The Growth of the English House: A short history of its architectural development from 1100 to 1800Gotch, J. Alfred (John Alfred)
History
The Growth of the English House: A short history of its architectural development from 1100 to 1800
Gotch, J. Alfred (John Alfred)
Architecture -- England; Architecture, Domestic
The most complete and most interesting house of this period is the
well-known Haddon Hall in Derbyshire. It consists of two courts (Fig.
24), the hall being placed in the wing which divides them. It is thus
protected on both of its long sides and is thereby enabled to have
larger windows than if it had been on an outside wall. The exterior
walls of the earlier parts of Haddon have comparatively few windows
in them, and these of small size; and as the kitchen is one of the
rooms so lighted it is dark, in spite of a larger window inserted
in the sixteenth century, to a degree which horrifies housewives of
the present day. Haddon being built on the slope of a hill could not
be protected by a moat, hence it was more than ever necessary to be
careful about external apertures. Some parts of Haddon are of the
twelfth century, including much of the west wall, portions of the
chapel (at the south-west corner), and the lower parts of the south
and east walls and of the Peverel or Eagle tower; the licence granted
to Richard de Vernon to fortify his house of Haddon with a wall 12
ft. high without crenellations is still preserved. This licence was
granted by John, Earl of Morteigne, who, in 1199, became King John. The
extent of this early work shows that already in the twelfth century
there was a large house here, its area being little less than at the
present day. But during the fourteenth century it was practically
rebuilt on the lines which now remain, inasmuch as work of this period
is to be found over the whole building. The extent of the house, and
particularly the multiplicity of rooms, go to show how vastly the
desire for comfort had increased by this time. Much other work was done
in later years; the chapel was either enlarged or altered, and a range
of rooms was added or rebuilt in the fifteenth century. In the early
part of the sixteenth many of the rooms were embellished and modernised
by Sir George Vernon, “the King of the Peak”; and yet later his
daughter Dorothy and her husband Sir John Manners built the beautiful
long gallery on the top of earlier rooms and laid out the garden with
its picturesque terraces and noble flight of steps.
[Illustration: 24. Plan of Haddon Hall, Derbyshire.]
It is of great interest to see here the work of various hands, and to
realise how, generation after generation, the owners did what they
could to bring their ancient home up to the prevailing standard of
comfort and beauty. But the particular point which is of interest now
is that although much of the existing work is of later date, yet it
is clear that in the fourteenth century Haddon was of almost the same
extent as we see it to-day. Civilisation had taken many strides since
its little neighbour, the Peak Castle, had been built.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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