The Music-room, a remarkably elegant apartment, contains many notable pictures, especially an “Old Man’s Head” by Rembrandt, Giordano’s “Triumph of Bacchus,” Guido’s “Bacchus and Ariadne,” Guercino’s “David’s Triumph,” and Leonardo da Vinci’s “Holy Family.” The chimney-piece contains a beautiful bas-relief by Spang. The Corridor and Corridor Staircase also contain many choice pictures.
The Drawing-room is a gorgeous apartment, hung with blue damask. It is 44 feet in length and 28 feet in width and height, and has a beautiful coved ceiling. The door-cases are finished with Corinthian columns of Derbyshire alabaster, and the chimney-piece of Italian marble is supported by two exquisitely sculptured whole-length female figures. The furniture, especially the couches, is of the most gorgeous character—the carved and gilt figures and foliage being in the very highest and purest style of Art. The paintings in this room include splendid examples by Annibale Carracci, Paul Veronese, old Francks, Breughel, Teniers, Cuyp, Mompert, Andrea del Sarto, Domenichino, Raffaelle, Swanevelt, Guido Reni, Benedetto Luti, Polemberg, Bernardo Strozzi, Claude Lorraine, Tintoretto, Parmigiano, and others of the old masters.
The Library—a noble room fitted with mahogany book-cases, a Doric entablature, and mosaic ceiling—contains among its pictures Vandyke’s “Shakspere,” Rembrandt’s “Daniel interpreting to Nebuchadnezzar,” and examples of Giordano, Carlo Loti, Drost, Michael Angelo, Salvator Rosa, Poussin, and others. It also contains busts of Homer, Sappho, Socrates, Virgil, Anacreon, Pindar, and Horace.
The Saloon is a grand circular apartment, 42 feet in diameter, and 63 feet high to the rose in the dome. It is considered, and truly, to be one of the most beautiful rooms of its kind in Europe. Its decorations are interesting from the classic taste displayed in designing them, and the elegance with which they are executed. It is divided into four recesses, or alcoves, having fire-places representing altars, with sphinxes, &c., adorned with classical figures in bas-relief; these alternate with as many doors; the whole painted and ornamented with white and gold. Over the doors are paintings of ruins by Hamilton (the frames representing the supporters of the family arms), and above the recesses are delineations in chiaro-oscuro by Rebecca—the subjects from English history. The pillars, of scagliola marble, are by Bartoli. The dome is white and gold, finished in octagonal compartments with roses. The candle branches are of peculiar elegance, and beneath them is a charming series of exquisite bas-reliefs of Cupids, &c. The Saloon opens on its respective sides into the Great Hall, the Library, the Ante-chamber, and the south or garden front of the hall. From the ante-chamber, in which are Carlo Maratti’s “St. John” and many other valuable paintings, is reached—
The Saloon.
The Principal Dressing-room, hung with blue damask, which contains, among others, life-size portraits of the first Lord and Lady Scarsdale by Hone; the second Lord Scarsdale by Reinagle, and his first wife by Hone; Charles I. by Vandyke; Prince Rupert’s daughter by Kneller; Prince Henry by Jansen; Prior by Kneller; and other paintings by Lely, Vandyke, Cimaroli, and others.
The State Bed-room is hung with blue damask, and contains a remarkably fine assemblage of family portraits, landscapes, and other pictures, among which are Sir Nathaniel and Lady Curzon by Richardson; Duchess of York by Lely; and the Countess of Dorset, daughter of George Curzon, after Mytens.
The Wardrobe, which adjoins, is principally remarkable for a fine collection of thirty-six ancient enamels after Albert Dürer, representing the life of our Saviour, and for the many fine family portraits and other paintings which it contains. Among these are—Lady Curzon and her sons, by Dobbs; Countess of Dorchester, by Kneller; the wife and child of Quentin Matsys, by himself; Hon. Caroline Curzon, by Angelica Kauffmann; Hon. H. Curzon, by Hamilton; family portraits, by Hone and Barber; the “Nativity” and the “Resurrection,” by Murillo; and the first Lady Scarsdale, by Hudson.