story associated with it, told me by the
late Mr. Henry Graves, who sat by the side of Parris when he made the
sketch. Lewis is responsible for "Interior of a Harem."

"Very expensive man to buy," Sir Robert said. "A few of his pictures
were to be sold, and I attended the sale. One was a little larger than
this, on a similar subject, and I thought I would buy it as a companion
work. But it went for eleven hundred guineas!" Over a fine cabinet are a
pair of dogs in pencil, by Landseer. "Racket" was drawn when he was ten
years of age and "Pincher" a year later. The Satsuma ware and Sevres
china scattered about the apartment are exceptionally choice, and the
curious cloth which covers the table in the centre of the room--a table,
by-the-bye, which belonged to our Ambassador to France during the great
Revolution of 1793--came from the Sultan's palace at Constantinople, and
is worked with His Majesty's name in silk in the centre.

But what is unquestionably the most interesting among the contents of
the drawing-room is the cabinet of Japanese ivories. It contains
probably the finest collection of such Japanese handicraft in miniature
in the kingdom. There is everything in ivory, from a beggar with his
rosary to a beauty with painted cheeks and almond-shaped eyes. You may
handle the quaintest of ideas carried out in ivory; a skeleton carrying
a baboon--calculated to beat Holbein's "Dance of Death" all to pieces;
skulls with cobras intertwined--indeed, the serpent is everywhere; and
all with some mystic meaning.

[Illustration: THE DRAWING-ROOM.

_From a Photo. by Elliott & Fry._]

[Illustration: THE DRAWING-ROOM.

_From a Photo. by Elliott & Fry._]

"The date of the workmanship of these," said Sir Robert, "must go back
for centuries."

"I should think to the very beginning!" Lady Rawlinson remarked. And
amongst these curios are rare jade bowls of white and green, and shining
in the midst of all--as big and almost as brilliant as the noonday
sun--is the largest ball of pure rock crystal in Europe. An
exquisitely-carved rhinoceros horn in the shape of a goblet might
possibly come in useful, for the legend associated with it runs that
should poison be put in it, and some unkind friend request you to drink,
the deadly liquor would disappear of its own accord.

We looked in at the small library, and then went into the dining-room.
As in the drawing-room, the walls are hidden from view by artistic
works--Landseer, Frith