Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/415

 IN EARLY TIMES. 311 have the effect of attracting persons more competent than the writer to the study of the ancient state of horticultural science in this country. To alter slightly the meaning of LaAvson, who may be justly esteemed the Izaack AValton of gardeners ; what " an hinderance shall it bee ** to the common good, that the unspeakable benefits of many hundred yeares, shall be lost by th'audacious attempt of an unskilfull Arborist." T. HUDSOIs TURNER. DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF THE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES. Some houses of the twelfth century have been described in a former volume of this Journal, but as these were in a town and of a small size they could hardly be considered as types of the usual plan of a house of that period. There is however no doubt that the arrangement was gene- rally the same during that and the two following centuries. The house consisted of a hall with a building attached to each end of it. The hall was generally the whole height of the house, (but occasionally there were low rooms under it,) and was the usual living apartment for the whole family. The building at each end of it was divided into an upper room called the solar, and a lower room which at one end was usually the cellar, and at the other the kitchen, at least this seems in some instances to have been the case, for the exact place of the kitchen is still an unsettled point, the cooking was probably sometimes carried on in the hall, and sometimes certainly in the open air, as represented on the Bayeux tapestry, and in the celebrated manuscript of the fourteenth century of the " Romaunt d' Alexandre," so extensively used by Strutt, in hi^ Sports and Pastimes ; but this was probably the case only on great and special occasions, it could hardly have been the ordinary practice;. The upper room at one end was some- times the chapel, but this does not appear to have ever been the general ])ractice ; the chapel was often a small room attached to the solar. The first house to Avhich we now wish to call attention, has we believe hitherto escaped observation, at least wc have l)een unable to find any account of it, and Lysons does not even