Much smaller than the base-court at Holdenby was the forecourt at Kenyon Peel, in Lancashire, a half-timber house with a symmetrical E front, and approached through a two-storey stone gatehouse, joined to the house itself by stone walls. The gatehouse is rather gaunt, like many of the stone buildings in that district, but in the little gateways in the side of the court (Fig. 62) an effort has been made to produce something less severe. The mixture of the stonework and the black-and-white work of the house is effective, and the small court, with its formal paved walks leading from the gatehouse to the porch, and from one side doorway to the other, is full of interest; especially as the house lies amid the chimneys of a busy part of Lancashire, and is surrounded by the abomination of desolation which accompanies the spread of populous places. The initials G. R. occur in the topmost step of the coping, and the date 1631 on the lintel of the doorway. [Illustration: 60.--GATEWAY TO ALMSHOUSES, OUNDLE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.] [Illustration: 61.--HOLDENBY, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. GATEWAYS TO BASE-COURT (1585).] [Illustration: 62.--KENYON PEEL, LANCASHIRE. GATEWAY AT SIDE OF COURT (1631).] [Illustration: 63.--DODDINGTON HALL, LINCOLNSHIRE. ENTRANCE DOORWAY (1595).] ENTRANCE DOORWAYS AND PORCHES. The lodge or the gateway, as the case might be, was generally adorned in some conspicuous place with the arms of the family, the squires of the time being as proud of their various cognizances as Justice Shallow was of his twelve luces. Five out of the eight examples already illustrated are so adorned. The same shield that appears on the gateway is also frequently to be seen over the door of the house itself, which is reached after crossing the court. The doorway generally formed part of a somewhat elaborate piece of ornament, for, however simple (and sometimes even monotonous) the general treatment of the house was, the front door was made handsome. At Doddington, in Lincolnshire, while the bulk of the house is of plain brickwork, including the parapet, the doorway is treated with a considerable amount of elaboration (Fig. 63). [Illustration: 64.--PORCH AT CHELVEY COURT, SOMERSET (CIR. 1640).] [Illustration: 65.--DOORWAY AT NAILSEA COURT, SOMERSET.]