Among the more notable rooms are the following:—The Venetian Room, or the Duchess’s Boudoir, is, without exception, the most perfect gem of a room which any mansion can boast. It, as well as the Duke’s Room and Private Dining-room, opens from the corridor to the private rooms, lined with presses of books, and is lighted by three windows in the south front. The walls are divided into five large panels, painted by Clarkson Stanfield, in his best and most brilliant style, with scenes in Venice; the panels being separated from each other, and surrounded by gilt reticulated work on a crimson velvet ground. Of the furnishing and decorations of this exquisite apartment it is enough to say that it is arranged with that refined and faultlessly pure taste, which can nowhere be expected to be better shown than in the surroundings of so good and amiable and accomplished a woman as the Duchess of Sutherland.
The South Front, with Grecian Temple.
The Duke’s Room closely adjoins this apartment. It is fitted with presses filled with the choicest and most rare printed books and manuscripts, and contains some remarkably fine paintings. Among the literary treasures here preserved we cannot forbear noting the original manuscript of old John Gower’s poems, in his own handwriting, and, as shown by an inscription at the commencement, presented by the poet to King Henry IV., on his coronation, and given back to the family of Gower, some centuries later, by Sir Thomas Fairfax; and among the treasures of Art, of which there are many, is one of the original “first fifty” copies of the Portland vase by old Josiah Wedgwood, in perfect preservation. And here it may be well to note that through the kind thoughtfulness of the Duke on our visit, we were shown a fine and remarkably interesting old Wedgwood jasper chimney-piece in the Bath-room; it is one of the best remaining specimens. Adjoining the Venetian Room, on the other side, is the Private Dining-room, the walls of which are hung with a fine collection of landscapes by Penry Williams, and paintings by other artists. Leading to the corridor, at one end, is the Private Arcade, at the extremity of which, next to the Duke’s Room, has recently been placed Noble’s magnificent statue of the late duke—a work of Art which takes rank with any of that eminent sculptor’s productions.
The Conservatory and Private Wing, South Front.
The Dining-room, at the east end of the south terrace, contains some choice sculpture by Antonio Sola, Wolff, and others, and some gigantic vases of Minton’s creation. Adjoining this is the Marble Hall, or Ante Dining-room, lighted from the ceiling, and containing, besides a fine sculptured figure of Canning—copied from that by Chantrey in Westminster Abbey—a full-length life-size portrait of the late Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland, by Winterhalter. The Breakfast-room, among its other pictorial treasures, contains Wilkie’s “Breakfast,” painted for the first duke; Gainsborough’s “Landscape with Sheep;” Jackson’s “Infant Moses,” exhibited in 1818; Callcott’s “Italian Landscape,” and other paintings by Poussin, Stothard, Moulson, Frearson, Rogers, Wilson, &c.
The Private Conservatory.
The Library, which contains a marvellous collection of choice and valuable books, is enriched by a frieze from the Elgin and Phigalean marbles, and is a charming and highly interesting room. In the Saloon, or Music-room, a pretty apartment whose ceiling is supported on pilasters, are some exquisite family busts, a charming bust of the late duchess by Noble, and other attractions. The carpet is characterized by the same pattern as the terrace garden. The Drawing-room, with its sweetly pretty painted ceiling, contains many good pictures: among these are Hofland’s “Storm off the Coast at Scarborough;” Sir Thomas Lawrence’s portraits of Lord Francis Leveson-Gower (Egerton), and of the second Duke of Sutherland; Vandyke’s “Children of Charles I.;” Charles Landseer’s “Benediction,” and others. The Billiard-room has a lofty coved ceiling, and was the Great Hall of the old mansion. In it are Winterhalter’s grand full-length figure of Queen Victoria, presented by her Majesty to the late duchess; a copy of Reynolds’s portrait of George III.; Romney’s portrait of Queen Charlotte, Lord Chancellor Thurlow, and the first Marquis of Stafford, and others.