Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/700

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

A HISTORY OF SURREY

��with the laurel frieze is painted brown and gold ; the ceiling is plain.

A doorway in the middle of the gallery gives access to the north drawing-room, which is lighted by two windows in the north side and has a white marble fireplace in the south wall ; the walls are panelled in white and gold, over which are Mortlake tapestries representing scenes of husbandry, &c. ; the ceiling is panelled, the main ribs being enriched with festoons, &c. Next, east of this, is the round gallery or upper part of the marble hall ; the gallery, which is octagonal in plan, runs all round the hall, being narrow at the sides and wider at the ends ; the ceiling is an enriched one with a large oval centre- piece with fruit and flowers. Also opening out of the north drawing-room is the Miniature Room over

��east wing (east of the bedroom) has an earlier stone fireplace with a four-centred Tudor arch with shields in the spandrels and a carved lintel. The room is lined with painted oak panelling with bolection moulds, and has a plain cornice and ceiling. The small room next to it, over the china closet, has similar brown panelling and a red marble fireplace.

The yellow satin room opens into the small stair- case west of it, from which admittance is gained to a small room (with the laurel-frieze cornice), whence is entered the Queen's audience closet. Adjoining it is another small room, richly decorated and with an arched recess at its end containing a tapestry with the arms of the Duke of Lauderdale and having a painted ceiling representing the Rape of Ganymede ; the fireplace of this room is of scagliola work,

���HAM HOUSE : SOUTH FRONT

��the north-west portico ; this room has a painted ceiling by Verrio.

The room over the other portico is a dressing-room communicating with the ' Feathers ' or ' Prince of Wales's" bedroom in the north end of the west wing, so called because it formerly had the Prince of Wales's feathers above the fireplace and over the bed. The dressing-room has a stone fireplace with a carved lintel and a shield in the middle. The bedroom has a large plain dark grey marble fireplace, and is lighted by a bay window. The round gallery and the 'feathers ' bedroom can both be entered from the grand stair-hall. South of the stair-hall is the 'Yel- low satin bedroom,' which, as its name implies, is hung with yellow satin brocade ; the fireplace is of yellow- veined grey marble and has a white marble keystone ; the cornice has a deep carved Jacobean frieze, original with the first building ; the room is lighted by a bay window. The dressing-room in the later small

��forming a foliage design in the lintel and twisted pillars in the jambs and with the initials E.D.L. ; the floor is of inlaid parquetry like the Cabal Room, the window ledge is inlaid marble like the fireplace ; opposite the fireplace is a tapestry similar to that in the recess. The Cabal Room, next west, is a large room hung with Mortlake tapestries of the four seasons ; the floor is of oak parquetry of plain basket pattern for the greater part, but for a space of 9 ft. 6 in. across the east end of a much more elaborate design in which the monogram E.D.L. again occurs ; the dado is of white and gold with egg-and-tongue enrichment. The fireplace is of red marble, and the picture frame over it has gilded festoons about it ; the plaster ceiling is ornamented in high relief, the main ribs and the cornice having a laurel-leaf en- richment. The ' Blue and Silver Room ' lies between the Cabal Room and the long gallery, and is lined with blue and silver striped tapestry ; it has a green and

��528

�� �