text:  The fronts of the houses were ornamented with every device which the skilful carpenters of former times could invent: the beam-ends were sculptured into queer little crouching figures of monkeys or angels and all sorts of _diableries_ decorated the cornices that ran beneath the windows; there were no panes of glass such as we boast of in these degenerate times but narrow latticed lights to let in the day and the wind and the cold; while the roofs were covered commonly with shingles or in the houses of the wealthy with sheets of lead