108 THE NEW FOREST 



very rotten, and under my investigations it gave 

 way sufficiently to give an idea of what might 

 be underneath. I quickly examined into this, 

 and, to my joy, found the panelling intact. Better 

 still, I had recently discovered in a loft over a 

 stable, a carved mantelpiece for which I could not 

 account. On bringing this to light, the outline 

 on the paint of the panels showed that it was 

 the original mantelpiece that fitted into its old 

 place perfectly in the drawing-room of the house 

 as it formerly was. 



I soon besought the Office of Woods to carry 

 out the restoration of this room to its original 

 form. What they would not do, I myself supple- 

 mented, and the result was a very pretty old 

 room exactly in keeping with the rest of the 

 house. 



In the rebuilding in the days of Charles II, 

 the idea of an abode that should be of the nature 

 of " our lodgings in New Forest " was always 

 kept in sight, and the result was a house of 

 peculiar and by no means convenient planning. 



On the first floor are all the principal rooms 

 of the house, and very good lofty rooms they 

 are, opening all one into the other, as was the 

 custom of that day, and occupying the whole of 

 the first floor on both sides of the house. These 

 were no doubt the apartments reserved, and built 



