Aungier House Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aungier_mods) wrote2013-06-12 06:59 pm
aungier_mods) wrote2013-06-12 06:59 pm
Descriptions: Aungier House
AUNGIER HOUSE DESCRIPTIONS
GROUND FLOOR
1. Entrance Hall
The main entrance to the manor, it leads into the great hall and also has access to the chapel on the ground floor.
2. Great Hall (musician's gallery)
It goes without saying that the great hall was designed with impact in mind; as the first and last memories many guests might have of Aungier House, it is suitably grand. Both parts oppressive and dizzying, the high ceilings are, like many of the others in the manor, decorated and painted and the walls are lined with heavily carved wooden panels. The eagle-eyed might be able to pick out sharp-clawed birds and lions amongst the more abstract reliefs. Notably, the great hall is a communal area- regardless of status, most everyone will pass through it and congregate there.
3. Stairwell
4. Ante Room (furniture storage)
5. Dining Parlour
The dining parlour is a less formal version of the first floor dining room and opens out onto the patio and gardens.
6. North Stairs (with stairs to basement)
7. Lower Picture Gallery
A long hallway lined with stern face after stern face; every inch of space has been used to display portraits of all of the important figures in Aungier House's history and the sea of eyes is only broken by the series of narrow windows on the outer side. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many consider it to be one of the most unsettling parts of the manor- there is always a maid who claims to have seen a long passed ancestor's painted lips part or a frame flip the other way around of its own accord.
8. South Stairs
9. Vestibule
A small lobby with access to the south stairwell, the grand drawing room and the dining parlour.
10. Grand Drawing Room (for receiving guests after dinner)
Designed for receiving guests after dinner, the grand drawing room is easily one of the most luxurious rooms in the manor. Plush couches and chairs are arranged around the hearth and every inch of the room has been decorated to display the family’s wealth and taste, from the ornate, painted ceilings to the numerous paintings depicting local scenery and ancestors.
11. Small Drawing Room (for ladies after dinner)
In many other families, this room might be reserved solely for the use of the ladies and female guests but such customs are not so strictly enforced in the Valdemar household. It is therefore simply smaller and more informal than the grand drawing room and, accordingly, decorated more modestly. Nonetheless, it is a very warm, welcoming room with a finely woven rug that Lord Valdemar is said to have purchased himself in Tehran.
12 & 13. Ground Floor Library
The ground floor library is spread out over two rooms with the smaller of the two also being used as a private study. Thumbing through the titles on display will reveal that, compared to the other two libraries, the books are more scientific in nature and the collection often changes depending on what the Master is currently working on. A large desk and a number of chairs have been placed in front of the bay windows for working at.
14. The Master's Study
Two of the few rooms that the housekeeper does not have a key to, the Master himself controls who does and does not have access to the study and workroom. Not that this is something that most of the domestic servants particularly resent- it's two less rooms to clean, after all and no one is really sure what he gets up to in there anyway.
15. The Master's Classroom
Rather like the children's classroom, the Master's classroom is where he takes his students and research assistants to share his latest findings and teach. It is always open for his students to work in and resembles a school or conference room of sorts, with several bookcases, a cupboard for storage and two rows of long tables.
16. The Master's Workroom
See the Master's study.
17. Bathroom
18. Cleaning Supplies
19. Linen Storage
20. Children's Day Room and Classroom
The day room and classroom is one of the most spacious halls in the manor, designed to occupy the younger members of the household both in and out of class hours. Even when all of the toys are locked back in their trunks for lessons, the mathematics charts and world maps and pinned-up drawings do a surprising amount to lighten the room. The desks and blackboards are close to the window and the walls are lined with lots of low shelves full of books. The rocking-horse at the back of the room is particularly lovely and was restored from a French carrousel horse, although some might find its flared, crimson nostrils, bared teeth and unblinking eyes a touch unsettling. The classroom has been rearranged by the current governess to also function as a music room.
