CITY OF DURHAM 



flanking buttresses on either side,*' and later, in 

 1664, he built the northernmost buttress, and the 

 angle buttress at the south-east angle. These 

 buttresses add immensely to the impressiveness 

 of the exterior. They form a three-quarter 

 octagon on plan, of bold projection, with two 

 splayed diminishing courses in their height, 

 finished at the top above the parapet of the hall 

 by cornices and octagonal ogee cupolas with 

 poppy heads and balls. 



The porch at the main entrance to the hall is 

 of an impressive and bold design, but, being built 

 of very soft stone from the Broken Walls Quarry, 

 has become much decayed. It is raised some 

 3 ft. above the courtyard on the top of an 

 octagonal flight of steps. The doorway has a 

 semicircular arch with richly moulded keystone, 

 foliated spandrels and square jambs having 

 moulded capitals, and is flanked by pairs of 

 detached Ionic columns standing on pedestals. 

 The columns, which are much decayed, support a 

 moulded architrave, plain frieze and bold cornice, 

 wdth segmental pediment. On this stands, on a 

 small pedestal with moulded surbase, a winged 

 figure in bishop's robes wearing a coronet and 

 supporting in front a shield bearing the arms of 

 the Bishopric impaled with those of Bishop 

 Cosin. On either side of the pediment are two 

 other pedestals, the southernmost bearing a 

 bishop's mitre, and the northern one an earl's 

 helmet, surmounted by the crest of a bird stand- 

 ing on a wreath. 



Inside the porch, on the south side, is a door- 

 way giving access to the lobby of the ' Hall 

 Stairs.' It is a comparatively modern insertion 

 and is not shown on a plan of the castle dating 

 about 1775 (p. 67). 



Above the porch on the main wall is a group of 

 four coats of arms, arranged in a square of four 

 separate panels, each surrounded by a simple 

 mould. They bear the arms of Bishops Cosin, 

 Hatfield, Archdeacon Westle and Dr. Robert 

 Grey. The buttresses immediately adjoining 

 the porch are of stone from the Broken Walls 

 Quarr)', and the extreme north and south 

 buttresses are apparently the same, but a change 

 was made after starting the Great Stair. 



Between the porch and the south buttress, 

 a two-storied projecting window has been in- 

 serted to the rooms formed by Bishop Fox at 

 the south end of the hall. It is corbelled out 

 from the first floor and bears the arms of Bishops 

 Van Mildert and V'iUiers in sunk and grouped 

 panels. 



The flagstone paving of the hall is also Cosin's 

 work and has been little affected by passing feet 

 and time. It was laid down in 1663 and was to 

 consist of ' faire courses of diamond flags con- 



*i The contract for this is dated I April 1663. 

 Bishop Cosin's Corresp. (Surt. Soc), ii, 360. 



raining full three yeards in the whole breadth.' 

 In the centre between the courses mentioned is a 

 square panel with a ' fret ' borne by Cosin on his 

 coat of arms, worked out in flagstones.*^ The 

 ' halfe pace ' mentioned in the contract for the 

 work *^ is not the present step in the hall floor — 

 most of the present wood flooring would be 

 contained in the audience chamber — but a space 

 of II ft. or 12 ft. in width between the termina- 

 tion of Cosin's flag flooring and the line of the 

 audience chamber cross wall. This space appears 

 to have been occupied by a wooden dais. The 

 present panelling, designed by the late Mr. C. 

 Hodgson Fowler, was inserted by the University 

 about 1887, when the gallery was erected on the 

 site of the passage formed by the old wainscot 

 screen. Recent repairs brought to light a series 

 of holes in the east wall towards the south end; 

 they are regular in position and appear to have 

 been occupied by the ends of wooden beams. 

 Their position suggests that at some time this 

 end of the hall was occupied by a structure four 

 stories in height. 



In the basement at the south-west angle 

 there remains a portion of a stair hand rail, 

 sunk and worked out of the face of the wall, 

 probably of the 15th century date. 



Pudsey' s manner of facing his walls with square- 

 shaped stones appears to have been followed by 

 Bek, who intermingled them with larger stones, 

 and Cosin's facing gives a not dissimilar impres- 

 sion; he made frequent use of a square stone but 

 of larger size and in patches amid courses of 

 larger stones ; his jointing was regular in size. 

 Hatfield consistently made use of a larger stone 

 in courses of irregular depth; his jointing is 

 also irregular in size. Bek's jointing is also 

 uneven, and the perpendicular joints are fre- 

 quently wide. Fox's inside ashlar work, how- 

 ever, is very finely dressed, and his jointing close. 

 Compared with his additions to the exterior of 

 the Great HaU, Bishop Cosin's design for the 

 outside of the Great Staircase is flat and unin- 

 teresting. The building presents a square, with 

 the salient angle splayed off, fitted into the angle 

 between Bishop Pudsey's and Bishop Hatfield's 

 halls. On the wall of the splayed angle are 

 two coats of the arms of Bishop Cosin, in 

 plain panels with simple moulded frames. The 

 lower shield impales the see, supported by two 

 cherubs' heads with wings crossed and drooping, 

 supporting two swags attached to the shield, 

 surmounted by a lion's head and scroll, above 

 which rests a coronet and mitre. The upper 

 shield is simple, the see without lions, impaled 

 by Cosin and surmounted by a coronet and 

 mitre. 



" The contract for this is dated i April 1663. 

 Bishop Cosin's Corresp. (Surt. Soc.), ii, 364. 



" Ibid. 



75 



