32 But turning from its beauties to architectural details, Imay note that in making some repairs we found that above the arches at each end there had originally been a four-light window. These must have very much lightened the effect of the wall, now altogether blank, which these arches bear. The plaster soffit of one of these windows was found built into the wall. It was of most excellent design, and I had it carefully and accurately reproduced in stone, and have used it as the frieze of a mantelpiece.00 The door from the Terrace to the house with its four-centred, or rather tangential arch, is true perpendicular Gothic in its mouldings and general effect ; and supplies another proof of the endurance of that style into the Renaissance in which this house is built. The seats under the arches are apparently co-eval with the house, and are most curious in design and execution. In three old drawings of this front, in my possession, the balustrade is represented as running the whole length of the Terrace ; whereas it terminates at each end by the second panel raking down to a low pier. And modern illustrators of the house, Mr. Nash, Mr. Shaw, and others, have in like manner represented the balustrade as continuous from end to end. Yet there is every reason to doubt whether such an arrangement ever existed. Some years ago Imade a most careful examination of the terminating piers, in which I was assisted by an eminent London builder ; and we found the raking balusters and terminal piers, apparently of the same age, stone and workmanship ; and the curb of the terrace shews no trace whatever of having been part of, or topped by, the sill of a balustrade. We were convinced that the balustrade had always terminated as now, at a short distance from the arches, leaving the greater part of the Terrace open. It would seem as if the old draughtsmen, like their modern successors, observing that the balustrade goes entirely round the
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See infra.