21. Butler's Pantry (silverware)
22. Chapel (two floors)
There is very little separating the manor’s chapel from the one in St. Erasmus and, in many ways, it is far more extravagant in spite of its smaller size, with impressive vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows depicting biblical figures such as Solomon in all his power and wisdom. The servants, of course, are not permitted to sit with the family during services and are usually relegated to the balconies.
23. Patio
FIRST FLOOR
24. Gallery Hallway (overlooking entrance)
An open balcony that looks down on the great hallway, it is also an excellent vantage point for closer viewing of the plaster ceiling, carvings and frieze- and a way of getting a look at new arrivals without being noticed.
25. Saloon (the Withdrawing Room)
26. Drawing Room
27. South Library
28. Family Library
More private and informal than its cousin on the ground floor, the family library houses some of the rarer books in the estate’s collection as well as more detailed family histories and records. The room is dominated by packed, dark wood shelves but there is a sitting area with a table for reading at and the bay window looks out over the gardens.
29. Dining Room
The room in which members of the Valdemar family, both blood relatives and those who have been adopted in, take their meals. A large, mahogany dining table takes pride of place at the centre of the room but equally impressive is the intricate plasterwork ceiling. Hanging over each of the two fireplaces is a portrait of Lord and Lady Valdemar respectively.
30. South Stairs
31. Upper Picture Gallery
The balcony bridging the north and south stairs is decorated with yet more paintings but they are more varied in nature than the ones hanging in the gallery on the first floor- a few of them even depict St. Erasmus and the moors surrounding the town.
32. Lady Valdemar's Sitting Room
33 & 34. Lady Valdemar's Bedroom and Dressing Room
35& 36. Lord Valdemar's Bedroom and Guest Bedroom
37. Lord Valdemar's Sitting Room
38. Housekeeper's Office
A space for whoever it is currently occupying the position of housekeeper to store paperwork, employee notes and paperwork- and to call any maid or butler accused of inappropriate behaviour to. Appropriately, the small, sash window over the desk gives a view of the service wing and, on clear days, the folly in the distance.
SECOND FLOOR
39. Hallway
40. Grand Library
Decorated with a more classical theme in mind, the grand library, alongside a vast and varied collection of books, contains a marble relief depicting Daedalus, a reflection of the family’s penchant for invention and innovation.
41. The Master and Mistress' Sitting Room
42. The Master and Mistress' Bedroom
43- 47. Children's Bedrooms (5)
48. Family Bathroom
49. Guest Bathroom
50- 59. Guest Bedrooms (10)
Included in this wing:
54. Robin Latimer's Bedroom
Robin's bedroom, one of the larger guest rooms, is surprisingly lacking in any kind of military ornamentation and, for that matter, many personal effects at all. There is a bureau- usually locked tight- underneath the window at which he does most of his correspondence and a worn, old trunk tucked into one of the corners, still covered in travel stamps. Similarly, the shelves have been filled with his own books, including a fair few on history and geography- although there is a startling amount of romantic and mythological fiction there too.
57. Warsman's Bedroom
Warsman's room is sparsely personalised, as though he expects to be removed from it at a moment's notice. In truth, he simply didn't have much to bring with him. A small, battered suitcase still containing an old Champion's belt has been tucked away under the bed, the few items of clothing he brought with him (and what Robin procured for him) having been tidied away into drawers. The sleek mahogany writing bureau dominating one side of the room, however, has been more soundly claimed; from day to day one might find an ever-changing pile of borrowed books, newspaper clippings, even work tools if he should find himself in need of minor maintenance.
THIRD FLOOR
60. Hallway
If the old, dusty smell as one mounts the steps to the third floor wasn't enough of a giveaway, the cobwebs in the corners and the decidedly barer walls do enough to suggest that this part of the house is decidedly less well cared than the rest. Floorboards have a tendency to creek, and over the years the hallways have earned a reputation for sheltering a few ghosts- a crying scullery maid here, the mistress of a lord locked up in a room by a jealous wife there...
61. Female Domestic Wing (and stairs to locked attic)
The northern wing is dedicated to the female staff. The stairs in this wing also lead up to the attic, where Lady Valdemar used to work before her retirement, but the door has been locked for years and not even the housekeeper has the key anymore.
