186 



The Bishop's Palace at Salisbury. 



remained a ruin until Bishop Seth Ward took the restoration in 

 hand, just two hundred years after Bishop Beauchamp had com- 

 pleted his great works. 



The central portion of the palace as we now find it was entirely 

 re-modelled, probably almost entirely re-built, by this Bishop, and, 

 as has been already mentioned, he also restored and re-arranged the 

 remains of Bishop Beauchamp's hall ; be reduced its width from 

 north to south by placing a great staircase against the south wall, 

 and he constructed three large bedrooms in the upper part of the 

 building, access to which was obtained by the staircase here men- 

 tioned ; at the foot of these stairs he placed a wooden colonnade right 

 across the hall from east to west to support the front of the first 

 landing, which must have been open to the hall throughout its 

 entire length, with no doubt a balustrade and hand-rail in front of 

 it, similar to the corresponding features of the staircase itself. Al- 

 together this arrangement must have had a very pleasing effect in 

 the restored hall, but it was done away with at the end of last 

 century by Bishop Barrington in order to obtain an extra set of 

 bedrooms between those formed by Bishop Seth Ward and the hall. 

 It was by this last alteration that the hall was reduced to its present 

 unsatisfactory condition, and Bishop Barrington, besides reducing the 

 height of the apartment to about 9ft., also filled in between the 

 columns of Bishop Ward's colonnade with a solid partition, whereby 

 the whole of the remaining architectural features of the hall were 

 finally swept away. The columns still remain, but they appear 

 only as shallow pilasters. 



Bishop Ward's staircase is a good one ; it starts from the ground 

 and from the first landing with two flights of steps, one to the right 

 and the other to the left ; these meeting on the half landings be- 

 tween the floors are carried up in each case in one single broad flight 

 in the centre ; it is entirely composed of oak. A flight of stone 

 steps, still extant, gives access to the garden from a doorway on the 

 first half landing above the ground floor, but it is doubtful whether 

 this is original. 



Probably the front staircase in the centre of the palace was also 

 executed by this bishop ; it is also of oak, and the details are very 



