215. WOODEN HOUSE AT ROUEN (FIFTEENTH CENTURY)
216. WOODEN HOUSE AT ANDELYS (FIFTEENTH CENTURY)
It was usual in the North to detach each house at the upper story, even when it was not practicable to allow a narrow passage or space between. This was not merely a concession to the vanity of the citizen, to his desire to make his independent gable a feature of the street. It was also a pre
cautionary measure against fires, which were frequent and disastrous in cities built mainly of wood, and possessing but very rudimentary appliances wherewith to meet such a catastrophe.
217. HÔTEL LALLEMAND AT BOURGES (END OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY)
The fifteenth and notably the sixteenth centuries were marked by the building of a new class of dwellings, the maisons nobles, or town-houses of the nobles, who, down to this period, had lived entirely in their fortified castles. These great seignorial mansions differ essentially from the houses of the citizens. The hôtel occupied a considerable space, in which a courtyard and even gardens were included. The house of the citizen or merchant was built flush with the street, whereas the hôtel was placed in an inner court, often richly decorated, and the street-front was devoted to stables, coach-houses, servants' lodgings, and the great entrance which gave access to the court and the main building.
218. JACQUES CŒUR'S HOUSE AT BOURGES. VIEW FROM THE PLACE BERRY (FIFTEENTH CENTURY)
The names at least of some famous Parisian hôtels of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries have survived, such as the hôtels des Tournelles, de St. Pol, de Sens, de Nevers, and de la Trémoille, the last destroyed in 1840. The Hôtel de Cluny, which dates from 1485, is a very curious example, and of remarkable interest, as having been preserved almost intact.