary to
greater degree than
is,
actually, the case.
There
is little
pur-
pose to be served by
number
illustrating
which
examples,
of
would only prove
and no
point,
Fig.
other.
shows
254
this
the
graceful staircase which
became
fashionable,
especially
in
towards
houses,
end
the
of the seventeenth
The handrail
century.
is
London
and
delicate,
newel
slight
the
and grace-
The moulding
ful.
the former
is
of
mitred to
form
this is
no longer a part
of
capping, but
newel
the
itself.
Both treads and

are
taken
above
the
moulded
risers
through
string,
in
returns, each
with a carved spandrel

underneath. The string
also
is
classical
slight,
with a
frieze-mouldFig. 255.
ing section worked on

it.
The balusters
31
OLD BURLINGTON STREET, LONDON, W.

The
are
Date about 1730.
Staircase.
Messrs.
229
Lenygon and Morant.
Early English Fia-niturc and JVoodwork
but
all
from
half
of the
31,
There
with
turned
slender,
is
Old
same
scarcely
sweeps round
pattern.
Burlington
Fig.
255,
a bold
in
latter a great \-ariety
is
volute,
example fixed three to a
this
which
closes
this
series,
is
in
type observable during a space
and
is
finishes
as
of
The
last
this,
supported on a cluster of balusters.
two
stairs
have the buU-nosed
It is possible
a specialised industry
of
but
In the
finish of the time,
many
that the
of the older streets radiating
making
of staircases of this type
in the first years of the eighteenth century.
more
Staircases of
perhaps not so rich or important, can be found in
the houses in this locality and in

Street.
upwards
capping to a newel,
usually found on the last stair only instead of the two, as in this example.
Oxford
century-.
obtained by placing three to a stair-tread, as before, but here
each of a different pattern.
very similar pattern to
stair,
the staircase
which dates from the early eighteenth
Street,
any variation
in
The handrail no longer
century.
reeded twists,
fine
manv
of
from Holborn and
may have become
This
is
suggested by
the use of the same patterns in the turning, fluting or twisting of balusters, the mouldings
of handrails
and
strings,
and
in the
carving of the foliated spandrels fixed under the
exposed return of the stair-treads immediately above the outside
To
illustrate
examples of
as for the balustrades,

stairs,
by
beyond
this point,
would be
wood was frequently replaced by wrought
stone, especially in houses of importance.
beyond the scope

confined.
staircases,
string.
of our material as well
as
of the
To show
useless, especially
iron
and
for the
these would carry us
period to which this book
is
Chapter IX.
Wood
HE
Panellings and Mantels.
wainscotting of the walls of rooms, in secular houses, with wood,
appears to be an innovation of the later years of the fifteenth century.

It
is
difficult
and
features,
any woodwork other than by
to date
it
is,
its
decorative
therefore, only possible to say that the earliest
types of wainscotting consist of narrow vertical boards, overlapping
on their edges, or " clinker-built,"
to
walls with large clout-headed nails.
This clinker-boarding
use the shipwright's term,

is
fastened
to the
seldom of more than dado-
height and usually has a half-round or simple moulded capping (see Figs. 266 and 267).
The next stage

and pinned
in the evolution
is
a framing of styles and
at the joints, with panels fixed in grooves.
kind there are top and bottom, but no intermediate
on their
face,
with intermediate
same
linenfold develops at the
may
In the
rails,
rails, is
tenoned, mortised
first
examples of
and the panels
with either an embryonic or an actual linen-folding
this to the small panel,
It
rails,
are
moulded
From
(see Fig. 260).
a rapid step, and the pattern of the
time.
be worth while to speculate as to the reasons
why oak
their appearance at such a late stage in the history of English
the end of the fifteenth century, and
why they
panellings
woodwork
as almost
It is
impossible to imagine
that they introduce the tenoned-and-mortised framing into English carpentry

in the case of
centuries before.
outer framing
is
we
is
not later than about 1320, the
constructed with tenons and mortises, secured to the vertical backnails.
panelling than of a door
This example has more the appeara:nce of a section of
with the necessary duplication, a room could easily have
been wainscotted with the repetition of
this pattern.
Framed
panellings, therefore,
possibilities as early as the first years of the fourteenth century, jêt
none appear to have been made
must be a reason
In the
Church woodwork, that framing was known and practised
Thus, in the door. Fig. 256, which
boarding with large iron
were potential
make
begin with crude clinker-boardings,
evolving, only at a later stage, into properly framed panellings.
know, especially
this
first
for at least a century
and a
half afterwards.
There
for this, and, in all probability, there are several.
place,
refinement, until the
the ecclesiastical establishments led the
first
quarter of the sixteenth century, and

231
way
it is
in
luxury and
in clerical
houses

that one would look for early examples of panellings.
nothing between the \ast refectory, or
na\-e,
But
was
here, as a rule, there
and the small room or
In the
closet.
Mith walls of stone,
former,
often enriched with columns or

arcadings, panellings
and
impossible,
a
much more
would be
in the latter,
decorative and
wall-covering was at
efficient
hand, in tapestries
Had
hangings.
or
Arras
the art of the
tapestry-weaA'er not been
and
appreciated,
centuries, there
that
panellings
made
much
fostered,
and
fourteenth
the
so
in
fifteenth
is little
doubt
would
have
appear-
earlier
ance than the}' actually did.
From
of
the will of William
W3'keham we
get an idea
of the furnishings of
an opulent
and luxury-loîng prelate at

the
of
close
fourteenth
the
To the Bishop
century.
of
London, Robert Bra^^brooke,

he
the whole suite of
lea\-es
tapestry
the
his palace at
there
is
walls of
Winchester, and
no doubt
all
from
hangings
that
the
the principal rooms,
including the bedchamber were

,
hung
ins.
high by 4
ft.
So much
Royal palaces were
OAK DOOR.
ft.
manner.
for the high

oj of this date.
G clergy
Fig. 256.
in this
J ins. wide.
Late thirteenth or fourteenth
larly
fumished,
and
simi-
there
centurj-.
Victoria an 1 Albert
232
Museum,
is
great
probability
that
JVood Panellings and Mantels

from France and the
tapestries, chiefly
commencement
in rich houses, at the
With the Great
felt,
Countries, were the usual wall-coverings,
of the fifteenth century.
Hall, of vast size,
would not be keenly
Low
and often stone-built, the bareness of walls
and the smaller rooms were nearly always Arras-hung,
know from contemporary
records.
With timber
buildings, however,
as
we
where spaces
between the oak studs were

filled
with clay and chopped
straw on a rough willow

lathing,
finished
with
off
a skin of plaster, wooden
became almost
panellings
a logical necessity, in the
That
absence of tapestries.
many
decorations in imi-
tation of tapestries, such as
painted hangings of linen or
canvas were used, we know
from numerous records

and
inventories,
ferences
where
" painted " or
to
" steynid cloths" are
King Henry IV,
of
"By
Mistress Quickly says:

this
heavenly ground
on,
must be
both
my
my
bers " ;
for
pawn
and
the
dining cham-
which Falstaff
to
" Glasses,
replies,
tread
fain to
plate
tapestry of
is
fre-
Thus, in the second
quent.
part
re-
glasses,
the only drinking
and
thy walls, a pretty slight

Fig. 257.
drollery, the story of
Prodigal,
hunting
2
or
in
the
the
PORTION OF PAINTED DECORATION ON PLASTER
BETWEEN STUDDINGS.
German
water- work,
Late sixteenth centun'.

is
Colchester Jluseum.
233
Ea?'/y English Furniture
and
JWoodwork
Fig. 258.
PAINTED FRIEZE ON PLASTER.

Pate about 1640.
ft.
61
high by
ins.
Victoria and Albert
7 ft. 4 ins. long.
Museum.
worth a thousand of these bed-hangings and

fly-bitten tapestries."
It is
these
doubtful whether Shake-
speare was not taking a Uberty with probabiUties in

this
speech of Mistress Quickly, as tapestries would
not have been used as wall-hangings in the dining-
room
"
an inn, but with these painted cloths,
of
in
water-work," he would have been well acquainted,
as they
of
must have been
in general use, to hide walls
timber and plaster, in the late sixteenth century.
Crude wall paintings, usually executed

oil
colour,
must
also
have been usual, especially
the eastern counties of England,
^^'ith
in
subsequent
modern paper-hanging,
panelling, whitewashing or
it is
in flat
not remarkable that few have been discovered,
but there
reason to suppose that in Essex and
is
Suffolk they were general, in the fifteenth-century
timber house of the lesser
An
example, from Colchester Museum,
here in Fig.
Maynard.
257,
by the courtesy
Colchester, in 1910,
Ipswich,
who
wall of the
Fig. 259.
ft.
3 ins. high
by
ft.
wide.
Late sixteenth century.

Victoria and Albert JIuseum.
thin
at
shown
Guy
Mr.
Hill
House on North
it
to the
room was decorated

plaster
" wattle-and-daub "
Hill,
by Mr. Thomas Parkington
presented
coating of
spread
Museum.
in this
over
of
Every
way, on a
the
between the oak studs.
decorations of this kind were,

234
of
is
This was discovered behind wall-paper
and deal panelling
PAINTED WALL DECORATION ON PLASTER.
class.
rough
Mural
possibly, used
to
Wood
and Mantels
Panellings
cover the plaster, in the interior of timber houses, at a very early date.
house
is
demolished, no care
is
\Mien a timber
taken, for ob\'ious reasons, to strip the whitewash or
paper to the bare plaster, and numbers of these painted walls must have been hacked
The Colchester Museum example
down.
is
very late in the sixteenth century, and
painted in nine colours, black, yellow, orange, red, brown,
and dark green.
The
cruder,
and
possibly, earlier
white, having the appearance of stencils, but
Walden Museum
is
\-iolet,
pale blue, pale green
examples are usually
drawn with the
is
free
hand.
in black
and
At Saffron
a portion of a wall of studding and plaster where the monotone
design has considerable decorative merit.

Figs. 258
and 259
are from the Victoria
and Albert Museum.
The
first is
a frieze
or band, in the pure Italian manner of the later sixteenth century, probably imitating
the fresco paintings of that time, or the embossed and painted leathers which were only
used
in
'
"
Maynard.
important houses.
On some
It
would hardly be expected that these mural decorations
early domestic decorative wall-paintings recently found in Essex."
Miller Christy
and Guv
Essex Archaeological Society, Trans., Vol. XII.
Fig. 260.
PORTION OF OAK GREAT HALL SCREEN.

See Fig. 261.
Late'fifteenth century.
235
Mrs. D'Ovlev.
English Ftdrniturc and JVoodwork
Ec7?'/y
would be
as early as their models, or, in
houses in which they are found.

century.
It is
Fig. 259
the model
is
is
many
This frieze
executed with considerable

earlier,
is
cases, that
of about the middle of the seventeenth
artistic skill.
from the late sixteenth century, and cruder in every way.
the tapestry cartoon, and the inspiration
meated by Flemish
That painted
they would be as old as the
influence, as one
cloths,
would expect
still
Italian,
but strongly per-
at this period.
in imitation of the lordly tapestry, or mural paintings, were
the usual attempts, in timber houses of the poorer class, to relieve the bareness of
and
plaster, there
panellings
came
is
little
into general use in the
farmhouses
in
more opulent secular houses,
Kent,
it is
all
is
is
Whether these
doubtful.
another point in connection with panellings which must not be forgotten.
Elevation
Htrbcrt Coaci nAky
some
not exceptional to find the principal living-room
boardings have a claim to such antiquity

is
equally certain.
times, although, in
chnker-boarded, in the primitive manner of the late fifteenth century.
There
wood
doubt, and that these substitutes were employed long after
Wainscotting of oak must have been an expensive luxury at

of the older
Here
c>F(2ase
halp
c?Fv/&r.een-
c/E6Tl<aM
TMlÛCH
THE<^KI?-EEN5-
M- 10 2
Fig. 261.
SUGGESTED RECONSTRUCTION OF THE GREAT HALL SCREEN,

236
FIG. 260.
JJôod Panellings
as
had, no doubt, a great effect in retarding their evolution.
it
was
fifteenth century
Oak was
rarely seasoned, as
many
years, even
from an examination of the sag and warp
see,
The oak timber
of the
the term at the present day.
often used, as in roof timbers, in such large scantling, that to dry each baulk
thoroughly would have taken
wood was by no means dry when

selected, but
was
it
have warped
and
few months.
if it
had been possible
many
It
at
all.
We
of these large timbers, that the
was often quartered, and
carefully
Thin panels must have presented some
situ.
to
have used
can
" green " panel-stuff, as
it
diffi-
would
after
split
It
in
was used.
was impossible
it
it
season in
left to
culties in this respect
we understand
and Mantels
also
is
probable that the makers of
were
panellings
same plane
who
the
as the carpenters
were
Church
on
not
responsible
woodwork,
for
and
seasoned oak, in thin boards,
may
not have been at their
service
until
century,
fifteenth
if
intended
the
in
late
especially
secular
for
use.
Thin panels of oak are to be

found
in the bases of chancel
screens,
been
and these must have
the figures
were
them,
long
seasoned,
carefully
Saints,
of
which
frequently painted
would
have
In
since.
or
on
perished
fact,
for
nearly a century before wallpanellings appear, they exist,

potentially,
dry
in
oak
of
panel-thickness and in a know^'S- 262.
ledge of framing with tenoned

.
and mortised jomts, coupled

with a real
purpose
to
OAK LINENFOLD PANELLING FROM COGWORTHY FARM,

yarnscombe, near barnstaple.
be
237
'
b.
.
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>
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mtm^"Â
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Q
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<
idiAji
pJTT
Q
" -"
r-
"
s'
--
,:-..
-,.
i=
<
'
(
- '-'-
-T::OTT.T-y,4I.
^-r >J
1
* --*iMMiaQiipwpwiwMlipili
te-sa
Kiwij
annaiKni^^nmmvimin
,.
Wmf I
"
II
eg
,;
===S;
wff wp ai lff iMWgtW^WWWWJIjWWWWBWWWPW^
pwpwwmiw^By^ppwiWLjmt.
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<N
Fig. 267.
Fig. 266.
LAVENHAM GUILD HALL, THE PORCH.

Oak moulded
wainscotting.
t
'1
JCALE OF
oi
I. ..'...
Fig. 268.
SECTIONAL DETAIL OF THE OAK WAINSCOTTING ABOVE.

239
Inched

As
served in relieving the bareness of walls of stone or timber and plaster.
remarked
later on, in the instance of the
every reason to
box-makers,
the
makers
belie\"e that
arose
of
the
new and
at the close
first
of
development
lesser class of
will
be
of the chest or coffer, there
woodworkers,
the
is'
huchers, or
the fifteenth century, and they were, probably,
wainscotting in secular houses.
responsible for the structural timber work,
and was employed
The carpenter was
still
for the high-class interior
joinery in wealthy houses.
The
late fifteenth-century
Great Hall screen, a fragment of which
is
shown
in
Fig. 269.
OAK-PANELLED ROOM FROM PAYCOCKES, COGGESHALL, ESSEX.

Noel Buxton. Esq.
240
Wood
Fig. 260,
is
Panel!ifws and Mantels
a typical example of high-grade carpentry of
taken before
was
it
its
reconstruct
difficult to
This photograph was
restored, be^'ond recognition as a Great Hall screen,
West-comitry joiner of greater vigour than knowledge.

not
period.
it,
in
As
it
imagination, and in Fig. 261
is
by a former
illustrated here,
it is
shown
it is
hypo-
in its
thetically original state.
The design
is
typical of
from the Old Manor House
its
of Brightleigh, N.
are painted with the arms of Gifford.
the simple to the elaborate, are

here, the screen
hand
section
is
and the work
period,
shows evidences
shown
is
Devon, the shields
The three stages

in
of high quality.
each panel.
of restoration.
in the central portion
of the linenfold pattern,
Even
in the state as illustrated
Thus the left-hand panel
That the central fragment
suggested in the drawing)
is
shown by the
is
of the right-
only one-half of the original
fact that the right-hand
muntin
portion shows the
commencement
of the springing of the door-arch.
nearly as elaborate as the one shown here, and
this, in
is,
(as
really,
The left-hand
a complete central mullion, in which case three panels are missing.
is
from
reversed, with the simple form at the top, instead of the bottom, as in
every other instance.
of the screen
Originally
The
reverse side
conjunction with
the small spy-holes in the upper portion of the last two panels, show, conclusively, that
it
was a Great Hall screen
at their bases,
Many
of panels.
The panels and mullions have rotted
and the threshold has perished.
theories
It
in its original state.
have been advanced as
to the origin of the linenfold in the decoration
has been suggested, with some plausibility, that the device
J
tv,^
Fig. 270.
OAK MOULDED PANELLING.

241
may have
been

copied from the curling of the parchment, which was frequently glued to the backs of
painted panels to stiffen them, and as some security against cracking.
Parchment,
being somewhat of a greasy nature, would not adhere readily to an oak panel, and would
have a tendency
linenfold.
and
it
is
to curl
up from
outside edges, and thus present the form of a simple
Decorative devices of this kind, however, have nearly always a useful basis,
more reasonable
to
suppose that the
and from thence, by carving
imitated as a form of ornament.
sawing of panel
stuff
first
panels were
made with
a central
which developed, gradually, into the vertical moulded
stiffening ridge (as in Fig. 223)
panel,
its
and curling
at each end, the folding
There
is
no doubt
that,
by
was not performed with any great degree
a thin panel acquired a stability which
it
its use,
of linen
was
especially as the
of accuracy at this period,
would not, otherwise, have possessed.
The
Fig. 271.
OAK PANELLING FROM A FARMHOUSE AT KINGSTONE, NEAR TAUNTON (NOW DESTROYED).

3
ft.
2f
ins.
high by 4
ft.
7J ins. wide.

Victoria and Albert
242
Museum.
IVood
sawing
wood must have been a
of thin
teentli century.
smooth on
tlieir
some
difficulty,
even
and Mantels
in tlie early
seven-
to find panels, as late as 1640, riven instead
external faces only.
" lin enfold " should not be used to describe these early vertically-moulded
The term
panels, even
by no means unusual
It is
of sawn, and rubbed
task of
Pancllino^s
when
the ends of the alternate rib-and-hollow are cut into decorative shapes.
Thus
Figs. 262
not.
Actually, in the progression of types, the true linenfold
and 263
are typical linenfold patterns, whereas Figs. 264
not necessarily imply that vertically-moulded panels
is
and 265 are
the later, but this does
are, in reality, earlier in
date than
those carved in the representation of folds of linen, but merely that the original type
and overlaps with
persists,
There are two
the later one.
kinds
moulded
of
which
cotting
always
nearly
are
the
of
wains-
fifteenth,
rarely of the sixteenth cen-
tury
both of a primiti\'e
type which does not continue

for
many
and the
The
years.
earliest, is a
first
form of
wainscotting, without framing,
where the
\-ertical
are moulded,
ridge, hollow
in
boards
usually
with
and quirk-bead
succession,
half -lapped,
with rebates at the
joins,
and
fixed to the walls, generally
with
nails, giving the
appear-
ance of one large moulded

panel to each side of
the
room, the quirk-beads rendering the lap-joints,

less, invisible.
more or
An example
Fig. 272.
of this kind can be seen in
Lavenham Guild
OAK DOORS.
Hall, Figs.
266,
267
and
268.
The
Albert Cubltt, Esq.
24]

boarding
stiffened
is
by a capping
a small skirting, neither of which

here.
documents
this
method
of boarding
The other
which
early type
is
used, in
it is
usually
implied.
shown
is
in the
room
Here the panels
from Paycockes, Fig. 269.

are high, divided only
is
original,
is
the term " wainscotting "
When
and
rail
by one
central
rail,
the
mouldings a succession of hollows and sharp

ribs,
spear-pointed at top and bottom.
This
kind of decorative panelling gives a greater
appearance of height to a low room than
it
The small scratch-mouldings,
actually possesses.
on the styles and
rails,
in this panelling, are
generally mason's-mitred, that
is,
the rails are
butted square into the styles and the mouldings

turned and mitred with the carver's gouge, to
meet those on the vertical muntins,

mason's fashion.
in the stone-
Occasionally, but rarely, these
high moulded panels are merely cut

to allow of
off
square,
them being grooved into the framing,
with the projecting ribs merely chamfered off

so as not to project, unduly, over the framing-
mouldings.
Fig. 270
is
an interesting fragment, as the
breakage shows the construction quite clearly.
Only the
vertical styles are scratch-moulded
the rails are square on the lower
and bevelled
on their upper edges, with the muntins scribed

over them.
It
will
be seen, that
with the
rebating of the \'ertical mouldings at the top

Fig. 273.
and bottom,
OAK PANELLING.
The type which was used concurrently with the
panel in
its
to allow of
the insertion of the
grooves, the fiat
fillet
which flanks
liuenfold patterns.
each panel necessitates square-sectioned
W. Smedley
Aston, Esq.
so as not to overhang in sharp butt-edges.

244
rails,
IVood Pancllirws
o and Mantels
many
Fig. 271 has
from the geometrical ornament
The panel
capping
of the
form of creased parchment tubes, cut

the illusion.
which indicate the
characteristics
The panels
rail.
end only
at the top
late fifteenth century, apart
in a
are moulded, in the
sharp chamfer to heighten
bottom over the base-moulding.
projects at the
that this system of stiffening panels with vertical ribs
It is possible
Early panels are generally stout and of uneven
originated in quite a simple way.

thickness, especially
when
the
may have
wood
rixen instead of sawn.
is
gauge at the outer edges, to allow of their insertion
To reduce
to an equal
in framing-grooves, these panels
were
chamfered, at the back, this being easier than attempting to reduce the entire panel to
The same method
an even thickness.
is
panels, these chamfers are, frequently, so

grain,
meet
method
resulted in a
that those
flat,
panel centre at the back, in a
in the
followed at the present day, but in the early
marked
ri rr 11
j-fij.
worked
It
rib.
stiffening of the panel, as
rjjjj-Tn
rf'i
i;i
11
ui'i
1'l
\~\-\
vertically, or with the
would be noticed that
compared with one
of even
O-TV
M.
03
Cm- ^
Fig. 274.
PANELLING
IN
THE AISLE OF THE CHURCH OF
Showing the influence which affected the panelling
in
England
ST.
VINCENT, ROUEN.
of the period of
Henry VIII.
From
245
a drawing
this
by Herbert Cescinsky.
Early English Fûrniture and JJôodwork
Fig. 275.
OAK PANELLING.
Date about 1520-40.
Great Fulford, Devon.
246
JVood Panclling^s
o and Mantels
throughout
thickness
and the idea would probably occur to put this

ridge on the front of the
panel, and
make
to
it
ornamental device.
an
Boxford door, Fig. 223,
shows that some such

evolution must actually
have taken
here
rib
place, as the
hardly
is
decoration at
This
all.
central ridging also de-
velops in another directhat
in
tion,
the
of
parchemin panel, Figs.
Here the
272 and 273.

instead
ribs,
of
being
and
through
taken
carved, at their extreme

ends, in such devices as
the curls of folding linen,

are
diverted, in ogival
form, to the corners of

the panels.
is
The
result
a broad diaper effect,
the
patterns
being
broken only by the

styles
and the
space
left
ribs, in
rails.
The
by the double
shape similar to
the vertical section of
an aubergine, Fig. 272,
was
decorated
Fig. 276.
in a
OAK PANELLING.
variety of ways, by ten-

247
"
'""
'"
y.
fSl-">^^
a
CO
CCl
<
^Sv5:^^^S#^
'
^gasaps^
<
O
X
o
ce
u
z
J
u
z
<
T^
'^''^^^))<:jj
''
-'A:
/^
=;
<
o
\<y.-'
1
<^^Z^:iry^
be
g^.Â^/^
I
248
oj
in

drils of
vine and bunches
Renaissance ornament.
of
grapes,
as
in
Fig.
273,
or with purely
That the parchemin, and the verticaUy-moulded panel
hnenfold description, both have a

rib, is
by cusping,
common
of the
origin, in the decorative use of a central
almost certain.
The moulded and the
linenfold panels occur, during the early sixteenth century,
in conjunction with Renaissance motives,
sometimes the linenfold being used
lower and the cartouche and Itahan ornament for the upper
The subject
plicated one.
tiers of panels.
of the introduction of the Italian Renaissance into
That the
first
for the
notable expression of this manner was the
England
tomb
of
is
com-
Henry VII
Fig. 279.
OAK PANELLING FROM A HOUSE AT WALTHAM.

