PAfeNHAAl. 233 



in the parlour looking into the stable-yard, and the large eastern 

 windows in the drawing-room and bedroom over it. The two 

 windows in the oak parlour were filled up inside the glass in their 

 recesses with baulks of stone, but the other two window recesses 

 had been simply filled with lath and plaster inside the glass, so 

 that the stones were removed from the former recesses and the 

 plastering from the latter, and the windows remained intact as 

 they were at first built. Another piece of old work was revealed 

 by removal of plaster work papered over in 1810, which brought 

 the old buttery hatch to light in its original position, the door 

 even hanging, but crumbling to dust as it was opened after 

 ninety years of seclusion. The passage into which this opened 

 leads to the Great Hall, which in the Strodes' time was the 

 dining-room of the house. 



In all these alterations the modern work was placed up against 

 the old without removing or disfiguring it in any way ; and it 

 appears to me that there was perfect justification for restoring the 

 ancient work, more particularly as the parts removed had no 

 claims of any kind to be considered as art productions they 

 consisted simply of lath and plaster, covered with paper. 



The beauty of Parnham is greatly due to the perfectly Tudor 

 character of its architecture. In the Great Hall the Strode 

 windows remain with the Strode emblazonments in their original 

 glass from 1505 to 1703, and over the great chimney is a shield 

 with the quarterings of many of the Oglanders placed there in 

 1 8 10, whilst on the top of the screen are the arms of the 

 Robinsons, its present owners. It was, therefore, thought that 

 there would be no impropriety in putting a fine screen of the 

 actual date of the house in this hall in the position from which 

 one had evidently been removed by the Oglanders. And this 

 was done. The panelling also which originally adorned the 

 Great Hall is now to be found about other parts of the house ; 

 and preference was given to putting a series of panelling from a 

 Norfolk house of the same date as Parnham into the hall to 

 complete the restoration rather than to pulling the original down 

 from other rooms to place it in its original position. 



