Great hall

“ The great hall was sixty-five feet long and twenty-eight broad, and appears to have been a magnificent apartment of the time of Edward I., as its windows indicate. The fire-place is still distinguishable in the great kitchen. Communicating with the hall is a smaller room, from which a passage led into another room of state, fifty-five feet by twenty; and this opened into the ladies’ tower, standing upon the brow of a lofty precipice, and commanding a delightful view over the country. ”

“ As I have already said, a wide hall divided the lower floor into two halves. The hall itself reminded me of the pictures I have seen of the great halls in feudal castles, with its beamed ceiling, its waxed floor, its great fireplace and its impressive furniture. On one side were the state apartments, the parlours, connected by a double door. They had apparently been hermetically closed for years, and were very musty and dusty. They were furnished in hideous horsehair, and we closed the door behind us after the merest glance into them. ”

“ The Great Hall, or Grand Hall, is a noble room, 60 feet in length by 27 feet in width, and of the full height of the two principal stories of the mansion. The floor is formed of polished marble, laid in a remarkably striking geometric design, in mosaic, of black and white and veined marbles. It was originally the work of Henry Watson, being laid down by him in 1779; but was taken up and relaid, with considerable alterations, by the late Duke. In the centre of the hall stands an immense marble table, of Derbyshire marble, and the chimney-piece, which is very massive, is also of marble. ”

“ After a few moments he took another step forward and, with the postern gate still open, stood gazing thoughtfully and watchfully over the medley of red-tiled roofs, up the great avenue beyond, to where the imposing front of the Hall, with its long rows of uncurtained windows, filled the background with a serene and brooding dignity. ”

“ The great hall of the Middle Temple is one of the finest Elizabethan structures in the metropolis. It was commenced in 1562, when the old hall was converted into chambers, consumed a decade in building, and is of grand proportions. It is a hundred feet long, and the massive beauty of the glossy oaken roof, almost black with age, is alone worth an Atlantic voyage to see. ”

“ The great Hall is a most noble and beautiful room, above a hundred feet long and sixty high and broad. Most of the windows are of stained or painted glass, with elaborate designs, whether modern or ancient I know not, but certainly brilliant in effect. The walls, from the floor to perhaps half their height, are covered with antique tapestry, which, though a good deal faded, still retains color enough to be a very effective adornment, and to give an idea of how rich a mode of decking a noble apartment this must have been. ”

“ On entering the door of the great hall, a vast and splendid room is presented to view, with scarcely a single interruption to the eye throughout its whole extent, capable of containing, with comfort, more than 3,000 persons. ”

“ The effect of the hall is gloomy, and, compared to our own great halls, certainly shows some lack of knowledge of construction on the part of its architect, and its bald heaviness makes it absurd to compare it to our own noble Westminster hall, though their very similar dimensions might naturally tempt us to do so. ”

“ The wide hall with its polished floor, its great carved mantels, its dining-room with gleaming woods and glossy table and sparkling glass, its big lounge with tall windows, where the girls dance and play the piano—all was as different from the bleached scrubbed wood of the châlets as it well could be. ”

“ The intent is to furnish suitable accommodations for the various law courts, and also to contain the finest ball-room in Europe. It is in a commanding position. I know little of architecture, but this building strikes me as one of exquisite beauty. We obtained an order from the mayor to be shown over it and examine the works, and we enjoyed it very much. The great hall will be without a rival in England. The town hall is a noble edifice, and the people are quite proud of it. The interior is finely laid out, and has some spacious rooms for the civic revelries of the fathers of the town. ”

“ The Great Hall at Westminster.—At the left, toward the rear, the great doorway of the hall, seen at an angle.—At the rear, semi-circular steps rising to a considerable height.—Rich hangings of tapestry fill the spaces between the Gothic pillars all about the hall, so that only the capitals and cornices can be seen.—At the right a frame-work covered with boards, outlining the steps leading to the platform of a throne. ”

