The gables and the dormer windows in the larger houses were often connected by a parapet, broken at intervals by a shallow pilaster carried up to form the base of a finial or the seat for some heraldic animal. Sometimes the parapet was solid, as at Apethorpe (Fig. [109]), Doddington (Plate [XXI].), and the courtyard at Kirby (Fig. [76]); sometimes it was formed of a series of arches, as at Exton (Fig. [110], and Plate [XXIX].), and at Hambleton (Fig. [71]); sometimes of stone panels pierced with a pattern, as at Bramshill (Fig. [111]) and Audley End (Fig. [112]); and sometimes of stone balusters, of which Rushton Hall offers one example (Fig. [113]) and Wollaton Hall (Plate [XXVII].) another. There was a considerable amount of variety, according to the ability of the mason to design and of the owner to pay. The effect of the pierced panels carried along a considerable length of parapet is very rich and lace-like. The stone balusters were occasionally of very meagre proportion, and used with too sparing a hand, but at Rushton this is not felt to be the case. The parapet to the main roofs here is more satisfactory than the rather confused ornament which serves a similar purpose for the bay. This gable also affords a good example of the manner in which the lights of the mullioned windows were stepped up so as to follow roughly the slope of the roof. In one or two houses (Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire, and Temple Newsam in Yorkshire) the parapets are formed of stone letters forming a series of legends which make, more or less, the circuit of the house.
108.—Gable in Court, Rushton, Northamptonshire (1627).
109.—Gable in Court, Apethorpe, Northamptonshire (1623-24).
110.—Exton Old Hall, Rutland. Stone Parapet.
111.—Bramshill, Hampshire. Stone Parapet.
