Gateway at Highlow Hall, near Hathersage, Derbyshire.
Plate XXXIXb.
Eyam Hall, Derbyshire. Terrace Steps.
The banqueting-house at Nonesuch was, like the other part of the house itself, built of timber. So, also, in all probability, was the "goodly banqueting-house" which the Lord Admiral built for the Queen when she went to his place in the year 1559 from Hampton Court. It was richly gilded and painted (we are told), "that lord having for that end kept a great many painters for a good while there in the country." But the more usual material was brick or stone, and a fair number of examples of such buildings still survive. One of the most elaborate is to be seen at Chipping Campden (Fig. [132]), in Gloucestershire, where the fall of the site enables an under-storey to be obtained without being buried in the ground. The illustration shows the ground floor only, but there is a storey below it approached by a substantial staircase. The work is elaborate, and has lasted well in spite of its rather unworkmanlike treatment, as for instance in the jointing of the stone parapets. The detail is too fanciful, and the building is illustrated not so much for the sake of its design, as to show how much trouble and expense were lavished upon a structure which could only have been used a few times during the year. It and its fellow on the opposite side were, however, important features in the general lay-out.
133.—Eyam Hall. Plan of Lay-out.
CHAPTER VII.
INTERIOR FEATURES.