Whitby Hall 
so forth. They still have the meat block 
that was used there. A very curious fact is 
that there was once in the cellar a huge fire¬ 
place (since blocked up) to make it com¬ 
fortable in winter. The chimney breast for 
this runs up through the house between the 
new and old part and is thick enough to 
have been a buttress for Notre Dame, so 
that the doorway between the living-room 
and the newer parlor, which are separated 
by the chimney, is a little hall. There used 
to be fireplaces in each of these rooms, which 
have since been cheerfully replaced by marble 
mantelpieces with hot-air registers. These 
marble mantelpieces are pathetic, when one 
considers that the originals must have been 
charming—as all the other fireplaces in the 
house are. Those in the bedrooms with 
their quaint tiles are the most attractive 
things imaginable. 
The fireplace in the old parlor is interest¬ 
ing. It exhibits the same re¬ 
straint that dominates the rest 
of the house. Its simplicity is 
good—-there are no long spindle 
columns and no trite scroll-work 
with stringy festoons of flowers. 
The decoration is discreet and 
well-placed and has the added 
charm of being extremely well ex¬ 
ecuted. The whole was brought 
over from England. A very 
remarkable thing about it is 
that the huge panel over the 
fireplace opening is made out of 
a single piece of wood, which 
has not warped enough to show 
a single joint. The closets at 
the sides of the fireplace are 
quaint, with their curiously sawn 
shelves and ornamented little 
plaster half-domes at the top. 
I he present entrance to the 
house is not at all visible from 
the street. When you enter at 
the iron gate, you are confronted 
by walls everywhere in which 
there is no sign of a door, for 
that side of the house was not 
originally intended to be seen 
first. However, you keep on 
past the protruding wing, which 
is the old hallway where you 
notice the door is securely locked, and 
presently you see the entrance door—in the 
spot that ought to be the rear of the house. 
I bis entrance opens into another hallway, 
which is quite modern—not being more 
than a century old. The peculiarity of all 
the hallways in this house is that they simply 
lead from one side of the house to the other 
and do not assist at all in the problem of 
getting from one room to another, which is 
a feat that must always be accomplished by 
going through another room. For instance, 
if one is in the living-room and wishes to 
attain the dining-room, when some one is 
entertaining guests in the parlor, which is 
between the two, one must go upstairs by 
the old stairway and come down again into 
the new hall and thence to the coveted des¬ 
tination. However, such things are only 
occasional inconveniences, which do not 
detract from an attractiveness there is about 
THE STAIR LANDING 
*33 
