osed by some persons to be as
old as the reign of Richard II.; but Mr. Rhodes observes, "that it was
erected many years after this period can hardly be doubted." Certain
features of resemblance assist its appearance of antiquity, as the
wooden framework, which is observable in the oldest specimens of
house-building in this country. According to Strutt, the Saxons
usually built their houses of clay, kept together by wooden frames;
shortly after the Norman Conquest plaster was intermixed with timber,
and subsequently the basement story was made of stone. The upper
apartments were so constructed as to project over the lower, and
considerable ornament both in carved wood and plaster was introduced
about the doors and windows and roof of the building. Nevertheless,
timber, with lath and plaster, and thatch for the roofs, constituted
the chief materials in the dwellings of the English from an early
period till near the close of the fourteenth century and beginning of
the fifteenth, when bricks began to be used in the better sort of
houses.[2] The mansion before us, as we have seen, is referred to the
first-mentioned period. Mr. Rhodes, however, observes, "though
composed of stone and wood, it is evident not one of the earliest
structures of this description: it is indeed highly probable that it
was built in the reign of the Seventh or Eighth Henry, but certainly
not sooner. At this period the halls or family mansions of the
yeomanry of the country had nearly all the same general character.
Previously, but little stone was used in any of them."[3]; It is true
that stone houses are mentioned nearly three centuries and a half
before the date of the hall at Norton Lees, as settled by Mr. Rhodes;
as we find them belonging to citizens of London in the reign of Henry
II.; "and," observes Mr. Hallam, "though not often perhaps regularly
hewn stones, yet those scattered over the soil, or dug from flint
quarries, bound together with a very strong and durable cement, were
employed in the construction of manorial houses, especially in the
western counties and other parts where that material is easily
procured. Harrison says, that few of the houses of the commonalty,
except here and there in the west country towns, were made of stone.
This was about 1570. Gradually, even in timber buildings, the
intervals of the main beams were occupied by stone walls, or where
stone was expensive, by mortar or plaster, intersected by horizontal
or diagona