Holinshed tells of the increased use of stone or brick in his age in the district wherein he lived.  In other parts of England, where the forests supplied good timber, the builders stuck to their half-timbered houses and brought the “black and white” style to perfection.  Plaster was extensively used in this and subsequent ages, and often the whole surface of the house was covered with rough-cast, such as the quaint old house called Broughton Hall, near Market Drayton.  Avebury Manor, Wiltshire, is an attractive example of the plastered house.  The irregular roof-line, the gables, and the white-barred windows, and the contrast of the white walls with the rich green of the vines and surrounding trees combine to make a picture of rare beauty.  Part of the house is built of stone and part half-timber, but a coat of thin plaster covers the stonework and makes it conform with the rest.  To plaster over stone-work is a somewhat daring act, and is not architecturally correct, but the appearance of the house is altogether pleasing.

The Elizabethan and Jacobean builder increased the height of his house, sometimes causing it to have three storeys, besides rooms in attics beneath the gabled roof.  He also loved windows.  “Light, more light,” was his continued cry.  Hence there is often an excess of windows, and Lord Bacon complained that there was no comfortable place to be found in these houses, “in summer by reason of the heat, or in winter by reason of the cold.”  It was a sore burden to many a house-owner when Charles II imposed the iniquitous window-tax, and so heavily did this fall upon the owners of some Elizabethan houses that the poorer ones were driven to the necessity of walling up some of the windows which their ancestors had provided with such prodigality.  You will often see to this day bricked-up windows in many an old farm-house.  Not every one was so cunning as the parish clerk of Bradford-on-Avon, Orpin, who took out the window-frames from his interesting little house near the church and inserted numerous small single-paned windows which escaped the tax.

Surrey and Kent afford an unlimited field for the study of the better sort of houses, mansions, and manor-houses.  We have already alluded to Hever Castle and its memories of Anne Boleyn.  Then there is the historic Penshurst, the home of the Sidneys, haunted by the shades of Sir Philip, “Sacharissa,” the ill-fated Algernon, and his handsome brother.  You see their portraits on the walls, the fine gallery, and the hall, which reveals the exact condition of an ancient noble’s hall in former days.

[Illustration:  Arms of the Gaynesfords in window, Crowhurst Place, Surrey]