Facing us are two deep bay-windows formed of five sides of an octagon. Over them you may read the carved inscription: 'God is al in al things. This window whire made by William Moreton in the yeare of oure Lorde MDLIX.' The building of the home was regarded by our Elizabethan forefathers as an almost sacred work, to be carried out with hardly less reverence than the building of a church.
A second gateway forms the entrance to the dining-hall on the one hand and the kitchen on the other. The walls of the dining-room are lined with wainscoting of panelled oak; the open timbered roof is held up by a strong central beam; the windows are filled with countless tiny panes of glass, with bright patches of red and orange and blue where the coat-of-arms and crest of the Moretons are painted upon them.
Little Moreton Hall
In the kitchen are marks of the growing comfort and luxuries of Elizabethan days—the rows of pewter plates bearing the Moreton arms, and a great spice-chest where the fragrant spices of the East, brought home by travellers, were stored, as well as the sweet herbs, the sage and rosemary, lavender and thyme, from the herb-garden of the Hall. In the open fireplace, ten feet wide, an ox might well be roasted; the smoke from the log-fire was carried upwards from the roof by a chimney-stack of brick.
Over the 'screen' or passage that divides the dining-hall and the kitchen is a musicians' gallery, where the players of the viol and the harp made music while the squire and his lady supped in the early evening.
To the left of the gatehouse through which we first entered is the chapel, where the chaplain read the daily prayers to the assembled family. A narrow spiral staircase fixed upon a central newel post leads to a long gallery at the very top of the house, running the whole length of one side of the courtyard. This was the ballroom, where Elizabeth herself may perhaps have danced, as tradition says she did, for we know that she was fond of visiting her people in their own homes.
Few sixteenth-century houses were without a secret chamber. Little Moreton Hall contains two such rooms, cunningly concealed in a corner of the house. They are entered by sliding panels from an apartment over the kitchen, and the fugitive could escape his pursuers by an underground passage leading underneath the moat to the open field beyond.
At opposite corners of the moat are two green circular mounds, on which probably once stood two watch-towers to guard the house against attack. A large number of the old halls of Cheshire were at one time moated for their protection, though in many cases the moats have been filled up, now that they are no longer necessary. Peel Hall in Etchells, Irby, Swinyard Hall, Twemlow, Marthall, and Allostock Hall still retain portions of their original moats.