There are still two fireplaces in this double room. The original one in the smaller back half with a charmingly eccentric tilt to its mantelshelf, faces an almost miniature sofa which the owner bought through a small ad a and had re-covered in damask. The front half of the drawing room has one of those brilliantly effective gas ‘coal’ fires on a raised hearth, set in a white plaster French period-style surround. The original deep waist-high cupboards on either side of this fireplace hold a row of fine art books and prized pieces of china, there is a gleaming brass fender and fire irons, and an old copper samovar leans against the wall by the hearth.

The most attractive colours of all in the drawing-room are the wonderful russets and golds of the irises on Colefax & Fowler’s ‘Beaufort’ chinz, which has been used to make up curtains for all the windows and to frame the opening between the two original rooms as well. They were made up by the Curtain House in Castletown, who also supplied the curtain poles with their ‘flaming torch’ finials.