EXTENSION OF ACCOMMODATION 59 - INTRODUCTION turbed, the old fortified plan of castles was still adhered to. The pele towers also retained their old form, which was an imitation of the Nor- man keep. This form of tower had been preserved .from the twelfth century, through all the changes which had taken place, as the simplest and most suitable for the fortified house or small pele. These towers were, in fact, the manor-houses of the Border districts. The Norman ornaments, such as the billet, cable, etc., used in these peles, still further connect them with the Norman keeps. It should, however, be remem- bered that in all late Gothic work there is a tendency to revert to Norman ornament. The billet and zigzag, for instance, are often em- ployed as ornaments in the barge-boards of the Elizabethan period. The pele towers, like the Norman keeps, had usually their entrance on the first floor, or by a narrow newel stair from the ground floor. The latter was always vaulted (as a precaution against fire), and formed a store- place, or a stable, or a place of safety for cattle. The first floor con- tained the hall or common room, and the principal or private room was on the top floor. It was not till the seventeenth century that the Border pele towers were abandoned, when they were found to be defenceless against artillery. Some houses built in the tower style are much more ornamental than usual, as Tattershall, in Lincolnshire, for instance (see Parker), where we have a tower-built house crowned with machicolis, parapets, and turrets, and surrounded with a moat ; while its large windows and other details show that it was not designed for serious warfare, although, no doubt, capable of resisting a sudden attack. In the more peaceful parts of the country, however, the manors are usually of the ordinary dwelling-house form, viz., built round a quad- rangle, of which the hall and its pertinents formed one side, with the offices and chambers disposed round two of the other sides, and the gatehouse in the side opposite the hall. Sometimes there is a kitchen court behind entering through the screens. At other times the kitchen and offices are on the ground floor, and the principal rooms above. The outer court was often the farmyard, with the necessary farm-buildings around. From this the entrance to the inner court was through a gate- way, but the drawbridge and portcullis were dispensed with. Dining in hall was greatly disused in the fifteenth century (notwith- standing ordinances against the abandonment of this ancient custom), and we find instances where the old dais is cut off from the hall by a partition, and thus converted into a private dining-room. Private dining- rooms and drawing-rooms now became usual, and all the apartments were multiplied, both at the master's and servants' end of the hall ; for the practice of the servants sleeping in the hall was abandoned (except when the house was very crowded), and the servants were provided with distinct apartments.
