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chamber." In addition to these rooms, this inventory mentions the "newe lodginge, outter newe lodginge, schoolehouse, new turritt, pleasaunce, the olde studye, parradise, gallorye and lodginge, greene chamber, my Mr. his chamber, Byshoppes chamber, the lowe vawte, kitchine chamber, the midlegates, porter lodge, the farre gates, stable, kylne, darye, oxhouse, wine seller, pantrye, hether buttrye and midle butterye, kytchine, drye larder, wett larder, paistrie, backhouse, boutinge house, and brewhouse." The inventory of 1624' also mentions "the walke, the inner and outer nursery, Barnardes parler, the maidens parler, beef house, still house chamber, landry, and wash house." It is of course certain that the buildings of this time extended considerably beyond the tower house, and from what we know of other houses of this type, it is probable that this was also the case in the fourteenth century. The lines of the low attached buildings may probably be represented by the present irregular outline of the stable yard.

The date of the completion of Sir William Fairfax's work is indicated by an inscription in the south window of the "great chamber," which is dated 1585.

The reconstruction of the west front and the addition of the wings are said by Gill to have been designed by "Sir John Vanbrugh, who, with his able assistant, Mr. William Wakefield, and his Italian plasterers, Cortese, &c., a school of artists which we have lately seen. expire, appears to have been constantly employed in this part of Yorkshire." Drake, however, who is a nearly contemporary authority, appears to attribute the work at Gilling entirely to Wakefield. In his account of the church of St. Michael-le-Belfry, York, he mentions the monument of Dorothy, wife of William Wakefield, of Huby (1722), and in a footnote he adds "Here lyes also, as yet without any memorial, that worthy gentleman, William Wakefield, esquire, whose great skill in architecture will always be commended as long as the houses of Duncombe Park and Gilling Castle shall stand." The south wing contains a long gallery, with a drawing-room at its west end, on the principal floor. In the basement of the north wing are the kitchen offices, with the library, bed-rooms, &c., over. The entrance-hall and much of the interior of the main building appear to have been remodelled at the same time. The work is designed in the classic manner of the time, and the exterior is severe, not to say dull, in character. Some of the internal woodwork is, however, decidedly interesting. Gill says that he had ascertained that other buildings previously existed on the site of the wings.

1 Archæologia, xlviii. 148.

2 Vallis Eboracensis, by Thomas Gill (London, 1852), p. 263.

3 Eboracum, by Francis Drake (London, 1736), p. 341, note c.

Vallis Eboracensis, p. 263.

The remainder of this paper will be devoted to a description of the present dining-room, the Elizabethan "great chamber" (Fig. 5),' completed by Sir William Fairfax about 1585. The room is not only remarkable for its wealth of heraldic decoration, but it is certainly one of the most beautiful rooms of the Elizabethan period which remains to us. Its whole appearance enables us to realise, perhaps more clearly than does any other single room, what the stately interiors of Elizabeth's days were like. Its great beauty, however, lies in its magnificent display of painted glass, which is quite unrivalled by any other surviving example of its time.

The room measures about 39 feet in length by 22 feet in width, within the panelling (see Plan, Fig. 6). It is lighted by a deeply recessed window of five lights wide at its south end; close to the south end of the east side is a bay window, 12 feet in width by 9 feet 8 inches in depth, which commands a beautiful view towards the church; in the east side, north of the bay, is another window of four lights wide. All the windows are divided by two transoms into three lights in height.

The room is 17 feet 4 inches in height from the floor to the ceiling. The wall panelling is 11 feet 7 inches in height from the floor to the top of the cornice. The panelling is divided in height into three large panels, surrounded by an egg-and-tongue moulding. Each of the panels is subdivided into a lozenge-shaped panel in the centre, with a nearly triangular panel at each corner. The lozenges are filled with interlacing patterns in marquetry, exhibiting considerable variety of design, while each of the angle panels has a sprig of leafage and flower within an inlaid border, of ebony and holly." Above the panels is an entablature, consisting of a narrow architrave, a frieze 9 inches in width of strap-work divided by small turned and fluted balusters, and a cornice with widely spaced convex dentils (Fig. 15. See p. 177-)

Above the wall panelling is the frieze, 3 feet 8 inches in height, painted on boards with the arms of the gentlemen of Yorkshire, arranged in wapentakes, which will presently be described in detail.

The remaining 2 feet in height is occupied by the plaster cornice, consisting of a narrow architrave, a cove, and a narrow vertical band of ornament imitated from the Greek honeysuckle. The ribbed plaster ceiling (see Fig. 5.) follows a type of design which is not uncommon in Elizabethan work. The design is based on squares,larger squares of 10 feet, subdivided into squares of 2 feet 6 inches. In the centre and at each angle of

1 From a photograph by Mr. C. C. Hodges.

2 The room is illustrated in Details

each 10 feet square is a fan with

of Elizabethan Architecture, by Henry Shaw (London, 1839), plates 11 to 15.

3 A detail of one of the panels is given in Shaw's plate 12.

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pendant, and in the centre of each 5 feet square is a smaller fan with pendant. The centre of the pointed quatrefoil has a pendant only, not a fan. On the grounds of the panels are small heraldic

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20

FIG. 6-PLAN OF DINING ROOM.

devices, lions (the principal charge in the Fairfax arms), goats (the Fairfax supporters), and talbots (a device of the Stapletons).'

1 The device a talbot passant argent appears on the banner of Sir Brian

Stapleton (d. 1496). Yorkshire Archæol.
Journal, viii. 256.

30 FEET

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