plan resembles the first letter of Elizabeth is probably a coincidence merely, and not a compliment to the queen. At the same time it would have been quite in accordance with the spirit of the time to have taken such a way of expressing loyalty, only in that case we should have expected to find fewer plans of the H variety, and more of the other; but as a matter of fact there are few, if any, houses with a perfectly straight front such as the back of the
demands.
49.—Barlborough Hall, Derbyshire. Plan of Principal Floor (1583).
At Barlborough, in Derbyshire (1583), we get again a different type. The house is built round a court, but an extremely small one, now filled with a modern staircase (Fig. [49]). All the windows look out into the open country. Instead of extending itself along the ground, the house provides its accommodation by extending itself vertically, and the kitchen and servants' rooms are placed in the basement. This was an idea introduced, it is said, from Italy, but it is one which, though sometimes met with, did not commend itself to Elizabethan builders when space was plentiful. The hall is on the principal floor, and is approached from outside up a long flight of steps. The screens led to the staircase which penetrated to the kitchen in the basement. The hall had its bay window at the daïs end, from which the great chamber was approached. We have still, therefore, the old idea of the hall as a living room, and part of a series of rooms communicating with each other; not yet as an entrance from which the living rooms are approached.
50.—Barlborough Hall, Derbyshire. Entrance Front (1583).
The detail at Barlborough is of a simple kind; the house was not of a large size and did not require much elaboration (Fig. [50]). The actual classic treatment is confined to the front door, which is flanked with columns. The parapet is battlemented, the strings are narrow, and the windows are not overwhelming in size. The roof is flat, and there are none of the gables which are so marked a feature of the time. Picturesqueness of outline, however, which was always sought for, is here obtained by carrying up the bay windows as turrets, a treatment which lends much distinction to an otherwise simple exterior.