In Thorpe's book there are several plans drawn for "London Houses." One (on page 18) is entitled "Three houses for the city, or for a country house at 8 parts to the inch." It shows a row of three houses, two of which have a frontage of 33 feet each, while the third has 24. The plans are very rough and unfinished, but they show alternative ways of providing the accommodation. One house has a hall and kitchen on the front, and a parlour, staircase and buttery at the back, while a "vault" is contrived in the centre in a most insanitary manner. The second has the hall and buttery to the front, the stairs at one side, and the parlour and kitchen to the back. The third (having only 24 feet of frontage) has merely an entrance passage and kitchen to the front, and a parlour at the back, while the staircase is opposite the front door--the plan being a forerunner of the type which later became of universal adoption. The second part of the title, indicating that the plan might be used for a country house, is rather obscure, inasmuch as no redistribution of names among the rooms shown could have converted them into a workable plan for a single house. Another plan (on pages 135, 136) is called a "London house of 3 breadths of ordinary tenements." It has a frontage of 51 feet, thus giving 17 feet as the breadth of an ordinary tenement. With such a frontage, it is of course a much better house than those already described for the city. It was entered at one end, the entry communicating with a narrow yard which gave access to the garden in the rear. The hall looked out into the street, as also did the parlour and buttery. At the back were the winter parlour, the kitchen, and the stairs, with the larder under them. The rooms were not large, the parlour being 18 feet by 13 feet, and the winter parlour 15 feet by 12 feet: as usual, much space was occupied by the large fireplaces. The first-floor plan is not given, but on a higher storey appears an open leaded terrace along the street front, behind which is a narrow and low gallery (only 5 feet to the rafters) extending the whole length of the house, and again behind that there are "sundry lodgings for servants, etc." There are no means of fixing the date of the plan, but it appears to have been prepared for Sir Thomas Lake, who was clerk to the signet in 1595, and a Secretary of State in 1616. If we are to presume that a high official complied with the proclamation as to houses being of stone or brick, the date would be prior to 1605, for although the ground floor is shown with stone walls, those of the upper floor are only of wood and plaster. [Illustration: 187.--CORBELS, "KING'S ARMS," SANDWICH, KENT.] [Illustration: 188.--CORBEL AT CANTERBURY.] [Illustration: 189.--CORBEL AND PENDANT AT CANTERBURY.] [Illustration: 190.--CORBEL, ORTON WATERVILLE, HUNTINGDONSHIRE.]