HARDWICK HALL, DERBYSHIRE.
A CHIMNEY-PIECE.
In contrast to this is an interesting chimney-piece in a bedroom at Hardwick Hall, in Derbyshire (Plate [LXI].). The material is marble, and the design is unpretending. Its noticeable feature is the panel that serves as overmantel, carved with much grace and spirit. The subject seems to be Apollo and the Nine Muses, though some of the latter appear to have abandoned for the time being the callings over which they presided, in order to join in concerted music. The period of the work is put beyond a doubt by the presence of the royal arms with Elizabeth's supporters, the lion and the dragon, and of the initials E. R. Panels with figure subjects were not uncommon, although they were not often so well executed as this. Scriptural themes were frequently represented, but they did not necessarily imply any special religious character in the house, and often in some of the other rooms of the same house would be other themes of quite mundane inspiration. At East Quantockshead, in Somerset, a house of the Luttrells, one room has in the overmantel the Descent from the Cross, the next a mermaid with scrollwork and flowers, the next the Luttrell arms and the date 1614: others have Christ Blessing the Children; the Lamentation over Jerusalem, with the city in the distance, and a hen in the foreground gathering her chickens under her wings; and the Agony in the Garden. Another house in that district has the Affliction of Job, with the principal figure represented as being in exceedingly poor case. Occasionally there were no figure subjects, nor even shields, the panels being quite plain, as in the wood chimney-piece at Ford House, Newton Abbot (Plate [LXII].), where the considerable amount of enrichment serves as ornament only, and does not lend lustre to the family arms. The workmanship is not of the best, and the details of the design are somewhat poor and wanting in imagination, especially in the treatment of the arched panels; but it is characteristic of a good deal of work of the time. The chimney-piece at Benthall Hall (Fig. [156]) is far more beautifully conceived. It departs from the regular treatment in the disposition of the main panels. There is great freedom about the play of the strap-work and figures surrounding the cartouches, and if it be compared with the panelling in the same room (Plate [XLIII].), it will be seen that while preserving the same general idea, there is a special richness about this part of the work which is quite appropriate to it as being the chief feature of the room. It will be seen that here, too, the cartouches in the upper panels bear coats of arms. At Whiston, in Sussex, there is a stone chimney-piece which has got excluded from the house, and now adorns an outside wall. It is of unusual design (Plate [LXIII].), but the family arms form the centre-piece, and are flanked by figures of warriors in recesses divided by small, elegant columns. In the upper part is a circular panel containing two subjects, of which it is difficult to decipher the meaning; the figures, however, are in violent action. Bolsover Castle contains some of the most striking examples of chimney-pieces to be found in the country. They are all in stone or marble, and have a variety and originality of design which are quite remarkable. Two of them are illustrated on Plate [LXIV]. There are also a number of small ones fitted into corners of the rooms (Fig. [157]), and it will be seen that the walls against which the chimney-piece is placed are faced with stone to receive it, and that this plain stonework is surrounded with a moulding against which the wood panelling stops.
156.—Wood Chimney-piece, Benthall Hall, Shropshire.
Plate LXII.
WOOD CHIMNEY-PIECE, FORD HOUSE, NEWTON ABBOT, DEVONSHIRE.
Plate LXIII.
