Scotland/Scots > Black's picturesque tourist of Scotland

ENVIRONS OP GLASGOW.
columns, each 25 feet high, and fully 10 feet span, formed of a
solid block of stone, quarried in Dalserf; each of which
required to be drawn by 30 horses. The portico gives access to
a noble entrance hall, and the princely state apartments.
The Palace, which contains a number of the costliest works of art
and vertu, is only shown to well-introduced visitors. Obtaining access
by the old front, the spacious Egyptian hall, with its baronial fireplace, 1
is first entered; then the old dining-room, containing portraits of the |
late Duke by M'Nee—of the unfortunate marquis who was beheaded, ,
and other family portraits. The Duchess’ staircase, in blue stone, with {
lantern roof, is next approached. Here are portraits by Patrick Park;
statues of Minerva, Venus, etc. The music room is richly and fitly fur¬
nished ; and the Dowager Duchess’ apartments are finished in gold and
colours. The Princess Duchess’ rooms,immediatelyabove, are splendidly '
decorated and enriched. The picture gallery is a noble apartment, 120 j
feet by 20, and 20 feet high. At the upper end is the late Duke’s ambas¬
sadorial throne, placed between two porphyry busts of Augustus and
Tiberias. At the other end, is an imposing door-piece of black marble, ij
the pediment supported by columns of green porphyry of great value. 1
On the walls are portraits of George III. and Queen Charlotte, of the |
late Duke in his state robes, the beautiful Duchess Anne (afterwards of 1
Argyle),* the Earl of Denbigh, and a long series of family likenesses;
also the celebrated painting by Rubens of Daniel in the Den of Lions, j
The tribune, with its exquisitely enriched lantern roof, 100 feet high, and
hanging gallery, is used as an assembly room, and has doors leading
to all the principal apartments. It contains busts of Napoleon and
Josephine, the late and present Duke and Duchess, and others. After
passing through the old state rooms, profusely hung with paintings,
and filled with cabinets of rare value, the Beckford Library, in the form
of a T, is entered by the old oak staircase. The new dining-room, library,
sitting-room, grand entrance hall, black marble staircase, are successively j
passed, before we enter the new state rooms, sometimes occupied by i
H. R. H. the Duchess of Kent, the Grand Duchess of Baden, etc. These _
rooms are lightly and luxuriantly furnished, the walls hung with tapestry
of rare workmanship. Among the recent additions to the treasures of
the Palace, is a gift to the Princess Marie by the Empress Eugenie of
France, in the shape of a round table of Sevres china, exquisitely painted
on the gold rim of which is engraved, “ Offert a la Madame La Duchesse
de Hamilton, par sa Majeste L’Imperatrice Eugenie—Sevres le 4 Avril, |
* There are frequent portraits of this Queen of Beauty. Horace Walpole tells us I
of the extraordinary sensation caused by her charms,—the crush at court and at
the theatres, and the crowds that stayed up all night at country towns to see her ,*
enter her carriage in the morning. A shoemaker made 2 J guineas by showing a shoe
he was making for her.