Generally
a room for show and display, the eighteenth century saloon (which
bears little relation to the drinking establishments of the ‘Wild
West’) and nineteenth century picture gallery began life as the
medieval solar before being transformed into the Great Chamber of the
Elizabethan mansion. This large room was architecturally grand, being
intended as a show-piece for large gatherings and semi-public
assemblies of mostly masculine company. A good example of this is the
High Great Chamber at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, where plasterwork
friezes and Brussels tapestries telling the story of Ulysses serve to
remind the visitor of the insignificance of the human form. Difficult
though it might be for a modern mind to comprehend, given its size,
Hardwick was originally built as a hunting lodge. There are
‘banqueting houses’ in each tower, from where the spectacle of
the chase
could be observed – the fine gentlemen on their equally fine
horses, the vociferous hounds, the beaters, yeoman prickers, archers
and hawkers. In celebration
of what has long been a favourite pastime of the privileged, Diana
and her attendants thus
grace a frieze in the High Great Chamber, setting out on the hunt
through a magical green and leafy forest.
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| Hardwick Hall PD |
Great
Chambers were also used for feasting. In
addition to the friezes, Hardwick
has representations of the seasons of bounty on either side of the
bay window: Spring, her flowers and other plants burgeoning into
life, and opposite,
the abundance of Summer. Between them stands, as it has done since
the days of Bess of Hardwick, the heavy, famed
eglantine
table, its marquetry
surface inlaid with boards for various dice and card games. In many
such Great Chambers justice was also dispensed, taxes and rents
collected and service orders issued on behalf of the local militia.
Interestingly, although the
‘centre’ of the house in terms of formal ceremony and
stewardship, the High Great
Chamber at Hardwick is not in the centre of the house but to one
side. In the Middle Ages
such anomalies were overlooked, but a
lack of order became less acceptable as architects looked
for their designs to follow
social precepts.
During
the early years of the seventeenth century, the influence of Italian
architect Andrea Palladio began to be seen in plans for English
country houses. Now known as ‘Palladian’, one
of his designs
featured two large chambers,
one above the other, in the centre of the house and smaller rooms
then arranged in symmetry on either side. English architects
immediately translated this as a central hall with a Great Chamber
above, since the master would then be dining above his vassals in
central dominion. Unfortunately for the lovers of symmetry, the
typical English requirement for grand apartments for important guests
and lesser accommodations for family did not easily
adjust into this arrangement. However, it did adapt quite well for
royal households, and once the advantages of symmetrical apartments
for His and Her Majesty were recognized, a balanced arrangement of
the two households could not but be the result. The Palladian plan
was better suited to this end and soon began to be adopted by those
lower down the social scale, leading to the decline of the old
English style.
To
begin with, the wealthy, with their need for display, could not
resist ‘showing off’ the Great Chamber as a state room by the
external means of a pediment with carved coat of arms or, better
still, a grand portico!
However, such conceits came
at considerable cost. Around the middle of the sixteen hundreds,
gentleman amateur Sir Roger Pratt designed a less ostentatious
frontage at Coleshill House in Berkshire for his cousin, Sir George
Pratt. Having spent five years on the Continent, he knew how French
and Italian architecture was evolving, yet also understood what was
required by the English gentry. At Coleshill, he built
the house with a basement level. The ground floor then laid
symmetrically, with a bedchamber, withdrawing chamber and parlour,
all accompanied by inner closets, in three corners and steward’s
room in the fourth. This allowed a two-storey Hall
with Great Parlour behind, and above that, on the first floor, a
Great Dining Chamber. A similar arrangement occupied the four
corners, being a withdrawing chamber and three bedchambers with
attendant closets. This was an adaptable arrangement, allowing for
extra guest accommodation, be it withdrawing room, bedroom or
parlour, as required. A long corridor dissected both floors between
the Hall and Great Chambers, with back staircases at either end, a
simple arrangement which was as yet an innovation. In order to
maintain the symmetry, the main staircase was placed in the hall, and
thus evolved the change from an eating room to a stately entrance,
since it was now unfit for dining. The
new style of entrance hall
was also a magnificent
ingress for the state
chambers behind. Therefore
the servants were
moved to a servants’ hall
beside the kitchen, which, along with the pantry, cellar, stores and
offices, was in the basement.
