Although the above festivities at Hampton Court were or exceptional grandeur, they were typical of the kind common throughout the land in Tudor times. The fine houses having been built, it was only natural that they should be filled with guests who would contribute to the gaieties of the place. The scenes of pomp and splendour which were enacted at many of the mansions illustrated in this book were duly recorded, and royal personages as often as not appeared in the pageants. It requires little effort of imagination to restore the glories of the past and to people these ancient buildings with those for whose glorification they were erected. The majority of the mansions themselves are but shadows of their former selves, but the illustrations by which such artists as Nash, Richardson, and Fairholt recorded their beauties enable us to conjure up the ghosts of the departed Englishmen who gave life to the structures. The remains of the buildings themselves are a heritage of which we should be and are proud, and no efforts should be spared to keep them from decay or destruction, whatever the difficulties. Illustrations made in different periods are useful and entertaining, but they are nothing compared with the pleasure given by the mansions themselves. It would be a calamity indeed if these objects of antiquity were to be swept away. When Crewe Hall (illustrated here in Plates LIV, LV, and LVI) was burned to the ground in 1866, the late S. C. Hall recorded that since he had published his “Baronial Halls and Picturesque Edifices of England” no fewer than thirteen of those he had described had been destroyed by fire. Without attempting to complete these statistics it is certain that the list could be considerably extended, and as time goes on other accidents will rob the country of many more of its architectural attractions. The romance which is enshrined in these old buildings will never be forgotten, however, for the story of each structure has been told many times, and events of the day often cause us to refresh our memories. In 1913, for instance, the famous old Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire (Plate XIV), came into the market, as Quenby Hall, Leicestershire, had done also; and we were reminded then of their long histories. A nobleman sells one of his pictures for a large sum, and our thoughts immediately revert to the home which the painting has graced, perhaps for centuries. Then there are all kinds of incidents connected with the descendants of notable families, which bring forward once again the architectural background of social life. Even though in some cases these relics of the past have been razed to the ground, history has been made in them which can never be obliterated. It is the personal and sentimental interest which helps us to appreciate the work of the men who built or decorated the houses where family histories began. These architects, master-masons, and other workers skilled in invention and