were covered half way from the ground with a pannelling of curiously carved oak; whence were suspended the family portraits in massy frames, painted partly by Dutch, and partly by Italian artists. Near the Dais, or upper part of the Hall, there projected an oriel window, which, as you beheld, you scarcely knew what most to admire, the radiancy of its painted panes, or the fantastic richness of Gothic ornament, which was profusely lavished in every part of its masonry. Here too the Gothic pendent, and the Gothic fan-work, were intermingled with the Italian arabesques, which, at the time of the building of the Château, had been recently introduced into England by Hans Holbein and John of Padua.
How wild and fanciful are those ancient arabesques! Here at Château Desir, in the pannelling of the old hall, might you see fantastic scrolls, separated by bodies ending in termini, and whose heads supported the Ionic volute,
