A NORTH-COUNTRY HALL 67 



the chronology from the escutcheons embossed and 

 painted on the plaster cornice dividing panelled wall 

 from fretted ceiling, or inserted in the stained glass 

 of the lattices. 



Except a few bedrooms over the kitchen and 

 offices, and a well-conceived tower over the garden 

 front, there has been no interference with the Eliza- 

 bethan work. Elizabethan, that is, with traces of 

 northern influence ; for the chimney stacks, built of 

 small flakes of limestone, climb the skies in the 

 cylindrical form peculiar to the district. The in- 

 terior is wonderfully rich in old oak. The rooms 

 are panelled throughout; there is abundance of 

 carving, exquisitely delicate and rich, although some 

 of the walls, notably those of the dining-room at the 

 west end of the hall, were spread with stamped and 

 highly coloured Spanish leather by Sir James Bel- 

 lingham in the seventeenth century. This profusion 

 of decoration had its rise in rivalry with the neigh- 

 bouring squire of Sisergh, 1 and contributed to the 

 insolvency which forced Alan Bellingham to part 

 with his beautiful home in 1690. 



In that year the property passed into the hands 



1 The tapestry lining of one of the rooms at Sisergh was bought 

 in 1891 for South Kensington Museum, and when it was taken 

 down, was found to conceal a beautiful oak panelling. 



