The Star Hotel, Great Yarmouth.

COMMUNICATED BY

C. J. PALMER, ESQ., F.S.A.

THE Star Hotel, situate on the Quay at Great Yarmouth, bears abundant evidence of having been erected in the latter part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and affords us a good specimen of the residence of a wealthy burgess at that period.

The exterior, fronting the Quay, built of smoothed squared flints, with stone dressings, has undergone little alteration. There is a balcony to the first floor supported on pillars. The entrance and the rooms on either side on the ground floor are low. It was a common practice at the period when this house was erected, to appropriate this part of the building for the reception of goods and merchandise; the principal rooms for the family being on the first floor, and at the back where there was usually a garden.

The oaken staircase is broad and fleet, with a heavy balustrade.

The principal room on the first floor, looking upon the Quay, is called "The Nelson Room," because it contains a portrait of that great Captain painted from the life, by Keymer, a native artist.

This room is in excellent preservation, and presents an admirable specimen of interior decoration prevalent at the period of its erection. The walls are lined throughout with

wainscot, now black with age. They are panelled to the height of five feet, divided at regular intervals by fluted pilasters which support pedestals with terminal figures, alternately male and female, between which there is a series of ornamental panels with flat arches richly carved. Between the panelling and the ceiling there is a fine moulded border or cornice. The ceiling is divided by flat bands like the cornice into six compartments, which are adorned with ribbed mouldings and pendant fruit and flowers. The door at the north-east corner opens from a small lobby cut out of the room.1

Over the fire-place are carved upon a panel in high relief, the arms of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of England, which was incorporated early in the sixteenth century, and designed to supersede the Silyard Company of Foreign Merchants, whose exclusive privileges were subsequently withdrawn.

These arms are, az. in base a sea with a dolphin's head appearing in the water, all prop. On the sea a ship with three masts in full sail or, the sails and rigging ar. on each sail a cross gu. in the dexter chief point the luce in splendour, and in the sinister chief point an etoile or. On a chief ar. a cross gu. charged with the lion of England. For a crest, on a wreath two arms embowed issuing out of clouds, all prop. holding a globe or. For supporters, two sea horses ar. fumed or. The arms in this house are not emblazoned, the globe has been taken from the crest, and the supporters, if they ever were there, are gone.

1 There is a similar arrangement in an Elizabethan room at Thame Court, Oxfordshire; also in the gallery at Rockingham Castle.

2 The same coat is carved in a room at No. 4, South Quay, Great Yarmouth; and it is met with in houses of the same class and period at other sea-ports. The form of oath taken on admission to "The Freedom of the Fellowship of Merchant Adventurers of England" is given in "A Booke of the Foundacion and Antiquitye of the Towne of Greate Yermurthe," edited by Mr. C. J. Palmer, in 1847 (p. 138.)

The open fire-place in this room had been filled up and boarded over (except a small space in which a modern stove had been inserted) until very recently, when, upon removing the modern wood-work, the original stone chimney-piece was discovered. The Dutch tiles with which the open fire-place is now lined were taken from an old house in Row No. 83. On the south side of this room there is another apartment into which there is a small door through the wainscot, not easily perceived. There is a pendant ceiling in this room; and there are also similar ceilings in the front chambers on the second floor.

Another apartment, at the back of the house, raised above the ground floor, but not on a level with the first floor, although divided and much mutilated, presents some remarkable features of its former magnificence. An original window still remains entire; its oaken frame elaborately carved externally. It has fourteen lights in two tiers, the three centre lights both above and below being larger than the others. What remains of the ceiling is very fine; the pendants being of unusual size and beauty: it is profusely adorned with fruits and flowers.3

Beyond this room, to the east, was another apartment; and again, beyond the latter, was what was called the Banqueting House, a name frequently applied to an apartment opening into a garden; and here probably there was a small garden extending to Middle or Blind Middle Street, now called Howard Street. Of this Banqueting House nothing now remains. It was entirely destroyed in 1740, and a malt-house erected on the site. When this house ceased to be a private residence and became a tavern, the malt-house was converted into stables and coach-houses. These, with

3 This apartment was for many years used as a kitchen to the hotel. The stone chimney-piece now in this room was found in fragments in an upper chamber, and has since been inserted by the present proprietor. Over this room there is a chamber in which a many-lighted original window still remains

the adjoining apartment to the west, were all pulled down by the present proprietor, and a spacious dining-room and a billiard-room erected on the site. When this demolition took place some curious discoveries were made.

Next the apartment with the beautiful ceiling already mentioned, were found the jambs of a stone mantle-piece, seven feet wide; and imbedded in some of the adjacent walls were found several corbel heads, and fragments of string courses, mouldings, and other ornaments, all of an ecclesiastical character.1 There may still be seen in an external wall adjoining the South Row, a small fragment of an elegant stone screen; and in the wall next the North Row there are the remains of an ancient window arched and faced with stone; and the adjoining wall is partly constructed of stone rubble evidently obtained from some other building.

It is probable that all these fragments were brought from the possessions of the Augustine Friars, who had a cell or branch establishment at Yarmouth, belonging to the Great Priory at Gorleston; suppressed and demolished at the Reformation.

Almost immediately opposite the Hotel yard, on the east side of Howard Street, a large building which once belonged to the Augustine Friars still remains. Below it are extensive vaults, now used as a porter store, approached from the street by a low arched door-way; and the upper part is occupied as a place of meeting for the Society of Friends. It is much to be regretted that the cut-flint front of this building next Howard Street has been white-washed.

There is a popular belief that the Star Hotel was the property or residence of Bradshaw, the President of the Commission by which Charles I. was condemned and sent to the scaffold; but it has no foundation in fact.

Early in the sixteenth century there was in the county

• Some of these fragments are preserved in the garden of the Assembly-rooms, South Beach.