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smoke escaping through an aperture, or louver, in the roof; or, later, ina large arched fire-place in the opposite wall to that which contained theoriel. The roof, the timbers of which were framed with pendentsrichly carved and emblazoned with heraldic insignia, formed the moststriking feature of these chambers. “ The top beam of the hall,” was asymbolical manner of drinking the health of the master of the house ; avery common toast, particularly in Wales. * The king’s arms usuallyoccupied a conspicuous situation in this apartment.

It may be added, that both the Hall and the Chapel were fre-quently overlooked from windows in galleries and upper rooms. BishopParker, in a letter dated 1573, says, “ If it please her majestie, she maycome in through my gallerie, and see the disposition of the Hall atdynner-time, at a window opening thereunto.” And in Andrew Borde’sdirections for building a house, “ many of the chambers are to have aview into the Chapel.”

Spacious and magnificent as were the royal halls, they were some-times found unequal to the banquets of those days; and it was usual, onextraordinary occasions, to erect temporary halls of surprising magnitudeand splendour.f Two examples of these buildings may be given, whichwill also show the declination of taste in little more than fifty years.The first erected in the Tilt-yard at Greenwich, when Henry VIII .

* Pennant’s History of Whiteford.

+ The most ingenious erection of this kind, in modern times, was a large octagonal room inCarlton House Gardens, for a ffete in 1814, remarkable only for the roof, which was designed orinvented by, and executed under the direction of, the late William Nixon, a modest and retiringman, of rare worth and talent. This room was, by his majesty’s command, removed to Woolwich,and is now used as a repository for models. A model of itself enriches the surveyor general’sroom at the Office of Works. As a specimen of fine construction, it has probably no equalbut the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral .

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