reater emphasis, and at
each side the wall space is given over to high round-topped double doors
of closets divided into upper and lower parts, beautifully flush-paneled
and hung with quaint iron H hinges. Like those of the other doors and
windows, the casings are of architrave pattern and in the center of the
round arch is a keystone-shaped ornament hand-tooled in wood. The
fireplace opening is faced beautifully with cut black marble brought
from Scotland and outlined with a nicely chiseled ovolo molding in wood
similar to the familiar egg and dart pattern, but incorporating the
richer Lesbian leaf instead of the dart, a closely related reed-like
motive replacing the conventional bead and reel. Two handsomely carved
consoles resting on the fillet of this ovolo molding support the superb
molded panel of the overmantel some three by five feet, in which to this
day not a joint is to be seen. A band of exquisite floreated carving in
high relief fills the long, narrow, horizontal panel between the
consoles. The precision of the tooling in this intricate tracery is
indeed remarkable. Nicely worked but simple parallel moldings with the
favorite Grecian fret sharply delineated between them and Lesbian leaf
ornaments in the square projections at the corners compose a frame of
exceptional grace of detail and proportion. Rarely is an ensemble so
elaborate accompanied by such a marked degree of good taste and
restraint.

In the great chamber on the second floor, which is believed to have been
the boudoir of the mistress of Mount Vernon, there is a very similar,
though even more elaborate, architectural treatment of the fireplace and
of the room. Closets with round-topped doors again occupy the spaces
each side of the fireplace; the cornice surrounding the entire room with
its conspicuous Grecian fret motive again ties the paneled end of the
room into the general scheme, and in this instance the relation is made
closer by the paneled wainscot which is carried about all four walls. In
this wainscot two panel sections under each closet are hung as double
doors opening into small supplementary closets. Owing to the loftiness
of the room, the closet doors have been elaborated by ornate broken
pedimental heads repeating the cornice on a smaller scale, and which are
supported by paneled pilasters and large consoles superbly carved with
an acanthus leaf decoration.

Beautiful as these doorways are in themselves, they are so much heavier