The other apartments were one or more small parlours, for the use of the ladies and their female attendants, in which they carried on their various works of embroidery, &c., and, instead of the present dressing-room and sitting-rooms, which are added to each modern bed-room, there was, generally,- A small closet to each, with, perhaps, an oriel window for private morning devotions. After thus mentioning the uses of ancient apartments, it is necessary to enumerate those additions which modern life requires. 1st. The Eating-room, which does not exactly correspond with the ancient hall, because it is no longer the fashion to dine in public. 2nd. The Library, into which the gallery may sometimes be changed with propriety. 3rd. The Drawing-room, or saloon. 4th. The Music-room. 5th. The Billiard-room. 6th. The Conservatory attached to the house; and, lastly, the Boudoirs, wardrobes, hot and cold baths, &c., which are all modern appendages, unknown in Queen Elizabeth's days. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to preserve the ancient style of a mansion without considerable additions. For this reason, we see few specimens of Gothic buildings which have not been mixed and corrupted with the architecture of various dates; and whilst every casual observer may be struck with the incongruity of mixing the Grecian with the Gothic styles, yet the nice antiquarian alone discovers, by the contour of a moulding, or the shape of a battlement, that mixture of the castle and abbey Gothic, which is equally incorrect with respect to their different dates and purposes. The view of this house [fig. 105] will, I hope, justify my anxiety to preserve it, as far as may be consistent with modern habitation: for although it can neither be deemed a castle, an abbey, or a house of any Gothic character with which we are acquainted, yet its form is singularly picturesque, and the slide [our fig. 104] shews the effect of removing the present road, walls, and stables, which would obstruct the view from the new apartments.
