"...we have the strangest little rooms, the ceilings of which I can touch with my hand. The windows bulge out over the street, as if they were little stern windows in a ship and a door opens out of the sitting room onto a little open gallery with plants in it where one leans over a queer old rail and looks all downhill and slantwise at the crookedest old black and yellow houses..." For such a large and ancient hotel, it has a paucity of ghosts, only about four plus a couple of poltergeists. One would have thought that this magnificent sixteenth century First-grade former coaching hotel would have gathered quite a multitude of them. Inside there are Tudor fireplaces and oak panelled bars. The huge eponymous lion that stands above the superb portico has to be observed close up. He has a most disagreeable look to his noble mien, with one paw appears to be resting on a bunch of grapes or a plate of cherries. As to the phantoms that roam, the most frequent is that of a soldier from the English Civil War in the bar area. Down in the cellar, where there was once a chapel, a female phantom has taken up residence. The ubiquitous Grey Lady appears in the Adam Ballroom and parades across the stage itself. A polite ghost haunts the staircase from the ballroom where a phantom opens the door for night porters and residents, with then quietly closes it on their retreating backs. Occasionally, a female ghost , witnesses see, near the staircase, standing patiently, with wearing a Victorian style of frock and bonnet.