Indeed as the
faults of the edifice were those of solid construction, it would have
been difficult to render it less gloomy or more convenient by any
change that art could affect. Its massive walls and huge oaken
beams would neither permit the enlargement of its narrow windows,
nor the destruction of its maze of useless corridors; and it was
therefore allowed to remain unmolested and unadorned; unless when an
occasional visit from some member of the Greville family demanded an
addition to its rude attempts of splendour and elegance.
But it was difficult to convey the new tangled luxuries of the
capital to this remote spot; and the tapestry, whose faded hues and
moulding texture betrayed the influence of the sea air, had not yet
given plan to richer hangings. The suite of state apartments as
cold and comfortless in the extreme, but one of the chambers had
been recently decorated with more than usual cost, on the
arrival of Lord and Lady Greville, the latter of whom had never
before visited her Northern abode. Its dimensions, which were
somewhat less vast than those of the rest of the suite, rendered it
fitter for modern habits of life; and it had long ensured the
preference of the ladies of the House of Greville, and obtained the
name of "the lady's chamber," by which it is even to this day
distinguished. The walls were not incumbered by the portraits of
those grim ancestors who frowned in mail, or smiled in fardingale on
the walls of the adjacent galleries.
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