Page:Hutton, William Holden - Hampton Court (1897).djvu/317

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ITS ENGLISH CHARACTER
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English characteristics—are the marks of the age as they are left at Hampton Court. There is nothing extravagant or fantastic. Even the richness is sobriety itself. The decoration in woodwork, seen so happily here, as in stucco, is homely as well as classical: and so the effect remains to-day. What splendour there may have been of Gobelin tapestry, of Louis Quinze furniture, foreign both, has become insignificant. The rooms may be dingy and brown, but they have never ceased to be homely and national.