KINGSTON HUNDRED
��PETERSHAM
��door has a carved and fluted head, below which is the inscription ' 1610 VIVA T REX.' The porticoes in the angles formed by the north front with the wings have single arches to the north, and two facing inwards, and their back walls are plastered and painted with landscapes. All around the three sides of this front towards the court are oval niches with busts of Roman emperors, &c., and two in the west wing are of Charles I and Charles II. The 18th-century bays in the ends of the wings have plain brick windows with wood sashes, and the bays are not relieved with string-courses like the main house. The walls of the older portion are finished with a moulded cornice with plain modillions running right round the front and either wing until it meets the later work on the east and west. The windows of the projecting stair- hall are similar to those on the north front, while those of the small added wing are like those on the south front. In the old wings are bay windows, which appear to be as old as the wings themselves, but are modernized in the lower part ; the windows in them have plain Portland stone jambs and wooden sashes. The bays stop at the level of the second floor with a balustraded parapet, the second-floor windows overlooking them having round-headed middle lights and square side lights under a pediment ; they are evidently later than the walls in which they are set. The eaves cornice of all the later work is much more elaborate than the other, being enriched by egg-and- dart ornament and rosettes on the soffit.
The west face agrees with the south face in its southern half ; at the north end of the south-west wing is a doorway admitting to the library staircase. The older wing on the north half of this front has a very large chimney-stack, which serves the kitchen fireplace and those over it. The roofs of the house are covered with slates. The main entrance in the middle of the north front opens directly into the north-west corner of the ' Marble Hall,' a fine room 42 ft. by 2 1 ft. with a black and white marble floor and a slightly raised platform at the east end, which is of wood parquetry. It is lighted by three north windows and has a fireplace of black marble with gilded swags in the lintel, and a white marble shelf on ogee brackets. The walls are panelled in wood painted green and gold, and there are doorways on the south to the dining- room and the passage next to the 'green drawing room,' and on the west to the long passage traversing the west half of the house, while an archway in the east wall gives access to the main staircase. The hall, originally of one story, was opened in the 1 8th century to the second floor, with a gallery running all round at the old first-floor level. The newels of the staircase are square with carved panels in their sides, and heads carved as wicker baskets filled with fruit and flowers, and the balustrades and wall panels are divided into bays filled with trophies of arms. The stair ascends from the ground to the second floor, the doorways opening on to it having classical busts set in broken pediments over them.
The ground-floor room of the east wing is occupied by the chapel, which is fitted with 18th-century wood panelling and seats, and has an altar table at the north end in the recess formed by the bay ; the lights of the bay are, however, closed by the oak panelling, as are the lower halves of the side windows. The ceiling is plastered and has a wood cornice. The
��space west of the marble hall and north of the passage to the west door is now occupied by offices, and the north end of the west wing contains two apartments lined with oak panelling which were formerly the still- room and the housekeeper's room. The dining-room is entered from the south-west corner of the marble hall, the doorway being in the middle of its north wall and fitted with a two-leaved door ; on either side of it in the same wall are recesses matching the doorway ; all with carved architraves. This wall is very thick, consisting of a later wall built against an earlier one. The room is lighted through the south wall by two windows and a middle doorway opening out on to the south terrace ; the fireplace in the east wall is a square opening with moulded blue-veined white marble jambs and lintel. The ceiling is plain and has a moulded cornice with a laurel-leaf frieze. The Red Room is a smaller apartment east of the dining-room, from which it is entered. The fireplace in its north wall is of a red marble. The ceiling is plain with the laurel-leaf cornice. A door in the north wall opens into a small stair-hall, formerly called the Volary Room, between this room and the marble hall. The Green Room is next, east of the Red Room, and occupies the south end of the original east wing. It is lighted by a bay window and has a marble fireplace with an old fireback in its east walls and is lined with white and gold raised panelling over which are hung tapestries representing the Flight of Pyrrhus and other subjects ; the ceiling is plain. To the north of the room is a narrow passage with a stair at its end. The later south-east small wing is divided into two rooms ; the 'card room' is entered from the Green Room ; it has a corner fireplace of marble and is panelled in white and gold ; the ceiling is coved and painted by Verrio. The other room, north of the card room, is the china closet, filled with valuable old china ; this also has a corner fireplace and a painted ceiling. Next to it is a very small staircase to the first floor, approached from the china closet and from the narrow passage next the Green Room which communicates with the marble hall, &c. Lord Dysart's study is west of the dining- room, and to the north of it is a small staircase. Lord Dysart's bedroom (formerly the Duchess of Lauderdale's bedroom) lies west of the study and occupies the south end of the old west wing ; it is lighted by a bay window, has a square fireplace of black white-veined marble in its west wall, and on the north side an alcove, the ceiling of which is painted with allegorical figures, flowers, and festoons in an oval panel in which also are the initials E.D.L. The room is lined with brown and gold bolection moulded panelling. Beyond is the Duchess of Lauderdale's dressing-room. The later small west wing contains the valet's room, lavatory, &c. The staircase in the north end of this wing has a moulded oak handrail and turned balusters. A doorway on the first floor opens from this stair-hall into the library (over the valet's room, &c.), which has an ornamental plastered ceiling. It contains many valuable MSS, and books, including no less than fourteen Caxtons. In the same wing to the south is a smaller room through which entrance may be gained into the long gallery which fills the whole of the old west wing and is some 73ft. 6 in. long with a bay window at each end. The walls are panelled and divided into bays by fluted pilasters with Ionic capitals ; the cornice
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