Page:The Boynton family and the family seat of Burton Agnes.djvu/101

[79] very good plaster ceiling with an all-over honey suckle design. Over the chimney-piece are figures of Patience, Truth, Constancy and Victory, and in the frieze. Tribulation, Fraud, Danger and Reason, with the date July 12, 1610, which may possibly have reference to some domestic event of which we have no record.

The upper story of the principal front was occupied by the usual long gallery, with a great plaster ceiling of barrel vaulted form; this has, unfortunately, entirely disappeared, except a fragment which makes us regret its loss the more.

One of the bedrooms facing the north, according to an old plan of the house, was described as a chapel.

Besides many fine family portraits, the following items of furniture are worth noting. In the entrance hall are two early Henry VII oak-panelled gardrobes and a "Nonsuch" chest of the time of Henry VIII. There are some beautiful chairs and tables of the time of Charles II, and an old Bible of 1625 that belonged to Lady Boynton, wife of Sir Griffith the 3rd Baronet, and five Powder Blue China jars of the Khang Hsi period, besides other specimens of oriental china.

Many guide books attribute the design of this house to Inigo Jones, but this is very improbable, and is certainly not confirmed by the building itself.

The picturesque gatehouse has an octagonal turret at each angle, and on its outer face, above the archway, bears the arms of James I and the date 1610. Between the front of the house and the gatehouse the garden was formerly terraced with a bowling green.