Among the ornaments used by the Adam brothers were mythological subjects, lozenge-shaped panels, octagons, ovals, hexagons, circles, wreaths, fans, husks, medallions, draped medallions, medallions with figures, the sphinx, the faun, goats, drapery, ribbons, eagle-headed grotesques, griffins, sea-horses, the ram’s head, the patera, the rosette, caryatides and other Classic motives. The ornaments of the ceilings and walls were stucco picked out with different tints, frequently pink and green. In handsome rooms, the chimney-piece was of statuary marble, the overmantel carved in wood and gilt, or painted. The drawing-room ceiling was coved and the compartments painted. Pilasters were often used to divide the rooms and the ornaments of these, like the arches and panels of the doors, were painted. The frieze was stucco. Ornaments in the niches were frequently gilt, as well as the girandoles and stucco ornaments of the ceilings. The Adams also recommended ornaments printed on _papier maché_ and “so highly japanned as to appear like glass.” Damask and tapestry were used for hanging the drawing-room, but not the dining-room. They assert that within the past few years there has been “a remarkable improvement in the form, convenience, arrangement and relief of apartments; a greater movement and variety, in the outside composition and in the decoration of the inside, an almost total change. The massive entablature, the ponderous compartment ceiling, the tabernacle frame almost the only species of ornament, formerly known in this country, are now universally exploded, and in their place we have adopted a beautiful variety of light mouldings, gracefully formed, delicately enriched and arranged with propriety and skill. We have introduced a great diversity of ceilings, frieze and decorated pilasters, and have added grace and beauty to the whole, by a mixture of grotesque[23] stucco and painted ornaments, together with the flowing _rinceau_,[24] with its fanciful figures and winding foliage. “A proper arrangement and relief of apartments are branches of architecture in which the French have excelled all other nations; these have united magnificence with utility in the hôtels of their nobility, and have rendered them objects of universal imitation. [Illustration: PLATE LI]