Enlarged
detail.

Victoria and Albert
249
Museum.
.lllMMtlTir"*:".'^-
Fig. 280.
THE OAK-PANELLED ROOM FROM WALTHAM.

in
Chapel
the
Victoria and Albert JIuseum.
Westminster Abbey,
of
which bears his name,
is
the style was un-
known
before,
is
finished
styled
to
in
the
Torrisany, as he
who was
England,
this
own
mer-
may
tomb
was
preferred
Master
craftsman.
Royal
first
of a
fortune, Pietro Tor-
Peter
King's
the
Pageny,
as
or
some
until
The work
later,
cenary soldier of
rigiano
pro-
death of Henry VII
although not
years
eight
England
in
tomb was
This
doubtful,
jected before the

in 1509,
probable, but that
be regarded
patronage of the
new
The Renais-
sance of Italy, here,
reaches
England
uninfluenced by the
manners
of
style.
Devon,
other
parts
Sussex, and
hood
of
Hampshire
of
cspeci-
Rye,
but
countries,
alh' in the
many
in
and
neighbour-
examples of Renais-
sance ornament can
be
woodwork of the first
year or two of
sixteenth
where the influence
of
of
France
century,
unmis-
is
commerce
or
of
Fig. 281.
found,
takable.
DOOR OF THE OAK-PANELLED ROOM

FROM WALTHAM.
in
oak
the
In matters
war fare, England and
France were
in close
Victoria and Albert
250
Museum.
relationship
during
Wood
nearly the whole of the fifteenth century.
whereas
with
the
Torrigiano
Italian
It
is,
therefore, not surprising to find, that,
ornament
permeated through France into England at a

earlier date,
The
was
later,
introduced
and possibly
direct,
at a
it
also
somewhat
independently of the work of Italian craftsmen or designers.
There are two other de\'elopments

here.
and Mantels
Panellings
style also filters
of the
through the
Low
Renaissance which are worthy of notice
Countries into England, the more refined,
the Burgundian or ^^'alloon expression, into the East Anglian counties, and a typically
Dutch or Flemish interpretation being adopted by the midland

Western Yorkshire, parts
of Cheshire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire
at the close of the sixteenth century,
jewel
work
of
Home Counties.
Hall may be cited
by the
which Aston Hall and Speke
Thus we haê the Renaissance ornament expressed

period, in four different
counties, Lancashire,
manners
in
and Somerset, and
This
as
is
the strap-and-
prominent examples.
England, almost at the same
the pure Italian, the Franco-Italian, the Walloon-
Fig. 282.
OAK PANELLING FROM BECKINGHAM HALL, TOLLESHUNT MAJOR,

6
ft.
by 9 ft.
Dated 1546.
4 ins. high
ESSEX.
7 ins. wide.
Victoria and Albert
Museum.
Early English Fu7yiiture and Jfôodwoj-k

Italian
ami the Dutch-Italian.
So sharply are these divided, that
to state, in earh" examples, that the first
second
in
found
in
work
of the
reasonably safe
London craftsmen, the
Western Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset and Devon, the third
Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex
and
is
it is
\\'elsh
Towards the seventeenth century the
bordering counties.
of the Italian
ornament tend
and Eastern Kent, and the fourth
to coalesce, until, at the
with some marked exceptions,
we get
in the
Midland
se\'eral versions
end of the reign of Elizabeth,
homogeneous
Southern
in
style
which
may
be
known
as
Tudor- Jacobean, with the Dutch-Italian version of the Renaissance markedly in the
In the examples
ascendant.
Dutch and Walloon,
shown
the following pages, however, these French,
in
or Burgundian, influences
may
be traced even in woodwork of the
middle or late seventeenth century.

Fig. 274
town which
Premiere.
given here as an actual example of the French Renaissance, from Rouen,
is
is
especially rich in Italian ornament, or in the style
Here the panelling
is
in four distinct stages.
known
as Frangois
The base above the
skirting
Fig. 283.
OAK LINENFOLD PANELLING.

5
ft.
6i
ins.
high.
252
J.
Dupuis Cobbold, Esq.
IVood Panellings
o and Mantels
is
V-grooved
in line
lower panels are
tall
with the styles of the
and
suspended from ribbons.
The
and half-balusters are fixed

dentilled capping-rail.
foliated scrolls
carved with
and
initials.
stage of the panelling above.
slender, enriched with the Italian
The devices adopted are cartouches
only.
by a
first
tier
Above
is
The two
one of the
in
figures, centred at intervals
with laurelled cartouches and bosses
For excellence
panels are exactly alike.

is
Vincent panelling
is
of design
work
of
Burgundy,
is
by no means the
of
Jean Goujon
apparent.
earliest
style
is
clearly noticeable in the panelling
from Great Fulford
in
Although
example
Renaissance in France, reckoned within the narrow limits of a decade or
same
and
unrivalled in Rouen, as an expression of
which another influence, that
finest, this St.
stages are divided
a broad frieze, carved with a running pattern of
the pure Renaissance manner, with the single exception of the
Maclou
upper part
above has every panel entirely covered with ornament,
execution this panelling from St. Vincent
in St.
in the
and moulded tablets
of various shapes,
to cover each upright muntin.
No two
ornament
These
twô.
of the
The
Devon, Fig. 275.
Fig. 284.
DETAIL OF THE LINENFOLD PANELLING,

Frieze sight 25 ins.
by 4I
ins.
Panels 8
ins.
wide.
FIG. 283.
Muntins
3 ins.
J.
253

Much
of
tliis
lias
remains to sliow
been added to at quite recent date, but enough of the original work
its
typically French character.
There
Rouen, but here broken up by half-balusters, which are

of the
upper
tier of panels, in the
same way
of circular cartouches, carved with
is
the
same kind
also used to cover the
as in the St. Vincent work.
heads and devices,
of frieze as at
is
muntins
The ornament,
quite in the French
with two rows of the English verticalh--moulded linenfold panels below.
manner
There are
Fig. 285.
THE STUDY PANELLING FROM HOLYWELLS, IPSWICH.

(Ex Tankard Inn).
8
ft.
II ins. high,
ilid-sixteenth century.
J.
254
Dupuis Col bold, Esq.
JVood Panclltriors and Mantels

on
carved
various
dates
panels,
which suggest
that
extended over a period

twenty' years.
has
Fig. 276
additions.
style
and
is
work
the
more than
of
The same system
adopted
been
original
the
of dating
modern
with
the
of the
same general
The
about the same date.
of
variations in the moulding of the three

tiers
of
panels should be noted as an
interesting
We
detail.
same device adopted

260.
have seen the
in the screen, Fig.
Above and below,
the finish
is
the
spear-head, but the central panels
are
carved in
the
folds
of
close
linen.
representation
Between the
of
foliated
Fig. 287.
DETAIL OF THE PANELLING,
FIG. 285.
panels are half-balusters, of semi-octa-
gonal
scribed
section,
at
bottom
the
over the top chamfer of the cross-rail,

the upper
row
from the
rail
ornament
of the
delicate
cotting,
of
muntins being
upper panels
than
Sussex
is
Fig. 286.
DETAIL OF THE STUDY PANELLING,
made
for the
house
FIG. 285.
So
255
much
it
fine
The
more
work
Devon-
of
doubt that the
Httle
if
back
wains-
the
of
panelling from Great Fulford

original county,
is
Fulford
the
in
suggestive more
There
set
that purpose.
for
than
Eastern
shire.
of
is
in
its
was not actually

it
is
in at present.
woodwork was looted

from churches
shortlx'
after 1650, however, that
it
unwise to be positive on such
is
points.
The panelhng from Waltham,

Figs. 277 to 281,
may
now
in Essex,
and Albert Museum,
in the Victoria
be cited as the pure ItaUan expression of the Renaissance, almost
without influence from either France or the
Low
Here the new manner,
Countries.
introduced directly from Itah^ by Torrigiano in 1509-17,
is
rendered with great
but with sufficient of the former Gothic influence remaining,

panels in Fig. 277, and in the
establish the fact that some,
if
first,
not
and fourth
third
all,
of this
same
of the
woodwork
is
the panels from
as
278
to
Numbering
make.
and from top
to right,
bottom, we have from
the four upper
tier in Fig.
of English
left
in
fidelity,
to
and
to 12 in Fig. 277,
-I
from 13 to 27
are
shown
Nos. 10, 11 and 12
in Fig. 278.
studj' of the panels in Figs. 275
show the great

these,
\\'ith
in larger detail in Fig. 279.
and 276
will
differences in the inspiration of
compared with
work
close
as far
this \\'altham panelling.
removed
in origin as
Sussex or
Devonshire on the one hand, and a place which

is,
suburb of London,
at the present day, almost a
we would expect
marked
to find such
Of the panels, as numbered above

reference,
i, 2, 3, 4,
and 16
13, 15
workmen, brought
Torrigiano
directh',
to
this
or
Italian
country either by
who
followed
in
his
may have been responsible for the designing,

much
of the actual
work
of these panels,
if
not
is
probable, but the design of the door, Fig. 281,
is
English beyond question.
Of the
nothing
is
origin of this elaborate wainscotting,
known with recorded
the panels were, originally, in

FIG. 285.
8, ii, 14,
That the
a trace of French inspiration.
DETAIL OF THE PANELLING,
Italian
26 and 27 are purely Italian without
18, 21, 25,
Fig. 288.
easy
for
are
with strong English influence, whereas
train,
variation.
is
unquestionable.
256
The}-
certainty.
That
Waltham Abbey,
were removed from
Fig. 289.
OAK PANELLING AND DOOR

Door panels iiA
ins.
by yi
THE STUDY AT HOLYWELLS.
IN
ins. sight.
Overdoor
ft.
4 ins.
by
ft.
gi
ins.
J.
2 L
257
Dupuis Cobbold, Esq

a house in the town, to the Mctoria and Albert
that they were taken

1760.
up
It
is
from
the.
Museum
How
they came into
Waltham Abbey
when
was a wealthy
prelate,
Abbot
of
Waltham and
the
Museum
not so certain.
is
made
suggested that Robert Fuller, the last abbot, had them
his
is
noted that they were purchased by the town at this date, and
acquired them.
and
it
known
Abbej^ buildings, when they were demolished in
the house from which they were finally taken,
in
1889, but
in
fitted
authorities
It
has been
for his lodgings.
Fuller
Prior of St. Bartholomew, Smithfield,
apartments would, undoubtedly, have been sumptuously furnished, but there
are evidences, in the panels themselves, which suggest a later date than 1526.
large detail. Fig. 279,
we have the Beaufort
Tudor
portcullis, the
rose,
In the
and the chevron
Fig. 290.
MANTEL
9
ft.
6 J ins. wide over

2
ft.
column bases
6i
ins.
THE STUDY, HOLYWELLS, IPSWICH.
IN
;
ft.
ii ins.
height of pilasters
wide over pilasters
columns
ft.
J ins. sight-size of panel
2 ft. lo ins. to mantelshelf.
J.
258
Fig. 291.
OAK PANELLING
Lower panels 24J
IN
ins.
THE STUDY AT HOLYWELLS, IPSWICH.
by 8J
ins.
Upper panels iSJ
ins.
by gi
ins. sight.
J.
259
a
a
U
X
a
J
<
X
<
> 5
X 2
Z
-'
m
O
Z
U
z
<
Oh
in:
260
o
rt
1-4
TVood Panellings and Mantels

CARVED OAK CHIMNEY BEAMS.
Fig. 294.
HOUSE
IN
10
MARKET
It.
3 ins.
STREET, LAVENHAM, SUFFOLK.
long by 12 ins. and 15A
ins. high.
Miss Priest Peck.
Fig. 295.
Fig. 296.

Early sixteenth century (about 1500).
Initials T.P.
carved on shield.
between three mullets

Fig. 278
is
(or
spur rowels) of Blackett.^
In the panel of the lower tier
the pomegranate of Aragon, repeated twice, and alternating with the
This heraldry would have been utterlj- false
rose.
Robert Fuller.
and
Noel Buxton, Esq.
its first
The Abbey
purchaser
(at a
fell
if
the panellings had been
into the clutches of
bargain price, we
may
Tudor
made
for
at the Dissolution,
be sure, as the monastic possessions
were disposed of by Henry for any sum they would

been the Blackett whose arms appear.
Henry VIII
realise at a forced sale)
The royal cognisances were,
may have
possibly,
the
expression of the family's gratitude for a good bargain driven with the royal vendor.
'
The mullet has five straight

The estoile has six wavy
third son.
points in English heraldry

points.
261
and
six in French.
It is the filial distinction of

We
shall see, in the next example, another instance of the
same commemoration
of
an
ad\-antageous purchase.
Henry divorced Catherine
in 1533, three years before the dissolution of the great
monasteries began, and her cognisance of the pomegranate would hardly have been
introduced
later,
but Wolsey had fallen in 1529, and by one of the meanest tricks of
which a king has ever availed himself, the estates of the clergy
by reason
of the
wei'e held to
acknowledgment, by the Church, of Wolsey 's legatine authority,
although this had been used with the express sanction of the King.
on
this pretext,
be forfeited,
and
Waltham was
at this date, that
and subsidies by which the Church extricated
itself
It
may have
been
seized upon, in lieu of the fines
from the royal clutches.
theory be admitted, we have a probable date between 1529 and 1533 for this
If this
Waltham
panelling.
Shortly after the dissolution had commenced, in earnest, and monastic property
was being surrendered on a wholesale
scale,
of the Abbey, but on the panelling his
we
find Sir
arms do not
Anthony Denny
figure
in possession
anywhere, and there
Fig. 297.
OAK MANTEL FORMERLY
IN
THE OAK PARLOUR AT PARNHAM PARK, BEAMINSTER.

(Afterwards removed to the Hall).
262
is
Wood
strong probability that
from Blackett.
fallen into a
was there when he acquired Waltham, possibly by purchase,
it
His son
Sir
Edward Denny,
somewhat ruinous
partially rebuilt the
removed
From Beckingham
Abbey, which had
state, in the latter years of the reign of Elizabeth.
appears to have been again rebuilt in 1725, and pulled

panellings were
and Mantels
Panellings
o
down
in 1760,
when
It
these
to the house in the town, before referred to.
Hall, in Essex,
comes the elaborate panelling showii
laakTAiuif^^, ju
Fig. 298.
TATTERSHALL CASTLE, LINCOLNSHIRE.

Lord Treasurer Cromwell's chimney-piece on the ground
Date about 1424.
263
floor.
in
Fig. 282
Early English Furniture and Jlôodwork
-^
^-
V-
'
c-n-r
~"
^-^lai^-ii'V '^~
^J..t^^:i
-'-
'-
i-^'-i'iiiiiiMi-iiii-|-'''
L.
Fig. 299.
PLASTER PANEL.
Late-sixteenth-century type.
Morant,
is,
in his " History of Essex," Vol.
obviously, the same house.
I,
p. 390, refers to
This, in the reign of
ToUeshunt Beckingham, which
King Stephen, was the property
of
Geffrey de Tregoz, lord of the next parish of ToUeshunt Tregoz, or Darcy, and wa given
by him
to Coggeshall
Abbey.
the inventory taken at the dissolution of the
It figures in
Robert son
owned by
of Corbutio, a tenant-in-chief in the three eastern counties, "
which was
held by Sercar as a
from
It is
this
In 153S
Domesday
referred to as
Abbey's possessions 5th February, 1538.
maner and
In
as i hide,
is
to Sir
Beckingham and
it
with the King after a few years.
his wife,
Anne, and the
Major, or ToUeshunt Grange.

church.
is
him
Royal grants being usually slow
it
was granted
by the name
heirs of Stephen,
of the
Duke
headsman's block), but
to the
In 1543
Stephen Beckingham died
(Malgerus)."
derives.
Thomas Seymour, brother
of Somerset (a statesman whose ambitions brought
Seymour exchanged
by Mauger
held of R(obert)
Mauger that the name ToUeshunt Major
Henry \TII granted the manor
it is
of
to Stephen
ToUeshunt
155S and was buried in the
in
of completion, especially at that period,
it
probable that the date 1546, carved in two places on this panel, records the actual
year when Beckingham took possession. ^

shield on the
'
first
and
The royal arms
Henry VIII, a quarterly
fourth, azure, three fleurs-de-lys in pale, or, on the second
Hence, possibly, the two inscriptions, " Ingratitude
which appear on the
of
panelling.
264.
is
Death " and
"
He
and
giveth Grace to the Humble,"
JVood Panellin(is
and Mantels
<3
third, gules, three lions passant, in pale, or, crested with a six-barred helmet, affrontee,
and
as supporters a
crowned
lion
the panels at one of the periods
and a winged wyvern, may have been designed with
when
the house was in Henry's hands, in which case,
the carved date would have been added
some
eight years later,
marking the year when
Fig. 300.
OAK CHIMNEY-PIECE.
Removed from
Now
in
a former house of Sir Orlando Bridgman Coventry.

the Refectory at Bablake Schools, Coventry.
Width
ft.
li ins. outside jambs.
265
Fig. 301.
LYME PARK, CHESHIRE, PLASTER OVERMANTEL
266
IN
THE LONG GALLERY.
UôocI Panellings
and Mantels
Fig. 302.
LYME PARK, CHESHIRE. PLASTER OVERMANTEL
IN
THE KNIGHT'S ROOM.
Fig. 303.
LYME PARK, CHESHIRE. PLASTER OVERMANTEL

267
IN
THE STONE PARLOUR.
and JVoodwork
Ea7'ly Knglish Furniture
the house
came
arms used
in the decoration of
and
this
may
into
Beckingham's possession.
the carved date

or sale of
is
is
not rare, however, to tind the royal
houses which have never been in the possession of a king,
be an instance, especially as the H.R.
ably that of Beckingham,
gift,
It is
is
reversed,
and another
introduced in the lower central panel.
It is
the true one, and the Royal x^rms were inserted as a
The purchase
the house.
price,
if
coat, prob-
probable that
memento
of the
any, must have been very low, as
and
Henr}- disposed of the monastic possessions immediately they
fell
any
goods to advantage, and
price.
Henry
pated
his
It
has always been
\'III furnished
in a
difficult to dispose of stolen
no exception to the
rule.
The
into his hands,
results of his spoils
were
at
all dissi-
few years, and the King had to turn to other sources to furnish the means for
unbounded extravagance.
This fragment evidently formed a part of the panelling over a mantel, but
doubtful
if
the rest of the
room was on
tine quality, well designed,
have been the work
of
some
a similarly elaborate scale.
The carving
under strong influence from Burgundian sources.

of the
Walloon craftsmen who settled
in
It
it
is
is
of
may
Essex and Suffolk
Fig. 304.
LYME PARK, DISLEY, CHESHIRE. SIR PIERS LEGH'S

ENTRANCE IN LEONI'S HOUSE.
268

at this period.
That the paneUing was made
England
in
almost certain
is
the
wood
is
a quartered English oak, and the constructional details are not foreign.
At Holywells, Ipswich, Mr. John D. Cobbold has gathered together a very
and woodwork, taken from Ipswich inns and houses
collection of elaborate panellings
which have been demolished during recent
came the
rich linenfold panelling
added
and the capping-rail
to,
measures 9
ft.
4J
ins. in
be seen on the extreme
left
about 1540.
Fig. 284
Beckingham
modern.
hand,
at concealment.
^êars.
shown here
width and
any attempt
the
is
fine
ft.
in the
the
in Fig. 283.
One
6J
From
It
Neptune Inn,
1913,
has been restored and
of the original sections illustrated here
ins.
in height.
The
addition, which can
photograph, has been frankly made, without
These linen panels, with their Italian
shows a portion
in
to a larger scale.
It will
frieze,
date from
be noticed here, as in
panelling, that the panel mouldings are truly mitred, instead of the
mitres being worked in the solid, in the stonemason's manner.
Fig. 305.
LEONI'S CENTRAL COURTYARD.

269

Examples
of car\'cd Renaissance panels
from the Study at Holywells, removed from
The framings have been
altered
the room, but the integrity of the panels has been preserved.
Some
the Tankard Inn, are illustrated in Figs. 285 to 291.
and adapted
to
fit
of these are exceedingly quaint.
Thus
in the
lower panel on the right of Fig. 285
The one on the
representation of the tempting of Christ by the Devil.
is
left of this
has
a shield, with a coat of arms, the same being repeated on the left-hand side of the door.
The device below
this
second coat appears to suggest an original owner's
initial.
It is
obviously improbable that this rich panelling
was made
for an inn (in fact,
that much,
not
if
came from the house
all,
Thomas Wingfield
of Sir
known
is
it
whose
in Ipswich,
device, a double wing, appears on the lower
panel on the
left of
the door in Fig. 285)
We have seen, however, that Mistress Quickly

tapestries in the dining-rooms of
to
refers
her tavern, but these, as Falstaff suggests,
were probably old, " fly-bitten " and worth-
The panel mouldings
less.
modern
those of Fig. 287
of Fig.
286 are
show the
original
sections, Fig. 288 has the initials " N.A.''^ in
Gothic
letters,
suspended from a knotted
rope,^ elaborately intertwined in the branches

of a tree,
beneath whicii are two
may
which
represent
Adam
figures,
and
Eve.
Below, the device of Sir Thomas Wingfield
The panel mouldings and
appears again.
framings here,
1
Or
"
also, are
modern.
H.A."
festooned cord (although not of the same inter-
lacing as in this panel)
was the device
of
Anne
of Brittany,
the consort of two French Kings, Charles VIII (who

his death, so tradition says,
by knocking
Iris
met
head against
the lintel of a low door in a terrace wall at Amboise),
and
Fig. 306.
LYME PARK, CHESHIRE. THE ENTRANCE

FRONT OF THE OLD HOUSE.
Detail.
his cousin
and
successor, Louis XII.
This festooned
may
be seen in the
cord, alternating with the
exquisite
.
little
ermine,
oratory built as an addition to Loches, in
Touraine, by Charles \'III, and which bears the

his
Oueen.
name
of
and Mantels
JJôod Panellings
o
That these carved
were made
panels
the
one room,
for
the
in
original instance,
highly probable
is
they
no sense, pieces
are, in
from several sources

That
collected together.
panellings of
rich
this
kind were not made at

one
added
to,
were
but
period,
from time to
time, frequently over a
space
considerable
years, there
is
of
consider-
able evidence to show.

Fig. 307.
At Great Fulford,
have seen, many
as
we
OAK OVERDOOR FROM ROTHERWAS, HEREFORD.

Carved with the arms of Bodenham quartering Baskerville.
of the
panels are dated, and in

Fig. 289,
C. J. Charles, Esq.
above the door, the escutcheon, as
in Fig. 285,
is
here impaled with another, prob-
ably to indicate a marriage, in which case the added coat would be that of the husband.
There
is,
possibly, a
good deal of significance
in the designing of this panel,
but without
an authenticated history of the woodwork, the meaning of the devices, such as the
knotted rope, repeated again here, must remain obscure.
The turned
to the shelf-line.
among
history,
balusters which support the canopy of the mantel. Fig. 290, are original
The
central panel represents quaint scenes, probably from mythological
others, the
Judgment
of Paris.
Escutcheons are shown again
in the
lower panels of Fig. 291, the coat on the sinister side of the overdoor, Fig. 289, here
impaled with another, probably to commemorate a second marriage
The
Vicars' Hall, or to give
it its full title,
alliance.
the Hall of the Vicars Choral,
Above
is
now
mere fragment
of a building in
"
Vicariorum de Choro," which conveys to the Latinist an idea of the
Aula
Collegii
purpose for which

Church,
which
the Vicars
who
is
it
was
built.
South Street, Exeter.
It
formed part
now reached through
officiated at the services.
of the property,
the door
if
271
was customary,
the legend
not of the Cathedral
the later archway at the side,

It
is
in the
certainly
of
Middle Ages, for a
Fig. 308.
TISSINGTON HALL, DERBYSHIRE.
PANELLING
272
IN
THE HALL.
Fig. 309.

