Blackwell

This house in the Lake District is chiefly noticeable for its large central hall, in a recessed portion of which a billiard table is placed. The principal feature in this hall is the great ingle fireplace with its open hearth and seats, and over this a little stair, with stone-vaulted roof, leads to a small chamber overlooking the hall. From the front entrance a broad and low corridor gives access to drawing-room, dining-room, and kitchen premises, without infringing on the hall itself, so that it never becomes a passage-room. The first floor and attic floor give ample bedroom accommodation. In the adornment of this house it was specially desired that the mountain ash should form the subject for decoration, and this appears in the form of carving, leaded glass, plaster-work, and stencilling in the various rooms.

Two of the most important features in the metal-work are the drawing-room grate and hall electric light pendant. In each of these the ironwork is brightened by white enamelled flowers and scarlet berries.

In the carved trees, which appear in the staircase screen and on the hall ingle, birds’ nests are interwoven in the branches and birds flutter amongst the leaves and fruit. In the brackets to the lower beams and in the bosses to the ceiling various local plants are represented. One is entwined with bryony, another shows the blooms of the wild guelder-rose, while the bloom and berries of the hawthorn and the wild rose are amongst the features of the carving. The same variety of carving occurs in the white drawing-room, where, in the capitals to slender columns, the foliage and branches of various trees are represented.