20 Life and Times of " The Druid." 



to some of the scenes which may have been 

 enacted in the hall at Yanwath during the 

 fourteenth century. At the far end was the 

 dais, or raised platform of two steps, with its 

 high table for the lord and lady and their 

 principal guests. Down the hall in two 

 rows were ranged the table-boards on trestles, 

 and the benches for retainers of inferior 

 degree. No carpet covered the floor, but it 

 was strewn with sweet rushes, lavender, and 

 fragrant plants. The lower part of the walls 

 was roughly cased with wooden boards, 

 whilst the upper part was covered with 

 crimson cloth or canvas. From the stag 

 antlers on the walls hung the furniture of 

 war — shields and targets, lances and pennons, 

 broadsword and battle axe, sheaves of arrows, 

 and the long-bow and cross-bow, together 

 with the trophies of the chase. Here, also, 

 hung the beautiful burnished armour, which 

 at this period had attained its zenith of per- 

 fection, and was ready to be donned hastily 

 at night on the alarm note of the warder's 

 bugle on the tower signalling the firing of 

 the beacon at Penrith. Under the benches 

 dozed the quick-scented bloodhounds, kept 



