At the east end of the south corridor is a door leading into a beautiful room, now used as the reading room; formerly it was the warden's room, and many a man well known in history has sat within its walls. Here Sir Walter Raleigh and the courtiers of his day were entertained by the warden, Dr. Dee, of whom mention was made in the last chapter,—a wizard as he was then thought to be, whom even the Queen did not hesitate to consult when she wished to know the future.
This room, like many others in this building, has an open timber roof and a cornice, dating from the time of the foundation of the College in the days of Henry V. The walls are wainscoted up to the level of the spring of the roof which spans the room from east to west.
In the centre of the north side of this room is a fireplace. This wall is wainscoted up to the same height as the other walls, and above the oak panelling it is profusely decorated, as will be seen from the illustrations, with scrolls and other patterns. This decoration was done in the early years
of the reign of Charles II., after the College had been converted into Chetham's Hospital. In the centre of the room is a handsome oval oak table, with a number of chairs to match; against the south wall stands a fifteenth century communion table, and against the north wall to the left of the fireplace, a handsome sideboard of carved oak. This was made up of portions of two pieces of old furniture, namely, the top of a bookcase once given by Humphrey Chetham to Walmsley Church, near Bolton-le-Moors, still bearing an inscription: "The gift of Humphrey Chetham Esquire, 1655," and a fifteenth century bedstead once used by the Pretender when sleeping at Hulton Park in Lancashire. This sideboard was presented to the College by a member of the Hulton family, who was one of the Chetham feoffees. Round the walls are several portraits. From the east side of the room there is a projecting bay lighted by three windows and furnished with seats and a square writing table with sloping sides, to which students can take the book from which they wish to make extracts. The enrichments of the ceiling of the bay are of plaster, but the rest of the vault is stone. All the floors of this upper story are of oak, well polished by the feet of many generations. The furniture of the reading room harmonizes well with the room itself. The windows are placed under widely splayed, obtusely pointed four centred arches. On the sill of one stands a statuette in bronze of Humphrey Chetham and one of the boys of his school, similar to the marble statue already described as standing at the east end of the north choir aisle of the cathedral church. At the northwest corner of the room is a door which the visitor might easily overlook, but which gives access to a most interesting chamber. This was at one time the minstrels' gallery opening out into the hall, when in the time of the Greslets and the De le Warres, the baron, his guests and retainers feasted merrily there, while the harpers twanged their strings and sang of deeds of daring and war and victory. When the building passed into ecclesiastical hands in 1422 the arches opening into the hall were walled up, and the minstrels' gallery was converted into a scriptorium; two small openings were, however, left in the wall from which the warden passing out of his own room into the scriptorium might see what was being done in the hall below.
