The gables and the dormer windows in the larger houses were often connected by a parapet, broken at intervals by a shallow pilaster carried up to form the base of a finial or the seat for some heraldic animal. Sometimes the parapet was solid, as at Apethorpe (Fig. 109), Doddington (Plate XXI.), and the courtyard at Kirby (Fig. 76); sometimes it was formed of a series of arches, as at Exton (Fig. 110, and Plate XXIX.), and at Hambleton (Fig. 71); sometimes of stone panels pierced with a pattern, as at Bramshill (Fig. 111) and Audley End (Fig. 112); and sometimes of stone balusters, of which Rushton Hall offers one example (Fig. 113) and Wollaton Hall (Plate XXVII.) another. There was a considerable amount of variety, according to the ability of the mason to design and of the owner to pay. The effect of the pierced panels carried along a considerable length of parapet is very rich and lace-like. The stone balusters were occasionally of very meagre proportion, and used with too sparing a hand, but at Rushton this is not felt to be the case. The parapet to the main roofs here is more satisfactory than the rather confused ornament which serves a similar purpose for the bay. This gable also affords a good example of the manner in which the lights of the mullioned windows were stepped up so as to follow roughly the slope of the roof. In one or two houses (Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire, and Temple Newsam in Yorkshire) the parapets are formed of stone letters forming a series of legends which make, more or less, the circuit of the house. [Illustration: 108.--GABLE IN COURT, RUSHTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE (1627).] [Illustration: 109.--GABLE IN COURT, APETHORPE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE (1623-24).] [Illustration: 110.--EXTON OLD HALL, RUTLAND. STONE PARAPET.] [Illustration: 111.--BRAMSHILL, HAMPSHIRE. STONE PARAPET.] [Illustration: 112.--AUDLEY END, ESSEX. STONE PARAPET.] CHIMNEYS. The chimneys were always dealt with boldly. In many cases, as already said, they were massed into great stacks at intervals along the walls, and made the dominating features of the whole design. Wherever they occurred their presence was frankly accepted, and, as a rule, much skill and ingenuity were bestowed upon them. In later centuries chimneys appear to have become a source of considerable annoyance to architectural designers, and a great deal of misapplied ingenuity was expended in trying to conceal their existence, owing to the idea that they interfered with the purity of classic façades. But in the early days of the introduction of classic features, the problem of making chimneys harmonize with the rest of the building seems to have been a source of delight instead of annoyance. [Illustration: 113.--RUSHTON HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. GABLE ON EAST FRONT (1627).] [Illustration: 114.--CHIMNEY AT DROITWICH, WORCESTERSHIRE.] [Illustration: 115.--BRICK CHIMNEY FROM HUDDINGTON COURT HOUSE, WORCESTERSHIRE.]