Page:Over fen and wold; (IA overfenwold00hissiala).pdf/176

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

large, long hall having a heavy oak-beamed ceiling. Here originally (I am now quoting from the notes I made on the spot of what we were told) the poor inmates slept in cubicles, access to which was gained by a gangway down the centre of the hall. Now that the old folk have sleeping accommodation in another portion of the hospital, the floor has been tiled, and the tiles are so laid as to show the shape, size, and plan of the cubicles. A very excellent idea—if changes must be made. Some ancient stained glass in a window here has "the founder's chief crest" painted thereon, "for the founder's family had the right to use two crests; only two other families in England having this right." The "chief crest" is a phœnix, it is placed over a coat-of-arms on which three teasels are shown (these teasels puzzled us until our friend explained what they were). The motto given is "X me sped," "Christ me speed," we Anglicised it. An old "grid-*iron" table of the time of Charles I. stood, when we were there, in the centre of the hall; the ends of this draw out to extend it—an idea that the modern furniture manufacturer might well consider as a possible improvement upon the usual troublesome leaves and screw, nor prize it the less because so long invented. I have a table made in a similar fashion and find it most useful; two rings forming handles to pull out the ends.

Then we came to the chapel, divided from the hall by a carved oak screen; all the inmates are compelled to attend service here twice a day. The large chapel window, with a high transom, is filled