Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/381

 a7id Senti??ients. 361 of the architedural arrangements of a dvvelllng-houfe in the fifteenth century, which may be advantageoully compared with the buildings that ftill exift. One of thefe is reprefented in our cut No. 234, taken from an iUuminated copy of the French tranllation of Valerius Maximus (MS. No. 6984, in the National Library at Paris). The building to the left is probably the flaircafe turret of the gateway ; that before us is the mafs of the houfehold apartments. We are fuppoled to be ftanding within the court. At the foot of the turret is the well, a very important objeft within the court, where it was always placed in houfes of this defcription, as in the troubles of thofe days the houfehold might be obliged to fliut themfelves up for a day or two and depend for their fupply of water entirely on what they could get within their walls. The cut here given (No. 234) is a remarkably good and perfe6t repre- fentation of the exterior, looking towards the court, of the domeftic buildings. The door on the ground floor to the right is probably, to judge by the pofition of the windows, the entrance to the hall. The fteps leading to the firft floor are outfide the wall, an arrangement which is not uncommon in the exifting examples of houfes of this period in England. We have alfo here the open gallery round the chambers on the firll floor, which is fo frequently met with in our houl'cs of the fifteenth century. It is probable that within the door at the top of the external flight of fteps, as here reprefented, a lliort flaircafe led up to the floor on which the chambers were fituated. Perhaps it may have been a flaircafe into the gal- lery, as the opening round the corner to the right feems to be a door from the gallery into the chambers. In another illumination in the lame manufcript (cut No. 235), a knight is reprefented knocking at the door of a houfe into which he feeks admittance. No. 235. -'i Kniglit at the Do 3 A The plain knocker and the ring will