Externally, this great
central purpose of the house
was shown only by a flight of steps to the front door, a modest
pediment and wider spaces between the windows.
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| Coleshill House, Berkshire PD |
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| Staircase, Coleshill House Country Life |
Sir
Roger designed three other houses after the Restoration of Charles
II. The grandest was in
Piccadilly for His
Majesty’s first minster, the Earl of Clarendon. Once
proclaimed the most magnificent house in England, Clarendon House was
built on an
H-shaped plan, with projecting wings to each side of a central
pedimented bay. Due to the Earl’s position of power and the
mansion’s prominent site, the design was imitated a
great deal through the remaining decades of the seventeenth century.
However,
it had more influence on the style of country houses rather than the
mansions of London. Belton House in Lincolnshire is perhaps the most
celebrated example.
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| Clarendon House PD |
Mentioned
by Sir Roger Pratt in his writings, the saloon evolved from the
‘grand salone’
during
this
time. Created
by Inigo Jones, the
huge Double Cube room at Wilton House in Wiltshire was too gargantuan
at thirty feet by sixty feet and thirty feet high to be copied in
more than a very few residences,
but the carved fruit and flowers on the panelling, the coved ceiling
and the framed chimney-piece painting have all become standard fare.
Yet,
while some Great Chambers – for example, Knowle House in Kent –
have elaborate panelling, as
the seventeenth century progressed
it became the custom to display large family portraits on the walls
in place of the tapestries much
used in earlier
centuries. (These latter
had a practical as well as decorative purpose, for they helped to
protect the occupants from draughts.) Apparently, it was not unknown
for peers to have totally imaginary portraits painted of forebears in
armour or courtly robes, in the hopes of passing them off as from the
Middle Ages.
Saloons
are not necessarily built on a grand scale. The
large chambers
of
the end of the sixteen hundreds gradually
dwindled in
succeeding centuries.
As
we have seen,,
they were often
built in the centre of the house, in tandem with the entrance hall,
the so-called ‘state centre’ as described by Mark Girouard, with
apartments containing bedchamber, dressing room, drawing room and
closet occupying
the house’s four corners. Nevertheless,
with
the function of the saloon gradually changing
from feasting to a picture gallery and reception
room for
important guests, so the panelling and horse-hair covers (chosen for
their imperviousness to the odours of food) gave way to rich
wall-hangings and upholstery of velvet and silk. Gilt-framed
furniture, including pier-glasses, side-tables, chairs and settees,
all placed with a nice eye for symmetry, were introduced by William
Kent at Houghton Hall for Sir Robert Walpole and very soon were
copied
across England.
At
Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire, there is no saloon, but the Great
Hall meets the criteria of the Great Chamber. The house bears a
nineteenth century stone, with the date 1701, in the centre of its
grand Georgian façade,
but this could be the date of completion of works most likely carried
out for Thomas Vernon, who inherited the estate in 1679. His
grandfather, Edward Vernon, acquired the estate in 1631, thus the
core of the house is Baroque in style. However, the reconstructed
house is built on the E-plan, double-pile or ‘state centre’
arrangement employed by Sir Roger Pratt at Clarendon House. The
Great Hall at
Hanbury is
low and long; the walls are
covered in stained pine panelling around
a wide, black marble fireplace. Opening
directly into the hall, on
the western side, is a
dark wooden staircase. Both walls and ceilings above the staircase
are painted with scenes (very much in the Baroque style) depicting,
respectively, the life of Achilles and an assembly of the gods, the
work of Sir James Thornhill. The doorways leading off the hall have
arched tops and the ceiling is painted with corner panels
representing the Seasons, and trompe
l’oeil
domes. The eastern circuit of rooms originally formed the ‘State
Apartment’ and included the Great Parlour (now the Drawing Room),
the Lobby (now the Dining Room), the Withdrawing Room, Bedchamber and
Dressing Room.
 |
| Staircase, Great Hall, Hanbury Hall Author |
Created
by Sir Robert Smirke (architect of the British Museum) for the 1st
Earl Somers, c. 1812 (opinions vary), Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire
is a Gothic revival mansion. Some, not least Charles Locke Eastlake
in A History of
the Gothic Revival,
viewed the house with a jaundiced eye, deeming it ‘a
picturesque mistake’
as a residence. Indeed, as it was built with ‘exceedingly
small and narrow’ windows,
the lack of light must have caused considerable inconvenience,
especially in the winter months. The castle is large and symmetrical,
with ‘round, or
rather quatrefoil, angle towers and a boldly raised centre.’
