Chapter XVIII. “Our pewterers in time past employed the use of

pewter only upon dishes and pots, and a few other trifles for service, whereas now there are grown into such exquisite cunning that they can in manner imitate by infusion any form or fashion of cup made by the goldsmiths’ craft. In some places beyond the sea a garnish of good flat pewter (I say flat, because dishes and platters in my time began to be made deep and like basins, and indeed were convenient both for sauce and keeping the meat warm) is almost esteemed so precious as the like number of vessels that are made of fine silver.”

The remains of ancient houses or other buildings which have survived the process of rebuilding in our town are very few, but there is one house at least, representing the houses of Elizabeth’s time which retains very much of its original character. This is the house known as the “South Flint House,” at the top of Wilde’s score which bears the initials W. M. and the date 1586 over the front door. The front of this house is built of square flints, much more expensive work than the alternate layers of cobbles and bricks with which the other walls were made. The ground floor appears to have originally consisted of one large room, with a fireplace and chimney in the centre, corresponding with that described by Holinshed as the hall where the “good-man” dined and dressed his meat (except that the fire was not against a “reredos” at the side wall). The two rooms above this are evidently much the same as they were at first, having each a stone fireplace with W. M. The house has been enlarged since with the addition of a wing.