state, and unless repaired and made proof against the weather, must, ere many winters be over, come down; a circumstance extremely to be regretted, being said to be the oldest specimen of our ancient banqueting hall remaining.

The massy oak tables remain. That on the dais, or the

lord's table, is six yards long, and about one wide; and at this simple board no doubt Sir Philip and Algernon Sidney, the Countess of Pembroke, Saccharissa, Waller, Ben Jonson, and though last mentioned, many a noble, and some crowned heads,

have many a time dined. What a splendid group, indeed, may imagination summon up and set down at this rude table, where unquestionable history will warrant us in placing them. At one time the gentle and pious Edward VI.; at another his more domineering and shrewd sister Elizabeth, with her proud favourite, Leicester or Essex, Cecil or Warwick, all allied to, or in habits of intimacy with, the lord of the house. James the First, and Charles, then prince, no doubt took their seats here, at that unlooked-for visit of which Ben Jonson speaks; and the paintings in the gallery and rooms above, will shew us many a high-born beauty, and celebrated noble and gentleman who have graced this old hall with their presence, and made its rafters echo to their wit and merriment.

The tables down the sides of the hall, at which the yeomen retainers, and servants sate, are seven yards long, and of a construction several degrees less in remove from the common trestle.

At the lower end of the hall is a tall wainscot screen supporting the music gallery, the plainness and even rudeness of

its fashion marking the earliness of its date. The space betwixt it and the end of the hall, forms a passage from one court to the other, and serves also to conceal the entrances to the kitchen, larder, and other similar offices. The entire screen would present this appearance.

Most of the wainscot and doors of this part of the house are of split oak, never touched with a plane, but reduced to their proper dimensions only by the chisel and the hatchet; sufficient proof of their antiquity. The arched passages and door-ways from the courts to the hall are nevertheless of excellent style and workmanship.

At the back of the music-gallery, and up to the very top of the hall, hang shields, matchlocks with their rests, steel caps, banners, and different pieces of armour; but much the greater portion of those trophies has fallen down, and they lie in the music-gallery, or some of the disused rooms.

On each side of the dais, as in our old colleges, ascends a

flight of loo stairs; one leading to the old apartments of the house, the other into a sort of little gallery, out of which the lord could look into the hall, and call his wassailers to order

if any unusual clamour or riot was going on, or to call any his retainers, bells not then being introduced.

of

On the right hand of the dais, is the entrance into the cellar; an odd situation to our present fancy, but then, no doubt, thought very convenient for the butler to bring up the wine to the lord's table. Passing this cellar door to the right of the dais, and ascending the loo stairs, you find yourself in the ball-room a large room, with two ancient lustre chandeliers surmounted with the crown-royal, and said to have been the first made in England, and presented by Elizabeth to the Earl of Leicester. In this room are several columns of verde-antique, giallo, and porphyry from Italy; antique burial-urns, and old tables of mosaic marble. There are four large frescoes by Vanderbrecht :—the Triumph of Cupid; Venus rising from the Sea; Europa on the Bull; and Cupid trying his Bow. Amongst some indifferent portraits is one of Lady E. Sidney, and another of Lady Egerton.

In the pages' room are numerous paintings. Amongst them are the Duke of St. Albans, Nell Gwynn's son, a boy of about eight or ten years of age, in a rich murrey-coloured doublet and breeches, with roses at his knees and on his shoes; an excellent painting. Head of John Dudley Duke of Northumberland, 1545 the father of Lord Guildford Dudley; of the Earls of Warwick and Leicester; and of Mary Dudley, the mother of

Sir Philip Sidney. Head of the Duchess of Portsmouth small full-length of Algernon Percy Earl of Northumberland: the Egerton family, three children: head of old Parr, who died at the age of one hundred and fifty-two: Catherine Cecil, Countess of Leicester, of whom there are several other portraits in the house: head of Algernon Sidney, in a defective state: Duns Scotus supposed portrait of General Leslie.

There is a small recumbent statue of Cleopatra from Herculaneum, here; and the bridle of the Duke of Buckingham, the favourite of James I., hangs by one of the windows. The front, martingal, and the bosses of the bits, gilt and much ornamented.

Queen Elizabeth's Room.-It is said that Elizabeth, when visiting Sir Henry Sidney, the father of Sir Philip, furnished this room. The chairs are fine, tall, and capacious ones, the frames gilded, and the drapery yellow and crimson satin, richly embroidered. They must have been very splendid when in their full glory. The walls of each end of the room are covered with similar embroidered satin, said, as in all such cases, to have been worked by the queen and her attendants.

Here stand the three most interesting portraits in the house. Those of Sir Philip, Algernon, and Mary Sidney, the Countess of Pembroke.

Sir Philip Sidney is here apparently not more than two or three and twenty years of age. His dress is a rich laced doublet of pale crimson; ruff, and scarlet mantle hanging loosely from his shoulder. He is standing reading, with a staff of office in his