The soler appears also to have been considered as the place of honour for rich lodgers who paid well. In the fabliau Des trois avugles de Compiengne (Barbazan, iii. 398), three blind men come to the house of a burgher, and require to be treated better than usual. He shews them up stairs:—
En la haute logis les maine.
A clerk, who follows, after putting his horse in the stable, sits at table with his host in the hall, while the three guests are served "like knights" in the soler above:—
Et li avugle du solier
Furent servi com chevalier.
It may be observed that a stable was a necessary part of a common house, because at this period all householders were in the habit of letting or giving lodging to travellers, who generally came on horseback.
By the kindness of the Rev. Lambert B. Larking, vicar of Ryarsh in Kent, I am enabled to illustrate the foregoing extracts by a sketch of the manor-house of a country gentleman of the thirteenth century. It is represented on a seal in a perfect state of preservation attached to a deed by which William Moraunt grants to Peter Picard an acre of land in the parish of Otteford in Kent. It is dated in the month of June, 56 Hen. III. (i. e. June, 1272). The inscription is s. willemi moravnt. The door, which is probably that which led to the hall, is represented apparently as opened outwards. It is altogether a curious illustration of early domestic architecture.
In the fabliau Du vair palefroy (Barbazan, i. 164), we have a picture of the castellated manor-house of a wealthy knight. A young knight who had spent his substance, who lived at no great distance, was in love with the rich knight's daughter, but was not allowed to have access to her. The "manor" in which the lady was confined was built on a rock adjacent to a forest. The court, or garden, was large and was surrounded by a foss, lined inwardly with a fortified defence which appears to have been a thick hedge of thorn (espinois), strengthened in ex-
