PART VIII.
In the first number of these papers we pointed out the fact that the cottages and small houses in fortified villages exhibited a totally different character from those in open and unwalled villages. Owing to the space being confined within the walls, any increase in the number of inhabitants had either to be provided with accommodation by adding to the height of the existing habitations or by setting up dwelling-houses in out-of-the-way places. Our sketch of Lyme Regis shows the outlet of a river which here flows into the sea; the fortified walls are continued along the banks; the principal street of the village is carried over the river by a bridge consisting of a lofty and elegantly proportioned Gothic arch, evidently of thirteenth century date. Cottages or small habitations cling to the walls supported upon wooden corbels, and are bracketed out from the parapets of the bridge, giving the latter more the effect of a gateway than of a bridge. The whole scene is strange though very picturesque, and those who are accustomed to the ordinary English village, with its detached cottages, surrounded by gardens, are naturally surprised at the singular effect brought about by such changed conditions. Those, however, who know the fortified villages of Germany, France, and the Low Countries, are quite familiar with such scenes, and regard them as usual in villages prepared for war, as contrasted with the ordinary villages of our country where peace was the normal condition.
GEORGIAN COTTAGE, AMERSHAM.
It is indeed a matter of congratulation that our English ancestors were able to live in abodes unsurrounded by fortifications, and to pursue their humble avocations without the dread of invasion by some foreign foe; but as it does not seem to be the design of Divine Providence that man should pass this life without troubles and anxiety, civil wars were not unfrequent, even in this happy isle. And even when this affliction was absent, our towns were visited by pestilence, for our historians tell us that in the neighbourhood of Warwick alone thirty villages were depopulated and allowed to fall to ruin during that fearful visitation called the “Black Death.” Their very sites cannot now be traced, and their names are mere tradition. Even where they were partially spared, the population of many villages was so reduced as to cause a very singular arrangement. We refer to the distance between the church and the village. Now there can be no doubt that parish churches in the country were nearly always in former times erected in the villages or towns they were intended to serve, and the only way of accounting for their now being at a distance from one another is by supposing that some great pestilence has at some period swept away the population of that part of the village which adjoined the church. That the pestilence should attack that particular portion of the village more than another is highly probable, because its proximity to the church and churchyard would render it more liable to infection. This, however, is a very gloomy subject to contemplate, and we refer to it only to account for certain peculiarities which it has introduced into old villages.
Our other sketch represents a cottage or village house of much later times, probably the Hanoverian period, built of various coloured bricks, in some places arranged in patterns. The great peculiarity of the design, however, is its diminutive scale. Were it not for the fact that the presence of any human being near to it immediately dwarfs it, the front might be that of an important house. This is a well-known fact in architecture. There is nothing for bringing down the scale of a building like a very tall girl. An architect we know built a beautiful little church on a small scale, but he was shocked to find that a very tall, and it must be confessed graceful, girl sat close to the first column of the nave. Our friend said, “Really that girl completely dwarfs my columns. I shall have to speak to the clergyman and see whether she can be prevailed upon to take a seat in a less conspicuous place.” He suggested this idea to the reverend gentleman, who seemed a little confused.
“Well,” said he, “I fear that can scarcely be done, as that young lady will in all probability become more closely connected with the church. The fact is, we are going to be married next month.”
It is rather a strange thing that a tall man does not “bring down” the scale of a building to the same extent as a tall woman. Probably the dress of the latter is accountable for this.
The diminutive scale of the house at Amersham has its counterpart in many Georgian buildings—Hamper Mill and the old school-house at Watford, for instance. Yet we can scarcely charge the architects of that time with an attempt to give a false scale to their buildings, as they seem so well suited to their surroundings.
COTTAGES AT LYME REGIS—A FORTIFIED VILLAGE.