Early Renaissance Architecture in England / A Historical & Descriptive Account of the Tudor, Elizabethan, & Jacobean Periods, 1500-1625

by J. Alfred Gotch

EXTERIOR FEATURES.

LAY-OUT OF HOUSES, LODGES AND GATEWAYS, DOORWAYS AND PORCHES.

There was a very remarkable amount of building done in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. Plenty of money was available, much of it acquired from the lands of the dissolved monasteries; the country was at peace, and the strong rule of Elizabeth gradually produced a state of prosperity hitherto unknown. Defensive precautions, save such as seemed necessary against vagrants, were abandoned in all kinds of houses. The outer courts, the inner courts, and the gatehouses, which formerly were built for the sake of security, were now retained chiefly for the sake of appearance, and because they added to the privacy of the house. The porter at the gate exercised a certain amount of control over those who wished to enter, and on occasion he closed his gates against the populace, although sometimes without complete success, as we learn from a scene in Shakespeare's play of "Henry VIII.," where the people, in their anxiety to see something of the christening of the infant Princess Elizabeth, managed to crowd in, in spite of "as much as one sound cudgel of four foot could distribute" at the hands of the porter's man.

Everyone who could afford it seems to have built in the time of Elizabeth and James. The great nobles erected vast palaces like Theobalds and Holdenby, like Audley End, and Knole and Buckhurst. Men of smaller wealth built mansions like Kirby and Montacute, Wollaton and Blickling. Squires built their manor houses in the villages, merchants their homes in the towns, not infrequently, indeed, leaving the city for some neighbouring parish, and there ending their days as lords of the manor. When the condition of an existing house did not warrant its actual removal, additions in the new style were made; something had to be done to keep in the fashion. Throughout the length and breadth of the land the same activity was displayed. From Yorkshire and Westmorland in the north, to Cornwall and Kent in the south; from Shropshire in the west to Suffolk in the east, we find work of this period scattered up and down the country in mansion, manor house, cottage and church.

A good deal of building was done in Henry VIII.'s time, but vastly more in Elizabeth's. The examples left to us of the former period are few compared with those of the latter; but in both cases it must be remembered that the old gave way to the new. The builders of Elizabeth's days removed the work of their grandfathers to make room for their own, only to have this in its turn replaced in the times of Anne and the Georges. Many as are the houses of the sixteenth century which remain, we know that many others, of equal interest and beauty, have been pulled down.

Lay-Out.

It is not always easy in the present day to grasp the system upon which the larger houses of Elizabeth's time were laid out. Modern methods of locomotion, and modern ideas of convenience, have in many cases caused the approach to the houses to be altered. It is the same with regard to most of our ancient cities. The railway now brings us to a spot which has no relation to the old landmarks of the place, and instead of approaching our destination through the ancient arteries, which were the growth of many years, we slip in through by-ways and slums, or along a new street made expressly for the purpose. The approach to one of the larger Elizabethan houses was an affair of time. Roads were then of a very primitive description, and depended for their condition upon the nature of the soil. "There is good land where there is foul way," was a saying of the time; and conversely, where there was a hard road there was likely to be stony land. From the main road a similar rough track led, perhaps through an avenue of newly planted trees, in a straight line towards the house. There was no gate-keeper's lodge at the end of a finely gravelled road winding through a park. The lodge was part of the outbuildings of the house, and until you arrived there the road was generally left to take care of itself. After passing through the lodge, there were often two courts to traverse before the hall was reached. The lodge was on the great axial line of the house, so that as you stood waiting, if all the doors happened to be open, you could see right through the courts and the screens and get a glimpse of the garden beyond.

55.—Holdenby House, Northamptonshire. Plan of Lay-Out.

From a Survey made in 1587.