(Nikolaus Pevsner) For the purposes of this article, however, the
main point of interest lies at the centre of the building. The Great
Hall, approached via the main entrance hall, measures up to the
proportions of a Great Chamber. Sixty feet long and sixty-five feet
high, it reaches up three storeys and has but a single row of
windows, high up, decorated with Venetian tracery. On a sunny day,
the sunshine blazes down upon carved walnut benches, tables and
chairs, designed by Robert Smirke for the house, and the highly
decorated walls and furnishings introduced by G. E. Fox in the 1860s.
Above the doorway from the entrance hall is a gallery supported on
polished columns. Two suits of armour guard the arched doorway into
the Octagon Room and, interestingly, given the later function of the
Great Chamber as a picture gallery, various
portraits also adorn the walls. There is a State Apartment on the
first floor, including a bedchamber with walnut canopy bed and
wardrobe, and adjoining it, a luxuriously appointed bathroom. It
would seem that this variant on the ‘state centre’ was not
unusual.
 |
| Great Hall. Eastnor Castle Author |
 |
| Great Hall, Eastnor Castle Author |
Travelling
across Herefordshire to the tiny village of Yarpole, we
find a
real castle that
still has connections with the family it was named for. Croft Castle
is a large, irregular quadrangle in shape, built in either the late
fourteenth or early fifteenth centuries, with some sixteenth or
seventeenth century windows, although most are now sashed. The
entrance, thought to have originally been a carriage archway into the
inner courtyard, is now into a hall, added in about the mid
eighteenth century. (The porch is a much later addition of 1914.)
While some of the panelling and woodwork is Jacobean and late
seventeenth century (notably in the Oak Room) and the Drawing Room
has early eighteenth century panelling, most of the furnishings date
to the Georgian era, c. 1750-60, when the house was renovated to
transform it into a country mansion. It was during this time that the
sash windows were added, along with much of the interior decoration,
such as the rococo ceiling in the Oak Room, the painted panels in the
Blue Room, the painted bookcases in the library and the wonderful
Gothic staircase with its stunning plasterwork. The chimney-piece in
the Blue Room is also rococo, although the ceiling there is Gothic.
There is no Great Hall or Great Chamber, despite the castle’s
medieval origins, and although there is a saloon, it is not behind
the entrance hall as we have seen before. It is a southern-facing
room of fair proportions and adjoins the library, which is situated
at the south-east corner of the house. It has a pretty, decorated
fireplace, moulded ceiling and frieze, Georgian sofas and chairs as
well as gorgeous carpets and furniture. Several paintings – mostly
portraits – hang in the saloon, which has doors leading to the Blue
Room and the corridor serving the wing. It is certainly a room for
entertaining, and it is easy to imagine the carpets being taken up,
the chairs pushed back and for dancing to take place on the polished
floorboards, as was often the custom in houses of
the Georgian era lacking
a ballroom or large gallery.
 |
| Croft Castle, East Front Author |
 |
| Saloon Fireplace, Croft Castle Author |
Although
State Apartments as described above are not in the floor plan of
Croome Court in Worcestershire, the
piano nobile
(principal
floor)
constructed by Lancelot Brown does
have a state centre.
The
saloon is a light and airy room, set directly behind and leading from
the entrance hall via a ‘screen’ of four fluted Doric columns and
a cross-corridor that reflects the layout of the seventeenth century.
Facing
on to the south garden front, where a wide flight of steps are
guarded by a pair of Coade stone sphinxes, the
saloon has
plasterwork painted gold, white and green. The coved ceiling is
composed of three plain panels (by Francesco Vassalli) and,
symmetrically placed on either side of the central doorway, are two
fireplaces with fluted Ionic chimney-pieces. Brown was responsible
for the understated nature of the decoration, with deep moulded
cornices, elaborate mantels generally of Rococo design and, for the
most part, unpedimented door-cases also carved on fluted columns. The
broken pediment over the saloon door is one exception.
 |
| Broken pedimented door-case, Saloon into Hall Croome Court, Author |
 |
| Saloon, Croome Court Author |
Hagley
Hall, still home to the Lyttelton family, was also built with a
saloon set behind the entrance hall, a corridor crossing between them
to east and west staircases (as
with Coleshill House),
there being two overlapping circuits of rooms, one public and one
private. The saloon is now the Crimson Dining Room, but was the start
of the public circuit. Owning a fine Rococo ceiling of clouds and
cherubs, it also boasted garlands and trophies decorating the walls.
