AMERICAN ESTATES AND GARDENS 



department on the left. Two curved stairways, one on each side, are the ai)])roaches to 

 the upper hall, which is the center of the house — the point to which everything radiates and 

 by which the plan is dominated. It is a splendid and surprising room, oval in form, two stories 

 in height, lighted by windows in the outer wall, and by others in the upper floor, from which 

 a flood of sunshine is thrown across the balcony that runs entirely around it. The whole of the 

 lower hall is in pink Caen stone, the upper in white Caen stone; while the upper arches, 

 which complete the inner circle of the upper windows, afford glimpses of Caen stone columns, 

 still higher up, that support the ceiling of the upper corridor. It is a brilliant conception, 

 carried out in a brilliant way. The architectural parts are beautifully refined, and while 

 entirely adequate are carefully subordinated and subdued. The main arches of the lower hall 

 are elliptical in form, and without mouldings; the smaller round arches over the doorways in 



THE H.ALL. 



[47] 



