16. Gatehouse.
Let us, however, turn from these speculations to the drawings which compose the great bulk of the book—namely, the plans and (in some cases) elevations which show what kind of building an English house was intended to be, and which ought to be compared with the examples already given in Chapter III. The type of plan made familiar in those examples is the type on which nine-tenths of Thorpe's plans are based. The hall is the centre of household life, the parlour and family rooms are at one end of it, the kitchen and servants' rooms are at the other. But he has a certain number of plans in which the hall shows more or less signs of becoming an entrance rather than a living-room; the following examples show how the old type gradually changed into the new.
The first plan of the series (Plate [LXXXIV].) is named "Sir Jarvis Clifton's House." It shows a large symmetrical house with a forecourt entered through an imposing gatehouse furnished with a turret at each corner. Directly opposite to this lodge is the porch of the house, which gives access in the usual way to the screens, and thence into the hall, with its daïs shown at the upper end. The bay window at the end of the daïs leads into a large vestibule from which the great staircase and the parlour are approached; beyond the parlour, at the corner of the building, is an isolated room marked "lodging" (i.e., bedroom). The left-hand wing is occupied by the chapel, which is approached through a vestibule leading out from the foot of the great staircase. This completes the accommodation for the family so far as the ground floor is concerned. On the other side of the hall are the servants' rooms: first, two for the butler with a staircase to the cellar; then a large vestibule (with a servants' staircase), which leads to another "lodging"; to the kitchen, with a fine bay window and two fireplaces, one large and one small, each having a little oven close to it; and to the dry larder: beyond the kitchen is the wet larder, and beyond this is the rest of the servants' department, of which the bakehouse occupies a wing balancing the chapel wing. The mouths of the two ovens of the bakehouse are shown, but the paper was too small to allow their full extent to be indicated. There is no upper plan, but from notes on this one it seems that the long gallery was over the arcade at the back of the hall, and that the great chamber was over the parlour and its vestibule. There is an arcade on either side of the front porch, and another between the wings on the opposite side of the house. It is worthy of note that although the front and back façades are of different lengths, each of them is symmetrical in itself. This variation is the result of considerable ingenuity in planning. The whole plan is worth attention as a specimen of the usual type treated in a broad and dignified manner.
216.—An Unnamed Plan (Pages 117, 118).
1. Hall.
2. Principal Stairs.
3. Parlour.
4. Lodging.
5. Buttery.