children's toys to a great State bed that had never even been put up. Despite the Trust's professed intention of leaving Calke untouched, some observers claim that it has destroyed the magical atmosphere' by tidying up the clutter One architectural historian, for example, asserts that Calke has already been deprived of some of its unique tatty charm', complaining that the Trust presented the interiors not as they had been but as 'the public would expect to see [them]" (Parissien, 'The rights and wrongs of restoration', p.394) Nevertheless, this case undoubtedly represents a signficant shift away from good taste" towards an 'archaeological' approach (see below) on the Trust's part.
In the case of a building considered to be of exceptional architectural merit, however, the Trust stands against the prevailing tendency to respect the alterations of later periods. After Kedleston was acquired in 1987, it was decided to return the interiors to the time of their designer, Robert Adam, the most renowned of eighteenth-century British architects. Somewhat ironically, this has involved painting out the bright colours that were applied to the dining room ceiling in the 1970s, in accordance with a drawing by Adam (Plate 140). Recent research shows that this colour scheme was never actually executed, and the room has now been redecorated in the original white, green and mauve (Plate 141). Overall, the result has been to reinforce the austere monumentality of Kedleston, especially since pieces of furniture that had