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ONIVERSITY OF CALIFORfii^
RIVERSIDE

NOOKS AND CORNERS
OF OLD ENGLAND

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

OLD ENGLISH HOUSES
THE FLIGHT OF THE KING
ETC. ETC.

NOOKS AND CORNERS

OF OLD ENGLAND

By Allan Fea s3 £l 0

WITH ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS FROM
PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY THE AUTHOR

LONDON: MARTIN SECKER

NUMBER FIVE JOHN STREET ADELPHI MCMXI

First Published . . Jtme igoj
Reprinted .... January iQoS
New Edition . . . Afar ron

TO
MY OLD FRIEND

SEYMOUR LUCAS, R.A., F.S.A.

THIS BOOK

IS AFFECTIONATELY

INSCRIBED

Contents

HUNTINGDONSHIRE AND NORTH NORTHANTS I

SUFFOLK 22

NORFOLK 40

WARWICKSHIRE AND BORDERLAND 59

WORCESTERSHIRE AND GLOUCESTERSHIRE 78

NORTHERN WILTSHIRE I02

EASTERN AND SOUTHERN SOMERSET 1 23

WESTERN SOMERSET 147

DEVON AND DORSET 162

SHROPSHIRE AND STAFFORDSHIRE 181

NORTHERN DERBYSHIRE 200

YORKSHIRE 225

INDEX 269

Vll

List of Illustrations

BARRINGTON COURT

THE BELL, STILTON

KIRBY HALL

WOTHORPE MANOR-HOUSE

DOORWAY, KIRBY HALL

GATEWAY, KIRBY HALL

WALSINGHAM

FONT CANOPY, TRUNCH

EAST BARSHAM MANOR

WYMONDIIAM

HAUTBOYS HALL

PIRTON COURT

THE WHITE HOUSE, PIXHAM

SEVERN END

CHASTLETON

RIPPLE

STANTON

STANWAY HOUSE

POSTLIP HALL

STOCKS, PAINSWICK

NAILSWORTH

BEVERSTONE CASTLE

GATE- HOUSE, SPYE PARK

L ACOCK

LACOCK

BEWLEY COURT

LACOCK

LACOCK ABBEY

CORSHAM ALMSHOUSE

CASTLE CO>!BE

YATTON KEYNELL MANOR

Fro;

Faci

'itispicct
p. i6
17
17
24
24

40
40
41
41

65
65
80
80
81
81
96
96

97
97
104
104
105
105
1 12
112
113
"3
116
116
117

L.ist of Illustrations

BULLICH MANOR-HOUSE

SHELDON MANOR

SOUTH WRAXALL MANOR-HOUSE

SOUTH WRAXALL

THE GEORGE, NORTON ST, PHILIF

THE GEORGE, NORTON ST. PHILIP

OLD HOUSE NEAR CROSCOMBE

BECKINGTON CASTLE

CHARTERHOUSE HINTON

WELLOW MANOR-HOUSE

CROSCOMBE CHCRCH

CROSCOMBE

LYTES CARY MANOR-HOUSE

HINTON ST. GEORGE

SANDFORD ORCAS MANOR-HOUSE

ANCIENT SCREEN, CURRY RIVEL CHURCH

FIREPLACE, LYTES CARY

MONTACUTE HOUSE

MONTACUTE PRIORY

CROWCOMBE

OLD HOUSE, CROWCOMBE

COMBE SYDENHAM

CROWCOMBE CHURCH

DUNSTER

BINDON

WYLDE COURT

CEILING IN THE GOLDEN LION, BARNSTAPLE

MAPPERTON MANOR HOUSE

MELPLASH COURT

WATERSTONE

ATHELHAMPTON

ATHELHAMl'TON

Facing p.

117

I20

»!

120

121

124

S»

125

»>

125

128

129

»5

129

»5

136

137

144

5»

144

145

14s

146

147

152

153

168

))

168

169

))

176

177

List of Illustrations

athelhampton

servants' hall, chirk castle

market drayton

great hall, haddon

courtyard, haddon

drawing-room, haddon

withdravving-room, haddon

withdrawing-room, haddon

doorway, haddon

interior courtyard, haddon

great hall, haddon

hardwick hall

garlands, ashford church

gateway, knowsthorpe hall

tomb, darfield church

MIDDLEHAM CASTl.E
SWINSTY HALL
BOLTON CASTLE
BELLERBY OLD HALL
ASKRIGG
NAPPA HALL
RICHMOND
EASBY ABBEY

Facing f.

177

184

»3

185

192

• >

193

200

J»

201

»5

201

208

20S

209

216

217

2^0

240

241

»>

256

•)

256

257

NOOKS AND CORNERS
OF OLD ENGLAND

NOOKS IN HUNTINGDONSHIRE
AND NORTH NORTHANTS

At Huntingdon we are on familiar ground with
Samuel Pepys. When he journeyed northwards
to visit his parental house or to pay his respects
to Lord Sandwich's family at Hinchinbrooke, he
usually found suitable accommodation at '* Goody
Gorums " and " Mother " somebody else who lived
over against the "Crown." Neither the famous
posting-house the " George " nor the " Falcon " are
mentioned in the Diary, but he speaks of the
" Chequers " ; however, the change of names of
ancient hostelries is common, so in picturing the
susceptible Clerk of the Admiralty chucking a
pretty chambermaid under the chin in the old
galleried yard of the "George," we may not be
far out of our reckoning.

NOOKS AND CORNERS

But altogether the old George Inn is some-
what disappointing. Its balustraded galleries are
there sure enough, with the queer old staircase
leading up to them in one of the corners ; but
it has the same burnished-up appearance of the
courtyard of the Leicester Hospital at Warwick.
How much more pleasing both would strike the
eye were there less paint and varnish. The Inn
has been refronted, and from the street has quite
a modern appearance.

Huntingdon recalls the sterner name of
Cromwell. Strange that this county, so proud
of the Lord Protector (for has it not recently set
up a gorgeous statue at St. Ives to his memory ?),
should still harbour red-hot Jacobites ! Accord-
ing to The Legitimist Calendar, mysterious but
harmless meetings are still held hereabouts on Oak
Apple Day : a day elsewhere all but forgotten.
Huntingdon was the headquarters of the Royalist
army certainly upon many occasions, and when
evil days fell upon the " Martyr King," some of
his staunchest friends were here secretly working
for his welf^ire.^ When Charles passed through
the town in 1644, the mayor, loyal to the back-
bone, had prepared a speech to outrival the
flowery welcome of his fellow-magistrates :
"Although Rome's Hens," he said, "should
daily hatch of its preposterous eggs, chroco-

' See Memoirs of the Martyr King.

NOOKS IN HUNTINGDONSHIRE, ETC.

dilicall chickens, yet under the Shield of Faith,
by you our most Royal Sovereigne defended and
by the King of Heavens as I stand and your most
medicable councell, would we not be fearful to with-
stand them."^ Though the sentence is somewhat
involved, the worthy magnate doubtless meant well.

It was the custom, by the way, so Evelyn
tells us, when a monarch passed through Hunt-
ingdon, to meet him with a hundred ploughs
as a symbol of the fruitful soil : the county indeed
at one time was rich in vines and hops, and has
been described by old writers as the garden of
England. Still here as elsewhere the farmers'
outlook is a poor one to-day, although there are,
of course, exceptions.

At historic Hinchinbrooke (on June 4, 1647),
King Charles slept the first night after he was
removed from Holdenby House by Cornet Joyce :
the first stage of \\\s pi'ogress to the scaffold. In
the grounds of the old mansion, the monarch, when
Prince of Wales, and little Oliver played together,
for the owner in those days of the ancient seat of
the Montaorues and Cromwells was the future Pro-
tector's uncle and godfather. Upon one occasion
the boys had a stand-up fight, and the commoner,
the senior by only one year, made his royal
adversary's nose bleed, — an augury for fatal
events to follow. The story is told how little

1 Evelyris Diary ^ vol. iv. p. 134, 1870 ed.

NOOKS AND CORNERS

Oliver fell into the Ouse and was fished out by
a Royalist piscatorial parson. Years afterwards,
when the Protector revisited the scenes of his
youth in the midst of his triumphant army, he
encountered his rescuer, and asked him whether
he remembered the occurrence.

"Truly do I," was the prompt reply ; "and the
Lord forgive me, but I wish I'd let thee drown."

The Montagues became possessed of the estate
in 1627. Pepys speaks of "the brave rooms and
good pictures," which pleased him better than
those at Audley End. The Diarist's parental
house remains at Brampton, a little to the west
of Huntingdon. In characteristic style he records
a visit there in October 1667: "So away for
Huntingdon mightily pleased all along the road
to remember old stories, and come to Brampton
at about noon, and there found my father and
sister and brother all well : and here laid up our
things, and up and down to see the gardens with
my father, and the house ; and do altogether find
it very pretty, especially the little parlour and the
summer-houses in the garden, only the wall do
want greens up it, and the house is too low roofed ;
but that is only because of my coming from a
house with higher ceilings."

Before turning our steps northwards, let us
glance at the mediaeval bridge that spans the
river Ouse, to Godmanchester, which is referred

NOOKS IN HUNTINGDONSHIRE, ETC.

to by the thirteenth-century historian Henry of
Huntingdon as "a noble city." But its nobihty
has long since departed, and some modern
monstrosities in architecture make the old Tudor
buildings which remain, blush for such brazen-
faced obtrusion. Its ancient water-mill externally
looks so dilapidated, that one would think the
next " well-formed depression " from America
would blow it to atoms. Not a bit of it. Its
huge timber beams within, smile at such fears.
It is a veritable fortress of timber. But although
this solid wooden structure defies the worst of
gales, there are rumours of coming electric
tramways, and then, alas ! the old mill will bow
a dignified departure, and the curfew, which yet
survives, will then also perhaps think it is time
to be gone.

At Little Stukeley, on the Great North Road
some three miles above Huntingdon, is a queer old
inn, the " Swan and Salmon," bearing upon its sign
the date 1676. It is a good example of the brick-
work of the latter half of the seventeenth century.
Like many another ancient hostelry on the
road to York, it is associated with Dick Turpin's
exploits ; and to give colour to the tradition, mine
host can point at a little masked hiding-place
situated somewhere at the back of the sign up in
its gable end. It certainly looks the sort of place
that could relate stories of highwaymen ; a roomy

NOOKS AND CORNERS

old building, which no doubt in its day had trap-
doors and exits innumerable for the convenience
j( the gentlemen of the road.

A little off the ancient " Ermine Street," to the
north-west of Stukeley, is the insignificant village
of Coppingford, historically interesting from the
fact that when Charles i. fled from Oxford in
disguise in 1646, he stopped the night there at a
little obscure cottage or alehouse, on his way to
seek protection of the Scots at Southwell. " This
day one hundred years ago," writes Dr. Stukeley
in his Memoirs on May 3, 1746, " King Charles,
Mr. John Ashburnham, and Dr. Hudson came
from Coppingford in Huntingdonshire and lay
at Mr. Alderman Wolph's house, now mine, on
Barn Hill; all the day obscure." Hudson, from
whom Sir Walter drew his character of Dr.
Rochecliffe in Woodstock, records the fact in the
following words: "We lay at Copingforde in
Huntingdonshire one Sunday, 3 May ; wente not
to church, but I read prayers to the King ; and
at six at night he went to Stamforde. I writte
from Copingforde to Mr. Skipwith for a horse,
and he sente me one, which was brought to me at

Stamforde. at Copingforde the King and

me, with my hoste and hostis and two children,
were by the fire in the hall. There was noe other
chimney in the house." ^ The village of Little

^ See Memoirs of the Martyr Ki7tg, p. 73.

NOOKS IN HUNTINGDONSHIRE, ETC.

Gidding, still farther to the north-west, had often
before been visited by Charles in connection with
a religious establishment that had been founded
there by the Ferrar family. A curious old silk
coffer, which was given by Charles to the nieces
of the founder, Nicholas Ferrar, upon one of these
occasions, some years ago came into the possession
of our late queen, and is still preserved at Windsor.

A few miles to the north-east is Glatton, another
remote village where old May-day customs yet
linger. There are some quaint superstitions in
the rural districts hereabouts. A favourite remedy
for infectious disease is to open the window of the
sickroom not so much to let in the fresh air as
to admit the gnats, which are believed to fly away
with the malady and die. The beneficial result is
never attributed to oxygen !

The Roman road (if, indeed, it is the same, for
some authorities incline to the opinion that it
ran parallel at some little distance away) is un-
picturesque and dreary. Towering double tele-
graph poles recur at set intervals with mathematical
regularity, and the breeze playing upon the wires
aloft brings forth that long-drawn melancholy
wail only to make the monotony more depressing.
Half a mile from the main road, almost due east
of Glatton, stands Connington Hall, where linger
sad memories of the fate of Mary Queen of Scots.
When the castle of Fotheringay was demolished

NOOKS AND CORNERS

in 1625, Sir Robert Cotton had the great Hall in
which she was beheaded removed here. The
curious carved oak chair which v/as used by the
poor Queen at Fotheringay until the day of her
death may now be seen in Connington Church,
where also is the Tomb of Sir Robert, the founder
of the famous Cottonian Library.

A couple of miles or so to the north is Stilton,
which bears an air of decayed importance. A
time-mellowed red-brick Queen Anne house, whose
huge wooden supports, like cripples' crutches, keep
it from toppling over, comes first in sight. In
striking contrast, with its formal style of archi-
tecture, is the picturesque outline of the ancient
inn beyond. A complicated flourish of ornamental
ironwork, that would exasperate the most expert
freehand draughtsman, supports the weather-beaten
sign of solid copper. Upon the right-hand gable
stands the date 1642, bringing with it visions of
the coming struggle between King and Parliament.
But the date is misleading, as may be seen from
the stone groining upon the adjoining masonry.
The main building was certainly erected quite a
century earlier. Here and there modern windows
have been inserted in place of the Tudor mullioned
ones, as also have later doorways, for part oi the
building is now occupied as tenements. The
archway leading into the courtyard has also been
somewhat modernised, as may be judoed from the

NOOKS IN HUNTINGDONSHIRE, ETC.

corresponding internal arch, with its original curved
dripstone above.

We came upon this inn, tramping northwards
in a bitter day in March. It looked homely and
inviting, the waning sunlight tinting the stone-
work and lighting up the window casements.
Enthusiastic with pleasing imaginings of panelled
chambers and ghostly echoing corridors, we entered
only to have our dreams speedily dispersed. In
vain we sought for such a " best room " as greeted
Mr. Chester at the "Maypole." There were no
rich rustling hangings here, nor oaken screens
enriched with grotesque carvings. Alas ! not
even a cheery fire of fagots. Nor, indeed, was
there a bed to rest our weary bones upon. Spring
cleaning was rampant, and the merciless east wind
sweeping along the bare passages made one shud-
der more than usual at the thought of that terrible
annual necessity (but the glory of energetic house-
wives). But surely mine hostess of the good old
days would have scrupled to thrust the traveller
from her door : moreover to a house of refresh-
ment, or rather eating-house, a stone's-throw off,
uncomfortably near that rickety propped- up red-
brick residence.

With visions of the smoking bowl and lavender-
scented sheets dashed to the ground, we turned
away. But, lo ! and behold a good angel had
come to the rescue. So absorbed had we been

NOOKS AND CORNERS

with the possibilities of the "Bell" that the
"Angel " opposite had quite been overlooked.
This rival inn of Georgian date furnished us with
cosy quarters. From our flower-bedecked window
the whole front of the old " Bell " could be leisurely
studied in all its varying stages of light and shade
— an inn with a past ; an object-lesson for the
philosopher to ruminate upon. Yes, in its day
one can picture scenes of lavish, shall we say
Ainsworthian hospitality. There is a smack of
huge venison pasties, fatted capons, and of roasted
peacocks about this hoary hostel. And its stables ;
one has but to stroll up an adjacent lane to get
some idea of the once vast extent of its out-
buildings. The ground they covered must have
occupied nearly half the village. Here was
stabling for over eighty horses, and before the
birth of trains, thirty-six coaches pulled up daily
at the portal for hungry passengers to refresh or
rest.

The famous cheese, by the way, was first sold
at this inn ; but why it was dubbed Stilton instead
of Dalby in Leicestershire, where it was first
manufactured, is a mystery. Like its vis-a-vis,
the "Angel" is far different from what it was
in its flourishing days. The main building is
now occupied for other purposes, and its dignity
has long since departed. To-day Stilton looks on
its last legs. The goggled motor-fiend sweeps by

NOOKS IN HUNTINGDONSHIRE, ETC.

to Huntingdon or Peterborough while Stilton rubs
its sleepy eyes. But who can tell but that its
fortunes may yet revive. Was not Broadway
dying a natural death when Jonathan, who in-
variably tells us what treasures we possess, stepped
in and made it popular ? Some enterprising land-
lord might do worse than take the old "Bell " in
hand and ring it to a profitable tune. But judging
by appearances, visitors to-day, at least in March,
are few and far between.

Half the charm of Stilton lies in the fact that
there is no hurry. It is quite refreshing in these
days of rush. For instance, you want to catch a
train at Peterborough, — at least we did, for that was
the handiest way of reaching Oundle, some seven
miles to the west of Stilton as the crow flies.
Sitting on thorns, we awaited the convenience of
the horse as to whether his accustomed jog-trot
would enable us to catch our train. We did catch
it truly, but the anxiety was a terrible experience.

Oundle is full of old inns. The "Turk's
Head," facing the church, is a fine and compact
specimen of Jacobean architecture. It was a
brilliant morning when we stood in the church-
yard looking up at the ball-surmounted gables
standing^ out in bold relief against the clear blue
sky, while the caw of a colony of rooks sailing
overhead seemed quite in harmony with the old-
world surroundings,

NOOKS AND CORNERS

More important and flourishing is the " Talbot,"
which looks self-conscious of the fact that in its
walls are incorporated some of the remains of no
less historic a building than Fotheringay Castle,
whose moat and fragmentary walls are to be seen
some three and a half miles to the north of the
town. The fortress, with its sad and tragic
memories of Mary Queen of Scots, was de-
molished after James came to the throne, and
its fine oak staircase, by repute the same by
which she descended to the scaffold, was re-
erected in the "Talbot." The courtyard is
picturesque. The old windows which light the
staircase, which also are said to have come from
Fotheringay, are angular at the base, and have an
odd and pleasing appearance.

Two ancient almshouses, with imposing entrance
gates, are well worth inspection. There is a graceful
little pinnacle surmounting one of the gable ends,
at which we were curiously gazing when one of
the aeed inmates came out in alarm to see if the
chimney was on fire.

Fotheringay church, with its lantern tower and
flying buttresses, is picturesquely situated close to
the river Nene, and with the bridge makes a
charming picture. The older bridge of Queen
Mary's time was angular, with square arches, as
may be seen from a print of the early part of the
eighteenth century. In this is shown the same

NOOKS IN HUNTINGDONSHIRE, ETC.

scanty remains of the historic Castle : a wall with
a couple of Gothic doorways, all that survived of
the formidable fortress that was the unfortunate
queen's last prison-house. As at Cumnor, where
poor Amy Robsart was done to death in a
manner which certainly Elizabeth hinted at
regarding her troublesome cousin, there is
little beyond the foundations from which to form
an idea of the building. It was divided by a
double moat, which is still to be seen, as well as
the natural earthwork upon which the keep stood.
The queen's apartments, that towards the end
were stripped of all emblems of royalty, were
situated above and to the south of the great hall,
into which she had to descend by a staircase
to the scaffold. Some ancient thorn trees now
flourish upon the spot. The historian Fuller, who
visited the castle prior to its demolition, found the
following lines from an old ballad scratched with a
diamond upon a window-pane of Mary's prison-
chamber :

" From the top of all my trust
Mishap hath laid me in the dust."

Though Mary's mock trial took place at
Fotheringay in the " Presence Chamber," she
was actually condemned in the Star Chamber at
Westminster ; and it may here be stated that
that fine old room may yet be seen not very
many miles away, at Wormleighton, near the

NOOKS AND CORNERS

Northamptonshire border of south-east Warwick-
shire, A farmhouse near Fotheringay is still
pointed out where the executioner lodged the
night before the deed ; and some claim this
distinction for the ancient inn in which are
incorporated some remains of the castle.

As is known, the Queen of Scots' body was
buried first in Peterborough Cathedral, whence it
was removed to Westminster Abbey. There is
a superstition in Northamptonshire that if a
body after interment be removed, it bodes mis-
fortune to the surviving members of the family.
This was pointed out at the time to James i. ;
but superstitious as he was, he did not alter his
plans, and the death of Prince Henry shortly
afterwards seemed to confirm this belief.^

But there are other memories of famous names
in history, for the head of the White Rose family,
Richard of York, was buried in the church, and his
duchess, Cecilia Neville, as well as Edward of
York, whose death at Agincourt is immortalised
by Shakespeare. When the older church was dis-
mantled and the bodies removed to their present
destination, a silver ribbon was discovered round
the Duchess Cecilia's neck upon which a pardon
from Rome was clearly written. The windows of
the church once were rich in painted glass ; and
at the fine fifteenth-century font it is conjectured

^ See Turner's History of Remarkable Providences, 1677.
14

NOOKS IN HUNTINGDONSHIRE, ETC.

Richard in. was baptized, for he was born at
the Castle. Crookback's badge, the boar, may
still be seen in the church, and the Yorkist falcon
and fetterlock are displayed on the summit of the
vane upon the tower. Also some carved stalls,
which came from here, in the churches of Tansor
and Hemington to the south of Fotheringay,
bear the regal badges and crest. The falcon
and the fetterlock also occur in the monuments
to the Dukes of York, which were rebuilt by
Queen Elizabeth when the older tombs had
fallen to decay. The allegiance to the fascinating
Queen of Scots is far from dead, for in February
1902, and doubtless more recently, a gentleman
journeyed specially from Edinburgh to Fotheringay
to place a tribute to her martyrdom in the form
of a large cross of immortelles bearing the
Scots crown and Mary's monogram, and a black
bordered white silk sash attached.

A few miles to the west of this historic spot
are the fine Tudor houses Deene and Kirby :
the former still a palatial residence ; the latter,
alas ! a ruin fast falling to decay. Deene, with
its battlemented towers and turrets and buttressed
walls, is a noble-looking structure, with numerous
shields of arms and heraldic devices carved upon
the masonry. These are of the great families,
Brudenel, Montagu, Bruce, Bulstrode, etc.,
whose intermarriages are emblazoned in painted

NOOKS AND CORNERS

glass in the top of the mullioned windows of the
hall. Sir Thomas Brudenel, the first Earl of
Cardigan, who died three years after the
Restoration, was a typical old cavalier after
the style of Sir Henry Lee in Woodstock; and in
the manor are preserved many of his manuscripts
written during his twenty years' confinement in
the Tower. In the great hall there is a blocked-
up entrance to a subterranean passage running
towards Kirby, and through this secret despatches
are said to have been carried in the time of the
Civil War ; and at the back of a fireplace in
the same apartment is a hiding-place sufSciently
large to contain a score of people standing up.
One of the rooms is called Henry vii.'s room, as
that monarch when Earl of Richmond is said to
have ridden from Bosworth Field to seek refuge
at Deene, then a monastery.

Among the numerous portraits are the Earl of
Shrewsbury, who v/as slain by the second Duke of
Buckingham in the notorious duel, and his wife
Lady Anne Brudenel, who was daughter of the
second Earl of Cardigan. Some time before the
poor plain little duchess suspected that she had
a formidable rival in the beautiful countess, she
was returning from a visit to Deene to her house
near Stamford, where her reckless husband just
then found it convenient to hide himself, as a
warrant for hiqh treason was out against him,

/. 10

KIRBY HAl.L

WOTHORVE MANOR-HOUSE

i>. iS

NOOKS IN HUNTINGDONSHIRE, ETC.

when she noticed a suspicious little cavalcade
travelling- in the same direction. OrderinQf the
horses to be whipped up, she arrived in time to
give the alarm. The duke had just set out for
Burleigh House with some ladies in his company,
and, says Clarendon, the sergeant "made so good
haste that he was in view of the coach, and saw
the duke alight out of the coach and lead a lady
into the house, upon which the door of the court
was shut before he could get to it. He knocked
loudly at that and other doors that were all shut,
so that he could not get into the house though it
were some hours before sunset in the month of
May."^ Pepys was strolling in the park and met
Sercjeant Bearcroft "who was sent for the Duke
of Buckingham, to have brought his prisoner to
the Tower. He come to towne this day and
brings word that being overtaken and outrid
by the Duchesse of Buckingham within a few
miles of the duke's house of Westhorp, he believes
she got thither about a quarter of an hour before
him, and so had time to consider ; so that when
he came, the doors were kept shut against him.
The next day, coming with officers of the
neighbour market - town [Stamford] to force
open the doors, they were open for him, but the
duke gone, so he took horse presently and heard
upon the road that the Duke of Buckingham was

1 Contimiaiion of the Life of Lord Clarertdon.
B 17

NOOKS AND CORNERS

gone before him for London. So that he believes
he is this day also come to towne before him ; but
no newes is yet heard of him." ^ Many blunders
have been made in reference to the duke's house
of " Westhorp." Some have called it " Owthorp "
and others " Westhorpe " in Suffolk, the de-
molished mansion of Charles Brandon, Duke of
Suffolk. The place referred to is really Wothorpe
manor-house, the remains of which stand some
two miles to the south of Stamford and ten to
the north of Deene. The existing portion consists
of four towers, the lower part of which is square
and the upper octagonal, presumably having been
at one time surmounted by cupolas. The windows
are long and narrow, having only one mullion
running parallel across. Beneath the moulding
of the summit of each tower are circular loopholes.
It is evidently of Elizabethan date, but much of
the ornamental detail is lost in the heavy mantle
of ivy and the trees which encircle it.

That that stately Elizabethan mansion, Kirby
Hall (which is close to Deene), should ever have
been allowed to fall to ruin is most regfrettable
and deplorable. It was one of John Thorpe's
masterpieces, the architect of palatial Burleigh,
of Holland House and Audley End, and other
famous historic houses. He laid the foundation-
stone in 1570, and that other great master Inigo

1 Diary, 3 March 1666-67.
18

NOOKS IN HUNTINGDONSHIRE, ETC.

Jones made additions in the reign of Charles i.
The founder of Kirby was Sir Christopher
Hatton, who is said to have first danced into
the virgin queen's favour at a masque at Court.
The Earl of Leicester probably first was famous
in this way, if we may judge from the quaint
painting at Penshurst, where he is bounding her
several feet into the air ; but was not so accom-
plished as Sir Christopher, who in his official
robes of Lord Chancellor danced in the Hall of
the Inner Temple with the seals and mace of
his office before him, an undignified proceeding,
remindino- one of the scene in one of the Gilbert
and Sullivan operas.

Kirby must have been magnificent in its day ;
and when we consider that it was in occupation
by the Chancellor's descendant, the Earl of
Winchelsea, in 1830 or even later, one may judge
by seeing it how rapidly a neglected building
can fall into decay. Even in our own memory a
matter of twenty years has played considerable
havoc, and cleared off half the roof. Standing in
the deserted weed-grown courtyard, one cannot
but grieve to see the widespread destruction of
such beautiful workmanship. The graceful fluted
Ionic pilasters that intersect the lofty mullioned
windows are falling to pieces bit by bit, and the
fantastic stone pinnacles above and on the carved
gable ends are disappearing one by one. But

NOOKS AND COUNERS

much of the glass is still in the windows, and some
of the rooms are not all yet open to the weather,
and the great hall and music gallery and the
" Library " with fine bay window are both in a
fair state of preservation. Is it yet too much
to hope that pity may be taken upon what is
undoubtedly one of the finest Elizabethan houses
in England? The north part of the Inner Court
is represented in S. E. Waller's pathetic picture
"The Day of Reckoning," which has been
enof raved.

Some three miles to the south of Kirby is the
village of Corby, famous for its surrounding
woods, and a curious custom called the ** Poll
Fair," which takes place every twenty years.
Should a stranger happen to be passing through
the village when the date falls due, he is liable to
be captured and carried on a pole to the stocks,
which ancient instrument of punishment is there,
and put to use on these occasions. He may
purchase his liberty by handing over any coin he
happens to have. It certainly is a rather eccentric
way of commemorating the charter granted by
Elizabeth and confirmed by Charles ii. by which
the residents (all of whom are subjected to
similar treatment) are exempt from market tolls
and jury service.

A pair of stocks stood formerly at the foot
of the steps of the graceful Eleanor Cross at

NOOKS IN HUNTINGDONSHIRE, ETC

Geddington to the south of Corby. Of the three
remaining memorials said to have been erected by-
Edward I. at every place where the coffin of his
queen rested on its way from Hardeby in
Lincolnshire to Westminster Abbey, Geddington
Cross is by far the most graceful and in the best
condition. The other two are at Waltham and
Northampton. Originally there were fifteen
Eleanor crosses, including Hardeby, Lincoln,
Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St. Albans,
Cheapside, and Charing Cross. The last two, the
most elaborate of all, as is known, were destroyed
by order of Lord Mayor Pennington in 1643 and
1647, accompanied by the blast of trumpets.

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The idea of calling pretty little Mildenhall in
north-west Suffolk a town, seems out of place.
It is snug and sleepy and prosperous-looking,
an inviting nook to forget the noise and bustle of a
town in the ordinary sense of the word. May it
long continue so, and may the day be long distant
when that terrible invention, the electric tram, is
introduced to spoil the peace and harmony.
Mildenhall is one of those old-world places where
one may be pretty sure in entering the snug old
courtyard of its ancient inn, that one will be
treated rather as a friend than a traveller.
Facing the " Bell " is the church, remarkable for
the unique tracery of its early-English eastern
window, and for its exceptionally fine open
hammer-beam carved oak roof, with bold carved
spandrels and large figures of angels with extended
wings, and the badges of Henry v., the swan and
antelope, displayed in the south aisle.

In a corner of the little market-square is a curious
hexagonal timber market-cross of this monarch's
time, roofed with slabs of lead set diagonally,

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and adding to the picturesque effect. The centre
part runs through the roof to a considerable
height, and is surmounted by a weather-cock.
Standing beneath the low-pitched roof, one may
o^et a Q-Qod idea of the massiveness of construction
of these old Gothic structures ; an object-lesson to
the jerry builder of to-day. The oaken supports
are relieved with orraceful mouldino-s.

Within bow-shot of the market-cross is the
gabled Jacobean manor-house of the Bunburys,
a weather-worn wing of which abuts upon the
street. The family name recalls associations with
the beautiful sisters whom Goldsmith dubbed
"Little Comedy" and the "Jessamy Bride."
The original *' Sir Joshua " of these ladies may
be seen at Barton Hall, another seat of the
Bunburys a few miles away, where they played
good-natured practical jokes upon their friend
the poet. In a room of the Mildenhall mansion
hangs a portrait of a less beautiful woman, but
sufficiently attractive to meet with the approval of
a critical connoisseur. When the Merry Monarch
took unto himself a wife, this portrait of the little
Portuguese woman was sent for him to see ; and
presumably it was flattering, for when Catherine
arrived in person, his Majesty was uncivil enough
to inquire whether they had sent him a bat instead
of a woman.

A delightful walk by shady lanes and corn-

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fields, and along the banks of the river Lark, leads
to another fine old house, Wamil Hall, a portion
only of the original structure ; but it would be
difficult to find a more pleasing picture than is
formed by the remaining wing. It is a typical
manor-house, with ball-surmounted gables, mass-
ive mullioned windows, and a fine Elizabethan
gateway in the lofty garden wall, partly ivy-
grown, and with the delicate greys and greens of
lichens upon the old stone masonry.

In a south-easterly direction from Mildenhall
there is charming open heathy country nearly
all the way to West Stow Hall, some seven or
eight miles away. The remains of this curious
old structure consist principally of the gate-
house, octagonal red - brick towers surmounted
by ornamental cupolas with a pinnacled step-
gable in the centre and the arms of Mary of
France beneath it, and ornamental Tudor brick-
work above the entrance. The passage leading
from this entrance to the main structure consists
of an open arcade, and the upper portion and
adjoining wing are of half-timber construction.
This until recently has been cased over in plaster ;
but the towers having become unsafe, some
restorations have been absolutely necessary, the
result of which is that the plaster is being stripped
off, revealing the worn red-brick and carved oak
beams beneath. Moreover, the moat, long since

/. 10

DOORWAY, KIRKY HALL

p. IQ

GATP:\VAV. I^IKIIV IL\LL

WALSINGHAM

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\VAL>INr.HA-M

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filled up, is to be reinstated, and, thanks to the
noble owner, Lord Cadogan, all its original
features will be most carefully brought to light.
In a room above are some black oudine fresco
paintings of figures in Elizabethan costume,
suggestive of four of the seven ages of man.
Most conspicuous is the lover paying very marked
attentions to a damsel who may or may not re-
present Henry viii.'s sister at the time of her
courtship by the valiant Brandon, Duke of Suffolk ;
anyway the house was built by Sir John Crofts,
who belonged to the queen-dowager's house-
hold, and he may have wished to immortalise that
romantic attachment. A gentleman with a parrot-
like hawk upon his wrist says by an inscription,
" Thus do I all the day " ; while the lover observes,
"Thus do I while I may." A third person, pre-
sumably getting on in years, says with a sigh,
"Thus did I while I might"; and he of the
"slippered pantaloon" age groans, "Good Lord,
will this world last for ever!" In a room
adjoining, we were told. Queen Elizabeth slept
during one of her progresses through the country,
or maybe it was Mary Tudor who came to see
Sir John; but the "White Lady" who issues
from one of the rooms in the main building at
12 o'clock p.m. so far has not been identified.

In his lordship's stables close by we had the
privilege of seeing " a racer " who had won sixteen

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or more "seconds," as well as a budding Derby
winner of the future. Culford is a stately house
in a very trim and well-cared-for park. It looks
quite modern, but the older mansion has been
incorporated with it. In Charles ii.'s day his
Majesty paid occasional visits to Culford en route
from Euston Hall to Newmarket, and Pepys
records an incident there which was little to his
host's (Lord Cornwallis') credit. The rector's
daughter, a pretty girl, was introduced to the
king, whose unwelcome attentions caused her to
make a precipitate escape, and, leaping from some
height, she killed herself, " which, if true," says
Pepys, "is very sad." Certainly Charles does
not show to advantage in Suffolk. The Diarist
himself saw him at Little Saxham Hall ^ (to the
south-west of Culford), the seat of Lord Crofts,
going to bed, after a heavy drinking bout with
his boon companions Sedley, Buckhurst, and
Bab May.

The church is in the main modern, but there is
a fine tomb of Lady Bacon, who is represented
lifesize nursing her youngest child, while on either
side in formal array stand her other five
children. Her husband is reclining full length
at her feet.

Hengrave Hall, one of the finest Tudor man-
sions in England, is close to Culford. Shorn of

^ The old Hall was pulled down in 1771.
26

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Its ancient furniture and pictures (for, alas ! a few
years ago there was a great sale here), the house
is still of considerable interest ; but the absence of
colour — its staring whiteness and bare appearance
— on the whole is disappointing, and compared with
less architecturally fine houses, such as Kentwell
or Rushbrooke, it is inferior from a picturesque
point of view. Still the outline of gables and
turreted chimneys is exceptionally fine and stately.
It was built between the years 1525 and 1538.
The gatehouse has remarkable mitre - headed
turrets, and a triple bay-window bearing the
royal arms of France and England quarterly,
supported by a lion and a dragon. The entrance
is flanked on either side by an ornamental pillar
similar in character to the turrets. The house
was formerly moated and had a drawbridge, as
at Helmingham in this county. These were done
away with towards the end of the eighteenth
century, when a great part of the original building
was demolished and the interior entirely recon-
structed. The rooms included the " Queen's
Chamber," where Elizabeth slept when she was
entertained here after the lavish style at
Kenil worth in 1578, by Sir Thomas Kytson.
From the Kitsons, Hengrave came to the Darcys
and Gages.

In the vicinity of Bury there are many fine old
houses, but for historical interest none so interest-

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ing as Rushbrooke Hall, which stands about the
same distance from the town as H engrave in the
opposite direction, namely, to the south-west. It
is an Elizabethan house, with corner octagonal
turrets to which many alterations were made in
the next century : the windows, porch, etc., being
of Jacobean architecture. It is moated, with an
array of old stone piers in front, upon which the
silvery green lichen stands out in harmonious
contrast with the rich purple red of the Tudor
brickwork. The old mansion is full of Stuart
memories. Here lived the old cavalier Henry
Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, who owed his advance-
ment to Queen Henrietta Maria, to whom he acted
as secretary during the Civil War, and to whom
he was privately married when she became a
widow and lived in Paris. He was a handsome
man, as may be judged from his full-length portrait
here by Vandyck, though he is said to have been
somewhat ungainly. In the " State drawing-
room," where the maiden queen held Court
when she visited the earl's ancestor Sir Robert
Jermyn in 1578, may be seen two fine inlaid
cabinets of wood set with silver, bearing the
monogram of Henrietta Maria. Jermyn survived
his royal wife the dowager-queen over fourteen
years. Evelyn saw him a few months before he
died. " Met My Lord St. Albans," he says, " now
grown so blind that he could not see to take his

SOME SUFFOLK NOOKS

meat. He has lived a most easy life, in plenty
even abroad, whilst His Majesty was a sufferer;
he has lost immense sums at play, which yet, at
about eighty years old, he continues, having one
that sits by him to name the spots on the cards.
He eat and drank with extraordinary appetite.
He is a prudent old courtier, and much enriched
since His Majesty's return." ^

Charles i.'s leather-covered travelling trunk is
also preserved at Rushbrooke as well as his night-
cap and night-shirt, and the silk brocade costume
of his great-grandson, Prince Charles Edward. An
emblem of loyalty to the Stuarts also may be seen
in the great hall, a bas-relief in plaster represent-
ing Charles ii. concealed in the Boscobel oak.
Many of the bedrooms remain such as they were
two hundred years ago, with their fine old tapes-
tries, faded window curtains, and tall canopied
beds. One is known as " Heaven " and another
as " Hell," from the rich paintings upon the walls
and ceilings. The royal bedchamber, Elizabeth's
room, contains the old bed in which she slept, with
its velvet curtains and elaborately worked counter-
pane. The house is rich in portraits, and the walls
of the staircase are lined from floor to ceiling with
well-known characters of the seventeenth century,
from James i. to Charles ii.'s confidant, Edward
Progers, who died in 17 14, at the age of ninety-six,

1 Evelyn^ s Diary, Sept. 18, 1683.
29

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of the anguish of cutting four new teeth.^ Here
also Is Agnes de Rushbrooke, who haunts the
Hall. There is a grim story told of her body
being cast into the moat ; moreover, there Is a
certain bloodstain pointed out to verify the tale.

Then there is the old ballroom, and the
Roman Catholic chapel, now a billiard-room,
and the library, rich In ancient manuscripts and
elaborate carvings by Grinling Gibbons. The old
gardens also are quite in character with the house,
with its avenues of hornbeams known as Lovers'
Walk, and the site of the old labyrinth or maze.

Leaving Rushbrooke with Its Stuart memories,
our way lies to the south-east ; but to the south-
west there are also many places of Interest,
such as Hardwick, Hawstead, Plumpton, etc.
At the last-named place, in an old house with high
Mansard roofs resembling a French chateau, lived
an eccentric character of whom many anecdotes
are told, old Alderman Harmer, one of which Is
that In damp weather he used to sit in a kind of
pulpit in one of the topmost rooms, with wooden
boots on !

For the remains of Hawstead Place, once visited
In State by Queen Elizabeth, who dropped her fan
In the moat to test the gallantry of her host, we
searched In vain. A very old woman in mob-cap

^ Descendants of Proger, or ProgerSj are still living in Bury St,
Edmunds.

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in pointing out the farm so named observed,
"T'were nowt of much account nowadays, tho'
wonderful things went on there years gone by,"
This was somewhat vague. We went up to the
house and asked if an old gateway of which we
had heard still existed. The servant girl looked
ao-hast. Had we asked the road to Birmingrham
she could scarcely have been more dumbfounded.
"No, there was no old gateway there," she said.
We asked another villager, but he shook his
head. " There was a lady in the church who
died from a box on the ear ! " This was scarcely
to the point, and since we have discovered that
the ancient Jacobean gateway is at Hawstead
Place after all, we cannot place the Suffolk
rustic intelligence above the average. It is
in the kitchen garden, and in the alcoves of
the pillars are moulded bricks with initials and
hearts commemorating the union of Sir Thomas
Cullum with the daughter of Sir Henry North.
The moat is still to be seen, but the bridge
spanning it has given way. The principal ruins
of the old mansion were removed about a
century ago.

Gedding Hall, midway between Bury and
Needham Market, is moated and picturesque, and
before it was restored must have been a perfect
picture, for as it is now it just misses being what
it might have been under very careful treatment.

