Several carriages bear you from the station at Costen to Bank Hall. It is surrounded by rolling fields and formal English gardens in the poshest style. As it comes into view, only those of you accustomed to great wealth can keep your mouth from gaping. It is a 3 story brick mansion over 200 years old, with lovely architectural details and a clock tower rising 60 feet in the air. There are 2 concrete floral statues near the front porch twice as tall as a man, as well as a pair of stone lions. You are met by the butler, who greets you with flawless icy courtesy. As the groom takes the hall’s carriage and sends off the others, the footman and other help makes short work of bringing in the guests’ luggage. If they refuse the help, the staff’s cool and competent contempt will shift to shocked insult.
The party is brought into the two-story Grand Hall, with its sweeping grand staircase and led to a drawing room and provided with refreshments.
The aristocratic rooms of Bank Hall include:
- The Great Hall. Two story, with a sweeping stairway leading up to a balcony and the private quarters of the aristocrats.
- The Drawing Room, used for entertaining guests.
- The Parlour, often used by ladies for entertaining in the evenings
- The Long Hall, upstairs, with a great deal of fine art on display, mostly paintings.
- The Ballroom, near the Great Hall, fitted with magnificent crystal chandeliers recently converted to electric service.
- The Lord’s & Lady’s chambers
- Guest Suites. One of these will be occupied by Otto Grundle
- Spare Bedrooms. The party will be given adjacent bedrooms
- Nursery
- The Chapel
- The Library.
- The Office, with a Difference Engine Terminal and records going back hundreds of years.
- Billiard Room.
- The Smoking Room, for gentlemen.
- The Solar, a private living room for the Aristocrats
- Observatory, with telescope
- Taxonomy studio
- The Lumber Room, the place where unused furniture is stored. It is a large room.
- Kitchen and Scullery
- The Laundry
- The Servant’s Hall, for dining.
- The Servant’s Quarters
- The Still Room and Apothecary, for distilling liquors
- The Steamworks and Engine Room
- The Garrets, unpleasant quarters in the attics
- Attics
- Servant’s stairs and semi-secret passages
- The Buttery and Wine Cellers, which maintains a constant cool temperature.
- Undercroft, storage rooms for food and sundries
- The Conservatory, a walled garden with a greenhouse.
- The Solarium, with hundreds of windows and an indoor garden.
- Snowdrop carpets, managed woodlands with a carpet of white flowers in the spring.
- Extensive formal gardens and a kitchen garden.
- Stable and gardening sheds.
- The Douglas river for boating and fishing.
- The Cemetery
- Central steam-powered heating, augmented by numerous fireplaces.
- Indoor plumbing & hot water.
- Gas lighting fixtures in much of the house and electric in the Ballroom. Candles and lanterns are still used in parts of the servant’s areas.
- Steam-driven elevators and dumbwaiters.
- One-way electric intercoms to the servant’s hall.
- The four great clocks in the 60' clocktower.
- Difference Engine security on unused halls and all doors at night.
- Horse-drawn Carriage, Steam Coach, Riding horses.
- Observatory with clockwork-driven telescope.
- Daily newspaper delivery & telegraph service