staircase in the Hôtel de Ville is supreme. If you are ever in France
you should see it. It has been copied often by American architects.
Infinite thought and skill were brought to bear on all the iron work
door-handles, lanterns, and so forth. The artistic excellence of this
work has not been equaled since this period of the Eighteenth Century.
The greatest artists of that day did not think it in the least beneath
their dignity and talent to devote themselves to designing the knobs of
doors, the handles of commodes, the bronzes for the decorations of
fireplaces, the shaping of hinges and locks. They were careful of
details, and that is the secret of their supremacy. Nowadays, we may
find a house with a beautiful hall, but the chances are it is spoiled by
crudely designed fittings.

I have written somewhat at length of the magnificent staircases of older
countries and older times than our own, because somehow the subject is
one that cannot be considered apart from its beginnings. All our halls
and stairs, pretentious or not, have come to us from these superb
efforts of masterly workmen, and perhaps that is why we feel
instinctively that they must suggest a certain formality, and restraint.
This feeling is indirectly a tribute to the architects who gave us such
notable examples.

We do not, however, have to go abroad for historic examples of stately
halls and stairs. There are fine old houses scattered all through the
old thirteen states that cannot be surpassed for dignity and simplicity.

One of the best halls in America is that of "Westover," probably the
most famous house in Virginia. This old house was built in 1737 by
Colonel Byrd on the James River, where so many of the Colonial
aristocrats of Virginia made their homes. The plan of the hall is