NOOKS AND CORNERS

A glaring red-brick tower lias been added, which
looks painfully new and out of keeping ; and
beneath two quaint old gables, a front door has been
placed which would look very well in Fitz-John's
Avenue or Bedford Park, but certainly not here.
When old houses are nowadays so carefully re-
stored so that occasionally it is really difficult to
see where the old work ends and the new begins,
one regrets that the care that is beino" bestowed
upon West Stow could not have been lavished
here.

We come across another instance of bad restora-
tion at Bildeston. There is a good old timber
house at the top of the village street which, care-
fully treated, would have been a delight to the eye ;
but the carved oak corner-post has been enveloped
in hideous yellow brickwork in such a fashion that
one would rather have wished the place had been
pulled down. But at the farther end of the village
there is another old timber house, Newbury Farm,
with carved beams and very lofty porch, which
affords a fine specimen of village architecture of
the fifteenth century. Within, there is a fine black
oak ceiling of massive moulded beams, a good
example of the lavish way in which oak was used
in these old buildings.

Hadleigh is rich in seventeenth-century houses
with ornamental plaster fronts and carved oak
beams and corbels. One with wide projecting

SOME SUFFOLK NOOKS

eaves and many windows bears the date 1676,
formed out of the lead setting of the little panes
of glass. Some bear fantastical designs upon
the pargeting, half obliterated by continual coats
of white or yellow wash, with varying dates from
James i. to Dutch William.

A lofty battlemented tower in the churchyard,
belonging to the rectory, was built towards the
end of the fifteenth century by Archdeacon
Pykenham. Some mural paintings in one of its
rooms depict the adjacent hills and river and
the interior of the church, and a turret-chamber
has a kind of hiding-place or strong-room, with
a stout door for defence. Not far from this
rectory gatehouse is a half-timber building almost
contemporary, with narrow Gothic doors, made
up-to-date with an artistic shade of green. The
exterior of the church is fine, but the interior is
disappointing in many ways. It was restored at
that period of the Victorian era when art in the
way of church improvement had reached its lowest
ebb. But the church had suffered previously,
for a puritanical person named Dowsing smashed
the majority of the painted windows as "super-
stitious pictures." Fortunately some fine linen
panelling in the vestry has been preserved. The
old Court Farm, about half a mile to the north
of the town, has also suffered considerably ; for
but little remains beyond the entrance gate of
c 33

NOOKS AND CORNERS

Tudor date. By local report, Cromwell is here
responsible ; but the place was a monastery once,
and Thomas Cromwell dismantled it. It would
be interesting to know if the Lord Protector ever
wrote to the editor of the Weekly Post, to refute
any connection with his namesake of the previous
century. Though the "White Lion" Inn has
nothing architecturally attractive, there is an
old-fashioned comfort about it. The courtyard is
festooned round with clematis of over a century's
growth, and in the summer you step out of your
sleeping quarters into a delightful green arcade.
The ostler, too, is a typical one of the good old
coaching days, and doubtless has a healthy
distaste for locomotion by the means of petrol.

The corner of the county to the south-east
of Hadleigh, and bounded by the rivers Stour
and Orwell, could have no better recommendation
for picturesqueness than the works of the famous
painter Constable. He was never happier than
at work near his native village, Flatford, where
to-day the old mill affords a delightful rural studio
to some painters of repute. The old timber
bridge and the willow-bordered Stour, winding
in and out the valley, afford charming subjects
for the brush ; and Dedham on the Essex border is
delightful. Gainsborough also was very partial
to the scenery on the banks of the Orwell.

In the churchyard of East Bergholt, near
34

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Flatford, is a curious, deep - roofed wooden
structure, a cage containing the bells, which
are hung upside down. Local report says that
his Satanic Majesty had the same objection
to the completion of the sacred edifices that
he had for Cologne Cathedral, consequently the
tower still remains conspicuous by its absence.
The "Hare and Hounds" Inn has a finely
moulded plaster ceiling. It is worthy of note
that the Folkards, an old Suffolk family, have
owned the inn for upwards of six generations.

Little and Great Wenham both possess in-
teresting manor-houses : the former particularly
so, as it is one of the earliest specimens of
domestic architecture in the kingdom, or at least
the first house where Flemish bricks were used
in construction. For this reason, no doubt,
trippers from Ipswich are desirous of leaving
the measurements of their boots deep-cut into
the leads of the roof with their initials duly
recorded. Naturally the owner desires that some
discrimination be now shown as to whom may be
admitted. The building is compact, with but few
rooms ; but the hall on the first floor and the
chapel are in a wonderfully good state of repair,
— indeed the house would make a much more
desirable residence than many twentieth-century
dwellings of equal dimensions. Great Wenham
manor-house is of Tudor date, with pretty little

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pinnacles at the corners of gable ends which peep
over a high red-brick wall skirting the highroad.

From here to Erwarton, which is miles from
anywhere near the tongue of land dividing the
two rivers, some charming pastoral scenery recalls
peeps we have of it from the brush of Constable.
At one particularly pretty spot near Harkstead
some holiday folks had assembled to enjoy them-
selves, and looked sadly bored at a company of
Salvationists who had come to destroy the peace
of the scene.

Erwarton Hall is a ghostly looking old place,
with an odd-shaped early-Jacobean gateway, with
nine great pinnacles rising above its roof. It
faces a wide and desolate stretch of road, with
ancient trees and curious twisted roots, in front,
and a pond : picturesque but melancholy looking.
The house is Elizabethan, of dark red-brick, and
the old mullioned windows peer over the boundary-
wall as if they would like to see something of the
world, even in this remote spot. In the mansion,
which this succeeded, lived Anne Boleyn's
aunt, Amata, Lady Calthorpe, and here the
unfortunate queen is said to have spent some
of the happiest days of girlhood, — a peaceful
spot, indeed, compared with her subsequent
surroundings. Local tradition long back has
handed down the story that it was the queen's
wish her heart should be buried at Erwarton ;

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and it had well-nigh been forgotten, when some
sixty-five years ago a little casket was discovered
during" some alterations to one of the walls of
the church. It was heart-shaped, and contained
but dust, and was eventually placed in a vault
of the Cornwallis family. Sir W. Hastings
D'Oyly, Bart., in writing an interesting article
upon this subject a few years back,^ pointed out
that it has never been decided where Anne
Boleyn's remains actually are interred, though
they were buried, of course, in the first instance by
her brother, Viscount Rochford, in the Tower.
There are erroneous traditions, both at Salle in
Norfolk and Horndon-on-the-Hill in Essex, that
Anne Boleyn was buried there. There are some
fine old monuments in the Erwarton church :
a cross-legged crusader, and a noseless knight
and lady, with elaborate canopy, members of the
Davilliers family. During the Civil War five
of the bells were removed from the tower and
broken up for shot for the defence of the old Hall
against the Parliamentarians. At least so goes
the story. An octagonal Tudor font is in a
good state of preservation, and a few old rusty
helmets would look better hung up on the walls
than placed upon the capital of a column.

The story of Anne Boleyn's heart recalls that
of Sir Nicholas Crispe, whose remains were recently

^ Tlie Antiquary^ vol. xxxvili.

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reinterred when the old London church of St.
Mildred's in Bread Street was pulled down. The
heart of the cavalier, who gave large sums of
money to Charles i. in his difficulties, is buried in
Hammersmith Old Church, and by the instructions
of his will the vessel which held it was to be
opened every year and a glass of wine poured
upon it.

Some curious vicissitudes are said to have
happened to the heart of the great Montrose.
It came into the possession of Lady Napier, his
nephew's wife, who had it embalmed and enclosed
in a steel case of the size of an egg, which opened
with a spring, made from the blade of his sword,
and the relic was given by her to the then Mar-
chioness of Montrose. Soon afterwards it was lost,
but eventually traced to a collection of curios in
Holland, and returned into the possession of the
fifth Lord Napier, who gave it to his daughter.
When she married she went to reside in Madeira,
where the little casket was stolen by a native,
under the belief that it was a magic charm, and
sold to an Indian chief, from v/hom it was at
length recovered ; but the possessor in returning
to Europe in 1792, having to spend some time
in France during that revolutionary period,
thouofht it advisable to leave the little treasure in
possession of a lady friend at Boulogne ; but as
luck would have it, this lady died unexpectedly,

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and no clue was forthcoming as to where she had
hidden the relic.

But a still more curious story is told of the
heart of Louis xiv. An ancestor of Sir William
Harcourt, at the time of the French Revolution
had given to him by a canon of St. Denis the
great monarch's heart, which he had annexed
from a casket at the time the royal tombs were
demolished by the mob. It resembled a small
piece of shrivelled leather, an inch or so long.
Many years afterwards the late Dr. Buckland,
Dean of Westminster, during a visit to the
Harcourts was shown the curiosity. We will
quote the rest in Mr Labouchere's words, for he
it was who related the story in Ti'uth. " He
(Dr. Buckland) was then very old. He had
some reputation as a man of science, and the
scientific spirit moved him to wet his finger, rub
It on the heart, and put the finger to his mouth.
After that, before he could be stopped, he put the
heart In his mouth and swallowed it, whether
by accident or design will never be known.
Very shortly afterwards he died and was buried
in Westminster Abbey. It is Impossible that he
could ever have digested the thing. It must have
been a pretty tough organ to start with, and age
had almost petrified it. Consequently the heart
of Louis XIV. must now be reposing in Westminster
Abbey enclosed in the body of an English dean."

NOOKS IN NORFOLK

Wells - next - the - Sea, on the north coast of
Norfolk, sounds attractive, and looks attractive
on the map ; but that is about all that can be said
in its favour, for a more depressing place would
be difficult to find. Even Holkham, with all its
art treasures, leaves a pervading impression of
chill and gloom. The architects of the middle
of the eighteenth century had no partiality for
nooks and corners in the mansions they designed.
Vastness and discomfort seems to have been their
principal aim. Well might the noble earl for
whom it was built have observed, ** It is a
melancholy thing to stand alone in one's own
country." The advent of the motor car must
indeed be welcome, to bring the place in touch
with life.

We were attracted to the village of Stiffl^ey, to
the east of Wells, mainly by a magazine article
fresh in our memory, of some of its peculiarities,
conspicuous among which was its weird red-
headed inhabitants. The race of people, how-
ever, must have died out, for what few villagers

/• 44

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we encountered were very ordinary ones : far from
ill-favoured. Possibly they still invoke the aid
of the local "wise woman," as they do in many
other parts of Norfolk, so therein they are no
further behind the times than their neighbours.

We heard of an instance farther south, for
example, where the head of an establishment, as
was his wont, having disposed of his crop of
potatoes, disappeared for a week with the proceeds ;
and returning at length in a very merry condition,
his good wife, in the hopes of frightening him,
unknown to him removed his watch from his
pocket. Next morning in sober earnest he went
with his sole remaining sixpence to consult the
wise woman of the village, who promptly told him
the thief was in his own house. Consequently
the watch was produced, and the lady who had
purloined it, instead of teaching a lesson, was
soundly belaboured with a broom-handle !

Stiffl^ey Hall is a curious Elizabethan gabled
building with a massive flint tower, built, it is
said, by Sir Nathaniel Bacon, the brother of the
philosopher, but it never was completed. Far
more picturesque and interesting are the remains
of East Barsham manor-house, some seven miles
to the south of Wells. Although it contained
some of the finest ornamental Tudor brickwork
in England when we were there, and possibly still,
the old place could have been had for a song. It

NOOKS AND CORNERS

had the reputation of being haunted, and was held
in awe. The gatehouse, bearing the arms and
ensigns of Henry viii., reminds one of a bit of
Hampton Court, and the chimneys upon the build-
ings on the northern side of the Court are as fme

as those at Compton Wyniates. The wonder is
that in these days of appreciation of beautiful
architecture nobody has restored it back into
a habitable mansion. That such ruins as this
or Kirby Hall or Burford Priory should remain
to drop to pieces, seems a positive sin. A couple
of miles to the west of Barsham is Great Snor-
ing, whose turreted parsonage is also rich in early-
Tudor moulded brickwork, as is also the case at
Thorpland Hall to the south.

One grieves to think that the old Hall of
the Townshends on the other side of Fakenham
has been shorn of its ancestral portraits. What
a splendid collection, indeed, was this, and how
far more digfnified did the full-length Elizabethan
warriors by Janssen look here than upon the
walls at Christie's a year or so ago. The famous
haunted chambers have a far less awe-inspiring-
appearance than some other of the bedrooms with
their hearse-like beds and nodding plumes. We
do not know when the " Brown Lady " last
made her appearance, but there are rumours that
she was visible before the decease of the late
Marquis Townshend. Until then the stately

NOOKS IN NORFOLK

lady in her rich brown brocade had absented
herself for half a century. She had last intro-
duced herself unbecoming a modest ghost, to two
gentlemen visitors of a house party who were
sitting up late at night. One of these gentlemen,
a Colonel Loftus, afterwards made a sketch of
her from memory which possibly is still in
existence.

Walsingham, midway between Fakenham and
Wells, is a quaint old town ; its timber houses and
its combined Gothic well, lock-up, and cross in
the market-place giving it quite a mediaeval
aspect. Before the image of Our Lady of Wal-
singham was consigned to the flames by Wolsey's
confidential servant Cromwell, the pilgrimages to
the Priory were in every respect as great as those
to Canterbury, and the "way" through Brandon
and Newmarket may be traced like that In Kent.
Notwithstanding the fact that Henry viii. himself
had been a barefoot pilgrim, and had bestowed a
costly necklace on the image, his gift as well as
a host of other riches from the shrine came in
very handy at the Dissolution. A relic of Our
Lady's milk enclosed in crystal, says Erasmus, was
occasionally like chalk mixed with the white of
eggs. It had been brought from Constantinople
in the tenth century ; but this and a huge bone
of St. Peter's finger, of course, did not survive.
The site of the chapel, containing the altar where

NOOKS AND CORNERS

the pilgrims knelt, stood somewhere to the north-
west of the ruins of the Priory. These are
approached from the street through a fine old
early fifteenth-century gateway. The picturesque
remains of the refectory date from the previous
century, the western window being a good ex-
ample of the purest Gothic, The old pilgrims'
entrance was in " Knight Street," which derives
its name from the miracle of a horseman who had
sought sanctuary passing through the extraordin-
arily narrow limits of the wicket. Henry iii. is
said to have set the fashion for walking to
Walsingham, and we strongly recommend the
tourists of to-day, who may find themselves
stranded at Wells-next-the-Sea, to do like-
wise.

The little seaside resort Mundesley is an improve-
ment on Wells ; but dull as it is now, what must
it have been in Cowper's time : surely a place ill-
calculated to improve the poor poet's melancholia !
There is little of interest beyond the ruined church
on the cliffs and the Rookery Farm incorporated
in the remains of the old monastery. A priest's
hole is, or was not long since, to be seen in one of
the gabled roofs. The churches of Trunch and
Knapton to the south-west both are worth a visit
for their fine timber roofs. The font at Trunch is
enclosed by a remarkable canopy of oak supported
by graceful wooden pillars from the floor. It is

NOOKS IN NORFOLK

probably of early- Elizabethan date, and is cer-
tainly one of the most remarkable baptistries in
the country. Here and in other parts of Norfolk
when there are several babies to be christened
the ceremony is usually performed on the girls
last, as otherwise when they grew up they would
develop beards !

Ten miles to the south-west as the crow flies
is historic Blickling, one of the reputed birthplaces
of the ill-fated Anne Boleyn. By some accounts
Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire claims her nativity as
well as Rochford Hall in Essex and Hever Castle
in Kent ; but, though Hever is the only building
that will go back to that date, she probably
was born in the older Hall of Blickling, the
present mansion dating only from the reign of
James i.

Upon the occasion of our visit the house was
closed, so we can only speak of the exterior, and
of the very extensive gardens, where in vain we
sought the steward, who was said to be somewhere
on the premises.

The rampant bulls, bearing shields, perched
on the solid piers that guard the drawbridge
across the moat, duly impress one with the ances-
tral importance of the Hobarts, whose arms and
quarterings, surmounted by the helmet and ancient
crest, adorn the principal entrance. Like Hatfield
and Bramshill, the mellowed red-brick gives it a

NOOKS AND CORNERS

charm of colour which only the lapse of cen-
turies will give ; and though not so old as
Knole or Hatfield, the main entrance is quite
as picturesque. The gardens, however, imme-
diately surrounding the Hall look somewhat flat
in comparison.

Although Henry viii. did the principal part of
his courting at Hever, it was at Blickling that he
claimed his bride, and by some accounts was
married to her there and not at Calais. The old
earl, the unfortunate queen's father, survived her
only two years ; and after his death the estate was
purchased by Sir Henry Hobart,^ who built the
present noble house. Among the relics preserved
at Blickling of the unhappy queen are her morning-
gown and a set of night-caps, and her toilet case
containing mirrors, combs, etc. Sir John the third
baronet entertained Charles ii. and his queen
here in 1671, upon which occasion the host's son
and heir, then aged thirteen, was knighted. The
royal visit is duly recorded in the parish register
as follows : '* King Charles the Second, with
Queene Katherine, and James, Duke of Yorke,
accompanied with the Dukes of Monmouth,
Richmond, and Buckingham, and with divers
Lords, arrived and dined at Sir John Hubart's,
at Blicklinge Hall, the King, Queene, Duke of

^ The Miss Hobart who figures in de Gramont's Memoirs was
Sir John's sister, one of the first baronet's sixteen children.

NOOKS IN NORFOLK

Y orke, and Duchesse of Richmond, of Buckingham
etc., in the great dining-roomes, the others in the
great parloure beneath it, upon Michmasday 167 1.
From whence they went, the Queene to Norwich,
the King to Oxneads and lodged there, and came
through Blickhnge the next day about one of the
clock, going to Rainham to the Lord Town-
sends."^

Queen Catherine slept that night and the fol-
lowing in the Duke's Palace at Norwich, but joined
her royal spouse at lunch at Oxnead, which fine
Elizabethan house has, alas ! been pulled down,
and the statues and fountain from there are now
at Blickling. " Next morne (being Saterday),"
writes a local scribe in 1671, "her Ma'^' parted
so early from Norwich as to meet y^ King againe
at Oxnead ere noone ; S' Rob' Paston haveing
got a vast dinner so early ready, in regard that
his Ma'^ was to goe that same afternoone (as
he did) twenty myles to supper to the L''
Townshend's, wher he stayd all yesterday, and
as I suppose, is this evening already return 'd to
Newmarket, extremely well satisfied with our Lord
Lieut' reception. . . . Her Ma'^ haveinge but
seven myles back to Norwich that night from
S"" Rob' Pastons was pleased for about two
houres after dinner to divert herselfe at cards

^ There is an illustration of the room that Monmouth slept in at
Raynham upon this occasion in King Monmouth.

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with the Court ladies and my Lady Paston, who
had treated her so well and yet returned early to
Norwich that eveninge to the same quarters as
formerly ; and on Sunday morne (after her
devotions perform'd and a plentifull breakfast)
shee tooke coach, extreamely satisfied with the
dutifull observances of all this countie and city,
and was conducted by the L^ Howard and his
sonnes as far as Attleburough where fresh coaches
atended to carry her back to the R' Ho'''* the
L'^ Arlington's at Euston."-^

Sidelights of this royal progress are obtained
from the diarist Evelyn and Lord Dartmouth.
Among the attractions provided for the king's
amusement at Euston was the future Duchess
of Portsmouth. The Duchess of Richmond (La
belle Stuart), in the queen's train, must have been
reminded how difficult had been her position
before she eloped with her husband four years
previously. For the duke's sake let us hope he
was as overcome as his Majesty when the latter
let his tonofue was: with more than usual freedom
during the feast at Raynham. "After her
marriage," says Dartmouth, speaking of the
duchess, " she had more complaisance than
before, as King Charles could not forbear tell-
ing the Duke of Richmond, when he was drunk

1 A Narrative of the Visit of His Majesty King Charles the
Second to Norwich^ 1671 (1846).

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at Lord Townshend's in Norfolk." Evelyn did
not think much of the queen's lodgings at
Norwich, which he describes as "an old wretched
building," partly rebuilt in brick, standing in the
market-place, which in his opinion would have
been better had it been demolished and erected
somewhere else.

Not far from Blickling to the north-east is
Mannington Hall, a mansion built in the reign
of Henry vi., which possesses one of the best
authenticated g;host stories of modern times. The
story is the more interesting as it is recorded by
that learned and delightful chronicler Dr. Jessop,
chaplain to His Majesty the King. The strange
experiences of his visit in October 1879 are duly
recorded in the AthencEum of the following January.
The rest of the household had retired to rest, and
Dr. Jessop was sitting up making extracts from
some rare books in an apartment adjoining the
library. Absorbed in his study, time had slipped
away and it v/as after one o'clock. " I was just
beginning to think that my work was drawing to
a close," says the doctor, "when, as I was actually
writing, I saw a large white hand within a foot of
my elbow. Turning my head, there sat a figure
of a somewhat large man, with his back to the
fire, bending slightly over the table, and ap-
parently examining the pile of books that I had
been at work upon. The man's face was turned
D 49

NOOKS AND CORNERS

away from me, but I saw his closely-cut, reddish
brown hair, his ear and shaved cheek, the eye-
brov/, the corner of his right eye, the side of the
forehead, and the large high cheekbone. He was
dressed in what I can only describe as a kind of
ecclesiastical habit of thick corded silk, or some
such material, close up to the throat, and a narrow
rim or edg-ing^ of about an inch broad of satin or
velvet serving as a stand-up collar and fitting
close to the chin. The right hand, which had
first attracted my attention, was clasping, without
any great pressure, the left hand ; both hands
were in perfect repose, and the large blue veins
of the right hand were conspicuous. I remember
thinkinp- that the hand was like the hand of
Velasquez's magnificent * Dead Knight ' in the
National Gallery. I looked at my visitor for
some seconds, and was perfectly sure that he
was a reality. A thousand thoughts came crowd-
ing upon me, but not the least feeling of alarm
or even of uneasiness. Curiosity and a strong
interest were uppermost. For an instant I felt
eager to make a sketch of my friend, and I
looked at a tray on my right for a pencil : then
thought, ' Upstairs I have a sketch-book ; shall
I fetch it ? ' There he sat and I was fascinated,
afraid not of his staying, but lest he should go.
Stopping in my writing, I lifted my left hand from
the paper, stretched it out to a pile of books and

NOOKS IN NORFOLK

moved the top one, I cannot explain why I did
this. My arm passed in front of the figure, and
it vanished. Much astonished, I went on v/ith
my writing perhaps for another five minutes, and
had actually got to the last few words of the
extract when the figure appeared again, exactly
in the same place and attitude as before. I saw
the hand close to my own ; I turned my head
again to examine him more closely, and I was
framing a sentence to address to him when I
discovered that I did not dare to speak. I was
afraid of the sound of my own voice ! There he
sat, and there sat I. I turned my head again to
my work, and finished the two or three words still
remaining to be written. The paper and my
notes are at this moment before me, and exhibit
not the slightest tremor or nervousness. I could
point out the words I was writing when the
phantom came, and when he disappeared. Having
finished my task I shut the book and threw it on
the table : it made a slight noise as it fell — the
figure vanished." Not until now did the doctor
feel nervous, but it was only for a second. He
replaced the books in the adjoining room, blew
out the candles on the table, and retired to his
rooms marvelling at his calmness under such
strano"e circumstances.

The old-fashioned town Wymondham, to the
south-west of Norwich, contains an interesting

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church and market-cross, and one or two fine
Gothic houses, all in good preservation. But
stay, the quaint octagonal Jacobean timber
structure in the market-place was holding forth
a petition for contributions, as it was feeling some-
what decrepit. This was six or seven years ago,
so probably by now it has entered upon a new
lease of life. How much more picturesque are
these old timbered structures than the jubilee
clock-towers which have sprung up in many
old-fashioned towns, putting everything out of
harmony. But few towns are proud of their
old buildings. They must be up to date with
flaring" red-brick, and electric tramways, and
down comes everything with any claim to
antiquity, without a thought of Its past associa-
tions or picturesque value. But let us hope that
Wymondham may be exempt from these terrible
tramways for many years to come, as its popula-
tion is, or was, decreasing.

The abbey and the church appear to have got
rather mixed up ; but having come to a satisfactory
arrangement, present a most pleasing group,
and, in the twilight, with two lofty towers and
a ruined archway. It looks far more like a castle
on the Rhine than a church in Norfolk. The
effect doubtless would be heightened if we could
see the rebel Kett danolinir in chains from the
tower as he did in the reign of Bloody Mary.

NOOKS IN NORFOLK

The timber roof is exceptionally fine, with its
long array of carved oak bosses and projecting
angels.

Near Wymondham is the moated Hall of
Stanfield, picturesque with its numerous pinnacles.
Here the heroine of the delightful romance
Kenilwoi'th was born in 1532; but poor Amy's
marriage, far from being secret, was celebrated
with great pomp at Sheen in Surrey in 1550,
and is recorded in the Diary of Edivard vi.
now in the British Museum. " Lydcote," the old
house in North Devon where she lived for some
years, was pulled down not many years ago.
Her bedstead from there we believe is still
preserved at Great Torrington Rectory.

Somewhat similar to Stanfield, though now only
a farmhouse, is the very pretty old Tudor house
Hautboys Hall. It stands a few miles to the
south-east of Oxnead.

Of all the moated mansions in Norfolk, Oxburgh
Hall, near Stoke Ferry, is the most interesting, and
is a splendid example of the fortified manor-house
of the end of the fifteenth century, and it is one of
the few houses in England that have always been
occupied by one family. Sir Edmund Bedingfield
built it in the reign of Richard in,, and Sir Richard
Bedingfield resides there at the present time. The
octagonal towers which fiank the entrance gate
rise from the broad moat to a considerable height.

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There is a quaint projecting turret on the eastern
side which adds considerably to the picturesque
outHne of stepped gables and quaint battlements.
High above the ponderous oak gates the machico-
lation behind the arch that joins the towers shows
ample provision for a liberal supply of molten lead,
and in an old guard-room may be seen the ancient
armour and weapons to which the retainers of
the Hall were wont to have recourse in case of
siege. The room recalls somehow the defence
of the tov/er of Tillietudlem in Old Mortality, and
one can picture the little household guard running
the old culverins and sakers into position on the
battlements.

The great mullioned window beneath the Tudor
arch and over the entrance gate belongs to the
" King's room," a fine old tapestried chamber con-
taining the bed, with green and gold hangings,
where Henry vii. slept; and it is no difficult
matter to repeople it in the imagination with
the inhabitants of that time in their picturesque
costumes. There is a richness in the colouring
of the faded tapestry and hangings in contrast
with the red-brick Tudor fireplace far more
striking than if the restorer had been allowed
a liberal hand. It is like a bit of Haddon,
and such rooms are as rarely met with nowa-
days as unrestored churches. The remarkable
hiding-place at Oxburgh we have described in

NOOKS IN NORFOLK

detail elsewhere.^ It is situated in the little
projecting turret of the eastern tower, and is
so cleverly constructed beneath the solid brick
floor, that no one would believe until they saw
the solid masonry move upwards that there
was sufficient space beneath to conceal a man.
The Bedingfields are an old Roman Catholic
family, and it is usually in the mansions of
those of that faith that these ingenious contriv-
ances are to be seen.

A priest's hole was discovered quite recently in
Snowre Hall, a curious Tudor house some ten
miles to the west of Oxburph. It is entered
through a shaft from the roof, and measures five
feet by six feet and four feet high, and beneath it
is an inner and smaller hiding-place. Mr. Pratt
(in whose family the house has been for two
centuries) when he made the discovery had to
remove four barrow-loads of jackdaws' nests.
The discovery of this secret room is an interest-
ing sequel to the fact that on April 29, 1646,
Charles i. slept at Snowre Hall. It will be
remembered that before he delivered himself up
to the Scots army, he spent some days wandering
about the eastern counties in disguise, like his
son did in the western counties five years later.
The owner of the house in those days was a Mr.
Ralph Skipwith, who, to put the spies that were

^ See Secret CIiand>ers and Hiding-Places.

NOOKS AND CORNERS

lurking about the vicinity off the track, provided
the king with his own grey riding-jacket in
place of the clergyman's black coat he was wearing,
for that disguise had been widely advertised by
his enemies. Dr. Hudson, who was acting as
scout, joined Charles and his companion, Mr.
Ashburnham, at Downham Market, where the
" King's Walk " by the town side, where they met,
may still be seen. It is recorded by Dr. Stukeley
that Charles scratched some motto or secret in-
structions to his friends on a pane of glass in
the Swan Inn, where he put up awaiting Hudson's
return from Southwell. The fugitives proceeded
thence to the Cherry Inn at Mundford, some
fourteen miles from Downham, and back to
Crimplesham, where they halted at an inn to
effect the disguise above referred to. The
reoflcide Miles Corbet, who was on the track
with Valentine Walton, gave information as
follows :

" Since our coming to Lyn we have done what
service we were able. We have taken some
examinations, and it doth appeare to us that Mr.
Hudson, the parson that came from Oxford with
the king, was at Downham in Norfolk with two
other gentlemen upon Thursday the last of April.
We cannot yet learn where they were Friday
night ; but Saturday morning, the 2 of May
they came to a blind alehouse at Crimplesham,

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about 8 miles from Lyn, From thence Mr.
Hudson did ride on Saturday to Dovvnham again,
and there two soldiers met with him, and had
private speech with him. Hudson was then in
a scarlet coat. Ther he met with Mr. Ralf
Skipwith of his former acquaintance, and with
him he did exchange his horse; and Skipwith
and the said Hudson did ride to Southrie ferrie
a privat way to go towards Ely ; and went by
the way to Crimplesham, and ther were the
other two — one in a parsons habit, which by all
description was the king. Hudson procured the
said Skipwith to get a gray coat for the Dr. (as
he called the king), which he did. And ther the
king put off his black coat and long cassock, and
put on Mr. Skipwith his gray coat. The king
bought a new hat at Downham, and on Saturday
went into the Isle of Ely. Wherever they came
they were very private and always writing. Hudson
tore some papers when they came out of the house.
Hudson did enquire for a ship to go to the north
or Newcastel, but could get none. We hear at the
same time there were 6 soldiers and officers as
is thought at Oxborough at another blind ale-
house."^

It is worthy of remark that Miles Corbet,
whom Pepys saw on the morning of April 19,
1662, looking "very cheerful" upon his way to

' See Moiwirs of the Martyr Kin^.

NOOKS AND CORNERS

Tyburn, was a native of Norfolk, and his monu-
ment may be seen in Sprowston Church near
Norwich.

The " Swan " at Downham still exists, but it was
modernised some fifteen years ago. It would be
interesting to know what became of the historical
pane of glass.

NOOKS IN WARWICKSHIRE AND
BORDERLAND

The outline of Warwickshire is something in the
form of a turnip, and the stem of it, which, like an
isthmus, projects into Gloucestershire and Oxford-
shire, contains many old-world places.

Long Compton, the most southern village of
all, is grey and straggling and picturesque, with
orchards on all sides, and a fine old church, amid
a group of thatched cottages, whose interior was
restored or mangled at a period when these things
were not done with much antiquarian taste. We
have pleasant recollections of a sojourn at the
"Old Red Lion," where mine host in i88o, a
typical Warwickshire farmer, was the most hospit-
able and cheery to be found in this or any other
county : an innkeeper of the old school that it
did one's heart good to see.

But this welcome house of call is by no means
the only Lion of the neighbourhood, for on the
ridge of the high land which forms the boundary
of Oxfordshire are the "Whispering Knights,"

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the " King's Stone," and a weird Druidical
circle. These are the famous Rollright Stones,
about which there is a story that a Danish
prince came over to invade England, and when
at Dover he consulted the oracle as to the chances
of success. He was told that

" When Long Compton you shall see,
You shall King of England be."

Naturally he and his soldiers made a bee-line
for Long Compton, and, arriving at the spot where
the circle is now marked by huge boulders, he
was so elated that he stepped in advance of his
followers, who stood round him, saying, " It is not
meet that I should remain among my subjects,
I will Q-Q before." But for his conceit some
unkind spirit turned the whole party into stone,
which doesn't seem quite fair. "King's Stone"
stands conspicuous from the rest on the other
side of the road, and, being very erect, looks as
if the prince still prided himself upon his folly.
The diameter of the circle is over a hundred feet.
In an adjoining field is a cluster of five great
stones. These are the " Whispering Knights " ;
and the secret among themselves is that they
will not consent to budge an inch, and woe to
the farmer who attempts to remove them. The
story goes that one of the five was once carted
off to make a bridge ; but the offender had such

NOOKS IN WARWICKSHIRE

a warm time of it that he speedily repented his
folly and reinstated it.

There is a delightful walk across the fields
from Long Conipton to Little Compton, with a
glorious prospect of the Gloucestershire and
Warwickshire hills. This village used to be
in the former county, but now belongs to
Warwickshire. Close to the quaint saddle-back
towered church stands the gabled Elizabethan
manor-house, with the Juxon arms carved over
the entrance. Its exterior has been but little
altered since the prelate lived here in retirement
after the execution of Charles i. A gruesome
relic was kept in one of the rooms, the block
upon which the poor monarch's head was severed.
This and King Charles' chair and some of the
archbishop's treasured books disappeared from
the manor-house after the death of his descendant
Lady Fane. Internally the house has been
much altered, but there are many nooks and
corners to carry the memory back to the hunting
bishop, for his pack of hounds was one of the
best managed in the country. Upon one occasion
a complaint was made to the Lord Protector that
Juxon's hounds had followed the scent through
Chipping Norton churchyard at the time of a
puritanical assembly there. But Oliver would hear
none of it, and only replied, " Let the bishop
enjoy his hunting unmolested."

NOOKS AND CORNERS

When Little Compton church had an Inde-
pendent minister to hold forth to the congregation,
the prelate held divine service every Sunday at
Chastleton, the grand old home of the loyalist
family of Jones. This stately Jacobean mansion is
close to Little Compton, but is really in Oxfordshire.
It has an old-world charm about it entirely its
own ; and few ancestral homes can take us back to
the davs of Cavalier and Roundhead with such
realism, for the old furniture and pictures and
relics have never been disturbed since the house
was built by Walter Jones between the years
1603 and 1630. He purchased the estate from
Robert Catesby, the projector of the Gunpowder
Plot, who sold the manor to provide funds for
carrying on that notorious conspiracy.

The great hall is a noble apartment, with
raised dais and carved screen ; and the Royalist
Joneses looking down upon you on all sides,
conspicuous among whom is Thomas Jones and
valiant Captain Arthur Jones, whose sword
beside him shows the good service he did at
Worcester fight. When the day was lost, and
Charles was journeying towards Boscobel, the
captain managed to ride his tired horse back to
Chastleton. But a party of Cromwellian soldiers
were at his heels, and his wife had only just time
to hurry him into an ingeniously contrived hiding-
place when the enemy confronted her, and refused

NOOKS IN WARWICKSHIRE

to budge from the very bedroom behind whose
panelled walls the fugitive was secreted. But
Mrs. Arthur Jones had her share of tact, and in
preparing her unwelcome guests some refresh-
ment, she added a narcotic to the wine, which in
time had effect. Her husband was then released,
and with a fresh horse he was soon beyond
danger. The little oak wainscoted chamber and
the adjoining bedroom may still be seen where
this exciting episode took place. The drawing-
room is very rich in oak carvings, and the lofty
marble chimney-piece bears in the centre the Jones'
arms. The ceiling with its massive pendants is
a fine example of the period.^ The bedrooms
are all hung with the original tapestry and arras
that was made for them. One of them contains
the State bed from old Woodstock Palace ; and
there are everywhere antique dressing-tables,
mirrors, and quaint embroidered coverlets, and old
chests and cabinets innumerable containing queer
old dresses and coats of the Georgian period, and,
what is more remarkable, the identical Jacobean
ruffs and frills which are depicted in the old por-
traits in the hall. Then there are cupboards
full of delightful old china, and decanters and wine
glasses which were often produced to drink a
health to the " King over the water." But of
more direct historic interest is Charles i.'s Bible,

* There is an engraving of this room in Nash's Mansions.

6:\

• NOOKS AND CORNERS

which was given by the widow of the last baronet
of the Juxon family — a grand-nephew of the
archbishop — to the then proprietor of Chastleton,
John Jones. It is bound in gold stamped leather,
and bears the Royal arms with the initials C. R.
It is dated 1629, and is full of queer old maps
and illustrations, and upon the fly-leaf is written —
"Juxon, Compton, Gloucestershire."

Some of the ancient cabinets at Chastleton are
full of secret drawers, and in one of them some
years ago a very curious miniature of the martyr
king was discovered. It is painted on copper,
and represents Charles i. with the Order of St.
George, and a set of designs drawn on talc,
illustratine the life of the ill-fated monarch from
his coronation to his execution. They are thus
described by one of the past owners of Chastleton :
" They consist of a face and bust in one minia-
ture, in a case accompanied with a set of eight
or nine pictures drawn on talc, being different
scenes or dresses, which are to be laid on the
miniature so that the face of the miniature appears
through a hole left for that purpose : and thus
the one miniature does duty in every one of
the talc pictures. These were accidentally dis-
covered some twenty years ago.^ The miniature
was well known, and was supposed to be complete
in itself; but one day whilst being handled by

^ The description was written more than twenty years ago.

f-lS

THK WHITE IIOUSK, PIXIIAM

p. So

SEVERN END

/. 62

CHASTI.ETOX

NOOKS IN WARWICKSHIRE

one of the family, then quite a child, it fell to
the ground, and being in that way forced open
at the back, those talc pictures were brought to
light. The careful manner in which they had
been concealed, and the miniature thereby made
to appear no more than an ordinary portrait,
seems to warrant the suggestion that they were
in the first instance the property of some affec-
tionate adherent of Charles, whose prudence
persuaded him to conceal what his loyalty no
doubt taught him to value very highly. There
is no direct evidence to show that they belonged
to Bishop Juxon ; nor is there any tradition that
I ever heard connected with them. The two
concluding pictures of the series represent the
decapitated head in the hand of the executioner,
and a hand placing the martyr's crown upon the
brows."

There are two huge oak staircases running up
to the top of the house, where is the old gallery
or ballroom, with a coved ceiling of ornamented
plaster-work, and above the mullioned windows
grotesque monster heads devised in the pargeting.

The grounds and gardens are quite in character :
not made to harmonise, as are so many gardens
nowadays, but the original quaint cut box hedges
and trim walks. The grand old house in the
centre with its rusty roof of lichen, and hard by
the litde church nestling by its side with the
E 65

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picturesque entrance gateway and dovecot, form
together a delightful group. Chastleton church
contains some good brasses. The tower is oddly
placed over the south porch.

A couple of miles to the north, and the same
distance beyond, are two other interesting manor-
houses, Barton-on-the-Heath and Little Wool-
ford. The former, a gabled Jacobean house,
was once the seat of the unfortunate Sir Thomas
Overbury, who was done to death in the Tower
by the machinations of that evil couple, Carr,
Earl of Somerset, and his countess. Overbury,
it will be remembered, had written the Court
favourite's love letters and poems, and knew too
much of that guilty courtship.

There are some good monuments to the Over-
burys in the church : a Norman one with saddle-
back tower. Near here is the Four-Shire Stone,
described by Leland as "a large bigge stone; a
Three-Mile-Stone from Rollerich Stones, which
is a very mark or line of Gloucestershire,
Whichester (Worcestershire), Warwickshire, and
Oxfordshire."

Little Woolford manor-house, the old seat of
the Ingrams, is now, or was some years ago, used
as a school. It is very picturesque, and its gables
of half-timber, facing the little courtyard, remind
one of the quadrangle of Ightham Mote. Oppo-
site the Tudor entrance-gate is the hall, with its

NOOKS IN WARWICKSHIRE

open timber roof, minstrels' gallery, panelled walls,
and tall windows, still containing their ancient
painted glass. Barton, which properly should
have its ghost, presumably is not so favoured ; but
here there are two at least, — a certain " White
Lady," who, fortunately for the juvenile scholars,
does not appear until midnight ; and the last of
the Ingrams, who has a restless way of tearing
about on horseback in the adjacent fields. This
gentleman could not die decently in his bed, but
must needs, upon the point of dying, rush into
the stable, mount his favourite steed, and plunge
into the raging tempest to meet his adversary
Death. What a pity there are not more educa-
tional establishments like this. They might
possibly make the pupils less matter-of-fact and
more imaginative. But we had almost forgotten
a moral lesson that is to be learned from a rude
projection in the masonry on the left-hand side
of the entrance gateway. This is the oven, which
opens at the back of a wide hearth ; and here
some seventeenth - century I O U's are said to
have been found for money lost at play ; while
some Cavaliers were concealed there in the time
of the Civil Wars. But the punishment for
gambling was providentially arranged. Some
Cromwellian soldiers dropping in at the manor-
house, lighted a tremendous fire, and gave the
unfortunate fugitives a roasting which they did

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not readily forget. This is roughly as the story
goes ; indeed it goes further, for by local report
King Charles himself was one of the victims.

