[16] At "Mount Vernon" the mansion and its wings together composed three sides of an open square, the main house and its wings closing the side opposite the open end. At "Stratford Hall" four dependent structures formed a square court, inside of which the great house stands. Two offices are set twenty-eight feet in advance of the main house on the land front. On the water front two others are placed in a similar relation to it. At "Shirley" the great house and four principal dependent buildings form a long rectangular court, the mansion closing the side facing the river. To one unfamiliar with plantation life, the number and diversity of the offices about the manor house occasioned astonishment. A Huguenot exile who visited "Rosegill," the home of Ralph Wormeley, as early as 1686, recorded that the master's residence comprised at least twenty structures. "When I reached his place," this Frenchman wrote, "I thought I was entering a rather large village, but later on was told that all of it belonged to him."[17] [17] _A Huguenot Exile in Virginia_, ed. and tr. by Gilbert Chinard (New York, 1934), p. 142. In writing of Maryland early in the eighteenth century, Sir John Oldmixon said: "Both here [Maryland] and there [Virginia] the _English_ live at large at their several Plantations, which hinders the Increase of Towns; indeed every Plantation, is a little Town of itself, and can subsist itself with Provisions and Necessaries, every considerable Planter's Warehouse being like a Shop...." Oldmixon, John, _British Empire in America_ (second edition, 1741), Vol. I, p. 339. Cf. Kimball, Fiske, _Domestic Architecture_, _passim_. Offices near the great house were utilized as counting-rooms, schoolrooms, and sleeping quarters for the sons of the family as well as for a variety of other purposes. The kitchen, wash-house, dairy, smoke-house, and other offices intimately connected with the processes of housekeeping were usually set farther away in order to keep the mansion cool in summer and free it of the noise and odors of cooking.[18] [18] A historian who described the Virginia residences at the beginning of the eighteenth century stated that "All their Drudgeries of Cookery, Washing, Daries, &c. are perform'd in Offices detacht from the Dwelling-Houses, which by this means are kept more cool and Sweet." Cf. Beverley, Robert, _The History and Present State of Virginia_, Book IV, p. 53. Within the manor house the lower floors were usually devoted entirely to social purposes. Halls and chambers were generally finely panelled in native pine or walnut, and the symmetry of the paneling, the deeply recessed windows, and the excellent proportion of the doors and mantels imparted dignity and beauty to the rooms. Frequently the effect was heightened by fine carving, and occasionally the pink or orange tones of mantels of sienna marble lent a pleasing touch of color.