Civil or Domestic Architecture.
Any British, Roman, Danish, or Anglo-Saxon remains that there may be in the parish, had, perhaps, better be described before the manorial history is given. Every earthwork, mound, or ancient roadway should be carefully noted. It is not possible to refer to any one, or even three or four, satisfactory books on such subjects. Fosbrooke’s “Encyclopædia of Antiquities” is out of date, but we know of no better compendious work of reference. The two volumes of Wright’s “Essays on Archæological Subjects,” will be found of much general use. Worsae’s “Primeval Antiquities of Denmark,” translated and applied to the illustration of similar remains in England, by W. J. Thoms, may be read with advantage, but with the recollection that the hard and fast “ages” of Danish antiquaries are, with greater knowledge, becoming exploded.
But all description of civil or domestic architecture, of the Norman or subsequent periods, should be deferred until after the history of the manor has been written, because that history will very likely throw light on any such architectural remains.
If there is a castle, or its relics, within the parish, the probability is considerable that it has already been well described by a county historian, or in one or other of the numerous journals of our Archæological societies. But it is equally probable that its history has not been thoroughly written, and special search should be made with that object at the P. R. O., beginning with the indexes to the printed calendars already enumerated. There is no one efficient volume treating of our mediæval castles that corresponds with Viollet-le-Duc’s “Military Architecture of the Middle Ages,” but a translation of this French work has been published by Parker, and it would be well to read either that or the original.
Every effort should be made to identify the old manor-house, or its site (often marked by a grass grown moat), and this should of course be done with each manor, where, as is usually the case, the parish has contained more than one. Oral tradition, in this as in other particulars, will often be found a useful handmaid. Should the exterior of the reputed manor-house be altogether unpromising, that should not check further investigation. Several instances are known to us in which modern brick casing or sash windows are but a screen to some of the oldest domestic architecture extant, which may be found in the back premises or outbuildings, or contain fine old chimney-pieces, carved oak panelling, or ceilings of elaborate pargetting. Nor should attention be only directed to manor-houses. All old domestic work is worth chronicling, so rapidly is it disappearing both in town and country; and the annalist of a parish should not be above transcribing all the initials and dates so frequently seen on lintel stones. As a rule, every house or cottage, not obviously modern, that has stone buttresses, a moulded wall-plate or string-course, or bevelled stone mullions to the windows, is worthy of careful examination. Many interesting details, such as the site of chantry-houses, may be thus brought to light, and the history in stone, and the history on parchment, be found to tally in unexpected ways.
Domestic architecture should always be described by the century, and not by the “periods” into which ecclesiastical architecture is usually divided. The only book worth purchasing on the subject, is the somewhat costly but admirable four volume edition of Parker’s “Mediæval Domestic Architecture.” For the general “History of Architecture,” both civil and religious, of all ages and countries, nothing can surpass Fergusson’s last edition in four volumes, published by Murray in 1874.
