“From this apartment one of the immense pairs of heraldic doors opens into ‘THE ARMOURY,’ a fine Gothic apartment of about 120 feet in length, with oak roof, the arches of which spring from carved corbels, while from the central bosses hang a series of pendant lanterns. The ‘armoury’ is lit on its north side by a series of stained-glass windows, the first of which bears, under a canopy, &c., the portrait and armorial bearings of William the Conqueror; the next those of ‘Marescallus pater Gilberti Marescalli Regis Henrici Primi, temp. Will^{m.} Conq^r.;’ the third, those of Donald, King of Scotland, 1093; the fourth, those of Raby; the fifth, those of De Verdun, the founder of the castle of Alton (‘Verdun fund: Cast: de Alveton, originalis familiæ de Verdun, temp. Will. Conq^r.’); and the sixth, of Lacy—‘Summa soror et heres Hugonis de Lacy, fundatoris de Lanthony in Wallia; Mater Gilberti de Lacy, temp. Will. Conq^r.’ In this apartment, from which a doorway leads to the billiard and other rooms, hang a number of funeral and other banners of the house of Talbot, and at one end is the Earl’s banner as Lord High Seneschal or Lord High Steward of Ireland—a blue banner bearing the golden harp of ‘Old Ireland’ which was borne by the Earl of Shrewsbury at the funeral of King William IV. In the palmy days of Alton this apartment was filled with one of the most magnificent assemblages of arms and armour ever got together, amongst which not the least noticeable feature was a life-size equestrian figure of ‘the great Talbot’ in full armour, and bearing on his head an antique coronet, in his hand a fac-simile of the famous sword which he wielded so powerfully while living, bearing the words— ‘Ego sum Talboti pro vincere inimicos meos and on his shoulders his magnificent ‘Garter’ mantle, embroidered with heraldic insignia. The horse was fully armed and caparisoned, the trappings bearing the arms and insignia of its noble owner. The figure was placed on a raised oak platform, richly carved; and on this, at the horse’s feet, lay the fine war helmet of the grand old Earl. At the farther or west end of the armoury, a pair of open screen-work doors of large size, formed of spears and halberds, and surmounted by a portcullis—the whole being designed by a former Countess of Shrewsbury—opens into—