or garden except by More's licence. It was probably contemplated that he would build stairs to the upper floor for himself, and this is perhaps why More exacted no fine on the execution of the lease.[1] At any rate Neville did build stairs on the west of the house, placing them not in his own strip of yard but in More's, with his water-cock in a little room at the stair foot. The pale of Frith's tennis court was altered to allow of access between it and Neville's stairs from More's garden entry to his gate-house entry.[2] In his own strip Neville built a kitchen and another set of stairs behind it which must have led into the extreme north end of his house, as the site of the kitchen underlay, not Neville's own rooms, but those purchased by Cobham in 1554. The rest of the strip served as a woodyard, and had a privy in it. Presumably the original convent kitchen acquired by Cawarden had been pulled down. Within the house Neville put up partitions, turning his four rooms into six, of which it may be inferred that two lay in the northern block and four in the southern, and adorning one of these latter with wainscoting most of the way round, and with a great round portal.[3] About Lady Day 1568 More bought back the lease from Neville for £100, doubtless in consideration of the improvements.[4] For a time it seems to have been occupied by the Silk Dyers Company.[5] On 6 February 1571 it was let to William Lord Cobham, the terms of whose lease closely resemble those of Neville's, but record the changes made during his predecessor's tenancy.[6] Cobham gave up the house in 1576, and on 27 August of that year Neville wrote to More to recommend a new applicant for the tenancy, his friend Richard Farrant. With it came an application from Farrant himself. Apparently his tenancy entailed the removal of an Italian, who may have been one of the silk dyers, and he desired to be allowed to take down one of the partitions. On 17 September he wrote to ask that a small room, 6 ft. by 4-1/2 ft., occupied by More's man Bradshaw might be added to his holding.[7] His lease was executed on 20 December.[8] It gives him all the rooms which Neville had had, with the exception of the former Revels store-*house, which is now described as 'that great rome nowe vsed for a wasshynge howse'; and it adds the little room specially asked for, which had been contrived by throwing
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