The only means by which the site of the west wall of the hall can be ascertained is the mark on the wall of the north wing, where it has been cut away, and the return weathering of its plinth, which stops at what has been its external face, and does not appear upon the internal walls. There is no corbel in the existing hall walls for roof timbers nor any sockets; it may therefore be assumed that the hall roof was of cradle form, of the early type, constructed with many trusses of medium scantling rather than with the large principals, fewer in number, of the later roofs. For such a roof the thick walls are eminently calculated.

The buildings at the northern end of the hall are by far the best preserved, their stonework being, with the exception of the lowering of the gables, the destruction of the chimnevs, and some modern mutilations in the shape of doors and windows, strong and in good condition. These consist of the great chamber, leading from the dais of the hall by a mutilated arch; the solar above it; and reaching eastwards, and set out of line towards the north, the chapel, with a room over it. The great chamber or withdrawing room and solar have been very fine apartments; the former, now divided into modern offices, had a very massive timber ceiling, carried on heavy cross-beams, for which the large and strong corbels in the walls still partially remain. Similar timbers ran longitudinally, dividing the ceiling into deep square panels; and the chapel was similarly timbered. A wall plate was probably carried on these corbels, into which the joists were mortised, as at Ince Manor.

The solar and chapel were covered with highpitched roofs. The springing of the gables remains. There are, as in the hall, no corbels, and the roof has, no doubt, been of similar character.

F

The

lowness of the side walls of these upper apartments-about six feet-also seems to necessitate a roof framing of the construction suggested. It may always be predicated that the proportions of ancient buildings are most carefully calculated for the relation of the constructive details to each other. The present roofs have been lowered in pitch, and probably date from the seventeenth century. They are of rough timber, almost unwrought.

The withdrawing room is lighted by only three small oblong windows, which externally are not much wider than loop-holes, but widely splayed within. They have been heavily grated, and the glass was inserted in wooden frames. The lights in the great hall windows were similarly barred and glazed. The solar has three similar windows over those of the chamber, but in addition to these a fine and lofty pointed gable window in the solar opened to the west. This has been of two lights, with a traceried head, but mullions and tracery are gone, and the window is walled up. The entrance

to this room is now by a small door from the chapel, with a depressed pointed arch and a shouldered rear arch. The former entrance was from the staircase tower at the S.E. corner; the ruinous aperture is now roughly walled off.

Both the chamber and the solar have had fireplaces in the centre of the north side, and the destroyed chimney seems to have projected externally. Of the lower fireplace only faint traces remain, just sufficient to show that it resembled the upper one. The semi-octagonal projecting jambs of the latter are still partly distinguishable,

and on the wall can be traced the outline of a massive moulded projecting hood, now hacked off. A coach-house door has been cut through the lower, and a window through the upper fireplace,