en built after the framework, and
the house may have been thatched to the ground at one time.
]

[Illustration: The usual Plan of the Fork-framed Cottages in existence
near Pickering. The exterior (viewed from C on the plan) is generally as
shown. The small window by the door (B) lights the ingle-nook, and is
never missing in the oldest type of cottage. It can be seen blocked up in
those that have been remodelled.]

Such incidents as these enliven the pages of the Duchy of Lancaster
Records, and if there were more space available it would be interesting to
give many more of these graphic incidents that took place four hundred
years ago. In many places one finds references to the illegal taking of
oaks from the forest for building houses. Big boughs or the stems of small
trees were placed together in the form of an A with the ends resting on
the ground. These beams, that formed the bays of a house, are locally
called "forks," the name by which they are known in the records of the
reign of Henry VII. In 1498 we find that "The abbot of Whitby had as many
oakes taken in Godlande [Goathland] as made aftre the maner of the Coutrey
iij pair of forkes, with other bemes and wall plaites as were mete for the
repairalling of an hows of his in Godlande."

The great legal case between Sir Roger Hastings and the Cholmleys seems to
have impoverished the turbulent owner of Roxby, for after the adverse
decision Hastings seems to have had difficulty in raising the moneys to
meet all the heavy expenses of the trial, and Mr Turton thinks that Roxby
was at first mortgaged and afterwards sold to Roger Cholmley, brother of
Sir Richard, who had received knighthood in 1509. Sir Richard Cholmley may
be considered the founder of the Yorkshire families of Cholmley, and he
was in his time a man of great power and influence, holding the four chief
offices in the Honor of Pickering, and at the commencement of the reign of
Henry VIII. he was appointed Lieutenant of the Tower of London. He had no
legal offspring, and his illegitimate son, a Sir Roger, who must not be
confused with his uncle, was successively Chief Baron and Lord Chief
Justice, died without issue. Sir Hugh Cholmley[1] tells us many facts
concerning his great-grandfather Sir Richard, who was a nephew of the
former Sir Richard. "His chief place of residence," he says, "was at
Roxby, lying between Pickering and Thornton (now almost demolished), where
he lived in great port, having a very