Panelling
now
in the
drawing-room, formerly in the long
galler}-.

2
273
^^w
TH.i''-"
:'^'|
1'^"::
rV
m-^-<t-i-
Fig. 311.
Fig. 310.
OAK
OAK
PILASTERS.
Removed from
c.
a house at Exeter,
From a house
in
Lime
St.,
City of London.
1600.
Victoria and Albert
PILASTER.
Museum.
274
Fig. 312.
OAK PILASTERS AND PANELLING FROM A HOUSE AT EXETER.

g
i5oo.
275
Victoria and Albert
Museum.
Early Kriglish Furniture and JJôodwork
Fig. 313.
FRIEZE DETAILS OF THE EXETER PANELLING.
lill%l%W1imit%%
Fig. 314.

276

number
of Priests
and Singing Men, or
the Vicars' Hall was their
choristers, to be retained for tlie services,
"Common Room
other side of the archway, before referred
" for
to,
meals and recreation hom-s.
offices,
The Vicars appear
to
but these have long since
have possessed considerable
Fig. 315.
Fig. 316.

277
the
once united to the main building, were
the living chambers, kitchens, buttery and domestic
been absorbed into business premises.
On
and
Early English Furniture and JVoocIwork

property during
factor.
At
tlieir
history,
and Bishop Grandisson, 1338-70, was
this period the Priests
and Choristers numbered twenty-four.

additions to the "
1507-1522, appears to have
made some
linenfold panelHng, which
illustrated here in Figs. 292
his time.
is
The stone mantel
in the Hall
Bishop Oldham,
Common Room," and
the
and 293, probably dates from
certainly earlier,
is
their great bene-
and may be the work
of
There are indications that the mantel has been
Bishop Brantingham, 1370-1394.
taken apart and rebuilt, probably when
Hugh Oldham's
Bishop Oldham's linenfold panelling
an elaborate
is
alterations took place.
tier of
Above
arcaded and carved wood-
work, with the royal arms placed in the middle of the flank facing the gallery, and on two
cartouches the date, 1629,
restorations in the Hall.
rich bulbous-leg table
is
carved.
This
is
There are
many evidences of later and very ignorant
especially noticeable in the case of the exceptionally
which stands at
this
end of the room.
Reference will be
made
Fig. 317.
OAK-PANELLED ROOM, FORMERLY
IN
A HOUSE ON THE OLD QUAY, YARMOUTH.
^''^^'^ '595.
27S
Lord Rochdale.
Wood
to this again, in a later chapter
Panellings
deaUng with the development
indications that the cutting through of the
and Mantels
of tables.
archway has shorn the Hall
There are also

of
some
of its
former proportions, and the gallery has been brought forward into the Hall and doors
of later date adapted.
literal
The panelling
is
very interesting, and exceptional in being a
representation of the folding of soft hnen, as compared with other examples
which we have considered, where the

series of
Charles
effect is that of starched or stiff material.
arcaded panels are true to their period, that of the

I.
That the Hall
originally possessed a gallery
the original panelled or balustraded front has disappeared.
has been cut and adapted on more than one occasion
was formed, and
also at a late date.
first
The upper
years of the reign of
highly probable, but
is
if
so,
The present Stuart panelling
at the time
The stone chimney-piece
is
when
the
new
gallery
of early-fifteenth-century
character, similar in type, but not so rich in detail as those at Tattershall (see Fig. 298).
Fig. 318.
THE PLASTER CEILING OF THE OAK-PANELLED ROOM,

279
FIG. 317.
Fig. 319.
THE OAK-PANELLED ROOM,
In the same
FIG. 317.
way as with the staircase,
THE CARVED PANELS OVER THE MANTEL.
the cliimney-piece acquires a size
towards the end of the sixteenth century, which
problem of the warming of churches

to
it
had not possessed, previously.
in the fifteenth centuiy,
and
have been attempted at that period. These churches possess no
that such ever existed.

braziers, which,
if
used,
earlier,
totally inadequate,
The
does not appear
fireplaces,
Portable stoves were unknown, unless
must have been
and dignity
nor any signs
we except
cressets or
and we can only assume
that our fifteenth-century ancestors endured extremes of cold, in sacred edifices, to which
we, at the present day, are
and
large halls, fireplaces,
totall}'
unaccustomed.
where they
Even
exist, are nearly
280
in early
monastic refectories
always of later date.
JVood Panellings
o and Mantels
With timber houses,
fire
fireplaces
and stacks
of
chimneys were the
rule,
but the usi
al
opening was supported by a brick or stone arching, and an oak beam or bressomer.
This constituted the domestic mantel up to the middle of the sixteenth century.
These
chimney-beams were often well carved, cambered
to prevent sagging,
above
with panelling either especially enriched, as
the example from Tolleshunt Major,
in
and
finished
Fig. 320.
THE OAK-PANELLED "NELSON" ROOM, FORMERLY

1
595-1600.
281
IN
THE STAR HOTEL, GREAT YARMOUTH.
Early Knglish Furniture and Jfôodwork

Fig. 2S2, or
matching
the
tliat of
room
opinion of the fire-resisting quahties of oak.
from the direct action of the

a
and
These beams are seldom,
in those
which
first is
in
Market
from Stoke-by-Xayland,
the
as
it
was when
e.\am})les of tlu'se carved fireplace lintels are given in Figs.
from a house
is
Street,
later,
and
Lavenham,
is
early-sixteenth-century manner.
house built about the
\'ear
if
a high
ever, protected
haê persisted to our day,
mere surface charring, the timber has remained as sound
Four
in
fire,
The early carpenters had
as in Fig. 269.
it
beyond
was worked.
294 to 297.
of the late fifteenth century.
The
Fig. 295,
squared to rest upon the brick or stone jambs

Fig.
296
is
from Paycockes, Coggeshall, a
1500 by Thomas Paycocke, a wealthy merchant and great
Fig. 321.
THE OAK-PANELLED ROOM WITH INTERIOR PORCH,

1595-1600.
282
FIG. 320
Jfôod
PanelIin (Ts and Mantels

<:3
benefactor to the Abbej' and the Church in the closing years of the fifteenth century.
The Untel
illustrated here
central shield,
and
The Abbey
it is,
is
shown
in situ, in Fig. 269.
It
bears the initials T.P. in the
therefore, original to the house.
of Coggeshall
was founded by King Stephen, and was one
of the thirteen
houses of the order of Savigny, the whole of which joined the Cistercians in 1147.
Opinions are divided as to who was the

authorities give
at this date.
last
Henry More, whereas Morant
abbot at the Dissolution

states that William
Tolleshunt Major, or Beckingham, was a part of the
Fig. 322.

1595-1600.
283
FIG. 320.
in 1536.
Some
Love was the abbot
Abbey
property.
Early English Furniture and JrooJwork
Fig. 323.

284
FIG. 320.
THE MANTEL.
Wood
.^
Panellings
and Mantels
^
Fig. 324.
FIG. 320.
285
DETAILS OF THE OVERMANTEL.
Early
Erig/is/j
Furniture and IVoodwork
Fig. 325.
FIG. 320.
DETAIL OF PANELLING AND PILASTERS.

286
Fig. 326.
FIG. 320.
2S7
THE INTERIOR PORCH.
JFood-work
o
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Wood
Fig. 297
is
to the Great Hall
early-sixteenth-century date, but this lintel

It
is,
and Mantels
an example from Parnham Park, Beaminster, Dorset, formerly
oak parlour, but removed
house.
Panellings
essentially, a timber-house
some twelve years
may have
ago.
in the
Parnham
been preserved from a
chimney-beam, whereas Parnham
still
is
is
of
older
stone-
built.
The most
typical examples of the stone-lintelled mantelpieces of the fifteenth centurj^
Fig. 329.
OAK CHIMNEY-PIECE.
The
stone lining
is
carved witli the arms of the Hu.xlcys of Edmonton.
Date about 1610.

2
289
Victoria and Albert
Museum.

may
be found in Lord Treasurer Cromwell's Castle of Tattershall.
One
of these
trated in Fig. 298, refixed at the time of the recent restorations to the Castle.
these stone mantels that the early
mantel acquired
built this
its
chimney-beams
later decorative importance.
of
At the date when
his elevation to the post of Treasurer of the
ably, the designer of both the Castle
and
decorations.
its
from
oak were copied, before the wood
the money-bags which are carved in each of the corner panels.
It is
Tattershall
mantel represented the highest development of chimney decoration.
Cromwell symbolised
is illus-
Exchequer
in
Ralph
1424 by
Waynflete was, prob-
In selecting stone mantels of
-'*7;;^s'-7y7jp^^.
Fig. 330.
OAK MANTEL.
HEMSTED, KENT.
A
reproduction.
The panelling
of this
room
is
original early-seventeenth-century work.
Viscount Rothermere.
290
was

this kind, as
models for their carved oak chimney-beams, therefore, the designers of
timber houses were copying the
The earhest attempts
finest
examples extant at their day.
at decorating the space
above the mantel appear
consisted of plaster panels set in flush with the wall-face.
even
in
vertical
use
it
The
flue
to
have
and chimney breast,
timber houses, were, of course, constructed either in brick or stone, and, while
oak stud- work
over the mantel.
may have had
a certain decorative
It is exceptional,
effect, it
was dangerous
to
however, to find any attempt at embellishing
Fig. 331.
CARVED OAK PANEL

3
ft.
3| ins. wide
by
ft.
loj
ins. nigH.
Late sixteenth or early seventeenth century.

Victoria and Albert
291
Museum.
<
CO
CO
CO
bil
Z
O
Q
Z
o
o
><
f-l
H
U
u
CE
0}
o
K
b
CO
U
H
Z
<
<
o
CO
CO
and Mantels
Jfôod Panellings
this space before the latter half of the sixteenth century.
and mantels high, with very
low,
of panels,
if
a general rule,
rooms were
space above them for more than a single row
little
room was completed with
the
As
These flush plaster
panelling to the ceiling.
panels or overmantels were very popular in Lancashire, Derbyshire and Cheshire from
about 1570 to 1600, and were frequently enriched with colours.

as typical of this period
plaster panels
is
and
district.
often false.
To
The heraldry
this date belong
Fig. 299
may be regarded
of the coats in the shields of these
many
which
of the allusive coats
puzzle the heralds of the present day.
The oak mantel develops

of the sixteenth century.
there
in size
and prominence very rapidly towards the
In Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire and Lancashire
a strong tendency towards an almost barbaric richness of ornament, coupled
is
much
with the adoption of a type at a date

Fig. 300,
now
Bridgman.
fashion.
close
At
in
later
than
its
fashion in other counties.
Bablake Schools, was formerly in the Coventry house of
its
Sir
Orlando
removal the original jambs were replaced with others of quite simple
The peculiarity
of the later
Midland development
Renaissance can be studied in this chimney-piece.
The
detail
must have been accentuated when the overmantel possessed
of the sixteenth-century
is
coarse,
its original
an
effect
heavy
which
cornice.
Fig. 334.
OAK MANTEL FROM LIME STREET, CITY OF LONDON.

6
ft.
wide.
Date about i6jo.

Victoria and Albert
293
Museum.

If there
be such a style, in woodwork, as Ehzabethan, then the arcaded panels, with
the arches flattened, and centred by keystones with turned pendants beneath, and the
shields below framed in paper-scrolling,
may
be described as being a Midland County
perpetuation of that manner in a mantel of the seventeenth century. ^
however, to state that English woodwork
in the
appear
As
in
them
all,
and
its
hardly correct,
Midlands had become sufficiently homo-
geneous at this period to admit of any such style-classification

appears to have possessed
It is
own manner, although such
each
county
district or
details as the arcaded panel
persist for nearly a century.
illustrating this richness of
ornamentation
Midlands at the beginning of
in the
the seventeenth century, and, at the same time the use of an earlier style, the three
overmantels from
Lyme
Park, Figs. 301 to 303,
may
Unfor-
be given as examples.
tunately, these are merely castings from originals which have disappeared, probably
when Leoni
much he added
the
considerable
when
1603,
Lyme
built
amount
of fine
in,
exist
still
preserve as
as
was
woodwork
judging from the
in
much
and
stair-
Leoni
the
must have been
house. That some desire

felt to
Piers
Sir
original fragments of panelling
which
At
as his habitation,
must have been put
cases
How
house.
also conjectural.
is
date, about
Legh
the
rebuilt
of this old house
possible, consistent with its con-
siderable enlargement in
all
directions,
is
indicated by the central portion of the
entrance front. Figs. 304 and 306, which

has been rebuilt with the old stones,
marred, however, by the classical windows
which Leoni inserted.
Fig. 305
Leoni's central courtyard,
be
Height
ft.
8 ins.
no
that
fragment
original house remains
Fig. 335.
OAK PANEL AND
seen
PILASTERS.
width 4
tions.
and
feature here
shows
it
of
will
the
on these elevais
the size of the
ft. i in.
First half of the seventeenth century.
Victoria and Albert
Museum.
294
This mantel
is earlier,
is
dated 1629.
The
general style
however, even for Warwickshire.
Fig. 336.
THE HOUSE OF
SIR
PAUL PINDAR, FORMERLY

Built 1600.
IN
BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT.
Demolished i8go.
Victoria
295
and Albert Museum.
Karly English Furniture and

panes
glass
in tlie sash-barring of the
windows,
all of fine
of beautiful colour, with the whirling
is
It is idle to
served.'
The
conjecture
why
marks
crown
and
glass,
JWoodwork
This
all intact.
every pane.
visible in
the originals of these fine overmantels were not pre-
plaster copies are richly coloured
and emblazoned, but
impossible to
it is
imagine that these are the mantels of the early-seventeenth-century house.
The
original
chimney-pieces must have been removed while the house was being rebuilt, and, with
plaster, this
originals
age,
would have been impossible.
were
in
It is
more reasonable
to suppose that the
sculptured stone, and were incapable of being removed without break-
and before taking them down these plaster copies were made.
county
Lyme
is
in a stone
Legh may have
there are stone outcrops everywhere in the Park, and Sir Piers
chosen the more accessible, and more durable, material for his mantelpieces, with the
idea that his house would persist for a period considerably longer than a century.
had not reckoned with changes
of taste, or desires for vast
rooms
his
He
which
of great height,
Jacobean house could not
satisfy.
These
plaster
mantels,
copies
as
over-
may
they
be, are exceptionally interesting
showing
the
work which was put
into
nevertheless,
rich
as
a Knight's country house in the
years
first
James
oak
Rotherwas,
Fig- 307.
Flemish
is
in
in
There
from
o\-erdoor
County Hereford,
Renaissance
sixteenth
develop-
the Welsh bordering

the
close
is
of
the possibUity that these
plaster oxermantels are
actual originals
In their
present state of later emblazonr}-,
impossible to say.
If original,
been both repaired and added
^y Leoni, or at a
Fig. 337.
SHERARD HOUSE, ELTHAM, KENT.

296
the
Here we
centurv.
from the old house of Lvme.
of
good example of the
counties, at
'
reign
I.
The
ment,
the
of
later date.
below appear to be from
it
is
they have
to, either
The mantels
his designs.
Wood
Panellings
and Mantels
have the coarse fretwork ornamented with strap-and-jewel and pierced pinnacles,
the
in
manner which permeated Lancashire, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Derbyshire and
Herefordshire very thoroughly at this period, especially in the designing of staircases
The arms carved on
such as at Aston Hall.

quartering Baskerville.
is illustrated in Fig.
The custom
carved
pilasters,
of
The
shield of the
this
overdoor are those of
Bodenhams, with
its
Bodenham
twenty-five quarterings,
346.
making wall
panellings, with the join of the sections
masked by
appears to have originated
at the very close of the sixteenth century,
and
to
have been very general throughout
At an
England.
the lateral
rails
earlier period
any
joins in
of panellings were frankly
made, scarfed together with no attempt
at
In Derbyshire, Cheshire and
concealment.
Lancashire, the usual plan appears to have
been to make both the panellings and the

pilasters in
stages,
two
divided by a moulded surbase or

at Tissington,
dado-rail, as
Lyme,
distinct lateral sections or
Fig.
and
Fig. 308,
The same system was
309.
adopted, in a different manner, in the case of

the East Anglian
woodwork
In
of this date.
the Tissington panelling this arrangement

better indicated, the fluted
is
with
pilasters
moulded-panel bases having both dado and

skirting mitred round in the one unbroken
lateral line.
that of a
At Lyme, the panelling, originally
Long
Gallery, has been very badly
adapted to the present drawing-room, with

the stages of the pilasters not in vertical
and the whole
effect
angle-pilaster which
of the
wall,
line,
marred by the enormous

is
compass-window
fixed to the junction

recess with the flank
Fig. 338.
OAK-PANELLED ROOM FROM SHERARD HOUSE.
and which cuts the panelling up
in a
Showing paint and wall-paper
very unfortunate manner.

2
Yet
this
wood297
c.
1630.
partially removed.

work, such as
is
original,
that at Tissington in
far transcends
decoration of moulding, carving and inlay.

the
woodwork
rule.
Both
at
of
which
is
Lyme and
It is
if
ever,
design and rich
exceedingly refined, yet in a county
remarkable for the absence of such a quality, as a general

at Tissington there
is
the
same interlaced arches
small fluted pilasters, with moulded tablets on the intersections,

rarely,
its
rising
detail
from
which
found other than in the Western Midland Counties.
Fig. 339.
OAK PANELLING AND MANTEL FROM SHERARD HOUSE, ELTHAM, KENT

c.
1630
Arthur H. Vernay, Esq.
298
is
Wood
The
panellings of the South-west of
from those
of
England vary very
little, in
East Anglia or the home counties, although there
in the carving decorations.
The Devonshire
and nearly always with elaborately

skirting, such as
is
pilaster
is
of the
is
the type of pilasters,
considerable difference
richer in detail, with a long shaft
car\-ed capitals, but there
usually found in the examples from
The rounded forms
and Mantels
Panellings
is
the
London and
same low base and
its
outlying districts.
Southern-French Renaissance persist for
many
years in
Devonshire, and give a peculiar opulent character to the car\'ing-decoration of this
Fig. 340.

c.
1630.
299
Arthur H. Vemay, Esq.

county, which
is
unmistakable aUke
in secular or in ecclesiastical
woodwork.
the most remarkable examples of these ornate West-country panellings
and Albert Museum,
room
in the Victoria
316.
For the purpose
of
illustrated here in Fig. 310
showing the difference
is
and
in decorative character
One
of
the Exeter
Figs. 312 to
more
easily
Fig. 341.

c.
1630.
Arthur H. Vernay, Esq.
300

by a comparison
which
Street,
is
of
of
photographs than by a written explanation, a pilaster from Lime
London design and workmanship,

The Lime
with those from Exeter.
Street example
is
placed, in Fig. 311, side
may
by
side
be some twenty years the later
but the character of these carved pilasters does not alter appreciably from
in date,
1600 to 1620.
This oak room from Exeter
Albert Museum, but, in
its
one of the older acquisitions of the Victoria and
is
peculiar richness and strong French character,
one of the most remarkable examples of pilastered panelling which the

It is totally unlike
sesses.
French
whereas, in this Exeter panelling

Loire,
Anjou
from
There
method both
in
of frieze,
which
is
Rouen
of
is
and
panel-framing,
pilaster or
not found in the work of
or the north of France, and,
an
assortment of
there
details,
as in the strapping
is
rail in Fig. 312,
the
of
which indicates
an English origin for this woodwork.
The
frieze panels, four of
shown
in Figs.
which are
313 to 316, show the
admixture of Low-Country Italian
and Southern-French motives which

formed the basis of the
style,
later
Tudor
manner which, although
it
varies considerably in different parts

of
England,
Lancashire,
as,
for
example,
Warwickshire
in
and
Cheshire on the one hand, and the

,,
Home
^.
^,
^,
Counties on the other,
The
is
from further south, the country watered by the
whether
panelling,
this
pos-
from the north, Normandy or Picardy,
logical
construction
withal,
base
it is
is
or Touraine, or even
Poitou.
design
Museum
illustrated in the earlier pages of this chapter,
but the influence here
in inspiration,
perhaps,
anything to be met with outside of the West-country.
Holy wells woodwork, described and

also
it is,
f"'&-
3*2.
OAK PANELLING.
yet
^
In the Treaty House at U.^bridge.
has a general basic resemblance which
301

establishes both
;i
Street, Fig. 311,
manner, as
source
is
it
In the oak
country and a date of origin.
for
Home County
example, we have the
exposition
afterwards developed in the hands of London craftsmen.
Italian,
but
the
Exeter panels have
this
influence
more
reality,
typical of the
work
Even
of Flanders.
two pairs rather than
four, there
is,
in the
Exeter
of
the
The
original
pilaster, the design
pilasters,
in the shafts, evidence of
which
are,
way.
Figs. 313
and 314,
same dual authorship can be noted,
In the frieze panels, the

for
example, or in a
still
more marked
fashion, in Figs. 315
in
An
CO.
and 316.
HEREFORD.
oak-panelled bedroom.

.502
as in
Fig. 343.
ROTHERWAS,
in
two designers,
both impregnated with the same manner, yet manifesting such influence, each
different
same
transmitted through
Southern-French channels, whereas, in the case of the Lime Street

is
from Lime
pilaster
C. J. Charles, Esq.
Wood
Panellings
and Mantels
Fig. 344.
ROTHERWAS,
CO.
HEREFORD.
Oak chimney-piece in the Walnut Banqueting Hall (see Fig. 346).

The shield shows the twenty-five quarterings of the shield of Bodenham.
The arms of Bodenham are a fess argent on field azure between three chess rooks
or.

C. J. Charles,
303
Esq.
Early Rnglish Furniture and JVoodwork

In considering the mantel from the old house of Sir Orlando Bridgman at Coventry,
now
in the
Bablake Schools, a doubt was expressed whether such a style as " Eliza-
bethan " could be said to

then the
name
misleading.
is
justified,
exist, in
but
if
English woodwork.
If
we
refer to a period only,
a homogeneous style be indicated, then
The Lyme Park mantels
are in the late-sixteenth-century
locality (although of a subsequent date),
and the same
may
it
is
manner
highly
of their
be said of Devonshire in
Fig. 345.
ROTHERWAS,
The walnut
CO.
HEREFORD.
panelling in the
Banquet
304
Hall.
C. J. Charles,
Esq.
Wood
We
the case of the Exeter paneUing.
now
what was done
to see
of Norfolk at
/
/
county
in the rich
same
the
have
Here we
period.
are considering houses, built not for nobles,
but for plain traders, merchant ad\'enturers
whose ships
sailed into
many an unknown sea,
with the Spanish Main, who had listened to
many
story
Hard
fighters
men,
and,
Dorado
El
of
by sea and land were these

must
it
be
and drinkers
swearers
confessed,
to
defend ship and cargo, and not averse,

be
only whispered,
it
to engaging
may
Quay
many
for
two, with the numbers 53
into
property
the
William
of
who carved
than
many
See Fig. 344.
and
Burton,
years
of those
divided at a later date
In the early seventeenth century
54.
Yarmouth, one
of
bailiff
who
Fenner's,
as
without actually signing the death warrant

his execution
THE TWENTY-FIVE QUARTERINGS OF

BODENHAM OF ROTHERWAS
begin with a house on the Old
Yarmouth, known
at
//
Fig. 346.
in a little
buccaneering on their own account.

