beside the central well, enjoying each his tankard of ale. A few
more were watching Poppet being combed down, and conversing with the
newly-arrived grooms. One was carrying a little child in his arms,
and a young man and maid sitting on the low wall round the well,
seemed to be carrying on a courtship over the pitcher that stood
waiting to be filled. Two lads were playing at skittles, children
were running up and down the stairs and along the wooden galleries,
and men and women went and came by the entrance gateway between the
two effigies of knights in armour. Some were servants bringing helm
or gauntlet for repair, or taking the like away. Some might be
known by their flat caps to be apprentices, and two substantial
burgesses walked in together, as if to greet Master Headley on his
return. Immediately after, a man-cook appeared with white cap and
apron, bearing aloft a covered dish surrounded by a steamy cloud,
followed by other servants bearing other meats; a big bell began to
sound, the younger men and apprentices gathered together and the
brothers descended the stairs, and entered by the big door into the
same large hall where they had been received. The spacious hearth
was full of green boughs, with a beaupot of wild rose, honeysuckle,
clove pinks and gilliflowers; the lower parts of the walls were hung
with tapestry representing the adventures of St. George; the
mullioned windows had their upper squares filled with glass, bearing
the shield of the City of London, that of the Armourers' Company,
the rose and portcullis of the King, the pomegranate of Queen
Catharine, and other like devices. Others, belonging to the
Lancastrian kings, adorned the pendants from the handsome open roof
and the front of a gallery for musicians which crossed one end of
the hall in the taste of the times of Henry V. and Whittington.

Far more interesting to the hungry travellers was it that the long