This lovely south-facing room was very much the work of Almina, 5th Countess of Carnarvon,
in the late 1890s. She was the illegitimate daughter of Alfred de Rothschild and Marie Wombwell.
It is, therefore, no coincidence that this room bears a strong resemblance to some of the
interiors at Halton, Alfred de Rothschild's Buckinghamshire house.
Alfred de Rothschild gave his daughter Almina a bolt of green French silk from which to cover
the walls and to make curtains. This all had to be replaced in 1999, although it was matched
as closely as possible to the original.
The style is called "rococo revival" and reflects a
late Victorian fascination with the 'Ancien Regime' in France.
The narrow cupboards which hid the 5th Earl of Carnarvon's collection of Egyptian antiquities
are in the thickness of the wall between the double doors from the Drawing Room to the Smoking
Room.