It is said, and no doubt with truth, that it was through this doorway and down these steps that the lovely Dorothy Vernon, one of the co-heiresses of that grand old family, passed on the night of her elopement, and that at the top of the opposite flight of steps, shown in our ground plan, and known as “Dorothy Vernon’s Steps,” she was received into the arms of her ardent and true lover, John Manners, who had horses in waiting; and that they flew through the woods and fields until they gained the high road, and made their way into the neighbouring county. It was through this doorway then that not only the lovely Dorothy passed, but with her the fine old mansion itself and all its broad lands, into the hands of the noble family now owning it. Very sweetly has the tradition of the love and elopement of this noble pair been worked up by imagination in a story, “The Love-steps of Dorothy Vernon,” by a popular writer in the “Reliquary;” and thus another modern author very pleasantly embodies it in verse:— “The green old turrets, all ivy-thatch, Above the cedars that girdle them, rise, The pleasant glow of the sunshine catch, And outline sharp on the bluest of skies. “All is silent within and around; The ghostly house and the ghostly trees Sleep in the heat, with never a sound Of human voices or freshening breeze. * * * * * “It is a night with never a star, And the Hall with revelry throbs and gleams; There grates a hinge—the door is ajar— And a shaft of light in the darkness streams. “A faint sweet face, a glimmering gem, And then two figures steal into light; A flash, and darkness has swallowed them— So sudden is Dorothy Vernon’s flight!” Passing through the Ante-room, the visitor next enters the STATE BED-ROOM, known two hundred years ago, it seems, as the “Blue Drawing-room.” The walls are hung with Gobelins tapestry, the subjects being illustrations of Æsop’s Fables; and above this is a frieze, similar to that in the Ante-room, bearing the crests of Vernon and Manners. This apartment is lighted by a large bay-window, overlooking the upper court-yard, and raised a couple of steps above the level of the floor of the room itself. In this window stands an antique dressing-table and a grand old looking-glass, which are worthy of the most careful examination. Over the chimney-piece is a fine example of pargetting, representing Orpheus, by his musical powers, charming the brute creation. [Illustration: _The State Bed-room._]