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Opposite
the Drawing Room door a passage leads to the 16th century panelled
bedroom and proceeding up the stairs a small curved door half way up,
takes you to the Old Library.
Continuing
up the front stairs to the top landing; on the right is the Music Room
with another fine ceiling by Thomas Clayton. Musical instruments
surround the central motif of an Apollo’s head in a sunburst. On
display are old estate maps drawn in 1810, together with other papers
documenting the development of the house and estate. Adjoining the
Music Room is the Heather bedroom, with unusual linen wall hangings.
Before
descending the stairs to the hall it is worth noting the plaster work
round the bottom of the cupola. This particular design was, some say,
unique to Robert Adam, but as we know that the Master Plasterer,
Clayton, did much work for Adam he would hold the moulds and may have
made use of them whenever he had occasion. In 1976 the cupola (which is
16ft across) split open in a gale and was replaced. Beneath the lead on
the top a note was found stating the cupola had been replaced in 1860.
The 1758 original had therefore lasted 112 years, and its replacement
almost exactly the same number of years.
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