Brailes, a few miles to the north-east, is famous
for its church, the cathedral of southern Warwick-
shire ; but it is principally interesting exteriorly, the
old benches having been long since cleared away
and many nineteenth - century "improvements"
made. Still there are parts of the fourteenth-
century roof and a fine font, some ancient monu-
ments, particularly melodious old bells ; and the
lofty embattled fifteenth-century tower is excep-
tionally graceful.

Buried in a hollow, and hidden from view by
encircling trees and hills, is that wonderful old
mansion Compton Wyniates, The name (derived
from the ancient family of Compton and Wyniates,
a corruption of vineyard, for at an early period
the vine was here cultivated) is suggestive of
something quaint, and indeed a more curious old
house could not be found. Its innumerable cables
and twisted chimneys seem to be heaped up in the
most delightful confusion, in abandoned opposition
to any architectural regularity. The eye wanders
from tower and turret until it becomes bewildered
by so many twists and angles. Look at the square
box of a house like Moor Park, for example, and
wonder how it is that having arrived at such
picturesque perfection, taste should so degenerate.

NOOKS IN WARWICKSHIHE

But half the fascination of Compton Wyniates is
its colour ; its time-worn dark-red brick and the
grey-green lichens of ancient roofs. Upon one
side the curious gables and countless chimney
clusters are reflected in the moat, part of which
now does service as a sunken garden.

Passing through the bullet-battered door of the
main entrance, over which are the Royal arms of
England supported by a griffin and a dog, we
enter a quadrangular court and thence pass into
the great hall, with its open timber roof black
with the smoke of centuries. The screen beneath
the music gallery is elaborately carved with leaf
tracery, grotesque figures of mounted knights,
and the escutcheon of the Compton arms.
Above the gallery we notice the huge oak
beams which form the half-timber portion of
one of the principal gables, and cannot help
comparing these tremendous oak trunks with
the modern laths plastered in front of houses : a
futile attempt to imitate this popular style, with-
out aiming at its object — strength.

The screen of the chapel, like that of the hall,
is ornamented with grotesque carvings, including
a battle royal between some monks and his
Satanic Majesty, who by the way has one of
the ninety rooms all to himself, and reached by
a special spiral staircase. Near the " Devil's
chamber" is another small room whose ghostly

NOOKS AND CORNERS

occupant is evidently a member of the fresh-air
league, for he will persist in having the window
open, and no matter how often it is closed it is
always found to be open. What a pity this
sanitary ghost does not take up his abode where
oxygen is scarcer. But these are by no means
the only mysterious rooms at Compton Wyniates,
for not a few have secret entrances and exits,
and one dark corridor is provided with a movable
floor, which when removed, drawbridge fashion,
makes an excellent provision for safety so long
as you are on the right side of the chasm. Such
ingenious arrangements were as necessary in a
private residence, miles from anywhere, as the
bathroom is in a suburban villa. There are
secret "barracks" in the roof, with storage for
a regiment of soldiers, if necessary. The popish
chapel, too, has ample provision for the security
of its priest. There are four staircases leading
up to it, and a regular rabbit-warren between the
beams of the roof and the wainscoting, where if
needs be he could run in case of danger.

" Henry viii.'s room," and "Charles i.'s room,"
are both pointed out. The latter slept a night
here prior to the battle of Edgehill, and the
bluff kino- honoured the builder of the mansion,
Sir William Compton, with a visit in memory of
old days, when his host as a boy had been his
page. Dugdale tells us that Sir William got his

NOOKS IN WARWICKSHIRE

building material from the ruinous castle of
Fulbrooke, so his bricks were mellowed with time
when the house was first erected. The knio-ht's

grandson became Baron Compton in Elizabeth's
reign, and his son William, Earl of Northampton
in 1618. A romantic episode in the life of this
nobleman was his elopement with Elizabeth
Spencer of Canonbury Tower, Islington. The
lady was a very desirable match, being the only
daughter of Sir John Spencer, the richest heiress
of her time. Notwithstanding her strict seclusion
at Canonbury, Lord William Compton, of whom
she was enamoured, succeeded in the absence of
her father in gaining admission to the house in the
disguise of a baker, and carried her off in his
basket. To perform so muscular a feat was proof
enough of his devotion, so at the end of a year all
was forgotten and forgiven. Their son, the valiant
second earl, Spencer Compton, won his spurs and
lost his life fighting for the king at Hopton
Heath. His portrait by Janssen may be seen at
Castle Ashby.

His son James, the third earl, also fought for
Charles, and attended his son at the Restoration ;
but his younger brother Henry, Bishop of London,
aided the Revolution, and crowned Dutch William
and his queen.

Only within the last half - century has the
mansion been occupied as a residence. For

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nearly a century before it was neglected and
deserted. The rooms were bare of furniture,
for, alas! its contents, including Henry viii.'s
State bed, had been removed or sold. That
delightful writer William Howitt in 1840 said the
house had not been inhabited for ninety years,
with the exception of a portion of the east front,
which was used by the bailiff. The rooms were
empty and the walls were naked. His concluding
wish fortunately long since has been realised —
namely, that its noble owner would yet cause
the restoration and refitting of Compton Wyniates
to all its ancient state.

Warwickshire is rich in ancestral houses and
mediaeval castles. Take, for example, the fortresses
of Kenil worth, Warwick, Maxstoke, and Tam worth,
or the fine old houses Coombe Abbey, Charlecote,
and Baddesley Clinton. The last named perhaps
is least known of these, but by no means the least
interesting. This old moated Hall of the Ferrers
family is buried in the thickly wooded country on
the high tableland which occupies the very heart
of England. As to the actual centre, there are
two places which claim this distinction ; but oddly
enough they are quite twelve miles apart. The
one between Leamington and Warwick, the
other to the west of Coventry. The latter spot
is marked by the village cross of Meriden, and
the former by an old oak tree by the main road.

NOOKS IN WARWICKSHIRE

Baddesley Clinton is nearly equidistant from
both, south of Meriden and north - west of
Leamington and Warwick,

Few houses so thoroughly retain their ancient
appearance as Baddesley. It dates from the latter
part of the fifteenth century, and is a singularly
well-preserved specimen of a moated and fortified
manor - house of that period. Like Compton
Wyniates, its situation is very secluded in its
densely wooded park, and formerly there was a
double moat for extra defence ; but for all its re-
tiredness and security, the old house has a kindly
greeting for those who are interested in such
monuments of the past. A stone bridge across
the moat leads to a projecting embattled tower
with a wide depressed archway, showing provision
for a portcullis with a large mullioned window over
it. In general appearance the front resembles the
moated house of Ightham, with which it is coeval,
and the half-timbered gables of the courtyard are
somewhat similar. Unlike Charlecote, the interior
is as untouched as the exterior. Everywhere
there are quaint old "linen" panelled rooms and
richly carved chimney-pieces — windows of ancient
heraldic glass, and old furniture, tapestry, and
paintings. The hall is not like some, that never
look cosy unless there is a blazing log fire in the
hearth. There is something particularly inviting
in this old room, with its deep-recessed mullioned

NOOKS AND CORNERS

window by the great freestone Jacobean fireplace.
What pictures could not the imagination conjure
up in this cosy corner in the twilight of an autumn
day ! On the first floor over the entrance arch-
way is the "banqueting-room," with high coved
ceiling and tapestry-lined walls. Beyond this is
" Lord Charles' room," haunted, it is said, by a
handsome youth with raven hair. Many years
ago this spectre was seen by two of the late Mr.
Marmion Ferrers' aunts when they were children,
and they long remembered his face and steadfast
gaze. A mysterious lady dressed in rich black
brocade is occasionally encountered in the corridors
in broad daylight, like the famous " Brown Lady "
of Raynham Hall.

The ancient chapel was set up by Sir Edward
Ferrers when the little parish church was taken
from the family at the Reformation. In the
thickness of the wall close at hand there is
a secret passage which leads down to a little
water-gate by the moat beneath which a narrow
passage runs, so that there were two ready means
of escape in troublous times ; and in the roof
on the east side of the house there is a priest's
hole provided with a fixed bench. Marmion
Ferrers above alluded to, who died in 1884, was
the eighth in descent from father to son from
Henry Ferrers of Elizabeth's time. Both were
learned antiquarians. Marmion Ferrers was a

NOOKS IN WARWICKSHIRE

typical squire of the old school, and we well
remember with what pride he showed us round
his ancestral home. But his pride ended there, as
is shown by the following anecdote. One day he
encountered an old woman in the park who had
been gathering sticks without permission. She
dropped her heavy bundle and v/as about to offer
apologies for trespassing, when the good old squire,
seeing that her load was too much for her strength,
without a word slung the burden on his shoulder
and carried it to the woman's humble dwelling.

This calls to mind a story of a contemporary
squire who lived some fifty miles away in the
adjoining county, an antiquary who was also
known for his acts of kindness and hospitality.
In the vicinity of his ancient Hall a tramp had
found a job, and the baronet was anxious to
test his butler's honesty. He therefore offered to
lend the man a hand and help him carry some
bundles of faggots into an adjacent yard, if he
would share profits. This was agreed upon, and
when the work was done the tramp went off to
the Hall to ask for his money, promising to join
his assistant in a lane at the back of the house.
Meanwhile the squire hurried to his study, and
when the butler made his appearance handed
him five shillings. Then donning his shabby coat
and hat he hastened back. Presently the tramp
came up with beaming countenance and held out

NOOKS AND CORNERS

half a crown, saying they were both well rewarded
with one and threepence each. But the assistant
grumbled, and said it was miserable pay, and at
length persuaded the man to return and ask to see
the squire and explain the amount of work that
had been done. Again he returned to his sanctum,
and hearing the bell ring told the butler to admit
the man, and he would hear what he had to say.
Having enjoyed the fun — the tramp's surprise
and the butler's discomfort, he dismissed them
both — one with half a guinea, the other from his
service.

Baddesley Clinton church, shut in by tall
trees a bow-shot from the Hall, is famous for
its eastern window of heraldic glass, which shows
the various noble families with whom the
Ferrers intermarried. By the union of Marmion
Ferrers' father with the Lady Harriet Anne,
daughter of the second Marquis Townshend, the
Chartley and Tamworth lines of the family were
united with that of Baddesley. The altar tomb
of Sir Edward Ferrers, Knight, the founder of
the family at Baddesley, his wife Dame Constance,
and son who predeceased him, has above shields
of the alliances with the Bromes, Hampdens, etc.
He was the son of Sir Henry Ferrers, Knight,
of Tamworth Castle, and grandson of William,
Lord Ferrers of Groby. Marmion was the
thirteenth in descent from this Sir Edward, not

NOOKS IN WARWICKSHIRE

many links between the fifteenth and end of the
nineteenth century. The day of the good old
squire's burial on August 25, 1884, fell upon the
three hundred and forty-ninth anniversary of the
death of the first Ferrers of Baddesley.

SOME NOOKS IN WOUCESTER-
SHIRE AND GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Not far from Powick Bridge, where after two
hours' hard fighting the Royalists were defeated
by General Fleetwood, stands a quaint old house
of timber and plaster, with nine gables facing
three sides of the compass, and a high three-gabled
oaken porch in front. It is called Priors Court,
or the White House of Pixham, and since ** the
battle of Powick Bridge " it has been occupied
by the same family, though the name by inter-
marriage has changed from time to time. A branch
of the Lanes of Bentley were the representatives
in the seventeenth century, and according to tra-
dition the famous Jane Lane lived here for a
time. Though the house belongs to the Tudor
period, many alterations were made early in the
eighteenth century, but the little interior quad-
rangle remains much in its original condition.
One expects to find within, the usual comfortable
chimney corners and cosy panelled rooms, and
perhaps some ancient furniture ; but it comes as

NOOKS IN WORCESTERSHIRE, ETC.

a surprise to find a museum of relics and heir-
looms taking us back to the days of the Tudors
and Stuarts.

From the hall, we pass up the great oak stair-
case to bedrooms and corridors containing- chests
and cabinets full of ancient deeds and manuscripts,
not the least remarkable of which is a parchment
roll upon which is painted a series of mysterious
astrological and other pictures, supposed once
upon a time to have been the property of the
necromancer Dr. John Dee, who lived for some
time in the neighbouring town of Upton-on-Severn.
If this is really a document of Dr. Dee's, one
would like to see it preserved with the famous
crystal in the British Museum. The old presses
and cupboards are full of the richly embroidered
bed-hangings and homespun sheets wrought by
the ladies of the house in the days when their
energies were devoted to domestic purposes, and
the idea of hockey or ladies' clubs would have
made their hair to stand erect. There are piles
of arras carefully packed away when wall-paper
came in fashion. There are chairs and tables
dating back three centuries or more, and mirrors
which have reflected fair faces patched, with head-
gear piled up mountain high.

In a corner stands a spinning-wheel, distaflf, and
reel complete, as if some dainty damsel at work
had fled at the approach of footsteps ; and there

NOOKS AND CORNERS

beyond is a dusty pillion which conjures up a
picture of Mistress Lane seated behind " Will
Jackson " upon their way to Bristol. The ancient
glass and china, too, would whet the appetite of
the most exacting connoisseur. But we must
not linger longer, or we shall envy these choice
possessions.

Pirton Court, not far away, has not been
plastered over like many houses with elaborate
wooden " magpie " work beneath, and the orna-
mental timber in circular design is unimpaired.
But the quaintest timber gables were those at
Severn End, the ancient seat of the Lechmeres,
some five miles to the south-west. Alas ! that
this ancient mansion should have been destroyed
by fire, — a loss as great as that of Clevedon or
Ingestre, greater, perhaps, as its architecture was
so quaint : a delightful mixture of the Tudor and
Stuart periods to which it was no easy matter to
fix a date, for the timber portions looked much
older than the seventeenth century, when they
were built by Sir Nicholas Lechmere, a nephew
of Sir Thomas Overbury, a worthy and learned
judge whose manuscripts give a very realistic
peep into the domestic life of the times and the
orderly way in which his establishment was
conducted. Both front and back of the house
were strikingly picturesque, but the front was
the most curious, half black and white angular

/. .sv

STANVVAY HOUSE

^>. go

STANWAY HOUSE

NOOKS IN WORCESTERSHIRE, ETC.

gables and half curved and rounded red-brick
Jacobean gables. On either side of the entrance
porch were two great chimney-stacks, and in the
corners where the wings abutted, small square
towers, one of which was sharpened to a point
like a lead pencil. At the back, facing smooth
lawns (where the judge used to sit and study),
attached to the main building was what looked
like a distinct structure, the sort of overhanging
half-timbered house with carved barge-boards,
pendants, and hip-knobs that are familiar objects
at Shrewsbury or Tewkesbury. The lower part
of this was of red-brick, and beside it on the
right was a smaller abutting half-timber gable.
The great oak staircases had fantastic newels and
balusters, and around the panelled hall was a fixed
oak settle, and armour on the walls : carved oak
cabinets and chairs, and tables. The room in
which Charles i. slept was pointed out, and that
of Major-General Massey, for Severn End was
that great soldier's headquarters before the battle
of Worcester.

A few miles to the south-west, within the
boundary of the once wild district, Malvern
Chase, is another remarkable old house, Birts-
morton Court, a moated and fortified manor-
house in a singularly good state of preservation.
Though quiet and peaceful enough, its embattled
gatevv^ay has a formidable look, showing the teeth
F 8i

NOOKS AND CORNERS

of its portcullis, like a bull-dog on the alert for
intruders. The drawbridge is also there, and
walls of immense thickness, both speaking of
the insecurity of the days when it was built.
The "parlour," with windows looking out upon
the moat, is richly panelled with the various
quarterings of the ancient lords, the Nanfans,
executed in colours around the cornice. The arms
and crest also occur upon the elaborately carved
oak fireplace. On the left-hand side of this fire-
place there was formerly the entrance to a hiding-
place concealed in the wainscoting, but there is
nothing now but a very visible cupboard which
leads nowhere. Tradition asserts that Henry v.'s
old associate, Sir John Oldcastle, sought refuge
here before he was captured and burned as a
Lollard. But as that happened in 14 17, the date
does not tally with the period to which the room
belongs, namely, a century later. But the original
apartments have been divided (some are dilapi-
dated chambers, now used as a storeroom for
Gloucester cheeses), so that it is difficult to trace
how they were placed. There is also a story of
a passage running beneath the moat into the
adjacent woods ; but whether Sir John got so
far, or whether after his escape from the Tower
he even g^ot farther than his own castle of Cowling
in Kent, when he was hunted down by orders of
his former boon companions, we cannot say. By

NOOKS IN WORCESTERSHIRE, ETC.

local report Edward iv. and Margaret of Anjou
as well as the little Lancastrian Prince of Wales
sought shelter at Birtsmorton. But for Margaret
another house nearer Tewkesbury claims the
honour of offering a refuge from the battlefield.
This is an old timber-framed building with carved
barge-boards, near the village of Bushley, called
Payne's Place, or Yew Tree Farm, which once
belonged to Thomas Payne and Ursula his wife,
whose brasses may be seen in the church. In the
eastern wing of this old house Queen Margaret's
bedroom is pointed out. The hall with open
timber roof is still intact but divided, and upon
the oak beams a century after the battle of
Tewkesbury the following lines were painted
on a frieze :

" To lyve as wee shoulde alwayes dye it were a goodly trade,
To change lowe Death for Lyfe so hye, no better change is made ;
For all our worldly thynges are vayne, in them is there no truste.
Wee see all states awhyle remayne, and then they turn to duste."

Had the lines existed then, would the poor
queen have derived comfort when the news
reached her of her son's death on the battle-
field ?

Birtsmorton is associated with the early career
of Cardinal Wolsey, for here he acted as chaplain
during the retirement of Sir Richard Nanfan from
service to the State. Through Sir Richard's Court

NOOKS AND CORNERS

influence Wolsey was promoted to the service of
Henry viii.

The " Bloody Meadow" near Birtsmorton must
not be confused with that near Tewkesbury, the
scene of the last battle between the Houses of
York and Lancaster. This one was the scene
of a single combat between a Nanfan and his
sister's lover, in which the latter was slain. The
heart-broken lady left a sum of money that a
sermon should be annually preached at Berrow
church (the burial-place of the Nanfans) against
duelling ; and this we believe is done to this day.
The cruciform church has been painfully restored,
but contains a fine altar-tomb to Sir John, Sir
Richard Nanfan's grandfather, Squire of the Body
to King Henry vi. ; but beyond a leper's window
and a queer old alms-box there is nothing else
remarkable.

Two of the prettiest villages hereabouts are
Ripple and Strensham, the former on the Severn,
the latter on the Avon. At Ripple, in a cosy
corner backed by creeper-grown timber cottages,
is the lofty stone shaft of the cross, and by the
steps at the base the stocks and whipping-post.
Strensham is famous as the birthplace of the
witty author of Hudibras. It is a peaceful
little place, with a few thatched cottages, a fine
old church near the winding river, embosomed in
trees. The church is remarkable for its fine

NOOKS IN WORCESTERSHIRE, ETC.

rood-loft with painted panels of saints, which at
some time has been made into a gallery at the
west end, and we hope may be replaced one of
these days.

Following the river Avon to Evesham and
Stratford-on-Avon, there are many charming old-
world villages rich in timber and thatched cottages.
Such a village is Offenham above Evesham.
The village street leads nowhere, and at the end
of it stands a tapering Maypole, as much as to say,
*' Go on with your modern improvement elsewhere
if you like, but here I intend to stay " ; and we
believe it is duly decorated and danced around in
the proper fashion, though the inhabitants by the
" new style " of the calendar can scarcely dispense
with overcoats. We will not follow the course of
the river so far as " drunken Bidford " (where the
immortal bard and some convivial friends are
said to have been overcome by the effects of the
strong ale at the " Falcon "), but turn our steps
southwards to Broadway, which of recent years
has had an invasion from America. But the oreat
broad street of substantial Tudor and Jacobean
houses deserves all the praise that has been lavished
upon it. We were there before it had particularly
attracted Jonathan's eye, and after a fortnight's
fare of bread and cheese and eggs and bacon (the
usual fare of a walking tour), we alighted upon a
princely pigeon pie at the " Lygon Arms." Under

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such circumstances one naturally grows enthusi-
astic ; but even if the fine old hostelry had offered
as cold a reception as that at Stilton, we could
not but help feeling kindly disposed towards so
stately a roadside inn. Like the " Bell " at Stilton,
it is stone - built, with mullioned windows and
pointed gables ; but here there is a fine carved
doorway, which gives it an air of grandeur.
There are roomy corridors within, leading by
stout oak doors to roomier apartments, some oak
panelled, and others with moulded ceilings and
carved stone fireplaces. One of these is known
as " Cromwell's room," and one ought to be called
** Charles' room " also, for during the Civil Wars
the martyr king slept there on more than one
occasion. The wide oak staircase with its deep
set window on the first landing, reminds one of the
staircase leading- out of the great hall of Haddon.
There is a little wicket gate to keep the dogs below.
Farther up the village street stands Tudor House,
which with its ball-surmounted o-able ends and
bay-window with heraldic shields above, bears a
cloak-and-rapier look about it ; but it was built,
according to the date upon it, when the old Cavalier
was poor and soured, and had sheathed his sword,
but nevertheless was counting the months when
the king should come to his own again. The house
was empty, and presumably had been shut up for
years. Referring to some notes, we find the

NOOKS IN WORCESTERSHIRE, ETC.

following memoranda by the friend who was with
us upon the occasion of our visit. '' We could
obtain no information as to the ownership, or still
more important, the holder of the keys. One old
man, who might have remembered it being built
but was slightly hazy on the subject, said no one
ever went inside. Other inquiries in the village
led only to intense astonishment at our desire.
And the whole concluded in a large contingent
of the inhabitants standing speechless, marvelling
before the house itself; in which position we left
them and it."

The old church of Edward iv.'s time is now, or
was, deserted in favour of an early-Victorian one
much out of keeping with the village, or rather
town that it once was.

Another decayed town, once of more importance
still, is Chipping Campden, four miles to the north-
east of Broadway, in a corner of Gloucestershire.
Here ao^ain we have the oreat wide street with a
profusion of grey stone gables on either side, and
projecting inn signs, and sundials in profusion.
At one extremity a noble elm tree and at the other
a huge chestnut, stand like sentinels over the
ancient buildings that they may not share the fate
of the neighbouring manor-house, which was
burned down by its loyal owner, the third Viscount
Campden, during the Civil War, to save it from the
ignoble fate of being seized and garrisoned for

NOOKS AND CORNERS

the Parliamentarians. From the imposing entrance
gate and two remaining curious paviHons at either
end of a long terrace, one may judge it must have
been a fine early- Jacobean mansion. Strange
that Campden House, their ancient tov/n residence,
should have perished in the flames also, but over
two centuries afterwards. Near the entrance gate
are the almshouses, a very picturesque line of
pointed gables and lofty chimneys. Above them
rises the graceful early- Perpendicular church tower,
which in design and proportions is worthy of a
cathedral. But the quaint Jacobean pillared
market-house, the Court-house with its handsome
panelled buttresses, and a house of the time of
Richard iii. with two-storied bay-window, and an
ancient hall, are among the most interesting
buildings in the town. One of the many sign-
boards displays a poetic effusion by a Campden
chimney-sweep, a modernised version of the
original which ran as follows :

"John Hunter Campden doe live here,
Sweeps chimbleys clean and not too deare.
And if your chimbley be a-fire.
He'll put it out if you desire."

The " Red Lion " is a typical hostelry of the
Stuart days, and a contemporary house opposite,
bearing the date 1656, is well worth notice: the
"Green Dragon" also, dated 1690.

NOOKS IN WORCESTERSHIRE, ETC.

The interior of the church is disappointing ; its
new benches, windows, roof, and chancel giving
it a modern look ; but there are some fine old
monuments to the ancient lords of the manor,
especially that of the first Viscount Campden and
his countess, and there are some fine fifteenth-
century brasses in the chancel.

Norton House, to the north of the town, near
Dover Hill (famous for the Cotswold games in " the
good old days "), is a picturesque, many-gabled
house ; and at Mickleton, to the north-east, there
are some curious old buildings. Farther north
are the remains of Long Marston manor-house,
still containing the roasting-jack which Charles ii.
as pseudo scullery-man omitted to wind up, and
brought the wrath of the cook upon his head,
much as King Arthur did when he burnt the
cakes. But our way lies southwards through
Broadway to Buckland, Stanton, and a place that
should be sylvan according to its name — Stanway-
in - the - Woods. Buckland church and rectory
are both of interest. The former has a fine
Perpendicular tower with some grotesque gargoyle
demons at the corners. The benches are good,
and a window dated 1585 retains some ancient
painted glass, as the roof does its old colouring, in
which the Yorkist rose is conspicuous. The hall
of the rectory has a fine open-timber roof with
central arch richly carved, and upon a window is

NOOKS AND CORNERS

depicted a rebus representing one William Grafton,
rector of Buckland from 1450 to 1506. The
manor-house also once possessed a hall with lofty
timber-framed roof and huge fireplace of the
fourteenth century ; but, sad to relate, it was
destroyed when the house was modernised some
years ago, but there still remains a pretty old
staircase of a later date.

Farther south the country becomes more
wooded and hilly. The high ground rises on
the left above Stanton, and at the foot of the hill
near the village nestle the pretty old church and
gabled manor-house, with its complement of old
farm buildings adjacent. The village street, like
Broadway, consists of rows of grey stone gables,
at the end of which stands the sundial-surmounted
cross. The interior of the church has not been
spoiled ; the carved oak canopied pulpit towering
above the ancient pews is quite in keeping with
the old-world village. The Stan ways are about
two miles to the south, but there are so few
houses that one wonders where the children come
from to attend the village school. Wood Stanway
is not disappointing like many places possessing
picturesque names that we could quote, for it is
enveloped in trees, and so is Church Stanway for
that matter.

Turning a corner of the road one comes
suddenly upon a wonderful old gateway with

NOOKS IN WORCESTERSHIRE, ETC.

fantastic gables and a noble Jacobean doorway.
On one side of it is a high garden wall with great
circular holes in it, and over the wall peep the
gables and ornamental perforated parapet of a
fine mansion of Charles i.'s time. This is always
a most fascinating picture ; but to see it at its best
is when the roses are in bloom, for above the old
wall and through the rounded apertures, the
queen of flowers flourishes in gay festoons as if
rejoicing at its surroundings. But if one is so
fortunate as to obtain admission to the gardens
then may he or she rejoice also, for upon the
other side of that grey old wall are the prettiest
of gardens and the grandest trees, one of which,
an ancient yew, is no less than twenty-two feet in
girth. There are terraces, stone summer-houses,
and nooks and corners such as one only sees in
the grounds of our ancestral homes. . Within, the
mansion has been much restored and somewhat
modernised, but the great hall and other rooms
take one back to the time of Inigo Jones, who
designed the entrance gateway. In the church-
yard close by is buried the most popular local man
of his time, Robert Dover. If he lived in our
day he surely would be the president of the
"Anti-Puritanical League," for he it was who
made a successful crusade against the spirit of
religious austerity, the tendency of which was to
put down holidays of sport and merrymaking. As

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a result of his efforts, the hills above Chipping
Camden were annually at Whitsuntide the scene
of a revival of the medieval days of festivity
and manly exercise. Upon these occasions the
originator acted as master of the ceremonies,
and was duly respected, for he always wore a
suit of King James' own clothes. Dover died
at the beginning of the Civil War, so, fortunately
for him, he did not live through the rigid rule of
Cromwell. The Cotswold games, however, were
revived at the Restoration. To this public bene-
factor (the shadow of whose cloak has surely
fallen on the shoulders of Lord Avebury) Drayton
wrote in eulogy :

"We'll have thy statue in some rock cut out
With brave inscriptions garnished about,
And under written, ' Lo ! this is the man
Dover, that first these noble sports began.'
Lads of the hills and lasses of the vale
In many a song and many a merry tale
Shall mention thee ; and having leave to play,
Unto thy name shall make a holiday."

Yet nobody did set up his statue, as should
have been done on "Dover Hill" by Chipping
Camden.

Some odd cures for certain ailments are pre-
scribed in remote parts of the Cotswolds. Garden
snails, for instance, which in Wiltshire are sold
for ordinary consumption, namely, food, as " wall

NOOKS IN WORCESTERSHIRE, ETC.

fruit," are used here externally as a remedy for
ague : and roasted mouse is a specific for the
whooping-cough. But for the latter complaint
as efficacious a result may be obtained by the
pleasanter mode of riding on a donkey's back
nine times round a finger-post. This remedy,
however, properly belongs to Worcestershire.

If we continue in a south-westerly direction we
shall pass historic Sudeley, near Winchcombe,
Postlip Hall, and Southam House. Sudeley
Castle must have been magnificent before it was
dismantled in the Civil War. Bravely it stood
two sieges, but at length capitulated ; and being-
left a ruin by Cromwell's soldiers, the magnificent
fifteenth-century mansion was left for close upon
two centuries to act as a quarry for the neighbour-
hood. Under such disadvantages was its restora-
tion commenced, and it is wonderful what has
been done ; yet there has been a certain ad-
mixture of Edwardian and Elizabethan portions
which is somewhat confusing. The banqueting-
room, with its noble oriel windows (originally
glazed with beryl), the keep with its dungeons,
and the kitchen with its huge fireplace four
yards across, speak of days of lordly greatness,
and the names of many weighty nobles as well
as kings and queens are closely associated with
the castle. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was
once possessed of it ; the youngest son of Owen

NOOKS AND CORNERS

Tudor and Henry v.'s widow lived there ; so did
Sir Thomas Seymour, Edward vi.'s uncle, who
married and buried there Henry viii.'s last queen,
at which ceremony Lady Jane Grey was chief
mourner. Elizabeth was here upon one of her
progresses, and Charles i. was the last sovereign
who slept there. The restored rooms are full of
historical furniture, pictures, and relics. Here
may be seen Amy Robsart's bed, or one of them,
from Cumnor Hall : and the bed upon which
the martyr king slept, not here but at Kineton,
before Edgehill. There are numerous relics of
the queen, who had the tact to outlive her august
spouse, and the foolishness to marry a fourth
husband. Catherine Parr's various books and
literary compositions may here be studied, in-
cluding the letter in which she accepted Seymour's
offer of marriage. He was by no means the best
of husbands, but a vast improvement on the royal
tyrant who had coldly planned the queen's
destruction ; but owing to her ready wit his
wrath was turned upon Wriothesley, who was to
have arrested her ; for when he came to perform
that office, Henry called him an "an errant knave
and a beast." There are lockets containingf
locks of her auburn hair, and portions of the
dress she wore. But the main interest is centred
in the chapel where the queen was buried. This
building was dismantled with the rest in 1649,

NOOKS IN WORCESTERSHIRE, ETC.

and the fine Chandos monuments destroyed.
Catherine's tomb, which was within the altar rails,
probably shared the fate of the rest, and its
position was soon forgotten. However, after
the lapse of nearly a century and a half, a plain
slab of alabaster in the north wall, doubtless part
of the original monument, led to the discovery of
a leaden case in the shape of a human form lying
immediately below, only a foot or so beneath the
surface of the ground. Upon the breast was the
following inscription :

K. P.

Here lyethe Quene

Kateryn wife to Kyng

Henry the vni., and

Last the wife of Thomas

Lord of Sudeley, highe

Admiyrall of England

And vncle to Kyng

Edward the vi.

dyed

5 September

MCCCCC
XLVIII.

The cerecloth, hard with wax and gums, was
removed from a portion of the arm, which was
discovered after close upon three centuries to be
still white and soft. According to another account,
when the covering of the face was removed, not
only the features, but the eyes were in perfect
preservation. The body was reinterred, but

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treated with no decent respect, for the spot was
occupied as an enclosure for rabbits ; and upon one
occasion it was dug up by some drunken men,
who by local tradition, as a reward for their
desecration, all came to an untimely end. The
alabaster block may still be seen in the north wall
of the chapel, but the body now lies beneath a
recumbent figure in white marble which has been
placed to the queen's memory.

Postlip Hall stands high in a picturesque spot
not far from the main road to Cheltenham. It
is a many-gabled Elizabethan house, preserving
its original character, but spoiled by the insertion
of plate-glass windows. Within there is one
particularly fine room of elaborate oak carvings
(and the arms of the Broadways who built the
house) of suf^cient importance to form the subject
of one of the plates in Nash's Mansions. The
house has or had the reputation of being haunted ;
but that was long ago in the days when it stood
neglected and uninhabited.

Southam House, or Southam-de-la-Bere, to the
south-west (also depicted in Nash), is a curious
early-Tudor building of timber and stone, and
has the advantage over Sudeley, as it was not
of sufficient military importance to be roughly
handled by the Parliamentarian soldiers. The
ancient painted glass in the windows and an
elaborate chimney-piece bearing shields of arms

t-93

POSTLIl' HALL

STOCKS, PATNSWICK

XAILSWORTH

/• 90

beverstonp: castle

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came from Hayles Abbey. The ceilings are oak
panelled, and the arms of Henry vii, occur in
numerous places. The situation of the house is
fine, and the view over the vast stretch of country
towards Worcestershire and Herefordshire mag-
nificent. The builder of the mansion was Sir
John Huddleston, whose wife was the queen
Jane Seymour's aunt. The de-la-Beres, to
whom the estate passed by marriage, were
closely allied with the Plantagenet kings,
two sisters marrying Thomas Plantagenet,
Edward iii.'s son, and Henry Plantagenet, Duke
of Lancaster.

Avoiding Cheltenham, we will pick up the road
to Stroud at Birdlip, a favourite meeting-place of
the hounds on account of the surrounding- woods.
Coming from the south there is a gradual climb
through those delightful woods until you burst
upon a gorgeous view, with the ancient " Ermine
Street " running, like a white wand lying upon the
level pattern work of meadowland, to Gloucester,
and the hills of Malvern away in the distance.
Whether it was the great dark mass of hill in
the foreground contrasted against the level stretch
of country, or whether it was the stormy sky when
we visited Birdlip on a late autumnal day, that
gave the scene such a wild, romantic look, it
would be difficult to say, but we remember no view
with such breadth of contrast of light and shade,
G 97

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or one so fitted to lead the imagination into the
mystic realms of fairyland.

Up in these heights, and in so secluded a spot,
it came as a surprise to find a museum. This
we believe long since has been dispersed by the
hammer, but we remember some really interesting
things. The lady curator, the proprietress of
the " Black Horse," had been given many of the
exhibits by the neighbouring gentry, and was not a
little proud of her collection. Valuable coins, flint
weapons, fossils, pictures, and the usual medley.
There was one little oil painting on a panel,
the head of a beautiful girl with high powdered
hair of the Georgian period, which had all the
vigour of a Romney, and undoubtedly was by a
master craftsman. Two curiosities we remember
in particular : a pair of leggings said to have
been worn by the great Duke of Marlborough,
and the wooden finder - stocks from a villag-e
dame-school. It would be interesting to know
where these curiosities are now. The only other
finger-stocks we know of are in Ashby-de-la-
Zouch church, Leicestershire.

Painswick, to the south-west, is a sleepy old
town with a fine Perpendicular church much restored
internally, but containing some handsome monu-
ments. The churchyard is noted for its formal
array of clipped yew trees, probably unique.
They have the same peculiarity as Stonehenge,

NOOKS IN WORCESTERSHIRE, ETC.

for it is said nobody can count them twice the
same. As, however, we did not visit the adjacent
inn, we managed to accomplish the task. Close
to the church wall are the stocks — iron ones.

Upon the way to Stroud many weird old build-
ings are passed which once were, and some are still,
cloth mills ; but some are deserted and dilapidated,
and have a sad look, as if remembering more pros-
perous days; and when the leaves are fast falling in
the famous golden valley they look indeed forlorn.
One would think there can be little poetry about
an old cloth mill, but ere one gives an opinion
one must visit the golden valley in the autumn.
Around Nailsworth, Rodborough, and Wood-
chester there are many ancient houses which have
degenerated into poor tenements. Such a one at
Nailsworth has the brief address " No. 5 Egypt,"
which by all appearance was an important house
in its day. A gentleman who resided in a more
squalid part related how he had discovered a
cavalier's rapier up in the roof of a mansion, but in
a weak moment had parted with it for half a
crown. " Southfield " at Woodchester is perhaps
the most picturesque of these stately houses, a
house which near London would fetch a formidable
rent, but here a ridiculously low one. Some six
miles out of Stroud a really decent house, garden,
and orchard may be had for next to a song. A
light railway may have now sent prices up, by

NOOKS AND CORNERS

striking northwards, but not many years back we
saw one very excellent little place "to let," the
rent of which was only sixpence a week, and the
tenant had given notice because the landlord
had been so grasping as to raise it to sixpence
halfpenny !

Between Nailsworth and Tetbury are Bever-
stone Castle and the secluded manor-house
Chavenage within a mile of it. The castle stands
near the road, an ivy-covered ruin of the time oi
Edward iii., but with portions dating from the
Conquest. Incorporated are some Tudor remains
and some old farm buildings, forming together
a pleasing picture.

To Major-General Massey, Beverstone, like
Sudeley, is indebted for its battered appearance.
It held out for the king, but Massey with three
hundred and eighty men came and took it by
storm. The general having done as much
damage as possible in Gloucestershire during
the Civil War, at length made some repairs by
fighting on the other side at Worcester ; and
perhaps it was as well, for had he been on the
victorious side he might have treated " the faithful
city " with as little respect as Beverstone. In the
peaceful days of the Restoration, which Massey
lived to see, as there were no more castles to
blow up he dabbled in the pyrotechnic art,
suggestive of the pathetic passage in Patience —

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NOOKS IN WORCESTERSHIRE, ETC.

Yearning for whirlwinds, and having to do the
best you can with the bellows.

The regicide squire of Chavenage must also
have been skilled in the noble art, for by common
report at his death a few months after that of
the martyr king, he vanished in flames of fire !
But there was a ceremonious preliminary before
this simple and effective mode of cremation. A
sable coach driven by a headless coachman with a
star upon his breast arrived at the dead man's
door, and the shrouded form of the regicide was
seen to glide into it. But bad as Nathaniel
Stephens may have been, it is scarcely just
that all future lords of Chavenage must make
their exit in this manner.

The old house is unpretentious in appearance.
Built in the form of the letter E, it has tall
latticed windows lighting a great hall (famous
once for its collection of armour), and a plain wing
on either side, with narrow Elizabethan Gothic-
headed windows. There is a ghostly look about
it. It stands back from the road, but sufficiently
near that one may see the entrance porch (bearing
the date 1579) and the ruts of the carriage wheels
upon the trim carriage drive. Arguments as
strong as any in Ingoldsby to prove the mystic
story must be true.

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NOOKS IN NORTHERN
WILTSHIRE

After a sojourn in north-west Wilts it is
refreshing to dip into the wooded lanes of the
Home Counties and see again the red -brick
cottages and homesteads which have such a
snug and homely look after the cold grey stone
and glaring chalk roads. For old-world villages
and manor-houses, however, one could not choose
a better exploring ground, but not, please note, for
the craze of picking up bits of old oak, judging
by what we overheard the very first day we
stopped in one of the most out-of-the-way places
of all.

"Anything old inside?" asked somebody at
the doorway, having led gently and gracefully up
to it so as not to arouse suspicion. " Nothing,"
was the reply. ** May I look round inside .-* " was
asked. "No." Then after a pause. "Any
other of the cottagers got any old chairs, or
china?" "One or two of them had some, but
they sold what they had to Mrs. of .

I02

NOOKS IN NORTHERN WILTSHIRE

" 6}/" course," was the disgusted reply; "she's
always first, and gets everything ! "

The conversation gives but an idea of the
systematic way that a crusade for the antique
is carried on. If the hunter makes a "find,"
and the owner will not part, that unfortunate
cottager is persecuted until he or she does part,
sooner or later to regret the folly. And, alas !
churches are not even sacred from these sharks.
How often have we not seen some curious piece
of furniture mentioned as being in the church,
and, lo ! it has vanished — where .-* And do not
the empty brackets over many an ancient tomb
tell a tale? What have become of the helmets
of the ancient lords of the manors ? We can
quote an instance offhand. In the fine old
church of Bromham, three of the helmets of the
manorial lords, the Bayntons, are still there,
two of them perhaps only funereal helmets, and
not the actual casques of warfare ; but there are
three if not four vacant brackets which perchance
once supported the envied headpieces with pointed
visor of the fifteenth century. Aloft also are some
rusty gauntlets, and one of the helmets still bears
the crest of the eagle's head. The manor de-
scended from the Beauchamps to the Bayntons, the
last of whom was the nineteenth in descent from
Sir Henry Baynton, Knight Marshal of the house-
hold to Henry the Second. His mother was the

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eldest daughter and co-heiress of John Wilmot,
Earl of Rochester, and Miss Malet the runaway-
heiress. A recumbent effigy of Sir Roger
Touchet in alabaster (resembling in a remarkable
degree the late Sir Henry Irving as Richard iii.)
is covered with the carved initials of vandal
visitors, not, we may add, only of our own and
fathers' and grandfathers' time, but dating back
from the reign of Elizabeth ; so it is comforting
to see that our ancestors were as prone to disfigure
monuments in this way as is the modern 'Arry.
One of the initials, I. W., perhaps may be that of
the witty and wicked Earl of Rochester, who
by repute made Spye an occasional residence,
although the Bayntons certainly held the estate
some years after the Lady Anne, his daughter's
death in 1703. The ceiling of the Baynton
chapel is richly carved, and the bosses and
brackets show their original faded colouring of
blue and eold. There are also coloured niches
for saints ; and on a canopied tomb of Elizabeth
Touchet, a brass of a kneeling figure, and a
tablet of the coat of arms is enamelled in colours.
There also is a fine brass of John Baynton in
Gothic armour.

