But oak panelling or woollen tapestry soon becomes
warm, and gives back its heat to the room, making it delightfully
comfortable and cosy.
One foolish thing our forefathers did, and that was to allow the great
beams that help to support the upper floor to go through the chimney.
How many houses have been burnt down owing to that fatal beam! But our
ancestors were content with a dog-grate and wood fires; they could not
foresee the advent of the modern range and the great coal fires, or
perhaps they would have been more careful about that beam.
[Illustration: Section of Mouldings of Cornice on Panelling, the
Church House, Goudhurst]
Fire is, perhaps, the chief cause of the vanishing of old houses, but
it is not the only cause. The craze for new fashions at the beginning
of the last century doomed to death many a noble mansion. There seems
to have been a positive mania for pulling down houses at that period.
As I go over in my mind the existing great houses in this country, I
find that by far the greater number of the old houses were wantonly
destroyed about the years 1800-20, and new ones in the Italian or some
other incongruous style erected in their place. Sometimes, as at
Little Wittenham, you find the lone lorn terraces of the gardens of
the house, but all else has disappeared.
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