On passing beneath the entrance porch into the inner court one is at once struck by the beautiful bay–window on the right–hand side containing eight lights, with mullions and transoms and carved panels, and battlements above. Between two windows on the left of the door is a lion’s head carved in stone, which is worth notice, as there is a tradition that on festive occasions it ran with wine, which was supplied from the inside of the house and ran into a basin formerly fixed below the head. This courtyard is rendered more picturesque than even it would otherwise be by the beautiful flowers and creepers, more especially the fuchsias, which adorn it.
On entering the house one passes the Buttery on the left, divided from the Hall itself by an oak screen carved in the linen–fold pattern, and from this a short passage leads to the kitchens, which still contain the large recessed fireplaces of Tudor times.
Between the chapel and the Hall is the great parlour, with its oak panelling and plaster ceiling bearing the arms of Compton and Spencer, built in the reign of Elizabeth by William Compton, first Earl of Northampton.
STRATFORD–ON–AVON—THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
The great Hall itself extends the full height of the house, and possesses a fine open–timbered roof, the beams of which spring from a richly carved cornice. The roof was apparently brought from some older building and reduced in size to fit its present use. It is probable, too, that it originally extended one bay farther, which would give it its true proportions.
At one end is a picturesque half–timbered Minstrel Gallery, with open panel–work, the gallery in the south–east angle being a modern addition.
There is an interesting survival of the games of our ancestors in the huge slab of elm, over 23 feet in length and 30 inches in width, which was made to rest on tressels, and in all probability was used for playing “shovel–board,” a popular amusement in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.