Quarry House in Findsbury

2 8 6 QUARRY HOUSE, ON PRINDSBURY HILL. In the hall the fireplace and chimney-piece still remain, on the right-hand side of the entrance passage, as we come from the front. This passage went straight through the house, and had on each side of it a wooden screen, through which were doorways, admitting to the hall on the right, and on the left leading to the buttery and kitchen. The screen on the right hand is quite gone. The hall, which measured 16 feet by 16, in its main area, was lighted by rectangular windows; one, of three lights, transomed, stood opposite the fireplace, and two others occupied the front and side of the projecting front wing, which formed a, sort of oriel for the hall, and added to it an increased area of 4 feet by 5 feet 6 inches. These windows were transomed; and that in front was of four lights ; the other, in the side facing the porch, was of two lights. Opposite this " oriel" (as we may term it), the projecting wing at the back of the house was occupied by a circular staircase, with wooden newel; this staircase covered an area 8 feet square. The circular stair led to the upper storeys of the house, two in number. All their rooms are lighted by handsome rectangular windows, of three or four lights in front, transomed on the middle floor, but not transomed in the uppermost storey. A peculiar feature of the house is the method by which each storey is made to recede behind the front level of that beneath it. The house thus continually tapers towards the top, where its front ended in five pretty gables. This effect was enhanced by six buttresses, 21 feet high; octagonal at base, circular above the ground floor, and tapering to a point at the level of the uppermost floor. Two of these buttresses flank each of the wings, and the porch, at their exterior angles. These turret-like buttresses, which are uncommon features, appear on a smaller scale in the handsome gateway of the entrance courtyard. They may be compared with those of the similar gateway at Brook Earm in Eeculver. The idea of using them, thus, seems to me to have been derived from the tall angle turrets of such late Elizabethan houses as Cobham Hall. These at Quarry House are beautifully