ten o'clock
It was , indeed , a stately apartment ; the ceiling consisting of a smooth vault of ashlar-work , the stones being curiously joined and fitted together ; and the walls and roof decorated by some of those great painters who flourished in England under the patronage of King Henry and his fair and accomplished queen , Eleanor of Provence . Here was represented the battle of Hastings ; there the siege of Jerusalem by the Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon and Robert Curthose ; here the battle of the Standard ; there the signing of the Great Charter by King John , under the oak of Runnymede . Around the hall might be traced the armorial bearings of the lord of the castle and the chief families with whom the lord of the castle was allied by blood -- the three water-budgets of De Roos ; the three Katherine-wheels of Espec ; the engrailed cross of De Vesci ; the seven blackbirds of Merley ; the lion argent of Dunbar in its field of gules ; and the ruddy lion of Scotland , ramping in gold ; while on the roof was depicted the castle itself , with gates , and battlements , and pinnacles , and towers ; and there also , very conspicuous , was the form of a rose , and around it was inscribed in Gothic letters the legend -- He who doth secrets reveal , Beneath my roof shall never live . It was ten o'clock -- in that age the hour of dinner -- when Walter Espec and Guy Muschamp entered the great hall of the castle , and , the household having assembled for that important meal , a huge oaken table , which in shape resembled the letter T , groaned under massive sirloins . Attended by his jesters , the lord of the castle took his seat on the dais , which was reserved for his family and his guests of high rank ; while the knights , squires , pages , and retainers ranged themselves above and below the salt , according to their claims to precedence ; and hawks stood around on perches , and hounds lay stretched on the rushy floor , waiting their turn to be fed . Much ceremony was of course observed . The sirloins were succeeded by fish and fowl , and dishes curiously compounded ; and , as was the fashion of that feudal age , the dinner lasted three hours .