Ixii. WEST ptfkBECK MEETING. 



original order, and presumably it was shifted a little ; why 

 otherwise was it taken down ? So much is clear from the stone- 

 work. Judging from the size of the newel, the steps may have 

 been recut, in which case they may be the original ijth century 

 steps, moved perhaps to give access to rooms over the hall, 

 they could not have occupied their present position at the 

 time the house was built; and we have then an original i3th 

 century chamber and wardrobe almost complete, with its original 

 staircase, but little altered ; and, sitting down in the lower room, 

 we can sympathise with King Henry III., whose chamber at 

 Rochester was on the ground floor and his chapel above it, with 

 a similar staircase to connect them, when he gave the order to 

 make a staircase to the chapel outside the building, so that 

 strangers and others might go to the chapel without passing 

 through his chamber. 



If the winders have not been recut, the whole is Tudor, though 

 it may have replaced an earlier circular stair, or the chamber may 

 have had a staircase outside with a door in the east wall, where 

 there is now a recess. Both kinds of staircase were in common 

 use in the i3th century, and both, as we have just seen, were in 

 use at the same time in the King's chamber at Rochester. 

 Shortly after the completion of the chamber B, the chamber A 

 was added, with a cellar underneath. The upper floor of this 

 building is now considerably above the original level of the floor, 

 which was once so much lower that there would scarcely be 

 height enough for a living room beneath it. To build a chamber 

 above with a cellar under it was a very common practice in the 

 1 3th century, so much so that a i3th century house has been 

 humorously described as a cellar and a solar. Here is one out 

 of many instances that might be given of the cellar and solar 

 arrangement. In the year 41 Henry III., the Sheriff of South- 

 ampton was commanded to lengthen the house of the King's 

 chaplains at Winchester 24 feet, so that a cellar and a solar might 

 be made of that length. Here, however, the cellar was a wains- 

 coted room for the use of the chaplains, but very frequently it was 

 a cellar for storing wine, wood, charcoal, or other commodities. 



