78. Northborough, Northamptonshire.
Chimney (14th cent.).
79. Vicar’s Close, Wells.
Chimney (15th cent.).
Fireplaces in the meanwhile changed with the progress of years. The hood which had been adopted in order to catch the smoke when the recess for the fire was shallow, was in turn abandoned when the recess was made deeper, and it became no longer necessary. The hoods had been rather plain, gaunt features, devoid of superfluous ornament. As the amenities of life increased with the diminishing need of defensive precautions, so also did the desire for embellishment, and during the Perpendicular period, a great amount of attention was bestowed upon the decoration of fireplaces. The stone work which surrounded the recess was panelled and cusped, and enclosed by shafts supporting a cornice—the forerunner of our familiar chimney shelf (Fig. 77, c, d). Heraldry began to play an important part in the decoration. At Aydon may be seen (Fig. 77, a) the first uncertain step in the direction to which Tattershall (Figs. 81, 82) and Fawsley (Fig. 83) subsequently led. The richness to which the fifteenth century attained was, however, far outdone by that which the Elizabethan designers achieved a century later.
80. Harringworth, Northamptonshire.
Chimney (15th cent.).
There are no remains extant of quite early domestic Roofs or Ceilings; but from the appearance of the stone walls, it is tolerably certain that they were built of wood. Stone vaulting very seldom occurs except in a few rooms on the ground floor, and in such cases it was probably adopted as a safeguard against fire. The little keep or tower at Longthorpe in Northamptonshire has its ground floor stone-vaulted: so, too, have many of the peel-towers of Northumberland. But the great keeps at Rochester, Hedingham, and elsewhere, had roofs and floors of wood. The huge beams which carried the floors no doubt showed in the room below, but there is no evidence that in early times any special attention was devoted to ornamenting the ceiling. In the fifteenth century the constructional beams were moulded and arranged with some regularity, as plenty of examples prove; and this, if any, was probably the method adopted in early times.