A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



considerably altered and refaced in the time of 

 George II, while the north side is taken up by 

 Henry's Great Hall, which, except for much ex- 

 ternal repair and the loss of its lantern and minor 

 fittings, remains in good preservation. Over the 

 entrance gateway at the north-west is the dial of 

 the clock from which the court takes its modern 

 name, a fine piece of 1 6th-century work, lately 

 repainted and repaired. The Great Hall stands over 

 a range of cellars, and having its floor at a consider- 

 able height above the level of the court, is ap- 

 proached by a flight of stone steps from the gate- 

 hall of the Clock Tower, leading to a fine door at 

 the south end of the screens. A similar flight of 

 steps on the north leads to the corresponding door, 

 and served as the entry from the kitchens and 

 butteries, &c., the disposition of the plan not allow- 

 ing for these offices in the normal places at the 

 lower end of the hall. There was, however, a 

 pantry in this position, and the buttery was in the 

 cellars under the west end of the hall. The hall 

 measures 106 ft. by 40 ft., and is 45 ft. high to 

 the plate and 92 ft. to the top of the gable. It is 

 in seven bays, of which the eastern bay was occu- 

 pied by the dais, the platform of which still re- 

 mains, and is lighted by a splendid bay window on 

 the south, rising to the full height of the wall, with 

 a rich fan-vaulted stone ceiling and six tiers of 

 lights with tracery above in the head of the win- 

 dow. The other bays of the hall have large four- 

 light windows, and in the western bay are the 

 screens with a gallery over them ; in both gable 

 ends of the hall are eight-light traceried windows, 

 with smaller windows in the gable above. All 

 these are filled with modern stained glass, nothing 

 of the old glass now remaining. The screen 

 is a very fine piece of woodwork, the treatment 

 of its two openings, with large round pillars on 

 either side having moulded capitals and bases, being 

 unusual. The details of the work are Gothic, and 

 the initials of Henry and Anne Boleyn sufficiently 

 mark its date ; it is to be noted that its carver was 

 the same Richard Ridge of London who made the 

 Italianate pendants in the roof above. The origi- 

 nal front of the gallery over the screen was long 

 since removed, but its place is now supplied by a 

 modern front. The roof of the hall is well known 

 as one of the richest and most splendid of English 

 roofs ; its construction and outlines are Gothic, but 

 much of its ornament is Italian in style, though 

 made by English craftsmen. It has hammer-beam 

 trusses with arched braces springing from the 

 hammer beams to strengthen the collars, while the 

 spandrels above and below the collars, and below 

 the hammer beams, are filled with tracery. The 

 purlins are similarly strengthened by arched braces 

 with pendants, and the whole surface of the roof 

 is coved and panelled, and is everywhere enriched 

 with carving, colour, and gilding. The most 

 remarkable features are the sixteen great pen- 

 dants, nearly 5 ft. long, below the hammer 

 beams, carved by Richard Ridge in 1534-5,31 a 

 cost of 3/. \d. each. The building accounts of 

 this roof are well worth study as a glossary of 

 mediaeval carpenter's terms. Externally the roof 

 is leaded, and is of much flatter pitch in the upper 



part than the lower ; its appearance is much injured 

 by the removal in the l8th century of the magni- 

 ficent louvre or fumerel, a complete description of 

 which can be obtained from the building accounts. 

 Nothing equal to it is left to us. 



To the east of the hall is the ' King's Great 

 Watching Chamber,' which, with the vaulted 

 cellar below it, was being built in 1534-5. It is 

 lighted by a range of windows set high in the wall 

 and a fine semicircular bay window on the south- 

 east, and has a contemporary panelled ceiling 

 with shields modelled in papier mJch6 at the inter- 

 sections of the moulded ribs. 



Jane Seymour's badge occurs twice on the 

 ceiling, perhaps replacing that of Anne Boleyn. 



At the north-west corner of the Watching 

 Chamber is a smaller room known as the Horn 

 Room ; and in this, the Watching Chamber, and the 

 hall are preserved the finest of the tapestries for 

 which Wolsey's palace was famous. For a descrip- 

 tion of them see Mr. Law's History of Hampton 

 Court. 



On the east side of the Clock Court ran a series 

 of five rooms opening from the Watching Chamber, 

 the King's Presence Chamber and his private rooms, 

 now so altered as to preserve little evidence of 

 their former arrangement. For the disposition of 

 the whole of Henry VIIPs buildings round the 

 Cloister Green Court, whose site is now occupied 

 by the Fountain Court of William III, and the 

 queen's lodgings on the east front of the palace, 

 built for Anne Boleyn, but never occupied by her, 

 the evidence of old drawings and an outline plan 

 now at All Souls College, Oxford, and especially 

 the many references to them in the building 

 accounts, give very valuable materials which still 

 await a thorough working-out. The great galleries 

 of which mention is often made were evidently 

 splendid examples of this peculiarly English 

 feature, and of earlier date than any which have 

 come down to our times ; indeed, those which are 

 recorded to have existed in Wolsey's palace, built 

 about 1515-16, are the earliest of which any 

 notice has survived in the kingdom. 



To the east of the Watching Chamber is a small 

 court known as the Round Kitchen Court, from a 

 round building which, in its present condition, 

 appears to date from the 1 8th century ; drawings 

 snowing a scheme by Kent, c. 1730, for fitting it 

 up as a latrine, are extant. On the north and 

 east the court has a cloister, with a gallery over it, 

 leading to the chapel, which is on the east side, 

 and consists of a vestibule flanked by octagonal 

 turrets, with the royal pew in a gallery above, 

 and the chapel proper, an aisleless building of 

 four bays with an organ chamber on the south- 

 east. The walls are of Wolsey's date, but the 

 organ chamber is an addition by Henry VIII ; and 

 the vaulted wooden roof is also of his time. The 

 rest of the 16th-century fittings, except for a 

 beautiful ceiling over the stairs to the royal pew, 

 have been removed, after much damage in Crom- 

 well's days, and the present fittings date from the 

 time of Anne and later. The panelling of the 

 vestibule and staircase, and the Corinthian altar- 

 piece, are particularly good ; but here, as in the 



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