Note 138 — Chapter IV

Neither does the house appear to have been well suited to serve the purposes for which it was taken. Speed tells us,[138] and he is confirmed by Bishop Barlow of Lincoln,[139] that it was let out to tenants only when Parliament was not assembled, and during a session formed part of the premises at the disposal of the Lords, whom it served as a withdrawing room. As the Plot was, of necessity, to take effect during a session,[140] when the place would thus be in other hands, it is very hard to understand how it was intended that the final and all important operation should be conducted.