TAPPER TON. ,5 9 



the principal staircase and of the west room in the north wing, 

 are of the Jacobean period, it would seem probable that Richard 

 Brodrepp the ist was the rebuilder. 



The great features of the interior are the ceilings of the 

 drawing room and the room above, both lighted originally by the 

 great bay window now unhappily destroyed. In the ceiling of 

 the drawing room, in the panels formed by the bold geometric 

 traceries of the plaster, are repeated in several places the crest or 

 arms of the Bretts and Morgans. In the room above wooden 

 bosses, fastened with iron bolts through the floor over, form a 

 basis from which spring to the ceiling moulded plaster arches, 

 which mouldings, continued and intersecting each other, form 

 panels and patterns, while round the room is a cornice of 10 or 

 1 1 inches deep, in which the head of a man and a woman, each 

 in a medallion with tracery between, are repeated. This cornice 

 seems to have been cast in a mould in lengths of some 6 feet 

 each, and then put in place and joined. 



These ceilings are said to be of the same style and design 

 as those in a well known house at Seven Oaks, in Kent, and 

 of several houses in other places ; and as it is known that 

 Henry VIII. introduced foreign workmen into England to carry 

 out work of this special style, it is reasonable to suppose that 

 these ceilings were executed when the house was originally built, 

 either by some of these foreign workmen or their pupils, the 

 more especially as the grant of " the Bonnet patent " seems to 

 imply an intimacy or connection between the Morgan family and 

 the Royal Court. 



The ceilings of the principal staircase and of the west room of 

 the north wing are, as I have mentioned above, of a much later 

 date, and were probably part of Richard Brodrepp's Jacobean 

 restoration. 



A minor feature of the interior, of interest to any one skilled 

 in actual workmanship, is that the old oak doors, though only 

 one inch in thickness, are still for the most part quite "true" 

 and "out of winding," and have scarcely shrunk, if at all, since 

 the day they were put in place* 



