AMERICAN ESTATES AND GARDENS 



of rare marble supporting an antique statue, connects it with the rotunda, through which the 

 hall is entered and the main part of the house is reached. This rotunda is a circular room, 

 beautifully paneled and vaulted, and lined throughout with stone. Cushioned seats are built in 

 below the panels, and a Roman table stands in the center. 



The main hall is on the north front of the house, having three large round arched windows 

 opening on to the court. The ceiling is flat, with a segmental arch at either end, one over the 

 beginning of the stairs, the other before the enclosure at the far end, and in which stands the 

 fireplace. It is brilliantly lighted by the great windows, which are hung with silk curtains, and 

 is walled and floored with marble. A deep frieze is carried around the upper walls, painted in 

 subdued tones, and representing hunting scenes and foliage in the rectangular panels, and birds 

 and plants in the spandrels between the arches, which, in their turn, have a broad border of 

 painted ornament, this happy mural decoration thus relieving the coldness of the marble. 

 The chimneypiece at the farther end fills almost the entire wall, and rises to the ceiling. 

 Delicately carved Doric columns support an entablature, beneath which is the fireplace. The 

 upper part contains a large mosaic within an enriched frame, and the detail of the side is delicately 

 cut and colored. The fire-dogs are marble lions carrying heraldic devices, standing on high 

 bases. The doors opening into the hall have painted borders over the openings, and on each 

 side stand marble columns supporting sculptured animals or other figures. Busts are placed 

 on brackets between the windows. On the platform at the head of the stairs is an open arch 

 overlooking the rotunda. 



The salon is the first room on the south front. It is a magnificent apartment, designed 

 in the style of Louis XV., and is paneled throughout with wood, with a delicately ornamented 

 cornice and decorated corners in the ceiling. Paintings are let into the walls above the doorways 

 and over the built-in mirrors. The fireplace of marble is exquisitely enriched with gilt bronze. 

 The windows are draped with rich curtains, and the costly furniture is in keeping with the 

 architectural accessories. A crystal chandelier hangs from the center of the ceiling, and beautiful 

 gilt girandoles are applied to the panels of the wall. 



The living-room adjoins the salon and occupies the center of the south front, its windows 

 opening out on to the monumental portico. It is in the Louis XIII. style. Not less elegant 

 in its furnishings than the salon, it only differs from it in style, and in being, as its name signifies, 

 the living-room of the family. Its walls are paneled to the ceiling, partly in wood and partly 

 with superb pieces of damask silk. At either end is a fireplace, rich pieces of mottled marble, 

 the overmantel enclosing a full-length portrait of Spanish royalties in a frame of the same 

 material, beautifully enriched with gilded bronze. Over the doors and the large panels adjoining 

 the fireplaces are exquisite paintings of heads with seated putti. The furniture includes some 

 notable tables and cabinets, and the lights are girandoles and great vases standing in the corners 

 transformed into candelabra. 



The dining-room, in the Louis XV. style, is the last on the south front, and completes 

 the series of "state" apartments. It is entered from both the hall and the living-room. Its 



[197] 



