Report of Meetings for 1880, by James Hardy. 281 



out ; a straight umbrageous walk beyond it, wbich. lie is said to 

 have planted, and which bears his name, the wooded ravines 

 which skirt the Castle walls, and the park beyond, diversified by 

 masses of woodland and scattered groups of venerable trees."* 



Before the great fire, the Castle was roofed with grey flags, 

 and they were fastened down with sheep-shanks or "trotter- 

 bones" — the metacarpal bones of sheep. "The bones were 

 driven into the flag till flush with the upper surface, and sus- 

 pended on the rafter by the part projecting below."t 



" The lower stages of this Tower are occupied by dungeons. 

 Access to them was provided from the Lord's apartments above. 

 It is very possible that in Lord William's time the room or rooms 

 immediately under the library and oratory may have been fitted 

 up as a place of concealment for a priest. "J 



We were then taken to the noble hall, which belongs to the 

 renovated part of the building. The five pieces of tapestry in 

 the hall came from Castle Howard. " Along the whole length 

 of the hall," says Mr Sidney Gibson, " on each side, heraldic 

 shields are displayed on the corbels supporting the ribs of the 

 roof. Beginning at the upper (the south) end, there are on the 

 eastern side the shields of Howard, Mowbray, Braose, Segrave, 

 De Brotherton, Fitzalan, Warren, Tilney, Audley, Uvedale, 

 Cavendish ; on the western side, Dacre, De Multon, De Morville, 

 Vaux, Engaine, Estravers, Greystoke, Grimthorp, Bolebec, De 

 Merlay, Boteler — a 



' Long array of mighty shadows.' 

 The hall contains many family portraits, and several pieces of 

 armour. "§ What is called Belted Will's armour is too short and 

 small for persons of the bulk of the present day. 



A very old jasmine spreads over the doorway of the great hall, 

 which has awakened the poetical susceptibilities of three succes- 

 sive earls of Carlisle. The Castle-court is said to be the scene of 

 Frith's painting, " Coming of Age in the Olden Time." On the 

 walls of the court, Polypodium vulgare, Parietaria diffusa, and 

 Linaria Cymbala/ria were growing. 



* Introduction to Lord William Howard's Household Books, pp. Ixx, Ixxi, 

 and Ixvii. 



t On Trotter Koofing. By Professor Duns, D.D. Proceedings of the 

 Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1880, pp. 180, 181. 



X Introduction to Lord William Howard's Household Books, p. Lxxi, 

 § Gibson's Northumbrian Castles, &c., iii., pp. 40, 41. 



