pals which support the roof are the most curious specimens
of ancient wood-work I have ever seen. The broadest piece of timber is
two feet seven inches by ten inches. A wall-plate on the outside of one
beam, from end to end, measures two feet by ten inches. The walls are
finished at the square with a moulded cornice of oak.

"At the bottom of the room is a door opening into one of the towers, the
lower part of which only remains, of massy grout-work, and with three
arches, each furnished with a funnel or aperture like a chimney. On the
left side of the hall are the remains of a very curious window-frame of
oak, wrought in Gothic tracery, but square at top. Near the top of the
hall, on the right, are the remains of a doorway, opening into what was
once a staircase, and leading to a large chamber above the kitchen, the
approach to which was by a door of massy oak, pointed at the top.

"Over the high tables of ancient halls (as is the case in some college
halls at present) it was common to have a small aperture, through which
the lord or master could inspect, unseen, what was going on below. But
in this situation at Radcliffe is a ramified window of oaken work,
opening from the apartment above mentioned, but now closed up."

[Illustration: RADCLIFFE TOWER.

_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]

This consists of eight arches, with trefoil-pointed tops, four and
four, with two narrower apertures above.

"To this place and family are attached the tradition and ballad given by
Dr Percy, under the name of Isabella, but here applied to a Lord Thomas
and faire Ellenor, father and daughter, whose figures are supposed to be
graven on a slab in the church, which the common people, concluding, I
suppose, from its whiteness, that it was meant as an emblem of the
innocence it is said to cover, have mutilated by breaking off small
fragments, as amulets for the prevention or cure of disorders.
Traditions, always erroneous in their circumstances, are yet rarely
devoid of foundation; and though the pedigrees of Radcliffe exhibit no
failure of the family by the premature death of an heiress; though the
last Richard de Radcliffe, who had daughters only, certainly did not
make 'a scullion-boy the heir of all his land,' when he settled it on
Radcliffe Baron Fitzwalter; though the blood actually pointed out on the
kitchen floor, where this Thyestsean banquet is said to have been
prepared, deserves no more regard than many ot