GAWTHORPE HALL.--The only other Gothic house of any importance, which Sir C. Barry had the opportunity of restoring and remodelling, was Gawthorpe Hall, near Burnley. The nature of the work here was different. He had to deal with a fine old house of the Elizabethan period, built about the year 1600, on the site of an older building, probably of the “Peel” or border-castle character, and presenting considerable variety of style in its different fronts. On one side it retained some of the stern and bare simplicity of the old border Peel; on another, the irregularity in position and size of the characteristic mullioned windows produced a quaint and picturesque effect; the principal front on the other side had greater regularity of fenestration, but was broken by two polygonal bays at the angles and one square bay [Illustration: GAWTHORPE HALL, LANCASHIRE. VIEW OF ENTRANCE FRONT AS ALTERED.] projecting from the centre front, in which a low-arched porch gave entrance to the house. There was so much in the exterior of picturesque variety and quaintness, that, when Mr. Barry was consulted by Sir James P. K. Shuttleworth, in 1849, he felt unwilling to make any considerable alterations. All he thought needful was to give importance to the tower and chimneys, by raising them so as to produce greater boldness in the sky-line, and to surround the building with a pierced parapet of the characteristic Elizabethan style. The old grass terraces round the house had disappeared; these he carefully restored, and carried out the same principle of architectural gardening, which he had so often exemplified in his Italian buildings, by surrounding the house with a formal garden, designed according to the geometrical patterns of the Elizabethan period. The changes were not great, but they all tended to perfect and render more striking the original character of the building; and the work was carried on _con amore_, for he was a great admirer of the Elizabethan style for domestic purposes, and inclined to prefer it for such purposes to the purer Gothic forms. In the interior he had somewhat greater scope. It had been modernized by successive owners, yet so that it still retained, almost untouched, the dining-hall and the richly decorated ceiling and carved panellings of the drawing-room. The problem therefore was simply to preserve and carry out the old style of decoration, to sweep away modern excrescences, and at the same time to give that greater convenience and adaptation to present requirements, which these additions had been intended to supply. It was not one likely to cause him much difficulty, and, though all his suggestions have not been carried out, it was certainly solved very successfully, and the house is now a picturesque and beautiful specimen of its peculiar style.