All that remains of the old Jacobean house of
Spye is a subterranean passage beneath the
terrace ; but the Tudor entrance gate to the
picturesque park stands on the left-hand side

104

GATi:-HOUSE, SPYE I'ARK

/• '04

/. /,-,-

liEWLKV COURT

/• 'OQ

NOOKS IN NORTHERN WILTSHIRE

of the road to Lacock just before the road begins
its winding precipitous descent. Evelyn saw the
house soon after it was built, and likened it to
a long barn. The view is superb, but, strangely
enough, not a single window looked out upon the
prospect ! After dining and a game of bowls with
Sir Edward Baynton, the Diarist took coach ; but,
says Evelyn, *' in the meantime our coachmen were
made so exceeding drunk, that in returning home
we escaped great dangers. This, it seems, was
by order of the knight, that all gentlemen's servants
be so treated ; but the custom is barbarous and
much unbecoming a knight, still less a Christian."

A mile or so to the east of the entrance
gate of Spye is Sandy Lane, a tiny hamlet with
trim thatched cottages and a sturdy seventeenth-
century hostelry, the "George," looking down
the street ; and farther along in the direction of
Devizes stands the " Bell," another ancient road-
side inn, which, judging from its mullioned
windows, knobbed gables, and rustic porch, must
date back to the days of the first Charles.

In Bromham village also there are some pretty
half-timber buildings, not forgetting the " lock-up "
by the churchyard. The exterior of the church
is richly sculptured ; a fine example of the purest
Gothic.

Sleepy old Lacock, with its numerous over-
hanging gables, is a typical unspoiled village. It

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was once upon a time a town, but by all appear-
ances it never can have been a flourishing one ;
and let us hope it will remain in its dormant state
now that there is nothing out of harmony, for the
Lacock of to-day must look very much as it did
two hundred years or more ago. It consists
mainly of two wide streets, with a fine old church
at the end of one and a lofty seventeenth-century
inn at the other. Opposite the latter is a
monastic barn with blocked-up arched doorway,
and facing it a fine row of timbered houses.
Wherever you go the pervading tone is grey,
and one misses the little front gardens with bright
fiowers and creepers. By the school stands the
village cross. Farther along a great wide porch
projects into the street, and over it a charming
traceried wooden window. Nearer the church the
road narrows, and a group of timber cottages
make a pleasing picture, one of them with a wide
entrance of carved oak spandrels above an earlier
stone doorway. The church, a noble edifice,
has a very graceful spire and some good tombs,
including two wooden mural monuments to
Edw^ard Baynard who lived in Elizabeth's reign,
and to Lady Ursula Baynard in the reign of
Charles i.

The monument of Sir John Talbot of Lacock
describes him as born of the most noble family
of the Duke of Shrewsbury, which is somewhat

1 06

NOOKS IN NORTHERN WILTSHIRE

confusing. Sir John was descended from John,
second Earl of Shrewsbury, who died in 1460,
and his monument was erected when the twelfth
earl and first duke was living. Sir John died
in 1 7 13, and his son and heir predeceased him,
as mentioned on the monument.

But the principal object of interest at Lacock,
of course, is its famous abbey, the early fifteenth-
century cloisters being, it is said, the most perfect
example in England. It has been a residence
since the Dissolution, when the estate was granted
by Henry viii. to Sir William Sherrington, the
daughter of whose brother Sir Henry married a
Talbot of Salwarpe, the ancestor of the present
owner, C. H. Talbot, Esq., a learned antiquary, by
whose care and skill so many points of interest
have been brought to light. The cloisters,
refectory, chapter-house, sacristy, etc., are in an
excellent state of preservation, and there are some
fine hooded fireplaces, and among the curiosities,
a great stone tank in which fish were kept ; and
the nuns' cauldron, something after the style of
Guy of Warwick's porridge-pot. The groined
roof of the cloister is remarkable, the bosses
showing their original colouring, nearly two
hundred or more all being of different design.
The sides facing the road are flanked by an
octagonal tower of singular beauty, ornamented
with balustrades, and a staircase turret crowned

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NOOKS AND CORNERS

with a cupola. This contains the muniment-room,
in which is preserved Henry iii.'s Magna Charta,
which belonged to the foundress, Ela, Countess
of Shrewsbury, the widow of William Longespee,
the son of Henry ii. and Fair Rosamond.
Duofdale tells us that the site " Snaile's Mede"
was pointed out to this good lady in a vision.
An epitaph to the abbess Ela may still be seen
within the cloisters. 1

Sir John Talbot of Lacock was a staunch
Royalist, and the first person who received the
Merry Monarch in his arms at Dover upon his
landing in 1660. Both Sir John and his son
Sharington Talbot figure as duellists in the diaries
of Pepys and Evelyn. The former was one of the
six combatants in that famous encounter at Barn
Elms, where Buckingham mortally wounded
Francis Talbot, the eleventh Earl of Shrews-
bury. Sir John proved a better swordsman
than his antagonist Captain William Jenkins,
for the latter was left dead upon the field.
The Royal pardon from Charles 11. is still pre-
served in Lacock Abbey. The duel between
the younger Talbot and Captain Love at Glaston-
bury, in July 1685, is mentioned by Evelyn.
Both commanded a company of militia against
Monmouth at Sedgemoor, and after the battle
an argument arose as to which fouo-ht the best.
The discussion grew heated, swords were drawn,

108

NOOKS IN NORTHERN WILTSHIRE

and Talbot was killed. He was the eldest and
only surviving son of the knight, and had he
left issue, upon the death of the eleventh Earl of
Shrewsbury's son, the first and only duke, the
Lacock Talbots would by priority have become
Earls of Shrewsbury.

Beyond the village, just before the road winds
upwards towards Spye Park, is Bewley Court, an
interesting old farm, with trefoil windows and
Gothic entrance door of fine proportions. Its hall
is intact, having its wide open fireplace and open
timber roof with carved beams. A reed-grown
canal, with one of those queer hand drawbridges,
serves as the moat of yore. Bewley by some is
corrupted into "Brewery," for close by there is
such an establishment, and the ancient name has
become submerged. There are said to have
been four Courts originally belonging to Lacock
Abbey, but this is the only remaining one.

Each approach to Lacock is picturesque, but
the most pleasing is from the lane which runs
up to Gastard and Corsham. This joins the
Melksham road by a charming old gabled
and timbered cottage, not architecturally re-
markable, but pleasing in outline and colour.
From the lane above, this roadside cottage stands
out against a background of wooded hill, and
when the sun is low it presents a picture which
must have tempted many an artist. On the way

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NOOKS AND CORNERS

to Gastard and thence to Neston there are many
tumble-down old places which seem to be entirely
out of touch with the twentieth century. But at
the highest point there is a startling notice which
might alarm a motorist should he lose his way
up in these narrow lanes. '* Beware of the trams "
is posted up in big letters ! You look around in
astonishment, for silence reigns supreme ; but by
and bye you come upon a stone quarry near the
dilapidated entrance to what was once probably a
manor house, and a light falls upon the meaning
of the "trams." An artistic projecting signboard
not far off bears the inscription :

"Arise, get up the Season now
Drive up Brave Boys
God speed the Plough."

Up a narrow lane is a tiny chapel with a stone
mullioned window cut down into a semicircle at
the top. A little stone sundial over the entrance
door, and the smallest burial-ground we have
ever seen, are worth notice for their quaintness.
Farther to the west is Wormwood Farm, whose
ivy-clad gables give the house a more homely look
than most hereabouts. Higher up in a very bleak
position is Chapel Plaster Hermitage, an older
building, whose little belfry surely cannot summon
many worshippers. It was a halting - place of
pilgrims to Glastonbury, and in Georgian days of

I lO

NOOKS IN NORTHERN WILTSHIRE

lonely travellers, who were eased of their purses
bv a oentleman of the road named Baxter, who
afterwards was hung up as a warning on Claverton
Down. Near the wood, the resort of this high-
wayman, is Hazelbury House, a sixteenth-century
mansion, much reduced in size, whose formidable
battlemented garden walls are worthy of a fortress.
It was once a seat of the Strodes, whose arms are
displayed on the lofty piers of the entrance gate.
On the other side of the Great Bath road is Cheney
Court, another gabled mansion which has been
of importance in its day, and within half a mile,
Coles Farm, a smaller building, alas ! fast falling to
decay. Its windows are broken and its panelled
rooms are open to the weather. We ploughed
our way through garden, or what was once a
garden, waist-high with weeds, to a Tudor door-
way whose door presumably was more accustomed
to be opened than closed. At the foot of the
staircase was a little wicket gate leading to the
capacious cellars. Somebody had scrawled above
an ancient fireplace close by, a plea against wanton
mischief ; but that was the only sign that anybody
was interested in the place. But we learned some-
thing from an intelligent farmer who was picking
apples in one of the surrounding orchards. It
was very sad, he said, but so it had remained for
years. The owner was abroad, and though various
people had tried to buy it, there were legal diffi-

III

NOOKS AND CORNERS

culties which prevented it. " But why not find a
tenant ? " we asked. " That would surely be
better than allowing it to fall to pieces ! " He
shook his head. ** 'Tis too far gone," he said,
"and there's no money to put it in repair." So
Coles Farm, situated in the midst of lovely hills
and orchards, gives the cold shoulder to many a
willing tenant.

It is a precipitous climb from here to Colerne,
which across the valley looks old and inviting from
the Bath road. But the place is sadly disap-
pointing, and Hunters' Hall, which once upon
a time was used as an inn and possessed some
remarkably fine oak carvings, is now a shell, and
scarcely worth notice.

The village of Corsham, approached either from
the north or south, is equally picturesque. By the
former there is a long row of sturdy Tudor cottages
with mullioned windows and deep-set doorways ;
by the latter, the grey gables of the ancient
Hungerford Hospital, and beyond the huge piers
of the entrance to Corsham Court. An inscription
over the almshouse porch and beneath the elaborate
sculptured arms of the Hungerfords, says that it
was founded by Lady Margaret Hungerford,
daughter of William Halliday, alderman of
London, and Susan, daughter of Sir Henry Row,
Knight, Lord Mayor of London. The chapel is
on the right-hand side, and contains the original

112

/• foS

j,ac(k:ic ahhev

/. /r:

CORSHAM ALMSHOUSE

CORSHA^r ALMSHOUSE

/. //»

NOOKS IN NORTHERN WILTSHIRE

Jacobean pulpit, seats, and gallery. The pulpit is
a two-decker, and the seat beneath a comfortable
armchair of large proportions with an ingenious
folding footstool. The screen is a fine piece of
Jacobean carving, with pilasters and semicircular
arches of graceful design, with the Hungerford
arms upon two shields. There is a good oak stair-
case and a quaint exterior corridor leading to the
several dwellings, with trim little square gardens
allotted to each. Corsham Court has a stately and
dignified appearance. The second entrance gate
has colossal piers, which quite dwarf the others
previously mentioned. Beyond are the stables,
a picturesque row of Elizabethan gables and
pinnacles. The south front of the house pre-
serves its original character in the form of the
letter E with the arms and the crest of the builder,
William Halliday, on pinnacles over the gables, and
seven bay-windows. The interior of the mansion
has been much modernised, but the picture col-
lection contains some of the choicest old masters.
Some of Lord Methuen's ancestors by Reynolds
and Gainsborough are wonderfully vigorous.
Here is Vandyck's Charles i. on horseback, with
which one is so familiar. How many replicas must
there be of this famous picture ! Charles ii. hangs
opposite his favourite son in one of the corridors —
a fine portrait of the handsome Monmouth. One
of the most curious pictures is a group by Sir

H 11^

NOOKS AND CORNERS

Peter Lely, representing himself in mediaeval
costume playing the violoncello to his own family
in light and airy dress. One would have thought
that he would have clad his wife and daughters
more fully than some of his famous beauties : on
the contrary. The church, whose tower is detached,
has been restored from time to time, and looks by
no means lacking in funds. The carved parclose
of stone and two altar-tombs to the Hanhams are
the chief points of interest. There is a simple
recumbent effigy of one of the Methuens, a little
girl, which in its natural sleeping pose is strangely
pathetic, even to those who know nothing of the
story of her early death.

Biddestone, above Corsham, has many good old
houses round its village green. The little bell
turret to the church is singular, but the eye is
detracted by an ugly stove-pipe which sticks out
of the roof close by. There is some Roman work
within, but the high box pews look out of keeping.
About three miles to the north-west is Castle
Combe, one of the sweetest villages in Wiltshire
or in any other county. It is surrounded by hills
and hanging woods, and lies deep down and
hidden from view. As you descend, the banks on
either side show glimpses, here and there ; a grey
gable peeping out of the dense foliage or grey
cottages perched up high. Still downward, the
road winds in the shade of lofty trees, then

NOOKS IN NORTHERN WILTSHIRE

suddenly you find yourself looking down upon
the quaint old market-cross, with the grey church
tower peering over some ancient roofs. This
presumably is the market-place, — not a busy one
by any means, for beyond an aged inhabitant
resting on the solid stone base, or perhaps a
child or two climbing up and down the steps
(for it is a splendid playground) — all is still. The
village pump alongside the cross, truly, supplies
occasional buckets of water for the various srabled
stone cottages around, indeed (as is invariably the
case when one's camera is in position) people
seemed to spring up from nowhere, and the pump
handle was exceptionally busy. The cross is
richly sculptured with shields and roses at the base,
and the shaft rises high above the picturesque old
roof, which is supported by four moulded stone
supports. Undoubtedly it is one of the most
perfect fifteenth - century crosses in England.
The road still winds downwards to a rushing
stream crossed by a little bridge, and here there
is a group of pretty cottages with prettier gardens
abutting on the road. We have seen these under
very different aspects, in March with snow upon
the creepers, and in October when the creepers
were brilliant scarlet, and scarcely know which
made the prettier picture. The sound of rushing
water adds romance to this sweet villaoe.

The ancient family of Scrope has been seated
115

NOOKS AND CORNEllS

here for over five centuries and a half. The
"Castle Inn" by the market-cross remains primi-
tive in its arrangements, although the "tripping"
season makes great demands upon its supplies.
Though ordinarily quiet enough, occasionally there
is a swarm, and a sudden demand of a hundred or
so "teas" is enough to try the resources of any
hostess. But it was too much for the poor lady
here ; her health was bad, and she would have to
flee before another season came round. Strange
to say, it is the slackness of business that usually
sends folks away. The graceful fifteenth-century
pinnacled and embattled tower of the church gives
the ancient building a grand appearance. The
church is rich in stained glass, containing the arms
of the various lords of the manor.

Yatton Keynell, a couple of miles eastwards,
possesses a fine Jacobean manor-house, with a
curious porch and very uncommon mullioned
window. The winCT to the ri^ht was demolished
not many years ago, so that now a front of three
gables is all that remains ; and though it looks
fairly capacious, there are but few rooms, the
space being taken up with staircase (a fme one)
and attics. The exterior of the church is good,
but the interior is "as new as ninepence," saving
a fine fifteenth-century stone rood-screen. The
spiral staircase up to the summit has been cut
through, which is a pity, as otherwise the organ

ii6

CORSHA>r ALMSHOUSE

/. J,.

CASTLK COM UK

YATTOX KKVXICl.L MANOR

Kll.I.ICir MANOR-HOUSE

NOOKS IN NORTHERN WILTSHIRE

would have been less conspicuous. The steps
of the village cross now serve as a basement for
the village inn.

The churches of Stanton St. Quinton and
Kingston St. Michael have suffered internally
as much as that of Yatton Keynell, and, alas !
the fourteenth - century manor - house of the
St. Ouintons is now no more. An aged person
working in the churchyard, though very proud
that he had helped to pull it down, insisted on
pointing out the "ould dov-cart." This maybe
pure " Wilshire," but until we saw the dove-
cot we did not grasp the meaning. Nearer
Chippenham is Bullich House, which fortunately
has been left in peace. Beside the entrance
gate two queer little "gazebos" were covered
with Virginia creeper in its bright autumn
tints. The remains of the clear moat washed
the garden wall, over which peeped the gables
of the house with the waning red sunlight
reflected in the casements — this was a picture
to linger in one's memory ; and there is no telling
how far one's fancy might not have been led by
speculating upon the meaning of two grim heads
which form pinnacles above the porch, had the
stillness not been broken by the harsh sounds
of the gramophone issuing from a neighbouring
cottage ! If Bullich possesses a ghost, as it ought
to, judging by appearances, surely an up-to-date

117

NOOKS AND CORNERS

music-hall ditty should " lay " him in the moat
in desperation.

About a mile away on the western side of the
main road from Chippenham to Yatton Keynell
is Sheldon Manor, a charming old residence with
a great Gothic porch like a church, and a Gothic
window over it belonging to what is called the
" Priest's chamber." Upon the gable end, over
it, is one of those queer little box sundials one
occasionally sees in Wiltshire. As you enter the
porch the massive staircase faces you, with its
picturesque newels and pendants, and the little
carved oak gate, which was there to keep the dogs
downstairs. In the wall to the right, just beyond
the entrance door, is a curious stone trough of fair
capacity. It is screened by a door, and exteriorly
looks like a cupboard ; but what was the use of
this trough we are at a loss to conjecture, unless
in old days the horses were admitted.

But two of the finest old houses in the county
are certainly South Wraxall and Great Chaldfield,
situated within a couple of miles from one another
to the west of Melksham. The former has
recently been converted from a farmhouse again
into a mansion, and the latter is now under-
going careful restoration. Though the exterior of
Great Chaldfield is unimpaired, and as perfect a
specimen of an early fifteenth-century house as
one could wish to see, sad havoc has been

ii8

NOOKS IN NORTHERN WILTSHIRE

played inside. The great hall many years ago
was so divided up that it was difficult to guess
at its original proportions. The finest Gothic
windows with groined roofs, ornamental bosses,
and fireplaces, and carved oak beams, have long
since been blocked up and their places filled with
mean ones of the Georgian period or later. To
fully comprehend the wholesale obliteration of
the original work, one has only to see the
thousand bits of sculptured masonry laid out
upon the lawn of the back garden. To place
the pieces of the puzzle correctly together must
be a task to try the knowledge and patience of
the most expert in such matters, but piece by
piece each is going into its proper place. The
huge stone heads with scooped-out eyes, through
which the ancient lord of the manor could watch
what was going on below in the hall without
being observed, once again will be reinstated.
There are three of them, and the hollowed
eyes have sharp edges, as if they were cut out
only yesterday. Then there is an ungainly
grinning figure of the fifteenth century, locally
known as " Blue Beard," who within livino-

memory has sat on the lawn in front of the
mansion ; but his proper place is up aloft on top
of one of the gable ends, and there, of course, he
will go, and, like Sister Ann, be able to survey the
road to B rough ton Gifford to see whether any-

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NOOKS AND CORNERS

body is coming. Among the rooms now under
course of repair is " Blue Beard's chamber," and
naturally enough the neighbouring children of
the past generation (we do not speak of the
present, for doubtless up-to-date education has
made them far too knowing to treat such things
seriously — the more's the pity) used to hold the
house in holy dread. ■ But there certainly is a
creepy look about it, especially towards dusk, when
the light of the western sky shines through the
shell of a beautiful oriel window, and makes
the monsters on the gable ends stand out while
the front courtyard is wrapt in shade. The reed-
grown moat gives the house a neglected and
sombre look. The group of buildings, with
curious little church with its crocketed bell turret
on one side and a great barn on the other, is
altogfether remarkable. How it orot the name
of "Blue Beard's Castle" we could not learn.
Recently a " priest's hole " has been discovered
up against the ceiling in a corner of his chamber ;
but whether he concealed himself here or some
of his wives we cannot say.

At the back of the manor there used to be a
tumbledown old mill, which unfortunately is now
no more. The little church contains a good stone
screen (which has been removed from its original
position), and some stained glass in the windows.
The pulpit, a canopied two-decker, and the capa-

I20

SHELDON MANOR

/. ffS

shp:ldon manor

/. IIS

SOUTH WKAXALI, ^^ANOR-HOUSE

SOUTH WKAXAT.T,

/. llS

NOOKS IN NORTHERN WILTSHIRE

cious high-backed pews (half a dozen at the most)
have the appearance of a pocket place of worship.
But Great Chaldfield is a parish by itself without
a village ; the congregation also is a pocket one.

As before stated, South Wraxall manor-house
is restored to all its ancient dignity ; but somehow
or other, though much care and money have been
bestowed upon it, it seems to have lost half of its
poetry, for the walls and gardens are now so trim
and orderly, that it is almost difficult to recognise
it as the same when the gardens were weed-
grown and the walls toned with lichen and moss.
Moreover, the road has been diverted, so that
now the fine old gatehouse stands not against
the highway, but well within the boundary walls.
Inside are some remarkably fine old rooms with
linen panelling. The drawing-room has a superb
stone sculptured mantelpiece, upon which are
represented Prudentia, Arithmetica, Geometrica,
and Justicia, and Pan occupies the middle pedestal
supporting the frieze, while four larger figures
support the mantel. The ceiling is coved, and
ornamented with enormous pendants, and the
cornice above the great bay mullioned-window
is enriched with a curious design. A remarkable
feature of the room is a three-sided projection
of the wall, the upper part of which is panelled,
having scooped-out niches for five seats, one in th.e
middle and two on either side. The banqueting-

X2I

NOOKS AND CORNERS

room also is a typical room of Queen Elizabeth's
time, and the "Guest chamber" is one of the
many rooms in England which claim the honour
of inhaling the first fumes from a tobacco-pipe
in England. But Raleigh's pipe here is said to
have been of solid silver ; moreover, tradition
does not state that it was so rudely extinguished
as elsewhere, with a bucket of water : so, at any
rate, here the story is more dignified. To settle
definitely where Sir Walter smoked his first pipe
would be as difficult a problem as to decide which
was the mansion where the bride hid herself in
the oak chest, or which was King John's favourite
hunting lodge.

122

EASTERN AND SOUTHEIIN
SOMERSET

Somersetshire abounds in old-world villages,
more particularly the eastern division, or rather
the eastern side — to the east, say, of a line
drawn from Bristol to Crewkerne. This line
would intersect such famous historic places as
Wells and Glastonbury, but in our limited space
we must confine our attention more particularly to
more remote spots. One of these, for example,
is the village of Norton St. Philip, midway
between Bath and Frome, which possesses one of
the oldest and most picturesque inns in England.
This wonderful timber building of projecting
storeys dates mainly from the fifteenth century,
although it has been a licensed house since
1397, and upon its solid basement of stone the
" George " looks good for many centuries to come.
It was formerly known as the "Old House,"
not that the other buildings at Norton St. Philip
are by any means new. It is merely, compara-

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NOOKS AND CORNERS

tively speaking, a matter of a couple of hundred
years or so.

Many are the local stories and traditions of
"Philips Norton Fight," for here it was that the
Duke of Monmouth's followers had the first real
experience of warfare ; and the encounter with the
Royalist soldiers was a sharp one while it lasted.
Monmouth's intention of attackinsf Bristol had
been abandoned, and during a halt at Norton on
June 27, 1685, his little army was overtaken by the
king's forces under the young Duke of Grafton,
Monmouth's half-brother. The lane where fiofht-
ing was briskest used to be remembered as
" Monmouth Street," possibly the same steep
and narrow lane now called Bloody Lane, which
winds round to the back of the Manor Farm
(some remains of which go back quite a century
before Monmouth's time), through the court-
yard of which the duke marched his regiment to
attack the enemy in flank. The other end of
the lane was barricaded, so Grafton was caught
in a trap, and had difficulty in fighting his way
through.

Both armies sought protection of the high
hedges, which, take it all round, got the worst of
it ; but Grafton lost considerably more men than
Monmouth, although a cannonade of six hours
on both sides only had one victim. An old
resident living fifty years ago, whose great-grand-

124

THE GEORGE, NORTON ST. I'll I LIP

IHI-; (lEORGE, NORTON SI'. I'lllI.Il'

^.ahi— i.niil

OLD HOUSE NEAR CROSCOMBE

/• /?-'

liECKINGTON CASTLE

EAST AND SOUTH SOMERSET

father fought for " King Monmouth," used to
relate how the duke's field pieces were planted
by the "Old House," his grace's headquarters;
and the tradition yet lingers in the inn that
Colonel Holmes, on Monmouth's side, finished the
amputation of his own arm, which was shattered
with a shot, with a carving knife. Some of the
ancient farmhouses between Bath and Frome
preserve some story or another in connection with
" Norton Fight," and George Roberts relates in
his excellent Life of Monmouth that early in the
nineteenth century the song was still sung :

"The Duke of Monmouth is at Norton Town
All a fighting for the Crown
Ho-boys-ho."

There are some curious old rooms in the
" George " ; and it is astonishing the amount of
space that is occupied by the attics, the timbers of
which are enormous. Up in these dimly lighted
wastes, report says that a cloth fair was held three
times a year ; and one may see the shaft or well up
which the cloth was hauled from a side entrance in
the street. The fair survives in a very modified
form on one of the dates, May ist. Upon the
first floor, approached by a spiral stone staircase,
is " Monmouth's room," the windows of which
look up the road to Trowbridge. The open Tudor
fireplace, the oaken beams and uneven floor, carries

125

NOOKS AND CORNERS

the mind back to the illustrious visitor who
already was well aware that he was playing a
losing game, and knew what he might expect
from the unforgiving James. At the back of the
old inn is the galleried yard, a very primitive one,
now almost ruinous, with rooms, leading from
the open corridors, tumbling to pieces, and floors
unsafe to walk upon. Through the gaps may be
seen the cellars below, containing three huge beer
barrels, each of a thousand gallons' capacity. A
fine stone fireplace in one will make a plunge
below ere very long.

But Somersetshire owns another remarkable
fifteenth-century hostelry, the " George " at Glas-
tonbury, in character entirely different from that at
Norton St. Philip. The panelled and traceried
Gothic stonework of the front, with its graceful bay-
window rising to the roof, Is perhaps more beautiful
but not so quaint, nor has it that rugged vastness
of the other which somehow impresses us with the
rough-and-tumble hospitality of the Middle Ages.
" Ye old Pilgrlmme Inn," as the "George " at Glas-
tonbury once was called, was built in Edward iv.'s
reign, whose arms are displayed over the entrance
gateway. Here is, or was, preserved the bed-
stead said to have been used by Henry viii.
when he paid a visit to the famous abbey.

A mile or so before one gets to Norton, travel-
ling up the main road from Frome, there is one

126

EAST AND SOUTH SOMERSET

of those exasperating signposts which are occa-
sionally planted about the country. The road
divides, and the sign points directly in the middle
at a house between. It says " To Bath," and that
is all ; and people have to ask the way to that
fashionable place at the aforesaid house. The
inmate wearily came to the door. How many
times had he been asked the same question ! He
was driven to desperation, and was going to invest
in some black paint and a brush for his own as well
as travellers' comfort. But how much worse when
there is no habitation where to make inquiries !
You are often led carefully up to a desolate spot,
and then abandoned in the most heartless fashion.
The road forks, and either there is no signpost,
or the place you are nearing is not mentioned at
all. Unless your intuitive perception is beyond
the ordinary, you must either toss up for it, or
sit down and wait peacefully until some one may
chance to pass by.

The church and manor-house of the pretty
village of Wellow, above Norton to the north-
west, are rich in oak carvings. The latter was
one of the seats of the Hungerfords, and was built
in the reign of Charles i. In the rubbish of the
stable-yard, for it is now a farm, a friend of ours
picked up a spur of seventeenth-century date,
which probably had lain there since the Royalist
soldiers were quartered upon their way to meet

127

NOOKS AND CORNERS

the Monmouth rebels. Another seat of the
Hungerfords was Charterhouse Hinton Manor,
to the east of Wellow, a delightful old ivy-clad
dwelling, incorporated with the remains of a thir-
teenth-century priory. Corsham and Heytesbury
also belonged to this important family ; but their
residence for over three centuries was the now
ruinous castle of Farleigh, midway between
Hinton and Norton to the east. These formidable
wails and round towers, embowered in trees and
surrounded by orchards, are romantically placed
above a ravine whose beauty is somewhat marred
by a factory down by the river. The entrance
gatehouse is fairly perfect, but the clinging ivy
obliterates its architectural details and the carved
eecutcheon over the doorway. But were it not
for this natural protection the gatehouse would
probably share the fate of one of the round towers
of the northern court, whose ivy being removed
some sixty years ago brought it down with a run.
The castle chapel is full of interest, with frescoed
walls and flooring of black and white marble.
The magnificent monuments of the Hungerfords
duly impress one with their importance. The
recumbent effigies of the knights and dames, with
the numerous shields of arms and their various
quarterings, are quite suggestive of a corner in
^Vestminster Abbey, though not so dark and
dismal. Here lie the bodies of Sir Thomas, Sir

128

A '-

CHARTERHOUSIC HINTOX

LX-'

/• /-'/-

WKI.LOW MANOR-HOUSK

/. /..■

(■KOSCOMBK CHURCH

CKOSCOMIII'-.

EAST AND SOUTH SOMERSET

Walter, and Sir Edward Hungerford, the first of
whom fought at Crecy and the last on the Parlia-
mentary side, when his fortress was held for the
king, and surrendered in September 1645. His
successor and namesake did his best to squander
away his fortune of thirty thousand pounds a year.
His numerous mansions were sold, including the
castle, and his town house pulled down and con-
verted into the market at Charing Cross, where
his bewigged bust was set up in 1682. His son
Edward, who predeceased him before he came to
man's estate (or what was left of his father's),
married the Lady Althea Compton, who was well
endowed. In the letters preserved at Belvoir we
learn that the union was without her sire's consent.
"She went out with M'' Grey," writes Lady
Chaworth in one of her letters to Lord Roos, "as
to a play, but went to Sir Edward Hungerford's,
where a minister, a ring, and the confidents were
way ting for them, and so young Hungerford
maried her ; after she writ to the Bishop of
London to acquaint and excuse her to her father,
upon which he sent a thundering command for
her to come home that night which she did
obey." A week later she made her escape. But
the runaway couple were soon to be parted.
Eight months passed, and she was dead ; and
the youthful widower survived only three years.
Old Sir Edward lived sufficiently long to repent
I 129

NOOKS AND CORNERS

his extravagant habits, for he is said to have died
in poverty at five score and fifteen !

Beckington, about four miles to the south of Far-
leigh, has another castle, but more a castle in name
than anything else. It is a fine many-gabled house,
by all appearances not older than the reign of
James i. or perhaps Elizabeth. It is close against
the road, and practically in the village, where are
other lofty houses similar in character. There is
an erroneous tradition that James ii. slept here the
night before the battle of Sedgemoor, regardless
of the fact that his sacred Majesty was snug in
London. The house was long neglected and
deserted, and owing to stories of ghostly visitors
and subterranean passages could not find a
purchaser at ^loo! But this was many years
ago, as will be seen from an advertisement quoted
in an old number of Notes and Queries. Things
are different now, for ghosts and subterranean
passages have a marketable value.

Somersetshire abounds in superstitions as well
as in old - world villaQes. From the southern
part of the county come tales of people being
bewitched, and it is a good thing for many an
aged crone that their supposed offences are
thought lightly of nowadays.

Some five years ago a notorious " wise man "
of Somerset, known as Dr. Stacey, fell down
stairs and broke his neck. The doctor's clients

EAST AND SOUTH SOMERSET

doubtless had expected a more dignified ending
to his career, for, judging from his powers of
keeping evil or misfortune at arm's-length, it was
a regular thing for people who had been "over-
looked " to seek a consultation so as to get the
upper hand of the evil influence. His patients
were usually received at midnight, when incanta-
tions were held and mysterious powders burned.
In most instances this was done where there had
been continual losses in stock, or on farms where
the cattle had fallen sick.

A remarkable instance of credulity only the
other day came from the East End of London,
which, happening in the twentieth century, is too
astonishing not to be recorded here. A young
Jewess sought the aid of a Russian " wise woman "
to bring the husband back who had deserted her.
The process was a little complicated. Eighteen
pennyworth of candles stuck all round with pins
were burned. Pins also had to be sewn into the
lady's garments, and some " clippings " from a
black cat had to be burned in the fire. The cost
of these mysterious charms altogether amounted
to nearly six pounds, which was expensive
considering the truant husband did not return.
During some recent alterations to an old house
near Kilrush, Ireland, beneath the flooring was
discovered a doll dressed to personify a woman
against whom a former occupant owed a deadly

NOOKS AND CORNERS

grudge. It was stabbed through the breast with
a dagger-shaped hairpin, which presumably it was
hoped would bring about a more speedy death
than the slower process of melting a diminutive
waxen effigy.

Cases of ague in Somerset are said to succumb
if a spider is captured and starved to death !
Consumptives also are said to be cured by carry-
ing them through a flock of sheep in the morning
when the animals are first let out of the fold.
It is said to bode good luck if, when drinking, a
fly should drop into one's cup or glass. When
this happens, we have somewhere heard, that a
person's nationality may be discovered ; but beer
must be the liquid. A Spaniard leaves his
drink and is mute. A Frenchman leaves it also
untouched, but uses strong language. An
Englishman pours the beer away and orders
another glass. A German extracts the fly with
his finger and finishes his beer. A Russian drinks
the beer, fly and all. And a Chinaman fishes out
the fly, swallows it, and throws away the beer.

But enough of these peculiarities.

In the wooded vale between Shepton Mallet
and Wells is a pretty straggling village of white-
washed houses with Tudor mullioned windows
and, some of them, Tudor fireplaces within. This
is Croscombe, which, like Crowcombe in western
Somerset, has its village cross, but a mutilated

132

EAST AND SOUTH SOMERSET

one, and a church rich in Jacobean woodwork.
The canopied pulpit, dated 1616, and the chancel
screen, reaching almost to the roof, bearing the
Royal arms, are perhaps the finest examples of
the period to be found anywhere. An inn, once
a priory, near the cross has panelled ceilings and
other features of the fifteenth century. Some
old cloth mills, with their emerald green mill-
ponds, are one of the peculiarities of Croscombe.
Shepton Mallet is depressing, perhaps because
crape is manufactured there. A lonely old
hostelry to the south of the town known as
" Cannard's Grave," not a cheery sign under the
miost favourable circumstances, but with padlocked
doors and windows boarded up as we saw it,
had a forbidding look, and seemed to warrant the
mysterious stories that are told about it. The
cross in the market-place was erected in 1 500, but
it has been too scraped and restored to classify
it with those at Cheddar or Malmesbury. The
church contains a fine oak roof and some ancient
tombs, mainly to the Strodes, an important
Somersetshire family with Republican tendencies,
one of whom harboured the Duke of Mon-
mouth in his house the night after his defeat
at Sedgemoor. The remains of this house,
" Downside," stand about a mile from Shepton
Mallet, but it has been altered and restored from
time to time, so that now it has lost much of its

133

NOOKS AND CORNERS

ancient appearance. The pistols which the duke
left here remained in the possession of descendants
until about eight years ago, when they were lost.
Monmouth's host, Edward Strode, also owned
what is now called " Monmouth House," from the
fact that the duke slept there on June 23rd and
30th, 1685, upon his march from Bridgwater
towards Bristol and back again. Monmouth's
room may yet be seen, and not many years ago
possessed its original furniture.^

At Cannard's Grave we strike into the old Foss
way, and if we follow it through West Lydford to-
wards Ilchester we shall find on the left-hand side,
a quarter of a mile or so from the road, Lytes Gary,
one of the most compact little manor-houses in
western England. But the fine old rooms are bare
and almost ruinous. The arms of the Lytes occur
in some shields of arms in the " decorated " chapel
(which is now a cider cellar), and upon a projecting
bay-window near a fine embattled and pierced
parapet. The hall is entered from the entrance
porch (over which is a graceful oriel), and has its
timber roof and rich cornice intact. On the first
floor is a spacious panelled room with Tudor bay-
window (dated 1533) and open fireplace, which
if carefully restored would make a delightful
dwelling room ; and it seems a thousand pities that
this and other apartments dating from the four-

^ See King Momnouth,

EAST AND SOUTH SOMERSET

teenth century should be in their present neglected
state. The front of the manor-house reminds one
of Great Chaldfield in Wiltshire, but on a smaller
scale and exteriorly less elaborate in architectural
detail.

The eastern corner of the western division of
Somerset is especially rich in picturesque old
villages and mansions — that is to say, the country
enclosed within or just beyond the four towns
Langport, Somerton, Chard, and Yeovil. Within
this area, or a mile or so beyond, we have the
grand seats of Montacute, Brympton D'Eversy,
Hinton St. George, and Barrington Court ; the
smaller but equally interesting manor-houses of
Sandford Orcas, South Petherton, and Tintinhull,
and the quaint old villages and churches of Trent,
Martock, Curry Rivel, etc.

The ancient county town of Somerton having
been left severely alone by the railway, remains
in a very dormant state, and, of course, is pictur-
esque in proportion, as will be seen by its
octagonal canopied market-cross and the group
of buildings adjacent. Langport lies low, and is
uninviting, with marshy pools around, with to
the north-west Bridgwater way the villages of
Chedzoy, Middlezoy, and Weston Zoyland, full of
memories of the fight at Sedgemoor. The church
of Curry Rivel, to the west of Langport, has many
ancient carvings, and retains its beautiful oak

135

NOOKS AND CORNERS

screen and bench-ends of the fifteenth century.
Within its ancient ornamented ironwork railino- is
a curious Jacobean tomb, representing the recum-
bent effigies of two troopers, Marmaduke and
Robert Jennings. It seems selfish that they
should thus lie in state while their wives are
kneeling below by two little cribs containing
their children tucked up in orderly rows like
mummified bambinoes. On the summit of a
circular arch above, five painted cherubs are
reclining at their ease, and chained to one of the
iron railings is a little coffer which g-ives a touch of
mystery to the whole. What does this little sealed
coffer contain ? — for it must have been in its present
position since the monument was erected. Are
the warriors' hearts therein, or the bones of the five
bambinoes ? There is another Jacobean tomb,
just like a cumbrous cabinet of the period. It is
hideous enough for anything, and obscures one
of three interesting fourteenth - century mural
monuments.

In the old farmhouse of Burrow, near Curry
Rivel, some swords and jack-boots of the time of
Charles ii. were preserved. They are now in the
museum at Taunton, where we regret to say the
buckle worn by the Duke of Monmouth, and Lord
Feversham's dish are now no longer^ with the
other interesting relics of the fight at Sedgemoor.

^ Illustrations of these relics are in King Monmouth.

LYTES CAKV AIANOK-HOUSK

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L,YTES CAKY >rANOR-HOUSE

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HIMON ST. GEORGE

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SANDFORU ORCAS MANOR-HOUSE

^. 140

EAST AND SOUTH SOMERSET

At Barringtoii Court and White Lackington
manor-house, both near Ilminster, Monmouth
was entertained in princely state during his
progress through the western counties to win
popularity. The latter is a plain gabled house
(a portion only of the original) which has suffered
by the insertion of sash windows. It seems to
bear out its name, for it is very white and staring.
But Barrington is one of the most perfect
Elizabethan houses in Somersetshire, that is to
say exteriorly, for the inside has long since been
stripped and modernised. The myriad of
pinnacles upon its gable ends, and its general
appearance, recall the stately Sussex mansion
Wakehurst : the situation, however, is vastly
different, for it stands bare of trees on a wide
extensive flat. The Spekes of White Lackington
and the Strodes of Barrington, it goes without say-
ing, were notorious Whigs ; and though the duke's
hosts favoured his cause, they both managed to
save their necks when the terrible Jeffreys came
down upon his memorable Progress. But the
name of Speke was enough for the judge, and the
youngest son of White Lackington, whose sins did
not extend beyond shaking hands with his father's
illustrious guest, was swung up on a tree at
Ilminster. In the lovely fields around the manor-
house it is difficult to imagine a throng of twenty
thousand who accompanied the popular duke.

^Z7

NOOKS AND CORNERS

The giant Spanish chestnut tree beneath which
Monmouth dined in public, and which had braved
the tempests of many centuries, fell, alas ! a victim
to the storm of March, 2, 1897, and with the
destruction of " Monmouth's tree " a link with
1680 has departed never to return. Barrington,
we understand, has recently been taken under the
protecting wing of the Society for the Preservation
of Ancient Buildings, for which all those interested
in domestic architecture as well as buildings of
historic association must feel grateful.

