The hall is approached through an entrance gateway, giving access to a fine avenue leading directly up a gentle slope to the moat and main drawbridge of the hall.  The house, of red brick, wonderfully tinted by the hand of time, is remarkably picturesque, with its twisted chimneys, finely proportioned gables, and beautiful bay windows; and its charm is considerably enhanced by the brickwork, with sturdy buttresses here and there, rising sheer out of the clear and tranquil waters of the moat.  The hall is entered by two bridges, each ending in a drawbridge, which is kept in full working order, and both drawbridges are, and have been for some hundreds of years, hauled up at ten o’clock every night, when the house can only be approached from the park by means of a boat.

On crossing the main bridge, one enters the inner court, a fine red brick quadrangle, much after the style of those at Hampton Court.  From this access is gained to the various wings and apartments of the mansion, the finest room being the hall, with its deep oak dado, fireplace, and open timber roof.  The best suite of rooms looks out across the moat to the beautiful gardens.  These are some of the most magnificent in the county, and they are most carefully and elaborately arranged, and always kept in fine condition.  The garden is divided into two portions by a strip of water covered with lilies.

[Illustration:  HELMINGHAM HALL.

An Elizabethan moated mansion.  Its drawbridge has been lowered and raised every day for about 400 years.]

STONEHENGE, WILTSHIRE

=How to get there.=—­Train from Waterloo.  South-Western Railway. =Nearest Station.=—­Amesbury (1-1/2 miles from Stonehenge). =Distance from London.=—­80 miles. =Average Time.=—­3 hours.

                     1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=—­Single 13s. 2d. 8s. 3d. 6s. 7-1/2d. 
          Return 23s. 2d. 14s. 8d. 13s. 3d.

=Accommodation Obtainable.=—­“The George Hotel” at Amesbury. 
  “Railway Hotel” (small) at Porton.
=Alternative Route.=—­Porton Station, 5-1/2 miles, and Salisbury Station,
  8 miles from Stonehenge.

One of the earliest and most enduring works of man in the British Islands is to be seen in the circles of giant stones on Salisbury Plain.  They stand in two concentric circles.  The outer ring of monoliths encloses an inner one of blue stones about half their height.  These in turn surround a horseshoe formation consisting of the remains of five great trilithons.  Some of these stones have fallen across the flat one known as the altar stone, occupying a central position at the head of the horseshoe.  On the 21st of June the sun rises exactly in a line with the centre of the horseshoe and the long earthen avenue leading towards the stones, and thus throws a ray between two of the outer monoliths and touches the altar stone.  This orientation on the plan of so many eastern shrines proves that Stonehenge was the temple of some early sun-worshipping race of men in Britain.