Dominated, nay christened, by this walloping model of the square-rigger Golden Step, this white-walled, cool indoor terrace is the perfect summer dining-room. Its shelves bear green Wedgewood and English majolica. Two long white dining-tables with Windsor and tallback chairs are of the simplest carpenter-dignity. The window-side table commands a 180-degree view of the harbour.

The arched blind window is flanked by ship carvings of mermen wrestling with tropical fruit.

Yonder is the door through which we entered --- screened, for the windows slide down on fresh days. A Gloucester "pinky" perches high on the wall and a wooden-sailed half-model sails above the firebreast.

The globes hold aquamarine "witch balls" and coloured glass marbles. In the cabinet, gilt tableware. The Golden Step sits on an ancient Chinese bench. The iron blackamoor by the door rings a bell, quite loudly.

The tall fireside settle (left) curves inward to trap warmth and toast shins. Oak posts and beams, pine walls, and chimney brick are the room's basic materials. Deep in the fireplace are ovens and warming-ledges. On a crane hangs a noble iron kettle.

At the left is the tripod candlestand for reading the Scripture. Spices on the shelf, bellows and salt-box, buckets and bowls and fire-irons. .. each in its proper place.

Here, nearly three centuries ago, gathered the typical Yankee family --- here in winter its children were born, its meals prepared year-round, its courtin' eavesdropped, its neighbors welcomed, its prayers said.

The Pembroke Room is L-shaped. The view above follows the staff of the ell past the fireplace to a dining-table, backed by a tall pine sideboard filled with Colonial earthenware. Note the graceful sweep of the solid pine wing-chair, mercifully cushioned with homespun pillows.

Two of the earliest chairs of their type are gossiping. Those who proclaim that Puritans never knew rocking-chairs will be reminded that this room accumulated new and different utilities over a span of 250 years---and kept its character. There is probably a patriotic lesson in that fact.

Warm, faintly rose-amber pine walls; austere hardwood chairs and table; broad pine floors -and for colour, two gay martial painted roller-shades, and small-pattern narrow madder and yellow chintzes.

Facing the sideboard is another with pewter cups gleaming against early glazed earthenware of coppery brown. An eagle perches on the slant-front cupboard (right). Pistol and musket are handy.

The half-door is the bar of the taproom where riders, Plymouth-or-Boston-bound, relaxed with a drink not too soft. A cranberry rake hangs above it and a mammoth pine corner-cupboard stands next to it.

The long view west along the foot of the ell. The table is set. A saddler's bench will do for one chair. A tidy Windsor wash-handstand (right) was useful before mealtime if the cranberry bog was muddy.

Another view of the foot of the ell. A children's table is at the far end. Above the wash-stand at the left is an unusual mirror for both tall and short. The door at the left leads to the Franklin Room.

This wing chair, designed by Mr. Sleeper, was built of fragrant "punkin" pine by the patriarch Poole over in Gloucester ... said he "didn't believe in worm holin'" . . . said, "my worms all went on strike."

A study in textures: a corner cupboard in the Pembroke Room, and its collection of working pottery, including an acrobatic goose.

The "children's table" for intimate meals, is lighted by a tin-cone candelabrum and from above, a nail-pierced lantern. Two more patriotic shades strike a Yankee Doodle note.

The same table, as it is set for luncheon, with warm sun streaming in from the garden.

In the (literally) 2 x 4-foot passage from Pembroke to Franklin hangs this framed indenture concerning Stiegel and his glass. It is only fitting that the glass in the narrow shelves is Stiegel's.

The walls, ochre brown; window hangings, turkey red calico, tied with brass; the floor cheerful with rugs. Benjamin Franklin's own-made stove is yonder, with his bas-relief cast into it.

The opposite view, across the checker table. Gold and black painted chairs, an ivory yarn-reel, swagged and tasseled curtains, painted shades, mahogany tables, composed in Franklin's own "who-cares" idiom.

An ample drop-leaf table in the bay window reflects the diamond sunshine that lights this impressive dark-oak room of the "witchcraft" mood.

The long view of the Jacobean Room: pale pewter forms a silvery constellation in the dresser. The far narrow panel hides the fugitive witches' secret spiral staircase. The early Victorian doll-carriage is where doll carriages most often are---out of place, and underfoot.

Two cast-iron Redskins warm themselves at the blaze.

A splendid little oaken Jacobean cabinet (in an alcove dictated by steampipes) holds good pewter; a gate-cupboard above it holds still more. The chair is unique---but your "little man" could copy it.

The wide view, looking towards the glazed window cabinet with its fretted shelves. Details of the wallpaper depict, in bright colours on a bluish ground, the arts and sciences of China.

This English secretary proves to be a superb example of the harmony between things western and eastern.

Years---perhaps the lifetimes of many Chinese painters---went into this famous wallpaper, of which we see here a five-foot detail. It is a document of record in classic antique books.

The overmantel scene shows potters making ceramics at their furnaces.

The enlarged detail depicts the growing, reaping, and threshing of rice.