Page:Elizabethan People.djvu/463

 provided in the garden, to which the family and guests adjourned upon the occasion of the banquet. The servants' quarters, though separate, were closely grouped about the central building. "Moreover," says Harrison, "the mansion houses of our towns and villages ... are builded in such sort generally as that they have neither dairy, stable, nor brew house annexed unto them under the same roof ... but all separate from the first and one of them from another. And yet for all this they are not so far distant in sunder but that the good man lying in his bed may lightly hear what is done in each of them with ease, and call quickly unto his many if any danger should attack him." Later in the reign, however, and in the reign of James, it became the custom to erect the offices, or servants' quarters, at a greater distance from the mansion proper. Moats were likewise in existence but no longer needful. Often they were drained and planted; and not constructed about new buildings. The timber house that was most frequently met with in cities has already been alluded to. In such city houses as belonged to tradesmen it was the universal custom to keep shop in the front part downstairs, the rest of the house being occupied as a residence. It was also very common