Such was the use of these four great arches behind the hall screen, and we may with great propriety conceive, that they were the stations of the butler, the clerk of the kitchen, the cellarer, and the chamberlain, or steward of the household, of this great family. “The provision for the officers and attendants being so great, we shall yet find here, as in all very ancient mansions, that the apartments of the lord of the castle (or what we should now call the state apartments) were very few in number, and little adequate to the rest, according to our modern and more refined ideas.” The great hall of entrance, just described, was the only large apartment for dining. At the upper end remains the raised floor, where the table for the lord and his principal guests was placed; and along one side of the hall, and also over the screen at the lower end, is a gallery, supported by pillars; from whence (when the lord and his company had retired to the apartments above, and the inferior members of the family had supplied their places) the country guests and their hospitable hosts occasionally beheld the revels. The Great Hall still contains the old oaken table, at which the lord feasted his more [Illustration] favoured guests. The Minstrel’s Gallery is carved and panelled, and ornamented in the true old fashion, with the antlers of stags--memorials of the chase. There is no ceiling; the roof and rafters are exposed to view; the fireplaces are large; and the walls are wainscoted all round, to a certain height. From this great hall, at the upper end, in the corner on the left hand, are two passages; one opening upon the terraces in the garden, inviting the guests to refresh themselves; and the other leading to the grand staircase, and the principal apartments above. “This staircase is formed of large blocks of stone; which can hardly be said to be [Illustration] either jointed or joined, and from the top of it, on the right, you enter what we should now call a drawing-room, hung with arras, and having a large bow-window as the only light to it, at one corner, and a little door at the other, behind the arras, leading into the gallery just mentioned, which goes round two sides of the hall. This room, however, (whatever name we might now give it) was called the _Dining-room_, and probably had that appellation because the lord of the mansion did, even originally, on some particular occasions, _here_ entertain a few of his visitors of high dignity and rank; and because afterwards, in latter ages, it became more commonly appropriated to that purpose, when greater distinction was ordinarily made between the guests.”