The large Drawing room upstairs is exactly the same length as the Stone Hall below. It was formed by inserting a floor halfway up the original Great Hall. It is probable that this was done in about 1650 to align with the fenestration of the new façade.
The most striking feature of the Drawing Room, apart from the light provided by its four splendid sash windows, is the red damask that covers the walls. Sewn together from different shapes like a patchwork quilt, the silk itself is from the 17th and 18th centuries but it has been the decoration of this room only since relatively recent times, proved by the fact that the backing to the silk is a 20th century fabric. It was almost certainly put in place soon after 1931, when the duchess' father bought the house. It apparently became the fashion at that time to use this method to give a room an historic feeling- a very appropriate device behind a brick façade of three centuries earlier which is also a beautiful deception, though in that case to give an impression of modernity.
