Branching off from the cloisters is the SALOON, placed between the dining and drawing-rooms. “Its ceiling is adorned with the painting Evelyn mentions as belonging to the hall of the old mansion, and to have been the work of Verrio, the subject being composed chiefly of allegorical figures—Painting, Sculpture, Music, and War. In this apartment are two cabinets, containing numerous miniatures painted by the Countess of Essex,” and many family and other portraits. In the DINING-ROOM, which is a noble apartment, with wainscoted walls, also hang several remarkably fine family and other portraits, by Vandyke, Hoppner, and other painters; and several fine pictures,—notably, “The Cat’s Paw,” by Landseer, and “The Highlander’s Home,” by Wilkie. The GRAND DRAWING-ROOM, which is filled with all the elegancies and luxuries of the most refined taste, and with the choicest cabinets, is adorned with paintings by Turner, Callcott, Collins, and others. These are of the highest order—rare and beautiful examples of the great English masters in art. Adjoining the drawing-room is the conservatory cloister, which is entered both from it and from the library. The LIBRARY, which occupies four rooms,—respectively known as the Great Library, the Inner Library, the Dramatists’ Library, and the Small Library,—is remarkably extensive; and contains, as such a library ought, a rare collection of valuable books in every class of literature. In these various rooms is preserved a fine collection of family paintings; and here, too, will be seen some of Grinling Gibbon’s matchless carvings, which are noticed by Evelyn as being there in his day. Among the historical relics preserved in the Library is the handkerchief which Lord Coningsby applied to the shoulder of King William III., when that monarch was wounded, in 1690, at the battle of the Boyne. It is stained with the blood of the king. There is also here a piece of the velvet pall of Charles I., taken from the tomb at Windsor, when it was opened in 1813, with a fragment of the Garter worn by the king at his execution. Like these, the other apartments at Cassiobury are filled with choice paintings and with everything that good taste and a lavish hand can suggest. The family portraits are, as might be expected, numerous, and of the highest order of art, several are by Vandyke, Cornelius Jansen, Sir Peter Lely, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and other famous artists. Throughout the rooms are scattered admirable works by Rembrandt, Cuyp, Teniers, &c., &c. We have made but brief reference to the gardens and grounds, and scarcely noticed the spacious and very beautiful Park. They are charms that neither lofty descent nor large wealth could purchase—the bequests only of Time. Centuries have passed since some of these magnificent trees were planted. The house is best seen from one of the high steeps on the opposite side of the river that runs through the demesne; lines of venerable chestnuts border a greensward that extends miles.