company assembled in this great hall. A dark object delineated in the centre, and adjoining this door, was the place against which the state chair was affixed; the fret-work at the back of this seat, or throne, was long visible upon the wall; the accidental falling of some plaister brought to view a mitre carved in stone, and formed of roses or flowers, a specimen of which is seen in Plate 40, Fig. 7. A flight of steps, we imagine, supported the state chair, as the elevated situation on the wall denotes. Above the carved work there is a niche with arched mouldings, and forming a recess sufficient to have received the statue of a patron saint; and there are appearances on the highest part of the wall, which shew, that perhaps a canopy surmounted the whole.

This great hall is 68 feet by 38 feet; its three noble arches, which supported "the testudo," or shell, that is, its roof, have withstood the attack of time, and the violent attempt of workmen, who, it is said, in vain tried to take them down; but the roof itself is entirely gone. On each side-wall are three lofty windows.

PLATE LXII.

Grand Staircase, St. Dunstan's Palace,
Mayfield.

On the left of this view is represented a pillar, with its capital richly carved, and part of the passage wall situated between the grand hall and the staircase. The Gothic door-way described next to the pillar, leads to the kitchen, and other domestic offices. This staircase, consisting of seventeen steps, formed of long stones, is about twelve feet wide; the hand-rail is composed of a thick piece of iron; blocks of wood project from the wall, to which pieces of iron are attached, and bent round the rail;-the whole is executed in a very uncouth The large oak door seen on the left of the stairs, leads into a room now occupied as a bedchamber; the arched door at the top of the staircase opens to a room still of very spacious dimensions, though much reduced from its former size. This room contains various articles, principally the implements used by a blacksmith, said to have belonged to St. Dunstan himself, (though many persons doubt this fact), who, with great humility, hesitated not to exercise that lowly occupation. Setting aside the idle legends related of this celebrated man, it is certain that he was a

manner.

proficient in many of the useful arts of life; excelling particularly in the adaptation of iron and the other metals, then so little understood to the necessities and luxuries of the community.

This pursuit appears to have given rise to the history of his temptation by Satan, when St. Dunstan seized him by the nose with red hot pincers, and occasioned the evil spirit to bellow so horribly, as to be heard at a great distance. Dunstan's cell at Glastonbury, in the days of his retirement, and not Mayfield, during his height of power, is the scene of this popular legend.

The articles referred to are seen in Plate 40. Fig. 1, is a hammer, curiously constructed, with an iron handle, eleven inches in length; the head appears to have been much used, as the edges are turned up.-Fig. 3, a sword, with a curious handle, six inches long; the blade, which is very narrow, exceeds three feet in length.-Fig. 4, pincers of peculiar construction, three feet long; the shape and make of these are similar to the pincers, carved in bas relief, on the font in St. Clement's Church, Hastings. - See Plate 6. The carving which encircles the shields on that font is in the same style of workmanship which prevails throughout Mayfield; and, as there exist no traces whence it came, although it is supposed by many to be of Norman workmanship, as before stated, it seems fair to conjecture that the font may origi

nally have belonged to this palace. The anvil, Fig. 6, appears to be more modern than any of the preceding articles. In this plate, on the extreme right, is seen a passage communicating with the domestic offices, adjoining which is a south entrance, leading to this staircase.

PLATE LXIII.

Kitchen Chamber, St. Dunstan's Palace,
Mayfield.

THIS plate is introduced for the purpose of enabling the reader to form some idea of the mode of fitting up an ancient room, this being the most perfect remains of the ancient fittings up of this building. It is lined with a wainscot of plain, square, sunk panels, with a corniced top, supported by fluted pilasters; at each side of the fireplace is a short pilaster of the same description, sustaining a carved corniced top, from which rise three shorter ones, supporting the top cornice of the wainscot. The chimney-piece is of stone, with a Gothic arched top. Over the crown of this arch, a stone panel of rudely-carved flowers runs crosswise, in the centre of which is cut 1371; the

whole in basso relievo.-See Plate 40, Fig. 2. The floor, which is of oak, is supported by beams of ample thickness.

This room, which is over the kitchen, is twentynine feet long, twenty-one wide, and eighteen high; it was lighted by a large Gothic window, now filled up, at the west end of the room, adjoining the foreground of this view. The door, seen in the centre, leads to the staircase and an anti-room, over the door of which are carved in stone the arms of the see of Canterbury.-See Plate 40, Fig. 5.

Mayfield House, commonly called "The Place," by abbreviation of palace, together with the manor of Magefield, or Mayfield, belonged to the Archbishops of Canterbury; it was surrendered to King Henry VIII. by Archbishop Cranmer. In the year 1545 a grant of Mayfield was made to Sir Edward North, and it was subsequently purchased by Sir Thomas Gresham.

When Queen Elizabeth, in her progress through Kent and Sussex, in 1573, came in August to Eridge, the seat of Lord Abergavenny, in the adjoining parish, she remained six days; and it is supposed that this was the time in which Elizabeth visited Sir Thomas Gresham, who sumptuously entertained the Queen in Mayfield House. The room which she occupied on the north side of the palace is roofless, but she is said to have had the