These fine staircases were clearly made for show as well as use, because it not infrequently happens that having reached the first floor, which was their chief object, they sweep upwards with equal grandeur to the next, where there are only insignificant attics. The upper staircase, however, although it leads to no important room, would be in full view of those who came to the first floor; and it was on this floor that some rooms were placed which were the resort of all who were staying in the house--namely, the Great Chamber and the Long Gallery. The great chamber was, among princes and nobles, the presence chamber, where they received guests. It was the "Great Chamber of Estate." In smaller houses it answered much the same end as the drawing-room of the present day. Even so inconsiderable a person as Slender, who was a small squire, had a great chamber in his house, which he took care to mention casually in the course of his controversy with Falstaff as to the picking of his pocket. [Illustration: PLATE LXXIV. STAIRCASE AT AUDLEY END, ESSEX.] THE LONG GALLERY. The Long Gallery is a feature peculiarly characteristic of the times of Elizabeth and James. Mention has already been made of this apartment, and of the fact that not a few houses were specially planned so as to obtain a gallery of great length. Some of them were extravagant in this respect, the length being as much as eight and ten times the width. At Buckhurst House the gallery was 254 feet long by 16 feet wide, at Ampthill 245 feet by 22 feet, but it is not quite certain that these were not divided into two lengths each. John Thorpe shows the gallery at Slaugham Place to be 200 feet by 27 feet, Audley End probably 190 feet by 27 feet, Holdenby 140 feet by 22 feet, Aston Hall 140 feet by 18 feet, Copthall 136 feet by 22 feet, Burghley 128 feet by 18 feet, and Wollaton 100 feet by 18 feet. Others, to which there are no names, are 200 feet by 20 feet, 150 feet by 25 feet, and 150 feet by 17 feet, besides many of 80 feet in length by widths varying from 10 feet to 21 feet. The purpose of such a long apartment has never been fully explained: it may have been for exercise; it may have had its origin from reasons of display or in imitation of royal palaces, where its use as an ante-room to the royal closet is easily understood; or it may have been merely a development in planning dictated by fashion, each person vying with his neighbour to obtain a long room. But, however this may be, no Elizabethan or Jacobean house of any size was without its long gallery, which was ornamented in the same way as the great chamber, the parlours, and the hall. The walls were either hung with tapestry or panelled, the ceiling was richly moulded, the fireplaces, of which there were two or three in the length, were large and elaborate. The porch of the house was often carried up to form a bay window in the middle of the length, and advantage was taken of