Another option maybe.

Both literal and correct, I would maintain.

There is a distinction in those great houses between the Great or Grand Hall typically on the ground floor and the noble salon(s) off it or upstairs:

[PDF] Sir William Bruce's Hopetoun House
www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/E1350752409000168File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
... Hall and 4 very handsome Apartments . . . over the Hall is a noble Salon and the .... to Colen Campbell, 'this great House was built . . . in the French ...

HATTON HOUSE_ MIDLOTHIAN. 15 HATTON HOUSE_ MIDLOTHIAN. BY W ...
www.docstoc.com/.../HATTON-HOUSE_-MIDLOTHIAN-15-HAT... - Cached10 Feb 2011 – on the north side, the great hall occupying the central position in the east ... the entrance hall is a noble salon, or room of presence, ...

Queens Palace Stock Photography Images From SuperStock
www.superstock.com/stock.../Queens Palace - United States - CachedFrance,Paris,Versailles,Palace de Versailles,The Queen's Noble Salon. 16247670 ... Portrait of Henry VIII, Jane Seymour and Prince Edward, The Great Hall, ...


Read the ebook The homely diary of a diplomat in the East, 1897 ...
www.ebooksread.com/.../page-20-the-homely-diary-of-a-diplom... - Cachedsoldiers who lined the great hall, and who stood at "pre- ... for us at the long table in the center of the noble salon. Boutros Pasha Ghali, Minister of ...

Full text of "A loiterer in Paris"
www.archive.org/stream/.../loitererinparis00henduoft_djvu.t... - CachedIt is through this wing that one must pass to enter the great hall of the ...... Inside a noble salon shows the proportions of the apartments and here and ...




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Note added at 4 hrs (2011-08-17 15:35:49 GMT)
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Sir William Bruce in my first reference was a pioneer of the Palladian style, taken up all over Europe (including Andalucia) in the C18th.

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Note added at 4 hrs (2011-08-17 15:40:27 GMT)
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How weird! Ill try again.

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Note added at 4 hrs (2011-08-17 15:48:18 GMT)
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Here they are in order:

http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/E13507524090001...

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/71335660/HATTON-HOUSE_-MIDLOTHIA...

http://www.superstock.co.uk/stock-photography/CASTLE INTERIO...

http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/thomas-s-thomas-skelto...

http://www.archive.org/stream/loitererinparis00henduoft/loit...

18th century =Georgian period of architecture in UK and Ireland

main reception room was on piano nobile or 1st floor




www.esb.ie/main/about-esb/numbertwentynine/virtual.../piano... - Cached
Front Drawing Room. After dinner, in the eighteenth century at least, it was common for men to remain at ... The first floor or piano nobile was the most important public room; it was here that any works of art ... Georgian House Museum ...


www.locationworks.com › locations › domestic houses - Cached
Imposing georgian town house, central London, designed and built by Robert Adam, ... piano nobile, and some rooms in a state of minor dereliction. ... with many original features including large elegant first-floor drawing room. ...



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancaster_House - Cached
... the last great London mansion to use this essentially Georgian style. ... rooms being on the first floor or piano nobile, family living rooms on the ...


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Note added at 12 hrs (2011-08-18 00:07:09 GMT)
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www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jan/02/the-kings-speech-period... - Cached
2 Jan 2011 – Lancaster House stands in for Buckingham Palace. ... The overblown state drawing room, with its exuberant gilt trellises and traceries, ...


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Note added at 1 day2 hrs (2011-08-18 14:23:59 GMT)
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anothe rexample with pics

The layout of the Georgian House; Drawing Room; Dining Room; Study; Library; Bedroom; Kitchen; Laundry; Larder; Housekeepers Room; John Pinney; General details
discoveringbristol.org.uk/.../georgian-house/layout - Cached

This might work. What do you think?

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Note added at 3 days13 hrs (2011-08-21 00:26:53 GMT)
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RE noble room: When I visited Sintra in Portugal there was a room in the Pena palace called the Noble Room. I found a reference to it online. I don't know whether you've made your mind up or not.

"Another room - a cross between a lounge and a waiting room - is called the "Noble" room. Its walls are pink with white encrustations and it is filled with chairs and tables. Queen Amelia's bedroom (an early 20th-century queen) is another room with tiled walls and ceilings, this one in blues, red and white. But the strangest room is that Arabian Room which resembles Queen Victoria's Indian Room at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. A style that was very fashionable in the 19th century."