famous
Jerusalem Chamber, where the Abbots used to entertain their guests. To
reach this we pass beneath another archway after leaving the cloisters,
and enter a picturesque courtyard; on one side is the College Hall, which
was formerly the Abbot's dining-room, and was used for the same purpose
by the earlier Deans; on {136} the other three sides of the court are the
Abbot's lodgings, now the Deanery. The Hall was built by Litlington at
the same time as the Chamber, and although it was remodelled in the
Elizabethan period, when the roof was restored and the minstrels' gallery
added, much of the fourteenth-century work remains. The Abbot's
initials, N. L., with his arms are seen on pieces of painted glass and on
the bosses of the roof, while the primitive fireplace in the centre of
the floor, with a hole above for the smoke to escape, was in use until
the middle of last century. On the dais, raised two steps above the rest
of the Hall, the Abbot, and afterwards his successor the Dean, had his
place of honour; the ancient oak tables are supposed to have been made
out of the wrecks of the Spanish Armada, and undoubtedly date from
Elizabeth's reign, when the newly founded Queen's scholars used to dine
with the Dean and Prebendaries. A small door in the corner admits us, by
a passage-way, into the Jerusalem Chamber, but here we look round in vain
for traces of our friend Litlington, for the room has been so modernised
and restored that practically only the cedar wood and the architectural
details belong to his time. More fragments of ancient glass, dating from
the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries, {137} remind us that once not
only these but the church windows were filled with painted glass, most of
which was destroyed by the early Protestants, and all that was left was
broken by the Puritans. The tapestry was brought here from the choir and
from the great school in 1821, when the Chamber was restored. The tiles
and fireplace were added in Queen Victoria's reign, while the overmantel
was put up by Dean Williams, to commemorate the marriage of Charles I. to
Henrietta Maria--on either side are grotesque heads of the bride and
bridegroom; Williams entertained the French Ambassador at a banquet in
this room while the negotiations were proceeding. Dean Stanley placed
the busts of Henry IV. and Henry V. against the wall, and thus all who
visit this historic chamber are reminded that a king died on the spot
before the h