168 The Bishop’s Palace at Salisbury. 
“Domestic Architecture in England from the Conquest to the end 
of the Thirteenth Century” (Parkers, Oxford, 1851, p. 2 foll.) :— 
“ Ordinary manor houses, and even domestic edifices of greater pretensions, 
as the Royal palaces, were generally built during the twelfth century [and 
this, he tells us, was true also of the thirteenth—JZd. p. 59, &e.] on one 
uniform plan, comprising a hall with a chamber or chambers adjacent. The 
hall was generally situated on the ground floor, but sometimes over a lower 
story which was half in the ground ; it presented an elevation equal or superior 
to that of the buildings annexed to it; it was the only large apartment in 
the entire edifice, and was adapted in its original design, to accommodate the 
owner and his numerous followers and servants; they not only took their 
meals in the hall, but also slept in it on the floor, a custom the prevalence 
of which is shown by numerous passages in early authors, particularly in the 
works of the romance writers.” 
He then goes on to quote Alexander Necham or Nequam’s des- 
cription of the various parts of a house as containing the hall, the 
private or bedchamber, the kitchen, the larder, the sewery (answering 
nearly to our pantry), and the cellar. “The private, or bedroom, 
annexed to the hall—there being frequently only one (p. 5)—was 
situated on the second story, and was called from an early period 
the “solar” or “ sollere.” This room was used as a reception room 
by the master of the house, as well as abedroom. Mr. Turner tells 
us that, as late as 1287 (p. 5, note i.) King “ Edward the First and 
Queen Eleanor were sitting on their bed-side, attended by the ladies 
of the Court, when they narrowly escaped death by lightning.” If 
this were the case in a royal palace, a bishop might well be content 
with one chamber for bedroom and sitting-room in the beginning 
of the thirteenth century. Under the “ camera,” or “ solar,” was the 
cellar. The kitchen was a separate, sometimes a detached building, 
and sometimes open to the air. The larder or buttery and sewery 
were perhaps usually in the thirteenth century appended to the end 
of the hall where it was entered, as in our college halls now. There 
was, we know from an old plan of the house at least a hundred years 
old, a pantry on the north side of the undercroft or vaulted hall 
which I mentioned as being recently restored. This may have been 
on the site of the old pantry and similar offices, such as the sewery, 
in which the linen and table furniture were kept. The kitchen was 
