The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-15

horses and riders. The great hall floor of Haddon was covered with the prod ucts of the chase.
 The preparations for feasting the noble hunting party was not unworthy of the reputation for solid hospitality which ap- pertained to the King of the Peak. Min strels had come from many parts, as far free-spoken. rough-witted men, for "the selvage of the web," as the northern prov erb says, is aye, the coarsest of the cloth" In the great larder 1000 rarities were preparing for pleasing the eye and appeasing the appetite. Tn the kitchen, with its huge f1replaces and prodigious splits, the naidens were flooded nigh ankle deep in the grease which came from tho richness of roasted oxen and deer turning on the splits. The great kitchen tables groaned and yielded beneath the wealth of roasted oxen and spitted deer, while stream of rich smoke massy and savory, sallied out of the grated windows and sailed around the mansion like mist exhaled by the influence of the moon. An. those were the golden days of England, and high-born gentlemen stint ed not the profuseness of his hospitality.
 The great hall prepared for this prince ly feast had floor of solid stone which was strewn with sweet smelling rushes and ferns. The dogs of the chase lay there. their mouths still red with the blood of the stags and panting yet from the fevor of their long pursuit. At the lower end of the hall was a table for the stewards and other chiefs over the menials. There sat the keeper of the bows. the chief falconer, the warder of the chase. together with many others of lower degree. Over their heads were hung the horns of stags, the jaws of boars, the skulls of enormous bisons and the foreheads of foxes. Banners, shields, along the walls. with many trophy won in the Scottish wars and many a one gained in the wars of the crusades. Also might be seen strange weapons of of- fense and defense wrested long ago from invading Danes and Norwegians. And many a knightly banner waved in the breath of wind which wandered along the rich and lofty roof.
 
 Nor did this great baronial hall lack family portraits" They were crude af- fairs. rudely executed by rustic artists but they were the effisies of heroes. Hunt ing horns, arquebuses. swords. buff coats. bows and caps were thrown negll- gently in heaps upon the floor, while their owners took their seats, with many a laughing jest, at the great tables and waited expectantly for the feast to be- gin-the feast which they hoped to wash down with floods of wine or that salutary drink the brown blood of the barley.
 At the upper end of the hall. where the floor was elevated a few steps, was spread the great table for the feasting of the no- bles. It was one solid plank of white sye- amore shaped from the entire shaft of an enormous tree, and was supported by squat columns of oak ornamented with the arms of the vernons and erooved into the stone floor beyond all chance Of being upset by human powers. Benches of carved oak, covered with cushions of en- broidered velvet. were arranged around this table, while behind 1t. upon the wall, hung . great arras, on which were de- picted in needlework bridal processions and festivals taken from the old poets.