HE "Porphyry House" on Carlton House
Terrace has been decorated by Messrs.
Jackson and Graham, of Oxford Street,

who have carried out, in the most admir

able way and with perfect workmanship, a series of designs by Owen Jones, in the style of that portion of the Alhambra adapted by Berruguete to the taste of Charles V. The entire woodwork of the walls, doors, and dados is all en suite, inlaid and polished through every room; and yet, as in the Alhambra itself, no two apartments are alike. The unity in the whole design makes this unique among houses, the whole

having been begun and finished under one plan, and carried throughout with one taste.

We are apt to speak contemptuously of one idea; but in carrying out a large work it is most difficult to hold the one idea fast, and not lose it in the accumulation of treasure that gathers as one goes, pouring in from all quarters. The result, in this case, is so excellent that one's opinion of it is of no consequence, any more than one's opinion of the crown of England, or the Victoria regia lily. It is, as a junior member of the firm says of it, "a house, the most remarkable in existence."

Inside the entrance door the keynote is struck at once, the tone given; that tone is porphyry, with its major third in gold; on this is raised a fine harmony, each room a distinct chord of colour-a grand theme, a Spanish organ strain, its music varied by sweetlysolemn bursts of trumpet sound from its range of horizontal pipes, with an effect new to us in England.

This keynote is given by two life-sized busts of Roman emperors placed at the hall door. These are cut with the diamond in porphyry, the flesh polished, the hair left dim; while the Spanish feeling is impressed by one of the finest coffers modern art has given us, nearly facing the entrance. This coffer is of great size, wrought in repoussé work of iron, gold, and silver veined and welded into forms of beauty by Zuleago of Madrid.

The inner hall door opens upon an oblong vestibule hung with dark pictures, mostly portraits of the Elizabethan period, and various subjects by Ravenstein, Van der Helst, Vincenzo Foppa, and others, well in keeping with the general bronze hue of the hall, or rather ante-room, of which the walls are panelled in polished wood, the ceiling latticed in brown and gold, and the floor velvet-carpeted to match.

The short corridor connecting the vestibule with a third, or inmost hall, opens on the right into Mr. Fitzmaurice's study, perhaps the only real home of a man who, besides his town house, has a country seat of fabulous grandeur, and a villa out of town.

The Study. The harmony in all the rooms is too reposeful for anything to strike the eye in particular; one has a feeling as of being in a tropical forest glade, where the light is so softened that, although one perceives the rich tracery of the branches, yet no one mass or spray starts so prominently forward as to claim the attention equally due to every other beauty; or, as in the Alhambra, where is spread a perpetual feast of praise.

A crystal cabinet, however, in this room is as the diamond among jewels. Itself a perfect specimen of the art of clear, lustrous glass-making (it was made for an international exhibition), it is but the case which protects and displays the finest known collection of objects in white jade. Above it, behind plate glass,

hangs a Persian prayer-carpet, framed in ebony and hung like a picture by strong brass chains. The walls are hung with rich silk damask in large diapered pattern (of Moorish taste, designed by Owen Jones, and woven expressly for this room), above a highly polished dado and deep dado-rail executed in variously coloured woods, and inlaid in the manner of the Spanish renaissance. The mantelpiece is a continuation of the dado, and the pier-glass is framed in the same style, which is further carried out in the doors, whose inlaid ivory handles are set in star-shaped discs, likewise of ivory. The curtains are of the same silk as the wall-hangings, and the iridescent purply tone produced by the mingled Tyrian crimson and pale blue, changed at intervals into bronze by gold patternings, is the best possible background for the vases and enamels by Lepec, and a noble salver, wrought in copper, gold, and silver, upon steel, by Zuleago.

It is the power and luxury of wealth to bring into being trophies of this sort, and its privilege to protect them. Without wealth to foster it, skill might be impossible, because unavailing for the artist's support. There may be many a Cellini vase even yet unmade for lack of materials and encouragement. Mr. Fitzmaurice has been fortunate in meeting a kindred spirit in Señor Zuleago of Madrid, who has given rich value in return for the fortune he has received.

Several fine pieces of tapestry and needlework,

framed under glass, adorn this room. Among them is a piece worked from a pattern designed and coloured by Mrs. Fitzmaurice, who wished it to be reproduced in machine embroidery, that it might represent the finest specimen of machine power; but it was found impossible to execute this, and the embroidery had to be done by hand, of which work it is one of the finest modern specimens. The design was in some measure adapted from one in an Arabian pattern-book.

The ceiling is wrought in colours and panelled. In each panel is a melon-shaped dome of burnished gold, set in blue, an idea taken from the Alhambra, as altered by Berruguete. These hollows are conspicuous by their brightness, standing out like golden buttercups in a meadow. The pattern of the carpet echoes that of the ceiling. Tall lamps in wrought metal stand on either side of the fireplace, and the same kind of lamps are fixed at intervals up the staircase, which sweeps in a spiral curve up through the house. The dado, of ebony and other woods, is inlaid and polished like the rooms; and, in lieu of banisters, the dado is repeated on the outer side of the stairs. This forms a noteworthy and elegant feature in this altogether remarkable house. The stair carpet is crimson velvet. In the inner hall, within the lowest curve of the stairs, stands a Florentine table of inlaid marbles, a very fine opera di commesso, and two Sicilian marble busts,