Some of these ancient buildings are still inhabited; several of the survivors are in ruins. The details given in this drawing are taken from a cottage at Thornton-le-dale; one end has already been demolished (Oct. 1905). The low walls appear to have been built after the framework, and the house may have been thatched to the ground at one time. ] [Illustration: The usual Plan of the Fork-framed Cottages in existence near Pickering. The exterior (viewed from C on the plan) is generally as shown. The small window by the door (B) lights the ingle-nook, and is never missing in the oldest type of cottage. It can be seen blocked up in those that have been remodelled.] Such incidents as these enliven the pages of the Duchy of Lancaster Records, and if there were more space available it would be interesting to give many more of these graphic incidents that took place four hundred years ago. In many places one finds references to the illegal taking of oaks from the forest for building houses. Big boughs or the stems of small trees were placed together in the form of an A with the ends resting on the ground. These beams, that formed the bays of a house, are locally called "forks," the name by which they are known in the records of the reign of Henry VII. In 1498 we find that "The abbot of Whitby had as many oakes taken in Godlande [Goathland] as made aftre the maner of the Coutrey iij pair of forkes, with other bemes and wall plaites as were mete for the repairalling of an hows of his in Godlande."