KING JOHNS HOUSE AT TOLLARD ROYAL. 1 3 



There is corroborative testimony to the date in the archi- 

 tecture of the building. The imposts which support the pointed 

 heads of the windows show very early thirteenth century work ; 

 indeed, they might be almost Transition Norman. And this 

 house is exactly such a house as the King would have inhabited 

 at that date. 



It has been supposed that this house was a castellated building, 

 and that the foundations of a tower found at the south corner is 

 evidence of its having been so. But King's houses were not in 

 those days built with all the rooms, kitchens, and hall under one 

 roof like a modern mansion, except in confined situations, or 

 when it was necessary for defensive purposes, as in castles. 

 Here, as elsewhere, there was a group of detached buildings, 

 and in this one in which we are met you have the principal 

 chamber of the group, which has every appearance of having 

 been the King's chamber ; and it is still almost perfect — so much 

 so that if the King could visit it again he might give an order for 

 its renovation in the form so frequently met with in the Liberate 

 Rolls, and it could be carried out and restored to its pristine 

 condition within two or three months. 



This chamber, which is thirty-eight feet long by sixteen broad 

 internally, has survived all other buildings of the group, probably 

 on account of its very substantial construction, for it would be 

 no trifling work to take down a house like this, with its walls 

 four feet thick. And the fact that it /> so substantially built, 

 together with its form and character, are reasons for believing 

 it to have been the King's chamber. The actual chamber would 

 be the solar above. This room beneath is probably the chamber 

 of the King's knights, which frequently occupied this position. 

 They were not a studious class of men who required a good 

 light for their literary labours, so that the fact that this room was 

 only lighted by slits, as you see by the one on the S.E. side (C), 

 did not affect them much. They were generally in attendance 

 on the King, or hunting, or engaged in outdoor sports, or in the 

 hall. Windows on the ground floor were generally narrow slits, 

 too narrow for a man to force his way through, and there was no 



