western end, is all new; containing another entrance arch, with the family arms emblazoned above it, and which, with its Elizabethan windows, corbels, and shields, is in excellent keeping with the old portion.

From the eastern end of this front runs a fine avenue of limes, and at a short distance in the park is Gamage's Bower, now a mere woody copse, as represented by Ben Jonson.

In the centre of the inner court stands the old Banqueting Hall, a tall gabled building with high red roof, surmounted with the ruins of a cupola, erected upon it by Mr. Perry, who married the heiress of the family, but who does not seem to have brought much taste into it. On the point of each gable is an old stone figure the one a tortoise, the other a lion couchant; and upon the back of each of these old figures, so completely accordant with the building itself, which exhibits under its eaves and at the corners of its windows numbers of those grotesque corbels which distinguish our buildings of an early date, both domestic and ecclesiastical, good Mr. Perry clapped a huge leaden vase which had probably crowned aforetime the pillars of a gateway, or the roof of a garden-house. It is to be hoped that Lord de L'Isle will not long delay his intention of having these monstrosities pitched from their undeserved elevation.*

With these exceptions, this hall, of which I shall have more to say anon, bears externally every mark of a very ancient building.

• Since the above was written the cupola and vases have been removed.

The south side of the house has all the irregularity of an old castle, consisting of various towers, projections, buttresses, and gables. Some of the windows shew tracery of a superior order, and others have huge common sashes, introduced by the tasteful Mr. Perry aforesaid. The court on this side is surrounded by battlemented walls, and has a massy square gatehouse, leading into the old garden, or pleasaunce, which sloped away down towards the Medway, but is now merely a grassy lawn, with the remains of one fine terrace running along its western side.

In this court, opposite the door of the Banqueting Hall, hangs a large bell, on a very simple frame of wood. The whole has a genuine look of the ancient time when hunters came hungry from the forest, and needed no gilded belfry to summon them to dinner. On the bell is inscribed, in raised letters:

ROBERT EARL OF LEICESTER, AT PENSHURST, 1649.

The old banqueting hall is a noble specimen of the baronial hall of the reign of Edward III., when both house and table exhibited the rudeness of a martial age, and both gentle and simple revelled together, parted only by the salt. The floor is of brick. The raised platform, or dais, at the west-end, advances sixteen feet into the room. The width of the hall is about forty feet, and the length of it about fifty-four feet. On each side are tall gothic windows, much of the tracery of which has been some time knocked out, and the openings plastered up. At the east-end is a fine large window, with two smaller ones above it; but the large window is, for the most part, hidden by the front of the music gallery. In the centre of the floor an octagon space is marked out with a rim of stone, and within this space stands a massy old dog, or brand-iron, about a yard and half wide, and the two upright ends three feet six inches high, having on their outer sides, near the top, the double broad arrow of the Sidney arms. The smoke from the fire,

which was laid on this jolly dog, ascended and passed out through the centre of the roof, which is high, and of framed oak, and was adorned at the spring of the huge

groined spars with grotesque pro

jecting carved figures, or corbels, which are now taken down, being considered in danger of falling, and are laid in the music gallery.

The whole of this fine old roof is, indeed, in a very decayed

state, and unless repaired and made proof against the weather, must, ere many winters be over, come down; a circumstance extremely to be regretted, being said to be the oldest specimen of our ancient banqueting hall remaining.

The massy oak tables remain. That on the dais, or the

lord's table, is six yards long, and about one wide; and at this simple board no doubt Sir Philip and Algernon Sidney, the Countess of Pembroke, Saccharissa, Waller, Ben Jonson, and though last mentioned, many a noble, and some crowned heads,

have many a time dined. What a splendid group, indeed, may imagination summon up and set down at this rude table, where unquestionable history will warrant us in placing them. At one time the gentle and pious Edward VI.; at another his more domineering and shrewd sister Elizabeth, with her proud favourite, Leicester or Essex, Cecil or Warwick, all allied to, or in habits of intimacy with, the lord of the house. James the First, and Charles, then prince, no doubt took their seats here, at that unlooked-for visit of which Ben Jonson speaks; and the paintings in the gallery and rooms above, will shew us many a high-born beauty, and celebrated noble and gentleman who have graced this old hall with their presence, and made its rafters echo to their wit and merriment.

T

The tables down the sides of the hall, at which the yeomen retainers, and servants sate, are seven yards long, and of a construction several degrees less in remove from the common trestle.

2000

At the lower end of the hall is a tall wainscot screen supporting the music gallery, the plainness and even rudeness of