^^'e
./
V / / /J
hard
ready to
boot,
/ ///
/ A
Manoa.
or
whose captains and crews were acquainted
and Mantels
Panellings
did.
Charles
of
I,
those
of
more
did
was
it
men who,
to instigate
Burton, howe\'er, was not the builder
the date, 1595, on the frieze of the overmantel
shown
in Fig. 319.
Who
he was does not appear, but he must have been a merchant, as this was the traders'
quarter of a seafaring town.
rich wainscotting.
and
finished the house, he panelled the
That from the north front room on the ground
The
Figs. 317 to 319.
Having
Between each
wainscotting
foils,
with
is
of these
by broad
vine
tendrils
which the upper part
in
three panels,
employed
2
in
a frieze of two long narrow panels.
is
Above
the
a band of moulded plaster, with a ceiling of reeded interlaced quatre-
of
relief,
shown
fluted pilasters with car\-ed
and
bunches
of
grapes
as
ornamentation.
pendants cover the join at each intersection of the reeded strapping.
high
is
panels, of fine quartered oak, are large, unusually so for this period,
are divided, vertically, at each third panel,
capitals.
floor
rooms with
with
is
illustrated
beautifully
and undercut
carved
in a truly
in the frieze panels,
Fig.
in
319,
figures
is
The mantel,
exceptionally choice.
between each,
wonderful manner.
Elaborate
with
It
scrolling
The same paper-scrolling
is
in
is
with the date, 1595, carved to crown the achievement.

305

In
panels were,
tlie
formerly,
painted
coats
of
arms,
now
but these are
nearly
obliterated.
Close to Fenner's
is
the Star Hotel, once the house of William Crowe, one of Eliza-
beth's Merchant Ad\enturers,
Whether the panelling which he put
mantel.
reverse, or
which
is
whether both
in
in
the Company's Merchants'
was inspired by that
of these wainscottings are
the more probable,
on two occasions,
town.
who emblazoned
Mark on
his
in Fenner's, or the
from the same date, and hand,
we can only conjecture.
Crowe was
1596 and 1606, so he must have been a
man
bailiff of
of high
Yarmouth
esteem in the
That no more than a year or two divides the woodwork of both houses
is
reason-
ablv certain.
Fig. 347.
ROTHERWAS,
Oak
panelling in the
HEREFORD.
CO.
James
Room.

;,o6
See Fig. 348

C. J. Charles, Esq.
Wood
Panellings
and Mantels
Fig. 348.
ROTHERWAS,
Oak mantel
CO.
in the
HEREFORD
James
Room.

C, J
307
Charles, Esq.

As a repetition
own words can hardly be regarded
of one's
as plagiarism, the
following, from the " Burlington Magazine," gives a description, with measurements,
of the
"
room shown
in Figs.
320 to 326, written after a close examination of the panelling.
Whether William Crowe conformed
to the strictness of the Heralds' College in
the carving of his mantel, and bore the arms of his

the chief ffankes
'
is
diiBcult to say
the
work
is
Company on
'
target hollow at
not quite in original state.
Thus the
dexter Sun in Splendour on the shield has disappeared together with the globe or between
two arms embowcd

"
The
in the crest.
The room measures 24
ft.
tail of
in length
the dolphin, sinister, has also suffered.
by ig
ft.
7 ins. in width.
The
panelling, of
Fig. 349.
ROTHERWAS,
Oak
CO.
HEREFORD.
panelling and mantel in the Julius Caesar
308
Room.
C. J. Charles, Esq.
IVood Paricllings and Mantels

fine
quartered and
'
silver figured
'
oak,
is
in
two
stages, the lower with
heavy bolection
Above
mouldings and fluted pilasters with Corinthian capitals and bases.

flanked with boldly carved caryatids, alternately male and female.
is
an arcading
In these arches will
be noticed one of the few remaining suggestions of the earlier Gothic traditions.
moulding under the plaster
total height of the panelling, to the classical capping

is
ft.
10^
ins.
The
frieze itself is of
frieze,
modelled plaster, with strapped and interlaced
ornament, a similar motij being repeated on the beams of the
ceiling.
The
latter
is
slightly groined (another Gothic tradition) in large panels enriched with
coffered
and
moulded
plaster ribs
"
The
and
'
The chimney-piece,
pendentes.'
8
ft. i
in. in
width and
ft.
il
ins. to
the springing of the
Fig. 350.
ROTHERWAS,
Another view
CO.
HEREFORD.
of the Julius Caesar
Early seventeenth century..
39
Room.
C. J. Charles, Esq.

The
detail of the
The designs
of the carved
arch of the opening, governs the heights of the panelUng stages.

overmantel, to a larger scale,
is
shown
in Figs.
323 and 324.
frames surrounding and flanking the arms are the finest features of the whole room.
The
curious arrangement of the caryatides or carved figures resting on conventionalised
bulls' heads,
photograph.
which are repeated
The execution
all
round the room,
of the carving
is
will
very crisp and
from the usual crude cutting associated with Tudor work

ately flanking the central panel, for example.
porch in the corner on the
Two
left of
be noticed in the larger scale
line,
entirely different
witness the figures immedi-
Another exceptional feature
the chimney-piece,
shown
is
the interior
in the separate illustration.
doors have been contrived, one in each angle, and above are two intricately moulded
panels.
These internal porches are
rare,
not more than three or four other examples
Fig. 351.
BILLESLEY MANOR, WARWICKSHIRE.

Panelling and mantel in the Hall.
310
H. Burton Tate, Esq.
M
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One
being extant at the ])rcsent day.

Castle in Dorsetsliire.
halls of the liarly
in the later
The idea
Tudor
jêriod,
It is
best-known
is
probably a modification of the
where the family
life
oak
in the
'
hall at
Skreens
in the great
'
was more public and primitive than
t)ld
room
in
mansion
of the
the Star Hotel
is
wealthy or noble English family.

exceedingly interesting for
probably the most elaborate specimen of late Tudor woodwork of
especially
Sherborne
days of Elizabeth, when the long gallery superseded the great hall as an
integral part of the country

" This
is
of the
when
its
location in the house of a former
many
its
Yarmouth merchant
reasons.
kind extant,
is
considered.
It is in
almost perfect condition, very
and
has never suffered from subsequent alteration, such as partitioning, replanning
it
little
or other of the modifications which the
of the original parts being missing or mutilated,
room
in
Sparrowe's House at Ipswich, for instance.
Fig. 354.

Maijtelpiece in the Shakespeare Roi m.
JVood Pariellirws and Mantels

has undergone.
of the
work
at
Another point
of great interest to the antiquarian
is
In the absence of historical records
such early date.
it
the late character
would have been
referred almost certainly to the middle Stuart period."
The
pilaster of
teenth century
is
East Anglia and the
usually
much
less
Home
Counties in the
flat
strap-work pattern, similar to an applied
general characteristics of
fret,
The
of this kind.
This
of
shafts are generally carved with
with
little
or no undercutting.
early-seventeenth-century East Anglian and
panellings are simplicity and lightness of mouldings
That from the Palace
years of the seven-
ornate than the West-country style, with capitals
either of plain mouldings or simple flat Ionic form.
first
Bromley-by-Bow,
woodwork
is
Figs. 327
Home County
and general refinement

and 328, may be taken
an instructive example
in
two ways.
The
\\'e
of details.
as a type
know
its
Fig. 355.

Oak
panelling in the Dining-room.

2 s
313
H. Burton Tate, Esc.
Pan ELLr/vIG'c/CTJON6-AT-)fLI^5LeYMANQ]LACTUAL-yiZE
t/eCTIOM' ITM'/iALL
^^^^^^
-yECTfOM- JACA- DR55rNGC00M
^^^^
yfiCTION-J/M-WByjÂK5PEAREoOM
Section-
iaj-
Di/îiAiGJiooM
yCTJOyM-IN)ILLIAR.D-R-QQM
TH 15- ROOM -rs NOT I LLU3TJ^TD Fig. 356.
314

actual date, and
is
it
certainty local in
The panel-arrangement,
make.
of a central
upright rectangle surrounded by oblong panels, two vertically and two horizontally,
with four squares, one in each
corner,,
is,
apparently, an obvious one, but
usual in panellings of the seventeenth century.

later on, in an
example from
on the upright
Billesley
st^des, indicate
Manor.
as in the two examples from Yarmouth.
from the corbelled
stage,
panelling, but
The mouldings
round the room
The mantel
shelf
by no means
similar pattern will be noticed again,
an early-seventeenth-century
earher date the base-mouldings were carried
The lower
is
of this
downwards,
is
of the pilasters, returning

detail, as a rule.
in the
room
At an
form of a high dado,
is
somewhat
puzzling.
undoubtedly coeval with the
overmantel
the
has the appearance of a later
and
addition,
possibly
from
We know that
another count}'.
the panelling had been altered
considerably in the Palace before
it
was
ior removal to the

side
either
taken down
finally
Museum. On
of the
mantel two
windows had been inserted

the eighteenth century,
of
in
^tyle quite incongruous, as com-
pared with the original work.
The chimney-piece must have

liad a plain back-board originally,
on which
all
the moulding
projections returned, but this
now
missing,
shelf-moulding
the
panelling
is
and the heavy
now
at
returns on
haphazard,
with an overhang beyond the

styles,
and with no attempt
at
scribing, the result being a gap
^.
357
billesley manor.
"between the back of the mouldOak
ing-return and the face of the
slab doors with steei
box
locks.
panel.
It
is
unthinkable that
h. Burton Tate, Esq.
315
Early English Furniture and Jlôodwork

this
was the
overmantel,
shelf
below,
original
although
is
central coat of
poor
linish
the
in
the
of
mantelshelf in
column-bases
design
line
with
room
the
of
of
of
the room.
The
the
The
arms overpowers the whole composition, and the niches on either side
same work, with a coarseness
almost Lancastrian, being used for a totally superfluous pediment.

be an afterthought,
may
quality.
corbel-strappings
compared with the remainder
are crested with meaningless fret-and-strap spandrels, the
dates
this
it
must be almost a contemporary addition.
suggest a reason.
James
had been on the throne
of
If this
An
overmantel
examination of
England barely three
Fig. 358.
BILLESLEY MANOR.
STEEL BOX LOCK.
long by 9I ins. extreme height.

14 ins.
316
Wood
when
years
this
room was
panelled,
and
it
is
and Mantels
Panellings
doubtful whether he had adopted the
The
unicorn, as the sinister supporter to the Royal Arms, at this period.

is
also that of the completion of the Palace
the death of Elizabeth.
the
It is possible that the
and plain panelling above,
work may have been
in progress before
room was completed with
which would be the logical
finish in a
date, 1606,
room
the mantel only,

of this height,
the overmantel, designed round the carved coat of arms, being added a few years after.
It
certainly, a piece of unfortunate designing in an otherwise exceptionally refined
is,
room.
very charming expression of this strap-work
can be seen in Fig. 329, a chimney-piece of oak,
style, also of
Home County
made without overmantel,
being to carry a flank of the room panelling over the mantelshelf.

free
copy
of this
ling in this
mantel with
manner.
The
its
origin,
the intention
Fig. 330
shows a
missing shelf-returns replaced, and surrounded by panel-
effect is
simple but very charming,
when compared with
the
very ornate chimney-pieces of this period.

It is inevitable that the
last
Home County
expression of the Renaissance during the
quarter of the sixteenth and the opening years of the seventeenth centuries should
Fig. 359.
THE REVERSE SIDE OF THE LOCK,
FIG. 358,
317
SHOWING THE ARMOURER'S MARK.
Ear/y English Furniture and IJôodwork

of tlie designer or the skill of the
vary according to the inspiration
details as the interlacing strap-work
and scroUings, applied keystones,
workmen.
bosses,
Such
diamonds
or split balusters, appear to be general in this work, although the degree of artistic
skill
the
with which they are used ranges from the highest quality to the mediocre.
first
belongs the charming oak panel. Fig. 331.
Both design and execution are
superb, suggesting the hand of a foreign car\-er, whether from France or Flanders,
difficult to say.
St.
Maclou,
is
manner which
The
influence of Jean
Goujon
is
To
it is
apparent, but his strap-work, as at
here intermingled with the Italian motives of wreath and ribbon in a

is
foreign to his
sti'le.
The wood
is
English quartered oak, a timber usuall}^
Fig. 360.
BILLESLEY MANOR.
14J
ins.
long by 9
STEEL BOX LOCK.
ins.
extreme height.
318
Jfôod Pancllirws
o
harsh and ungrateful for
fine cutting
with the carver's gouge, yet the work here
the uttermost refinement and dehcacy.
work forming the surroimd
The same handling,

of Fig. 329,
it
may
which
is
The treatment
is
of
of the interlacing of the strap-
egg-and-tongue-carved inner frame
in stone instead of
wood, can be remarked
in the
is
masterly.
mantel lining
unmistakably an English production, however strongly influenced
be from abroad.
There are few,
to the
and Mantels
if
It
suggests that this panel
may
be of English origin
any, details in English furniture and
for so long as the fret (applied or cut in the solid
also.
woodwork which
wood) with enrichments
persist
of split-
P*'!^''
v.5^ V
:'
-Â?
J.
^\!
Fig. 361.
STEEL BOX LOCK.
BILLESLEY MANOR.
14I
ins.
long by gi
ins.
extreme height.
319

balusters or bosses.
This " strap-and-jewel
"
work
is
found
in panellings
pieces even as early as the closing years of the sixteenth century
on cabinets and chests as
late as the last
this popularity are not difficult to surmise
it is
quarter of the seventeenth.

;
this decoration
and chimneyalso
met with
The reasons
for
has the merit of cheapness
it
permits of the use of various woods, such as bog-oak, for the bosses or balusters, and
it
gives an effective play of light and shade,
mantels from Lime Street,
in the City of
are exceedingly effecti\'e, yet there
is
and by the most simple means.
London,
illustrate this
very well.
The three
The designs
a remarkable absence of expensive work.
They
Fig. 362.
BILLESLEY MANOR.
12 ins. long
by
S ins.
STEEL BOX LOCK.
extreme height.
Key
7 ins.
long over
all.
Jfôoci
Panellings
and Mantels
_'_i_tmt^'^'*'-'~^''~^
Fig. 363.
BEDDINGTON MANOR HOUSE.
STEEL DOOR LOCK.
could be reproduced, by modern " mass-production " methods, almost without modifi-
The moulded oval
cation.
is
used with considerable
relief is
In
by means
all four, Figs.
circular boss.
is
in the
332 to 335, effective use
The charm
and 334,
and strapped over with moulded keystones,
skill for this period, in Figs.
of facetted bosses
fully understood.
Figs. 332
panel, quartered
is
is
made
of the split-baluster
The
of Figs. 333
pilasters,
from mediocrity of design by the applied

with the uttermost economy of means.
is
the
and the oval or
the introduction of the unexpected,

and 335,
mouldings broken up by the lateral and vertical strappings,

mitring of the inner framings.
first
the play of line in the key-cornering of the framings in
framed tablets
in the
In the
second these take the form of turned buttons.
of all clever designing,
There
332 and 334.
in the first,
in the second,
with the
by the
clever
with their downward taper, are redeemed
frets
and
split balusters,
an
effect
achieved
In Fig. 332, the dentil-course under the cornice
mitred forwards in four distinct stages (an extravagance), whereas in Fig. 333, the
breaks are formed by cutting the dentil-course, and inserting the moulded cappings
to the tablets of the frieze
Home County
This
of
its
which can be divided

neighbourhood,
2
is
and economy could go no
further.
expression of the Renaissance, the credit for the development

equallj^
between Flanders and Northern France,
interesting, the
more
321
especially as so
Rouen
many examples
and
exist of
Early English Furniture and Jfôoc/work

which both the date and the locahty
of origin are
known with
certainty.
Thus, the
front of Sir Paul Pindar's house, Fig. 336, formerly in Bishopsgate Without, shows
was the fashion

from
tlu'
in
London
Court of James
in 1600.
I
Paul Pindar was Ambassador at Constantinople
between 161 1 and 1620.
quarter at this date, containing
example.
Sir
many important
In the panels of this timber house
or voluting, which
what
is
was the 1600 London fashion,
Bishopsgate was a fashionable
houses, such as Crosby Hall, for
the vigorous
manner
of paper-scrolling,
as perpetuated in the
Coventry mantel
already illustrated in Fig. 300, together with design-motives culled from an even earlier
date and another
district.
In every detail of this Bishopsgate house, in panels, pilasters
Fig. 364.
OAK-PANELLED ROOM.
A
typical
example
of the 1640 period.
Hampshire type.
322
Jf'ôod
or
brackets,
is
Ehzabethan
the
expression
style, so
often
and yet both unmistakable

Levens Hall
It
is
also
in
the
almost
be
described
confounded with the work of the
and widespread.
Westmoreland and
direct
may
what
of
and Mantels
Panellings
progenitor
It
the
of
woodwork
as
far
Lanhydroc
as
such
as
the
true
later Stuart period,
can be found
far south-west
as
as
in
north
Cornwall.
Lime
the
as
Street
mantels.
If
it
the details of this Bishopsgate house are in the
must not be imagined that the house
still less
its
so in London.
itself is of
In construction,
breaks, angles, projections and
it
Here
exceptional and striking even at the date
really
formed of two huge frames,
in the metropolis this
when
it
of their period,
a style usual in the East of England,
semicircular oriel window,
central
typical of Devonshire than of London.
is
London manner
was
built
it
is
far
more
house must have been
in Exeter, apart
from
Fig. 365.
OAK-PANELLED ROOM.
Date about 1640.
323
J.
in
Albert Bennett, Esq., Photo.
its
Early English Furniture and JVoocIwork

rich ornamentation,
little
it
would have
fallen in
with the scheme of things, and have aroused
comment.
The panelled rooms, with
their mantels,
which were removed, a few years ago, from
Sherard House at Eltham, are examples of this Lime Street, or typically
manner
of
how
of the first quarter of the seventeenth century,
these old panellings were esteemed.
and
at the
word
is
used advisedly
same time instances
portion of one of these rooms
trated in Fig. 338 which will show, partly, the state they were in
" partly "
Home County
a portion of the
many
when
is illus-
discovered.
The
wall-papers, with their canvas
backing, has been removed, and fragments of the later plaster cornice have been hacked
down.
made
The
original
deliberately.
work could not have been obscured
The mantels were coated with paint
better,
had the attempt been
so thick as almost to
the details, not only of the carving, but the moulding as well.
Where
fine
fill
woodwork
Fig. 366.
ANOTHER VIEW OF THE OAK-PANELLED ROOM,

Date about 1640.
FIG. 365.
J. .Albert
up
Bennett, Esq
Photo.
Uôod Panellings and Mantels

is
in situ,
and
sale,
and preserved, there
may
be two opinions as to the morahty of
its
removal
but with instances such as these rooms from Sherard House there can only be one.
Sherard House owes
its
name
to a later owner, William Sherard, LL.D., Fellow of
All Souls, Oxford, a native of Leicestershire,

to his brother
who was born
in 1659,
o^"
James, who bought the house at Eltham in 1718-ig.
niore probably
Both brothers
Fig.' 367.
OAK CHIMNEY-PIECE AND PANELLING.

From Swann
Hall, Suffolk.
Date about 1650-5.
325
Messrs. Robersons.
Fig. 368.
OAK MANTELPIECE.
Total width
7 ft.
SJ
ins.
Total height 6
Stone opening
ft.
ft.
\\\
ins.
6J
ins.
by
Wood
3
ft.
opening 5
ft.
2 ins.
Date about 1640-50.

j_
326
by 4
ft.
li ins.
^^^p^;^ Cobbold, Esq.
Panellings
Jf'ôod
and Mantels
Fig. 369.
OAK MANTEL.
Width over jambs
7 ft. 10 ins.
Wood
Over cornice
opening 5
ft. 1 1
ft.
ins.
Date about 1650.
327
5 ins.
by
ft.
Total height 7
9
ft.
11 ins.
ins.
j_
Early Kriglish Furniture and JFoodwork

wore celebrated botanists, but
it
is
James that Sherard House owed
to
collection of rare plants, the world the

their day,
and
Oxford the nucleus of
This interesting Eltham house
heads
is
the date 1634, but this
two books
its
is late,
" Hortus Elthamensis,"
famous
in
famous Botanical Gardens.
shown
is
wonderful
its
On one
in Fig. 337.
by some
of the rain-water
years, for the mantels
yet almost a century earlier than the windows and the doorway.
and panellings,
These latter were
probably the work of James Sherard after he acquired the house in 1718.
The wainscotting
of these
Eltham rooms
is
simple in design, practically the same
pattern being adopted throughout, of scratch-mouldings carried through in the vertical

styles,
with the upper edges of the lateral
oak everyw^here
is
of superb quality.
manner, differing considerably
rails left
The mantels
in their design,
use of elaborately mitred mouldings.
are
all
variations of the
but relying, for decorative
All three
shown here
in Figs.
made
from mantel to overmantel.
of the half-mitre in the pilasters of the
Lime
Street
on the
effect,
339 to 341 have
the quarter-round sectioned shelf, with a small projection, strapped over

to carry the pilaster-line
The
square or slightly bevelled.
by
flat trusses
In Fig. 339 an ingenious use
upper stage.
is
Fig. 340 has a single central
alcoved niche or apse, flanked on either side by moulded panels very intricately mitred.
Fig. 341 has the decoration of applied fretting
and semi-balusters on the downward-
tapering pilasters, those of the overmantel having, on their bases, a representation of

the
coursing of masonry.
There
considerable degree of quiet

these three Sherard
is
charm
in
House mantels, and,
considering the self-imposed limitation

of the designer, the result, achieved
the inexpensive
of the mitre
and
means
by
of ingenious use
half-mitre,
is
distinctly
successful.
It
was intended,
New
was decided
before
to illus-
removal,
to
on consideration,
show them
with
in
masking the
The type
situ,
the later grates
Fig. 370.
OAK PANELLING.
re-
York, with the stone
linings replaced, but,

it
first,
rooms as restored and
trate these
erected in
at
original fire-openings,
and
with no attempt at restoration beyond the
of 1670-80.
328
JVood
stripping
the
of
and Mantels
Panelliri(is
wall-
papers necessary to expose the panellings and

a local removal
paint
to
of
the
ascertain
the
quality
of
the
oak
beneath.
In
some
of the
rooms
high
in the
house a later
skirting
had been
nailed over the panelling,
and every
to
effort
appears
have been made to
disguise the original work
almost beyond recognition as such.

Fig. 371.
The Renaissance
England appears to
in
THE OAK-PANELLED ROOM FROM CLIFFORD'S

General view.
de-
INN.
Date 1686-8.
Victoria"and Albert Museum.
velop on coarser and

cruder lines in
the counties of
the Western Midlands, beginning
Gloucestershire and terminating with
Lancashire.
as
far
Many
to
the south, as,
This
woodwork
for
is,
these
unquestionably
least
in
the
Midland panellings evidently found their way
example, that in the
It is interesting as
origin.
of
as
Cumberland and Westmoreland
do not seem to have originated a distinctive style of their own, at

south
Treaty House
of
either
at
Uxbridge, Fig.
342.
Midland or Welsh bordering-county
showing the error of attributing panellings
of the early
seventeenth century to the localities in which they are found, at the present day.
The
chief
characteristic
of
the Midland and Western-Midland panel
The inner framed
mouldings of the bolection type.
Uxbridge panelling,
Anglian
counties,
also appears at
where
its
an
presence
its
heavy
panel, as in the upper part of this
earlier date in these districts

is
is
than in the East
almost a certain indication
of
the
later
This Uxbridge wainscotting
is
neither choice in design nor high in quality, and
has suffered in alterations and adaptations, but
it is
instructive in showing that fixed
panellings are not always original to the house they are
there for a century or two.

