PART VI.
We now have to consider cottages erected of different materials and constructed in a totally different manner to those which we have hitherto described, and this variety in methods of building naturally leads to a distinct treatment of details and decoration.
AT HUNDRED ELMS, NEAR HARROW.
We find all along the Kentish sea-coast houses and cottages, the chief materials entering into the construction of which are flint, sometimes cut so as to form the surface of their walls, and sometimes left irregular in shape, and the wall surfaces chiefly formed by the mortar in which the stones are embedded. This is called flint rubble. Where the flint is cut to a surface the angles, doorways, and window openings are constructed of stone or brick, and these are the portions of the building which receive ornamentation and give the character to the design, but where the flint is uncut and used as rubble, not unfrequently the whole surface is covered with a coating of plaster which is adorned in various ways, sometimes by simply drawing over it a toothed implement like a saw, sometimes by stamping or “pargeting,” and occasionally by mixing the plaster with coloured materials of several shades and arranging them in patterns.
This last method is somewhat akin to what the Italians call “sgraffito.” I do not think that genuine sgraffito was ever executed in England, but that in some parts of this country they obtained a very similar effect by other means. In genuine sgraffito a layer of dark coloured plaster is placed over the wall, and when that is dry a layer of white or lighter coloured plaster is spread over it while wet: this second coating is scraped away in places so as to form a pattern or design over the darker material.
The ornamentation of which we give a sketch from Calais-Court, near Dover, appears to have been done by coloured plasters placed side by side, not one over the other. We are not, however, quite sure about this, as the lower portions of the work have either been destroyed or never executed, so that it is difficult to examine it closely. The two wheel patterns are very curious and are probably inspired by the wheel windows of ancient churches. One of them is not unlike the east window of Barfreston church a few miles away. This kind of imitation of wheel windows is not uncommon in old decoration. The church of Chastleton in Oxfordshire has a floor of encaustic tiling entirely composed of this ornamentation. It is difficult to ascribe any exact date to this work at Calais-Court; it is probably not earlier than the sixteenth century. The house or cottage has been so much pulled about and altered, at later periods, that it is impossible to say whether it forms a portion of a larger structure or was always of its present humble proportions.
The first example we give is from a farm called “Hundred Elms,” between Harrow and Sudbury. It is now used as a stable with a loft over it. I think it was originally a dwelling-house, though as the whole of the interior has been dismantled and altered, its purpose cannot be distinctly traced; its great peculiarity is that everything is constructed of brick, the window-mullions and tracery being very neatly cut out of that material and put together with no little skill. It is thought that the Archbishops of Canterbury, in early times, had a residence at Hundred Elms (in the fourteenth century), and that afterwards they removed to Headstone, where there still exists a moated grange, now a farm-house.
AT CALAIS-COURT, KENT.
The Rev. W. Done Bushell in the “Harrow Octocentenary Tracts” has entered into all the arguments connected with the question, and they are very interesting, but too long to quote here, nor would they help us in ascertaining the history or purpose of this interesting little building, as the Archbishops must have left Hundred Elms farm some two centuries before it was built, as it is evidently a sixteenth century work.
Brickwork in England, it should be observed, is rarely found in houses before the commencement of the sixteenth century. Although brick-making was never quite abandoned, yet it was very little used during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. The only important brick church erected during this period is Holy Trinity at Hull, which is of fine red brick. The thirteenth century walls of Yarmouth show dressings of white brick, used like stone, and brick vaulting constructed exactly after the manner of stone is to be seen in the ground floor of the Bishop’s Palace and the Chapter House of the Blackfriars monastery at Norwich. At the commencement of the sixteenth century brick was probably regarded as a luxury and was more expensive than stone. This explains the fact that the palaces and great mansions of the nobles are erected of this material in all districts where it could be procured. In the second quarter of the century, it became the practice to build all the better class of houses of brick in the eastern and home counties of England, though not so in the north or west where fine building stone was much more easily procurable. It is, however, very remarkable that even in the eastern counties, where beautiful brick was to hand, we scarcely ever find this material used for churches. There was evidently an idea prevalent in the minds of our forefathers that churches should be built of stone, and houses of brick, and this prejudice, to a great extent, prevails to the present day, and is very curious because it does not pertain in any other country in Europe. I think nearly all girls and women dislike brick churches, yet why they should do so it is difficult to understand. We should like some of our clever girls to tell us.
(To be continued.)