The first-floor Elizabethan . The right wing Pure Doric . The centre Early English , with a huge portico copied from the Parthenon . The left wing pure Boeotian , which the country folk admired most of all , became it was just like the new barracks in the town , only three times as big . The grand staircase was copied from the Catacombs at Rome . The back staircase from the Tajmahal at Agra . This was built by Sir John 's great-great-great-uncle , who won , in Lord Clive 's Indian Wars , plenty of money , plenty of wounds , and no more taste than his betters . The cellars were copied from the caves of Elephanta . The offices from the Pavilion at Brighton . And the rest from nothing in heaven , or earth , or under the earth . So that Harthover House was a great puzzle to antiquarians , and a thorough Naboth 's vineyard to critics , and architects , and all persons who like meddling with other men 's business , and spending other men 's money . So they were all setting upon poor Sir John , year after year , and trying to talk him into spending a hundred thousand pounds or so , in building , to please them and not himself . But he always put them off , like a canny North-countryman as he was . One wanted him to build a Gothic house , but he said he was no Goth ; and another to build an Elizabethan , but he said he lived under good Queen Victoria , and not good Queen Bess ; and another was bold enough to tell him that his house was ugly , but he said he lived inside it , and not outside ; and another , that there was no unity in it , but he said that that was just why he liked the old place . For he liked to see how each Sir John , and Sir Hugh , and Sir Ralph , and Sir Randal , had left his mark upon the place , each after his own taste ; and he had no more notion of disturbing his ancestors ' work than of disturbing their graves . For now the house looked like a real live house , that had a history , and had grown and grown as the world grew ; and that it was only an upstart fellow who did not know who his own grandfather was , who would change it for some spick and span new Gothic or Elizabethan thing , which looked as if it bad been all spawned in a night , as mushrooms are . From which you may collect -LRB- if you have wit enough -RRB- that Sir John was a very sound-headed , sound-hearted squire , and just the man to keep the country side in order , and show good sport with his hounds . But Tom and his master did not go in through the great iron gates , as if they had been Dukes or Bishops , but round the back way , and a very long way round it was ; and into a little back-door , where the ash-boy let them in , yawning horribly ; and then in a passage the housekeeper met them , in such a flowered chintz dressing-gown , that Tom mistook her for My Lady herself , and she gave Grimes solemn orders about `` You will take care of this , and take care of that , '' as if he was going up the chimneys , and not Tom . And Grimes listened , and said every now and then , under his voice , `` You 'll mind that , you little beggar ? '' and Tom did mind , all at least that he could .
And then the housekeeper turned them into a grand room , all covered up in sheets of brown paper , and bade them begin , in a lofty and tremendous voice ; and so after a whimper or two , and a kick from his master , into the grate Tom went , and up the chimney , while a housemaid stayed in the room to watch the furniture ; to whom Mr. XXXXX paid many playful and chivalrous compliments , but met with very slight encouragement in return .
Bishops Boeotian Elephanta Elizabethan English Grimes John North-countryman Parthenon great-great-great-uncle