The subdivision in the servants’ quarters was as ample as in those of the family. The “kitchen” was still, as it always had been, the principal room on this side. The “buttery” and the “pantry” were also of long standing. But the “pastry” had come in almost every instance to supplement the kitchen, being the place where the baking was done, and being furnished almost invariably with two ovens. The “dry larder” and “wet larder” were equally frequent, and so was the “survaying place,” or serving-room. There are also to be found in the larger houses a “scullery,” a “meal house,” “bolting-house,” “spicery,” “trencher,” “pewter,” and “brush.” The steward, his clerk, the butler, the pantler, and the waiters are all found to have their own separate rooms. How widely different is all this from the ancient custom of the whole household living by day and night in the great hall!
The need for the great hall, indeed, was passing away. Already in a few of Thorpe’s plans it is found to be arranged in a manner no longer suitable for its old purposes. In some it is placed out of its central position. By the end of the first quarter of the seventeenth century it had practically lost its ancient character of the chief living room, and had become little more than a fine vestibule leading to the actual living rooms and the rest of the house.
Reproductions of a few of Thorpe’s drawings will serve to illustrate the Elizabethan and Jacobean type of plan even better than plans of actual houses. They link themselves at one end to the mediæval type, and they lead at the other to that altered treatment of the hall which marks the definite break with mediævalism. It is unfortunate that there is no means of fixing their various dates; the sequence in which they are placed is therefore not necessarily chronological. They represent types of arrangement of which many other instances may be found in Thorpe’s collection. First, there is the courtyard plan (Fig. 99), the modernised version of the defensive court of earlier times. Here all thought of defence is abandoned, save that the main entrance is through an archway overlooked by the porter. Visitors are not repelled by frowning gateways, a grim portcullis, and blind walls pierced with nothing but hostile slits. On the contrary, access is made easy and inviting. A flight of steps leads on to a terrace, and thence direct to the main door; cheerful windows fill the walls, arranged not only to give light within and a view without, but also to enliven the structure itself with the ordered rhythm of their glittering panes. The courtyard is handsomely furnished with stately bays running the full height of the walls; a long range of arches faces the entrance, and forms a loggia beneath which is the door to the screens. The external façades are designed with equal care. At each corner there is a massive pavilion, and from one to the other stretch the main walls sparkling with windows, which are relieved from monotony by the introduction of further bays.
99. Ground and Upper Plans of an Unnamed House.
From the Thorpe Collection.
There is no haphazard planning about this house; everything is carefully thought out; the effect of every projection, every window, and every chimney is considered. Yet with all this symmetry and formality, the underlying arrangement follows the old lines. The hall is entered through the screens; it has its daïs, its bay, and its fireplace near to its upper end; from this end are approached the family rooms—the parlour, the chapel, and the principal stairs, leading to the great chamber, the withdrawing-room, and the long gallery. On the other side of the house, but downstairs, lie the kitchens in the basement.
The next plan (Fig. 100) is that of a house with a fore-court, only (as explained on the drawing itself) the court, with its diagonally placed entrance lodges, should have been drawn on the front of the house instead of being detached and at the back. But this correction made—and it will be easier done by looking at Kip’s view (Fig. 101)—it will be seen that a reminiscence of the old jealousy of approach is still found in the walled court and its entrance lodges; otherwise the house is obviously built without a thought of protection. It is contrived for display combined with convenience. Its terraces and long symmetrical fronts are the means towards the first, while the second is greatly helped by the passage, or “longe entry throughe all,” which runs the whole length of the house. This is a feature quite new in house planning, so far. Otherwise the ancient dispositions are adopted; the hall lies to the right of the screens, and beyond it the parlour and chapel; to the left the buttery, pantry, and (at some distance) the kitchen. Kip’s view shows the dignified but simple treatment of the exterior, and the surrounding courts and gardens. The plan is not named in Thorpe’s drawing, but it agrees so closely with Kip’s view as to leave little doubt that it is the same house—namely, Beaufort House in Chelsea, built by Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, during the closing years of the sixteenth century, by way either of enlarging or replacing an earlier house, which had been the home of Sir Thomas More.
100. Ground Plan (unnamed).