62-69. Female Domestic Bedrooms
Most of these bedrooms would be fairly spacious were it not for the fact that most of them contain at least two or three beds; a couple of the smaller rooms contain a single bed, and when the house is not at peak capacity servants may choose to room by themselves, but others find the company allowed by a share room soothing.
70. Storage
A large, dark, bleak room that, from the doorway, appears to be little beyond a sea of dusty old white sheets. Beneath them is a collection of old furniture- dressers, chairs, tables, trunks, even a few of the family's old creations, all locked away from sight and forgotten over the years. The shutters have long since rusted closed, and the room is so full that traversing it in the dark is incredibly difficult. Only the housekeeper and Lord Valdemar have a key to this room.
71- Governess' Bedroom
An airy room with space for two. The governess' and tutor's rooms are better decorated than the majority of the third floor, designed to be comfortable and functional; in the governess' bedroom, there is a large writing bureau at one end of the room, shelves for books and plenty of room to wash and dress.
72-76. Student/ Assistant Bedrooms and Studies
These small, narrow rooms are a step above the plain servants' rooms in terms of decor; designed for a single inhabitant, each comes furnished with a small desk for study, notemaking and even a little prototype development, if inspiration should strike in the night.
77. Tutor's Bedroom
See governess' bedroom.
78. Bathroom
79. Male Domestic Wing
See the female domestic wing.
80-87. Male Domestic Bedrooms
See the female domestic bedrooms. Currently in this wing:
87. Lyall's Bedroom
Lyall has one of the medium-sized rooms to himself, at the entrance to the male servants' wing. His room is not very personalized, with only one small painting (of a meadow landscape with sheep) and one etching of his parents. His bed is probably the most colorful thing in the room, piled with quilts and pillows, gifts from home. The curtains are thick, heavy, and usually closed.
Most of what's in there is notebooks, with records of his previous days and observations and lessons he's learned from them, that fill up a small bookshelf. There are occasional theories he's picked up from his current employers that he found interesting, and occasional sketches of people, devices, or even flowers.
GROUND FLOOR
1. Entrance Hall
The main entrance to the manor, it leads into the great hall and also has access to the chapel on the ground floor.
2. Great Hall (musician's gallery)
It goes without saying that the great hall was designed with impact in mind; as the first and last memories many guests might have of Aungier House, it is suitably grand. Both parts oppressive and dizzying, the high ceilings are, like many of the others in the manor, decorated and painted and the walls are lined with heavily carved wooden panels. The eagle-eyed might be able to pick out sharp-clawed birds and lions amongst the more abstract reliefs. Notably, the great hall is a communal area- regardless of status, most everyone will pass through it and congregate there.
3. Stairwell
4. Ante Room (furniture storage)
5. Dining Parlour
The dining parlour is a less formal version of the first floor dining room and opens out onto the patio and gardens.
6. North Stairs (with stairs to basement)
7. Lower Picture Gallery
A long hallway lined with stern face after stern face; every inch of space has been used to display portraits of all of the important figures in Aungier House's history and the sea of eyes is only broken by the series of narrow windows on the outer side. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many consider it to be one of the most unsettling parts of the manor- there is always a maid who claims to have seen a long passed ancestor's painted lips part or a frame flip the other way around of its own accord.
8. South Stairs
9. Vestibule
A small lobby with access to the south stairwell, the grand drawing room and the dining parlour.
10. Grand Drawing Room (for receiving guests after dinner)
Designed for receiving guests after dinner, the grand drawing room is easily one of the most luxurious rooms in the manor. Plush couches and chairs are arranged around the hearth and every inch of the room has been decorated to display the family’s wealth and taste, from the ornate, painted ceilings to the numerous paintings depicting local scenery and ancestors.
11. Small Drawing Room (for ladies after dinner)
In many other families, this room might be reserved solely for the use of the ladies and female guests but such customs are not so strictly enforced in the Valdemar household. It is therefore simply smaller and more informal than the grand drawing room and, accordingly, decorated more modestly. Nonetheless, it is a very warm, welcoming room with a finely woven rug that Lord Valdemar is said to have purchased himself in Tehran.
