egard of
association, that the very rudeness of the contrast gave an interest to
the mass which it might have wanted had perfect harmony been attempted
between the old nucleus and its adjuncts, a probable result if the
enlargement had taken place later on in time. The issue was that the
hooded windows, simple string-courses, and random masonry of the Gothic
workman, stood elbow to elbow with the equal-spaced ashlar, architraves,
and fasciae of the Classic addition, each telling its distinct tale as to
stage of thought and domestic habit without any of those artifices of
blending or restoration by which the seeker for history in stones will be
utterly hoodwinked in time to come.

To the left of the door and vestibule which Ethelberta passed through
rose the principal staircase, constructed of a freestone so milk-white
and delicately moulded as to be easily conceived in the lamplight as of
biscuit-ware. Who, unacquainted with the secrets of geometrical
construction, could imagine that, hanging so airily there, to all
appearance supported on nothing, were twenty or more tons dead weight of
stone, that would have made a prison for an elephant if so arranged? The
art which produced this illusion was questionable, but its success was
undoubted. 'How lovely!' said Ethelberta, as she looked at the fairy
ascent. 'His staircase alone is worth my hand!'

Passing along by the colonnade, which partly fenced the staircase from
the visitor, the saloon was reached, an apartment forming a double cube.
About the left-hand end of this were grouped the drawing-rooms and
library; while on the right was the dining-hall, with billiard, smoking,
and gun rooms in mysterious remoteness beyond.

Without attempting to trace an analogy between a man and his mansion, it
may be stated that everything here, though so dignified and magnificent,
was not conceived in quite the true and eternal spirit of art. It was a
house in which Pugin would have torn his hair. Those massive blocks of
red-veined marble lining the hall--emulating in their surface-glitter the
Escalier de Marbre at Versailles--were cunning imitations in paint and
plaster by workmen brought from afar for the purpose, at a prodigious
expense, by the present viscount's father, and recently repaired and re-
varnished. The dark green columns and pilasters corresponding were brick
at the core. Nay, the external walls, apparently of massive and solid
freestone, were only veneered with