12 president's addbess. 



fireplace. The steps to the second story are solid blocks of wood, 

 those beneath being of stone. The ceiling o£ the ground floor 

 is of oaken joists, moulded, upon which are laid narrow oak 

 planks, having their under sides smoothed, and a red ornament 

 on them, so as not to require any plaster. The south side was 

 formed by the chapel, which is of excellent ashlar work; at the 

 east end is the great window, and the chapel has this peculiaritj^, 

 that there is an upper floor of about two-thirds of its length 

 from the west still remaining, with the fireplace at the proper 

 level. This has clearly been a part of the original plan, and a 

 good example of the domestic chapel ; and it communicated with 

 the dwelling rooms. There is a similar instance of this in the 

 chapel within the keep of Warkworth Castle. The east and 

 north sides are in ruins; they doubtless contained the inferior 

 dwelling rooms, stables, etc." Mr. F. E. Wilson is of opinion 

 that the buildings are not all of the same date. He says, " That 

 part of the building called in the foregoing account ' the principal 

 dwelling house,' instead of being part of the fourteenth century 

 edifice, as conjectured, is clearly indicated by the character of 

 the masonry to be of post-Reformation work. It is built in 

 the semi -fortified, semi-domestic style that prevailed in those 

 fierce times when every man's house was his castle as well as 

 his home. I incline to fix the precise date as immediately suc- 

 ceeding the Reformation." With regard to the chapel floor, he 

 says, "When the dwelling house was building advantage was 

 taken of the fact that the chapel was in good preservation, and 

 in disuse to secure additional chamber accommodation. The floor 

 described by Mr. Parker as only extending two-thirds the length 

 of the chapel was inserted, and the fireplaces and doors made 

 precisely similar in character to those of the new house ; for a 

 door leading to other apartments in an adjacent building, now in 

 ruins, is situated on the very angle which is erroneously supposed 

 not to have been floored." Mr. Wilson sums up the story of 

 Chibburn, as told by its stones, as follows. "The hospital, 

 situated a seven mile stage from Warkworth, on the road between 

 Holy Island and Durham — a welcome sight, no doubt, to many 

 a weary pilgrim — was in decay when the dwelling house, now 



