HYLAND
The Dining Room, like the Great Hall, is once again
extraordinarily light and airy, a serene composition in
white and gold, the walls finished in the marvelous
stucco work that garnishes Adam's rooms throughout
the house. Adam rejected the traditional treatment
of wall tapestries in the Dining Room as retaining
"the smell of the victuals." The Dining Room, though
restrained in color, is, through the language of its
artistic motifs, an unabashed celebration of sensuality
and the good life, as Adam described it "a parade
[of] the conveniences and the social pleasures of life."
The Dining Room is a consummately elegant setting
for conviviality conditioned by the highest manners
and graces, what Quentin Crisp called Manners from
Heaven.
