Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 6).djvu/15

woven in one piece (the room is 60ft. 6in. long and 28ft. wide), and the colours are so rich, the design so perfect, that it looks like a painting. The roof is supported by imitation marble columns with gilded Corinthian cap and base, the walls panelled in blue silk, the furniture carved and burnished gold, the coverings to match walls and curtains. Two massive side-tables are worthy of your attention; they are 8ft. long, have massive ormolu mounts, and are inlaid with pebbles in Genoa green marble. On one is a soapstone bowl, taken from the Emperor's Palace at Pekin, in October, 1860, and presented to the Queen by Sir Hope Grant, Commander of the British Forces in China. Marble and ormolu candelabra, Sèvres china, and antique timepieces are plentiful. One clock in particular deserves special mention; it is marble, has three dials, denoting hour, day, and month, surmounted by an ivory globe.

The paintings are Charles I. and Henrietta Maria (Van Dyck), Her Majesty Queen Victoria and H.R.H. Prince Albert (F. Winterhalter), Princesses Royal, Augusta, and Elizabeth (Gainsborough), and Duke of Buckingham and family (Houthorst).

The Bow Saloon.
From a Photo. by Debenham & Co.

Now we proceed to the "Bow Saloon." This room has a most superbly decorated dome roof; rose, dome roof; rose, shamrock, and thistle, interspersed with feathers, done in cream and gold relief, and all radiating from the centre. From it depend some of the most graceful and wondrous crystal chandeliers that have ever been made. Above the lights depends and droops the most perfect representation of "colours trooping," the very fold of the silken banners being here produced. There is some beautiful sculpture in relief just beneath the "dome"; that on the side facing the bow represents "Eloquence," that on the north, "Harmony," that on the south, "Pleasure." There are sixteen supporting columns of scagliola, resembling lapis lazuli, with gilded bases and capitals. There are two marble chimney-pieces, one depicting the "Birth of Venus," and beautiful shellwork surrounding the sculptured figures.

On one mantel stands a malachite and ormolu thermometer, on the other a timepiece of the same composition. There are two malachite and ormolu candelabra on burnished gold pedestals, and others of carved and burnished lions on tripods. Also examine some more of the priceless Sèvres china in this room, and especially note an inimitable cameo revolving Roman table. In the centre is the Emperor Alexandra, a circle