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The Boudoir and Gallery
The Boudoir still has most of the panelling installed by Sir Cordell Firebrace in the 1730s. It was used as a Billiard Room in the 1830s.
Highlights on display include a pair of large Meissen vases and a Broadwood mahogany square piano.
© National Trust / David Kirkham
The Gallery, at the top of the stairs, adjoins the Boudoir. Its Elizabethan framework was revamped by Hopper to provide a grand setting for his staircase.
The Gallery contains a stained glass depiction of Queen Elizabeth I, who was entertained at Melford Hall in 1578. Underneath is a bench made from timbers of a whale boat from HMS Firebrand, which was commanded by Captain Hyde Parker.
The Chapel
The Chapel was created by the Rev Sir William Hyde Parker. It houses an ivory figure of the Virgin Mary, made in the Spanish Philippines in the mid-18th century. It came from the cargo of the captured Spanish galleon, the Santissima Trinidad.
The Chapel remains in use to this day.
© National Trust / Stephen Bennett
The Beatrix Potter Room
The Beatrix Potter Room is used to display watercolours and drawings by the famous author, who was a cousin of Ethel, Lady Hyde Parker, the grandmother of the present Baronet.
Beatrix Potter visited Melford Hall on many occasions, often sketching in the house and garden. Sketches on display include squirrels for the ‘Tale of Squirrel Nutkin’, the old fish ponds for the ‘Tale of Jeremy Fisher’, the fireplace in the Great Hall, and the winding staircase in one of the turrets for ‘The Tailor of Gloucester’. Mr Tod the fox was supposed to be based on the painting of Sir William Cordell.
Lady Ulla and Beatrix Potter shared a favourite spot by the Yew Hedge and the ancient fish ponds at Melford Hall. Beatrix did a watercolour of the area, and a copy is in the book ‘Cousin Beatie’ by Lady Ulla, also on display.
© NTPL / John Hammond
The Victorian Bedroom
Beatrix Potter slept in the Victorian Bedroom when she stayed at Melford Hall. The Brussels lace shawl presented to Lady Ulla by her is displayed on the chaise longue. Beatrix Potter kept her travelling menagerie of animals in the smaller turret room, which can also be seen.
The bedroom was decorated by Ulla, Lady Hyde Parker, who chose the wallpaper and dressed the bed in white muslin.
© NTPL / Martin Charles
The North Bedroom
The North Bedroom incorporates a Rococo mirror overmantel, salvaged after the 1942 fire from elsewhere in the house.
Its bed came from Blickling Hall in Norfolk, for which it was bought by Lord Lothian.
Also on display is a red lacquer mirror, on loan from the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
© NTPL / John Hammond
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