hat venerable mansion which having witnessed many
of the incidents of his life may still be considered the lasting memorial
of his virtues. Before us rises a building irregular in its design, but
presenting an extensive line of front, in which square towers and pointed
gables, connected by walls of unequal height, succeed each other with that
sort of caprice which is common in mansions of the same age. Entering
through a spacious gate-way, we cross a quadrangular court, and gain
access by an unfurnished passage to the great hall, which formed the
distinguishing feature of the feudal homestead. In the vast extent of this
apartment we perceive an image of the pride which gloried more in the
number of its retainers than in the luxury or refinement of its
accommodations. Oaken tables, and benches of the same homely material,
stretched from side to side, show that our ancestors required but rude
accessories to recommend to them the substantial enjoyments of their
mighty repasts. Through lofty windows strengthened by mullions and
decorated with intricate carvings, the light streams softened by neither
blind nor curtain. The middle of the hall is occupied by a spacious
hearth, around which gathered the friends and followers of the noble
house; and the fire-utensils which still remain, and which seem destined
for the consumption of entire forests, intimate that the household gods
which presided here dealt in no stinted or penurious economy. There was
scarcely need of flue or chimney, for the smoke curling up among the
interlacing rafters of the roof, might long gather in its ample cavity
without threatening those below with serious inconvenience. It is curious
to observe that when at length so obvious a contrivance as the chimney
grew into more general use, its introduction was opposed by much the same
sort of arguments as have in other ages resisted the encroachments of
change and novelty. A moralist of the times has left us his recorded
opinion, that nothing but agues and catarrhs had followed the abandonment
of that old and genial practice which planted the fire in the middle of
the room and left the smoke to spread its sable canopy aloft. Another
peculiarity in this picture of ancient manners was the slightly-raised
platform called the dais, at the farther extremity of the hall, which
reminds us of the distinction that was preserved even in the hours of
convivial relaxation, between the family of the lord and its dependents.