Hampton Court ... Illustrated with forty-three drawings by Herbert ...

14
HAMPTON COURT
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 hammerbeam
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 dais 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 " Withdrawing-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
1" In Hampton Court Palace there is a dining chamber at the
upper endof thehall, and no dais; and although the present floor
is not original,the levels of the differentdoors show that the original
intentionhas been followed." — Domestic Architecture of the Middle
Ages, vol.iii.part 1,p. 78.