The Bishop's Palace at Salisbury. 



Bishop Poore's design from what they now appear, for the detached 

 columns supporting 1 the inner arches in the centre have been inserted 

 to give greater lightness to the general effect of the room ; formerly 

 each light of these western windows stood in a separate embrasure, 

 the outer splays of the inner openings having been returned towards 

 each other in the centre, thus forming a solid block of masonry 

 between the two lights. The size and form of the lights themselves 

 must be very nearly the same as in Bishop Poore's design, and 

 enough of the inner arches remained when the restoration was taken 

 in hand to make it possible to reproduce them exactly. 



The single-light window in the north wall is probably entirely a 

 modem innovation ; it is true an embrasure occurred here, but it 

 bore no signs of ancient work, and if it be the case that a building 

 formerly projected from the north wall containing the larder on the 

 ground-floor and the sewery above it is manifestly unlikely that any 

 window would have occurred at the north end of the eastern aisle 

 of the undercroft. 



The fireplace may also present another entirely new feature in the 

 room ; if one did formerly exist it must have occurred where the 

 new one has been placed, but this portion of the wall has been so 

 much cut about by various alterations that no traces of an ancient 

 fireplace could have come down to us even if one had formed part of 

 the original design. 



"With regard to the date of the wall which now divides the under- 

 croft into two parts, leaving two bays to the north and one to the 

 south, it is difficult to speak with certainty, but there can be no 

 question that it is an ancient erection, because an old doorway was 

 found in this wall exactly at the spot where the new one now stands ; 

 indeed the stop- chamfer at the bottom of the western jamb is 

 original, and it moreover bears somewhat the appearance of belonging 

 to thirteenth century work — that such walls were built across vaulted 

 apartments in early days in exactly this manner there can be no 

 doubt — ; it may perhaps be said therefore that the evidence in 

 favour of this wall having formed part of Bishop Poore's work is 

 rather stronger than the evidence against it. 



The walls of the existing drawing-room no doubt contain much 



