A Look Inside an 18th-Century English Estate
Photo: Anthony Parkinson / Courtesy of National Trust images1/12“The Library was decorated by John Fowler in the early 1970s, who chose green—associated with learning and with calm—as the main color,” says Sophie Chessum of the pre-blaze room pictured here. “The curtains and upholstery on the William IV mahogany sofa were of his own bold leaf design, as was the carpet, with its intertwined ribbon decoration.”
Photo: James Dobson / Courtesy of National Trust images2/12The library post-fire. Speaker Onslow’s portrait, painted by William Hogarth and his father, survived the disaster but has since been removed.
Photo: James Dobson / Courtesy of National Trust images3/12“The use of the room is reflected in the plaster decoration,” explains Chessum. “The overmantel has roundels containing depictions of the great Greek thinkers Homer and Sophocles.”
Photo: Anthony Parkinson / Courtesy of National Trust images4/12A folding screen with Victorian and Edwardian photographs of the Onslow family also made it through the blaze fairly unscathed.
Photo: James Dobson / Courtesy of National Trust images5/12“[This] oval-looking glass is surmounted by the figure of an owl, which is emblematic of the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena,” notes Chessum.
