49. Kirby Muxloe.
Block Plan.
With the close of the fifteenth century the necessity for anything like strong fortification disappeared; a new era was approaching in which men were to build for pleasure, comfort, cheerfulness, magnificence. The dark ages were past, the Renaissance was at hand. This, therefore, will be a convenient point at which to break off for a time the story of the growth of the house, and turn our attention to some of the features which lend interest to such dwellings as we have been considering.
CHAPTER VI.
Mediæval Domestic Features—Doorways, Windows, Fireplaces, Chimneys, Roofs and Ceilings, Staircases.
The treatment of special features in domestic buildings was (as already pointed out) generally simpler than that of similar features in churches, although it followed much the same lines in both cases. On the whole, such things as doorways, windows, fireplaces, roofs and ceilings were handled in houses with much simplicity during the prevalence of the Gothic or mediæval styles. In this respect they present a striking contrast to the elaboration bestowed upon them in later years when houses were built for comfort and splendour, and when a study of the methods of the artists of the Renaissance enabled our English designers to indulge in determined efforts at magnificent design.
It may be that in house-building the work was purposely subordinated to that adopted in church-building: it may be that the fact of houses being subject to attacks from which the sacred character of churches preserved them, led to an avoidance of costly or elaborate ornament. But, whatever the reason, the richest of domestic doorways and windows cannot compare in splendour with the finer specimens of such features in churches or cathedrals; and, as a rule, their richness was restrained within severe and narrow bounds. In some of the more important dwellings, especially in the earliest times, considerable attention was bestowed upon doorways, and the employment of several “orders,” or shallow arches placed in receding fashion one behind the other, led to striking and even noble effects. Windows are such vulnerable points that they were in early times almost always small and plain. Ceilings were merely the constructional expression of the floors of which they formed the under side. Fireplaces were only so far ornamented as their construction seemed to suggest, especially in the earlier examples. It was not until the time of Elizabeth that the chimney-piece as a stately and predominating feature came into fashion.
50. Warkworth Castle.
Entrance Gateway (late 14th cent.).