“ The great hall was the most important part of the establishment. Here the general business of the household was transacted, the meals served, strangers received, audiences granted, and what may be termed the public life of the family carried on. It was also the general rendezvous of the servants and retainers, who lounged about it when duty or pleasure did not call them to the other offices or to the field. In the evening they gathered around the fire, built in an iron grate standing in the middle of the room; for as yet chimneys were a luxury confined to the principal chamber. ”

“ The “Bear Tower,” with a flight of steps descending to a subterranean passage, leading no one knows whither, will be noticed, as also will “Guy’s Tower.”
From the inner court a flight of stone steps leads to the entrance to the Great Hall, which is of large size; its walls are decorated with arms and armour of various periods and descriptions, and with antlers and other appropriate objects. On one side of this hall are the state rooms, and on the other the domestic apartments, forming a line of 333 feet in length. ”

“ The great hall, rather dimmer than ever because of the consciousness of daylight outside, is full of people, gathered in the afternoon not only from the city, but from all the environs within twenty miles, and they sit as attentive and absorbed as a class of students at an interesting lecture. ”

“ There is no smiling splendor of effect, which is always so enlivening. The darkness of the hall may be agreeable to weak eyes, it may even be described as "very much better than a glare of light," but brilliancy remains an indispensable quality of a great hall devoted to popular enjoyment. ”

“ Though it is difficult to be precise and certain about the history of this interesting old building, there can be no doubt about its being a very old foundation, and having formed part of a large and important domestic structure. The great hall, which is the chief feature of the remains, is a very noble apartment, and must belong to a period earlier than the Tudors. ”

“ It receded some feet from the line of the other houses in the street; and it had a florid and fanciful rail of iron about the broad steps that invited your ascent to the hall-door, in which were fixed, under a file of lamps among scrolls and twisted leaves, two immense "extinguishers," like the conical caps of fairies, into which, in old times, the footmen used to thrust their flambeaux when their chairs or coaches had set down their great people, in the hall or at the steps, as the case might be. That hall is panelled up to the ceiling, and has a large fire-place. ”

“ He shuffled across the wide stone-paved hall and, losing himself beneath the great arch of the short passage to the entrance-front, hastened to admit his new visitor. He gives us thereby the use of his momentary absence for a look at the place he has left.
This is the central hall, high and square, brown and grey, flagged beneath and timbered above, of an old English country-house; an apartment in which a single survey is a perception of long and lucky continuities. ”

“ Nothing has come down to our day but a single vaulted hall on the grandest scale, together with the mere outer wall of what no doubt constituted the main facade of the building. The apartments, which, according to all analogy, must have existed at the two sides, and in the rear, of the great hall, some of which should have been vaulted, have wholly perished. ”

“ The handsome old furniture, covered with silk brocades and tapestries, was worn and sometimes ragged in appearance. Some of the decorations showed need of regilding, and though the magnificent old carved woodwork, and tessellated floors could not be marred by time, yet many of the lesser appointments called for renovation or renewal. The Great Hall, as it was called, had best withstood the ravages of time, as it was wainscoted and ceiled in massive old oak. ”

“ The chairs and seats of various kinds, to be seen in all parts of the house, are, as we have intimated, so many models for the artist.
The Retainers’ Gallery.
The Great Hall has its dais, its Minstrels’ Gallery, and even its oak tables, where retainers feasted long ago. In a window of the Billiard-room is a painting on glass of a knight in armour, representing the famous ancestor of the Sackvilles; and in the Cartoon Gallery are, also on glass, the armorial bearings of twenty-one of his descendants, ending with Richard, the third Earl of Dorset. ”

“ The Hall was a queer place, I thought, with higher pews in it than a church—and with people hanging over the pews looking on—and with mighty Justices (one with a powdered head) leaning back in chairs, with folded arms, or taking snuff, or going to sleep, or writing, or reading the newspapers—and with some shining black portraits on the walls, which my unartistic eye regarded as a composition of hardbake and sticking-plaister. ”

