SINAI PARK 89 
And here we have the dyke still nearly perfect. 
Alexander Nequam, said to have been born at S. Alban’s 1157, 
Master of the Grammar School 1188-1195, 1213 Abbot of Cirencester, 
and died 1217, in describing the various parts of a house enumerates 
the hall, the private bed chamber, the kitchen, the larder, the 
servery, and the cellar. The Hall—this apartment, and not 
infrequently the whole building, was termed Aula. Hence the 
origin of the modern word Hall, as applied to a country residence. 
It was generally situated on the ground floor, but sometimes over a 
lower storey it presented an elevation equal or superior to that of the 
buildings annexed to it, and was the only large apartment in the 
entire edifice; and was in its original design intended to accom- 
modate 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. 
The Hall would he the whole height of the building. The upper 
end of ihe Hall was raised a step to form a dais for the high table; 
the tables of the retainers ran down the sides. To check the draughts 
from the doors, short screens were projected from each side wall, and 
a third Screen was placed in the centre. The passage came to be 
called the Screens; there was also a gallery over the top of the 
Screens. The Private Bed Chamber was annexed to the hall, and 
was situated on the second floor, and was called from an early period 
the Solar. The chamber beneath, on the level with the hall, was 
called the cellar. 
Adjoining the Solar seems to have been the Chapel, and to have 
extended the remaining length of this wing it may have been of two 
storeys in height, the lower part for the retainers, the upper for the 
Monks, but there is nothing left to teli from. The roof, where exposed, 
certainly points to this part having been used for the Chapel 
At the opposite end of the hall usually comes the buttery and 
pantry, and behind these the kitchen, but here we seem to depart 
from the usual plan, and to bave had the kitchen opening out from 
the screens, and the larders, pantries, etc., running out and forming 
another wing. A stair also seems to have opened out of the Screens 
and led to the chambers above. 
To show you that Sinai follows closely upon the plan of a 
medizval house, I show the plan of Horham Hall, Essex, which is a 
typical medizval plan, 
