{"id":"01KG8AM6NQEJ52V9C15F75KBPS","cid":"bafkreigk354jxjlcb7jkbk72b6iyxtriejmblchkkuzhhqaenxovuy3kh4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8245,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.985Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","start_line":8192,"text":"nothing had been altered. The cellars were full of great grim, arched\r\nbins of blackened brick, looking like the ancient tombs of Templars,\r\nwhile overhead were shown the first floor timbers, huge, square, and\r\nmassive, all red oak, and through long eld, of a rich and Indian colour.\r\nSo large were those timbers, and so thickly ranked, that to walk in\r\nthose capacious cellars was much like walking along a line-of-battle\r\nship’s gun-deck.\r\n\r\nAll the rooms in each story remained just as they stood ninety years\r\nago, with all their heavy-moulded, wooden cornices, panelled wainscots,\r\nand carved and inaccessible mantels of queer horticultural and\r\nzoological devices. Dim with longevity, the very covering of the walls\r\nstill preserved the patterns of the times of Louis XVI. In the largest\r\nparlour (the drawing-room, my daughters called it, in distinction from\r\ntwo smaller parlours, though I did not think the distinction\r\nindispensable) the paper-hangings were in the most gaudy style.\r\nInstantly we knew such paper could only have come from Paris--genuine\r\nVersailles paper--the sort of paper that might have hung in Marie\r\nAntoinette’s boudoir. It was of great diamond lozenges, divided by\r\nmassive festoons of roses (onions, Biddy the girl said they were, but my\r\nwife soon changed Biddy’s mind on that head); and in those lozenges, one\r\nand all, as in an over-arboured garden-cage, sat a grand series of\r\ngorgeous illustrations of the natural history of the most imposing\r\nParisian-looking birds--parrots, macaws, and peacocks, but mostly\r\npeacocks. Real Prince Esterhazies of birds; all rubies, diamonds, and\r\nOrders of the Golden Fleece. But, alas! the north side of this old\r\napartment presented a strange look; half mossy and half mildew;\r\nsomething as ancient forest trees on their north sides, to which\r\nparticular side the moss most clings, and where, they say, internal\r\ndecay first strikes. In short, the original resplendence of the peacocks\r\nhad been sadly dimmed on that north side of the room, owing to a small\r\nleak in the eaves, from which the rain had slowly trickled its way down\r\nthe wall, clean down to the first floor. This leak the irreverent\r\ntenants, at that period occupying the premises, did not see fit to stop,\r\nor rather, did not think it worth their while, seeing that they only\r\nkept their fuel and dried their clothes in the parlour of the peacocks.\r\nHence many of the once glowing birds seemed as if they had their\r\nprincely plumage bedraggled in a dusty shower. Most mournfully their\r\nstarry trains were blurred. Yet so patiently and so pleasantly, nay,\r\nhere and there so ruddily did they seem to bide their bitter doom, so\r\nmuch of real elegance still lingered in their shapes, and so full, too,\r\nseemed they of a sweet, engaging pensiveness, meditating all day long,\r\nfor years and years, among their faded bowers, that though my family\r\nrepeatedly adjured me (especially my wife, who, I fear, was too young\r\nfor me) to destroy the whole hen-roost, as Biddy called it, and cover\r\nthe walls with a beautiful, nice, genteel, cream-coloured paper, despite\r\nall entreaties, I could not be prevailed upon, however submissive in\r\nother things.\r\n\r\nBut chiefly would I permit no violation of the old parlour of the\r\npeacocks or room of roses (I call it by both names), on account of its\r\nlong association in my mind with one of the original proprietors of the\r\nmansion--the gentle Jimmy Rose.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKGP3A12D78HPJHEG34YM","peer_type":"subsection","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM637MGTPNAW5Z1JSK2G6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:29.367Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:42.505Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}