2
329
it
in,
even when they have been
Early Kriglish Furniture and Jfôodwork

The
\\'estern character of this
Treaty House panelhng can be better estimated
by a comparison with an oak-panelled bedroom from Rotherwas,

This
illustrated here in Fig. 343.
until its
removal and
sale a
few
is
woodwork
j-ears ago,
County Hereford,
in
original both to the house
and
Here
to its locality.
it
was
in,
is
the
same
heaviness of moulding and depth of panel-recessing as in the Uxbridge woodwork.
When we
make,
place the
and
this
Bromley-by-Bow room on the one
bedroom from Rotherwas on the
which
side,
other, with the
of
is
Home County
Uxbridge panelling
between, the Western-Midland origin of the Treaty House woodwork will be appreciated.
Rotherwas, the home of the Bodenhams, whose shield of twenty-five quarterings

can be seen on the
fine
an estate which figures

miles of Hereford.
It
mantel, Fig. 344, and the key to which

in
and within two

last
male
of the
Roger Bodenham
Bodenham
family history, and
one was the son of another, whose father, John
Bodenham
of
of the alliance
formed by
la
Barre of Rotherwas.
considerable antiquity in Herefordshire.

lord of
The
descendant of the race who
last direct
Bodenham, thus perpetuated,
Although not
Dewchurch, had
Thus the grandson inherited by reason
la Barre.
his grandfather.
died in 1884, Charles de la Barre
is
into the hands of
is
in the
married Isabella, heiress of Walter de
de
Wye
Barre property until the death of the
There are innumerable Rogers
as next-of-kin.
this
la
when Rotherwas came
Sir Charles, in 1483,
line,
Domesday, situated near the River
was de
given in Fig. 346,
is
in his
name,
this last
Rotherwas, the Bodenhams are of
as lords of
Edward
In the reign of
Monington and many other parks and mansions
I,
William Bodenham
in the valley of the
Wye.
Of the Rotherwas of the early sixteenth century, only a small part remains, converted
into private chapels
and adapted
for the
accommodation
of the priests
who had attached
themselves to the Catholic Bodenhams.
Of the woodwork
survived.
and
at
From
original to the early -sixteenth-century house,
The great house
of that period
none appears to have
was neither panelled nor furnished
Rotherwas there are signs that a century
of possessors
added
to its
in a day,
woodwork.
the late period of Elizabeth dates the overdoor already illustrated in Fig. 307,
but this appears to be the only remaining fragment of the sixteenth-century woodwork
in the house.
Additions were built on by one of the
new house many

at
Rotherwas
panellings
of the old panellings
many Roger Bodenhams
were removed.
in 1731,
in
these pages
must have been put
in the seventeenth century, as " a delicious seat

330
to the
There are no records of work
in the early seventeenth century, yet at this period all the
shown
and
in.
mantels and
Blount describes the house,
abounding with a store
of excellent
IJôod Panellings
and Mantels
'^!fS-.!>-?i5je.'iS
Fig. 372.
OAK CHIMNEY-PIECE WITH APPLIED CARVINGS FROM CLIFFORD'S
INN.
Date 1686-8.
Victoria and Albert
331
Museum.
Early Rriglish Furniture and Woodwork

and
fruit
fertylc arable land, ha\-ing also a
park within
than half a myle of the
less
a fair parlour
full of
coats of arms according to the fashion of the age,
and over that a whole Dyning
Room
wainscotted with walnut
There
house.
is
Chimney twenty-five
of the
Of the
coats in one achievement."
The
of the room.
room with painted armorial
description, however, reads
its
344 and 345.
as the tree
known
is
The use
of
walnut for
like
a panelled
The walnut
of the sixteenth centurj-.
oak chimney-piece and the " twenty-five coats
in Figs.
more
similar to the Abbot's parlour at
frieze-panels above,
Thame, and dating from the early years

with
and on the mantel
" fair parlour full of coats of arms," nothing remains, unless the overdoor.
was a part
Fig. 307,
tree,
panelling,
one achievement " are shown
in
this panelling is difficult to
understand,
not a native of England, although some authorities assert that
Romans.
here in the time of the
was imported from Persia and

and Montgomery about 1565.
first
it
was
There are records which state that the tree
planted at Wilton Park by the Earl of Pembroke
Apart from some
liability to the attacks of the
wood-worm
(although the instance of the great roof of Westminster Hall shows the English oak
by no means, immune from these ravages)
work and
carve,
and obtainable
in
a reliable
it is
Yet
wide boards.
it
used for this purpose at any time, in England, even when
wood
rarely,
It is inferior to
for furniture.
if
been imported.
it
The presence
it
replaced oak as the popular
If
mahogany,
in durability, yet
Rotherwas
of walnut at
for panellings, easy to
does not appear to have been
when
ever used for panellings in the eighteenth century,
furniture timber.
tenable,
mahogany
wood
the theory that the tree was
first
is,
is
it
also, is
was the exclusive
exceptional, but
may have
planted in England in 1565 be
could not have acquired a sufficient maturity to have been available for wide
panels in the early years of the next century.
Ornate as this Rotherwas woodwork

istically
is,
in the
English in conception and execution.
chrome, and above the shelf are four caryatid
Temperance and Prudence.
Banquet
Hall,
The oak mantel
is
it
is
still
character-
decorated in poly-
figures, representing Justice, Fortitude,
The walnut panelling
consists of a lower or base tier of
inner framed panels placed lengthwise, a middle section with similar panels upright,
divided by fluted pilasters with carved capitals, and an upper tier of arcaded panels
with turned half-columns between, the whole surmounted by an elaborately carved
and truss-bracketted
frieze in the high-relief
strap-work of the early seventeenth century.
This woodwork must be regarded as an exceptional effort on the part of the owner of
Rotherwas, and there

of
is little
doubt that designers and craftsmen from the South-east
England were imported into Herefordshire

332
for its execution.
Figs. 347
and 348,
JFood Panellings
and Mantels
Fig. 373.
INN.
Detail of a door.
Date 1686-8.
Victoria and Albert
333
Museum.

!/
known
as the
Banquet Hall
James
panelling.
one above, with two

is t3'pical
more
typical of
is
unusual
It is
and Lancashire
in
and
its locality,
in
having a
tall
is,
probably of prior date to the
arcaded panel below and a short
The extensive use
square panels between.
tiers of
of Cheshire
The panellings
are
room,
of the
gadroon
at this date.
what was known
as the Julius Caesar
James
refined in character than in the
Room,
room, but are
still
349 and 350,
Figs.
The
local in type.
panels are large, framed in with separate mitred mouldings, and the pilasters are slender
and without taper or
and
The timber
entasis.
Of the three caryatid
quality.
bears a superficial resemblance to a

of the
room was probably
quartered oak of exceptionally fine figure
is
figures
Roman
on the overmantel, the one on the right
The heraldic
derived.
from which circumstance the name
soldier,
shields in the
two panels are
in original
polychrome.
It
must be remembered that none
situ at the time of their
removal
of these
Rotherwas panellings were
They had,
in 1912.
in nearly
in original
every instance, been
adapted to the eighteenth-century house with some necessary rearrangement of the
Many examples
panelling flanks.
in
of the
woodwork
of
James
II
and Anne at Rotherwas,
unusual woods, such as yew and sycamore, also existed, and were readapted at the
same time.
The Bodenhams were
ships during the
Commonwealth.
Royalists, and, as such, suffered considerable hard-
Between 1620 and 1685 no work appears
undertaken at Rotherwas, and none of importance was put into the house
The
last of the
Billesle^'
Bodenhams, Count Lubienski Bodenham, died
(it is
some miles from

it is
Billeslei in
Alcester.
Domesday)
is
have been
to
in 1912.
a Warwickshire village and a
manor
The manor has both a Saxon and a Norman
house,
historj^ but
with the later house of the seventeenth century that we are concerned here.
has records of considerable antiquity.

Trussell, Knight, in the sixth year of
held Billesley, although
much
It is entailed
Richard
of their
on the heirs male of
II (1382).
The
John Vere, afterwards Earl
and Leicestershire
Trussells appear to
asserts that he
is
Thomas
Trussell
is
Sheriff for
and was, doubtless the owner
buried in the Billesley church of All Saints, but
say about this church a
Another Thomas
little later
the last of the family to hold Billesley, as in 1604

is
Warwickshire
of Billesley.
we
shall
1523
in
Dugdale
have more to
on.
Trussell, the fifth in descent
son and heir (although he
have
property in Norfolk, Berkshire, Leicestershire,
of Oxford.
in this year,
It
Alured
Sir
Northamptonshire and Essex, passed with the marriage of Ehzabeth Trussell

to
1625.
after.
from the Sheriff of Warwickshire,

it is
sold to Sir Robert Lee, Kt., the
the younger of two brothers,

334
is
Henry and Robert)
of Sir
Fig. 374.
INN.
Detail of a door.
Date 1686-8.
Victoria and .\lbert
335
Museum.

Robert Lee, Alderman
appear to have held
had the manor

Sir
is
High
of the City of
Billesley, in
Robert Lee made Billesley

Sheriff for Warwickshire.
evidence, as
The date
is
\\'ith
we
of the
Armoury
Warwick,
his
Whether
was sold
it
for the service of
one Knight's
Trussells
his brother
Tower
in 1580,
is
fee.
later, he, in turn,
was the same
Sir
Henry Lee
not certain, but there
renowned Jacob Topf was Court Armourer
to
The
show that he was, probably, a connection,
the later history of Billesley
about 1690, when
Lord Maj'or.
country seat, and sixteen years
at the
shall see later, to
interesting, as the
later,
unbroken succession, since 1165, when Osbert Trussell
of \\'illiam, Earl of
who was Master
London, and,
we have
little
concern.
is
some
at least.
at this period.
The Lees held
Bernard Whalley, who appears to have done
it
until
little
Fig. 375.
CHATSWORTH, DERBYSHIRE.
The state Dining-room, sometimes called the State Great Chamber.
Date 1690-4.
The Duke
of Devonshire,
J. .-Albert
Bennett, Esq., Photo.
or
and Mantels
IJôod Panellings
o
From
nothing in the house although Dugdale claims that he rebuilt the church.
same authority we
but
it is
in the
and \Mialleys
lie
churchyard,
East window.
is
a mystery here
of this
Whalley church not a vestige remains, and what
even more strange, the churchyard with
present church of All Saints
is
its
tombs has disappeared
what became
likewise.
The
a small structure, evidently composed of windows and
fragments from a secular house of the late seventeenth century.

or
in the
the arms of Whalley, argent three whales' heads razed sable, which are glazed
There
is
learn that the Trussells, Lees
the
of the ^^'halley church, or of the family tombs,
more strange, the signposts show the way
to Billesley
it
is
When
quite
figures
was
built,
unknown.
Still
it
on the ordnance
Fig. 376.
The State Drawing-room.
Date 1692-4.
The Duke
2
of Devonshire.
J.
337

surveys, yet the \illage has also disappeared without trace, nor has
Death swept
exist since the Black
There
is,
away
population
its
all
cross of the Trussells, the silver
In recent years the house
that time, the other (walled
and black
The panellings
on
fell
e\'il
being
off)
the present proprietor restored
Gone
That these were put
not so
is
was much neglected prior
let to
a farmer.
by
Sir
Robert Lee
clear, as the
to 1912.
both
There
is
and other
of pear
corner of which
work.
fruit
is
given,
woods.
shown here
The moulding
quality and figure.
mantel
is
was
in
wood-texture and moulding
left in this state until
almost certain, but for which
is
of the Lees (the father, Sir Robert,

in 1602)
Fig. 351,
and the same
The panelling
in Fig. 352,
in a
would account,
some
in
and possibly the panels with
may
made from oak with
be said of the Shakespeare
applied bosses and strap-work
Dressing-room on the
first floor,
has the appearance of being East Anglian
sections are extraordinarily delicate,
and the oak
is
superb in
In Fig. 356, details of the mouldings in the principal rooms are
and the second from the top shows
The panelling
It
evidence of both local and London work
Thus the Hall mantel.
their pilasters, are of ^^'arwickshire origin,
Fig. 354, \vhere the
Whalley.
of
house had been altered a good deal, and
we must remember, was Alderman and Lord Mayor

measure, for this duality.
the flowered
days, one half being reserved to the owner of
The London connections
in these wainscottings.
is
among
in 1912.
it
in
also
and the whales
shield of the Lees
at Billesley are exceptionally fine
rooms they were made
Room,
window glazed with the
complete, but an entire village also, which must be reckoned
the missing, lost without any records, antiquarian or local.
section.
been known to
in the early fifteenth century.
therefore, not only a church, with East (chancel)
W'halley arms
it
in the
this
room.
Dining-room, Fig. 355, bears a strong resemblance, both in
panel- arrangement and section, to that of the Bromley Palace room, already illustrated
in Fig. 328,
enough to suggest a London origin
There are four
large,
and very remarkable
Billesley,
which indicate a connection between
Tower
London.
of
for this
woodwork.
steel locks
Sir
en the upper room doors
Robert Lee and the Armoury of the
In Fig. 357 are two of the slab doors with their locks in
locks are peculiar in possessing only one bolt, which acts as a latch
key
it
outside.
Another key on the inside
so that the outside key
is
inoperative.
Fig. 362 only having a single,

of the door.
red,
but
now
of the
and an
Each
if
situ.
These
operated by the
door double-shoots this bolt and secures
In Figs. 358 to 362, these locks are shown.
original key,
which can be used from both
Lender the pierced outer rim of these locks
black with age.
at
is
sides
a backing of leather, originally
lock, excepting Fig. 362, has
two keyholes on the
IJôod Panellings
and Mantels
Fig. 377.
Landing on Second Floor, showing alabaster door case and iron staircase by Tijcu.
Date 1689-94.
The Duke
of Devonshire.
J.
339
Early Kriglish Furniture and IJôodwork

outside, one
masked
1)>-
a pivoted covering-piece of forged steel.
the reverse of Fig. 358, the
mechanism
armourer's mark at the end of the bolt.

inside in the
same way
The fashion
sixteenth,
inglj' rare,
if
as the
of the lock can
In Fig. 359, which
is
be seen, together with the Tower
The projecting knob actuates the latch from the
key does on the outside.
for these elaborate steel locks
is
a survival from the
not the later part of the fifteenth, century.
but at Beddington Manor House one
still
first
years of the
The early examples
exists
are exceed-
which dates from the reign
Fig. 378.
WOODCOTE PARK, EPSOM.

Ante-room (formerly Chapel) Doorway.
c.
1690.
J.
340
Wood
of
Henry VII.
here in Fig. 363.
It is illustrated
very rare, however, at
all
periods, as,
on
Mantels
Panellinqs
o and
These elaborate locks must have been
this scale of elaboration,
been made for the houses of the very wealthy.
they could only have
They must have been the product
of
the armourer's craft rather than that of the smith, and were highly esteemed at the
On
time when they were made.
The woodwork
of
their present-day value
Western Sussex and Hampshire
it is
is
idle to speculate.
characterised
by a vigorous
coarseness, quite different in type from that of Lancashire or Cheshire.
panellings almost achieve a refinement
shows the type,
by
their reticent use of ornament.
Hampshire
Fig. 364
\vith rebated door,
flanked by pilasters which have

or
little
no relation to the
The
rounding panelling.
sur-
pilaster-
bases, with central facetted rectangle, surrounded
by coarse and
somewhat meaningless ornament,

indicate a county without
many
The
same
traditions.
artistic
somewhat uncouth character

shown
in the
is
room. Figs. 365 and
366, where the panels are coarsely
scratch-moulded, with httle or no
symmetry.
The mantel
is,
un-
questionably, the best part of the
whole composition.
It
may
be
noted that towards the middle
of
the seventeenth century these oak
panels tend to become larger.

full
development
The
in this direction
will be illustrated later on.
Norfolk and Suffolk possess

their
own
style in mantels, wall
panellings and in furniture.
The
Fig. 379.
WOODCOTE PARK, EPSOM.
East Anglian characteristics are
more easy
to
illustrate
The Ante-room (formerly the Chapel).
than to
c.
describe.
The woodwork
varies
1690.
J.
34t

from very simple to the most ornate, yet
usually carved
ornament
the constructive details which are
is
the case of the Devonshire
rarely introduced, as in
is
and Somersetshire work, merely
for its
own
There
sake.
consequence, a quality
in
is,
which, allied with a clean-cut sense of proportion, gives an appearance
of repose,
which
of richness
is
not entirely due to the amount of carving introduced.
the simple mantel and panelling from
Commonwealth
years of the
just the right degree

this
it
East Anglian work, but
Hall, in Suffolk, Fig. 367, of about the last
have a satisfying sense
period,
and manner.
Swann
The Dutch
this is in
ornament introduced
of
or Flemish element
is
George
first
no way remarkable, considering the
I in
years of the sixteenth century,
shown
Low
until the
before,
close
com-
Countries
accession of
1714.
The somewhat
are
or even
in
never absent in
mercial associations which existed between Norfolk and Suffolk and the
from the
Thus
in the
later,
and more elaborate, versions
two mantels,
Cobbold's house at Ipswich.
Figs. 368
The
first
and 369.
of this
Both are
East Anglian manner
at Holywells, Mr. J.
D.
has the typical Suffolk composition of a truss-
bracketted frieze with car^-atid figures under, on small moulded bases, with a central
inner framed panel (a favourite detail throughout almost the whole of England during
the seventeenth century") flanked
and base
of the
undercutting.
show
in the
by two
others, arcaded
overmantel are ornamented
Fig. 369
is
photograph.
in flat
pilastered.
Both
frieze
strap-work patterns with slight
more ornate, although much
The arcading and
and
of the interesting inlay does
not
pilasters of the three panels of the over-
mantel, are of red deal instead of the more usual oak.
bandings of interlaced diamond pattern, on the
first
The oak panels

from the
left,
are inlaid with
a ship in full sail
with a flag showing a red cross on a white ground, in the centre a painted globe on
stand, with the inscription underneath,
"
He
that travels ye world about
Seeth Gods wonders and Gods works.

"
Thomas Eldred
of
July 1586
&
travelled ye world about
In
Plimouth 21st
of a nautical figure
wearing a lace collar of the
period, in the act of using a sextant.
That
'
of
arrived in Plimouth again the 9th of September 1588,"'
and on the right-hand panel, a bust

Charles
and went out
St.
this mantel, as in the case of the

Clement's Church, Ipswich,
is
Yarmouth rooms, was made
an inscription to the memory of
Cavendish in his voyage round the world.

342
this
for another of
Thomas Eldred who accompanied

the Suffolk merchant adventurers, in this case of the middle seventeenth century,
highly probable, as no other would have
in this fashion.
Numbers
commemorated
of these elaborate
their original sources,
engaged
in the woollen trade
emerges from the mists
it
is
it
has been possible to trace them
nearly always a merchant, usually one
with
its
who was
with Flanders or in adventures to the Spanish Main,
of time.
Frequently, these
men were
of
and commerce with the Low Countries must have been exceedingly
by the ornate
Thomas Eldred
rooms have been removed from East
Anglia, especially from hotels and inns, but where
back to
the exploits of
is
furnishings in which they indulged.
quaint suggestion of ventures by land and sea,
Rich as
this
Dutch
who
extraction,
lucrative, judging
Holywells mantel
is,
probably a record of an ancestor
Fig. 380.
OAK-PANELLED ROOM FROM WHITLEY BEAUMONT.

Early eighteenth century.
343
Messrs. Robersons.

more than
half a century before,
the
East Anghan decorative limit had been reached
before the end of Elizabeth's reign as in the
Who
Yarmouth
panellings already illustrated.
House we do not know, but the second,
built Fcnner's
private residence, or business house,
we have
as
was the
seen,
probably both, of William Crowe, the Merchant
Adventurer, possibly a merchant with a small filibustering branch to his business (they
were not over-nice

is
in their doings
when on
a merchant, liowe\'er, and proud of the fact, as he places the arms of his
in the centre of his
mantel as a reminder to others of his status
in the
Trade with Holland and Flanders had declined, towards the

century, from the former high position
went
had occupied
world of commerce.
close of the seventeenth
at the
end
of the sixteenth.
safely harboured Charles II before 1660, however,
The Netherlands had

King was
it
called to ascend the English throne (Pepys
to fetch him) there
is
He
Company
the high seas in the reign of Elizabeth).
was one
and when the
of the deputation
no doubt that the Hollanders were not forgotten.
trade of Norfolk and Suffolk with the Netherlands revived after the Restoration
probable
and we
which
That the
is
highly
shall see the reflex of this revival a little later in this chapter in
Fig. 370.
There
is
one detail which
is
to be
found
in nearly,
century woodwork which has been illustrated thus far
not in
all of this
seventeenth-
the panels are always of com-
Occasionally a joint in the panel was attempted, but rarely
paratively small area.
in the majority of instances the
The
if
wood
is
in the
one piece.
credit for the introduction of the large panel in the wainscotting of
rooms must
be given to John Webb, who, in the later years of the Commonwealth, had used
effect,
at Thorpe,
Thorney Abbey House, and elsewhere.
it,
with
was obvious, from the
It
would come from an architect rather than from a
outset, that such an innovation
practical joiner, or from one acquainted with the limitations, as well as the advantages,
of oak,
and with a wholesome dread
of such incidents as cracking or
These large surfaces once insisted upon,

the design in the best and safest
some compromise was
inevitable,
was
it
manner
left to
possible.
and we
find
a practical carpenter to carry out
With the
is
traditions of that date,
two methods sometimes adopted
certain instances red deal (so often miscalled " pine ")
others the framing
warping of panels.
is
in
used instead of oak, and in
applied direct with the plaster wall forming the panels.
At Tytten-
hanger we have the broad panels inserted in doors, but here they are of substantial
thickness.
That
this
Commonwealth years
wholesome
is
fear of the large panel
was very prevalent
in the later
evident by the fact that panellings from earlier periods were
used in the new houses of that date, in
many
344
cases.
It
was
as
if
the
men who knew,

the carpenters
and
joiners, insisted
on the small panel as a measure
of safety,
and
convinced both architect and client that their views were just and sound.
It is just
before the Restoration that
we
find decorative
hitherto, been the exclusive province of the joiner,
often
woodwork,
left to
which
the designing-skill of
the architect, with a loss in constructional soundness but a gain in freedom
At the same time, especially
in the
East Anghan counties, the joiner
copying older designs and methods, with the result

Fig. 370,
which on the evidence
of its details merely,
that
we
had,
still
and novelty.
holds sway,
get such examples as
might be referred
to a
much
earlier
date.
There are no details
in this
woodwork, apparently, which on the evidence
panellings of the seventeenth century,
would
justify a date as late as 1670-80.
of other
It is of
Fig. 381.
RED DEAL PANELLING AND MANTEL.

Removed from
a house at Leatherhead.
Early eighteenth century.

