generally of wood, the flooring often set edgewise for the purpose of producing extreme rigidity and durability.
Much iron and brass was used in construction, usually wrought in ponderous proportions, but often elaborate and delicate in design. Such were the ornamental brass knobs, knockers, and bells. Iron locks were huge, and so were the keys, a bunch of two or three frequently constituting a considerable handful. Hinges and huge ornamental hinge plates were bolted solidly to the weighty doors, and oftentimes of such wide and elaborate design that they covered most of the door. Hooks for hanging clothes out of the windows to air, and hooks beneath the eaves for the purpose of supporting hangings in time of street decoration, were important items in building construction. So were the iron extinguishers by the front doors into which links were thrust; and the highly ornate brackets from which street signs were suspended.
The ground plan of the Elizabethan mansion was variously designed, but usually falling into one of two classes: the house with a square court, or the house planned like an E. The latter is the characteristic form used mainly by the builders of the later part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
The house, in its plainer form, built in the
