The hall is entered through a screen of dark oak, above which is the Minstrels' Gallery.
By two points the visitor is immediately struck as he enters the hall—its size and the magnificence of the roof. The later is what is called a single hammer-beam roof, divided into seven compartments. The beams are terminated by elaborate pendants, 4 feet 10 inches long, very rich in ornament, fleur-de-lys, and putti, animals, and conventional flower designs. The springs of the side arches, again, are elaborately ornamented. The spandrels have the arms of Henry and Jane Seymour. The "Louvre" has disappeared, but otherwise the roof is much as it was when Henry's last wife was proclaimed queen in 1543. The whole effect is one of exceeding richness, especially since the colour has been restored with a more than Tudor profuseness.
There seems some doubt as to whether the dais which now exists is original, or rather whether there was originally a daïs at all.[1] Some have considered that the hall marks the period at which dining in public had died out, and that the King dined in the room at the east end, sometimes called the "With-drawing-chamber." But this is almost certainly an error. The hall rather emphasises an attempt to restore or to revive the public dining, and the large
- ↑ "In Hampton Court Palace there is a dining chamber at the upper end of the hall, and no dais; and although the present floor is not original,the levels of the different doors show that the original intention has been followed."—Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages, vol. iii.part 1, p. 78.
