344 THE OLD MANOR HOUSE 



country, to guide or guard those who, not without 

 some trepidation, were following behind. The 

 panes are of horn, a significant indication of their 

 antiquity, and there are arrangements for three 

 lights in each. Few such relics of the insecurity 

 of the coach roads in past times, it is believed, 

 survive. 



The Armada Table is an immense oval table of 

 Spanish chestnut, curiously inlaid with tulip and 

 other precious woods, and decorated with a strange 

 central device, probably the crest of some Spanish 

 grandee or admiral. It stands on an old sea-chest, 

 and is said to have been taken from one of the 

 Spanish galleons wrecked on the coast near 

 Wey mouth. "Afflavit Deus et dissipantur" 



The "powdering-room," the narrow turret stairs 

 of stone, the numerous nooks and corners, the 

 blocked-up or never-opened doors or doorways, 

 the massive walls, some of them once external, but 

 now enclosed by subsequent additions to the 

 building, the cupboards everywhere, the steps in 

 the most unexpected and break-neck places in 

 rooms and passages, the Elizabethan chimney 

 pieces of old oak, with figures carved on them, 

 some strangely elongated, and others unmercifully 

 compressed, so as to fill up every inch of room to 



