f in the Swan Hall has a deep and projecting classical
cornice; it is divided into three equal parts, two sloping and one flat,
with the slopes returned at the ends. The whole is made up of
twenty-three large octagons and of four other rather distorted ones in
the corners, all surrounded with elaborate mouldings, carved and gilt
like the cornice. From the square or three-sided spaces left between the
octagons there project from among acanthus leaves richly carved and gilt
pendants.

In each of the twenty-seven octagons there is painted on a flat-boarded
ground a large swan, each wearing on its neck the red velvet and gold
collar made by Dona Isabel for the real swans in the tank outside. These
paintings, which are very well done, certainly seem to belong to the
seventeenth century, for the trees and water are not at all like the
work of an artist of Dom Manoel's time. (Fig. 50.)

[Sidenote: Sala dos Escudos, Cintra.]

Even more remarkable is the roof of the Sala dos Brazoes or dos
Escudos--that is 'of the shields'--also built by Dom Manoel, and also
retouched at the same time as that in the Sala dos Cysnes. This other
hall is a large room over forty feet square. The cornice begins about
twelve feet from the ground, the walls being covered with hunting scenes
on blue and white tiles of about the end of the seventeenth century. The
cornice, about three feet deep and of considerable projection, is, like
all the mouldings, painted blue and enriched with elaborate gilt
carving. On the frieze is the following inscription in large gilt
letters:

Pois com esforcos leais
Servicos foram ganhadas
Com estas e outras tais
Devem de ser comservadas.[100]

The inscription is interrupted by brackets, round which the cornice is
returned, and on which rest round arches thrown across the four corners,
bringing the whole to an equal-sided

[Illustration: FIG. 49.

CAMINHA. ROOF OF MATRIZ.]

[Illustration: FIG. 50.

PALACE, CINTRA. SALA DOS CYSNES.]

[Illustration: CINTRA.

Portugal.

Old Palace.

Sala dos Brazoes.]

octagon. These triangular spaces are roofed with elaborate wooden
vaults, with carved and gilt ribs leaving spaces painted blue and
covered with gilt ornament. Above the cornice the panelling rises
perpendicularly for about eleven feet; there being on each cardinal side
eight panels, in two rows of four, one above the other, and over each
arch four more--forty-eight panels in all. Above this