Page:Devon and Cornwall Queries Vol 9 1917.djvu/73

 Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries. 51 (vol. Ixxi), cited by Miss Prideaux as shewing, in figs. 17, 18, and 19, some 15th century West-country roofs having *• a very close similarity " to the one in question, and I find that similar in outline though they are, most of these are "double framed," alias "double-raftered," roofs, and that in figs. 18 and 19 the principal rafters, and in fig. 17 the arched braces shew mortices orother signs of having had purlins (i.e. horizontal timbers for support of common rafters) framed into them,* whereas in the Preston Street house, the trusses are quite free from such insertions, the purlins here resting upon the couples in a way that strongly suggests the conversion of a single-raftered into a double-raftered structure.! On the other hand, in fig. 15, a diagram of an arch-braced, single-framed roof shews a truss of the same construction as that in Preston Street (and without mortices, etc.) and this is marked " Sutton Courtney, Berks. Chancel, i^th cent." Devonshire, however, as a stone rather than a wood county may have been a little behind-hand in its carpentry, and no doubt 14th century models were sometimes repeated in the 15th century. I much regret the two mistakes to which Miss Prideaux calls attention, and for which I am at a loss to account, as I see my pencil extracts, from which I condensed the footnote, are quite correct. In the Report, floor beams in the east portion of the Preston Street house are attributed to the 15th century, and in the west to the 14th, and the soffits of two of the latter beams are said to be morticed for a partition. I did not see the Report till after I had sent in my article (to which I added the footnote as a P.S.), and I have only now noticed (on p. 269 of the same minutes) the letter from Mr. Brakspear, dated 18th (sic.) Jan., 1915 (and referred to, I think, by Miss Prideaux, p. 162 ante) m which he says " There is no reason to suppose this building to have been anything but an ordinary house of the period." [Norman]. Ethel Lega-Weekes. and is undated. fin single-framed roofs the trusses were set only about i« inches apart, and the battens carrying thatch or tiles were fastened directly to them ; there were no purlins, and no superior range of common rafters.
 * The only exception is Bcaford, which has a semi-circular arch