The billiard room, below ground, underneath the banqueting hall, was devoted to ivory, with not only the balls but also the table itself being made of the dentinal material. A pair of caryatides, diagonally opposite each other, at two of the corners, and one of telamones, ditto, at the other two corners, acted as legs. Above the hearth, a crossed pair of elephant tusks was mounted on the wall; these had been brought back by one of the explorers Flengate employed to gather animals, rare blooms and indigenous artefacts. In front of the fireplace were two easy chairs, on either side of a small square table with an ivory top that could be flipped over and was inlaid with markings for chess or draughts on one side and backgammon on the other. The pieces were kept inside the board.

These rooms, plus the master bedroom and the bathroom with its clam-shell-shaped bath, were those most used by Flengate. Others, such as the kitchen and the pantry, were used by staff. The overwhelming majority, however, were rarely used by anyone. Flengate owned an immense library, a repository for numerous incunabula, but he never (fortunately, with regard to the preservation of the works) read any of them. A visitor lost in the mansion’s labyrinthine passageways might have come across a priceless tapestry gathering dust with no one to view it, or an intricate wind-up music box silent for years, or an alabaster bust of someone whose name had long been forgotten.

No doubt a tour of the house would make a fascinating day out. One can imagine school parties going there and children filling in questionnaires asking things like:

[‘Correct’ A by normal pupils: The Flengate family shield.

Correct A by the class swot: Mr Flengate’s Armorial Bearings (Gyronny of eight Ermine and Or a Horse’s Head caboshed Sable environed of a Crown Triumphal proper And for the Crest on a Helm with a Wreath Gules and Purpure on a Mount Vert a Panther sejant erect guardant Argent semy of Hurts Torteaux and Pomeis incensed proper).]