CHAPTER IX.
INTERIOR FEATURES (continued).
STAIRCASES, GALLERIES, GLAZING.
The staircases of the early part of the sixteenth century followed the old fashion, and were of the "corkscrew" type, winding round a central newel. They were built of stone or brick, and were hardly, if at all, ornamented. Then, quite suddenly, the fashion changed, and they were constructed of wood in straight, broad flights, with frequent landings. Everyone who has been up a church tower knows how tiring it is to climb the winding, never-ending steps, unrelieved by anything in the shape of a landing. It is somewhat less fatiguing to mount one of the grand circular staircases of the châteaux on the Loire, the task being lightened by the greater width of the steps and the introduction of more frequent landings. But the management of the landings is one of the great difficulties in a spiral staircase, because they break the regular sweep of the architectural lines. Whether English craftsmen recognized this difficulty from what they saw in France, or whether the idea of improving the circular type did not occur to them, it is impossible to say; but no attempt in this direction was made, unless it may have been at Rothwell Market-house (1577), where a circular staircase of considerable width was intended, although no remains of the actual stairs exist. There seems to be no intermediate type between the stone spiral and the straight flight in wood. In France, and especially in the district of the Loire, the old narrow, difficult steps were wonderfully improved; from being merely a means of ascending, they became elaborate pieces of work, upon which much ingenuity of contrivance and ornament was bestowed. From being two or three feet wide, they became ten or twelve. Instead of curling up a narrow turret, they occupied a considerable tower, and the tower, being one of the chief features of the house, had to be treated with great care. Much fancy was expended upon the internal treatment; a handrail was worked upon the newel, and wound round it in a continuous line; another projection formed a plinth, a third served as a cornice; another cornice followed the sweep of the steps where they rested on the outside wall: everything was done to make the constructional features serve as ornaments, and the results were some of the most interesting and curious pieces of stonework that can be seen. But nothing of the kind was attempted in England. The nearest approach is the stone vaulted staircase at Burghley House (Plate [LXXII].), which resembles some of those in France, where the steps are carried in straight flights instead of round a central newel. There is such an instance at the Château de Chenonceau, where the two straight flights are on either side of a dividing wall, the lower flight merging into the upper by means of winding stairs. These winding stairs were eschewed by English designers, who nearly always kept to straight runs, and at Burghley the two main flights are connected by a shorter one across the landing. The date of this staircase is not quite certain, but it probably belongs to the work which was being done about the year 1556. The idea of stone vaulted stairs, however, did not obtain any hold in England, and there are very few examples to be found. All the finest staircases are of wood, and they seem to have sprung into being without any gradual growth; the connecting links between them and the old corkscrew type, if there were any, have disappeared.
172.—Staircase at Lyveden Old Building, Northamptonshire.
Plate LXXII.
STAIRCASE FROM BURGHLEY HOUSE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
