MODELLED PLASTER ORNAMENT 



387 



many distinguished people; William Pitt, Viscount Bridport, 

 and Admiral Lord Keith did much to shape the history of their 

 time ; Allan Ramsay, portrait painter to George III., may stand 

 for Art, and James Stuart, author of the "Antiquities of Athens," 

 may represent architecture and archaeology. At present these 

 streets are more particularly associated with the pursuit of 



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FlG. 313. Part of Ceiling, Cottesbrooke Hall, Northants. 



medicine; their inhabitants are no less celebrated than those of 

 old, but their fame is of a special kind, and those who go to 

 consult them on matters of life and death may well be excused 

 if they spare no thought for the decoration which covers the 

 ceilings above their heads. 



The work of the latter part of the eighteenth century was 

 so dominated by the influence of the Adams that a few further 

 examples of their designs may be of interest. In the staircase 

 from a house in Mansfield Street (Fig. 315) all superfluous 

 ornament has been eliminated, so much so that one almost 

 longs for something less chaste and cold. In some moods and 

 to some temperaments Venus is more attractive than Diana. 



