"The hall and staircase," wrote Walpole to Horace Mann in 1753, "[are] the chief beauty of the castle. Imagine the walls covered with (I call it paper, but it is really paper painted in perspective to represent) Gothic fretwork: the lightest Gothic balustrade to the staircase, adorned with antelopes (our supporters) bearing shields; lean windows fattened with rich saints in painted glass." Bentley designed the balustrade and front door, through which is visible the blue and white vase in which Walpole's cat was drowned.