The little town of South Petherton, midway
between Ilminster and Ilchester, is full of old nooks
and corners, from its ancient cruciform church
to the old hostelry in the High Street. From
a very early date it was a place of great import-
ance ; but since the days of the Saxon monarch
who resided there, the Daubeneys have stamped
their identity upon King Ina's palace, of which
there are picturesque Tudor remains incorporated
in a modern dwelling, which to our mind has
robbed it of the poetry it possessed when in
a ruinous condition. The villages of Martock
above and Hinton St. George below are also full
of interest ; and both possess their ancient market-
crosses, but now curtailed and converted into sun-
dials with stone-step massive bases. But the glory
of Martock is its grand old church (where Fairfax
and Cromwell offered up a prayer for the capture

138

EAST AND SOUTH SOMERSET

of Bridgwater in 1645), whose carved black oak
roof is one of the finest in the west of England.^
The ancient seat of the Pouletts is an extensive
but by no means beautiful house. It has a squat
appearance, being only two storeys high, with
battlemented towers at the angles and Georgian
and Victorian Gothic sash-windows ; but on the
southern side, a pierced parapet and classic
windows give it a less barrack-like appearance.
Sir Amias Poulett (or Paulet, as it was formerly
spelled), the grandson of the builder of the house,
who won his spurs at the battle of Newark-on-
Trent, is principally famous from the fact that he
put Wolsey in the stocks when that great person
held the living of Lymington, and upon one occa-
sion took more than was good for him. But the
cardinal afterwards had his revenge, and put fine
upon Sir Amias to build the gate of the Middle
Temple, which formerly bore the prelate's arms
elaborately carved, as a peace-offering from Sir
Amias. Lymington in Hampshire is often associ-
ated with the stocks' episode, but Lymington near
llchester, and some ten miles from Hinton, was
the place. Sir Amias had the custody of Mary
Queen of Scots during the latter part of her long
imprisonment, and to him the " Good Queen " (?)
more than hinted that it would be a kindness to

^ The open roof of the manor-house, now a cooper's shop, is
also worth inspection.

NOOKS AND CORNERS

hasten her victim's end by private assassination.
Paulet, however, had a conscience, so EHzabeth
had to take upon herself the responsibility of
Mary's execution.

The historic stocks of Lymington are now no
more, but beneath a big elm tree on the village
green at Tintinhull, close by, they still are flourish-
ing. Tintinhull, like Trent and other neighbouring
villages, is full of picturesque old houses, sturdy
stone Jacobean and Tudor cottages, with garden
borderings of slabs of stone set up edgeways, and
slabs of stone running along the footway in a de-
lightfully primitive fashion. Tintinhull Court is a
stately old pile dating from the reign of Henry viii.
Its oldest side faces the garden, but the main front
is a good type of the seventeenth century. We
will not repeat here the particulars of Charles ii.'s
concealment at the old seat of the Wyndhams
after the battle of Worcester ; ^ but on the spot, and
though the greater part of the house has been
rebuilt, one may realise the incidents in that
romantic episode, for the village of Trent to-day is
much the same as the village of 165 1.

The manor-house of Sandford Orcas, to the
north-east of Trent (which by the way now belongs
to Dorset), is quite a gem of early- Elizabethan
architecture, with crests upon the gable ends, and
the Tudor and Knoyle arms and graceful panels

^ See I'/ie Flii^^kt of the King and After Worcester Fight.
140

EAST AND SOUTH SOMERSET

upon the warm-coloured walls of Ham Hill stone.
Though a small house, it has its great hall with
carved oak screen ; and most of the rooms are
panelled, and have their original fireplaces. The
wide arched Tudor gateway spanning the road
bears the arms of the Knoyles, a monument to
whom may be seen in the south aisle of the church
close by, the tower of which rises picturesquely
above the gabled roof of the manor-house. The
village, the little there is of it, is buried in orchards,
between which the mill-stream winds, the haunt of
a colony of quacking ducks whose noisy gossip
makes up for the paucity of inhabitants.

Some eight miles away, on the other side of
Yeovil, there is a manor - house, which for
picturesqueness must take the palm of even
Sandford Orcas. This is Brympton D'Eversy, a
remarkable mixture of the domestic architecture
of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth
centuries. One would think that the various
styles would not harmonise, but they do in a
remarkable degree. Add to these the styles of
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, which are
conspicuous in portions of the adjacent church, and
there is indeed a field from which to study. The
northern front of the mansion, with its embattled
Gothic bays and rows of latticed windows, is flanked
by the quaint little turreted church, and together
they form a most striking group not only in

141

NOOKS AND CORNERS

outline, but attractive in colour, for grey-green
lichens and the peculiar rusty tint of stone blend
in perfect sympathy. Picture this house and
church in crude white stone, unmellowed and
toned by time, and half its charm would be gone.
Does not this open up a question worth considera-
tion ? A modern house is built with conscientious
exactitude in imitation of some beautiful existing
example of Gothic or Renaissance architecture.
Every detail is perfect, but the result is harsh and
new. One must wait almost a lifetime before it
makes a picture really pleasing to the eye.
Therefore why not take some measures to tone
down the staring stone or obtrusive red - brick
before the masonry is constructed ? True, there
are a few exceptions where additions have been
made to ancient houses, which cannot be detected;
but in the case of an entirely new house, does it
often occur to the builder how much more pleasing
would be the result if the exterior of his house
were more in harmony with the old oak fittings
and ancient furniture with which it is his ambition
to fill it ? Would that all such houses were built
of Ham Hill stone, for it has the peculiarity of
imparting age much more rapidly than any other.
It is this that gives so venerable an appear-
ance to Montacute House ; for, compared with
many mansions coeval with it, the ancestral seat
of the Phelips family looks quite double the age.

142

EAST AND SOUTH SOMERSET

The imposing height of Montacute as compared,
for instance, with Hinton St. George, gives it
stateliness and grandeur, while the other has
none. Like Hardwick, the front of the house is
one mass of windows ; but it has not that formal
spare appearance, for here there are rounded gables
to break the outline. In niches between the
windows and over the central gable stand the
stone representations of such varied celebrities
as Charlemagne, King Arthur, Pompey, Caesar,
Alexander the Great, Moses, Joshua, Godfrey de
Bouillon, and Judas Maccabeus. They look down
upon a trim old garden walled in by a balustraded
and pinnacled enclosure, with Moorish - like
pavilions or music-rooms at the corners. As a
specimen of elaborate Elizabethan architecture
within and without, Montacute is unique. In
Nash's Mansions there is a drawing of the western
front, which is still more elaborate in detail, and is
earlier in date than the rest of the house ; and this
may be accounted for as it was added when Clifton
Maybank (another house of the Phelips') was
dismantled many years ago. But of this old
house there are yet some interesting remains.^
Inside there is a similarity also to Hardwick
with its wide stone staircase and its ornamental
Elizabethan doorways and fireplaces. The hospi-
tality in the good old days was in keeping with

^ See illustration in King Monmouth.

NOOKS AND CORNERS

the lordly appearance of the mansion. Over
the entrance may still be read the cheery
greeting :

" Through this wide opening gate,
None come too early, none return too late."

But in these degenerate days the odds are that
advantage would be taken of such hospitality ;
and one marvels at the open-handed generosity
such as existed at old Bramall Hall in Cheshire,
where the common road led ri^ht throucjh the
squire's great hall,^ where there was always kept
a plentiful supply of strong ale to cheer the
traveller on his way. There can have been but
few tramps in those days, or they must have been
far more modest than they are to-day.

Montacute Priory, near the village, has a fine
Perpendicular tower and other picturesque remains.
To see it at its best, one should visit the village late
in autumn, when the Virginia creeper, which covers
the ancient walls, has turned to brilliant red. Other
buildings under similar conditions may look as
lovely, but we can recollect nothing to equal this
old farmstead in its clinging robes of gold and
scarlet.

There are many interesting old inns in this
part of Somersetshire, notably in the town of

^ This was formerly the case at " Payne's Place," Worcestershire,
a house mentioned in another chapter.

144

/• /?5

ANCIENT SCREEN, CURRY RIVEL CHURCH

/• /,?/

FIREPLACE, I.YTES CARY

MOXTACL 1 1-: HOUSK

/*. /77

MONTACUTE I'RIORV

EAST AND SOUTH SOMERSET

Yeovil, where the "George" and "Angel" are
vis-a-vis, and can compare notes as to whose
recollections go back the farthest. The wide
open fireplaces and mullioned windows of the
former are of the time of Elizabeth or earlier, but
the stone Gothic arched doorway and traceried
windows of the latter can go a century better.
But important as they both have been in their
day, neither has had the luck or energy to keep
pace with the times sufficiently to hold younger
generations of inns subservient. The old " Green
Dragon" at Combe St. Nicholas, near Ilminster,
possessed a remarkable carved oak settle in its
bar-parlour. It was elaborately carved, the back
being lined with the graceful linen-fold panels.
At the arm or corner were two figures, one
suspended over the other, the upper one re-
presenting a bishop in the act of preaching.
They were known as " the parson and clerk " ; but
when we saw the settle the " parson " was missing,
having mysteriously disappeared some time before.
The " clerk " was so worn out, having occupied his
post so for centuries, that his features were scarcely
recognisable ; but who can wonder when he had
been preached to for close upon four hundred
years! To be "overlooked" in remote parts of
Somersetshire means certain misfortune. Many
a poor unoffending old woman, suspected of
" overlooking " people, has been knocked on the
K 145

NOOKS AND CORNERS

head that her blood might be " drawn " to coun-
teract the spell. Probably the parson's attitude
aroused suspicion, and he was quietly put away ;
but as his head had not been broken neither had
the spell, and the last we heard of the " Green
Dragfon " was that it had been burnt down.

The old landlady we remember had a firm belief
that the death of one of her sons was foretold by
a death's-head moth flying in at the window and
settling on his forehead when he was asleep in
his cradle. The child, a beautiful boy, then in
perfect health, was doomed, and her eldest son
immediately set forth with his gun to shoot the
first bird he chanced to see, to break the spell.
However, that night the child died ; and upon the
wall in a crlass case was the stuffed bird as well

as the moth, a melancholy memento of the tragedy
of thirty years ago.

146

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CROWCOMBK

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OLD HOUSE, CRnwCOMliK

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COMBE SYDENHAM

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COMBE SYDENHAM

IN WESTERN SOMERSET

Some of the prettiest nooks of old-world
"Zoomerzet" are to be found under the lovely
heather-clad Quantock Hills. The beauty of the
scenery has inspired Coleridge, Wordsworth, and
many famous men, not the least of whom was poor
Richard Jeffreys, who has written sympathetically
of the delightful vale to the west of the range.

To the north and north-west of Taunton the
churches of Kingston and Bishop's Lydeard are
both remarkable for their graceful early-Tudor
towers. Of the two, the former is the finer
specimen of Perpendicular work, the soft salmon-
yellow colour of the Ham stone being particularly
pleasing to the eye. The situation of the church
is fine, commanding grand views ; and at the
intersection of the roads to Asholt and Bridowater
one gets a glorious prospect of Taunton and the
blue Blackdown Hills beyond on one side, and on
the other the sea and the distant Welsh mountains.

Both churches have good bench-ends full four
hundred years old, the designs upon them being
as clearly cut as if they had been executed only

147

NOOKS AND CORNERS

a few years ago. One of them at Bishop's
Lydeard represents a windmill, from which we
gather that those useful structures were much
the same as those with which we are familiar
to-day.

At Cothelstone to the north, approached by a
romantic winding road embosomed in lofty beech
trees which dip suddenly down into a picturesque
dell, the church and manor-house nestle cosily
together, surrounded by hills and hanging woods.
It is a typical Jacobean manor-house of stone,
with ball -surmounted gables and heavy mullioned
windows, approached from the road through an
imposing archway, with a gatehouse beyond con-
taining curious little niches and windows. In
the gardens an old banqueting-room and ruined
summer-house complete the picturesque group of
buildings. The church has some fine tombs.
One of the lords of the earlier manor-house reclines
full length in Edwardian armour, his gauntleted
hands bearing a remarkable resemblance to a
pair of boxing-gloves. A descendant. Sir John
Stawel, who fought valiantly for Charles in the
Civil War, lies also in the church. For his loyalty
his house was ruined and his estate sold by the
Parliament, but his son was made a peer by the
Merry Monarch in acknowledgment of his father's
services. "The Lodge," an old landmark at
Cothelstone, can boast a view of no less than

148

IN WESTERN SOMERSET

fourteen counties, and from a gap in the Black-
down Hills, Halsdown by Exeter may be seen,
while close at hand Will's Neck looms dark
against the sky.

Beneath the rolling Quantocks the road runs
seawards, and at Crowcombe, embowered in woods,
brings us to another picturesque group : the church
on one side and a dilapidated Tudor building on the
other. It is called the " Church House," and, alas !
by its ruinous condition one may judge its days
are numbered, although its solid timber Gothic
roof, now open to the sky, looks still good for
a couple of centuries more. A crazy flight of
stone steps leads to the upper storey, or rather
what remains of it, the floor boards having long
since disappeared. In the basement, nature has
asserted itself, and weeds and brambles are
growing in profusion. This lower part of the
building was once used as almshouses, the Tudor-
headed doors leading into the several apartments.
The upper storey was the schoolroom, and had a
distinct landlord from the basement. Difficulties
consequently arose ; for when the owner of the
schoolroom suggested restorations to the roof,
the proprietor of the almshouses declined to
participate in the expense, declaring that it was
his intention to pull his portion of the building
down ! A more striking example of a house
divided against itself could not be found, hence

149

NOOKS AND CORNERS

the forlorn condition of the joint establishment
of youth and age.

There are fine carved bench-ends in the church,
one bearing the date 1 5 34 in Roman figures. Upon
another is represented two men in desperate com-
bat with a double-headed dragon. In the church-
yard there is a cross, and facing the village street
another, the cross complete, which is exceptional.

Crowcombe Court, a stately red-brick house
of the latter part of the seventeenth century, has
replaced the older seat of the Carews. Among
the fine collection of Vandycks is a full-length
of Charles i. and his queen, given by the second
Charles to the family in acknowledgment of their
loyalty. Queen Henrietta looks prettier here than
in many of her portraits. There is also a fine
Vandyck of James Stuart, Duke of Richmond, and
of Lady Herbert, and some of Lely's beauties,
including Nell Gwynn and the Countess of Fal-
mouth, whose buxom face recalls some of de
Gramont's liveliest pages.

A few miles to the east of Crowcombe, on the
other side of the range of hills, is the moated
castle of Enmore, whose ponderous drawbridge
can still be raised and lowered like that at Hel-
mingham. It is a formidable barrack-like building
of red stone, not of any great antiquity. In the
earlier structure lived Elizabeth Malet, the hand-
some young heiress with whom the madcap Earl

150

IN WESTEllN SOMERSET

of Rochester ran away. Pepys on May 28, 1665,
relates " a story of my Lord Rochester's running
away on Friday night last with Mrs. Mallett, the
great beauty of fortune and the north, who had
supped at Whitehall with Mrs. Stewart, and was
going home to her lodgings with her grandfather
my Lord Haly [Hawley] by coach ; and was at
Charing Cross seized on by both horse and foot
men, and forcibly taken from him and put into a
coach with six horses, and two women provided
to receive her, and carried away. Upon immediate
pursuit, my Lord of Rochester (for whom the king
had spoken to the lady often, but with no success)
was taken at Uxbridge ; but the lady is not yet
heard of, and the king mighty angry, and the
lord sent to the Tower." As may be supposed,
with so flighty a husband the pair did not live
happily ever after.^

The Enmore estate passed to Anne, the eldest
of their three daughters, who married a Baynton
of Spye Park near Melksham, where memories
of the profligate earl linger, as they do at
Adderbury.

The famous " Abode " at Spaxton, as impene-
trable as Enmore althouorh it has no drawbridoe,
is close at hand. An adjacent hill, locally said to
be a short cut to heaven, commands a superb view
of the surrounding country. The original founder

^ See Sofne Beauties of /lie Seventeenth Century.

NOOKS AND CORNERS

of the sect could scarcely have found a prettier
nook in England.

A few miles to the north-west of Crowcombe
is the picturesque village of Monksilver, the
church of which is rich in oak carving-s of the
fifteenth century. The pulpit and bench-ends
are particularly fine, but the screen has been
much mutilated. There are some grotesque
gargoyles, one representing a large - mouthed
gentleman having his teeth extracted.

Near Monksilver is the old seat of the
Sydenhams, Combe Sydenham, a fine old man-
sion, whose lofty square tower is un - English
in appearance. The house was built by Sir
George Sydenham in 1580, who is locally
said still to have an unpleasant way of gallop-
ing down the glen at midnight. Perhaps he is
uneasy in his mind about the huge cannon-ball
in the hall, which he is said to have fired as
a sign to his lady-love that he was going to
follow after and claim her as his bride. There
are portraits of some bewigged Sydenhams of the
following century, the famous doctor, perchance,
and his soldier brother. Colonel William the Par-
liamentarian. Some rusty old swords hang on
the walls, and there is a curious painted screen of
Charles 11. 's time which is sadly in need of repairs.
The servants' hall, with its open fireplace and tall-
backed settle, remains much as it has been for two

152

CROWCOMBE CHURCH

/. I'iO

■!u,iU^

/• '3i

/. Hti)

/, log

IN WESTERN SOMERSET

hundred years or more. All these things point
to the fact that the same family has been in
possession for generations : at least it was owned
by a Sydenham not so many years ago. An
effigy of Sir George with his two wives (perhaps
this is the cause of his uneasiness) may be seen
in Stogumber church, about a mile away.

At the back of Combe Sydenham are the re-
mains of an old mill. The wheel has disappeared,
and the waterfall splashing in the streamlet below,
together with an ancient barn adjacent, form a
delightful picture.

To the west is Nettlecombe, a fine old gabled
house, dating from the latter part of Elizabeth's
reign, containing ancestral portraits of the
Trevelyans and some curious relics, among
which is a miniature of Charles the martyr
worked in his own hair. The estate belonged
originally to the Raleighs, whose name is re-
tained in Raleigh Down and Raleigh's Cross
by Brendon Hill.

Elworthy church, to the south-east, commands
a fine position, and boasts a painted screen bearing
the date 1632 and some carved bench-ends. But
the churchyard looked sadly neglected and weed-
grown. The great limb of a huge yew tree
overhangs the stocks, which we are grateful to
observe have been restored, and not allowed to
decay as those at Crowcombe.

153

NOOKS AND CORNERS

From here we went farther to the south-east
in search of a place locally called " Golden Farm,"
or properly Gaulden, where, depicted on a plaster
ceiling of ancient date, are various scenes from
biblical history, from the temptation of Adam
downwards. Now, whether the good gentleman
who rents the farm has been besieged by classes
for the young anxious to learn on the Kindergarten
system, or whether the arms of the Turberville
family that figure upon a mantelpiece has connected
the house with a certain well-known novel and
brought about an American invasion, the fact
remains that his equanimity has evidently become
disturbed. His door was closed, and he was proud
that he could boast that he had turned people
away who had come expressly across the
Atlantic ! Sadly we turned away, but with
inward congratulations that we had not come
quite so far, when, lo ! the worthy farmer showed
signs of relenting. We might come in for half
a guinea, he said condescendingly. We thanked
him kindly and declined, observing that the
fee at Windsor Castle was more than ten times
less. 'Tis little wonder that they call it " Golden
Farm."

Equidistant from Monksilver to the north-
west is Old Cleeve, a pretty little village near
the coast, whose ruined Cistercian abbey has
nooks and corners to delight the artist or anti-

154

IN WESTERN SOMERSET

quarian. The grey old gatehouse, with a little
stream close by, make a delightful picture, indeed
from every point of view the ancient walls and
arches, with their farmyard surroundings, form
picturesque groups. In one of the walls is a
huge circular window : the rose window of the
sacristy that has lost its tracery. Viewed from
the interior, the round picture of blue sky and
meadows gay with buttercups makes a striking
contrast with the deep shadow within the cold
grey walls. A flight of stone steps leads to the
refectory, whose rounded carved oak roof and
projecting figure ornaments and bosses are in ex-
cellent preservation. There is a great open fire-
place and the tracery in the windows is intact.
A painting in distemper on the farther wall
represents the Crucifixion, and as far as artistic
merit is concerned better by far than the colossal
figure conspicuous in the Roman Catholic
cathedral at Westminster.

The road from here to Dunster is delightful,
and as you approach the quaint old town — for
it is a town, difficult as it is to believe it — the
castle stands high up on the left embosomed in
trees, a real fairy-tale sort of fortress it appears,
with a watch-tower perched up on another
wooded hill to balance it. The Luttrells have
lived here for centuries, and during the Civil
War it was for long a Royalist stronghold,

155

NOOKS AND CORNERS

held by Colonel Wynclham, the governor. The
gallant colonel's spirited answer to the threat of
the Parliamentarians to place his aged mother
in their front ranks to receive the fury of his
cannon should he refuse to deliver up the castle,
is a fine example of loyalty. " If ye doe what
you threaten," he said, "you doe the most bar-
barous and villanous act was ever done. My
mother I honour, but the cause I fight for and the
masters I serve, are God and the King. Mother,
doe you forgive me and give me your blessing,
and tell the rebells answer for spilling that blood
of yours which I would save with the loss of
mine own, if I had enough for both my master
and your selfe." But fortunately matters did not
come to a climax, for Lord Wentworth appeared
upon the scene with a strong force and relieved
the beleaguered garrison. The loyalty of old
Lady Wyndham and her son was further put to
the test a few years afterwards when young King
Charles lay concealed in their house at Trent
near Sherborne.^

Within the castle there is a curious hiding-
place which carries us back to those troublous
times. Local tradition has connected it in error
with the visit of the second Charles, whose room
is still pointed out ; but the king was then not
a fugitive, otherwise doubtless this secret chamber

^ See Flight of the King and After Worcester Fight.

m WESTERN SOMERSET

would have proved as useful to him as that at
Trent House in 1651.

The main street of Dunster, with its irregular
outline of houses climbing up a hill, and the
quaintest old market-house at the top backed
by a dense maze of foliage beyond, is exceed-
ingly picturesque. Judging from the hole made
by a cannon-ball from the castle in one of the
oaken beams of this remarkable "yarn market,"
poor Lady Wyndham had a lucky escape. The
marvel is the old structure has remained until
now in so delightful an unrestored condition.
It has the colour which age alone can impart,
a red purple-grey which, contrasted with the
background as we saw it of laburnum and may,
formed a picture long to be remembered. The
old inn, the " Luttrell Arms," has many points of
interest — some fine fifteenth-century woodwork
in the courtyard, a carved ceiling, and a rich
Elizabethan fireplace ; but doubtless from the fact
that the landlord gets too many inquiries about
these things, he is tardy in showing them. The
church has one of the finest carved oak screens
of Henry vi.'s reign in England, which to our
mind looks much better in its unpainted state.
One has but to go to Carhampton, close by, to
make a comparison. The paint may be in
excellent taste, and like it was originally ; but
when the original paint has gone, is it not best

157

NOOKS AND CORNERS

to leave the woodwork plain? Under these
conditions the screen at least looks old, but the
fine screen at Carhampton does not. A smaller
screen in the transept of Dunster church pre-
sents yet more bold and beautiful design in the
carving ; and about this and the ancient tombs
and altar, the bright and intelligent old lady
who shows one round has a fund of information
to impart. She is very proud, and naturally so,
of the interesting building under her charge.
Up a side street is the nunnery with its slate-
hung front : a lofty, curious building some three
centuries old or more.

Minehead Church is equally interesting. It
stands high up overlooking the sea, and commands
a magnificent prospect of the hanging - woods
of Dunster and the heights of Dunkery. The
rood-screen is good, but has been mutilated in
parts. The ancient oak coffer is remarkable for
the bold relief of its carving, representing the
arms of Fitz-James quartered with Turberville
as it occurs in Bere Regis church.

There is a fine recumbent effigy of a man in
robes, said to be a famous lawyer named Bracton,
although he has much the appearance of a cleric.
Whether it was considered conclusive proof that
the person interred was a lawyer from the fact
that on being opened the skull revealed a double
row of upper teeth, we do not know, but there

158

IN WESTERN SOMERSET

are other evidences. A victim of insomnia is said
to resemble a lawyer, because he lies on one side
then turns round and lies on the other ; and this is
precisely Vv'hat this effigy did. We had the good
fortune to fall in with the organist of St. Michael,
and he declared that he had taken a photograph
of the worthy in which the figure had changed its
position, the head being where the feet should
be — everything else in the picture being precisely
in its right position !

In the church is one of those quaint little figures
which in former years was worked by the clock
— " Jack-smite-the-clock," of which there are
examples at Southwold, Blythborough, etc. The
former rector held the living for seventy years,
and some trouble was caused because he had
willed that some of the ancient parish documents
were to be interred with him robed in his Geneva
gown. It is said his wish was duly carried out,
but the papers were afterwards rescued.

Bossington, on the coast to the north-west of
Porlock, is a delightful little village, lying at the
foot of the great heather- clad hills. The rushing
stream and the moss and lichen everywhere add
much to its picturesqueness, but we should imagine
there is too much shade and damp to be enjoy-
able in the winter. In the middle of the narrow
road stands a very ancient walnut tree with
twisted limbs and roots, one of many walnut trees

159

NOOKS AND CORNERS

in the village. There are cosy ancient thatched
cottages in Porlock, and the "Ship Inn," with its
panelled walls, is the most inviting of hostelries,
but the popular novel Lorna Doone has rather
spoiled the primitive aspect of the place by intro-
ducing some buildings out of keeping with the
rest.

The weary traveller has a great treat in store,
for the view from the top of Porlock Hill is
remarkable. But it is well worth the climb, and
by the old road it is indeed a climb ! When we
were there it was a misty day in June, and we
never remember so remarkable a prospect as from
the summit. The brilliant gorse stood out against
the varying shades of green and purple of the moor-
land, and below all that could be seen was one solid
mass of snow-white cloud, the outline of which was
sharply defined against a distant glimpse of the
soft blue sea and the deep blue Glamorganshire
hills, looking wonderfully like a glacier-field.
Next morning- came the news that in the mist
the warship Montagu had run on the rocks by
Lundy.

The romantic scenery of Lynmouth and Lynton
is too well known to call for any particular descrip-
tion here. Little wonder that one sees so many
honeymoon couples wandering everywhere about
the lovely lanes. Lovers of old oak, too, will find
all that they desire at Lynmouth, for here is the

1 60

IN WESTERN SOMERSET

most tempting antique repository, calculated to
make tourist collectors of Chippendale and oak
wish they had economised more in their hotel
bills. Motor cars sail easily down into the valley
from Porlock, but a sudden twist in the steep
ascent to Lynton causes many a snort and groan
accompanied by an extra scent of petrol.

But we have overstepped the county line and
are in Devon.

i6i

IN DEVON AND DORSET

Those who have never been to Clovelly can have
no idea of its quaintness, no matter what descrip-
tions they have read or pictures they may have
seen. One goes there expecting to find the
little place exactly as he imagines it to be, and
is agreeably surprised to find it is quite different.
It is so unlike any other place, that one looks back
at it more as a dream than a real recollection.
We do not hint that the everlasting climb up
and down may be likened to a nightmare. Not
a bit of it. Though we gasp and sink with
fatigue, we have still breath enough left in our
body to sing in praise. Were the steps more
steep and less rambling, perhaps we should not
be so satisfied. What excellent exercise for
muscular-leg development. But how about the
older part of the inhabitants ?

We had the honour to converse with the oldest
Clovellian, a hale and hearty fisherman, who, by
no means tardy in introducing himself, promptly
proceeded to business. For twopence we might
take his photograph. We thanked him kindly,

162

IN DEVON AND DORSET

and having disbursed that sum reserved our plates
for inanimate curiosities.

It is gratifying to learn that there is no room
for " improvement " at Clovelly, and there are
fewer houses than there used to be. Consequently
there is nothing new and out of harmony. The
cottages are really old and quaint, not as we
expected to find them, imitations, like half the
houses in Chester.

Even the "New Inn" is delightfully old, with
queer little rooms and corners, and little weather-
cock figures above the sign, of the time of Nelson.
It is a novel experience to arrive there in the
dusk and walk (?) down the High Street to the
sea. The most temperate will stumble and roll
about as if he had sampled the cellar through,
and ten to one but he doesn't finally take an
unexpected header into the sea.

But granted he reaches the end of the little
pier (which projects after the fashion of the
" Cobb " at Lyme Regis), he will find a hundred
lights from the cottages as if lanterns were hung
on the hillside, their long reflections rippling in
the water.

The place is as much a surprise as ever in
broad daylight. One might be in Spain or Italy.
Donkeys travel up and down the weed-grown
cobble steps carrying projecting loads balanced
on their backs. Indeed, one is quite surprised

163

NOOKS AND CORNERS

to hear the people speaking English, or rather
Devonshire, the prettiest dialect. In the daylight
the little balconied-houses overhanging the sea
look more like pigeon-cots nailed to the steep rock,
and one almost wonders how the inhabitants can
get in. Long may Clovelly remain as it is now,
the quaintest little place in England !

The town of Barnstaple is an excellent centre
for exploration, and the antiquity of the " Golden
Lion " is a guarantee of comfort. It was a mansion
of the Earls of Bath, and upon a richly moulded
ceiling, with enormous pendants of the date of
James the First, are depicted biblical subjects, in-
cluding the whole contents of the Ark, or a good pro-
portion of it. The spire of the church of SS. Peter
and Paul looks quite as out of the perpendicular
as the spire at Chesterfield. There are some good
Jacobean tombs, but nothing else in particular.

The aged inmates of the almshouses point out
the bullet-marks in their oaken door, made when
the Royalists fortified the town in 1645. Lord
Clarendon, who was governor of the town, tells us
that here it was Prince Charles first received the
fatal news of the battle of Naseby. The prince
had been sent to Barnstaple for security. The
house he lodged at in the High Street was
formerly pointed out, but has disappeared.

The poet Gay was a native of the town, and
early in the nineteenth century some of his manu-

164

IN DEVON AND DORSET

scripts were discovered in the secret drawer of
an old oak chair that had passed from a kinsman
on to a dealer in antiques who lived in the High
Street.

Close to the town is Pilton, whose church is
full of interest. The carved oak hood of the
prior's chair, which dates from Henry vii.'s reign,
serves the purpose now to support the cover of
the font. At the side may be seen an iron staple
to which in former years the Bible was chained.
From the fine Gothic stone pulpit projects a
painted metal arm and hand which holds a
Jacobean hour-glass. The screen and parclose
screen are also good, and the communion rails and
table in the vestry are of Elizabethan date. The
church pewter is also worth notice, as well as an
old pitch pipe for starting the choir. The porch
bears evidence that the tower was roughly handled
when Fairfax captured Barnstaple in 1646. The
existing tower was built fifty years later.

Nowhere have we seen so fine and perfect a
collection of carved oak benches as at Braunton,
a few miles to the north-west of Pilton. They
are as firm and solid as when first set up in
Henry vii.'s reign, and are rich in carvings, as is
the graceful wide-spanned roof. One of the bosses
represents a sow and her litter, who by tradition
suggested the idea of the holy edifice being erected
by Saint Branock. A window showing some of

165

NOOKS AND CORNERS

this good person's belongings, spoken of in the
tenth commandment, is mentioned by Leland, but
since then possibly some local antiquary may have
disregarded what is forbidden in that ancient law.
Presumably there have been attempts also to
annex the ruins of the patron-saint's chapel, for
the villagers pride themselves that all attempts to
remove them have failed. What an object-lesson
to the jerry builders of to-day !

Farther to the north-west and we get to
Croyde Bay, which perhaps one day may have
a future on account of its open sea and sands.
At present it looks in the early transition state.

Tawstock, to the south of Barnstaple, is said to
possess the best manor, the noblest mansion, the
finest church, and the richest rectory in the county.
Certainly the church could not easily be rivalled
(the "Westminster of the West," as it is called)
in its picturesque position, surrounded by hills and
woods, with the old gateway of the manor-house,
the sole remains of the original "Court," flanking
the winding road which leads down to it : we
almost feel justified in adding to these superlatives
the "handsomest Jacobean tomb, and the most
elaborate Elizabethan pew," but will not commit
ourselves so far. The former, on the left-hand
side of the altar, is that of the first Earl of
Bath (Bourchier) and his wife. Above their
recumbent efSgies is a great display of armorial

1 66

IN DEVON AND DORSET

bearings, with sixty-four quarterings hung upon
a vine, showing the intermarriages of the principal
families of England. There are many other fine
monuments, that of Rachael, the last Countess of
Bath, who died in Charles ii.'s reign, representing
a lifelike and exceedingly graceful figure in white
marble. She was the daughter of Francis, Earl
of Westmoreland, and married secondly, Lionel,
third Earl of Middlesex, who predeceased her.
The Elizabethan pew of theBourchier-Wrays, lords
of the manor, has a canopy, and is richly carved ;
but it was originally of larger dimensions. Close
by are some fine bench-ends, one of which displays
the arms of Henry vii. High aloft is a curious
Elizabethan oak gallery by which the ringers
reach the tower, upon which are carvings of the
vine pattern, a favourite design in Devon. An
early effigy in wood must not be forgotten, the
recumbent figure of a female, supposed to be a
Hankford, who brought the Tawstock estates into
the Bourchiers' possession.

From northern Devonshire let us turn our
attention to some nooks in the easternmost corner
and in the adjoining part of Dorset.

Of all the villages along the coast-line here,
Branscombe is the most beautiful and old-
fashioned. Many of the ancient thatched and
whitewashed cottages have Tudor doors and
windows. Some of the best, alas ! were con-

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NOOKS AND CORNERS

demned as being unsafe some fifteen years
ago, among them one which in the old
smuggling days had many convenient hiding-
places for that industry, for Branscombe was every
bit as notorious as the little bay of Beer. The
church is, or was not long since, delightfully
unrestored, for fortunately the good rector is
one who does not believe in up-to-date things,
and the sweeping changes which are rampant
in places more accessible. It is the sort of
comfortable old country church that we associate
with the early days of David Copperfield or with
Little Nell. Truly the high box-pews are not
loved by antiquarians, but is it not better to leave
them than replace them with something modern
and uncomfortable ? If the original oak benches
of the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries could be
replaced, that is entirely another matter. But
they cannot, therefore let those who love old
associations not banish the Georgian pews
without a thought that they also form a link
with the past. The church is cruciform, and
principally of the Early English and Early
Decorated periods, the old grey tower in the
centre standing picturesquely out in the beautifully
wooded valley. The village of Beer is also very
charming, and the fisher folk fine types of men.
It is delightful to watch the little fleet set sail;
but in the summer the air in the tiny bay is

i68

A /;/

wyi.de court

p. 10 1

CEILING IN THE GOLDEN LION, BARNSTAPLE

MAPPERTON MANOR-HOUSE

A !73

MELPI.ASH COURT

IN DEVON AND DORSET

oppressive, and the effluvia of fish somewhat
overpowering. The extensive caves here have
done good service in the smuggling days.

Another charming village is Axmouth, situated
on the river which gives its name. Old-fashioned
cottages with gay little gardens straggle up the
hill, down which the clearest of streams runs
merrily, affording delight to a myriad of ducks
who dip and paddle to their hearts' content.
The church has Norman features, and the tower
some quaint projecting gargoyles. From the other
side of the river at high tide the old church and
cluster of cottages around it, backed by the grace-
ful slope of Hawksdown Hill behind, make a
charming picture. High up in the hills, through
typical Devonshire fern-clad lanes, is Bindon, an
interesting Tudor house containing a chapel of
the fifteenth century. The entrance from the
road, with its circular stone gateway and gables
with latticed mullioned-windows peeping over the
moss-grown wall, is charming, as are also the old
farm-buildings at the back, in which an enormous
canopied well is conspicuous. But more gigantic
still is the well at Bovey, another Tudor house,
near Beer, which bears the reputation of being
haunted. But with the exception of some gables
at the back, Bovey is less picturesque than
Bindon, owing, perhaps, to the fact that the roof
has been re-slated.

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NOOKS AND CORNERS

More interesting are tlie remains of old Shute
House, which lies inland some six or seven
miles. This was a far more extensive mansion,
as will be seen by the imposing embattled
gateway and a remaining wing, which rather
remind one of a bit of Haddon. Here during
the Monmouth Rebellion the Royalist commander
Christopher, second Duke of Albemarle, encamped
on June i8, 1685, the same day that the other
duke, the boon companion of his wilder days,
entered Taunton. The house belonged then, as
it does still, to the De la Poles.

Most of the old houses hereabouts are associ-
ated in some sort of way with the rebellion.
Close upon the county border to the north-east
stands Coaxden, a much modernised old farm,
where stories are told of fugitives from Sedge-
moor. How its occupant, Richard Cogan, being
suspected as a Monmouth adherent, fled from his
house to Axminster, where in the " Old Green
Dragfon Inn " the landlord's daughter secreted him
between a feather-bed and the sacking of a bed-
stead. Kirke's "lambs " traced him to the house,
but failed to hit upon his hiding-place. The
story ends as all such stories should, the girl who
preserved his life became his wife. The house is
further interesting as the birthplace in 1602 of
Sir Symonds D'Ewes the historian.

A couple of miles or so to the west is Wylde
170

IN DEVON AND DORSET

Court, another interesting old farmhouse, much
less restored, dating from Elizabeth's reign, with
numerous pinnacled gable ends and characteristic
entrance porch and oak panelled rooms. This
and Pilsdon, another Tudor house a few miles
to the west, at the foot of Pilsdon Pen, belonged
to the Royalist Wyndhams, and in the troublous
times they were looked upon with suspicion, and
searched on one or two occasions by the Parlia-
mentary soldiers. " Hellyer's Close," near Wylde
Court, is so named because a Royalist commander,
Colonel Hellyer, was taken prisoner and executed
here by Cromwell's soldiers. At the time that
Charles ii., in 1651, attempted to get away to
France from the coast of Dorset, Pilsdon was
visited by a party of Cromwellian soldiers, and
Sir Hugh Wyndham and his family secured in
the hall while the house was thoroughly searched,
suspicion even falling upon one of the ladies that
she was the king in disguise.^ Sir Hugh's
monument may be seen at Silton in the extreme
north corner of the county.

Chideock is a charming old-world village in the
valley between Charmouth and Bridport, snugly
perched between the cone-shaped eminence
Colmer's Hill and Golden Cap, the gorse-covered
headland, said to be the highest point between
Dover and the Land's End. The castle of the

^ See Flight of the King.
171

NOOKS AND CORNERS

De Chideocks and Arundells, a famous stronghold
built in Richard ii.'s reign, long since has dis-
appeared, but its moat can be traced. The fine
old church exteriorly is one of the most picturesque
in Dorsetshire, but the inside has been much
restored and modernised. A handsome tomb of
Sir John Arundell in armour is in the south aisle.

Longevity seems to be the order of the day
round "Golden Cap." At Cold Harbour we
chatted with a hearty old man enjoying his pipe
by his cottage door. He was close on eighty ;
but there was still a generation over his head, for
his father, evidently to show his son a good
example, was hard at work digging potatoes in
the back garden. We solicited the honour to
photograph the pair, and asked the elder of the
two if he would have a pipe. No, he didn't smoke,
but he could drink, he said ; and so, of course, we
took the hint, and he with equal promptitude
toddled up the lane, as digging potatoes at the
age of ninety-nine is thirsty work.

There is a deep picturesque lane near Chideock
called " Skenkzies " which at night-time is parti-
cularly dark, and held in awe, for there are stories
of evil spirits lurking about ; and little wonder, for
close at hand is a farmhouse called " Hell ! " Old
customs and superstitions die hard in western
Dorset. Forlorn and love-sick maidens as a
special inducement for their lovers to appear,

172

IN DEVON AND DORSET

place their boots at right angles to one another
in the form of a T upon retiring to roost. The
charm is said to be irresistible ; but there have
been cases where it has failed, when the size has
exceeded "men's eio^hts."

To the north-west of Bridport and the south-
west of Beaminster are two old houses within a
couple of miles of one another, the manor-houses
of Melplash and Mapperton. The former, a plain
Elizabethan gabled house, is said to have been one
of the many residences of Nell Gwyn. Whether
the old Hall of Parnham, the seat of the Strodes,
was honoured by a visit of the Merry Monarch
we do not know. If so, it is possible Nell may
have been housed at Melplash. Mapperton is a
remarkably picturesque house, with projecting
bays and a balustraded roof, above which are
little dormer windows. Part of the house is
evidently Jacobean and part dates from the reigns
of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, and the combination
of styles, the niched entrance gates surmounted by
eagles, the ornamental pinnacles, and the " upping-
stock " beside the wall, make a most fantastic
whole. It was once the seat of the Coker family.

