And the Hall with revelry throbs and gleams;
There grates a hinge—the door is ajar—
And a shaft of light in the darkness streams.
“A faint sweet face, a glimmering gem,
And then two figures steal into light;
A flash, and darkness has swallowed them—
So sudden is Dorothy Vernon’s flight!”
Passing through the Ante-room, the visitor next enters the State Bed-room, known two hundred years ago, it seems, as the “Blue Drawing-room.” The walls are hung with Gobelins tapestry, the subjects being illustrations of Æsop’s Fables; and above this is a frieze, similar to that in the Ante-room, bearing the crests of Vernon and Manners. This apartment is lighted by a large bay-window, overlooking the upper court-yard, and raised a couple of steps above the level of the floor of the room itself. In this window stands an antique dressing-table and a grand old looking-glass, which are worthy of the most careful examination. Over the chimney-piece is a fine example of pargetting, representing Orpheus, by his musical powers, charming the brute creation.
The State Bed-room.