d have spent the day with delight in comparing
the different specimens, but our half-suffocated guide protested so
decidedly against our dust-raising that we had to desist long before we
wanted to. The furniture of these rooms is also arranged in historic
order, but of course the succession is not so marked as in the case of the
tapestries; still, between the rude black wooden settles of the earliest
period and the gilded and brocaded fauteuils of the Louis Quatorze salon
the contrast is sufficiently striking. The splendors of the great
drawing-room are still fresh: the white enamel is brilliant, the ormolu
untarnished, and the rich upholstery gorgeous as when first received from
Paris. A good American 'spring cleaning' would put this, and indeed most
of the apartments, in condition for immediate occupancy.

"The greater number of the pictures are family portraits, like those of
any other gallery of the same sort, but in the modern rooms are several
examples of Flemish masters of great interest and value. A treck-schuyt,
with market-women, by Albert Cuyp, quite characteristic of that artist and
his school, a tavern fireside by Ostade, and two of Quintin Matsys'
studies of single figures, are the most important.

"I must not omit to mention a remarkable old cabinet in one of these state
rooms, which Perry recognized as a specimen of Bruges carving of the
fifteenth century. It is a very curious and wonderfully ingenious piece of
work, the ornamentation appearing at first like a rather confused grouping
of flowers and fruit cut in high relief, but seen at the proper angle rich
and beautiful compositions are discovered of the most intricate and
difficult character--processions of cupids, leading leopards or tugging at
great wains; children at play, chasing each other through mazes of vines;
juvenile lovers, sentimentalizing; and a hundred pretty conceits, all
formed by the outlines of the fruit and flowers first seen. Each figure is
perfectly represented, and each graceful and delicate fancy is carried out
with marvellous skill.

"The grand drawing-room opens in the main hall, which occupies the entire
central part of the 'new house.' It is about forty feet in width by two
hundred in depth, and has the roof of the chateau for its ceiling. At one
end is the great portal, with a high-arched window over it: at the other
is the wide and beautiful staircase, leading to a gallery which on either
side of the hall gives access to