12 & 13. Ground Floor Library
The ground floor library is spread out over two rooms with the smaller of the two also being used as a private study. Thumbing through the titles on display will reveal that, compared to the other two libraries, the books are more scientific in nature and the collection often changes depending on what the Master is currently working on. A large desk and a number of chairs have been placed in front of the bay windows for working at.
14. The Master's Study
Two of the few rooms that the housekeeper does not have a key to, the Master himself controls who does and does not have access to the study and workroom. Not that this is something that most of the domestic servants particularly resent- it's two less rooms to clean, after all and no one is really sure what he gets up to in there anyway.
15. The Master's Classroom
Rather like the children's classroom, the Master's classroom is where he takes his students and research assistants to share his latest findings and teach. It is always open for his students to work in and resembles a school or conference room of sorts, with several bookcases, a cupboard for storage and two rows of long tables.
16. The Master's Workroom
See the Master's study.
17. Bathroom
18. Cleaning Supplies
19. Linen Storage
20. Children's Day Room and Classroom
The day room and classroom is one of the most spacious halls in the manor, designed to occupy the younger members of the household both in and out of class hours. Even when all of the toys are locked back in their trunks for lessons, the mathematics charts and world maps and pinned-up drawings do a surprising amount to lighten the room. The desks and blackboards are close to the window and the walls are lined with lots of low shelves full of books. The rocking-horse at the back of the room is particularly lovely and was restored from a French carrousel horse, although some might find its flared, crimson nostrils, bared teeth and unblinking eyes a touch unsettling. The classroom has been rearranged by the current governess to also function as a music room.
21. Butler's Pantry (silverware)
22. Chapel (two floors)
There is very little separating the manor’s chapel from the one in St. Erasmus and, in many ways, it is far more extravagant in spite of its smaller size, with impressive vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows depicting biblical figures such as Solomon in all his power and wisdom. The servants, of course, are not permitted to sit with the family during services and are usually relegated to the balconies.
23. Patio
FIRST FLOOR
24. Gallery Hallway (overlooking entrance)
An open balcony that looks down on the great hallway, it is also an excellent vantage point for closer viewing of the plaster ceiling, carvings and frieze- and a way of getting a look at new arrivals without being noticed.
25. Saloon (the Withdrawing Room)
26. Drawing Room
27. South Library
28. Family Library
More private and informal than its cousin on the ground floor, the family library houses some of the rarer books in the estate’s collection as well as more detailed family histories and records. The room is dominated by packed, dark wood shelves but there is a sitting area with a table for reading at and the bay window looks out over the gardens.
29. Dining Room
The room in which members of the Valdemar family, both blood relatives and those who have been adopted in, take their meals. A large, mahogany dining table takes pride of place at the centre of the room but equally impressive is the intricate plasterwork ceiling. Hanging over each of the two fireplaces is a portrait of Lord and Lady Valdemar respectively.
30. South Stairs
31. Upper Picture Gallery
The balcony bridging the north and south stairs is decorated with yet more paintings but they are more varied in nature than the ones hanging in the gallery on the first floor- a few of them even depict St. Erasmus and the moors surrounding the town.
32. Lady Valdemar's Sitting Room
33 & 34. Lady Valdemar's Bedroom and Dressing Room
35& 36. Lord Valdemar's Bedroom and Guest Bedroom
37. Lord Valdemar's Sitting Room
38. Housekeeper's Office
A space for whoever it is currently occupying the position of housekeeper to store paperwork, employee notes and paperwork- and to call any maid or butler accused of inappropriate behaviour to. Appropriately, the small, sash window over the desk gives a view of the service wing and, on clear days, the folly in the distance.
SECOND FLOOR
39. Hallway
40. Grand Library
Decorated with a more classical theme in mind, the grand library, alongside a vast and varied collection of books, contains a marble relief depicting Daedalus, a reflection of the family’s penchant for invention and innovation.
