Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III HISTORICAL CHARTERHOUSE [FTER the dissolution of the Monastery, Charterhouse remained unoccupied, though used as a storehouse for regal tents and pavilions, until 1545, when it was granted to Sir Edward North, a distinguished lawyer and a Privy Councillor. He pulled down the monks' cells and converted them into gardens; built many private rooms, and made considerable improvements. As he was one of the first to declare for Queen Mary, he was raised to the peerage with the title of Lord North. While Charterhouse was in his possession, Queen Elizabeth paid him a visit, and it was the first house in which she slept as Queen after leaving Hatfield. Her visit lasted five days, and three years later, when his lordship was in bad odour, she again held courtthere. The peer's son, Roger, sold part of the place to the Duke of Norfolk in 1565 for 2500, and from that time the present Howard House assumed shape. It was certainly a grand ducal residence. The presence chamber, which we used to call the Governors' Room, was a beautiful long room, surrounded by fine old tapestries, and possessing gilt cornices, mullioned windows, panelled walls, and elaborately painted ceiling. The room was reached by a wide oaken staircase with tastefully carved balustrades. An ante-chamber to the before-mentioned presence chamber was a cozy square room eminently fitted to be a library. We Gownboys sometimes regarded it as an inquisition chamber; for at the end of Oration Quarter all boys below a certain form were examined in it, and if they failed to quit themselves satisfactorily in classics were ignominiously dismissed from the Foundation. The Duke of Norfolk who purchased the Charterhouse was the son of the Earl of Surrey of Henry VIII.'s time. Four years after his purchase he was suspecte...