2-888-085 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Grand Banquet, 1850. Festivities at Trentham Hall in Staffordshire, to celebrate the majority [reaching the age of 21] of the Marquis of Stafford. '...grand dinner party, in a magnificent apartment temporarily formed by roofing over what is called the West Court...This apartment was constructed under the superintendence of Charles Barry, Esq., R.A...The ceiling was composed of crimson and white drapery, ornamented with wreaths and festoons of evergreens...Above the cornice, a string of gas jets was continued all round the apartment, and these, with chandeliers of wax lights, brilliantly illuminated the whole place, and a hoop of wax-lights was suspended, by wires, from the ceiling...Covers were laid for ninety...the Duke and Duchess have dispensed their hospitality to such an assemblage of birth and rank as this county does not often witness'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.