There are some interesting old mansions with-
in a few miles of Dorchester. Wolverton or
Wolfeton manor - house, for example, and
Waterstone and Athelhampton, the last two of
which appear in Nash's Mansions. Each one

^11

NOOKS AND CORNERS

Is entirely different from the other. Waterstone
is a small late-Elizabethan or early- Jacobean
house, with a quaint balustraded bay over the
entrance porch, and some elaborate and graceful
stonework upon a projecting gable that stands at
right angles to it. This presumably was once
the principal entrance. It is certainly quite
unique and somewhat perplexing. At Wiston
House in Sussex we remember having seen
some very elaborate Elizabethan ornamentation
upon a gable which really had no business
there, although the effect was very pleasing : and
here, perhaps, we have the same sort of thing.
Wolverton is a fine early-Tudor building with
battlemented tower and a stately array of lofty
mullioned windows, and careful restoration has
added to its picturesque appearance.

But sympathetic restoration may be seen at its
best at Athelhampton, We took some photo-
graphs many years ago, when it was occupied as a
farmhouse, and upon a recent visit could scarcely
recognise it as the same. Not that the house has
been much altered exteriorly, but the quaint old-
fashioned gardens, with pinnacled Elizabethan
walls, ancient fish-ponds and fountains, have
sprung up and matured in a manner that had
one not seen the gardens as they were, one would
scarcely credit it. Wonders have been done
within as well, and the great hall is very different

174

IN DEVON AND DORSET

from what it was before the present owner came
into possession. There are suits of armour and
Gothic cabinets to carry us back to the days of
doublet and trunk-hose and square-toed shoes.
Where formerly were pigsties is now a terrace
walk, and the quaint old circular dove-cot has
been carried off bodily and planted where it
balances to best advantage. But one thing we
should like to see, and that is the ancient gate-
house that was standing in Nash's time. There
is his drawing to go by, and where everything
has been done in such excellent taste one need
have little fear that in a few years a new
building would settle down harmoniously with
the rest.

Close by is Puddletown, a pretty old village
with a remarkable church, where, as at Athel-
hampton, everything is in harmony. It is the
sort of church one reads about in novels, yet
so seldom meets ; and now we come to think of
it, this village does figure in a popular Wessex
novel. Doubtless there are some lovers of
ecclesiastical architecture who would like to see
the Jacobean woodwork cleared out and modern
Henry vii. benches introduced to make the
whole coeval. The towering three-decker pulpit
is delightful, and so are the ancient pews, and
the old gallery and staircase leading up to it.
Within the Athelhampton chapel are mailed

175

NOOKS AND CORNERS

effigies, and several ancient brasses to the Martin
family who originally owned the mansion,

Bere Regis church, some six miles to the east
of Puddletown, is also remarkable, particularly for
its open hammer-beam roof from which project
huge life-size figures of pilgrims, cardinals, bishops,
etc., and monster heads suggestive of the panto-
mime. The whole is coloured, and the effect
very rich and strikingly original. One can imagine
how the younger school-children must be im-
pressed with these awe-inspiring figures looking
down upon them with steady gaze. There are
two fine canopied tombs (one containing brasses
dated 1596) to the Turburvilles, who possessed
a moiety of the lordship since the Conquest.
Their old manor-house, a few miles south at
Wool, a red-brick Jacobean gabled house with
roomy porch in which a great pendant is
conspicuous, picturesquely situated by an old
bridge and the winding reed-grown river, has
of recent years obtained notoriety by Mr. Thomas
Hardy's pen. We photographed the old house
some years ago before it had been thus immor-
talised. Upon a recent visit we found the house
desolate and empty. Had the good farmer flown
in consequence, and sought an abode that had not
become a literary landmark ?

But the vicinity of Bere Regis had obtained
notoriety of a tragic kind many centuries before

176

;i.v.

P-173

WATERSTONE

ATHEI.HAMI'TON

A '13

/• /;.;•

ATHELHAMPTON

!fe*>

_^.. ^mf^{^ -ws.

ATHi:!. HAMPTON

IN DEVON AND DORSET

the birth of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, for that
very undesirable lady, Queen Elfrida, retired there
for peace and quietness after various deeds of
darkness, one of which, according to the Annals
of Ely, is said to have been inserting red-hot
nails into Abbot Brithnoth's armpits ; and from
Lytchet Maltravers to the east of Bere came
Sir John Maltravers to whose tender mercies
the unfortunate Edward ii. was delivered before
he was done to death at Berkeley Castle. Sir
John's monument is in the church ; but as it was
not the fashion in those days to enumerate the
various virtues of the departed in laudatory verse,
this particular act of charity is not recorded in
suitable effusion.

Wimborne Minster to the north-east is too
world-famed to call for any particular description
here, but a word may be said about the first
Free Library in the country. In past days,
when there was no good Mr. Carnegie to
cater for the welfare of millions, nor the finest
classics to be purchased for sixpence, it was only
natural, books being rare, that the local authorities
should not have placed the same implicit trust in
would-be readers as is shown by the British
Museum Library authorities. The rusty iron
chains securing the aged tomes to an iron rod
above the queer old desks even after the lapse
of centuries would hold their own. The literature
M 177

NOOKS AND CORNERS

cannot be said to be of a much lighter nature
than the bulky volumes in weight. The rarest
specimens are placed in glass cases, and are
calculated to make the mildest bibliomaniac full of
envy. Before the Reformation the Minster was
rich in holy relics, conspicuous among which was
a part of St. Agatha's thigh. One of the most
curious things still to be seen is a coffin brilliantly
painted with armorial devices, placed in the
niche of a wall, which according to the will of
the occupant has to be touched up from year
to year ; and thus the memory of the worthy
magistrate, Anthony Ettrick, is kept more actively
alive than good King Ethelred who rests beneath
the pavement by the altar. Ettrick lived at
Holt Lodge near Woodlands, a few miles away
in the direction of Cranborne ; and when the
Duke of Monmouth was captured in rustic garb
in the vicinity, he was brought before the
magistrate and removed from Holt to Ring-
wood, where at the " Angel Inn " the room in
which he was kept prisoner is still pointed out.
We have elsewhere described the old ash tree
near Crowther's Farm beneath which the un-
fortunate fugitive from Sedgemoor was found.
It is propped up, and has lost a limb, but is
alive to-day, and surely should be protected by a
railing and an inscription like other historic
trees. To the north is St. Giles, the ancestral

178

IN DEVON AND DORSET

home of the Earls of Shaftesbury, the first
representative of which title, Anthony Ashley
Cooper, worked so skilfully on Monmouth's
ambition. When the Merry Monarch visited
the noble politician at St. Giles, he little
thought that his favourite son would be taken
a prisoner as a traitor within only a mile or
so of the mansion. A memento of the royal
visit is still preserved in the form of a medicine
chest that the king left behind, which in those
days doubtless contained some of his favourite
specific ** Jesuit drops."

Another historic mansion is Kingston Lacy, to
the west of Wimborne, the old seat of the Bankes
family, which is rich in Stuart portraits as well
as other valuable works of art. It is a typical
square comfortable-looking Charles ii, house, with
dormer-windowed roof and wide projecting eaves.
The staunch Royalist, James Butler, the great
Duke of Ormonde, lived here in his latter years,
and died here in 1688. The duke's intimate
friend, Sir Robert Southwell, has left a graphic
account of the last hours of the good old noble-
man, which he concludes with the following : —
"His Grace could remember some things that
passed when he was but three years old. He
was only four years old when his great-great-
uncle Earl Thomas died in 16 14, but he retained
a perfect remembrance of him. That Earl lived

179

NOOKS AND CORNERS

in the reigns of King Henry the Eighth, King
Edward the Sixth, Queen Mary, Queen EHzabeth,
and King James ; and His Grace had seen King
James the First, King Charles the First, King
Charles the Second, and King James the Second ;
so that between them both they were con-
temporary with nine princes who ruled this
land ! " '

^ Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. 7 App. p. 758.

180

HERE AND THERE IN SALOP
AND STAFFORDSHIRE

The important and ancient capital of Salop would
indeed be insulted were it called a " nook " or
"corner." Could it so be named, we might be
allowed to let our enthusiasm run wild in this
most delightful old town. Shrewsbury and
Tewkesbury are to our mind far more interesting
than Chester, which has so many imitation old
houses to spoil the general harmony. At Shrews-
bury or Tewkesbury there are very few mock
antiques, and at every turn and corner there are
ancient buildings to carry our fancy back to the
important historical events that have happened
in these places. One cannot but be thankful to
the local authorities for preserving the mediaeval
aspect, and let us offer up a solemn prayer that
the electric tramway fiend may never be permitted
to enter.

Chirk Castle is so close upon the boundaries of
Salop that we may include this corner of Denbigh-
shire. It is the only border fortress of Wales still

i8i

NOOKS AND CORNERS

inhabited, and is remarkably situated on an
eminence high above the grand old trees of the
park, or rather forest, surrounding it. It has stood
many a siege, but its massive external walls look
little the worse for it. They are of immense
thickness, and so wide that two people abreast
can walk upon the battlements. The husre round
towers, with deep-set windows and loopholes, have
a very formidable appearance as you climb the
steep ascent from the picturesque vale beneath.
It was built by the powerful family of Mortimer
early in the fourteenth century. From the
Mortimers and Beauchamps it came into the
possession of Henry viii.'s natural son, the Duke
of Richmond and Somerset, and to Lord Seymour,
brother of the Protector Somerset. Then the
Earl of Leicester owned it in Elizabeth's time,
and eventually Sir Thomas Myddelton, Lord
Mayor in James i.'s reign. His son, Sir Thomas,
fought valiantly for the Parliamentary side, and in
1644 had to besiege his own fortress, A letter
from the governor, Sir John Watts, to Prince
Rupert, which still hangs in the great hall, de-
scribes how the owner " attempted to worke into
the castle with iron crowes and pickers under
great plancks and tables, which they had erected
against the castle side for their shelter : but my
stones beate them off." In the following year
Charles i. slept there on two occasions ; and it

182

m SALOP AND STAFFORDSHIRE

was here that he learned the defeat of the
great Montrose. After the king's execution, Sir
Thomas, like many others, began to show favour
to the other side ; and the year before the Restor-
ation he was mixed up in Sir George Booth's
Cheshire rising, and had to fortify his castle against
General Lambert, to whom he eventually sur-
rendered. But the general did not depart until
he had disabled the fortress, and the damage done
after the Restoration took ^30,000 to repair. It
was Sir Hugh, the younger brother of the first
Sir Thomas Myddelton, who made the New River,
which was opened on Michaelmas Day, 16 13. A
share in 1633 was valued at ^3, 4s. 2d., and in
1899 one was sold for ;^ 125,000!

The various apartments are ranged round a
large quadrangle, parts of which remind one
somewhat of H addon. On one side is the great
hall, and opposite the servants' hall. The former,
with its minstrels' gallery, heraldic glass, and
ancient furniture, is full of interest. The walls are
hung with various pieces of armour, and weapons,
and a Cavalier drum, saddle, and hat, the latter
with its leather travelling case, which is probably
unique. There is a gorgeous coloured pedigree
to the first Sir Thomas Myddelton, recording
ancestors centuries before, though perhaps not quite
so far back as the pedigree in the long gallery
at Hatfield, which is said to go back to Adam.

183

NOOKS AND CORNERS

The servants' hall is a delightful old room, with
long black oak tables and settles, those against
the wall being fixtures to the panelling. There
is a raised dais, and a seat of state to make
distinction at the board. There are queer old
portraits of ancient retainers, one the bellman
who used to ring the great bell in the corner
turret of the quadrangle, and another very jolly
looking porter, who has his eye on an antique
beer barrel perched on wheels in a corner of the
room. This apparatus has done good service
in its day, as have the great pewter dishes and
copper jugs. Above the wide open fireplace are
the Myddelton arms. The servants' hall was an
orderly apartment :

" No noise nor strife nor swear at all,
But all be decent in the Hall,"

is written up for everybody to see, with the follow-
ing rules : — That every servant must take off his
hat at entering ; and sit in his proper place, and
drink in his turn, and refrain from telling tales or
speaking disrespectfully, and various other things,
which misdeeds were to be punished in the first
instance by the offender being deprived of his
allowance of beer ; for the second offence, three
days' beer ; and the third, a week.

The castle is rich in portraits, especially by
Lely and Kneller, many of which hang in the oak

184

IN SALOP AND STAFFORDSHIRE

gallery, which extends the whole length of the
eastern wing ; and there are several fine oak
cabinets, one of which, of ebony and tortoise-shell
with silver chasings, was given to the third Sir
Thomas Myddelton by the Merry Monarch.

The wrought - iron entrance gates of very
elaborate workmanship were made in 17 19 by
the local blacksmith.

At the ancient seat of the Trevors, Brynkinalt,
nearer to Chirk village, are some interesting por-
traits of the Stuart period, notably of Charles 11. ;
James, Duke of York ; Nell Gwyn, the Duchess
of Portsmouth, and Barbara Villiers.

Chirk village is insignificant, but has a fine
church in which are some interesting monuments,
notably that of the gallant knight who besieged
his own castle as before described. He and his
second wife are represented in marble busts. It
was their son Charles who married the famous
beauty of Charles 11. 's reign ; she was the
daughter of Sir Robert Needham, and her younger
sister, Eleanor, became the Duke of Monmouth's
mistress. There is an old brick mansion called
Plas Baddy, near Ruabon, where " La Belle
Myddelton " and her husband lived when the
diversions of the Court proved tedious ; but buried
in these wilds, she must have felt sadly out of her
element without the large following of admirers
at her feet. She had more brains, though, than

185

NOOKS AND CORNERS

most Court beauties, and being a talented artist,
was not entirely dependent upon flattery.

Near the entrance of the Ceiriog valley, to the
west of Chirk, is a farm called Pontfaen, and
beyond, across some meadows, there is a remark-
able Druidical circle. Gigantic stones are riveted
to the crosspieces of archways, having the appear-
ance of balancing themselves in a most remarkable
manner. The entrance to the circle has two
pillars in which are holes through which was
passed a pole to act as wicket ; and in fronl of the
altar is a rock in which may be seen cavities for
the feet, where the officiating priest is supposed
to have stood. It is secluded, solemn, and ghostly,
especially by moonlight when we saw it for the
first time. The villages hereabouts, though
picturesquely situated, are far from interesting :
whitewashed and red-brick cottages of a very
plain and ordinary type, and very few ancient
buildings.

Some of the most picturesque old houses in
England are to be found in the southern and
central part of Salop. Take, for example, Stokesay
Castle, which is quite unique. A battlemented
Early English tower with lancet windows and the
great hall are the principal remains. The latter,
entered from above by a primitive wooden stair-
case, is a noble apartment with a fine open timber
roof. The exterior has been altered and added

1 86

IN SALOP AND STAFFORDSHIRE

to at a later period, making a very quaint group
of gables, with a projecting storey of half-timber
of the sixteenth century. This is lighted by lattice
windows, and the bay or projection is held by timber
supports from the earlier masonry. It has a deep
roof, and the whole effect is odd and un-English.
Not the least interesting feature is an Elizabethan
timber gatehouse with carved barge-boards, en-
trance gate, and corner brackets, and the timbers
shaped in diamonds and other devices. Then there
is picturesque Pitchford Hall and Condover close
by : the former a fine half-timber mansion, the latter
a stately Elizabethan pile of stone. Pitchford we
believe has been very much burnished up and
considerably enlarged since we were there, but we
should not like to see it with its new embellish-
ments, for from our recollection of the old house,
half its charm was owing to the fact that there
was nothing modern-antique about it : a dear
old black-and-white homestead, which looked too
perfect a picture for the restorer to set to work
upon it and spoil its poetry; but for all that it may
be improved. The courtyard presents quite a
dazzling arrangement of geometric patterns in the
timber work, and over the central porch there is a
quaint Elizabethan gable of wood quite unlike
anything we have seen before. The side facing
the north is, or was, quite a picture for the artist's
brush. The stately lofty gables of Condover are

187

NOOKS AND CORNERS

in striking contrast with the more homely looking
ones of Pitchford ; and the builder was an im-
portant person in his day, as may be judged from
his elaborate effigy in Westminster Abbey,
namely, Judge Owen, who claimed descent from
one of the ancient Welsh kings. Like most
Elizabethan houses, Condover Hall is built in the
form of a letter E, but the central compartment
was probably added to later on by Inigo Jones.
The doorway and bay-windows above are of fine
proportions, and full of dignity.

At Eaton Constantine, to the east, is the quaint
old timber house where Richard Baxter lived ; and
at Langley, to the south-east, a fine old timber
gatehouse ; as well as Plash Hall, famous for its
elaborate twisted chimneys. Then there is Ludlow
with its ruined castle, where poor young Edward v.
was proclaimed king before he set out for London :
and its famous "Feathers" hostelry with black-
oak panelled rooms, its old town-gate, and the
ancient bridge of Ludford to the south. The
country between Ludlow and Shrev/sbury is re-
markably beautiful, especially in the vicinity of
Church Stretton, which of recent years has grown
rapidly as a health resort, meaning, of course,
the springing up of modern dwellings to mar its
old-world snugness.

There is, or was some twenty years ago, a
narrow street of old houses, behind which, backed

1 88

IN SALOP AND STAFFORDSHIRE

by beautiful woods, stood the manor-house, long
since converted into an inn, and the church.
Beyond the woods rise a range of lofty hills ;
and if we take the trouble to clamber up to the
highest peak (which rises to upwards of 1600 feet),
we are well rewarded for our pains. Two of the
highest points are Caradoc and Lawley, famous
landmarks for miles around. The " Raven," when
we visited it, was a quaint old hostelry, and an
ideal place to make headquarters for exploring the
romantic scenery all around.

At the pretty little village of Winnington, close
upon the county border, and fourteen miles as the
crow flies to the north-west of Church Stretton,
stands a tiny little cottage at the foot of the
Briedden Hills. Here lived the famous old Parr,
who was born there in the reign of Edward iv. and
died in that of Charles i., having lived in the reigns
of no less than ten monarchs. In his hundred and
fifty-second year he went to London for change of
air, which unfortunately proved fatal. His grave-
stone in Westminster Abbey will be remembered
near Saint- Evremond's and Chiffinch's, near the
Poets' Corner.

The quiet little town of Market Drayton, some
eighteen miles to the north-east of Shrewsbury,
contains many interesting timber houses. There
is still an old-fashioned air about the place of
which the footsore pedestrian stumbling over the

189

NOOKS AND CORNERS

cobble stones soon becomes conscious. The
quaint overhanging gables in the narrow streets
are rich with ornamental carvings. One longf
range of buildings at the corner of Shropshire and
Cheshire Streets is a fine specimen of "magpie"
architecture. Let us hope the row of antiquated
shops on the basement will remain content with
their limited space ; for so far those imposing
modern structures, which have a way of throwing
everything out of harmony, are conspicuous by their
absence. Nor has the demon electric tram come
to destroy this quiet peaceful corner of Salop, as,
alas ! it has to so many of our old towns. One
dreads to think what England will be like in
another fifty years. Farther along Shropshire
Street we find a little antiquated inn, the "Dun
Cow," with great timber beams and thick thatch
roof, and the "King's Arms" opposite bearing
the date l6^K upon the gable abutting upon the

roof, which does not say much for the sobriety of
the person who set it up. Hard by is a good
Queen Anne house standing a little back, as if
it didn't like to associate with such neighbours.
It looked deserted, and was "To Let"; and we
couldn't help thinking how this compact little
house would be picked up were it only situated
in Kensington or Hampstead.

The church, an imposing building finely situ-
ated, is disappointing, though there is some good

I go

IN SALOP AND STAFFORDSHIRE

Norman work about it. It has been reseated,
and the only thing worth noting is an old
tomb showing the quaint female costume of
Elizabeth's day, and a tall - backed oak settle
facinof the communion table. The latter looks
as if it ought to be facing an open fireplace in
some manorial farm.

Many superstitions linger hereabouts. The
old people can recollect the dread in which a
certain road was held at night for fear of a
ghostly lady, who had an unpleasant way of
jumping upon the backs of the farmers as they
returned from market. Tradition does not record
whether those who were thus favoured were
total abstainers; possibly not, for the lady by all
accounts had a grudge against those who occa-
sionally took a glass ; and in a certain inn cellar,
when jugs had to be replenished, it was dis-
comforting to find her seated on the particular
barrel required, like the goblin seen by Gabriel
Grub upon the tombstone.

There was a custom among the old Draytonites
for some reason, not to permit their aged to die
on a feather-bed. It was believed to make
them die hard, and so in extremis it was
dragged from beneath the unfortunate person.
The sovereign remedy they had for whooping-
cough is worth remembering, as it is so simple.
All you have to do is to cut some hair from the

191

NOOKS AND CORNERS

nape of the invalid child's neck, place it between
a piece of bread and butter, and hand the sandwich
to a dog. If he devours it the malady is cured ;
if he doesn't, well, the life of the dog at least is
spared.

A few miles to the east of the town, in the ad-
joining county, is the famous battlefield of Blore-
heath, where the Houses of Lancaster and York
fought desperately in 1459. The latter under the
Earl of Salisbury came off victorious, while the
commander of Henry's forces was slain. A stone
pedestal marks the spot, originally distinguished
by a wooden cross, where Lord Audley fell.

Of less historical moment but more romantic
interest, is the fact that here close upon a couple
of centuries later the diamond George of Charles 11.
was concealed, while its royal wearer by right was
lurking fifteen miles away at Boscobel. The
eallant Colonel Blag-ue, who had had the charge
of this tell-tale treasure, was captured and thrown
into the Tower, where no less a celebrity than
peaceful Isaak Walton managed to smuggle it.
Blague eventually escaped, and so the George
found its way to the king in France. At Blore
also Buckingham remained concealed, disguised
as a labourer, before he got away into Leicester-,
shire and thence to London and the coast.
" Buckingham's hole," the cave where his grace
was hidden, is still pointed out ; and a very aged

192

GREAT 3IALL, HADDON

/. zoo

GREAT HALL, HADDON

/. ZOO

IN SALOP AND STAFFORDSHIRE

man who lived in the neighbourhood a few years
ago prided himself that he could show the exact
place where the duke fell and broke his arm ;
and he ought to have known, as his great-grand-
father was personally acquainted with "old Elias
Bradshaw," who was present when the accident
happened.

Broughton Hall, a fine old Jacobean mansion,
stands to the east of Blore. It is a gloomy house,
and has some ghostly traditions. We are re-
minded of the rather startling fact that upon
developing a negative of the fine oak staircase
there, the transparent figure of an old woman in
a mob-cap stood in the foreground! Here was
proof positive for the Psychological Society.
But, alas ! careful investigation upset the mystery.
The shadowy outline proved to be painfully
like the ancient housekeeper. The subject had
required a long exposure, and the lady must
have wished to be immortalised, for she certainly
must have stood in front of the lens for at
least a minute or so. It is strange this desire
to be pictured. Any amateur photographer must
have experienced the difficulties to be encoun-
tered in a village street. The hours of twelve
and four are fatal. School children in thousands
will crop up to fill up the foreground. In such
a predicament a friend of ours was inspired
with an ingenious remedy. Having covered his
N 193

NOOKS AND CORNERS

head with the black cloth, he was horrified to
see a myriad of faces instead of the subject
he wished to take. However, he got his focus
adjusted somehow, and having placed his dark
slide in position ready for exposure, he placed
the cloth over the lens-end of the camera as if
focussing in the opposite direction. Immediately
there was a stampede for the other side, with con-
siderable struggling as to who should be foremost.
The cherished little bit of villag-e architecture was
now free, the cloth whipped away, and the ex-
posure given. "Are we all taken in, mister?"
asked one of the boys a httle suspiciously. " Yes,
my lads," was the response given, "you've all
been taken in." And so they had, but went
home rejoicing.

Beside the staircase, there is little of interest
inside Broughton. There was a hiding-place once
in one of the rooms which was screened by an old
oil painting, but it is now merged into tradition.
The road from Newport passes through wild
and romantic scenery. At Croxton, farther to the
east, there is, or was, a Maypole, one of those old-
world villages where ancient customs die hard.
Swinnerton Hall, a fine Queen Anne house to the
north-east, and nearer to Stone, is the seat of the
ancient family of Fitzherbert, the beautiful widow
of one of whose members was in 1785 married to
the Prince Regent, afterwards George iv.

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IN SALOP AND STAFFORDSHIRE

The palatial Hall of Trentham, farther to the
north, is rather beyond our province, being in the
main modern. One grieves that the fine old house
represented in Dr. Plot's quaint history of the
county has passed away ; one grieves, indeed, that
so many of these fine Staffordshire houses are no
more. The irreparable loss of Ingestre Hall,
Wrothesley Hall, Enville Hall, and of Severn
End in the adjoining county, makes one shudder
at the dangers of fire in these ancestral mansions.
Coombe Abbey in Warwickshire was only quite
recently saved from a like fate by Lord Craven's
activity and presence of mind.

But the old gatehouse of Tixall to the east
of Stafford, and Wootton Lodge to the north of
Uttoxeter, fortunately still remain intact. The
former presents much the same appearance as in
Plot's drawing of 1686, but the curious gabled
timber mansion beyond has long since disap-
peared, and the classic building that occupies its
site looks hardly in keeping with so perfect an ex-
ample of Elizabethan architecture. The romantic
situation of Wootton Lodge is well described by
Howitt. The majestic early-Jacobean mansion
(the work of Inigo Jones) has a compactness and
dignity quite its own, and there is nothing like
it anywhere in England, though more classic,
perhaps, than the majority of houses of its period.
It has a battlemented roof surmounted by an

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array of massive chimneys, mullioned windows
innumerable, and a graceful flight of steps
leading to the ornamental porch. It was not
at this stately house that the eccentric Jean
Jacques came to bury himself for over a year,
but at the Hall, a far less picturesque building.
The philosopher and his companion Theresa le
Vasseur were looked at askance by the country
folk; and "old Ross Hall," as they called him,
botanising in the secluded lanes in his strange
striped robe and grotesque velvet cap with gold
tassels and pendant, was a holy terror to the
children. It was supposed he was in search of
"lost spirits," as indeed was the case, for his
melancholia at length led to his departure under
the suspicion that there was a plot to poison
him.

A bee-line drawn across Staffordshire, say from
Bridgnorth in Salop to H addon in Derbyshire,
would intersect some of the most interesting spots.
In addition to Wootton and Ingestre, we have
Throwley Hall, Croxden and Calwich Abbeys,
and Tissington (in Derbyshire) to the north-east
(not to mention Alton and Ham), and Boscobel,
Whiteladies, Tong, etc., to the south-east.

Of Boscobel and Whiteladies we have dealt
with elsewhere too particularly to call for any
fresh description here ; but not so with the
picturesque village of Tong, whose church is

196

IN SALOP AND STAFFORDSHIRE

certainly the most interesting example of early-
Perpendicular architecture in the county. Would
that the interiors of our old churches were as
carefully preserved as is the case here. There
is nothing modern and out of harmony. The
rich oak carvings of the screens and choir stalls ;
the monumental effigies of the Pembrugges,
Pierrepoints, Vernons, and Stanleys ; the Golden
Chapel, or Vernon chantry — all recall nooks and
corners in Westminster Abbey. It was Sir
Edward Stanley, whose recumbent effigy in plate
armour is conspicuous, who married Margaret
Vernon, the sister of the runaway heiress of
Haddon, and thus inherited Tong Castle, as
his brother-in-law did the famous Derbyshire
estate.

The early-Tudor castle was demolished in the
eighteenth century, when the present Strawberry-
Hill Gothic fortress of reddish-coloured stone was
erected by a descendant of the Richard Durant
whose initials may still be seen on the old house
in the Corn Market at Worcester, where Charles ii.
lodged before the disastrous battle.^ Unromantic
as were Georgian squires, as a rule, the Eastern
Gothic architecture of their houses and the fantastic
and unnatural grottoes in their grounds show signs
of sentimental hankering. At Tong they went
one better, for there are traditions of y^olian harps

^ See Flight of the King.
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NOOKS AND CORNERS

set in the masonry of the farmyard of the castle.
The mystic music must indeed have been thrown
unto the winds !

But the Moorish-looking mansion, if architec-
turally somewhat a monstrosity, is nevertheless
picturesque, with its domed roofs and pinnacles.
A fine collection of pictures was dispersed in 1870,
including an interesting portrait of Nell Gwyn,
and of Charles i., which has been engraved.

In the older building (which somewhat resem-
bled old Hendlip Hall) was born the famous seven-
teenth-century beauty. Lady Venetia Digby, nde
Stanley, of whom Vandyck has left us many
portraits, notably the one at Windsor Castle, —
an allegorical picture representing the triumph of
innocence over calumny, for she certainly was a
lady with "a past." The learned and eccentric
Sir Kenelm Digby, her husband, endeavoured to
preserve her charms by administering curious
mixtures, such as viper wine ; and this, though it
was very well meant, probably ended her career
before she was thirty-three. One can scarcely be
surprised that at the post-mortem examination
they discovered but very little brains ; but this her
husband attributed to his viper wine getting into
her head !

Not far from Tong, in a secluded lane, is a tiny
cottage called Hobbal Grange, v/hich is associated
with the wanderings of Charles 11. when a fugitive

198

IN SALOP AND STAFFORDSHIRE

from Worcester. Here lived the mother of the
loyal Penderel brothers, who risked their lives in
harbouring their illustrious guest. We mention
Hobbal more particularly as since the Flight
of the King was written we have had it pointed
out pretty conclusively that " the Grange " of
to-day is only a small portion of the original
*' Grangfe Farm" converted into a labourer's
dwelling. The greater part of the original
house was pulled down in the eighteenth
century. In an old plan, dated 1739, of which
we have a tracing before us, there are no less
than seven buildings comprising the farm, which
was the largest on the Tong estate. In 1855
it was reduced to eighty-six acres. In 17 16,
Richard Penderel's grandson, John Rogers, was
still in residence at Hobbal.

Near Whiteladies is the rival establishment
Blackladies, a picturesque red-brick house with
step-gables and mullioned bays. As the name
implies, this also was a nunnery, but there are but
scanty remains of the original building. There
is a stone cross, and some other fragments are
built into the masonry ; and in the stables may be
seen the chapel, where services were held until
sixty years ago. Part of the moat also remains.
A lane near at hand is still known as "Spirit
Lane," because the Black Nuns of centuries
ago have been seen to walk there.

199

IN NOHTHERN DERBYSHIRE

Our first impression of romantic Derbyshire
vividly recalled one of the opening chapters
of Adain Bede. Having secured lodgings at
a pretty village not many miles from Haddon,
we were somewhat disturbed with nocturnal ham-
merings issuing from an adjacent wheelwright's.
Somebody had had the misfortune to fall into
the river and was drowned, so we learned in
the morning, and the rest we could guess. Some-
what depressed, we were on the point of sallying
forth when the local policeman arrived and de-
manded our presence at the inquest, as one of
the jurymen had failed to put in an appearance.
A cheerful beginning to a holiday !

There is something about dear old Haddon
Hall that makes it quite unique, and few ancient
baronial dwellings are so rich in the poetry of
association. In the first place, though a show
house, one is not admitted by one door and
ejected from another with a jumbled idea of
what we have seen and an undigested store of
historical information. One forgets it is a show

200

COURTYARD, ITADDON

p. 200

p. ZOO

DKAWING-ROO.M, IIADDON

/. 200

WITH DRAWIXO ROOM, H ADDON

/. .'u

WITH DRAW! ^■G-ROO^r, HADDOX

IN NORTHERN DERBYSHIRE

place at all. It is more like the enchanted castle
of the fairy story, where the occupants have been
asleep for centuries ; and in passing through the
grand old rooms one would scarcely be surprised
to encounter people in mediaeval costume, or
knights in clanking armour. The lovers of
historical romance for once will find pictures
of their imagination realised. They can fit in
favourite scenes and characters with no fear
of stumbling across modern "improvements"
to destroy the illusion and bring them back to
the twentieth century. Compare the time-worn
grey old walls of this baronial house with those
of Windsor Castle, and one will see the havoc
that has been done to the latter by centuries
of restoration. Events that have happened at
H addon appear to us real ; but at Windsor, so
full of historic memories, there is but little to
assist the imagination.

The picturesqueness of Haddon is enhanced
by its lack of uniformity. The rooms and court-
yards and gardens are all on different levels, and
we are continually climbing up or down stairs.
The first ascent to the great entrance gate is
precipitous, and some of the stone steps are
almost worn away v/ith use. Entering the first
courtyard (there are two, with buildings around
each) there is another ascent, with a quaint
external staircase beyond, leading to the State

20I

NOOKS AND CORNERS

apartments, and to the left again there are steps
by which the entrance of the banqueting-hall
is reached.

Opposite is the chapel, with its panelled, balus-
traded pews and two-decker Jacobean pulpit, which
is very picturesque ; and the second courtyard be-
yond, to the south of which is the Long Gallery
or ball-room, with bay-windows looking upon the
upper garden, from which ascend those well-known
and much photographed balustraded stone steps
to the shaded terrace-walk and winter garden,
above which, and approached by another flight
of steps, is Dorothy Vernon's Walk, a romantic
avenue of lime and sycamore. Facing the steps
and screened by a great yew tree is yet another
flight, with ball-surmounted pillars, leading to the
" Lord's Parlour," or Orange Parlour as it was
formerly called ; and from this picturesque exit
the Haddon heiress eloped with the gallant
John Manners, and by so doing brought the
noble estate into the possession of the Dukes
of Rutland.

An elaborately carved Elizabethan doorway
leads here from the ball-room, which is rich in
carved oak panelling and has a coved ceiling
bearing- the arms and crest of the Manners and
Vernons. By repute, all the woodwork, including
the circular oak steps leading to the apartment,
was cut from a single tree in the park. The

202

IN NORTHERN DERBYSHIRE

ash-grey colour of the wood is caused by a
hght coat of distemper, which it has been
surmised was added at some time to give it the
appearance of cedar. Not many years ago there
was a controversy upon this subject, which resulted
in some ill-advised person obtaining leave to anoint
a portion of the panelling with boiled oil. The
result was disastrous, and led to an indignant
outcry from artists and architects ; but fortunately
the act of vandalism was stopped in time, and
the muddy substance removed. The wainscoting
consists of a series of semicircular arches divided
by fluted and ornamental pillars of different heights
and sizes, the smaller panels being surmounted by
the shields of arms and crests of the ancient
owners of the Hall, above which is a bold
turreted and battlemented cornice.

The old banqueting-hall is rather cosier looking
than the famous hall of Penshurst. The narrow,
long oak table with its rustic settle is somewhat
similar, but later in character than those at
Penshurst, and has a grotesque arrangement
of projecting feet. The hall is all nooks and
corners. Below a projecting gallery is a recess
for the wide well-staircase, with its little gates
to keep the dogs downstairs, and a lattice-paned
window lighting up the uneven lines of the
floor. The walls are panelled, and there is a
wide open fireplace, and the screen has Gothic

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NOOKS AND CORNERS

carvings. Attached to the framework is an iron
bracelet, to enforce the duty of a man drinking
his due portion in the good old days. The
penalty was before him, so should he fail, he
knew his lot, namely, to have the contents of the
capacious black jack emptied down his sleeve.
The withdrawing-room to the south of the hah
is richly wainscoted in carved oak, with a recessed
window containing a fixed settle and a step lead
ing down to a genuine cosy-corner. There are
some who believe our ancestors had no idea of
comfort ; but picture this fine old room in the
winter, with blazing logs upon the fantastic
fire - dogs, the warm red light playing upon
the various armorial carvings of the frieze, and
the quaint little oriel window half-cast in shadow.
The apartment immediately above has a still more
elaborate frieze of ornamental plaster above the
rich tapestry hangings, and the bay-window in
the wainscoted recess, like that beneath, looks
upon the gardens, with the graceful terrace on
the left and the winding Wye and venerable
bridge below. The circular brass fire-dogs are
remarkable.^ The "Earl's Bedchamber" and
" Dressing- Room " and the " Lady's Dressing-
Room " have tapestried walls and snug recessed
windows. The " State Bedroom " was formerly

^ They have been reproduced most carefully for the drawing-
room of the Cedar House at Hillingdon.

204

IN NORTHERN DERBYSHIRE

the "Blue Drawing- room." This also is hung"
with tapestry, and the recessed window has a
heavy ornamental frieze above. Near the lofty
plumed bedstead, with green silk-velvet hangings,
is a queer old cradle, which formerly was in the
chaplain's room on the right-hand side of the
entrance gate. But to describe the numerous
rooms in detail would be tedious. Everything
is on a huge and ponderous scale in the kitchens
and offices ; one is almost reminded of the giant's
kitchen in the pantomime. Among the curious
and obsolete instruments one encounters here
and there, there is a wooden instrument like a
colossal boot-jack for stringing bows. It stands
against the wall as if it were in daily use. Though
there is some good old furniture, one would wish
to see the rooms less bare. But let us turn to the
famous Belvoir manuscripts, which not so very
long ago were discovered much rat-eaten in a
loft of that historic seat of the Earls of Rutland.
It is interesting after a visit to Haddon to dip
into these papers and get some idea of what the
old Hall was like in its most flourishing days.
The great bare ballroom must have looked very
grand in the days of Charles i., with the coved
ceiling brilliant with paint and gilt. In addition to
a "gilded organ," were two " harpsicalls " and a
" viall chest with a bandora and vialls ; a shovel-
board table on tressels ; a large looking-glass

205

NOOKS AND COllNERS

of seventy-two glasses, and four pictures of
shepherds and shepherdesses." Sixteen suits of
armour adorned the screen of the great hall.
The massive oaken tables and cabinets displayed
a wealth of silver and gilt plate, including a
"greate quilte doble sault with a peacock" (the
crest of the Manners) " on the top " ; silver basins,
ewers, and drinking bowls ; a warming-pan, two
little boats ; four porringers with spoons for the
children, a "maudlin" cup and cover, etc.

Among the rooms were the " Green Chamber,"
the " Rose Chamber," the " Great Chamber," the
" Best Lodging," the " Hunters' Chamber," the
"School-house Chamber," the "Nursery," the
" Smoothing Chamber," the " Partridge Chamber,"
"Windsor," the "Little Gallery," etc. "The
uppermost chamber in the nether tower " is almost
suggestive of something gruesome, while " my
mistress's sweetmeat closet " sounds tempting ; and
a list of contents included things to make the
juvenile palate water — "Glasses of apricots,
marmalett, and currants, cherry marmalett, dried
pears and plums and apricots, preserved and grated
oranges, raspberry and currant cakes, conserved
roses, syrup of violets," etc. These things perhaps
are trivial, but there is a domesticity about them
by which we may think of H addon as a country
home as well as a historic building.

Haddon ceased to be a residence of the Dukes
206

IN NORTHERN DERBYSHIRE

of Rutland more than a century ago. In the days
of the Merry Monarch the ninth earl kept open
house in a very lavish style. It is said the
servants alone amounted to one hundred and
forty ; and capacious as are the ancient walls, it
is a marvel how they all were housed. The
romantic Dorothy, who a century before ran away
upon the evening of a great ball, was the daughter
of the " King of the Peak," Sir George Vernon,
thus nicknamed for his lordly and open-handed
way of living. She died in 1584, and Sir George
Manners, the eldest of her four children, sided
with the Parliament during the Civil Wars. But
his mode of living was by no means puritanical,
and H addon was kept up in its traditional lavish
style. In Bakewell church there is a fine marble
tomb representing him and his wife and children,
as well as the tomb of the famous Dorothy and
her husband. Sir John Manners. The family
crest, a Peacock in his pride, that is, with his
tail displayed, so conspicuous with the Vernon
boar's head in the panelling and parqueting of
Haddon, gives its name to the most delightful
of ancient hostelries at Rowsley. The proximity
of the mansion must have made its fortune over
and over again, apart from its piscatorial attrac-
tions. The gable ends and latticed windows, and
the ivy-grown batdemented porch and trim gardens,
are irresistible, and no one could wish for

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NOOKS AND CORNERS

quarters more in harmony with the old baronial
Hall.

