One is, the multitude of chimnies lately erected,
whereas, in their young dayes there were not above two or three, if so
many, in most uplandish townes of the realme (the religious houses and
mannour places of their lordes alwayes excepted, and peradventure some
great personages [parsonages]), but each one made his fire against a
reredosse in the halle, where he dined and dressed his meate," This
want of chimneys is noticeable in many pictures of, and previous to,
the time of Henry VIII. A timber farm-house yet remains (or did until
recently) near Folkestone, which shows no vestige of either chimney or
hearth.
Most of our great houses and manor-houses sprang up in the great
Elizabethan building epoch, when the untold wealth of the monasteries
which fell into the hands of the courtiers and favourites of the King,
the plunder of gold-laden Spanish galleons, and the unprecedented
prosperity in trade gave such an impulse to the erection of fine
houses that the England of that period has been described as "one
great stonemason's yard." The great noblemen and gentlemen of the
Court were filled with the desire for extravagant display, and built
such clumsy piles as Wollaton and Burghley House, importing French and
German artisans to load them with bastard Italian Renaissance detail.
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