as the West
Rooms--Allen's Room, and the White Parlour. On the first floor the most
important rooms are the Gilt, Miniature, and the Yellow Drawing-room,
the Sir Joshua Blue-room and Dining-room, and Lady Holland's apartments.

In the entrance-hall are busts of the Duke of Cumberland, by Rysbrach;
Francis, Duke of Bedford, and Charles James Fox, by Nollekens; the Right
Hon. J. Hookham Frere, by Chantrey, and others. The staircase has a
frescoed ceiling, by G. F. Watts, R.A., who has done much for the
decoration of the house, and who lives in Melbury Road hard by. There
is on the staircase a massive oaken screen with pillars, matching the
carved balustrade. The Breakfast-room, facing south, is a charming room;
it was formerly the hall when the main entrance was on this side of the
house. The walls are hung with velvet brocade and rich silk, and
panelled with four _arazzi_, enclosed in strips of gold embroidery. The
tapestries are Gobelins, by Coypel, director of the Gobelin
establishment. The China-room contains some splendid services, chiefly
of Sevres and Dresden. The rooms called the West Rooms contain many
treasures: a collection of prints after Italian masters, and some of the
Dutch and French schools. From these is reached the Swannery, a large
room on the west side of the house, built by the present owner, and
finished in 1891; here there is an ornamental painting of swans by
Bouverie Goddard, which was exhibited in the Royal Academy. Allen's Room
owes its name to John Allen, an intimate friend of the third Lord
Holland, who accompanied him abroad, and was his confidant until his
death, after which Allen continued to live at Holland House. The
description of the White Parlour in any detail would be impossible, so
elaborate is the decoration of its mouldings and panels. In this room
there are two chests, the property of Sir Stephen Fox, the
Paymaster-General, and very interesting specimens of their time they
are. In the Gilt Room upstairs are curved recesses prepared by the first
Earl of Holland, who proposed entertaining Prince Charles at a ball when
he married Princess Henrietta Maria; however, in spite of the elaborate
preparations, the ball never took place. The medallions of the King and
Queen, Sully, and Henri IV. are still on the lower part of the
chimney-breasts. The upper parts of the chimneypieces and the ceiling
were done by Francis Cleyn, who decorated much at Versailles; and when
the chimneypieces came