Northamptonshire, is planned on this principle, and the effect can be seen in the sketch in Fig. 172. The flights in this case consist of seven steps each. This arrangement is very simple, but it necessitates the access to the upper rooms being from one of the comparatively small corner landings. Another plan, giving a larger landing at the top, is shown in No. 2, and an amplification of the same idea is given in No. 3, where, a larger number of steps being required, the sides have two flights with an intermediate landing. Sometimes the central square, instead of being occupied by an open well-hole, was either a solid block or a shell of masonry, round the four sides of which the steps ascended. Such an arrangement is shown in No. 5, where also may be seen some winding steps in one of the corners; but these winders are not of frequent occurrence, short straight flights being the rule. These four types are those most frequently adopted. Of the others, No. 4 is an instance of the employment of winders, and shows the somewhat unusual arrangement of two lower flights combining into one upper flight; No. 6, being in a turret, consists wholly of winders; and Nos. 7 and 8 are instances of a rather grander style of planning, in which it is evident that considerable effect was aimed at. The plans varied, of course, according to the disposition of the rooms to be reached; the chief characteristics were simplicity of construction and massiveness of effect. In the less important houses the work was fairly plain: the newels were unornamented, except for a shaped top; the string was moulded at the top and bottom; the balusters were merely stout turned bars. But there was much variety imparted to the turning, and while many of the outlines are rather clumsy, many of them also exhibit considerable subtlety and refinement. To increase the richness of effect the newels were ornamented either with carving, or with a pattern contrived by sinking the groundwork, thus leaving the pattern itself raised and at the same level as the general face of the newel. The tops of the newel were sometimes little more than round knobs, as at Hambleton Old Hall (Fig. 173), and a house at Warwick (Fig. 180); but more often they projected far above the handrail and were shaped in a variety of ways, of which four examples of varying degrees of elaboration are given from East Quantockshead (Fig. 174), Lyveden Old Building (Fig. 175), Ockwells Manor House (Figs. 177, 178), and the Charterhouse (Fig. 181). They were sometimes made the pedestals upon which figures were placed--such as boys playing instruments, as at Hatfield; or warriors in various guises, as at Blickling; or the animal sacred to the particular family concerned, and hallowed in their sight by being borne in their coat of arms. The newels at the Charterhouse carry a crest by way of finial (Fig. 181). Then the outer surface of the outer string would be also carved (Figs. 179 and 181),