Gents Mag 1856 part 2 p.207

Gents Mag 1856 part 2 p.207




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	list, 3rd qtr 19th century

	Gentleman's Magazine 1856 part 2 p.207
domestic architecture licence to crenellate
	Licences to Crenellate HOUSES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. MR. URBAN, - You are doubtless aware that I have been for some years engaged upon a work on the "Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages in England," of which a portion has already appeared; and as I belive that your readers are as much interested in this subject as myself, I have no scruple in asking your assistance in rendering my work as complete and as accurate as possible. With that view, most important information is to be obtained from the Licences to Crenallate, as few houses of any consequence were built in those days without being fortified, and that could not be done without a licence from the suzerain. All such licences granted by the crown in England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, are recorded in the Patent Rolls preserved in the Tower of London; and as but little reliance can be placed on the printed copy of those Rolls for such a purpose, where minute accuracy is necessary, I applied to Mr. Duffus Hardy, the Deputy-keeper of the Records in the Tower, and he very obligingly employed competent persons, accustomed to the reading of these Roles, to make out for me a complete list of all such licences as occur in them. This list I now beg you to present to your readers, and ask them to give me such information as the local knowledge of each enables him to supply, as to what remains there are still existing of any of these houses; or if there are no remains, what vestigesthere are to mark the spot where the house formerly stood. I believe that in almost every instance, it will be found on investigation, that some traces exist - either the moat or the mound; or in cases where the site has been built upon, the name has most commonly been preserved. In some instances, I know that the houses remain almost entire, and of course the date of the licence to fortify it gives us within a very few years the exact date of the building. This is of great assistance in the history of architecture, and may in some instances enable us to correct erroneous notions, and shew that the changes of style began to take place at an earlier period than is commonly supposed. I have not, however, at present found any instances in which the actual date has differed materially from that which I should have assigned to it from the style alone, or such as I have already assigned to similar buildings in the "Glossary of Architecture." Your obedient servant, J. H. PARKER. Oxford, July, 1856. P.S. - I have already obtained information respecting a few of these houses, but hope now to be able to carry on the investigation more thoroughly, and purpose devoting a part of my time during the summer months to seeing such examples as appear to be most worthy of notice. I have added a few short notices respecting some of these houses, and it would be easy to enlarge them, but I fear that the bare list of licences will occupy more of your valuable space than you may be willing or able coveniently to spare. I shall be glad to know from any of your learned readers whether the variations of form which occur in the Rolls, such as manerium, mansum manerii, &c., imply any different kind of house of greater or less importance, or are mere variations of the scribe, and therefore not worth notice^a.
	^a A Survey of old houses which still exist, or an account of what remains of any others, will be most useful; and we shall be glad to find that Mr. Parker's appeal to our readers meets with a ready response. - ED.

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