Accordingly he advanced out of the vestibule, and turning to the left,
led the way down a long passage till he reached the dining-room. This
apartment was like the vestibule, oak-panelled, but the walls were
decorated with family and other portraits, including a very curious
painting of the Castle itself, as it was before its destruction in the
time of Cromwell. This painting was executed on a massive slab of oak,
and conceived in a most quaint and formal style, being relieved in the
foreground with stags at gaze and woodeny horses, that must, according
to any rule of proportion, have been about half as large as the
gateway towers. Evidently, also, it was of an older date than the
present house, which is Jacobean, having probably been removed to its
present position from the ruins of the Castle. Such as it was,
however, it gave a very good idea of what the ancient seat of the
Boisseys and de la Molles had been like before the Roundheads had made
an end of its glory. The dining-room itself was commodious, though not
large. It was lighted by three narrow windows which looked out upon
the moat, and bore a considerable air of solid comfort. The table,
made of black oak, of extraordinary solidity and weight, was matched
by a sideboard of the same material and apparently of the same date,
both pieces of furniture being, as Mr. de la Molle informed his
guests, relics of the Castle.

On this sideboard were placed several pieces of old and massive plate,
each of which was rudely engraved with three falcons /or/, the arms of
the de la Molle family. One piece, indeed, a very ancient salver, bore
those of the Boisseys--a ragged oak, in an escutcheon of pretence--
showing thereby that it dated from that de la Molle who in the time of
Henry the Seventh had obtained the property by marriage with the
Boissey heiress.