184 



The Bishop's Palace at Salisbury* 



the possibility of their having been built earlier than about 1425. 



The work which belongs unquestionably to Bishop Beauchamp 

 consists of the tower above mentioned and the great hall attached. 

 The tower remains almost intact, with its noble doorway in the 

 ground storey and its stair turret ending in a graceful pinnacle, 

 which rises some 20ft. above the battlemented parapet. 



The great hall has undergone such important alterations from 

 time to time that it is now extremely difficult to decide what its 

 original appearance may have been ; however, from the remains of 

 an archway in the south wall of this block immediately opposite the 

 great doorway under the tower, which has been already alluded to, 

 it would seem that a passage of some width formerly existed along 

 the eastern side of the hall, and probably separated from it by means 

 of a wooden screen, which would prove that the axis of the apartment 

 was originally east and west but if the present west wall of the 

 hall is in its original position the area of the room, after this passage 

 had been taken off, would have been reduced to very nearly a perfect 

 square, which is by no means a usual form for halls of this description. 

 It seems, therefore, most probable that the hall may originally have 

 been considerably longer from east to west than now appears. It may 

 in fact, have extended some 20ft. or even 25ft further to the west, 

 and the space then left between this supposed end of the room and 

 the open area in the centre of the palace would have formed on the 

 ground-floor the back or tradesman's entrance, while above would 

 have occurred bedrooms on two floors. This hypothesis would 

 account very satisfactorily for one peculiar feature in connection 

 with the east wall of the central area, for at present it is merely a 

 screen wall for nearly half its height, and it is difficult to understand 

 why it should ever have been carried up so high unless at one time 

 it had some special use. 



The whole area of the hall, including the passage, was doubtless, 

 under one roof, and if we may assume, as seems likely, that the 



Note. — In the accompanying plan of the palace as at present existing 

 some portions of the walls .shown in black as forming part of Bishop Poore's 

 work are of later date, though standing on the site of the ancient walls. 



