BRADSIIAW HALL AND THE BRADSHAWES. 9 



architect, added much to the stability of the building; but, 

 speaking as one of his modern successors, this, his work, was 

 too sound to require. Further, on the same side, is another 

 archway leading to the kitchen, and at the top of the hall was the 

 original great fireplace and a door leading into the withdrawing 

 room. There seem to be some indications of a door in a 

 similar position at the opposite end of the same wall, but whether 

 it was a second door into the withdrawing room,''' designed, 

 perhaps, for the jjurpose of an even effect in the interior detail 

 of the hall, or whether it was merely a cupboard in the thick- 

 ness of the wall, is not now apparent.! Above it, certainly, 

 although now plastered over, is a large cupboard, which opened 

 into the withdrawing room. Of this we are told, in Secret 

 Chambers and Hiding Places, that there is, or was, a secret 

 chamber, high up in the wall, large enough to hold three persons. 

 Probably the cujjboard would hold three persons, but, alas for 

 the romance, much of the space which it now occupies was 

 formed by the modern alterations to divide the Hall into 

 two farmhouses, and comprises the space over the low internal 

 porch or passage to the door, then ojiened for access to the 

 garden. A " priest hole " in the Puritanic house of Bradshaw 

 would indeed have been an anomaly. The withdrawing room is 

 lighted by similar windows, but that to the east has been built 

 up. Identical beams cross its ceiling, but in a different 

 direction to those of the hall, showing that it never formed 

 part of the same room, as was once thought; moreover, its 

 chimney-stack separates the two. 



Turning to the left into the passage, ornamented with a 

 moulded cornice, which leads to the kitchens, we notice the 

 fine four-light window at the end, cruelly mutilated to form the 

 mcjdern main entrance. On the right are the doorAvays to the 

 kitchen and larder, to the former of which there is no door 

 nor any trace of there ever having been anything of the kind. 



* The splay of the jamb supports this alternative. See next paragraph. 



t It must be remembered that all these observations were made within 

 plastered and papered walls which, therefore, cannot be disturbed for 

 theoretical enquiry. 



