“THE GRAND DINING-HALL, near which are the kitchens. This hall, which was being remodelled and altered by Pugin at the time of the Earl’s death, remains to this day in an unfinished state, but shows how truly grand in every way it would have been had it been completed. The roof is one of the finest imaginable, and from its centre rises a majestic louvre, which at once admits a subdued light and acts as a ventilator. It is of truly noble proportions, and the fire-places and carved stone chimney-pieces are grand in the extreme—the latter bearing the arms, crest, supporters, motto, chapeau, &c., of the Earl of Shrewsbury. The sides of the room were intended to be panelled, as was also the minstrels’ gallery, with carved oak, and a part of this is already placed. At the north end is a fine large window, the upper part of which is filled with armorial bearings, but the lower part has never been completed, and is filled in with plain quarries. The arms in this window are those of Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury, Clifford, Beauchamp, De Valence, Comyn, Mountchesny, Nevile, Middleham, Clifford, Bohun, Strange of Blackmere, Tailebot, Troutbeke, Claveringe, Buckley, Pembroke, Borghese, Doria, Lovetoft, Mareschal, Strongbow, King Donald, Raby, Lacy, De Verdun, Castile and Leon, D’Angoulême, William the Conqueror, Bagot, Mexley, Aylmer, and others. [Illustration: _The Pagoda._] “From here a short corridor leads to a small vestibule, from which the other private apartments extend. Of these the principal one is the BOUDOIR of the Countess of Shrewsbury—a charming apartment, replete with every luxury and with every appliance which taste and art can dictate. The ‘Doria’ and other apartments are reached from near this by a circular staircase. From the vestibule the private entrance to the Towers is gained, and from it is the private way across the entrance gateway into the grounds; and also through the small tower and across the drawbridge the park is reached. The drawbridge crosses the moat, and the entrance is fully guarded, and has all the appliances of an old baronial castle.”[2] And now let us speak briefly of the situation of Alton Towers, and of its grounds of matchless charms. Situate almost in the centre of England—in busy Staffordshire, but on the borders of picturesque Derbyshire—Alton Towers is within easy reach of several populous cities and towns, the active and laborious denizens of which frequently “breathe” in these always open gardens and grounds the pure and fragrant air. The roads to it are, moreover, full of interest and surpassing beauty; approached from any side, the traveller passes through a country rich in the picturesque. Those who reach it from thronged and toiling Manchester, from active and energetic Derby, from the potteries of busy Staffordshire, are regaled by Nature on their way, and are refreshed before they drink from the full cup of loveliness with which the mansion and its grounds and gardens supply them.