Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/185

 TITE HALL OF OAKHAM. 139 end of the twelftli century. It seems to have undergone i)ut a trifling alteration since that period. There is a document of an interesting character still preserved amongst the Inqui- sitions in the Tower, which minutely details its precise condi- tion in the 14th of Edw. III., (1340,) and by tiiis record we may be enabled to trace out the site of some of the buildings within the enclosure which have since fallen down. " There is," says the Inquisition, " at Oakham a castle well walled, and in that castle there are one hall, four chambers, one kitchen, two stables, one grange for hay, one house for prisoners, one chamber for the porter, one drawbridge Avith iron chains, and the castle contains within its walls by estimation two acres of land : the aforesaid houses are worth nothing annually beyond reprises. And the same house is similarly called the manor of Oakham. There is wdthout the castle one garden, which is vorth 8s. a year. Stew^s under the castle, wdth the fosse, of the annual value of 3s. 4d. The park called Fliterich contains 100 acres, the pasture of wdiich is worth £0. 13s. 4d. a year. The park called the Little Park con- tains 40 acres, the herbage of which is w^orth £G per annum, and the underwood 6s. 8d. A windmill and a watermill are worth £8, and the presentation of the free chapel placed within the castle amounts to 100s.'" The architectural character of the hall is of that unmixed nature that it will require but little description. It is in all respects conformable to what is considered the most interest- ing of the various styles, as it belongs to the period when the plain and massive Norman w-as gradually merging into Early English. The features of this style partake of the peculiar- ities of both. The example before us is what may be termed pure transitional. This is particularly observable in the pointed lights, which are placed within segmental arches, with dog-tooth ornaments in their jambs ; as well as in the comparative massiveness of the buttresses, and the larger size of the stone ashlars where they are used for walling at the top of the building. These features, as well as the flowing and enriched form of the capitals, the square abacus with the angles slightly canted, entirely assimilate with the capitals of the choir on the south side of Canterbury cathedral. Closer resemblance in foliation it would be difficult to adduce. They are moreover analogous to capitals in the cathedrals of Sois- ' Inquis. 1+ Edw. III., 2nd Nos., No. 67.