Wow! Your house sounds so interesting Denise. I'm led to believe that most properties in the States are pretty new (by English standards 😉) so an 1869 one is very old!
The feather frieze is a first for me as well, I can imagine they had plenty of time on their hands, but it's still fascinating how they did so much of it around the house. However, I believe their love was in shells, they have a massive collection in the house, the most famous being the Shell Gallery up in the attic. I had a peep from the bottom of the stairs and it was amazing. Sadly it's not open to the public anymore as it's so fragile, but they're trying to work out how visitors can see it from the centre of the house on the ground floor.
