Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/85

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mode of punishment and plan of imprisonment fully evince. Prompt execution on a lofty gallows fol- lowed the hearing of his dread tribunal ; and till his leisure allowed investigation, the prisoners were confined in the dungeons, four horrible apartments which still exhibit the rings to which the criminals were chained to secure them during the dreadful interval that passed between capture and death.

Severe and rigid, however, towards his enemies, Lord William was right hospitable to the peace- able part of his neighbours; and the hall, a noble old apartment eighty feet long, rang at all the great festivals with the cheerful sounds and loud de- lights of the long-protracted feast. This room is certainly a grand specimen of the festal chamber of the days of chivalry; and all lis ornaments a- waken feudal ideas. The deling is divided into a variety of wooden-pannelled compartments, each containing the portrait of the Saxon, Norman, and other sovereigns of England, and their royal branches, to the union of the houses of York and Lancaster; shields and atchievements emboss the intersections of the ribs. A great gallery rears itself at one end of the room, whence the minstrel poured forth his animating strains, crowned with the hVure of a knieait in armour. The chimney, stretching to a width of seventeen feet, must have

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