"Nobody stopped me, so I went right in, and looked around. A maid was setting the tables, and I noticed that she stared at me, but she didn't say anything, so I stayed. The hall is great! It isn't very large, but is paneled and hung with portraits. The old tables, a notice says, are made from wood taken from one of the vessels of the Spanish Armada. Wonder how they found it and brought it here! I was just going to ask the maid, when a savage-looking man appeared and said I had no business there. So I came away. I don't care; I saw it, anyway!" he added, as they approached the entrance of the Jerusalem Chamber. All three sides of this little court were the abbot's lodgings, and are now the deanery. The Jerusalem Chamber was built about 1376, as a guest-chamber for the abbot's house. "The name is curious, isn't it?" remarked Mrs. Pitt. "It probably came from some tapestries which formerly hung there, representing the history of Jerusalem. It was in this room, right here in front of the fireplace, according to tradition, that Henry IV died. A strange dream had told the King that he would die in Jerusalem, and he was actually preparing for the journey there, when he was taken very ill, and they carried him into this room. When he asked where they had brought him, and the reply was, 'To the Jerusalem Chamber,' he died satisfied. Many bodies have lain here in state, too,--among them, that of Joseph Addison, whom they afterwards buried in the Abbey. When we come again, I will show you his grave. Now, notice the bits of ancient stained-glass in the windows, and the cedar paneling; except for that, there is nothing specially noteworthy here." As they left the Dean's Yard and crossed the open space in front of the great western towers of the Abbey, John and Betty agreed that if they could see nothing more in England, they were already repaid for their long journey across the ocean. CHAPTER FOUR PENSHURST PLACE: THE HOME OF SIR PHILIP SIDNEY In Charing Cross Station one morning, Mrs. Pitt hurried up to the "booking-office," as the English call the ticket-office, to "book" five tickets to Penshurst. While the man was getting her change, she turned and said to Philip:-- "Please ask that guard who is standing there, on which platform we shall find the 9.40 train for Penshurst." Philip did so, and returned with the information that they should go to Platform 8. So they all mounted the steps and walked over the foot-bridge which always runs across and above all the tracks, in an English station. There was a bench on the platform, and they sat down to await the arrival of the train. About 9.35, five minutes before the train was to start, John happened to see a train official sauntering by, and asked him if it was correct that the Penshurst train left from that platform. The man stared. "Really, you are quite mistaken," he drawled; "that train leaves from Platform 2. You had better hurry, you know; you haven't much time."