The door stood more often than not in a projecting porch, which, although sometimes only one storey in height, as at Chelvey Court, in Somerset (Fig. [64]), was usually higher, and was frequently carried up the full height of the building. It is round these doors that we find pronounced classic features employed in the shape of pillars and pilasters, friezes and cornices, and pediments. But it was seldom that the English mason did not introduce into his design some departure from strict classic treatment, suggested by his native traditions. At Chelvey the doorway has a flat-pointed head resting on an impost, such as usually accompanies a semicircular arch: there is also a keystone which protrudes from the straight lintel instead of crowning the arch, which in the ordinary way would be there. The twisted columns support pilasters of a different scale, which in their turn, however, are relieved of anything to carry. The broken pediment encloses a shield of arms, which rests in the usual fashion upon a base carried by the keystone. Over all is a pierced parapet divided into square panels by shallow pilasters. The spirit of the whole composition is Jacobean, but the treatment betokens a late date, with its twisted columns and broken pediment; and the arms confirm the conjecture prompted by the character of the work, though the exact date is not recorded. It is evident, however, that even in Somerset, the home of good masons, the lesson of making appropriate use of classic features had not yet been mastered. The treatment of the doorway at the neighbouring house of Nailsea Court (Fig. [65]) is more logical and pleasing. There is a quaint mixture of pointed arch and classic cornice and corbelled bay-window; and the manner in which the central projection in the cornice is made the starting-point of the corbelling to the bay is a happy illustration of the freedom with which the new features were handled.
Plate XXIVa.
Doorway at Chipchase Castle, Northumberland.
Plate XXIVb.
Porch to the Manor House, Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire.
66.—Doorway at Gayhurst, Buckinghamshire.
