noon
At the nether end of the hall , a huge , heavy , stone-wrought chimney-piece projected itself ten feet from the wall , adorned with many a cipher , and many a scutcheon of the Royal House of England . In its present state , it yawned like the arched mouth of a funeral vault , or perhaps might be compared to the crater of an extinguished volcano . But the sable complexion of the massive stone-work , and all around it , showed that the time had been when it sent its huge fires blazing up the huge chimney , besides puffing many a volume of smoke over the heads of the jovial guests , whose royalty or nobility did not render them sensitive enough to quarrel with such slight inconvenience . On these occasions , it was the tradition of the house , that two cart-loads of wood was the regular allowance for the fire between noon and curfew , and the andirons , or dogs , as they were termed , constructed for retaining the blazing firewood on the hearth , were wrought in the shape of lions of such gigantic size as might well warrant the legend . There were long seats of stone within the chimney , where , in despite of the tremendous heat , monarchs were sometimes said to have taken their station , and amused themselves with broiling the _ umbles _ , or _ dowsels _ , of the deer , upon the glowing embers , with their own royal hands , when happy the courtier who was invited to taste the royal cookery . Tradition was here also ready with her record , to show what merry gibes , such as might be exchanged between prince and peer , had flown about at the jolly banquet which followed the Michaelmas hunt . She could tell , too , exactly , where King Stephen sat when he darned his own princely hose , and knew most of the odd tricks he had put upon little Winkin , the tailor of Woodstock .