to their labour a determining quality of personal interest. Descending into the courtyard, a door near the north end brought the guest into the great hall—"a goodly brave place much like unto a church"—where a central row of fair pillars upheld a vaulted roof. This was for the ceremonies of the table. The arrangement of the western guest-house was according to the same plan, with two differences: it was L-shaped, the letter being turned about so that the base lay by the river, while the shaft extended to the north; and the hall, which was in the base of the L, was divided into two rooms. The northern wing may have been the kitchen for both houses. A small building by the river, where the two guest-houses met, may have been the office of the hospitaller.
These houses were a hostelry, wherein decent wandering persons, "both noble, and gentle, and what degree soever that came thither as strangers," were
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