In striking contrast to the sturdy ruggedness
of hoary H addon is princely Chatsworth. The
comparison may be likened to that between a
mediaeval knight and a gorgeous cavalier. The
art treasures and sumptuous magnificence of
Chatsworth, the elaborate and graceful carvings
(which by the way are not nearly all by the hand
of Gibbons, but by a local man named Samuel
Watson), and the beauty of the gardens, make it
rightly named the "Palace of the Peak," But it
is its association with the luckless Mary Queen of
Scots which adds romantic interest to the mansion,
— not that the existing classical structure can claim
that honour, for nothing now remains of the older
building, a battlemented Tudor structure with
an entrance like the gatehouse of Kenilworth
Castle, and a "gazebo" on either side of the
western front. It is odd, however, that Lord
Burleio^h should have selected it as "a mete house
for good preservation" of a prisoner "having no
toure of resort wher any ambushes might lye," for
there were no less than eight towers, but pre-
sumably not the kind the Lord High Treasurer
meant. During her twelve years' captivity in
Sheffield (where, by the way, " Queen Mary's
Chamber," with its curious heraldic ceiling, may
still be seen in the manor-house), she was fre-

208

DOORWAY, IIAUDON

^. iuu

INTKKIOR (UUKTVAKl), HAUDON

/. 200

GREAT HALL, HADUON

/. 2on

f>. SlO

IIAKDWK'K IIAI.I,

IN NORTHERN DERBYSHIRE

quently at Chatsworth and WIngfield Manor
under the guardianship of George Talbot, sixth
Earl of Shrewsbury, the fourth husband of that
remarkable woman, Bess of Hardwick, who was
not a little jealous of her husbands fascinating
captive, and circulated various scandalous stories,
about which the Earl thought fit to justify himself
in his own epitaph in St. Peter's church, Sheffield.
When the important prisoner was under his custody
in that town, she was not permitted to go beyond
the courtyard, and usually took her exercise upon
the leads. But at Chatsworth her surveillance was
less strict, although truly John Beaton, the master
of her household (who predeceased his mistress,
and was buried at Edensor close by, where a
brass to his memory remains), had strict instruc-
tions regarding her. Her attendants, thirty-nine
in all, were none of them allowed to go beyond
the precincts of the grounds without special
permission, nor was anybody allowed to wait
upon the queen between nine o'clock at night
and six in the morning. None were sanctioned
to carry arms ; and when the fair prisoner wished
to take the air, Lord Shrewsbury had to be
informed an hour beforehand, that he and his
staff might be upon the alert. One can picture
Mary and her maids of honour engaged in
needlework upon the picturesque moated and
balustraded stone "Bower" near the river, with
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NOOKS AND CORNERS

guards around ever on the watch. This and the
old Hunting-tower high up among the trees, a
massive structure with round EHzabethan towers,
are the only remains to take us back to the
days of the Scots queen's captivity.

To see Chatsworth to perfection it should be
visited when the wooded heights in the back-
ground are rich in their autumnal colouring. The
approach from Beeley village through the park
and alonof the bank of the Derwent at this
season of the year, and the view from the house
and avenues of the river and park, are particularly
beautiful. The elaborate waterworks recall the
days of the grand monarque, and an al fresco
shower-bath may be enjoyed beneath a copper
willow tree, the kind of practical joke that was
popular in the old Spring Gardens in London
in Charles ii.'s time. In addition to the splendid
paintings, are numerous sketches by Raphael,
Michael Angelo, Titian, etc., which came from
the famous forty days' sale of 1682, when the
works collected by Sir Peter Lely were dispersed.

Of the stately mansions erected by Bess of
Hardwick, the building Countess of Shrewsbury,
— Chatsworth, Oldcotes, Hardwick, Bolsover, and
Worksop, — Hardwick is the most untouched and
perfect. The last remaining bit of the older
Chatsworth House was removed just a century
after Bess's death, so the present building

210

IN NORTHERN DERBYSHIRE

must not be associated with her name, nor
indeed can any rooms at Hardwick have been
occupied by Mary Queen of Scots, as is some-
times stated, for the house was not begun until
after her death. If the queen was ever at
Hardwick, it was in the older mansion, of which
very considerable ruins remain. The error, of
course, arises from one of the rooms at Hardwick
being named " Mary Queen of Scots' room,"
which contains the bed and furniture from the
room she occupied at Chatsworth ; and the velvet
hangings of the bed bearing her monogram, and the
rich coverlet, are indeed in her own needle-work.

Bess of Hardwick in many respects was like
her namesake the strong-minded queen ; and
when her fourth better-half had gained his experi-
ence and sought sympathy from the Bishop of
Lichfield, he received the followinsf consolino-
reply : "Some will say in yo'^ L. behalfe tho' the
Countesse is a sharpe and bitter shrewe, and,
therefore, licke enough to shorten y"" life, if shee
shulde kepe you company. Indede, my good Lo.
I have heard some say so ; but if shrewdnesse or
sharpnesse may be a just cause of sep[ar]acon
betweene a man and wiefe, I thinke fewe men in
Englande woulde keepe their wiefes longe ; for it
is a common jeste, yet treue in some sense, that
there is but one shrewe in all the worlde, and evy
man hathe her ; and so evy man might be rydd of

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NOOKS AND CORNERS

his wife, that wolde be rydd of a shrewe." But
with all her faults the existence of Hardwick
and Bolsover alone will cover a multitude of
sins. A fortune-teller predicted that so long as
she kept building she would never die ; and had
not the severity of the winter of 1607 thrown her
masons out of employment, her ladyship might
have survived to show us what she could do
with the vacant space at Aldwych.

There is something peculiarly majestic and
stately about Hardwick Hall. It is one mass of
lofty windows. It is rarely occupied as a dwell-
ing, and one would like to see it lighted up
like Chatsworth at Christmas time. But with
the setting sun shining on the windows it looks a
blaze of light — a huge beacon in the distance.
With the exception of the ornamental stone
parapet of the roofs, in which Bess' initials " E.S."
stand out conspicuously, the mansion is all
horizontal and perpendicular lines ; but the
regularity is relieved by the broken outline of
the garden walls, with their picturesque array of
tall halberd-like pinnacles.

Like Knole and Ham House, the interior is
untouched, and every room is in the same condi-
tion since the time of its erection. Some of the
wonderful old furniture came from the older
Chatsworth House, including, as before stated,
the bedroom furniture of Mary Queen of Scots.

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IN NORTHERN DERBYSHIRE

Nowhere in England may be seen finer tapestries
than at Hardwick ; they give a wealth of colour
to the interior, and in the Presence-chamber the
parget-work in high relief is also richly coloured.
Here is Queen Elizabeth's State chair overhung
by a canopy, and the Royal arms and supporters
are depicted on the pargeting. The tapestries
lining the walls of the grand stone staircase are
superb, and the silk needlework tapestry in some
of the smaller rooms a feast of colour. Every-
where are the orrandest old cushioned chairs and
settees, and inlaid cabinets and tables. The
picture-gallery extends the entire length of the
house, and abounds in historical portraits, including
Bess of Hardwick dressed in black, perhaps for
one of her many husbands, with a black head-dress,
large ruff, and chain of pearls. Here also is a full-
length portrait of her rival, the luckless queen, very
sad and very pale, painted, during her nineteen
years of captivity, at Sheffield in 1678, and a por-
trait of her little son James at the age of eight, — a
picture sent to comfort the poor mother in her
seclusion. The future king's cold indifference to
his mother's fate was not the least unpleasant trait
of his selfish character. In a discourse between Sir
John Harrington and the monarch, the latter did
his best to avoid any reference to the poor queen's
fate ; but he might have saved himself the trouble,
for he was more affected by the superstitious

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omens preceding her execution. His Highness,
he says, " told me her death was visible in Scotland
before it did really happen, being, as he said,
spoken of in secret by those whose power of sight
presented to them a bloody head dancing in the
air." From James we may turn to little Lady
Arabella Stuart in a white gown, nursing a doll
in still more antiquated costume, in blissful ignor-
ance of her unhappy future. She was the grand-
daughter of Bess of Hardwick, and was born at
Chatsworth close upon the time when the Queen
of Scots was there. Looking at these two
portraits of this baby and the boy, it is difficult
to imaoine that the latter should have sent his
younger cousin to linger away her life and lose
her reason in the Tower from the fact that she had
the misfortune to be born a Stuart.

Horace Walpole in speaking of this room says :
" Here and in all the great mansions of that age
is a gallery remarkable only for its extent." But
it is remarkable for its two huge fireplaces of
black marble and alabaster, for its fine moulded
plaster ceiling, for its fifteenth-century tapestry, and
quaint Elizabethan easy-chairs. The great hall
is a typical one of the period, with open screen
and balustraded gallery, a flat ceiling, big open
fireplace, and walls embellished with antlers and
ancient pieces of armour. When the mansion
was completed in 1597 the older one was discarded

214

IN NORTHERN DERBYSHIRE

and the furniture removed, and the walls were
gradually allowed to fall into ruin. It is now
but a shell ; but one may get a good idea of the
style of building and extent, as well as of the
internal decorations. It appears to be of Tudor
date, almost Elizabethan in character, and over
the wide fireplaces are colossal figures in bold
relief, emblematic, perhaps, of the giant energy of
Bess of Hardwick, who spent the greater part of
her lifetime in those old rooms. Tradition says
she died immensely rich, but without a friend.
She survived her fourth husband seventeen years
and was interred in the church of All-Saints',
Derby, where the mural monument of her recum-
bent efiigy had been erected under her own
superintendence.

To the south-west of Hardwick, and midway
between Derby and Sheffield, are the ruinous
remains of another old residence of Lord Shrews-
bury's, associated with the captivity of Mary Queen
of Scots. This is South Wingfield manor-house,
whither she was removed from Tutbury Castle
prior to her first sojourn at Chatsworth, and
whence she was removed back to Tutbury in 1 585.
By this time Shrewsbury had freed himself of the
responsible custodianship : a thankless and trying
office, for Elizabeth was ever suspicious that he
erred on the side of leniency. A letter addressed
from Wingfield Manor, from Sir Ralph Sadleir

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NOOKS AND CORNEKS

to John Manners, among the Belvoir manuscripts,
and dated January 6, 1584-85, runs as follows:
" The queenes majestie hath given me in chardge
to remove the Queene of Scots from hence to
Tutbury, and to the end she should be the better
accompanyed and attended from thither, her
highness hath commanded me to gyve warning to
some of the gentlemen of best reputation in this
contry to prepare themselfs to attend upon her at
the time of her removing. I have thought good to
signify the same unto you emonge others, and to
require you on her Majesties behalf to take so much
paine as to be heere at Wingfield upon Wednes-
day the xiiith of this moneth at a convenient
tyme before noone to attend upon the said queene
the same day to Derby and the next day after to
Tutbury." Of the State apartments occupied by
her there are no remains beyond an external wall,
but the battlemented tower with which they
communicated, and from which the royal prisoner
is said to have been in secret touch with her
friends, is still tolerably perfect.

In the Civil War the brave old manor-house
stood out stoutly for the Royalists, but at length
was taken by Lord Grey. The governor,
Colonel Dalby, was on the point of making his
escape from the stables in disguise when he was
recognised and shot. The stronghold shortly
afterwards was dismantled, but in Charles 11. 's

216

/■ ~J9

GATEWAY, KMjWM lliiKI'l'. liALL

/• 2J0

TOMB, DARFIELD CHURCH

IN NORTHERN DERBYSHIRE

reign was patched up again and made a residence,
and so it continued until little more than a century
ago. The village of Ashover, midway between
Wingfield and Chesterfield, is charmingly situated
on the river Amber amidst most picturesque
scenery. Here in 1660, says the parish register, a
certain Dorothy Matly " forswore herself, where-
upon the ground opened and she sank overhead ! "
There are some old tombs to the Babingtons, of
which family was Anthony of Dethick-cum-Lea,
nearer Matlock, where are slight remains of
the old family seat incorporated in a farmhouse.
As is well known, it was the seizure of the
Queen of Scots' correspondence with this
young desperado, who with Tichborne, Salis-
bury, and other associates was plotting Elizabeth's
assassination, that hastened her tragic end at
Fotheringay.

Bolsover Castle, which lies directly north of
Hard wick, has a style of architecture peculiar to
itself. It is massive, and grim, and prison-like,
with a strange array of battlements and pinnacles ;
and Bess of Hardwick showed her genius in
making it as different as possible from her other
residences. And the interior is as fantastic and
original as the exterior. Altogether there is
something suggestive of the fairy-tale castle ; and
the main entrance, guarded by a giant overhead
and bears on either side, has something ogre-like

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NOOKS AND CORNERS

about it. The rooms are vaulted and supported
by pillars, some of them in imitation of the earlier
castle of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They
are a peculiar mixture of early - English and
Renaissance, but the effect is very pleasing and
picturesque. The main arches of the ceiling of
the " Pillar parlour " are panelled and rest on
Elizabethan vaulting - shafts, and the ribs are
centred in heavy bosses. The semicircular inter-
sections of the walls are wainscoted walnut wood,
richly gilt and elaborately carved, and there are
early-Jacobean hooded fireplaces and queer old
painted and inlaid doors and window-shutters.
The largest of these rooms is the " Star
chamber," so called from the golden stars on
the ceiling depicted on blue ground, representing
the firmament. In these gorgeous rooms Charles i.
was sumptuously entertained by the first Duke
of Newcastle. In what is called the " Riding
house," a roofless Jacobean ruin of fine proportions,
Ben Jonson's masque. Loves Welcome, was per-
formed before the king and queen. Clarendon
speaks of the stupendous entertainment (that cost
some fifteen thousand pounds) and excess of
feasting, which, he says, "God be thanked! — no
man ever after imitated." The duke (then
marquis), who had been the king's tutor, was a
playwriter of some repute, though Pepys does not
speak highly of his ability, saying his works were

218

IN NORTHERN DERBYSHIRE

silly and tedious/ His eccentric wife had also
literary inclinations, and wrote, among other
things, a high-flown biography of her spouse,
which the Diarist said showed her to be "a mad,
conceited, ridiculous woman, and he an asse to
suffer her to write what she writes to him and of
him." This romantic and theatrical lady was one
of the sights of London when she came to town
in her extravagant and antiquated dress, and
always had a laro-e crowd around her. The
practical joke played upon her at the ball at
Whitehall, mentioned in de Gramont's Memoirs,
is amusing, but commands our sympathy, and
is a specimen of the bad taste of Society at the
time.

The romantic situation of the castle, perched
upon a steep promontory overlooking a dense mass
of trees, must have been quite to the old duchess's
taste ; and one can picture her walking in state
in the curious old gardens as she appears in her
theatrical-looking portrait at Welbeck. Accord-
ing to local tradition there is a subterranean
passage leading from the castle to the church,
which was formerly entered by a secret staircase
running from the servants' hall ; and there are
stories of a hidden chapel beneath the crypt, and
ghosts in Elizabethan ruffles. The Cavendish
Chapel in the church was erected by Bess of

"^ Pepys' Diary, March i8, 1667-68.
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NOOKS AND CORNERS

Hardvvick's younger son, Sir Charles Caven-
dish, father of the first Duke of Newcastle,
and contains his tomb, a gorgeous Jacobean
monument.

Some of the remote villages in the wild and
beautiful Peak district have strong- faith in
their traditional superstitions and customs. An
excellent way for a young damsel to discover
who her future husband is to be is to go to
the churchyard on St. Valentine's Eve, and when
the clock strikes the hour of midnight, if she
runs round the church she will see the happy
man running after her. It has never been known
to fail, perhaps from the fact that it has never
been tried, for it is very doubtful if a girl could
be found in Derbyshire or any other county
with sufficient pluck to test it. An old remedy
for the toothache was to attract the " worm "
into a glass of water by first inhaling the smoke
of some dried herbs. Those who had plenty
of faith, and some imagination, have actually
seen the tiny offender. Maypoles and the parish
stocks are still to be found in nooks and corners
of the Peak and farther south, and that pretty
custom once prevailed of hanging garlands in
memory of the village maidens who died young.
From a little crown made of cardboard, with
paper rosettes and ornaments, pairs of gloves
cut out of paper were suspended fingers down-

220

IN NORTHERN DERBYSHIRE

wards, with the name of the young deceased and
her age duly recorded upon them. And so they
hang from the oak beams of the roof. In Ashford
church, near H addon, there is quite a collection
of them suspended from a pole in the north aisle.
The oldest dates from 1747, but the custom
was discontinued about ninety years ago. In
Hampshire, however, these "virgins' crowns"
are still made. At the ancient village church
of Abbotts Ann, near Andover, there are
about forty of them, and only the other day
one was added with due ceremony. The garland
was made of thin wood covered with paper, and
decorated with black and white rosettes, with
fine paper gloves suspended in the middle. It
was carried before the coffin by two young girls
dressed in white, with white shawls and hoods,
who each held one end of a white wand from
which the crown depended. During the service
it was placed upon the coffin by one of the
bearers, and at the close was again suspended
from the wand and borne to the grave. It was
afterwards laid on a thin iron rod branching from
a small shield placed high up on the wall of the
nave of the church. One of these garlands may
still be seen in St. Albans Abbey.

Another pretty custom is that of "well-
dressing," which yet survives at the village of
Tissington above Ashbourne, and of recent

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NOOKS AND CORNERS

years has been revived in other Derbyshire
villages, like the modern modified May - day
festivities. It dates from the time of the
Emperor Nero, when the philosopher Lucius
Seneca told the people that they should show
their gratitude to the natural springs by erecting
altars and offering sacrifices. The floral tributes
of to-day, which are placed around the wells and
springs on Holy Thursday, are of various devices,
made mostly of wild flowers bearing biblical texts ;
and the village maidens take these in formal
procession and present them after a little con-
secration service in the church. One would like
to see this pretty custom revived in other counties.

At Hathersage, beautifully situated among the
hills some eight miles above Bakewell, Oak
Apple Day is kept in memory by suspending a
wreath of flowers on one of the pinnacles of the
church tower. The interior, with its faded green
baize-lined box-pews duly labelled with brass
plates bearing the owners' names, has a charming
old-world appearance. In the church is a fine
altar-tomb and brasses to the Eyres of North
Lees, an ancient house among the hills of the
Hoodbrook valley.

The ancient ceremony of rush-bearing at
Glossop, formerly connected with the church, has,
we understand, degenerated into a "public-house
show"; which is a pity. In Huntingdonshire,

222

IN NORTHERN DERBYSHIRE

however, there was until some years back a
somewhat similar custom of strewing green rushes,
from the banks of the river Ouse, on the floor of
the old church of Fenstanton, near St. Ives ; but
in Old Weston, in the same county, newly mown
grass is still strewn upon the floor of the parish
church upon the village feast Sunday : the festival
of St. Swithin. The original ceremony of " rush-
bearing," a survival of the ancient custom of
strewing the floors of dwellings with marsh rushes,
was a pretty sight. A procession of village
maidens, dressed in white, carried the bundles of
rushes into the church (accompanied, of course, by
the inevitable band), and hung garlands of flowers
upon the chancel rails. The festival at Glossop,
and in places in the adjoining county of Cheshire,
however, was more like the last survival of
May - day : the monopoly of sweeps, — a cart-
load of rushes was drawn round the village
by gaily bedecked horses with a motley band of
morris-dancers accompanying it, who, having made
a collection, resorted to the public-house before
taking their bundles to the church. Had they
reversed the order of things it is possible the
custom in some places would have been suffered
to continue. Until a comparatively recent date
the floor of Norwich Cathedral was strewn with
rushes on Mayor's day ; and there is still pre-
served among the civic treasures a wonderful

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NOOKS AND CORNERS

green wickerwork dragon hobby-horse, or rather
hobby-dragon, with wings, and movable jaws
studded with nails for teeth, which always made
its appearance in the streets on these days of
public festival.

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NOOKS IN YORKSHIRE

In a journey across our largest county, so famous
for its grand cathedrals and ruined castles and
abbeys, one could not wish for greater variety
either in scenery or association. Between the
Queen of Scots' prison in Sheffield Manor and
the reputed Dotheboys Hall a few miles below
the mediaeval-looking town of Barnard Castle,
there is vast difference of romance ; and yet what
more unromantic places than Bowes or Sheffield !
Indeed, take them all round, the towns and villages
of Yorkshire have a grey and dreary look about
them ; and the houses partake of the pervading
character, or want of character, of the busy
manufacturing centres. But the natural scenery
is quite another matter, and with such lovely
surroundings one often sighs that the picturesque
and the utilitarian are so opposed to one another.
We do not, however, merely allude to the buildings
in the southern part of the county, for many
villages in the prettiest parts have nothing
architecturally attractive about their houses.
The snug creeper-clad cottage, so familiar in the
p 225

NOOKS AND CORNERS

south of England, is, comparatively speaking, a
rarity, and one misses the warmth of colour amid
the everlasting grey.

The express having dropped us in nearly the
southernmost corner, our object is to get out of
the busy town of Sheffield as quickly as possible ;
but, as before stated, romance lingers around the
remains of the ancient seat of the sixth Earl of
Shrewsbury, who lies buried in the parish church,
for under his charge the Scots' queen remained
here a prisoner for many years ; and Wolsey, too,
was brought here on his way to Leicester.

Upon the road to Barnsley there is little to
delay us until we come to a turning to the right a
couple of miles or so to the south of the town.
After the continual chimney - shafts the little
village of Worsborough is refreshing. The
church has many points of interest. The entrance
porch has a fine oak ceiling with carved bosses,
and the orioinal oak door is decorated with carved
oak tracery. The most interesting thing within is
the monument to Sir Roger Rockley, a sixteenth-
century knight whose effigy in armour lies beneath
a canopy supported by columns very much re-
sembling a four-poster of the time of Henry vii.
The similarity is heightened by the fact that the
tomb is entirely of carved oak, painted and gilded.
The bed, however, has two divisions, and beneath
the recumbent wooden effigy of Sir Roger with

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NOOKS IN YORKSHIRE

staring white eyes, is the gruesome figure of a
skeleton in a shroud, also made more startling
by its colouring. How the juvenile Wors-
boroughites must dread this spectre, for its position
in the church is conspicuous ! There is a brass to
Thomas Edmunds, secretary to William, Earl of
Strafford, who lived in the manor-house close by,
a plain stone gabled house with two wings and a
small central projection. It is a gloomy looking
place, and once possessed some gloomy relics of
the martyr king, including the stool upon which
he knelt on Whitehall scaffold. These relics
belonged to Sir Thomas Herbert, the close
attendant upon Charles during the later days
of his imprisonment, and descended to the
Edmunds family by the marriage of his widow
with Henry Edmunds of Worsborough.^ The
park presumably has become public property, and
the road running through it is much patronised by
the black-faced gentlemen of the neighbouring
collieries. Nor are the kidies of the mining
districts picturesque, although they seem to
affect the costume of the dames of old Peru by
showing scarcely more than an eye beneath their
shawls.

Some three miles to the west of Worsboroufjh is
Wentworth Castle (a successor to the older castle,

^ We have described these relics (now in the possession of Mrs.
Martin-Edmunds) in detail in the Memoirs of the Martyr King.

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NOOKS AND CORNERS

the remains of which stood on the high ground
above), called by some Stainborough Hall to
distinguish it from Wentvvorth Woodhouse. The
historic house stands high, commanding fine views,
but marred by mining chimney-shafts on the
adjacent hills. The exterior of the mansion is
classic and formal, and exteriorly there is little
older than the time of George i. ; the interior,
however, takes us back another century or more,
and the panelled porters' hall and carved black
oak staircase were old when powdered wigs were
introduced. In Queen Anne's State rooms and
in the cosy ante-chambers there are rich tapestries,
wonderful old cabinets, and costly china, reminding
one of the treasures of Holland House. But
the finest room is the picture gallery, one hundred
and eighty feet in length and twenty-four feet in
breadth, and very lofty. The ceiling represents
the sky with large gold stars, and has a curious
effect of making it appear much higher than it
really is. It belongs to the time of the second
Earl of Strafford, who built all this part of the
house. The unfortunate first earl looks down
from the wall with dark melancholy eyes : a
face full of character and determination, and
different vastly from the dreamy weakness revealed
in the profile of the sovereign who cut his head
off The despotic ruler of Ireland is said to walk
the chambers of the castle with his head under his

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NOOKS IN YORKSHIRE

arm, which, strangely enough, seems to be the
fashion with decapitated ghosts ; and Strafford
is a busy ghost, for he has to divide his haunting
among two other mansions, Wentworth Wood-
house and Temple Newsam. Here is Oliver,
too, who made as great a mistake as Charles did
by resorting to the axe. The young Earl of
Pembroke looks handsome in his lono- fair rinoflets :
and so does the youthful Henrietta, Baroness
Wentworth (a pretty childish figure fondling a
dog), whose end was every way as tragic as her
kinsman's.

Many of the bedrooms are named after birds
and flowers, a pretty idea that we have not met
elsewhere. The colour blue predominates in
those we call to mind, namely, the " Blue-tit
room," the " Kingfisher room," the " Peacock
room," the "Cornflower room," and the "For-
get-me-not room." Just outside the park, near
a house that was formerly kept as a menagerie,
is a comfortable old-fashioned inn, the " Strafford
Arms," the landlord of which was butler to two
o^enerations of the Vernon-Wentworths, and in
consequence he is quite an authority on genea-
logical matters ; and where his memory does not
serve, has Debrett handy at his elbow. Being
a Somersetshire man he has brought the hospi-
tality of the western counties with him to the
northern heights. He points with pride to the

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NOOKS AND CORNERS

cricket-ground behind the inn, the finest "pitch"
in Yorkshire.

Let us avoid the town of Barnsley and turn
eastwards towards Darfield, whose interest is
centred in its church. The ceiHngs of the aisles,
presumably like the picture gallery at Wentworth
Castle, are supposed to represent the heavens,
but the colour is inclined to be sea-green, and the
clouds and stars are feathery. A fine Perpendicu-
lar font is surmounted by an elaborate Jacobean
cover ; opposite, at the east end of the church, is
a fine but rather dilapidated tomb of a fourteenth-
century knight and his dame, and the effigy of
the latter gives a good idea of the costume of
Richard ii.'s time. Upon a wooden stand close
by there is a chained Bible, and the support looks
so light that one would think the whole could
be carried off bodily, until one tries its prodigious
weio-ht.

Another tomb, of the Willoughbys of Parham,
bears upon it some strange devices, including an
owl with a crown upon its head. The seventeenth-
century oak pews and some earlier ones with
carved bench - ends, add considerably to the
interest of the interior. The ancient coffer in
the vestry, as well as a carved oak chest and
chairs, must not pass unnoticed.

Barnborough to the east, and Great Houghton
to the north-east, are both famous in their way ;

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NOOKS IN YORKSHIRE

the former for a traditional fight between a man
and a wild cat, which for ferocity knocked points
off the Kilkenny record. The Hall was once
the property of Sir Thomas More (another of
those beheaded martyrs who are doomed to walk
the earth with their heads under their arms), and
contains a "priest's hole," which, had it existed
in the Chancellor's day, might have tempted him
to try and save his life. Great Houghton Hall,
the ancient seat of the Roders (a brass to
whom may be seen in Darfield church), is
now an inn, indeed has been an inn for over
half a century. Once having been a stately
mansion, it has an air of mystery and romance ;
and there are rumours that before it lost caste,
in the transition stage between private and
public life, one of its chambers remained draped
in black, in mourning for the Earl of Strafford's
beheading on Tower Hill in 1641. It is a huge
building of many mullioned windows and pinnacled
gables ; but within the last two years the upper
part of the big bays of the front have been
destroyed, and a verandah introduced which spoils
this side, and whoever planned this alteration can
have had but little reverence for ancient buildings.
The rooms on the ground floor are mostly bare ;
but ascending a wide circular stone staircase,
with carved oak arches overhead, there are
pleasant surprises in store. You step into the

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NOOKS AND CORNERS

spacious " Picture gallery," devoid of ancestral
portraits truly, but with panelled walls and Tudor
doorways. The mansion was stripped of its
furniture over a century and a half ago, but
there are chairs of the Chippendale period to
compensate, and a great wardrobe of the Stuart
period too big presumably to get outside. Two
bedrooms are panelled from floor to ceiling and
have fine overmantels, one of which has painted
panels depicting "Life" and "Death." But a
great portion of the house is dilapidated, and
to see its ornamental plaster ceilings one would
have to risk disappearing through the floors
below, like the demon in the pantomime. Mine
host of the "Old Hall Inn" is genuinely sym-
pathetic, and is quite of the opinion that the
oak fittings that have been removed would look
best in their original position ; and this is only
natural, for he has lived there all his life, and
his mother was born in the house ; and he proudly
points at the Jacobean pew in the adjacent
church where as a child he sat awestruck, hold-
ing his grandfather's hand while the good old
gentleman took his forty winks. The little
church in its cabbage-grown enclosure is quite
an untouched gem, with formal array of seven-
teenth-century pews with knobby ends, a fine
carved oak pulpit and sounding-board. Its
exterior is non-ecclesiastical in appearance, with

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NOOKS IN YORKSHIRE

rounded stone balustrade ornamentation. While
photographing the building an interested party
observed that he had lived at Houghton all
his life, but had never observed there was a
door on that side, — a proof that residents in
a place rarely see the most familiar objects.
Nevertheless, he discovered the door of the
"Old Hall," and entered.

Pontefract Castle, so rich in historical associa-
tions, is disappointing, because there is so little
of it left. It is difficult in these fragmentary
but ponderous walls to imagine the fortress as
it appeared in the days of Elizabeth. From an
ancient print of that time it looks like a fortified
city, with curious pinnacles and turrets upon its
many towers. The great round towers of the
keep had upon the summit quite a collection, like
intermediate pawns and castles from a chessboard.
The curtain walls connected seven round towers,
and there were a multitude of square towers within.
There is something very suggestive of the Duncan-
Macbeth stronghold in the narrow stairway
between those giant rounded towers. It is like
a tomb, and one shudders at the thought of the
"narrow damp chambers" in the thickness of
the wall of the Red Tower, where tradition says
King Richard ii. was done to death. By the
irony of fate it was the lot of many proud barons
during some part of their career to occupy the

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least desirable apartment of their castles ; and
thus it was with Edward ii.'s cousin, Thomas
Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, who from his
own dungeon was brought forth to be beheaded.
In a garden near the highwayman's resort, Ferry-
bridge, above Pontefract, may be seen a stone
coffin which was dug up in a field on the out-
skirts of the castle, and supposed to be that of
the unfortunate earl. At Pontefract, too, Lord
Rivers, Sir Thomas Vaughan, Sir Richard Grey,
and others were hurried into another world by the
Protector Richard ; so altogether the castle holds
a good record for deeds of darkness, and the
creepy feeling one has in that narrow stairway
between those massive walls is fully justified by
past events. The old castle held out stoutly for
the king in the Civil Wars. For many months,
in 1645, it stood a desperate siege by Fairfax
and General Poyntz before the garrison capitu-
lated. Three years later it was captured again
for the Royalists by Colonel Morrice, and held
with great gallantry against General Lambert
even after the execution of Charles i. In the
March following, the stronghold surrendered,
saving Morrice and five others who had not
shown mercy to Colonel Rainsborough when
he fell into their hands. These six had the
option of escaping if they could within a week.
•'The garrison," says Lord Clarendon, "made

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several sallies to effect the desired escape, in one
of which Morrice and another escaped ; in another,
two more got away ; and when the six days were
expired and the other two remained in the castle,
their friends concealed them so effectually, with
a stock of provisions for a month, that rendering
the castle and assuring Lambert that the six
were all gone, and he was unable to find them
after the most diligent search, and had dismantled
the castle, they at length got off also." There
are still some small chambers hewn out of the
solid rock on which the castle is built, reached
by a subterranean passage on the north side ; and
perhaps here was the successful lurking-place.
Colonel Morrice and his companion, Cornet
Blackburn, were afterwards captured in disguise
at Lancaster.

In the pleasure gardens of to-day, with various
inscription boards specifying the position of the
Clifford Tower, Gascoyne's Tower, the King's
Tower, and so forth, we get but a hazy idea
of this once practically impregnable fortress,
coverino- an area of seven acres. Concernin''"
Richard ii.'s death, it is doubtful whether the
truth will ever be arrived at. The story that he
escaped, and died nineteen years afterwards in
Scotland, is less likely than the supposition that he
died from the horrors of starvation ; on the other
hand, the story of the attack by Sir Piers Exton's

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assassins is almost strengthened by the evidence
of a seventeenth-century tourist, who, prior to its
destruction in the Civil War, records: "The highest
of the seven towers is the Round Tower, in which
that unfortunate prince was enforced to flee round
a poste till his barbarous butchers inhumanly
deprived him of life. Upon that poste the cruell
hackmgs and fierce blowes doe still remained Mr.
Andrew Lang perhaps can solve this historic
mystery ; or perhaps he has already done so ?
New Hall, close at hand, must have been a grand
old house ; but it is now roofless, and crumbling
to decay. It is a picturesque late-Tudor mansion,
with a profusion of mullioned windows and a
central bay. The little glass that remains only
adds to its forlorn appearance.

Ferrybridge and Brotherton both have an old-
world look. The latter place is famous for the
battle fought there between Yorkists and Lancas-
trians ; and as the birthplace of Thomas de
Brotherton, the fifth son of King Edward i. The
old inns of Ferrybridge recall the prosperous
coaching days ; but the revival of business on the
road which has been brought about by cycle and
motor, will have but little effect on this villao-e
with a past. The hostelry by the fine stone bridge
that gives the place its name, has a past con-
nected with notorious gentlemen of the road, and
an entry in an old account-book runs as follows :

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"A traveller in a gold-laced coat ordered and
drank two bottles of wine — doubtless mischief
to-night, for the traveller, methinks, is that villain
Dick Turpyn." How vividly this recalls that
excellent picture by Seymour Lucas, R.A., where
a landlord of the Joe Willet type is eyeing,
between the whiffs from his long churchwarden,
a suspicious guest, who having tasted mine host's
vintage has dropped asleep, regardless of the fact
that his brace of flintlocks are conspicuously
visible.

Between here and Leeds are two fine mansions,
Ledston Hall and Kippax Park. The former is
a very uncommon type of Elizabethan architecture,
almost un-English in character. It is a stone-
built house of the time of James i., with Dutch-
like gables and narrow square towers. In the
reisfn of Charles i. it belono^ed to Thomas, Earl of
Strafford ; but his son, the second earl, sold the
estate. Kippax in its way is original in con-
struction, but savours somewhat of Strawberry
Hill Gothic. The ancient family of Bland have
been seated here since the time of Elizabeth, the
direct male line, however, dying out in the middle
of the eighteenth century. Sir Thomas Bland
was one of the gallant Royalists who defended
Pontefract Castle during the Civil War.

A few miles to the north-west is the grand old
mansion, Temple Newsam. Like Hatfield House,

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which in many respects it resembles, it is built of red-
brick with stone coigns, and the time-toned warm
colour is acceptable in this county of grey stone.
It was built like many so-called Elizabethan houses
in the reign of James i., and, like Castle Ashby, has
around the three sides of the quadrangle a parapet
of letters in open stone work which runs as
follows : *' All glory and praise be given to God the
Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost on high, peace
on earth, goodwill towards men, honour and true
allegiance to our gracious king, loving affections
amongst his subjects, health and plenty within
this house," The loyal sentiments are not those
of Mary Queen of Scots' husband. Lord Darnley,
who was born in the earlier house, but of
the builder, Sir Anthony Ingram, who bought the
estate from the Duke of Lennox. Of all the
spacious rooms, the picture gallery is the finest.
It is over a hundred feet in length and contains a
fine collection of old masters and some remarkable
china. Albert Durer's hard and microscopic art is
well represented, as well as the opposite extreme
in Rembrandt's breadth of style. But the gem of
all is a head by Reynolds (of, we think, a Lady
Gordon), a picture that connoisseurs would rave
about. A small picture of Thomas Ingram is
almost identical with that of the Earl of Pembroke
we have mentioned atWentworth Castle. In one
of the bedrooms (famous for their tapestry

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hangings and ancient beds) are full-length
portraits of Mary Queen of Scots, Queen
Elizabeth, and James i,, the first like the well-
known portraits at Hardwick and Welbeck. On
one of the staircases is an interesting picture of
Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, in a turban, with
the favourite spaniel who appears in many of her
portraits. She holds in her hand the picture of
her lord and master, the duke who was so jealous
of her. A new grand staircase with elaborately
carved newels, after the style of that at Hatfield,
has been added to the mansion recently, and
harmonises admirably with its more ancient
surroundings.

The park is fine and extensive, but beyond, the
signs of the proximity of busy Leeds obtrude and
spoil the scenery. We went from here to the
undesirable locality of Hunslet in search of a
place called Knowsthorpe Hall, but had some
considerable difficulty in finding it, for nobody
seemed to know it by that name. " You warnts
the Island," observed a mining gentleman, a light
dawning upon him. So we got nearer by
inquiring for "the Island," but then the clue was
lost. Thousands of factory hands were pouring
out of a very unlikely looking locality, but nobody
knew such a place. In desperation we plunged
into a primitive coffee-stall, around which black
bogies were sitting at their mid-day meal. One

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of them with more intelHgeiice than the rest
knew the place, but couldn't describe how to get
to it. "Go up yon road," he said, "and ask for
' Whitakers.' " We followed the advice, and at
the turning asked for 'Whitakers.'" " Is it the
dressmakers ye mean ? " was the reply of a small
boy to whom we put the question. " Yes," we
said, in entire igrnorance whether it was the
dressmakers or the almanac people. But having
got so far there were landmarks that did the
rest, and presently a big entrance gate was seen
with painted on its side-pillars, " Knowsthorpe
Olde Hall."

But there was no Island, not even a moat.
The smoke of Leeds has given the stone walls
a coat of black, but otherwise it is not un-
picturesque, and would be more so if this
original gateway remained. Within the last two
years this has been removed as well as the steps
leading down from the terrace. The gateway was
called the " Stone Chairs," because of the niches
or seats on either side of it. It is now, we
understand, at Hoare Cross, near Burton-on-Trent.
There is much oak within the house, and one
panelled room has a very fine carved mantel-
piece. The oak staircase, too, is graceful as well
as uncommon in design. Close against one side
of the house is a stone archway with sculptured
figures of the time of James i. on either side of it,

240

p- 232

MIDDLEHAM CASTLE

SWINSTY HALL

lU^llON 1 ASTI.K

BELLERBY OLD HALL

NOOKS m YORKSHIRE

and the old lady in charge related the history of
this happy pair, how the gentleman had wooed
the damsel (a Maynard), but as he had not been to
the wars she would have nothing to say to him.
Consequently he buckled on his sword and
engaged in the nearest battle ; and to prove his
valour, brought back with him as a love-token the
arm which he had lost, — a statement sounding
somewhat contradictory. Naturally after that
she fell into his — other arm, and accepted him on
the spot. This daughter of Mars, of course, now
" revisits the glimpses of the moon " with her
lover's arm, not around her waist in the ordinary
fashion, but in her hand ; and those who doubt
the story may see her effigy thus represented.
But the dignity of this happy pair is somewhat
marred, for the only use to which they are
now put is to form a stately entrance to — a hen-
coop !

There are some interesting old houses between
Leeds and Otley, the "Low" Halls of Rawdon
and Yeadon, for instance. The former is a o-ood
Elizabethan house, and contains some interesting
rooms. Low Hall, Yeadon, dates farther back,
though its chief characteristics are of the same
period. The interior is rich in ancient furniture,
and there are some Knellers, which the artist is
said to have painted on the spot. The saturnine
features of the Merry Monarch are to be seen on
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NOOKS AND CORNERS

one side of the huge Tudor fireplace, and near at
hand Nell Gwyn, probably a more correct likeness
than a flattering one. There are ancient cabinets,
chests, and tables contemporary with the house ;
and what is more interesting still, the cabinets
and chests contain relics of Mary Queen of Scots,
and the ruffs and collars that were fashionable
three centuries ago. A gallery, wainscoted with
large panels of a later period, extends the length
of the house ; and at the western extremity of it
a bedroom, also panelled, possesses a hiding-place
or secret cupboard which it would baffle the
most persevering to discover, but when the panel
is pushed aside, the trick of it looks so very
simple. Of the Stuart relics we shall speak
presently in referring to Mary Queen of Scots'
imprisonment at Bolton Castle.

Passing through Guiseley, which is situated in
the midst of worsted mills, with the stocks by a
lamp-post in the middle of the street as if they
were a present-day necessity, you climb a hill and
then come suddenly upon a lovely view, with
Otley, "the Switzerland of Yorkshire," lying in
the Wharfe valley below. The Chevin Hill is
over nine hundred feet In height, and from it you
are supposed to see York Cathedral on one side
and the mountains of Westmoreland on the other.
As the Chevin is the lion of the place, it is the
duty of visitors to go to the top. Alpine climbers

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may enjoy this sort of task, but there are some
people who do not even wish to say that they have
seen a city some six-and-twenty miles away ; but
such as these who go to Otley and do not incon-
venience themselves would be looked upon by the
Otleyites with pity. But there is another thing
which the town is proud of too, and that is its
lofty Maypole, which, standing in a firm socket of
stone, is guarded round by iron rails. There are
far more Maypoles in Yorkshire than in any other
county, and it is pleasing to find the people are thus
conservative ; though truly when they get blown
down, they don't often trouble themselves enough
to put them up again. There are some interest-
ing monuments in the church, one on the right
of the chancel to General Fairfax's grandparents,
two stately recumbent eftigies of James i.'s time.
There are mural monuments to the Fawkeses
of Farnley Hall (a much altered Elizabethan
mansion, containing Cromwellian relics : the Lord
Protector's hat, sword, and watch, and Fairfax's
drum) and a Vavasour of Weston Hall, who was
a philanthropist in his way, for he was buried in
wool to promote the local trade. He is repre-
sented on his monument neatly packed, and looks
so cosy that the bas-relief is suggestive of the
undertaker's advertisement, " Why live and be
wretched when you can be buried comfortably
for five pound ten?" In the vestry there is a

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splendid set of old oak chairs of which the verger
is not a little proud.