2
345
Messrs. Robersons.

which
either Norfolk or Suffolk origin,

it
in the
is
many
first
significant fact to be noted.
framed panel. The joiner-traditions persisted
years, both in furniture
When
and woodwork.
this
is
always later than one would expect,
often considerably so.
We know
architect
London,
The
was introduced, and, with him,
in all
also
fashion for painting,
coming into vogue at
this date,
among
lingered, especially
manner
architects'
in the
in
which
frequently the
is
judging merely by style, and very
East Angha, other than
found very small favour
London
new
that the
counties
in these
such pieces as long settles
or benches are found, in these localities, carved with a date,

fact,
Secondly,
East Anglian furniture of the very late seventeenth century that we find
this lavish use of the inner
for
the
is
of the large panel
very large houses where the
and even parcel-gilding
wood
of
and oak was being replaced by red
the East Anglian traders
workmen from
probabilitJ^
who had
panellings
There
deal.
was
still
connections with Flanders,
a desire for the small-panelled wainscotting of oak, and these elaborately mitred inner
framed panellings became the
rule
among
the merchants of the two counties towards
There
the close of the seventeenth century.
is
furniture which corresponds, ver^^ closely, to this panelling in style,
same
districts,
and
for these houses.
examples as Fig. 370 as
work
of
manner
much
This, then,
is
earlier date, is quite distinct
of the
was made
in the
the justification for dating such
The general
late as 1670-80.
much
a strong possibility that
style,
when examined
although like some of the

in detail.
It is
an
persisting to a late date, but with considerable modifications.
It was,
more or
less,
inevitable that an occasion
of deal for oak, or the use of
and that the large jointed panel would have
correct,
but
is
would
arise
where the substitution
a plaster wall in place of a wooden panel, would
satisfy,
sufficiently so for
to be ventured.
our present purpose, to say that
It
it is
is
Inn, illustrated here in Figs. 371 to 374,
is
not literally
woodwork
The oak room from
the eighteenth from that of the seventeenth century.
large raised bolection moulding, dates
same panel
area.
five joints in
one of the very early examples of the use of
temporary with the
Kilmorey
in the
and
Clifford's
same
At
are larger,
with chamfered "
fields,"
Inn room, almost to a year.
in the first year of the short reign of
the most fashionable and matured
manner
James
of its time.
346
Ham
style of projecting panel with
from some ten years before, but there
At Shavington the panels

them,
of
Clifford's
large oak panels in the wainscotting of a room, other than in a large mansion.
House, the panelling in the dining-room,
fail to
the use of large
panels of wood, and especially the use of deal, which sharply divides the
even
earlier
II,
in
some
is
cases with four,
but the work here
It
was
also
done
and may be said
Novel,
as
not the
it
was
for
is
and
con-
Viscount
to represent
for its date,
and Mantels
IJôod Panellings
and elaborate
as this Clifford's Inn
Cornish gentleman.
It
was
Penhalow took possession
in 1674,
room
is, it
on the
of a set of
was made, not
fifth
day
chambers
of
for a noble,
February, to be precise, that John
in Clifford's Inn.
twelve years later (another set of chambers was added to the
superb panelling was completed and installed.
this
John Penhalow had the double
set of
By his
In this No.
first
Benjamin
until
chambers, not only for his own, but for two lives
After him came
1722,
Whether the
John Rogers.
Penhalows
Rogers,
or
or
later
tenants, were responsible for the
numberless coats
which the
of
oak was daubed,
rich
Equally
not possible to say.
it is
obscure
is
the
name
He must have
skill,
with
paint
of the designer.
possessed taste and
and withal considerable daring,
ôr was
ledge,
it
want
of technical
to have designed
know-
a scheme
requiring oak panels of such large

size,
often as wide as thirty inches.
Whoever he was, whether

of
Wren
a pupil
or a craftsman brought
Penhalow from
by
his native Cornwall,
he did his work well, selected
fine
quartered timber, jointed his panels

so
carefully
pattern
is
that
even
the
ray
carried accurately from
one section to the other, and
in
the wealth of fine carving above

the mantel, inserted the arms of
his
patron,
some
agreement with the benchers
and he was succeeded by the third

life,
3,
during that time),
beyond, and he lived here with his panelling for twenty-eight years.
his brother
but for a plain
Penhalow quartering
25
MORTIMER STREET, LONDON, W,
Penwarne.
Door and architrave
There are four doors to the
in carved red deal.
1730-40.
347
Karly English Furniture and JFoodwork

room, two of the kind shown
The enriched mouldings
and two windows.

of the mantel
and the panels
now
white, but
of plain plaster.
fine
quartered oak, are

in
of the
warm brown)
was
the framing
two with
in Fig. ^î,
door pediments arc of lime tree (originally nearly
It
originally,
ceiling,
The
was not removed with the room.
it
the rebates of boldly-projecting bolection mouldings.

of
Wren
or \\'ebb or
more probably
has Webb's sections in the enriched mouldings, especiallj^ in the door
owe much
Yet there
to Gibbons.
room 18
a sense of scale and of restraint, in idea of what could be justified in a

14
ins. b}-
ft.
10
ins.,
Webb
of vast size.
When we
Wiltshire (the
home
which
or Gibbons, accustomed, as they were, to
rooms
of similar character,
only g
Penruddocks, another Cornish family),

but on a
carvings, although without the

in this
room from
of one
wood on another which
Clifford's
John Penhalow brought
floor to ceiling of
10
ft.
approach the direction of Cornwall, we find at Compton,
of the
much
larger scale.
heavy massing
Inn
it
is
still
in the
in his
in
dining-room,
Compton the
True, at
of Gibbons, are
applied
manner, whereas
only the application of pierced and carved work
suggests Gibbons at
his craftsmen
ft.
ins.,
and with a height from
one would not expect from Wren,
work
panels, of
without chamfers, and stand forward in front of the face of
flat,
architraves and overmantel, and the applied carvings

is
The
applied to the oak ground.
Obviously,
in Fig. 374,
are in solid oak, but the ornamentation
The work may have been inspired from that

from both.
pediments as
scrolled
One would
all.
like to believe that
from the south-western counties
embellish his London chambers, but the evidence for this
is
of
England
meagre and cannot be
to
relied
upon.
We
have illustrated the type
of
woodwork which was made
plain Cornish gentleman in Clifford's Inn between 1686
and 1688.
Attention
turned, for a brief space, to examine the same large-panelled style as
man,
perhaps not a very wealthy one at that date,
shire at
Chatsworth
palatial
woodwork nor
in Derbyshire.
made
in the case of the
This can only be by
way
chambers
for the
of a
may
be
for a noble-
Earl of Devon-
of a digression, as neither
furniture really illustrate the evolution of craft or design, being
always exceptional in character, in a manner which places almost each example in a

class
by
itself.
The
if
history of the Cavendish family
we begin
as far
back
Sir John,
to attain
dukedoms.
to Cardinal Wolsey,
interesting from
many
as the Chief Justice of the Court of King's
who founded
and 1377,
is
points of view, even
Bench
in 1366,
1373
the line of which, at a later period, two branches were
William Cavendish, the fourth in descent, was gentleman-usher
and remained
faithful to
348
him
in his disgrace.
He
outlived the great

Cardinal, and at the dissolution of monasteries obtained large grants of abbey lands,
upon which
his third wife, the
to which the
famous Bess
same lady added many broad
Tradition has
it,
prophecy
of
Hardwick,
built
many
acres.
of the time foretold that
never die as long as she continued building, and
it is
Bess of Hardwick should
reported that her death actually
took place during a snowstorm, when the masons could not work.
in the reign of
Henry
VHI
mansions, and
It is
obvious that
the subject of such a forecast had not to reckon with such
as trade disputes or strikes, otherwise, in
modern parlance, the
Fig. 383.
DETAIL OF THE ARCHITRAVE AND DOOR,

349
FIG. 382.
actuarial risk
trifles
would

have been greatly enhanced.
wick
left to
many
True or
false,
prophecy or no prophecy, Bess of Hard-
succeeding Cavendishes the advantage,
or should
it
be the incubus,
of
Chatsworth, Hardwick, Holker Hall, Lismore Castle, Compton Place
houses.
and Devonshire House
at Eastbourne,
in Piccadilly, these
were
all
Cavendish property
at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

It
was
in
1686 that the Earl of Devonshire (afterwards the Duke) began the altera-
Talman, the architect of Dyrham,
tions to Chatsworth, with
was
He
in his forty-sixth year at this date.
and Robert Owen, the " London joyners
Thomas Young and William Davis

of Grinling
two
in soft lime tree,
is
in the
the
workmen from town
Henry Lobb
" figure in the estate records for 1688,
may have made
models or even have carved
Great Chamber, Fig. 375, but the bulk of this
work
of a Derbyshire
appear to have been contractors,
fine carving,
man, Samuel Watson, who was engaged
Thomas Young and William
at Chatsworth from 1691 to 1715.
and
Legend has connected the name
are the carvers.
Gibbons with Chatsworth, and he
a sample piece or
brings
The Earl
as his advisor.
Davis, before-mentioned,
or " upholders," in the eighteenth-century phraseology,
as to them sums aggregating more than 1,000 are paid for the carvings in this Great
Chamber, and over 2,000
which include the panellings here.
for wainscottings,
In
1692 William Davis appears, associated with Joel Lobb and Samuel Watson, contracting
with the Earl of Devonshire for carvings in lime tree to cost 400.
The Earl could not have been a very wealthy man

which the possession of
to swell the
work
more
at
houses would demand.
is,
on the scale
There was no Eastbourne
Cavendish revenues, and London property had not acquired a tithe of the
rental value which
the
six great
at this date, that
it
Chatsworth
concerned.
is
lavish scale than the Great
the walls, and
its
Yet there
afterwards did.
is
no severe economy evident, as
The State Drawing-room,
Chamber, with
its
Fig. 376,
is
far as
even on a
wonderful Mortlake tapestries on
equally wonderful carvings over the mantel and the doors.
Through
the open door in Fig. 375, can be seen one of the door-cases of locally-quarried alabaster,
and
in Fig.
377
is
shown one
of these gorgeous
balus trading of the stairs, the work of Tijou.
have occupied
many
Watson, the carver,
years.
is still
Talman
is
doorways together with the forged iron
\^'ork
instructed, as
on
this scale of magnificence
we have
seen, in 1686, but
engaged at Chatsworth some twenty-nine years
later,
must
Samuel
although
probably working, at this date, on accessories which were in the nature of after-thoughts.
The
large six- or eight-panelled doors, as seen in the State
door-heads, were the
many
periods,
mode
Drawing-room, with carved
From
that house of
golf club-house of the
Royal Auto-
at the close of the seventeenth century.
Woodcote Park
at
Epsom
now the
35
Fig. 384.
SECTIONS OF DOOR
AND ARCHITRAVE,
Actual
351
size.
FIG. 382.
Early Kriglish Furniture and IVoodwork

mobile Club
an ante-room which was formerly the chapel, the door, shown here in
in
on a smaller scale than the doors at Chatsworth, only three-
Fig. 378,
was taken.
panelled,
and double, with the large box-locks
Louis Quatorze.
somewhat
It is
In Fig. 379
later date, as
of the period, a
copy from the French
shown the mantel from the same room,
is
much work was done
to the middle eighteenth century,
Woodcote from the
at
probably of
late
seventeenth
with a framed panel above the opening, here empty,
but formerly containing a picture, surrounded by festooned carvings in soft lime tree,
somewhat weak
in design.
The substitution
of red deal for
oak usually marks the beginning of the eighteenth

Occasionally
century, the usual finish being either painting or graining.
an example
of
scumble-work at
this period,
a glazing
of amber-coloured varnish
a white or a stippled ground of yellow, the effect of which

artistic
deception in material
work
marbled.
is
is
necessarily implied,
For important work oak was
composition, or even scagliola.

rule during the reign of
ments
ment
which are
in the frieze,
into
is
from Huddersfield, came the
six miles
classical
The columns,
with dentils placed closely together,
with triglyphs,
is
of animals, birds
of this
room from
entirely architectural.
floor to ceiling is 13
in Fig. 381.
ins. to
of
somewhat
its
and
bases, also hollowed out.
modillions entirely covered on the
very unusual
Between these
ft.
detail,
and
Here the scheme
is
the frieze
tablets of the frieze are
heads
The height
7 ins.
later date,
probably of the later years of George
much more
simple,
and the room
is
I, is
low, 8
ft.
the top of the cornice, which was evidently the finish under the ceiling, unless
a coving, in plaster, was used above,
The
which divide the apart-
and other devices, with Beaumont cyphers interlaced.
Another room,
shown
of the orna-
are also of oak, very lightly constructed, in four vertical
inspiration of the classical cornice, with
soffits
room
fine
of the first years of the
oak throughout, with the exception
of pear tree, gilded.
room and ante-room,
manner
sections cooper-jointed on the shafts, with turned caps
The
very occasionally, the wood-
Anne.
The wood
eighteenth century.
charming, although some
is
used, often in conjunction with stucca
still
Here we encroach on the
in Fig. 380.
and,
over
Parcel-gilding of ornaments also becomes almost the
From Whitley Beaumont, about

shown
we meet with
section of this latter
is
of the large stepped frieze
The wood here
is
red
is
doubtful with a cornice of this size.
also unusual, with large
is
dentils below, but the frieze
which
overhang to the corona, and carved
divided from the panelling by a small astragal bead instead
moulding which one would have expected at
deal,
timber which was

35-
very general in
this date.
work
of
the
JFood Panellings
and Mantels
eighteenth century.
usual finish of
The
wood-
tliis
work was paint, but

red
was
deal
this
always
of
beautiful grain and quality,

far
superior
anything
to
procurable at the present

day.
It
the
was imported from
Baltic
Dantzic
ports,
and Memel, but the source

is
now
extinguished.
has
fashion
recent
this
commendable
very
obtained,
years,
stripping
of
deal,
fine
of
which
is
generally of beautiful colour
when
the paint
graining
which
the knots,
only
the
are
figurements,
removed,
is
dis-
to match the
texture of the wood, and

finishing
friction.
with
its
with
The
fine
door
which
in
of old pencil
is
in its
manner,
this
and the colour
shown
has been
original situ,
door,
and
architrave,
in Fig. 382,
stripped
wax
is
now
cedar.
that
This
apart from the fine
quality of the carving,
is
Fig. 385.
ALCOVE CUPBOARD
IN
RED
DEAL.
Victoria
and Albert Museum.

many
exceptional in
It is of
details.
One
badly than accurately.
much more
easily copied
can be referred to here.
The modern
the type which can be
detail in proportions
bottom and the
six-panelled door has the smallest panel at the top, the next in size at the
middle panel
is
taller
This could not ha\'e been conditioned
the same in height.
moulding, as
idea
this could ha\-e
downward
eighteenth-century doors, in fact

in
in copies,
reproduction work
one gets the
it
it is
may
flat of
The
architrave, also, has an
and
this is still further
two
sections, the
the panel on
its
This detail
is
is
fielded side
rarely noticed, with the result that,
is
door and
of the
window
is
nearly level with the face of the door frame.
abnormal projection
for the size of the
door and the room,
accentuated by the bevelling of the architrave return.
It is in
mouldings of the front half being worked on the solid instead of the
its
architrave are
re^'eals in the
shown
The
in Fig. 384.
same room are carved
in the
same
The
sections of
and panel-moulding
skirting
of the door carving can be seen, to a larger scale, in Fig. 383.

is
Another point
the extraordinary thickness of the door panels.
facing of the front ogee, as one usually finds in mouldings of this size.
this
not unusual in
be said to be rather the rule than the exception,
the one which
to be noticed on the page of sections
The
in reason.
a modern Swedish machine-made door.
effect of
The
the position of a surbase
perspective, so that the lower door panel
really appears to be less in height than the middle one.
and yet
b}-
been fixed at any height from the floor
that the eye gives an effect of
is
In this door the lower and middle panels are
than the other two.
fine
The
detail
of this
work
manner.
The date
about 1730-40.
To
which was made to displav
this period belongs the fine china alcove or niche
the decorative porcelains of the middle eighteenth century, illustrated here in Fig. 385.
This comes from the South-west of England, but there

of type
and the
which existed, formerly.

fine red deal
has
the action of lead and

shell
abo\'e
is
finely
cartouche, originally
ends of the shelves
oil in
charm
is
The paint has been removed from
local distinctions
this alcove
cupboard,
the colour of faded pencil cedar or pear tree, the result of
the paint, and the exclusion of light for
many
painted in polychrome and gold, with \'ery rich
all
finish
years.
The
effect.
The
with carved spandrels in similar fashion to the returns of treads
same date
(see Fig. 254).
in proportion, detail, colour
niche the progression of English
book
no longer the
carved, in high-relief scrolling with the arms of Hicks on the
in the staircases of the
quiet
now
is
and play
Simple
in general effect, yet
of light
and shade, with
woodwork must be concluded,
with a
this china
as far as the scope of this
concerned, leaving the subsequent development of panellings and interior joinery
to be traced further, during the remainder of the eighteenth century, in a later work.
354
Chapter X.
Bedsteads and their Development.
HE
and testament
last will
chester, builder of
New
founder of
Windsor Castle and part
He
his death.
leaves
money
to the
Winchester, Wolvesy, Oxford, Guildford and Old and
To
hundred pounds.
is
poor
New
of
Win-
Winchester Cathedral,-
of
College at Oxford, high prelate
which Edward the Third ever had,
sellor
Wykeham, Bishop
of \\'illiam of
and the wisest coun-
dated 1403, one year before

the prisons of London,
in
Sarum, to the amount of two
the church of Winchester he bequeaths his
new
rich
vestment of
embroidered with
blue
cloth
gold,
and thirty capes
of
the
same, with gold fringes, a pyx

of beryl
and a
the host,
for
cross of gold with relics of the
To New
true cross.
mitre,
leaves his
College he
crozier, dal-
To
matics and sandals.

college
mitre,
at Winchester another
Bible
his
books from
To
Bishop
his
and several
his library.
Braybrooke,
Robert
London, he demises
of
his large silk

in
his
bed and furniture
palace
at
Winchester,
with the whole suite of tapestry
hangings from the same place.
One could have wished

more ample and detailed
refer-
Fig. 386.
OAK BEDSTEAD (TESTER
ence to the bed of an important

prelate, dating
from the
late
ft.
4i
ins.
wide.
Present height 5
fourteenth
queathed
century,
and
be-
Lengtli 6
ft.
10 ins.
ft.
2 ins.
MISSING).
(between posts).
Posts 3^
ins.
square.
in the first years of
Saffron
355
Walden Museum.
ft.
4i
Jfôoclwork
Fig. 387.
Fig. 388.
OAK BEDPOSTS.
OAK BEDPOSTS.
ins. to 5 ft. 7 ins. liigh
2| ins. tiiick.
ft.
5 ins. high
4 ins. thick.

Victoria
and Albert Museur
Bedsteads
the
" silk
obviously
the
their
Development
The
fifteenth.
term
and
bed
refers
"
to
but
hangings,
whether the bedstead
was
the four-post
of
merely a pallet
t3'pe, or
l?3
standing in a curtained
recess,
we
means
of
have
knowing.
many
Magnificent as
of
Church
high
the
were
dignitaries
their mode of
in
very
life,
real comfort, in
little
the
no
modern
known
sense,
was
before the six-
teenth century.
The
magnificence was bareye
was
dazzled, but the
body
baric
was
the
little
comforted.
h\
We know, also, especially in secular houses,
from the
castle
fortified
down
to
the
yeoman's
superior
house, that
li
'
i.
the bed-
chamber had only a

secondary importance.
The
life
was
in the
of the family
Great Hall,
and the private apart-
Fig. 389.
ments, including the
It.
Fig. 390.
OAK BEDPOSTS.
6 ft. z\ ins. high (complete) by 3J
high.
bedrooms, were rudelv
Victoria
357
ins. thick.
and Albert Museum.
Fig. 391.
OAK BEDSTEAD.
(Restored).
Height
5 ft. lo ins.
Length 6
ft.
6 ins.
358
Width
ft.
ins.
y^ Smedley .\ston, Esq.
Bedsteads
and sparsely furnished, with
Uttle or
no pretence to
to be clothed with panelhngs of wood,

of stone walls or partitions of
century.
rich
and
wood and
the
first
plaster,
their
real comfort.
Development
Walls onh' begin
attempt at relieving the nakedness
during the latter part of the fifteenth
and powerful prelate would have
his
walls
hung with
tapestries
Fig. 392.
HEAD-BOARD OF OAK BEDSTEAD.

4
ft.
2i ins. wide
by
ft.
li ins. high.
Date about 1545-50.
359
Victoria and Albert
Museum.
Early English
E^tdrriiturc
and Jlôodwork
Fig. 393.
OAK BEDSTEAD, MIDLAND

Height 6
ft. 3 ins.
Width
ft.
6 ins.
Mid-seventeenth century.
;6o
TYPE.
Length 6
ft.
Victoria
and Albert Muteum.
and
Bedsteads
even at a considerably
earlier period
than
this,
their
Development
but in the ordinary houses, even of the
moderately wealthy, where painted hangings were not used
imitation of the lordly
in
tapestry, the walls were either left bare or decorated with crude paintings on
studs or plaster
wood
or on both.
filling,
In turbulent times, the men-folk slept in their clothes, and where they could.
know
that retainers in large houses far outnumbered the bedroom accommodation.
shakedown
softest place
To
we
at
illustrate early bedsteads,
rare instances, the
That
Of
is
only possible
an alternative, the
are, in the
mere
fact that they are bedsteads
linenfold), a similar
not later than the
example
we have already seen in
the
first
years of
Henry VIII
is
of
which
of
in
less
imposed on the Gothic.
The three
Fig. 387 are almost free
from
and
The
in date.
are,
charming, with
ornament.
in
many of
be
of a
its
this in-
is
particularly
simple chip-carved
The same
feeling
is
found
the early chests, which will
illustrated
Fig. 388
in
probably, the earliest
central one
in
the
next volume.
shows the complete four posts
bed with the remains
of the
head
Fig. 394.
framing on the two at the back. These
OAK BEDSTEAD.
are the half-posts to which the head3 A
Dated 1593.
361
(not a
^
suggestion of the Renaissance super-
fluence,
Fig. 386,
moulded panel
examples
more or
Figs. 387 to 390, all with
in
upper portions, which resemble the carved brick chimneys
shown here
of these early bedposts,
and
shown by the patterns
Lavenham
are several
posts,
in the early sixteenth
In the Victoria and
porch. Fig. 267.
Museum
beyond the
The fragment from Saffron Walden Museum,
The panelled head-board has the early form
of this date.
fragmentary form,
in
what must have been an important bedstead
of the posts, especially of the
Albert
this
these, as a rule, nothing has survived
head boards.
it is
and
show examples which
that remains of
century.
or, as
which could be found on a floor-board.
palatial pieces.
all,
was probably the usual bed,
of straw or rushes
are compelled to
is all
We
Early English Furniture and JVôodwork
Fig. 395.
OAK BEDSTEAD.
Height 8
ft.
7i ins. Width 5 ft, 8 ins. Length 7

362
ft.
10 ins.
Fig. 396.
OAK BEDSTEAD.
363
Great Fulford, Devon.
Fig. 397.
OAK BEDSTEAD.
Date about 1630-40.
Astlev Hall, Chorley, Lanes.
36+
Bedsteads
framing was
fixed.
on the front
in
is
Fig. 389
posts.
is
The Gothic pinnacled

tlie
and
their
buttress-finish at
manner one would expect
at this
Development
the floor-ends of those
date, but
is
rare in bed-
a pair, of square section, the shafts with pronounced Renaissance
ornament on bases traceried
in the late
Gothic manner.
Fig. 390 are
probably French,
the one on the right having the insignia of the Medici family, the one in the centre the
The ornament,
fleur-de-lv5.
of England.
also,
is
executed in the manner of Touraine rather than
comparison between the diamond-treatment of the shaft of the post
on the right with

those on either side
in
Fig.
will
387,
show this difference,
although some
allowance must be
made
the
de-
faced state of
the
for
former.
shows
Fig. 391
one
bed-
of these
steads erected, but
and
tester
the
cornice are missing,
and the panelling

which acts here as
a head-board
original
and
is
is
later in date.
rails
of
steads
not
also
The
these bed-
were
laced
with ropes threaded
through holes, and
on
this rope
mesh
the bedding was

placed. In Fig. 392,
which dates
about
the
Fig. 398.
from
WALNUT BEDSTEAD.
middle
Date about lo/u.
365

cen-
the sixteenth
of
tury, these rope-holes
have been pierced right

through the vertically-
moulded panels
This fragment,
head.
applied
the
of
of the
balusters
which are distinctly
Renaissance
char-
in
acter, in spite of their
probably
crudity,
formed a part of a bedstead
of
open
form,
without cornice or
There
tester.
some
is
reason to suppose that
bedsteads of this kind
made
were
draped alcove, and
in a
it
stand
to
probably one of
is
this description
is
which
referred to in William
of
Wykeham's
testa-
ment.
It
is
in
late
the
sixteenth century before bedsteads
really
become
important pieces
of furniture.
Sir
Toby
Belch, in " Twelfth

