found either before or after this period. It does not mark the first step in a new departure. The hall stands on a vaulted undercroft, and must have been a fine room; it measures 71 ft. 7 in. long by 36 ft. 5 in. wide, and is considerably larger than the hall at Haddon, which is 43 ft. by 28 ft. It is now roofless and ruinous, but the bay window (Fig. 36), and porch, which still survive, are fine examples of late Perpendicular work, as also is the adjacent gable of the state apartment (Fig. 37). There is nothing to indicate where the hall fireplace was situated. The probability is that it was in one of the long side walls, but even as late as a hundred years after this time fires were sometimes placed upon central hearths, and it may have been so here. [Illustration: 35. South Wingfield Manor House, Derbyshire (_cir._ 1435–40). _Ground Plan._ 1, 1. Porter. 2. Guardroom. 3. Site of buildings destroyed. 4. Serving-place. 5. Wing traditionally said to have been occupied by Mary, Queen of Scots. The state apartments at the west end of the hall were on the upper floor: on the ground floor were the buttery, passage to kitchen, &c.] The apartments devoted to the use of the family, which we should expect to find at the upper end of the hall (in this case the east end), did in fact once exist, as may be seen by various indications on the building itself and the adjacent ground, but they have all been destroyed, leaving their extent and nature as a matter for conjecture. They were reached by means of the circular staircase at the north-east corner of the hall (see plan, Fig. 35), which still retains the doorways that led into them. [Illustration: 36. South Wingfield Manor House. Bay Window of Hall.] [Illustration: 37. South Wingfield Manor House. Porch of Great Hall and Gable of State Apartments.] [Illustration: 38. South Wingfield Manor House. Undercroft beneath Great Hall.]