“ There is a view of the Hall by Buck, dated 1735, which represents a great portion of the palace, with its quaint water-towers and moated walls still standing; but although Parliament in 1827 spent 700l. upon the repairs, the state of the Hall is sad enough now; full of litter of every sort, its windows unglazed or bricked up; with damp fastening in the naked walls, and rough rafters stretching across from side to side and meeting above the corbels. ”

“ The State Dining-room, and the Great Drawing-room, or fourth George Room, are gorgeous in the extreme, and filled to repletion with choice works of Art and antiquity; while the fifth of these George apartments, named the Heaven, from the subjects of Verrio’s paintings, which cover alike the ceiling and walls, contains cabinets, paintings, and busts of great value. The whole of this suite of rooms is hung with choice pictures, of which, [1146] of course, space prevents our giving an account. The Grand Staircase, leading to the Great Hall, completes this suite ”

“ On the west side is the great hall built in the fifteenth century by Rhys ap Thomas, with its imposing porch-tower and entrance stair, a large and amply lighted room. On the north are the additions made in the sixteenth century by333 Sir John Perrott. The eastern rooms are those of a house within a castle: the western hall is that of a house which, although military considerations have had no part in its planning, is still confined within an earlier curtain. ”

“ The hall is a great place, where the flags that they take from their enemies are all hung up; and things to be sold, as in Westminster Hall, and not much unlike it, but that not so big, but much neater. ”

“ It means a great school of debate, a college that grants no degrees. It gives me a sadness that is not akin to pain, to hear a young person designate a building as Lyceum Hall, using the word as if it were Grampian Hall or Hamilton Hall, having no glorious, clear conception of what the name of the hall signified to the early community. Tradesmen, farmers, professional men, themselves readers and thinkers, above all restless and eager disputants would meet night after night to discuss the unselfish problems of life. ”

“ The south side comprises [364] the south corridor, the Chapel at the south-west corner, the Oak Room, the south entrance, the Stag Parlour, and other apartments. It will only be our province on this story (having already described the sub-hall, north corridor, and grand hall) , to speak of the corridors, the Chapel, and cursorily of one or two other of the apartments on this floor. Passing beneath the grand staircase in the great hall is the “Grotto Room,” the ceiling of which, supported by four massive pillars and twelve pilasters, is divided into compartments ”

“ Sometimes, the Great Hall was raised upon an undercroft of stone vaulting, as we see in the Guildhall, the undercroft of which is the finest specimen of its class in the metropolis. Gerard's Hall, in Basing-lane, built by John Gisors, pepperer, Mayor of London in 1245, and is described by Stow as "a great house of old time, builded upon arched vaults, and with arched gates of stone, brought from Cane, in Normandy." ”

“ This arrangement is still found in some of the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, such as those of New College, Christchurch, Wadham and Magdalen, Oxford, and in Trinity College, Cambridge. In private mansions, however, the kitchen and offices have been removed to a greater distance, and the great hall is only used for banquets. ”

“ Through this doorway the carriages literally drive into the mansion, and there set down the guests in the Hall itself, which is of great size, with an arched roof, supported by eight octagonal pillars in its centre. “When the brilliant gas above combines its glare with that of two enormous fires, and the roof is echoing to the tramp of horses and the roll of wheels, the visitor cannot but be struck with the unusual entrance,” says a recent writer. In this Hall is hung Turner’s famous picture of Raby Castle. ”

“ He seeth the hall right rich, for hall so rich and so fair had he seen never. It was hung about with right rich cloths of silk, and in the midst of the hall was imaged the Saviour of the World so as He is in His majesty, with the apostles about Him, and within were great galleries that were full of folk and seemed to be of great holiness, and so were they, for had they not been good men they might not there have remained.
IV. "Sir," say the two Masters to Perceval, "This house that you see here so rich, is the hall royal." ”