TRE COURT 



Referring to the plans of the house, it will be noted that the arrangement 

 is entirely symmetrical ; but it is a symmetry which is net incompatible with 

 practical considerations, and does not involve those anomalies of plan which 

 the rigours of the Palladian style enforced on the designers of English 

 country houses in this respect. From the central entrance in the long north 

 front one enters a porch which opens on to an arcade revealing the central 

 paved court, with its fountain and bright tubs of flowers. Immediately 

 adjoining the porch on the right is the business-room communicating with 

 the private study beyond, and in the wing which forms the extension of the 

 north front to the west is the billiard-room with its open timber roof and 

 gallery. Passing along the wide low corridor on the west side of the fountain 

 court, it will be noted that this forms the direct approach from the entrance 

 to the drawing-room ; and adjoining it, and forming the connecting-link 

 between drawing-room and study, is the long and low library ; its unbroken 

 wall-surfaces lined with books, and its central bay-window commanding the 

 garden court, and beyond it one of the chief garden vistas. 



The corridor, which bounds the fountain court on the south, extends 

 east and west, and its lines are extended in the form of pergolas emphasising 

 the unity of design in house and garden. At its centre a bay-window over- 

 looks the fountain court with its arcade to the north, and to right and left, 

 in summer weather, one may catch glimpses of garden vistas checkered with 

 light and shade, and bright with flowers. 



From this corridor the great hall, fifty feet in length, is entered, and here 

 broad white wall-spaces contrast with the darker tones of panelling, and the 

 principal features are the great open fireplace and the bay-window overlooking 

 the terraces and gardens to the south. From this hall, drawing-room and 

 dining-room open with wide doorways, and so the route from the former to 

 the latter is another vista of which the terminal features are the alcoves in 

 both rooms, more richly decorated than the rest of the walls, and with little 

 windows where stained glass show like gems in the shade. 



In the drawing-room the realities of the structure, the display of which 

 gives a certain earnest character to the whole interior, will be modified by a 

 more elegant treatment, and in the boudoir adjoining it the same feeling 

 suggests the octagonal form developed from the square, and the introduction 

 of slender white columns, above which a domed ceiling represents a miniature 

 firmament adorned with flights of birds. 



At the eastern end of the hall is the panelled dining-room, adjoining 

 which the breakfast-room has an eastern aspect. The remaining portion of 

 the ground plan is occupied by the kitchen premises, which provide the usual 

 accommodation required for a house of this size. Of these the kitchen itself 

 has an open timber roof, and the lower part of the walls lined with Dutch tiles. 

 The first floor provides eleven bedrooms and four bathrooms, as well as 

 two of the servants' bedrooms, the remainder of which would be in the floor 

 above, the further development of which would provide a number of addi- 

 tional attic bedrooms. The bedrooms generally have been arranged to form 

 suites, each including a bathroom and dressing-room. 



H7 