Night,"
and
lie
Fig. 399.
STATE BEDSTEAD.
Height 14 ft. 4 ins. Widtli 6 ft. to
Late seventeenth century.
as
in
says,
many lies
"...
as will
thy sheet of paper,
although the sheet

7
ft.
The Duke
-.66
of Buccleuch.
were big
enough
for
Bedsteads
and
their
Development
Fig. 400.
STATE BEDSTEAD.
Victoria and Albert
367
Museum.

the bed of Ware, set 'cm
Rut
Shakespeare's day.
was
first
down," so
" Ticdjth
famous bed must have been well known
this
Night" was not written
about 1601, and
until
it
acted on the Christmas of that year in the same Hall of the Middle Temple
which has been illustrated
must have been well-known
in
this
in
book
in
Fig.
82.
The seventeenth-century bedstead

Fig. 393
may
Large and ornate bedsteads
Shakespeare's day, but the fact that they
remark shows that they could only have been exceptional
affair.
in
of the
for
call
pieces.
middle classes was a much more simple
be taken as illustrating the type, one which persisted, in country

districts,
even until the
close
of
the eighteenth
century.
Both head and
foot-ends are completely
panelled
in
up
the
to
This latter was
tester.
sometimes framed to
correspond, but, more
often merely boarded in.
The open sides were

usually closed with cur-
and
tains,
of
fresh
many
air
lasted
for
years with English
country-folk,
the
dread
this
latter
even until
years of
the
nineteenth century.
may
It
be
an
in-
dication of date, but
more
an
probably,
alternative
is,
merely
fashion,
where the front posts are

distinct
and
from the pallet
side-rails of the
itself.
An
absence
bed
of
Fig. 401.
foot-board, as in Fig. 394,
STATE BEDSTEAD.
The Earl
368
of Chesterfield.
mav
be taken as an
in-
Bedsteads
of
to
fashion
this
box
on
supported
many
for
bases,
stage of four columns,
and Lancashire held
bedsteads with
with shaped brackets,
either
as in
Similarly,
Fig.
as
in
the
bulbous
posts
Fig.
395,
or
on a
early in the seventeenth century, as a
are
397,
and often show marked traces
rule,
is
years.
Development
their
century, although both Yorkshire
the sixteenth
clication
and
of either
French or Flemish workmanship.
It
not improbable that England owes this importance of the bedstead to Flanders
The
or France, especially to the former.
front
of
the tester cornice of Fig. 395
is
carved with the arms of the Courtenays of Devon, and the South-west, as we have
way
the
led
seen,
century.
Fig.
396
in
is
ornate
woodwork
almost
until
from the same county, a
fine
the
close
oak bedstead
of
the
sixteenth
at Great Fulford,
usually described as the second Sir John Fulford's bed, but, as he died in 1580,
date from the closing years of his
connected from the front posts, and
The
is
The cornice
Here the
pallet
must
is
dis-
without the foot-board of the Courtenay bedstead.
of that part of fifty years before,
not far away.
later.
Devonshire character noticeable in
carîng has the rich
work
and may be even
life,
it
such as
to this bedstead
much
in the screens at
is
of the
Church wood-
Lapford and Swimbridge
disproportionately light, and there
square carved necking above the post capitals which one would hardly expect to
is
find,
but these ornate bedsteads, apart from the fact that they often suffered from ignorant
sometimes incorporated portions of carved woodwork from despoiled
restorations,
churches, and the one close to Great Fulford had been visited by Cromwell's commissioners in
1547,
carvings which
From
^\ith
much havoc was wrought among
the result that
Thomas Brideaux had put
De\-onshire to Lancashire
the fine
in only thirty-seven years before.
a far remove, but similar traditions will be found
is
at Astley Hall, Fig. 397, as in the Great Fulford bedstead.
There are the same carved
bulbs to the posts, and the mattress-framing fixed only by the tenons into the headboard.
There
is
one striking difference, in the elaborate use made of mitred mouldings
there are eighty-six mitres in the cornice alone, and

front posts.
bedstead
if
Astley Hall
most
of
it is
There
is
also the carved
as remarkable for its rich
original to the house
others in the bases to the
and panelled foot-board making a complete open
the arcaded stage of the back were cut

is
many
it is in.
away and
woodwork and
posts and tester removed.
furniture as for the fact that
In the next volume will be illustrated a remark-
able shuffle-board table from the
same house, an almost sohtary survival
which must have been very popular
in the
to in
documents and books
With the marriage

3 B
seventeenth century, as
it is
of a
game
frequently referred
of the time.
of Catherine of Braganza, bedsteads

369
from Portugal, or copies
Rarly English Furniture and JVoodwork

made from them
Fig. 39S
although rare, are not unknown after the Restoration.
an e.xample where the lathe, either in turning or spiralling,
is
This
exclusively.
eighteentli
low-back
in this country,
the form and type from which the later four-2:>ost beds of the
is
centur\-
were, in
generally
cliairs,
used almost
is
all
probability,
made from ebony
derived.
This bedstead resembles the
met with,
or lignum, which are sometimes
and which are usually styled Portuguese, although many were probably imported from
Goa.
Of the
and
all
late seventeenth-century state bedstead,
woodwork covered with
silk or similar fabric, it is
of examples, as, although there
is
every one differing materially from
the cornice
is
ornamented with plumes
its fellow.
known
in breaks
its
limit at
The
mouldings.
at
Holme Lacey,
merely
and curtains
In Fig. 400 the cornice
is
moulded
of the time
This elaboration of the state bed
Fig. 401, both in height
and intricacy
tester only of this bedstead has its original covering.
of covered
The curtains
by Messrs. Morant some years
are modern, reproduced from the old fabric
is
Boughton, Fig. 399,
and arches, the woodwork covered with a material
as morine, enriched with applique-work.
reaches
Thus
it
at the corners, with valance
of silk of floral pattern intersewn with gold threads.
and mitred
impossible to illustrate a range
a general resemblance between them,
superficial,
straight,
with moulded cornice to the canopy
Bed-
ago.
steads of this kind must have been general in the great houses of the seventeenth
century, although
many have been
elaborate bed-head, moulded and

in tatters, is
Park, and
hands
One
covered with
now
its
original lemon-coloured silk,
stowed awa3^ with other derelict furniture,
many
of recent
pomp and
still
dismantled as cumbrous and unhygienic.
of these ornate state beds
in the
Long Gallery
must have met with a similar
at
Lyme
fate at the
owners more concerned with matters of health and cleanliness than with
display.
370
INDEX
Abbeys
and convents,
see
Aston Hall, ^^, 216, 251

Atherington Church, iG, 140, 142, 164, 165, 166,
Church
dens of gkitton}' and vice in fifteenth century,
167, 174, 180
number and power
at the Reformation, loS
Adze, the primitive plane, 29

Aldington Church, Kent, 170
Bablake Schools, Coventry,
34, 293,
All Saints, Hereford, 143
Barend Expedition,
Alston Court, Nayland, Suffolk, 194

Great Hall at, 194
Barking, Suffolk, screen
Altar
Bay windows,
Barre, de
la,
tools from, 31, 32

at, 147,
206
330
189, 193, 194
afterwards of stone, 119
Beachampton Farm,
early
Bealings, Great, see Great Bealings
;"
richly decorated, 119
staircase at, 205
edict regarding, 119
Beams, cambered,
importance of the, 119
Beckingham, Stephen
of
wood
replaced
plain
wooden
Bedrooms, dread
subsidiary, 119
Bedsteads
Anne
of Brittany, see Brittany,
development
of
Apethorpe, 1500, 32
at, 135,
140
340
of,
36S
355, 357, 359, 361, 365, 366,
to stand in
draped alcoves, 357,
366
Trade Guild, 4
Architects of early Churches
early, only palatial pieces,
of
of the
nearly always Churchmen, 9

Architecture, almost wholly secular under Henry
361
resemblance of posts to brick chimneys
early,
frequently craftsmen also,
same
period, 361
of fifteenth century
unknown, 357
Portuguese type, imported, 369, 370

laced with ropes to support mattress,
rails of,
32, 33
and woodwork not
specialised
in
365
seventeenth century, yeoman type, 36S
fifteenth century, i
Bedstead
Artisans
change of location, without sanction, punished,

4, II, 20,
at Astley Hall, 369
21
few holidays in
life
made
early,
Apprentices, could not be taken without sanction
Architecture
at,
of fresh air in early,
36S, 369, 370
Appledore Church, Kent, screen
vn,
Tolleshunt IMajor),
[see also
Beddington Manor House, lock
tables, 119
sometimes placed on rood-loft, 119
Anne
Roof
sec
264
in early ages, 119
by
304
Baines, Sir Frank, 84
of early,
at
life
but want
usually crude,
un-
at
Holme Lacey, 370

wooden club used
" Beetle," a
known, 3
steady deterioration in status
of,
stringent laws regulating
Ashbocking, font cover
at,
at,
work
from
in riving timber, 29
Bergholt, East, see East Bergholt
six-
3, 10, 11,
12
Beverley Minster, 31
of, 3, 11, 19,
20
Bewfield, Katherine, 1504, 125
teenth to eighteenth centuries,
Astley Hall, bedstead
Boughton, 370
at Great Fulford, 369
of early, 21
Bewfield, Alderman,
171
Billesley,
369
371
church
Thomas,
at, ;^^j
will of, 172
and JFôodwork
Ea?'Iy English Furniture
Billeslev :\Ianor, 315, 334, y~,b,

steel locks at, 338, 340,
Billesley village
Ceilings
337
introduced into houses, 54, 200, 202
341
swept away by plague, 33S
lîlleslev,
Wliallcy famil\-
Hlackott.
arms
at,
waggon, 92, 94
Cescinsky, Herbert, 73
337
ib\
of,
Chairmaker,
Hloomticld's " History of Norfolk," quoted, 172
Bodenham, arms of, 297, 330

Bodenham, Count Lubienski, 334
Bodenham, Roger, 330
Bodiam
in
8
38, 39
2,
Chalfield, Great, see Great Chalfield
Chancel Screens
not so lofty in South-west, 164
iSoothby Pagnell, 211
the arch-headed type of the West, 163
Borenius, Dr. Tancred, 122
Chancels, screened off from nave, older than the
nave as a
165, 166, 172
Boxford Church
door
7,
favoured
especially
of,
Chairs, rarity of early,
Castle, 15
Bovey Tracey,
craft
development,
rule,
119
Charlton, 216
at, 206,
Charterhouse, 212
247
fourteenth-cent urj' porch at, 193, 197
Bradninch, screen
at, 145,
Braganza, Catherine
of,
Chatsworth
166
Mortlake tapestries
marriage
of,
woodwork
woodwork
369
Bramfield, 31, 126, 180
at,
350
at,
330
at, cost of,
330
Brantingham, Bishop of Exeter, 278

Braybrooke, Robert, Bishop of London, 232, 355
Chequers Court, 212
Breccles Hall, 212
Chester, stall canopies at, 136, 168
Brent Eleigh Church, 206
Chestnut, erroneously stated to have been used for
Bridgman,
Sir Orlando, 293,
Chelsworth Church, door
206
the roof of Westminster Hall, 98
304
Brightleigh, X. Devon, screen from Great Hall at,
Chests, importance of, in early households, 7
241
Chilham, 212
Anne
Brittany,
at,
C himney-beams
270
of,
Bromley-by-Bow, palace
of,
copied from stone mantels, 290, 291
panellings from, 313,
315, 316, 317

Brookland Church, Kent, 58, 59, 170
from Lavcnham, 2^2
Brushford, Somerset, screen
from Paycockes, Coggeshall, 282
Buckden
at,
from Parnham Park, 289
167
from Stoke-by-Nayland, 282
(1484), 32
Burford, Oxon, 125
usual in timber houses, 281, 282,
Burgundy, PhOip the Hardy, Prince

" Bitrlingion
of,
Magazine," quoted, 308, 309, 310,
3"
sixteenth century, 280
Burnet, Bishop, quoted, 131, 132
Choristers in Cathedrals, 271, 277
Burton Agnes, 33
Chudleigh, screen at, 145, 166
Burton,
z^^y
Chimney-breasts, use of plaster panels on, 291, 293

Chimney-pieces, acquire size and dignitv at end of
122
illiam,
room from house
of,
Chulmleigh, screen
305
Church Farm,
at, 163,
166
Clare, Suffolk, door from, 209
Church
Cabriole leg, 7
Cartmel
art of the, 15, 180
Prior}-, Lanes., choir stalls at,
beautifpng of the early, 109
175
Carving, finished by the gilder, 105
carousing in the, 108
Casements, opening, rare in early houses, 3
chancel older than the nave, as a rule, 119
Cattle
and sheep, small
size of, in fourteenth
and
chancel screened
fifteenth centuries, 18
Cavendish family,
rise of,
off
from nave, 105
chancel screens, construction
348
143, 146, 147, 131, 134
372
of,
140, 142, 143,
Indiex
Church
'
chancel screens, massive character of
Coinage
debasing
earl}',
135
chancel screens, massive character of \\'estern,
debasing
Colchester
164
chancel screens, not so lofty in South-west,
imder Henry VIII,
11, 22,
23
234, 235
associated with construction of woodwork, 137
West, 165
at Bramfield, 160, 162, 163
craftsmen of the, 4
dual ownership of nave and chancel in the,
78. 79. 105
merely of shrines or sanctuaries,
early, consist
at
Ludham, 164
at
Ludham and
at
Ranworth, 151, 154, 155, 156
Bramfield, 148
at St. Michael-at-Plea, 124, 125

at Southwold, 163
105
way
early, led the
in luxurious furnishings,
at
facilities for
interchange of ideas in the, 5
and woodwork
furniture
of, in
at Yaxley, 162, 163
prior
delight
to 1520, 16, 108
lack of
warming
luxury
of,
of,
in,
difference
in early,
280
during fifteenth century, 104
between work of eastern and western
counties, 147, 165, 166
highest limit reached in chancel screens. 125
the meeting halls of the parish, 105
in churches, 135, 180
popularity of tapestry in houses of the, 232,
in early chancel screens, 133,
359. 360
in
rood-screens, see under Rood-lofts
time of
157, 158, 159,
at Ufford, 169, 170, 171
in fifteenth century, a riot of colour, 105
influence
Southwold and Yaxley, 149,

160
^31. -^3^. 357. 359
moment
little
wealth and power
and Screens
in earlj-, 4, 12
of, in fifteenth
century,
9,
169
Gothic woodwork, 103, 104, 105, 109,
in pulpits, 173,
no
174
in
Wolsey's closet at
in
woodwork
Hampton
Court, 104
at Rotherwas, 104
luminers of (iothic, 115, 116, 180
12, 13
workmen and
Classes, wealthy,
employed by
artists
importance
mediums used
the, 21
of, in
fostering styles,
fifteenth
and sixteenth
nearly
5.6
all
in,
in, 118
Gothic church woodwork originally
coloured, 103, 104, 105
lack
Cleanliness,
in
of,
Norwich Cathedral,
Inn
panelled
for,
described,
principal notes in colour at
room from,
346, 347, 348
field,
panelled room, probablv influenced from Cornwall,
120, 121, 122, 124
wood
preparation on
centuries, 19
"
of,
Museum,
Coldridge Church, 165, 167
chancel screens, the arch-headed type of the
Clifford's
on East Anglian trade
Colour Decoration
164
naves
of, effects of,
with Netherlands, 23
148
proper, in heraldry, 118
tempera mediums on, 119
347
Clinker-boarding "
of
early wainscotting,
Compton
209,
Place, Eastbourne, 350
Compton, Wiltshire, home
^43. ^44
Compton Wynyates
Clocks
of,
advancement
51
" Cloister and the Hearth " quoted,
in, 115
at, 172,
in
of chancel screens,
174
fifteenth
and
.sixteenth
140,
142,
143,
145,
147. 151. 154
Coggeshall Abbey, 283
Abbots
of,
centuries, 136
Cobbold, Mr. John D., 269, 342

Cockington, pulpit
of the Penruddocks, 348
(1520), 32
Construction
long-case, 5
mutilation
no
Ludham and Bram-
of pulpits, 172
Copying, importance of
of, 28',
373
later, considered,
146,

Corner-posts,
41),
19.;,
Doors, differ
iqj
known in earl}' Tudor

Cothelstone Manor (1568), 33
Corridors, not
Courtenays of Devon, bedstead
Coventry
Cathedral,
sec
St.
witli
in early
arms
^Michael's
towards
in
of,
fourteenth
and
Dowsing, William, Journal
Dragon-beam
Devon, 369
in
Durham
Crowe, William, room from house

at,
Cunningham, Alan, quoted,
of,
Early Churches,
Edward
of, 5,
importance of fashions in the,
3,
Church
see
in, 354
imported from Baltic ports, 353
replaces oak in eighteenth century
Deene Park
(1549), 33
Denny,
Anthony,
Sir
Eltham
for panel-
at,
England
Coinage
206
Waltham
of districts, 5
of, 5
life of,
under the Tudors, 105
in fifteenth century not so
hard as under
the Tudors, 105
woodwork
Eucharistic sacrifice, 119
at Reformation, 31
Exeter
Commonwealth,
Law
31, 151, 157, 160, 162,
Library roof
at, 81, 91,
92
panellings from, 300, 301, 302, 304
369
Development
century
English people, social

life
202
at,
an agglomeration
possession of
in,
116
of,
in fifteenth
disturbed state
in
culture
Palace, roof at, 55, 62, 83, 84, 85, 86
Emblazonry, law
Despencer, Henry, Bishop of Norwich, 121
at the
of,
Elmsett Church, door
Abbey, 262, 263

Destruction of Church
VI
Elizabeth, reign
353
Church, door
208
font pedestal at, 175
edicts of, regarding use of altars, 132
alcove niche
Dedham
at,
of,
Edwardstone Church, 74
Eldred, Thomas, a navigator, 342, 343
Deal, red
of currency, see
hall at, 55
acts of oppression of, 16
Davis, William, at Chatsworth, 350
Debasement
131, 132, 160, 162
Earl Stonham Church, 64, 82, 83, 206
examples
lings, 352,
of,
306, 344
13, 15
and systems
in
205
late,
Anthony Bee's
Castle,
East Down, church

of
constructed
houses of double-story overhang,
in
East Bergholt, doors
difficulties in
354
202
140
Curzon, Earl, of Kedleston, 15
Dating
in,
42, 202
72, 73
Culbone, Somerset, screen
century
sixteenth
with wicket, generally
Cromwell, Lord Treasurer, 15, 290

Cromwell's commissioners
in,
similar fashion to panellings, 205
fifteenth centuries, 19, 20
Crosby Hall,
timber houses, 202
springing of heads, variations
Coventry
subdivisions
202, 205, 206, 208, 209, 210
of,
modern versus old proportions
369
Church,
of,
Coventry, St. Mary's Hall, 41

Craftsmen,
churches or houses, 202
little in
construction
houses, 34
of furniture
and woodwork, systems
Exeter,
of considering explained, 8
Devonshire, Earl
of,
The
Vicars' Hall
alterations in, 279
early stone chimney-piece
348, 349, 350
Devonshire House, 350
panelling
Devonshire, panellings and pilasters considered,
Stuart panelling
Evck, Van,
299
sec
in, 271, 2']'],

in,
in,
279
278, 279
279
Van Evck
Diet, lack of variety in fifteenth century, 3
Doddington Hall
(1595),
y^,
Doles from wealthy houses, custom of
soliciting,
Falstaff, Sir
27
John, 233, 234, 270
Famines, unknown in England in fifteenth century,
Doors, 189, 192, 194, 200, 205, 206, 208, 209, 210
in early secular houses usually low, 52
108
374
Index
Glass
Fashions, importance of
crown, method of making described, 2
in dating examples, 5, 6
in
development
of styles,
prohibitive cost of, in sixteenth century, 2
211
Fenn, A. M., Mr., 194

Fenner's House, see also Yarmouth, 344
Fireplaces, early,
huge
Firred-beam Roofs,
size of, 3,
sparingly used by the early woodworker, 31
Glvie,
Godfrey, Walter H., Mr., 72, 73

Godmeston, John, appointed Clerk of
39
Gold, superior decorative qualities
Fletcher of Saltoun, 11
with
Floors, either left bare or strewn with rushes until
end
of,
at
of,
compared
103
silver,
Golden age of English woodwork
of seventeenth century, as a rule, 2
Font covers, importance
Works
Westminster Hall, 96
Roofs
see
in fifteenth cen-
tury, II, 108
169, 170, 171, 172
Fonts, usually stone but sometimes of lead, 170
Gothic
begins to be merged into the classical in six-
Food
often included in terms of hiring
by King or
teenth century, 5
debasement
Church, 3
and cheap
plentiful
of,
137, 167, 168
false idea of material in late,
in fifteenth century, 3
168
Forde Abbey, 222, 223
necessarily an ecclesiastical style, 16
Ford's Hospital, Coventry, 42, 43
the national style until end of fifteenth cen-
Fox, Bishop, 136
Framlingham
tury, I
woodwork and
Castle, 206
Framlingham Church, 79
woodwork, evidences
Fret, popularity of, 319
Fulford, Great, see Great Fulford

Fulford, Sir John, bedstead
of, at
Furniture
Great Fulford
bedstead
early, arbitrary use of the term, i
not only primitive in character, but
also limited in
importance
of
development
line
work and,
at, 253, 254,
255
divides houses into two sections, 212
dwindles in size and importance in sixteenth
in
century, 34, 54
in,
211
of demarcation
festivals in,
between wood-
40
often found in small yeomen's houses, 34, 197,
200
reasons for rapid development of style

subdivisions of types
369
at,
Great Hall, 7
of, 2
importance of fashions
narrow
variety, 2, 6, 16
establishments
clerical
panelhngs
imported into England, 2
foreign, sparingly
of,
in,
paucity of furniture
screens
in,
in,
233
240, 241
the principal living
room
of the family,
197
Gainsburgh, Great Hall, 90, 197
usual furniture of, ;^y, 38, 39

Great Mortality, The (1528-1529), 19
Gamer and
Grey
Gable, in roof construction, 55
Stratton, quoted, 43, 44, 45, 46
Friars, Coventry, see Ford's Hospital
Gernon, Sir Nicholas, 121
Grundisburgh, 142
Gesso-work, 105, no, 120, 148, 149, 158, 159, 160,
Guilds
163, 180
Gibbons, Grinling, 350
Gibbs, Wihiam, 218

Gifford,
arms
of,
for,
Great Bealings Church, Suffolk, 208
Gt. Fulford, 369
Great Chalfield, 212
amount and
and love
of skill in
108, 109
Fuller, Robert, Abbot of Waltham, 258, 261
earl}',
colour decoration, see Colour
Decoration
antiquity
of,
character
of, 17, 21, 108,
halls,
power
241
375
17
importance
of,
of, in fifteenth
193
41
century, 4
23'

Haddoleyc, the King's castle
of,
House, timber-framed
iq
conscientious character of early, 180
Hadleigh Church, 206