41. The Master and Mistress' Sitting Room
42. The Master and Mistress' Bedroom
43- 47. Children's Bedrooms (5)
48. Family Bathroom
49. Guest Bathroom
50- 59. Guest Bedrooms (10)
Included in this wing:
54. Robin Latimer's Bedroom
Robin's bedroom, one of the larger guest rooms, is surprisingly lacking in any kind of military ornamentation and, for that matter, many personal effects at all. There is a bureau- usually locked tight- underneath the window at which he does most of his correspondence and a worn, old trunk tucked into one of the corners, still covered in travel stamps. Similarly, the shelves have been filled with his own books, including a fair few on history and geography- although there is a startling amount of romantic and mythological fiction there too.
57. Warsman's Bedroom
Warsman's room is sparsely personalised, as though he expects to be removed from it at a moment's notice. In truth, he simply didn't have much to bring with him. A small, battered suitcase still containing an old Champion's belt has been tucked away under the bed, the few items of clothing he brought with him (and what Robin procured for him) having been tidied away into drawers. The sleek mahogany writing bureau dominating one side of the room, however, has been more soundly claimed; from day to day one might find an ever-changing pile of borrowed books, newspaper clippings, even work tools if he should find himself in need of minor maintenance.
THIRD FLOOR
60. Hallway
If the old, dusty smell as one mounts the steps to the third floor wasn't enough of a giveaway, the cobwebs in the corners and the decidedly barer walls do enough to suggest that this part of the house is decidedly less well cared than the rest. Floorboards have a tendency to creek, and over the years the hallways have earned a reputation for sheltering a few ghosts- a crying scullery maid here, the mistress of a lord locked up in a room by a jealous wife there...
61. Female Domestic Wing (and stairs to locked attic)
The northern wing is dedicated to the female staff. The stairs in this wing also lead up to the attic, where Lady Valdemar used to work before her retirement, but the door has been locked for years and not even the housekeeper has the key anymore.
62-69. Female Domestic Bedrooms
Most of these bedrooms would be fairly spacious were it not for the fact that most of them contain at least two or three beds; a couple of the smaller rooms contain a single bed, and when the house is not at peak capacity servants may choose to room by themselves, but others find the company allowed by a share room soothing.
70. Storage
A large, dark, bleak room that, from the doorway, appears to be little beyond a sea of dusty old white sheets. Beneath them is a collection of old furniture- dressers, chairs, tables, trunks, even a few of the family's old creations, all locked away from sight and forgotten over the years. The shutters have long since rusted closed, and the room is so full that traversing it in the dark is incredibly difficult. Only the housekeeper and Lord Valdemar have a key to this room.
71- Governess' Bedroom
An airy room with space for two. The governess' and tutor's rooms are better decorated than the majority of the third floor, designed to be comfortable and functional; in the governess' bedroom, there is a large writing bureau at one end of the room, shelves for books and plenty of room to wash and dress.
72-76. Student/ Assistant Bedrooms and Studies
These small, narrow rooms are a step above the plain servants' rooms in terms of decor; designed for a single inhabitant, each comes furnished with a small desk for study, notemaking and even a little prototype development, if inspiration should strike in the night.
77. Tutor's Bedroom
See governess' bedroom.
78. Bathroom
79. Male Domestic Wing
See the female domestic wing.
80-87. Male Domestic Bedrooms
See the female domestic bedrooms. Currently in this wing:
87. Lyall's Bedroom
Lyall has one of the medium-sized rooms to himself, at the entrance to the male servants' wing. His room is not very personalized, with only one small painting (of a meadow landscape with sheep) and one etching of his parents. His bed is probably the most colorful thing in the room, piled with quilts and pillows, gifts from home. The curtains are thick, heavy, and usually closed.
Most of what's in there is notebooks, with records of his previous days and observations and lessons he's learned from them, that fill up a small bookshelf. There are occasional theories he's picked up from his current employers that he found interesting, and occasional sketches of people, devices, or even flowers.