Such topics as painting, gardening, drama, music, literature and
archery were represented by the trophies. A white and Siena marble
chimney-piece surmounted on Ionic columns graced the fireplace and
between the windows hung mirrors with stucco frames.
Motifs
of fruit, flowers, animals, mythological creatures and classical
figures, as used by Robert Adam at Saltram House, where honeysuckle
and gryphons were repeated on chimney-pieces, cornices, carpets,
chair frames, ceilings and even door furniture, were much copied. His
use of colour on ceilings, where once the Rococo plasterwork had been
painted a single shade, was also revolutionary. Moulded ceilings in
Neoclassical design could not provide the same contrasts of light
without the depth provided by colour, and thus Adam found inspiration
in Greek and Roman temples for the strong pinks, blues and greys,
accented by hints of black and red. Equally, as the fashion for
picture galleries took hold, strong colours such as bright red or
dark green became popular as background hues to set off gilt and
carved frames where little wall space can be seen. Indeed, Sir Joshua
Reynolds, when President of the Royal Academy, is said to have
specified bright red silk damask for the galleries in that august
establishment. It was an age of the best in English craftsmanship,
for the attention to detail so important to Robert Adam was reflected
in the gilt and carved borders used to hide the nails securing the
silk, and in the manner in which those borders were shaped around
door-cases and chimney-pieces.
Adam’s
work naturally
inspired
other architects and, in due course, his ideas were adopted across
England.
At Berrington Hall, Herefordshire (built
c. 1775),
there is no saloon but the library ceiling is decorated in circular
panels containing representations of famous authors, there are
painted medallions on the upper walls, the carpet is patterned in
bright red, blue and white, and the bookcases are decorated with
white and gilt moulding.
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| Medallions and Frieze, Library, Berrington Hall Author |
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| Carpet, Library, Berrington Hall Author |
 |
| Library Ceiling, Berrington Hall Author |
At
Carlton House, modernised extensively (and at vast expense) in 1788,
with further improvements made in 1815, the Prince of Wales
commissioned John Nash to take these earlier ideas several stages
further. Modest furnishing was not to Prinny’s taste, of course,
and every room was decked out in the grand style. The suite of State
Apartments were particularly magnificent and included, ‘...on
the upper floor... the circular cupola room, of the Ionic order; the
throne-room, of the Corinthian order; the splendid ante-chamber; the
rose-satin drawing-room, &c., all of which were furnished and
embellished with the richest satins, carvings, cut glass, carpetings,
&c..’
(Old and New
London, Vol. IV
by Edward Walford, 1873). On 5th
February 1811, the day of the Prince’s inauguration as Regent, The
Memoirs of George IV
(Robert Huish,
1831) tells us, the Prince was escorted in grand procession by
members of his household, his council and the Royal Dukes through the
Circular Dining Room ‘into
the grand saloon (a beautiful room in scarlet drapery, embellished
with portraits of all the most distinguished admirals who have fought
the battles that have given us the dominion of the seas); and here
the Prince seated himself at the top of the table, his royal brothers
and cousin seating themselves on each hand according to seniority,
and all the officers of his household, not privy councillors, ranging
themselves on each side of the entrance to the saloon.’ This
grand saloon is more customarily ascribed the Crimson Drawing Room
and is very grand indeed. The traditional function of the Great
Chamber could hardly be better upheld, for not only was the above
ceremony performed in these opulent surroundings, on 2nd
May 1816, the Crimson Drawing Room also saw the Princess Charlotte
marry Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. Pomp and ceremony could scarcely
be of a higher degree!
 |
| Crimson Drawing Room, Carlton House PD |
©
Heather King
All
pictures are the property of the author unless otherwise stated and
may not be copied without the expressed permission of the owner.
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