The New Inn Hotel at Gloucester 
from 1400 to 1457. The builder was a monk 
named John Twyning. It was constructed of 
ponderous chestnut beams,the spaces between 
being filled with brick Hogging and plaster, 
and an underground passage was made from 
it to the abbey. Recently Mr. Berry, the 
proprietor, has carried out some important 
work in the interior of the building, which 
now nearly approaches its early condition. 
H e has had all the lath and plaster scraped 
oft' the walls, and so exposed to view scores 
of the magnificent oak and chestnut beams, 
all roughly hewn and of tremendous thick¬ 
ness. Paint and varnish have been removed 
from doors and staircases so that they appear 
in their original state. 
A charming feature is the series of bal¬ 
conies which surround the principal court¬ 
yard, a cobbled quadrangle where surged 
the tumultuous throngs of a far-distant age. 
The guests often made way for companies 
of strolling players and minstrels, who here 
gave their bouts of fencing, their songs and 
interludes, watched by spectators crowding 
these very galleries that still exist. Many 
archaeologists assert that the arrangement of 
modern theatres was copied from these early 
innyards. The balconies at the New Inn 
have been carefully preserved and restored, 
their inner walls having been colored red and 
the outer cream. Along their length all the 
bedrooms open, precisely as in the Spanish 
patio, while the half storey of the peaked 
roof above is broken into dormers hooded 
with pretty tiling, and their faces trimmed 
like the border of an old woman’s cap, with 
florid woodwork. The most picturesque of 
old stairs and landings lead from one storey 
to another. Huge iron ornaments, many 
carved with sacred emblems symbolic of the 
building’s original purposes of pilgrimage, 
are found promiscuously attached to the 
THE COURTYARD OF THE NEW INN HOTEL 
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