INTERIOR DECORATION OF HOUGHTON 255 



passing through other rooms. The whole effect is stately both 

 inside and out, and although in the present day there may be a 

 certain lack of comfort, yet the house fully met the needs of the 

 time when it was built, and it provided the atmosphere of splen- 

 dour which was demanded by all great persons of the period. 

 The whole facade is over 500 ft. long, the central block has a 

 frontage of 165 ft., and the wings no ft. These are handsome 

 dimensions ; they are indeed so large that it is not easy for the 

 eye to include the whole group at once from any ordinary view- 

 point. The illustration (Fig. 173) only shows the house and its 

 colonnades, beyond which the reader's imagination must add 

 the wings, which are strictly subordinated in height to the main 

 building. 



The interior decorations are attributed to Kent, who was 

 assisted in the plasterwork by the Italian, Artari. But the 

 stone hall (Fig. 174) follows Campbell's drawing in the main, 

 as may be seen by comparing it with his sections in " Vitruvius 

 Britannicus." The ceiling is a remarkable tour deforce, and the 

 cove, with its children disporting themselves among the wreaths, 

 is much admired. There is plenty of movement and variety in 

 it, but the figures are a little inclined to obesity. The whole 

 work perhaps suffers from being in too high relief, but its vigour 

 and freedom of design are incontestably admirable. One of the 

 principal rooms is called the marble dining-room, and it was 

 intended to be lined with marble throughout, but one side only 

 was carried out in this manner (Fig. 175). It includes a fine 

 chimney-piece, characteristic of the grander type then in vogue ; 

 on either side of it are marble-lined recesses in which are placed 

 marble sideboards to correspond with their surroundings. The 

 panel of the chimney-piece contains a figure subject, a sacrifice 

 to Bacchus, carved by Rysbrach, and the decoration, both here 

 and in the ceiling, consists largely of grapes, a form of ornament 

 highly appropriate to a room devoted to entertainments in 

 which deep drinking played an important part. The woodwork 

 throughout is exceedingly handsome ; it is executed for the 

 most part in mahogany, a precious wood which had not previously 

 been used in great abundance. The doorway of the green state 

 room is an example of a rich treatment (Fig. 176), and Sir 

 Robert's dressing-room one of a plainer handling (Fig. 177). 

 The principal staircase has an exceedingly massive mahogany 



