STAPLEFORD PARK, LEICESTER 



191 



FIG. 128. The Deanery, Wells. 



of panelling and decorating large rooms which prevailed at the 

 time it was built, namely, 1673. The Stationers' Hall has as 

 fine a screen and doorway as those of the Brewers, and indeed 

 most of the city halls, in spite of modern renovations, retain 

 good work of this period, among the less known examples of 

 which is the rich panelling at Girdlers' Hall, in Basinghall 

 Street (Fig. 127). 



Outside London there was a large amount of work done 

 during this period, much of it fresh and interesting. Stapleford 

 Park, in Leicestershire, a house with a long history and possess- 

 ing some unusual derail of the date of 1633, was considerably 

 altered and enlarged about the time of Charles II. by Bennet, 

 Lord Sherard, who was in possession from 1640 to 1700. The 

 exterior is plain, but in the interior are two rooms, with charm- 

 ing woodwork ; the door of the dining-room is illustrated in 

 Fig. 130, and that of the library in Fig. 129. The two doors differ, 

 but they are alike in that each is placed on a slight projection 

 which causes a break in the main cornice of the room. The 



