more in alternation
with an incised flower pattern, as in the Rex house.

For the most part the surmounting cornice and frieze of the room was of
wood, beautifully molded and often hand-carved, the architrave usually
being omitted. In the library at Solitude, however, is to be seen a
handsome cornice and frieze entirely of plaster or composition work in
the Adam manner, including familiar classic detail in which enriched
cavetto and ogee moldings, festoons, flower ornaments and draped human
figures are prominent. When chandeliers for candles began to be used in
private houses they were hung from ornamental centerpieces of plaster on
the ceiling, the motives usually being circles, ovals, festooned
garlands and acanthus leaves. Such a centerpiece and ornamental
treatment of the ceiling is also a feature of this room.

In most of the better houses during the Provincial period, important
rooms had paneled wainscots, papered walls and molded cornices, as in
the parlor and second-story hall at Mount Pleasant and in the parlor at
Upsala. Sometimes the plaster walls were left white or painted, as in
the hall at Cliveden and the library at Stenton. A fireplace with
paneled chimney piece was an important feature of most rooms, and the
entire wall including it was often completely paneled up, closely
relating the fireplace, doors or windows in a definite architectural
scheme, as already shown by examples in Stenton, Whitby Hall and Mount
Pleasant. Embrasured windows with two-part paneled folding shutters and
seats jutting somewhat into the room were customary in early brick and
stone houses, as at Stenton. These were fastened by bars of wood thrust
across from side to side and fitting into slots in the jambs. Later,
outside shutters came into vogue, and the jambs and soffit of the
embrasures were paneled, as at Whitby Hall, the treatment of the
Palladian window on the staircase landing in this house being an
especially fine example.

The parlor at Stenton is among the most notable instances in
Philadelphia of this architectural treatment of the fireplace in a room
with wood paneling throughout. Along Georgian lines and decidedly
substantial in character, it is essentially simple in conception and
graceful in form and proportion, the spacing of the large bolection
molded raised panels being excellent. First attention properly goes to
the wide chimney piece with its unusual, but attractive overmantel
paneling, low arched and marb