147.—Roof of Great Hall, Kirby, Northamptonshire (1575).
The Smaller Rooms.
Leaving the hall for one of the smaller rooms, we find much the same kind of treatment, but here the ornamental ceiling plays an important part in the decoration. The walls were panelled, more or less richly, from floor to ceiling, and were crowned with a carved frieze and projecting cornice, above which started the ceiling ribs. The great chamber at South Wraxall (Plate [XLVII].) gives a good idea of the whole effect, but the coved ceiling is somewhat exceptional, and so also is the great projection to the left. This is a mass of masonry required to carry the roofs, but the designer, who found himself obliged to leave it (for this room was contrived in an old house), resolved to face the matter boldly and make an ornamental feature of it. It will be noticed that though the panelling here is quite simple, a good deal of character is obtained by varying the size of the panels in a systematic manner.
In the old Town Hall at Leicester there is a good panelled room (Plate [XLVIII].), with a handsome chimney-piece and a special seat for the mayor. The work, which bears the date 1637, is simple in design, but is quite as effective and rather more pleasing than many of the more elaborate effects of the time, in which the impression is conveyed that the designers over-exerted themselves.
Another good example of rather later date is to be seen at the "Reindeer" Inn, Banbury (Plate [XLIX].); the panelling itself is simple, but the doorways and chimney-piece are more elaborate, and the columns which occur at the angles of the window-recess impart considerable vigour to the whole effect. The restraint exhibited and the concentration of the ornament on one or two places is a welcome relief from the superfluity of decoration which not infrequently distinguishes the woodwork of this period. In the broken and curled pediments of the doorway and chimney-piece we get a decided indication that the seventeenth century was well advanced when this work was done. The ceiling here is very richly wrought, and the whole room comes as a surprise in its out-of-the-way situation.
Plate XLVII.
THE GREAT CHAMBER, SOUTH WRAXALL MANOR HOUSE, WILTSHIRE.
Plate XLVIII.
