Rouse Garden 
THE STAIR HALL, and the Doors serving in turn the Hall itself 
and the Rooms on each side 
contains a number of chairs of various 
Colonial patterns. 
On the second floor and over the parlor 
is the principal chamber, which seems the 
quaintest and most characteristic of all the 
rooms. Beside the riot of effeminate architec¬ 
ture, luxurious upholstery, heavy draperies, 
profusion of rugs and needless ornaments, 
with the necessary accompaniment of rich 
and heavy coloring characteristic of a modern 
chamber, this one is so quaintly simple as to 
seem almost Puritan. It is quite guiltless of 
any architecture, in the modern acceptance of 
the term. '1'here is the least possible wood¬ 
work and no wainscot, a narrow baseboard 
and a small wood sill being all, except the 
door and its narrow trim. The deep jambs 
of the windows are of plaster. The chim¬ 
ney-piece is little more than a border of 
paneled marble surrounding what at one 
time was a generous fireplace. Inside the 
windows hangs a tiny valence cut in quaint, 
old-fashioned scallops; and over the fire¬ 
place, like a rare gem in the plainest of 
settings, hangs a fine old portrait, whose rich, 
dark tones and frame of greenish gold are 
doubly accented by the surrounding white¬ 
ness. On the floor, a plain matting forms a 
background for an occasional rug of dark 
557 
