OLD ENGLISH COTTAGE HOMES;
OR,
VILLAGE ARCHITECTURE OF BYGONE TIMES.
PART XI.
INTERIORS AND DETAILS.
It is remarkable what pretty bits of detail we often come across in old cottages; unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to ascertain for certain whether these are “in situ” or whether they have originally belonged to more important buildings and have found their way down to the cottages, just as ladies’ dresses find themselves after some time in more humble hands than those for which they were originally intended. A beautiful partition, or screen, which we give from a small farmhouse or cottage at Toppesfield, in Essex, is a case in point; it may have always formed a portion of the building in which it now stands, or it may have been removed from some more stately one. It is singularly well preserved, but seems to be almost too elaborate and costly a work to have been made for a house which is little more than a cottage. However, as we have seen from examples at Clare and Newport, the exteriors of cottages were sometimes elaborately adorned; and if the exterior, why not the interior?
BRICK CHIMNEY, AMERSHAM.
The screen or partition at Toppesfield is carved in oak, and what is very remarkable is the fact that while the four lower ranges of panels are English in style, the top range, with the heads introduced, is like French work.