Hadlcigh, Essex, house
at, j, 51,
elaborate ceilings
52
200
in,
Halberton, 165, 166, 172
elaboration of carving
Hale, Sir Stephen, 121
low rooms
Hales Place, Tenterden, Kent, 212
peculiar to England, 41, 176, 177
Half-timber house,
House, timber-framed
sec
richness
Ham
House, panellings
Hamburg, mortality
at,
J46
from
in,
sec
Hardwick
middle sixteenth
House-plan
early,
Court, 55
Hardwick. Bess
of, sets in, in
century, 16
also
Plagues, 19
Hampton
due to local tree-growth, 188
in,
House-building, era
plague,
42
East Anglia, 177
of, in
variations
Hall, (ireat, see Great Hall
in, 41,
52
in,
of,
a factor in development of furniture
and woodwork,
349
Hall, 350
i,
33, 34, 35, 36, ^j, 38, 39,
40, 41, 42, 43, 43
Harmondsworth Barn,
evolution in direction of greater privacy for
63, 67, 86
the family,
Hatfield House, 33
Haughley Church, j^
Hebbys, John, will of, 134
Hemsted, staircases at, 216
Houses
Hengrave Hall
Howard,
early,
t,^
standard of comfort very meagre
paucity of furniture
(1538), 32
in, 2
in earlv, 4
Sir John, 121
Henley-in-Arden, St. John's Church, 74
Henry
VHI
acts of oppression of, 9
Influence
debases the coinage, 11, 22, 2^, 125

debases the coinage, effects on East Anglian
Italy,
trade, 23
sale of
of, 10,
and
Grand tour
a part of aristocratic educa-
to,
Ivychurch, Kent, chancel screen
at,
135
15
of,
264, 265, 268
Kingdom
Jerusalem, arms of
Herland, Hugh, gi
methods
the King's ^Master Carpenter, 96
of,
Herland, ^^'illiamde, the King's^MasterCarpenter, 19
Joists, 55
Holbeton, 167, 174
Jones, Inigo, 218

life of
"
fifteenth-century
and masons compared, 54
Journeyman," early
significance of the term, 4
craftsman, 21
Holker Hall, 350

Keele Hall (1571), 3Z
Kent, William, 218
Hol3^vells, Ipswich, 269, 301, 342, 343
Horwood Church, 72
" Collections on
Husbandrv and Trade,"
Kenton, pulpit
17, 18
of labour in
116
follow traditions of the masons, 54, 136, 166
^^'estminster Hall, 96, 98
Holidaj's, absence of, in the
of,
Joiners
entrusted with the renewal of the roof of
Hours
architecture
monastic property by, 268
use of royal arms
Houghton,
on
tion in the sixteenth century,
divorces Catherine of Aragon (1533), 262
extravagance
Renaissance
of
furniture, 4
at,
174
Kerdiston, Sir William, 121
summer and winter
Kersey Church, 206
in fifteentli
Key Church,
century, 21, 22
House, timber- framed
Ipswich, 206
King's craftsmen, 20
Kirby (1570), 33
a complete unit without plaster or brickwork,
Kirkstead,
187
376
Abbey
of,
15
Inchex
Labourers
Locks, steel door
Statute
of, 23,
at
24
steady deterioration
Lake House
in status of, 11
Beddington
;\lanor House, 340

Manor, 338, 340, 341
at Billesley
"
(1575), 33
Lodgings
" the
name given
Lanhydroc, Cornwall, ^1^

Lapford Church, 72, 165
Long
Lavenham
Long Melford Church,
Gallery,
to guests'
Great Hall, 35
roof at, 67, 69
a weaving centre in the fifteenth centurv, 193
Ludham
chimney-beam from, 282
Luther, Martin, 53
Lyme Park, Disley, Cheshire,
Guild Hall
at, 41, 42, 193,
Guild Hall, wainscotting
202
in,
'j^,,
Woolhall
chancel screen
Oxford Pew
Spring
192
at,
Pew
oak, develop in size
71, 72
at, 140, 142,
at, 167,
143
style of, in Norfolk
Mark
168
(1501), 32
Lee, Sir Robert, 334, 336
Lee, family
338
of,
or Merk, value
first
Legh, Sir Piers, builds
Lyme
Park, 294, 296
Monasteries
De
Lime
Tabley, arms
dissolution
of, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15,
of, 116,
118
after, 10, 11
Street, mantels, etc., from, 301, 302, 320, 321
dissolution
of,
vagrancy after
high standard of production

origin of,
and parchemin panel
numbers
(q.v.),
of artists
the, 10, 11
in,
20
and craftsmen maintained
by, 20
249
description
of,
Monks Eleigh Church,
245
70
inaccurate use of the term, 243
Montacute House
in bedsteads,
Morant, "History of Essex," 264, 283
366
(1580), ^^
in panels, origin of, 241, 242
Moreton Old Hall
occurs in conjunction with Renaissance orna-
Morieux, Sir Thomas, 121
ment, 249
of,
242,
243,
245,
247
Lismore Castle, 350
Nantes, Revocation of Edict
Little
Hawkenbury Farm, Kent, 215
Little
Wenham
Nash, Joseph,
Joel, at
Lobb, Henry,
3
at,
"
of,
English Mansions of the Olden
Time," 40
Hall, 211
Little Wolford, 212
Llananno, screen
(1559), 33
Musical instruments, Tudor, 40, 41
reasons for development
Lobb,
16
dissolution of, skill in craftsmanship dissipated
Linenfold
common
Suffolk, 341
1504, 125
368
rebuilds Lyme Park, 294

Levens Hall, Westmoreland, 323
Leycester of
middle
performance of " Twelfth Night "in, 160 1,
Minstrels' Galleries, 33
Hall, staircase in, 216
and
of, in
Leoni, G., 218
Lewes Town
in
Mason's mitre, 244, 269

Maynard, Mr. Guy, 234, 235
Middle Temple Hall, 55, 85, 86, 368
108
strict in fifteenth century,
Layer Marney Towers
and importance
sixteenth century, 280, 293
168
at, 72, 167,
Laws, harsh and
Mantels, see Panellings
202
at, 189, 190, 192,
Lavenham Church,
219
3, 218,
190, 192, 200, 208
windows
old shop
Church, 31, 180
mantels from, 294, 296, 297, 304

remains of draped bedstead at, 370
243, 244
large trade of, with Flanders, 41
old house at,
chambers, 34
becomes general and replaces the
180
door
Chatsworth, 350
at,
206
roof at, 63, 86, 87, 88, 90
Neptune Inn, panellings from, 269
at Chatsworth, 350
577
Ear/y English Furniture and JVoodwork

Panellings, see W'ainscottings
Xettlecombe Court (13QO), 33

" Nonschenes " the fiftconth-contury midday meal,
Manor, 334, 338
at Billesley
at Chatsworth, 348, 349, 350
Ji
Norfolk and Norwich Arch.Tological Society, 120

Norfolk and Suffolk, trade
of,
with the
at Clifford's Inn, 346, 347,
Low Coun-
at C.reat Fulford, 253, 254, 255

at Holywells, Ipswich, 269,
tries,
343
Norfolk, a rich county
in the sixteenth century,
at St. Vincent,
305
Norwich Castle l\Iuseum, 210

Norwich Cathedral, retable
in,
at
Karend Expedition
.svc
Swann
270
Rouen, 252, 253, 254
Hall, Sufifolk, 342
at Vicars' Hall, Exeter, 271, 277, 278,
120, 121, 122, 124
Nostell Priory, Yorks, 226
Nova Zembla,
34S
at
Whitley Beaumont, 352
at
Woodcote Park, 350, 352
difficulties in
obtaining dry
wood
distinctive styles in, of Norfolk
Oakcolour, 104
237
and
Suffolk,
English carpentry, 231
of quartering to
produce
figure, 28,
early character in late joiner-made, 345, 346
180, 1^-]
from Beckingham Hall, 263, 264
rarely seasoned in large baulks in fifteenth
from Bromley-by-Bow Palace, 313, 315, 316,
century, 237
317
replaced by deal in eighteenth century, 352,
from Exeter, 300, 301, 302, 304

from Lyme Park, 297, 298
353
riving of, with the " thrower," 28, 29
Ockwells Manor,
for,
342, 343
do not introduce tenon and mortise into
darkening of figure due to painting with lead
method
279
from Neptune Inn, 269
^,2,
Offences, penal, over one
from Rotherwas, 330, 332, 334

from Sherard House, Eltham, 324, 325, 328,
hundred punished with
death or mutilation in the fifteenth century,
329
from \\"altham, 256, 258, 262
II
Office of
Works, 84
from
Oil-
Yarmouth, 305,
306,
308,
309,
310,
311
accounts of purchases
treacherous nature
Oxburgh Hall
decoration, 118
of, if ill-refined,
large panels adopted as a fashion, 346
iiS, 119
condemned by joiners, 344, 345

by John Webb, 344
large panels
Old Burlington Street (No.
Oldham, Hugh, Bishop
of, for
31), staircase at,
230
large panels introduced
of Exeter, 278
linenfold, see Linenfold
(1482), 32
logical
development
of,
in
timber
houses,
Oxford Pew% Lavenham Church, 167
more frequently
of local
make than
staircases,
218
Pageny, Master, the King's designer, 250
not used in clerical houses, 232, 359

only appear in late fifteenth century, 359
panels in, become larger towards middle of
Panellings and mantels, 231, 232, 2^1, 234, 235,

236, 237, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 247,
249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 258,
seventeenth centur}-, 341
261, 262, 263, 264, 265, 268, 269, 270, 271,
Parchemin
277, 278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 283, 289, 290,
parchemin,
291, 293, 294, 296, 297, 298, 299, 300, 301,
reasons for late appearance
302, 304. 305. 306, 308, 309, 310, 312, 313,

315, 316, 317, 318, 319, 320, 321, 322, 323,
South-west type, 299

Sussex and Hampshire, character
324, 325, 328, 329, 330, 332, 334, 336, 337,
the work
338, 340. 341, 342, 343, 344, 345, 34^, 347,
walnut used
348. 349, 350, 352, 353, 354
with pilasters, 297, 299, 301, 302, 313

378
see
of,
231
of,
of a lesser grade of artisan,

for, at
341
240
Rotherwas, 332
Index
Richard
Parchemiii panels, 247, 249
Parchment or
used instead of glass
oiled linen
renew roof
II decides to
of
Westminster
Hall (1394), 96
in
early windows, 52
Ridley, Bishop, 132
Abbey
Parkington, Mr. Thomas, 234
Robertsbridge,
Parnham
Rochester Castle, 10
Park, 212
chimney-beam from, 289
of,
15
Rogers, James E. Thorold, quoted,
9, 11, 18, 2^,
Paycockes, Coggeshall, Essex, 190, 200, 208, 244

Paycocke, Thomas, a wealthy merchant, 282, 283
Rokesale, Sir Richard de, arms
iiS
Penhalow, John, panels chambers in
Rood-lofts
Rood, antiquity
Clifford's Inn,
destruction
347
Sussex,
in
of,
Westminster Hall
roof,
oak used
Commonwealth,
at
131,
132,
construction
in
of,
146,
south-western counties, 134, 135
sizes of, in
superstitious practices in, 131
font cover at, 171
Pindar, Sir Paul, house
uses
of,
of, 125, 131,
134
Roof, timber
322, 323, 324
a triumph of English carpentry, 54
28
Pixley, Hereford, screen
at,
barn type, lesson to be learned from, 63, 64
133
Plagues
in
of,
147
Pilton Church, 165
of, 27,
of the, 125
problems involved
for
98
Pilasters, see Panellings
Pit-saw, use
24
151, 160, 162
Penshiirst Place, 39, 40
Pettelwode, Forest
of,
barrel, 72
England
braced-rafter types, 72
in 1348, 1361, 1369, 1477, 1478,
braces, 60
1479. 18
prevalence
see "
of, in
Poor Law,
cambered beams
Middle Ages, 18, 19
Sweating sickness
"
clerestory
58
in,
windows
in, 69, 79, 86,
88
collar-beams, 59, 77, 79, 84, 86, 94
11
inaugurated to reheve
men
in
compound,
employment, zy
Porches, 189, 192, 194, 195

Porter, Thomas, will of, 134
62, 63, gS
conditions regulating, 58
development
Pulpits, construction of, 172
of, 54, 55, 58, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64,
65, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, jj, 78, 79,
81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 91, 92, 94, 96,
Qiierciis pedunculaia, 9S
98, 102
and
difference between,
Roof
-Rafters, see
Ranworth,
31, 119, 132, 180
firred-beam, 59
influence
from Italy apparent
early sixteenth century,

influences architecture
in
England
in
flat,
and furniture
great curved rib
at the
of,
into
Church work,
166, 167,
false, 60, 82,
in barns,
175
ornament introduced into England, 249, 250

ornament, variations
of, 55,
58
90
83, 86, 87, 90, 92, 94
81, 86,
92
94
64
pendentive type, 62, 77, 81, %2, 83, 84,
85,86
and double, 60
of, in different counties,
250, 251, 252, 256, 268,, 269, 293, 294, 299,
single
300, 301, 317, 318, 321, 322, 329, 332, 334
vaulted, 79
hammer-posts, 82,
IReredos, 119, 120
Norwich Cathedral, 120,
in,
hammer-beam, 60, 78,

embelHshment of,
from France, 301
introduction
unsatisfactory nature
gable, 55
period, 4
influences
in
73
photograph, 66
double-aisled, 64, 87, 88
^Renaissance
same
ceilings,
difficulty in showing, in single
84, 86, 94, 102
king-posts, 39, j^, 81
121, 122, 124
379
Early Knglish Furniture and IJôodwork

Seymour,
Roof, timber
between
difference
little
clerical
and secular
Thomas, owner
of Tolleshunt Major,
264
Shakespeare quoted, 233, 234, 270, 366, 368
types, 67
painted, 77
Shavington, 346
post-and-beam, 59
Sherard House, mantels from, 324, 325, 328, 329
principals, 92, 94
Shipton Hall, 33
principles of construction of, 35. 58, 59, 60,
Silver, old English, nearly all originally gilded,
6i, 63
"Six
progression
of,
explained, 66
purlins, 59, 79, 86, 92,
94
South Burlingham, pulpit
upper story of a timber house,
the
realh'
Southwold Church,
at,
174
Whitbread (1795-
the, of Mr.
1800), zy
't>^
scissor-braced rafter type, 72

of,
Speke Hall, 251
considered, 58
Spring Pew,
tie-beams, 59
Lavenham Church,
72, 167, 168
Staircases
wall-plates, 59, 92
wall-posts, 59,
absence of defined types

77,
-/>,,
Westminster Hall,
sec
in,
86
central newel or vise, 212
Westminster Hall
construction
Rotherwas, Hereford
of,
210
229, 230
difficulty of resolving into types, 216,
colour decoration at, 104
early, not conspicuous, 211, 212
overdoor from, 296, 298
lighter in construction
panellings from, 330, 332, 334
unusual woods
at,
334
panellings
St.
from
St. Vincent's, 252, 253,
Maclou, 253
254
transplanting
Alban's Abbey, 9
Coventry, 41
than,
of,
of, in
of,
34
early houses, 34, 200
215, 216
frequently replaced by iron in eighteenth
Star Hotel, see
Yarmouth
Statute of Labourers, enacted, 2^, 24
Norwich
Stoke-by-Nayland Church, 208
206
Stoke-by-Nayland, chimney-beam from, 282
font cover at, 172

at,
Stools, usual seats at
125
teenth century,
reredos at, 124, 125, 134
of,
meals until close of seven2,
Stowmarket Church, 208
Katherine Bewfield with bequest for
decoration
make
century, 230
St. ilary's Hall,
will of
of local
varieties of, 210
wood
former screen
and importance
subsidiary character
Church, 71
at,
more frequently
rise in size
from
door
towards end of seven-
218
Rouen, panellings
St. ^lichael-at-PIea,
218
teenth century, 212
use of walnut at, 332
Rougham
103
9, 11,
31, 78, 126, 180
Speenhamland Acts,
187
richness of, in East Anglian churches,
thrust
and Wages" quoted,
Slavery enacted in England in si.xteenth century, 16
common, 58
rafters,
Cenliirics of ]\'ui'k
18, 23, 24
" Skreens" the partition dividing the Great Hall,
33
queen-posts, 59, 74, 86
St.
Sir
Strap-and-jewel work, 320
125
St. Michael's
Sutton Place, 3
St.
Church, Coventry, 47
Osyth Church, 71, 77, 78
Swann
St.
Peter IMancroft, Norwich, 79
" Sweating Sickness "
St.
Vincent, Rouen, panelling
at,
Hall, Suffolk, mantel at, 342
brought by army of Henry Tudor from Wales,
175
18
Salford, 33
Scagliola, 352
only attacks Englishmen abroad, 18
Scribing of mouldings, 208, 209
penetrates to
?8o
Germany and
the Netherlands, iS
Index
Ufford Church, 31, 77
font cover at, 169
Swimbridge Church, 165, 166, 172

Tables, development
of,
painted roof
Talman, architect at Chatsworth, 350
at,
i6g
Ugborough Church, 166
Tankard Inn, panellings from, 270
Uxbridge, panelling from Treaty House at, 329, 330
Tapestries
imitations
in painted hangings, 12,1,
of,
236
usual wall coverings in wealthy houses, 232,
Values, standards
233. 359. 360
Tattershall Castle, 15
designed by Waynflete, 290
Tawstock Church,
167
71, ]2,
gallery at, 167, 173
Taxation, weight
17
Eyck, credited with
Van
Van
Van
Van
chimney-piece from, 289, 290
use of
first
comparison
oil
colours,
of,
118
Eyck, Hubert, 115, 122, 124

Eyck, Jan, no, in, 115
Eyck, Margaret,
in
Vegetables, green, lack

sixteenth century, 12
of, in
of, difficulties in
of, in
fifteenth century,
3,,
17, 18
Tempera mediums, 119
Vere, John, Earl of Oxford, 334
Thame, Abbot's Parlour
at,
Vicars' Hall, Exeter, see Exeter
104
Victoria
Thistleton Hall, Burgh, Suffolk, 42
and Albert Museum,
104. 235, 236, 256,
258, 300, 301
Thorney Abbey House, 344

Vyell,
Thorpe Hall, 218, 219, 222
Thomas,
30
29.
staircase at, 344
of Ixworth, Suffolk, 1472, will of,,
Tidolaye, John de, 19

Tijou, Jean, his staircase at Chatsworth, 350
Timber,
felling of,
Wadham
27
Tolleshunt Major, or Beckingham,
woodwork
woodworkers,
life
of early
an expensive luxury in sixteenth century, 236

crude varieties of, found in Kentish farmhouses, 236
woodwork
in
of,
of fourteenth
earliest
century, 135, 136
types formed by overlapping boards,
231. 243
low standard of comfort
in
houses
of, 2
framing
of.
2^1
innovation of the later fifteenth century, 231
Tredegar Park, staircase
at, zij,
Waldingfield Church, 206

Wall-paintings, in timber houses, reasons for non-
Tregoz, Geffrey de, 264

Triptych, 120
preservation
more usual
Italy
in
and Germany than
Trunch, font-cover
at,
Trussell, Sir Alured,
234, 235
character of wood, 332
334
first
style, origin of,
Turning of legs of tables and
planted in England (1565). 11'^
used for panelling at Rothenvas, 332
House plan
plan in form of open courtyard, 33
Tudor-Jacobean
of,
Walls, in early houses covered with tapestries, at
Walnuts-
172
family, 334, 336, 338

sec
in
later date with panellings, 2
England, 120
Tudor house,
fifteenth to eighteenth
Wainscottings, see also Panellings
27, 28, 29, 30, 31
London, 10
classes,
Woodworker,
see
Torrigiano, Pietro, 250, 251, 256
Trading
from
centuries, 23
from Barend Expedition, 31, 32
Tracery, advance
rise in,
in fifteenth century, 21, 22
Tools
of
apparent
at,
264, 281, 283
Tower
^J,
Wages of craftsmen
Tissington Hall, 297, 298
of
College, screen at,
252
chairs, 4
Waltham Abbey
panellings from, 256, 258, 262
Sir
Anthony Denny purchases, 262,
263.
Early English Furniture and Hôodwork

Ware, Great Bed
of,
referred to
by
Sir
Toby
William Iûfus, holds Court in Palace of West-
Belch,
minster (1099), 96
366
Warkleigh, Devon, screen
at,
Winchester, choir
175
bay, sec
Watson, Samuel, carver at Chatsworth, 350

Waynflete
glass a luxury in, until late in sixteenth cen-
tury, 2
the designer of Tattershall, 290
richness
344, 348
stall
canopies
Windsor
169
at, 168,
Westminster Hall
enormous
size of roof of, 98,
of,
Wolsey, Cardinal,
98
348
Golden Age
of,
98
Woodworker,
oaks taken from Forest of Pettelwode

Richard II decides to renew roof
of,
for,
life
of early, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,
24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31
Workmen,
98
Works,
96
Wren,
roof, 55, 63, 66, 67, 81, 84, 91, 92, 94, 96, 124
triumph of
century, 11
houses in development
clerical
of, 2
of ^^ orks to
(1394), 96
greatest
of, in fifteenth
importance of
lack of knowledge regarding original roof, 96
the
350, 352
divisions of, into types, 7
98
span of roof
of,
10, 15, 104, 262,
Woodwork
entrusted with work to roof
John Godmeston appointed Clerk
roof
of,
270
102
impossibility of obtaining timbers long enough

for
William of Wykeham, architect
10
Woodcote Park, Epsom, woodwork from,
Hugh Herland
of, 96,
in timber houses, 51, 52
Wingfield, Sir Thomas, panellings from house
98
erroneous idea that chestnut was used for roof

of,
of,
Castle,
of,
constructional problems in roof
Bay windows
fifteenth century, rarely glazed, 3
the designer of Magdalen College, 10
Westminster Abbey,
169
Windows
Warrack, Mr. John, quoted, 180
Webb, John,
stalls at, 136, 168,
see
Artisans
Office of, 84
Sir Christopher, 21S,
Wykeham, William
English
of, 10,
348
136, 232, 355
carpentry, 102
roof timbers of Sussex oak, 98
scanthngs of timbers in roof of, 98

William Rufus holds Court in (1099), 96
WhaUey
Yarmouth, panelled rooms from, 305, 306, 308, 309,

310, 311
family, 337
Yellow, ranks in heraldry as a metal, 116
arms of, 337, 338

Whitley Beaumont, room from, 352
York Guild
Hall, roof of, 64, 65, 67, 96
Young, Thomas,
38^
at Chatsworth,
350
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Early English furniture
woodwork

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Digitized by the Internet Archive

2008 with funding from

EARLY ENGLISH FURNITURE

CENTURY RETABLE, OR PREDELLA,

{Reproduced by direct colour photography from

(Bishop of Norwich, 1370-1406. ) Quarterly

(Doubtful traces of fess as ordinary.)

bend between six cross-crosslets fitchees argent.

GEORGE-ROUTLEDGE AND SONS LIMITED

Printed in Great Britain at

The Mayflower Press, Plymouth.

the attempt to write a history of English furniture and

not the case,

an orderly progression, one

isolated specimens, for illustration, were available,

they would be useless

for our present purpose.

fashions which prevailed at various periods.

very early times may, or

which has survived from

not, be indicative of the fashions of its time

others of corresponding date and type, which establish

must always bear

also the possibility of a later

quarter of the eighteenth century, but

would only make

for confusion to illustrate

such pieces as examples of late-eighteenth-century furniture, although made at that

are of the period but are not typical.

and when constructed

Tudor and Stuart

when made from

that most durable material, English oak,

and stable manner which

nevertheless, perishable, even with judicious wear and

neglect and ill-treatment are added,

not remarkable that so

fashion alwaj's as capricious as

at the present day, out-of-date furniture, in

For practical purposes, we are compelled

woodwork, and the

further back than the fourteenth century, in the case of

fifteenth as far as furniture

book does, with the end

of the seventeenth century,

more than three hundred

years, and, with certain rare exceptions,

oak furniture or woodwork with which we are exclusively concerned.

justify the existence of this

as a contribution to the subject of English

Early FjigJish Funiiturc and Woodwork

has been necessary to break

personal predilection and bias from which no authors are

In the case of the earlier

tion ol the jiarticular fashions of each

new ground, apart from such

but also by endeavouring to

Apart from the interest attaching to such information,

necessary in determining periods either of fashion or manufacture, as the East

Anglian counties, for example, were often the

Holland, which the Western districts only copied at a

the remoter country- districts,

half of the seventeenth