fragment of early building which I have any where found
mentioned is at a house in Berkshire, called Appleton,
where there exists a sort of prodigy, an entrance-passage
with circular arches in the Saxon style, which must
probably be as old as the reign of Henry II. No other
private house in England can, I presume, boast of such a
monument of antiquity.

It need scarcely be remarked, in conclusion, that the Hall at Norton
Lees, as it appears to the reader, conveys but an imperfect idea of
the ancient structure. The walls of the lower story entirely of stone,
and the upper, stone and plaster intersected by wood, are original, as
is probably the enriched gable, with the pinnacled ornament at its
apex; beneath was originally a small bay window, which has been
stopped up: the other gable, it is reasonable to conclude, once
possessed similar enrichments. The chimneys are modern, since they are
neither pyramidal in their terminations, as was the fashion of the
14th and 15th centuries, nor have they the long polygonal shafts of
the Elizabethan and subsequent periods, which has caused chimneys to
be characteristically termed "the wind-pipes of hospitality." The
"Hall" would likewise appear to be divided into two tenements, which
but ill assorts with its original appropriation; though we are not to
consider these deviations as affecting the architectural character or
identity.

* * * * *


OLIVER GOLDSMITH.