LATE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES--INTERIORS--DETAILS AND FEATURES. The gradual change in character which has been traced in the external treatment of houses of the later part of the seventeenth century and of the eighteenth is also to be found in the internal decoration. The exuberant and vivacious detail of Elizabethan and Jacobean work gave way to the more sober and scholarly rendering of Inigo Jones, Webb, Wren, and their successors. The walls, the doors, the windows, the chimney-pieces, the ceilings, and the staircases were alike affected. Throughout the seventeenth century and well into the eighteenth the ancient methods of covering the walls prevailed; either with hangings or with panelling. The panels, however, became much larger; instead of being 12 or 15 in. wide, they were 3 ft. or more, and high in proportion. Hitherto they had usually been made in one sheet from floor to cornice; sometimes, however, a dado had been introduced; that is a range of panels near the floor, surmounted by a horizontal moulding which made the circuit of the room at the height of about 3 ft. from the floor, thus dividing the panelling into two unequal ranges, a low one below, and a lofty one above. This arrangement, instead of being the exception, now became the rule. The pilasters and cornices were more carefully and correctly designed--both those of the walls and those which embellished the doorways. The broken pediment was introduced, and not infrequently the blank space left where the apex of the completed pediment would have been was filled with a cartouche of arms surrounded by foliage, and linked to the adjacent work by heavy swags of fruit and leaves (Fig. 195). All the detail was carefully designed, both as to its proportion, its purity of outline, and its suitable decoration with carving. Yet withal there was a freedom and variety of treatment, a charming absence of too formal restraint, which were a legacy from the lighthearted and irresponsible methods of earlier days. At Thorney Hall in Cambridgeshire there is some excellent panelling of this kind (Fig. 181). It has been attributed to Inigo Jones, but from its close resemblance to the work at Thorpe Hall (Fig. 194), it may be more safely assigned to his pupil and successor, John Webb. [Illustration: 181. Panelling in the Dining-room at Thorney Hall, Cambridgeshire.] [Illustration: 182. Typical Panel Mouldings of the Eighteenth Century.]