of larger and more important finials may be seen at Kirby and Rushton (Figs. 107, 113), the prevailing forms being some variety of the obelisk. [Illustration: 101.--STONE FINIALS AND KNEELERS.] [Illustration: 102.--MANOR HOUSE, FINSTOCK, OXFORDSHIRE.] [Illustration: 103.--COTTAGE AT ROTHWELL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. (1660.)] [Illustration: PLATE XXXV. HOLMSHURST, BURWASH, SUSSEX. TUDOR HOUSE, BROADWAY, WORCESTERSHIRE.] The use of simple gables or their combination with dormer windows and chimneys, all without elaborate detail, is quite sufficient to impart interest to a building, which otherwise would have little claim to attention. Examples of these unpretentious houses are to be met with in every county; one or two are illustrated here from Finstock, in Oxfordshire (Fig. 102), Broadway, in Worcestershire (Plate XXXV.), and Holmshurst, in Sussex (Plate XXXV.). There is very little conscious effort about the design of either of these, beyond the introduction of a certain amount of symmetry. At Finstock Manor House there is a range of three equal gables occupying most of the front, and the door is in the centre. At Tudor House, Broadway, there are three gables, but they are detached from each other, and the middle one is rather larger than its neighbours; a bay window of two storeys occupies the centre of the front, and the very plainly treated door is at one end. The house at Holmshurst is, like most of those in the Weald, built of brick: it has stone windows, but very little detail, its effect depending upon the two gables, each flanked with a large chimney-stack. The style which was prevalent at the end of the sixteenth century lingered on far into the seventeenth in buildings that were not subject to the passing fashion: indeed, the treatment was hardly adopted consciously, but was rather the obvious and natural way of building, otherwise it would not have been applied to such cottages as that at Rothwell (Fig. 103) and Treeton, near Sheffield (Fig. 104). [Illustration: 104.--COTTAGE AT TREETON, NEAR SHEFFIELD.] In houses which were constructed of timber and plaster it was impossible to carry up the gables above the roof; the method of building did not admit of it, and there would have been no adequate means of covering them from the weather. They were finished, therefore, with projecting verge-boards, which served to protect the surface of the walls, and which were often carved or cut and moulded. A simple instance applied to a cottage is to be found at Steventon (Fig. 105), but there are plenty to be seen in different parts of the country, particularly in the west. [Illustration: 105.--COTTAGE AT STEVENTON, BERKSHIRE.]