A pleasant meadow walk by the riverside leads
to Leathley, which has a Norman church, but can
scarcely be called a village, for there is no inn.
A formidable pair of stocks stand ready by the
churchyard ; but as nothing stronger than milk can
be procured, they have not been worn out with too
much work. Again, at Weston on the other side
of the Wharfe river we come across the roadside
stocks (like the usual Yorkshire type, with two
uprights of stone) by the spreading roots of an
ancient tree. Weston Hall is a long low Tudor
building, with at one end a broad bay of three
storeys. An old banqueting-house in the grounds
is ornamented with shields of arms ; and formerly
the windows of it were full of heraldic stained glass,
some of which is now in the windows of the Hall.
From here we went northwards in search of
Swinsty Hall, over a lonely moorland district.
The road goes up and up until you are not sur-
prised when you come to a signpost pointing to
"To Snowdon." To the left, you are told, leads
to " Blubberhouses," wherever that may be. For
preference we chose the latter road, and soon got
completely lost in the wilds. The only sign of
civilisation was a barn, where we had the fortune
to find an old man who presumably spoke the
pure dialect, for we couldn't make head or tail of

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it, *' Swinsty — ai, you go on ter road until it
is," was the direction he gave, and we went on and
until it wasnt. At length, however, after plodding
knee deep in marshy land and saturated heather,
we found the object of our search perched in a
lonely meadow above a wide stretch of water. It
looked as if it had a gloomy history ; and no wonder
that some of the upper rooms are held in awe, for
there the ghost of a person with the unromantic
name of Robinson is said to count over his ill-
gotten gains, which he brought down from London
in waggons when the Plague of 1666 was raging.
He had the good fortune to escape contamination,
and once back with his plundered wealth he
meant to have what nowadays we call "a good
time " ; but the story has a moral, for it got winded
abroad how he got his gold, and nobody would
have anything to do with him or his money, and
by the irony of fate he had to spend the rest of
his days in trying to wash away the germs of
infection.

The hall is entered through a spacious porch in
the roof of which is hung an enormous bell. The
room you enter is by no means gloomy. A
carved oak staircase with balustrade of peculiar
form leads to other rooms panelled to the ceiling,
with fine overmantels. The leads of the small
window-panes are of fanciful design ; one bears the
date 1627 and the initials I, W. H., and these

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occur again with the date 1639 In some oak carving
In one of the bedrooms. A " well " stone staircase
between rough-hewn stone walls leads up to the
attics, which have open timber roofs with semi-
circular span to the main beams. They look as
if they were but recently put up, so fresh does the
wood look, and the pegs that join the timbers still
protrude as if they had just been hammered in,
and awaited the workman's axe to cut them level.
A word upon the subject of these old roofs may
not be out of place. When old houses are
restored, of course it is the proper thing to open
out an original timber roof where the original hall
or chamber has been divided and partitioned, but
in so many instances nowadays flat ceilings are
removed to show the open timbers which were
never intended to be seen. Bedrooms are thus
made cold and bare, with not nearly enough
protection from the draughts from the tiles.
The attics at Swinsty are a proof of this, there
beinof no great distance between the floor and the
roof. Another thing, if the floors were done away
with here, Mr. Robinson would have to come
down a storey, and that Is not desirable.

On the way to Swinsty, by the bye, a ruinous
house is passed on the right about midway between
there and Otley. It is of no great architectural
Interest, but is singular in construction, having a
projecting turret containing a spiral staircase at the

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back, which presumably was the only entrance. It
is lofty, and has square windows with a bay in the
centre, but it is now only a shell. Mr. Ingram in
his Haunted Homes relates that Dob Park Lodge,
as the place is called, is reputed to be haunted by
a huge black dog who has the power of speech,
and is said to watch over a hidden treasure in
the vaults, like the clog with saucer eyes in Hans
Andersen. The entrance to these is locally
supposed to be somewhere at the foot of the
winding stair, and so far only one person has
ventured to explore the depths ; but when he did,
he actually saw a great chest of gold ! — but then
we must take into account that he was very drunk.
Fewston village, not far from Swinsty, is pictur-
esquely situated on a knoll above the lake or
reservoir; but the church, mostly of William iii.'s
time, has nothing of interest save a few stalls and
a pretty little font cover. The wooden spiked
altar rails might almost be the palings of a
suburban garden, whilst the crude square panes
of red and blue of the chancel windows should
be anywhere but in a church.

To the north-east is " Catch'em Corner " ; but
it is uncertain what is to be caught except a chill,
for the position is very bleak. Striking north-
wards we get into the delightful Nidd valley.
To the right lies Ripley, famous for the rood
screen, the ancient glass, and Edwardian tomb

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of the Ingllbys of the castle, which Tudor
structure surrendered to the ParHament a day
or so before Marston Moor was fought. Here
Cromwell is said to have sat up all night before
the battle, hob-a-nob with his unwilling hostess.

Going northwards from Fewston, the prettiest
part of the road to Pateley is struck near the
village of Dacre. The romantic rocks and glens
hereabouts are famous, and much frequented by
tourists, consequently sixpences and threepences
have to be frequently disbursed. The price is
cheap enough, but the romance is spoiled. Hack
Fall, near Masham, to the north-east, is as lovely
a spot as one could wish to see, but there are
too many signs of civilisation about. It is like
taming a lion. The guide-book tells you to go
along until you get to a "refreshment house,"
which almost reads like an advertisement in
disguise.

There is a sculptured Saxon cross in Masham
churchyard, and the church contains a fine monu-
ment to the Wyvells of Burton Constable manor,
an old house near Finghall, to the north-west,
where members of the family are also buried.
The famous Jervaulx Abbey ruins nestle in a
hollow on the right of the road to Middleham.
When close upon it we asked the way of a yokel,
but he shook his head ; and then it dawned upon
him what we meant : "It's Jarvey ye warnt," he

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said, and pointed straight ahead. Scott's worthy,
Prior Ayhner, would surely beam with joy at the
tender care bestowed upon the remains of the
establishment over which he once presided ; and
the park might grace the finest modern dwelling,
judging by the well-kept lawns and w^alks ; but all
this trimness looks less natural to a ruin than the
more rustic surroundings of Easby, for example.
The remains of the Cistercian monastery are
rather fragmentary, consisting mainly of some
graceful octagonal pillars and a row of lofty
lancet windows in the wall of the refectory, and
some round-headed arches of the chapter-house.
It was destroyed in 1539, and the beautiful screen
of the church carried off to Aysgarth, where it may
now be seen.

Continuing along the road to Middleham,
Danby Hall, the ancient seat of the Scropes,
is seen in the distance on the right ; but the river
intervenes, and one has to go beyond East Witton
before a crossing can be obtained. This village,
built on either side of a wide green, has nothing
out of the common except its Maypole and its
very conspicuous Blue Lion rampant. A blue
lion is a little change after the hackneyed red, and
the beast looks proud of his originality. Witton
probably was much prettier before the jubilee cele-
bration of George iii.'s reign, when the old church
and most of the old houses were pulled down.

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By the old grey bridge (with the pillar of a
sundial in the centre, dated 1674) the Cover and
Yore Rivers join hands with not a little fuss, like
the enthusiasm of a new-made friendship. The
road to Danby Hall runs level with the river then
branches to the left. The mansion is Elizabethan ;
but the stone balustrade was added in the middle
of the seventeenth century, and the small cupola-
crowned towers were added subsequently. The
oldest part is a square tower to the north-east,
where, in the time of religious persecution, there
was a small oratory or chapel for secret services.
In the heraldic glass of the windows the ancient
family of Scrope may be traced from Lord Scrope
who fought at Flodden up to the present day, and
their history may be followed by the portraits of
the various generations on the walls. A curious
discovery was made here in the early part of the
last century. One of the chimneys in a stack of
four could not be accounted for, and a plummet
of lead was dropped down each of them, three of
which found an outlet but the fourth could not
be found. To get at the bottom of the mystery,
a not too bulky party was lowered down, and he
found himself in a small chamber full of long cut-
and-thrust swords, flintlock pistols, and the ancient
saddlery of untanned leather for a troop of fifty
horse. Not much value was set upon such things
in those days, so the harness was put to good

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account and utilised for cart-horse gear upon the
farm. But the dispersal of the ancient weapons
has a history too, for at the time that England
was trembling with the fear of an invasion from
the dreaded " Boney," a cottage caught light one
night on one of the surrounding hills ; and this
being taken as a signal of alarm, the beacon on
top of Penhill was fired. The terror-stricken
villagers rushed everywhere for weapons, but
none could be provided, and the good squire of
Danby speedily distributed the secret store which
had been hidden in the house for the Jacobite
insurrection of 17 15. In time the yokels re-
turned, and there was a week's rejoicing and
merry-making that the blazing beacon after all
had only proved a flash in the pan. The pistols
and swords, however, were not returned save one,
which may still be seen with the armourer's marks
on the blade, " Shotley " on one side and " Bridge "
on the other.^ Another has found its way into
the little museum at Bolton Castle. In demolish-
ing a cottage at Middleham it was discovered up
in the thatch roof, where it was put, perhaps,
pending another alarm. The hiding-place was
converted into a butler's room by Major Scrope's
grandfather.

Among the portraits are some good Lelys,

^ In the account in Secret Chambers of the inscription on the
swords, it is given in error as " Shortly."

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including two of Sir Carr Scrope who was so
enamoured of the Court physician's daughter.^
Another Lely of a handsome girl is said to re-
present one of the Royalist Stricklands of Sizergh.
Above the black oak staircase of James i.'s time
hangs a rare portrait of Mary of Modena ; for one
seldom sees her when the beauty of youth had
departed, for naturally she did not like to be
handed thus down to posterity. The queen looks
sour here, which tallies with the accounts we
have of her in later life ; but truly she had cause
enough to make her sour.

From the Yore River the ground ascends to
Middleham, now only a sleepy looking village
but called a "town." Above the roof-tops at
the summit of the hill stands the mediceval
castle where resided in great pomp that turbulent
noble, Warwick the "kingmaker." Here it was
that he imprisoned Edward iv., the monarch
he had helped to put upon the throne, for
daring to marry the widowed daughter of Sir
Richard Woodville in preference to a Nevill.
When, the year after reinstating Henry vi. for
a brief space, the great feudal baron ended his
career on Barnet battlefield, his castle at
Middleham was handed over by Edward to his
brother Richard, who had also a claim upon it by
his marriage with the "kingmaker's" daughter.

^ See Some Beauties of the Seveniee?ith Century.
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Here " Crookback," or rather ** Crouchback," was
living before he usurped the Crown in 1483 ; and
here his son the young Prince Edward died upon
the first anniversary, as a providential punishment
for the death of his little cousins in the Tower.
Richard, by the way, is said to have had another
natural son who lived into the reign of Edward vi.
and died in a small house on the Eastwell estate
near Wye in Kent. Richard Plantagenet's death
is duly recorded in the parish register, distinguished
by the mark of a V, which distinguishes other
entries of those of noble birth, and a plain tomb in
the chancel is supposed to be his place of interment.
Until an old man he preserved his incognito,
when Sir Thomas Moyle discovered that a mason
at work upon his house was none other than a
king's son. His youth had been spent under
chargfe of a schoolmaster, who had taken him to
Bosworth field and introduced him into Richard's
tent. The king received him in his arms and
told him he was his father, and if he survived the
battle he would acknowledge him to be his son ;
but if fortune should go against him, he should
on no account reveal who he was. On the follow-
ing day in entering Leicester a naked figure lying
across a horse's back was pointed out to him as
the same great person whose star and garter had
inspired him with awe.

The walls of the Norman castle keep are of
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immense thickness, and protected without by
others almost as formidable of a later date. The
great hall was on the first floor, and the tower
where little Edward Plantagenet was born (the
Red Tower) at the south-west corner ; but tradition
hasn't kept alive much to carry the imagination
back to the time when the powerful Nevill reigned
here in his glory. The escape of Edward iv. has
been made realistic in the immortal bard's Kiiip;
Henry v/., and Scene v. Part iii. might be read
in less romantic spots than in Wensleydale, with
this grand old ruin standing out in the distance
like one of Dore's castles. In this case, distance
"lends enchantment," as Middleham itself is by
no means lovely. The ancient market-cross would
look far less commonplace and tomb-like were the
top of it again knocked off. The site of the
swine market bears the cognosance of "Crouch-
back," which is scarcely a compliment to his
memory ; but this antique monument is put vastly
in the shade by a jubilee fountain, the only up-to-
date thing in the place, and quite out of harmony
with the ring where bulls were baited within
living memory.

In Spennithorne church, near Middleham, there
is an ancient altar-tomb of John Fitz-Randolph,
of the family of the early lords of the castle before
the Nevills became possessed of it. Along the
font are several coloured shields of arms of the

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various families with whom they Intermarried.
The nave of the church has an odd appearance,
as the north and south aisles are separated by a
series of distinct arches, the latter Early English,
the former pure Norman. A very Interesting
thirteenth-century screen was originally at Jervaulx
Abbey. On the west wall there Is a large fresco
of Father Time, dating perhaps two hundred
years later. The rector must be commended for
hanging In his church a brief summary of the
points of Interest, and many might follow this
laudable example.

Leyburn stands high among the hills, and must
have been a picturesque old market-place before
the ancient town-hall, market-cross, and two
stately elms were removed. The great wide
street has now a bare and by no means attractive
appearance, and were it not for the lovely sur-
roundings it would not form so popular a centre
for exploring. The " Shawl," the huge natural
terrace, on a rocky base high up above the tree-
tops of the woods below. Is, of course. Its great
feature, and a more delightful walk could not be
found in England, with the softest turf to walk
upon and the glorious panorama In front. Con-
spicuous among the heights Is flat-topped Penhill,
standing boldly out against the wide expanse of
dale, upon whose crest are the ruins of a chapel of
the old Knights Templars. A gap In the rock,

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with a path running westwards through the woods,
is known as "Queen's Gap," for Mary Queen of
Scots when she fled from Bolton Castle got thus
far when she was overtaken in attempting to urge
her horse through the narrow ravine. In con-
sequence of this, the "Shawl" locally is said to
derive its name from the shawl the prisoner
dropped upon the way, giving her pursuers a clue ;
which on the face of it is ridiculous, as the name
is derived either from the Saxon Sholl or
Scandinavian Schall. Bolton is some five miles
away to the west, and the poor captive was to have
gone northwards to Richmond and thence to her
native land ; and at Bellerby, between Richmond
and Leyburn, a halt was to have been made at
the Hall, the seat of the Royalist family of Scott,
where a company of Scots guards was stationed
ready to receive her. The old Hall still stands
on the left-hand side of the village green as you
enter, and looks as if it had a history.

At Bolton the window may be seen from which
she was lowered to the ground, and one can trace
the way she took in a north-easterly direction
across the rocky bed of the rushing stream into
the woods below the " Shawl." The window from
which she escaped is the upper one of the three
running horizontally with the south-vv^estern tower.
There is another window to the prison-room which
looks into the inner courtyard. The apartment is

256

p- 2b i

'. - . i

NAPPA HALL

RICHMOND

gl^

K jH^ t ""^

^ft.-—'

njM

Ri-'f.-;! » : t ff:',*,'.^B!

EASBY ABBEY

NOOKS IN YORKSHIRE

grim and bare, with a small fireplace, and steps
leading down into a larger bare apartment, once
the "drawing-room." Though externally the
castle is not so picturesque as Middleham, it is
much more perfect and interesting. The hooded
stone fireplaces remain in the walls, and various
rooms can be located, from the hall and chapel to
the vault-like stables in the basement. The well,
too, is perfect, with scooped-out wall to the upper
chambers, not forgetting the awful dungeon in the
solid rock. A large apartment with wide Tudor
fireplace has been converted into a museum, and
the curiosities are of a varied nature, from cocking
spurs and boxing-gloves from the sporting centres
of Leyburn and Middleham to the bull-fight
banderillos of Spain. There is quite an assort-
ment of weird-looking instruments of torture,
which, after all, are only toasting-dogs, huge
cumbrous things like antediluvian insects or much
magnified microbes. How is it these appurten-
ances of domestic comfort have entirely died out
like the now extinct warming-pan ? But this
museum can no way be compared with Mr.
Home's wonderful collections at Leyburn. Here
you can learn something about everything, for the
kindly proprietor of the museum takes a pride in
describing his curios. Those who have been to
Middleham and seen the castle immortalised by
Shakespere, may here study Edward iv.'s fair
R 257

NOOKS AND CORNERS

hair. As rare a curiosity is a valentine of the
time of William in. From the treasures of
Egyptian tombs you skip to the first invented
matches ; from Babylonian inscriptions to early-
Victorian samplers. And the learned antiquarian
relates how he was educated in the old Yore mill
at Aysgarth by old John Drummond, the grand-
son of the Jacobite Earl of Perth, who had to hide
himself in a farm in Bishopdale (How Rig) for
his hand in the '45, when the Scotch estates were
confiscated for aiding the cause of the Bonnie
Prince. Were it not for Mr. Home's interest in
old-time customs, the bull-ring in the market-place
would have disappeared, for the socket was nearly
worn through when he had it repaired. He re-
lates how at the last bull-baiting the infuriated
beast got away and sent the whole sportsmen
flying, and at length was shot in Wensley village.
Wensley nestles in the valley, surrounded by
hills. The interior of the church is rich in
carvings from the ruinous abbey of Easby, near
Richmond. The stalls from Easby have at the
ends exceptionally bold and elaborate carvings
with heraldic shields and arms, dating from the
days of Edward iv. A nearly life-size brass, of
the third Edward's time, is of its kind one of the
finest in England, — an ecclesiastic in robes, with
crossed hands pointing downwards. By the
entrance door is a quaint old poor-box ; but what

258

NOOKS IN YORKSHIRE

first strikes the eye as you enter, is the parclose
screen from Easby Abbey, which, ill fitting its
confined space, partially blocks the windows ; but
the effect of the elaborate carving against the
tracery is very striking. It is early-Tudor in date,
and belonged to the Scrope chantry, whose arms
appear upon it, with those of Fitz-Hugh, Marmion,
and other noble families. Within this screen,
evidently a good many years later, a manorial
pew was made, the side of which is within the
parclose. To amalgamate the two, the latter has
been somewhat mangled, doors having been
added, with a pendant aloft to balance other
large hollow pendants in the various arches.
Unfortunately the whole has been painted with
a dull grey and grained, a feeble attempt to
represent marble, and parts of it are also gilt. A
fixed settle has been added to the interior, so
unless carefully examined it is difficult to detect
how the parclose and pew were made into one.
The two-decker pulpit and the wide old-fashioned
pews lined with faded green baize and pink rep,
bring us back to more modern times ; but one
would be loath to see them removed if restoration
funds were lavish. Beneath the great manorial
pew lie at rest the remains of the daughter of
the thirteenth Lord Scrope, who by marriage with
the first Duke of Bolton brought the castle into
the Poulett family : until then the Scropes had

259

NOOKS AND CORNERS

held possession through marriage with an heiress
of the Nevills. The third wife of Charles Poulett,
second Duke of Bolton, was Henrietta Crofts, the
daughter of the Duke of Monmouth and Eleanor
Needham/

The Scrope who had charge of the Scots queen
at Bolton Castle was Henry, the eleventh lord,
whose wife was sister to the captive's plotting
lover, the Duke of Norfolk, who also lost his head
through these ambitious schemes ; and doubtless it
was the duke who contrived the queen's escape.
She had been brought from the castle of Carlisle
in July 1568, but after her attempt to escape was
promptly removed (on January 26) to Tutbury
Castle under charge of the Earl of Shrewsbury.
The furniture of her private altar at Bolton, the
altar-cloth, part of a rosary, a small bronze crucifix,
and an alms-bag, are now preserved at Low
Hall, Yeadon, mentioned earlier in this chapter.
Her hawking gloves also : these are said to
have been given to Lord Scrope upon her leaving.

Some miles to the west of Bolton is Nappa
Hall (where the ancient family of Metcalfe lived
since the reign of Henry vi., and where Metcalfes
live to-day), a fortified manor-house with square
towers (suggestive of Haddon), which also claims
association with the unfortunate queen. By some
accounts she slept here one night, by others two

^ See King Monmouth.
260

NOOKS IN YORKSHIRE

or more ; and the tradition in the Metcalfe family
says nine, in the highest chamber of the tallest
tower. The date is not known, but probably she
was brought here on her way from Carlisle Castle.
The bed on which she slept, the top of which was
very low, is now at Newby Hall, near Ripon. Our
sanitary views being very distinct from those
enlightened times, the pillars of these sixteenth-
century beds are frequently raised (in some cases
unnecessarily high), and unless one wished to be
half-smothered, this is a natural thing to do if the
bed is to be put to practical use ; but nowadays
the collectors of ancient furniture are again re-
ducing the height, and bringing them down to
their original proportions.

In asking the way to Nappa from the village
of Askrigg, we were told to follow a "gentleman
with a flock of sheep who was going up that way " ;
but as the distance was the matter of a couple of
miles — and Yorkshire miles too, we preferred to
follow the telegraph poles, which, after all, was more
expeditious and quite as reliable. We give this
as an instance of the ordinary pace at which things
move in these parts ; and perhaps it is as well,
otherwise the old Hall built by William Taunton in
1678 (so it says on the door), with its upper balcony
of wood looking upon the quaint old market-cross
where the bull-ring used to be, might have given way
to co-operative stores or some new hideous building.

261

NOOKS AND CORNERS

The village-green of Bainbridge to the west is
quite shut in with hills, and in the centre are the
stocks, or rather the stone supports minus the most
important part, with a rough rock seat which must
have added considerably to the victim^s discomfort.
The principal curiosity, however, is the ancient
custom prevailing here of blowing a horn at
lo p.m. during the summer months, to guide
belated travellers on the moors. This was an
excellent provision for safety hundreds of years
ago, when Bainbridge was practically in the midst
of a forest, and even in the twentieth century
may have its uses. The older horn, that was
used half a century ago, is now in Bolton Castle
Museum. It is very large, and curiously twisted.
The houses at Bainbridge are of the ordinary
ugly Yorkshire type ; but on high ground over-
looking a ravine stands a nice old gabled grange,
which must have tempted many an artist and
photographer to pause upon their way to the
famous Falls. These, of course, are very fine, but
to our mind far less beautiful than the single
plunge of water just below the grange, from a
wide and scooped-out bed of precipitous rock.
Nor are the high, low, and middle Falls of
Aysgarth half so picturesque, though in a sense
they are more boisterous, like coppery boiling
water.

Aysgarth church is perched up high, and you
262

NOOKS IN YORKSHIRE

have to climb up many steps to reach it from the
moss-orown bridg-e. The doors of most of the
Yorkshire churches we found were kept unlocked ;
but this was an exception, so down those steps we
had to come, to go in search of a key ; but reach-
ing the bottom of the flight, up we had to go again
to try and find the rectory. Oh ! the time that
may be lost in hunting for a church key, and what
a blessing it would be if notices were stuck up in
the porches to say where they were kept. The
interior of Aysgarth has a new appearance, but the
splendid painted screen from Jervaulx (placed east
and west instead of across the chancel) is worth a
hunt for the key. Another screen, dated 1536, has
upon it the grotesque carving of a fool's head with
long-eared cap. Here again in the village are the
stocks ; but the Maypole, which once was its pride,
long since has made its exit.

By far the nearest way to Richmond from
Leyburn is across the moor, a rough and desolate
road, but preferable to the terrible long way by
Catterick, more than double the distance (by rail
it is four times the distance !). This is the prettiest
village of any on the way (which is not saying
much, be it said). The early fifteenth-century
church has some good monuments and brasses, one
of the latter to a lady who for many years before
she died carried her winding-sheet about with her ;
and one would naturally suppose one with such

263

NOOKS AND CORNERS

gruesome ideas would still walk the earth for the
edification of the timid, but she doesn't.

The entrance to Richmond by the nearest way
is very charming. You come suddenly upon the
castle perched up over the river, and as you wind
down the hill the grouping of its towers is thrown
into perspective, forming a delightful picture with
the river and the bridge for a foreground. Three
kings have been prisoners within these formidable
Norman walls : two kings of Scotland, William
and David Bruce, and after the lapse of three
centuries, Charles i., who passed here on his way
to Holdenby. The stalls and misericordes in the
fine old church came from Easby Abbey. They
are boldly carved, and one of them represents a
sow playing a fiddle for the edification of her little
pigs. There is a curious coloured mural monu-
ment, on the east side of the chancel, of Sir
Timothy Hutton and his wife and children —
twelve of them, including four babes, beneath two
of which are these verses :

"As carefull mothers do to sleeping say,
Their babes that would too long the wanton play ;
So to prevent my youths approaching crimes.
Nature my nurse had me to bed betimes."

The next is less involved :

" Into this world as strangers to an inn
This infant came, guest wise ;
Where when 't had been and found no entertainment

worth her stay,
She only broke her fast and went away."
264

NOOKS IN YORKSHIRE

Altogether it is a cheery tomb. Faith, Hope
and Charity are there, one of whom acts as nurse
to one of the babes. Her ladyship's expression
is somewhat of the Aunt Sally type, but that was
the sculptor's fault. The ancient church plate
includes a chalice dated 1640. The registers are
beautifully neat and clean, and full of curious
matter, such as the banns being read by the
market-cross.

Apropos of Yorkshire marriages, the odd custom
prevails in some parts of emptying a kettle of
boiling water, down — not the backs of the happy
pair, but down the steps of the front door as they
drive away, that the threshold may be " kept warm
for another bride," we presume for another swain.
The way also of ascertaining whether the future
career of those united will be attended with
happiness is simple and effective. All you have
to do is, as the bride steps out of the carriage, to
fling a plate containing small pieces of the wedding-
cake out of a window upon the heads of the c a-
lookers. If the crowd is a small one, and the
plate arrives on the pavement and is smashed to
pieces, all will go well ; but if somebody's head
intervenes, the augury is ominous ; which, after
all, is only natural, for is it not likely that one thus
greeted would call at the house to bestow his
blessing upon somebody ? What a pity this pretty
custom is not introduced into the fashionable

265

NOOKS AND CORNERS

marriages of St. George's, Hanover Square. It
would at least create a sensation.

For the rest of Richmond church, well — it was
restored by Sir Gilbert Scott. It is regrettable to
find the piscina on a level with the floor, beneath
a pew seat !

The curfew still rings at Richmond, telling the
good people when to go to bed ; but whether they
go or not is another matter. We are told it is,
or was, also rung for them to get up again at six
o'clock ; and the aged official whose duty it was to
ring the morning bell, like a wise man, did so at
his leisure, lying in bed with the rope hanging
from the ceiling.^

From the churchyard, Easby Abbey is seen in
the distance in a romantic spot by the river : and
the walk there is delightful, along the terrace
above the Swale. Like the rest of these fine
structures, it was destroyed by the vindictive
Henry in 1535. The water close at hand, the old
abbot's elm, and the little church and gatehouse
beyond, altogether make this a spot in which to
linger and ruminate. The church walls are covered
with curious and very well preserved paintings of
the twelfth century, giving a good idea of the
costume of the period. The tempting serpent, too,
is shown twisted in artistic coils around a very

^ This and other information we have derived from Mr. Harry
Speight's interesting work, Romantic Richmond.

266

NOOKS IN YORKSHIRE

pre-Raphael looking tree ; and in another scene
the partakers of the fruit are doubled up with
remorse, or dyspepsia.

So close at hand as is Bolton on Swale, to the
east, it would be a pity not to mention Henry
Jenkins, who died there in 1670, aged one hundred
and sixty-nine! — a man in Charles 11. 's reign who
remembered the dissolution of the monasteries,
and who recollected as a boy assisting in carrying
arrows in a cart to the battle of Flodden field
(where veteran soldiers remembered the accession
of King Edward iv.), was a wonder compared with
the feeble memory of our present-day centenarians,
who rarely recollect anything worth recording.
When we think how nearly we are linked with
1670 by the life of Mrs. William Stuart, who died
in the late queen's reign, and who heard from the
lips of her grandmother how she had been taken
to Court in a black-draped Sedan when Whitehall
was in mourning for the death of the king's sister,
Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, — it would have
been possible for the little girl to have spoken
with old Jenkins, and thus with only three lives
to have linked the early part of the reign of
Henry viii. with that of Victoria.

267

INDEX

Abbotts Ann, 221.
Amber, river, 217.
"Angel," Ringwood, 178.
"Angel," Stilton, 10.
"Angel," Yeovil, 145.
Ashford, 221.
Ashover, 217.
Askrigg, 261.

Athelhampton, 173, 174, 175.
Avon, river, 84, 85.
Axmouth, 169.
Aysgarth, 249, 262, 263.

Baddesley Clinton, 72, y^i^ 76.
Bainbridge, 262.
Barnard Castle, 225.
Bamborough, 230.
Barnstaple, 164, 165, 166.
Barrington Court, 135, 137, 138.
Barton Hall, 23.
Barton-on-the-Heath, 66, 67.
Beckington Castle, 130.
Beeley, 210.
Beer, 168, 169.
Bellerby, 256.
" Bell," Mildenhall, 22.
"Bell," Sandy Lane, 105.
"Bell," Stilton, 10, 86.
Bere Regis, 158, 176, 177.
Beverstone Castle, 100.
Bewley Court, 109.
Biddestone, 114.

Bildeston, 32.

Bindon, 169.

Birdlip, 97.

Birtsmorton Court, 81, 83, 84.

Bishop's Lydeard, 147, 148.

" Black Horse," Birdlip, 98.

Blackladies, 199.

Blickling Hall, 45, 46, 47, 49.

Blore Heath, 192, 193.

" Blue Lion," East Witton, 249.

Bolsover Castle, 210, 217.

Bolton Castle, 251, 256, 260,

262.
Bolton-on-Swale, 267.
Bossington, 159.
Bovey, 169.
Bowes, 225.
Brailes, 68.
Brampton, 4.
Branscombe, 167, 168.
Braunton, 165.
Broadway, 85, 87, 89, 90.
Bromham, 103, 105.
Brotherton, 236.
Broughton Hall, 193, 194.
Brympton D'Eversy, 135, 141.
Brynkinalt, 185.
Buckingham's hole, Blore, 192.
Buckland, 89, 90.
Bullich House, Allington, 117.
Burrow Farm, 136.
Burton Constable, 248.

269

INDEX

Bury St. Edmund's, 27, 31.
Bushley, 83.

' Cannard's Grave," Shepton

Mallet, 133, 134.
Carhampton, 157, 158.
Castle Combe, 1 14.
" Castle Inn," Castle Combe,

116.
Catterick, 263.

Chapel Plaster Hermitage, no.
Charlcote, 72, 73.
Charterhouse Hinton, 128.
Chastleton, 62, 64, 66.
Chatsworth, 208, 210.
Chavenage Manor House, 100,

lOI.

Chedzoy, 135.

Cheney Court, in.

Chevin Hill, 242.

Chideock, 171, 172.

Chipping Campden, 87, 92.

Chipping Norton, 61.

Chirk Castle, 181.

Church House, Crowcombe,

149.
Church Stanway, 90.
Church Stretton, 188, 189.
Claverton Down, ni.
Clifton Maybank, 143.
Clovelly, 162, 163.
Coaxden, 170.
Colerne, 112.

Coles Farm, Box, ill, 112.
Combe St. Nicholas, 145.
Combe Sydenham 152, 153.
Compton Wyniates, 42, 68, 69,

70, 72, 73-
Condover Hall, 187, 188.
Connington Hall, 7.
Coombe Abbey, 72, 195.
Coppingford, 6.
Corby, 20, 21.
Corsham Court, 109, 112, 11^,

n4, 128.
Cothelstone, 148.

Court Farm, Hadleigh, 33.
Cover, river, 250.
Crimplesham, 56.
Croscombe, 132, 133.
Crowcombe, 132, 149, 150, 152,

153-
Crowther's Farm, 178.
Croxton, 194.
Croyde Bay, 166.
Culford, 26.
Curry Rivel, 135, 136.

Dacre, 248.

Dalby, 10.

Danby Hall, 249, 250.

Darfield, 230.

Dedham, 34.

Deene, 15, 16, 18.

Derwent, river, 210.

Dethick-cum-Lea, 217.

Dob Park Lodge, 247.

Dover Hill, 89, 92.

Downham Market, 56.

Downside, Shepton Mallet, 133.

"Dun Cow," Market Drayton,

190,
Dunster Castle, 155, 157, 158.

Easby, 249, 258, 259, 264, 266.
East Barsham Manor House,

41,42.
East Bergholt, 34.
East Witton, 249.
Eaton Constantine, 188.
Edensor, 209.
Eleanor Crosses, 21.
Elworthy, 153.
Enmore Castle, 150, 151.
Ermine Street, 6, 97.
Erwarton Hall, 36.

Fakenham, 42, 43.
Farleigh Castle, 128, 130.
Farnley Hall, 243.
" Fcoathers," Ludlow, 188.
Fenstanton, 223.

INDEX

Ferrybridge, 236.

Fewstone, 247, 248.

Finghall, 248.

Flatford, 34, 35.

Foss way, 134.

Fotheringay Castle, 7, 12, 13,

14, 15.
Four-Shire Stone, 66.

Gastard, 109, no.

Gaulden, 154.

Gedding Hall, 31.

Geddington, 21.

"George," Glastonbury, 126.

" George," Huntingdon, 2.

"George," Norton St. Philip,

125.
" George," Sandy Lane, 105.
" George," Yeovil, 145.
Glatton, 7.
Glossop, 222, 223.
Godmanchester, 4.
" Golden Lion," Barnstaple, 164.
Great Chaldfield, 118, 121, 135.
Great Houghton, 230,
Great Snoring, 42.
Great Torrington, 53.
Great Wenham, 35.
"Green Dragon," Chipping

Campden, 88.
" Green Dragon," Combe St.

Nicholas, 145.
Guiseley, 242.

Hack Fall, 248.

Haddon Hall, 54, 86, 170, 183,

196, 200.
Hadleigh, 32, 34.
Hardeby, 21.
Hardwick, Derby, 143, 210,212,

239- .
Hardwick, Sullolk, 30.
"Hare and Hounds," East

Bergholt, 35.
Harkstead, 36.
Hathersage, 222.

Hautboys Hall, 53.
Hawstead Place, 30, 31.
Hazelbury House, Box, iii.
Helmingham, 27, 150.
Hemington, 15.
Hengrave Hall, 26, 27, 28.
Heytesbury, 128.
Hinchinbrooke, i, 3.
Hinton St. George, 135, 138,

139, 143-
Hoare Cross, 240.
Hobbal Grange, 198, 199.
Holkham Hall, 40.
Holt Lodge, 178.
Hungerford Hospital, Corsham,

112.
Hunslet, 239.

Hunters' Hall, Colerne, 112.
Huntingdon, i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 11.

Jervaulx Abbey, 248, 255, 263.

Kenilworth, 27, 72.

Kineton, 94.

" King's Arms," Market Drayton,

190.
Kingston, 147.
Kingston Lacy, 179.
Kingston St. Michael, 117.
Kippax Park, 237.
Kirby Hall, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20,

42.
Knapton, 44,
Knowsthorpe Hall, 239.

Lacock Abbey, 105, 106, 107,

108, 109.
Langley, 188.
Langport, 135.
Lark, river, 24.
Leathley, 244.
Ledston Hall, 237.
Leyburn, 255, 256, 257, 263.
Little Compton, 61, 62.
Little Gidding, 7.
Little Saxham Hall, 26.

INDEX

Little Stukeley, 5, 6.

Little Wenham, 35.

Little Woolford, 66.

Long Compton, 59, 60, 61.

Long Marston, 89.

Low Hall, Rawdon, 241.

Low Hall, Yeadon, 241, 260.

Ludford, 188.

Ludlow Castle, 188.

"Luttrell Arms," Dunster, 157.

Lydcote, 53.

*' Lygon Arms," Broadway, 85.

Lymington, 139, 140.

Lynmouth, 160.

Lynton, 160, 161.

Lytes Gary, 134.

Malvern Chase, 81.

Mannington Hall, 49.

Manor Farm, Norton St. Philip,

124.
Mapperton Manor House, 173.
Market Drayton, 189.
Martock, 135, 138.
Masham, 248.
Maxstoke Castle, 72.
Melksham, 109, 118, 151.
Melplash Court, 173.
Meriden, 72, j^-
Mickleton, 89.
Middleham, 248, 249, 251, 252,

254, 257.
Middlezoy, 135.
Mildenhall, 22, 23, 24.
Minehead, 158.
Monksilver, 152, 154.
Monmouth House, Shepton

Mallet, 134.
Montacute House, 135, 142, 143.
Montacute Priory, 144.
Mundesley, Rookery Farm, 44.
Mundford, 56.

Nailsworth, 99, 100.
Nappa Hall, 260, 261.
Needham Market, 31.

Nene, river, 12.

Neston, no.

Nettlecombe, 153.

Newbury Farm, Bildeston, 32.

Newby Hall, 261.

"New Inn," Clovelly, 163.

North Lees, Hathersage, 222.

Norton House, Chipping Camp-
den, 89.

Norton St. Philip, 123, 126,
127, 128.

Offenham, 85.

Old Cleeve, 154.

"Old Hall Inn," Great Hough-
ton, 231.

" Old Red Lion," Long Comp-
ton, 59.

Old Weston, 223.

Orwell, river, 34.

Otley, 242, 243, 246.

Oundle, 11.

Ouse, river, 4, 223.

Oxburgh Hall, 53, 54, 55.

Oxnead Hall, 47, 53.

Painswick, 98.

Parnham Hall, 173.

Payne's Place, Bushley, 83, 144

" Peacock," Rowsley, 207.

Penhill, 251, 255.

Pilsdon, 171.

Pilton, 165.

Pirton Court, 80.

Pitchford Hall, 187, 188.

Pixham, 78.

Plas Baddy, 185.

Plash Hall, 188.

Plumpton Hall, 30.

Pontefract Castle, 283.

Pontfaen, 186.

Porlock, 159, 160, 161.

Postlip Hall, 93, 96.

Powick Bridge, 78.

Priors Court, 78.

Puddletown, 175, 176.

272

INDEX

Raynham Hall, 42, 47, 48, 74.
"Raven," Church Stretton, 189.
Rawdon, 241.
" Red Lion," Chipping Camden,

88.
Richmond, Yorkshire, 256, 258,

263, 264, 266.
Ripley, 247.
Ripple, 84.
Rodborough, 99.
Rollright Stones, 60.
Rushbrooke Hall, 27, 28, 29, 30.

St. Giles Park, 178, 179.
Sandford Orcas, 135, 140, 141.
Severn End, 80, 81, 195.
Severn, river, 84.
Sheffield Manor House, 208,

213, 225.
Sheldon Manor, 118.
Shepton Mallet, 132, 133.
" Ship Inn," Porlock, 160.
Shrewsbury, 81, 181, 188, 189.
Shute House, 170.
Silton, 171.
Snovi^re Hall, 55.
Somerton, 135.
Southam House, 93, 96.
Southfield, Woodchester, 99.
South Petherton, 135, 138.
South Wraxall, 118, 121.
Spaxton, 151.
Spennithorne, 254.
Sprowston, 58.

Spye Park, 104, 105, 109. 151.
Stainborough Hall, 228.
Stamford, 16, 18.
Stanfield Hall, 53.
Stanton, 89, 90.
Stanton St. Quinton, 117.
Stanway-in-the- Woods, 89.
Stifflcey Hall, 41.
Stilton, 8, 10, II, 86.
Stogumber, 153.
Stoke Ferry, 53.
Stokesay Castle, 186.

Stour, river, 34.

" Strafford Arms," Stainborough,

229.
Strensham, 84.
Sudeley Castle, 93, 96, 100.
Swale, river, 266.
" Swan and Salmon," Little

Stukeley, 5.
" Swan Inn," Downham Market,

56, 58.
Swinnerton Hall, 194.
Swinsty Hall, 244.

" Talbot," Oundle, 12.
Tamworth Castle, 72.
Tansor, 15.
Taunton, 136, 147.
Tawstock, 166, 167.
Temple Newsam, 229, 237.
Tetbury, 100.

Tewkesbury, 81, 83, 84, 181.
Thorpland Hall, 42.
Tintinhull Court, 135, 140.
Tissington, 221.
Tixall, 195.
Tong, 196, 197, 199.
Trent House, 135, 140, 156.
Trentham, 195,
Trunch, 44.

Tudor House, Broadway, 86.
" Turk's Head," Oundle, 1 1,
Tutbury Castle, 260.

Walsingham, 43, 44.
Wamil Hall, 24.
Warwick Castle, 72.
Waterstone, 173, 174.
Wellow, 127, 128.
Wells-next-the-Sea, 40, 43, 44.
Wensley, 258.
Wentworth Castle, 227, 230,

237-
Wentworth Woodhouse, 228,

229.
West Lydford, 134.
Weston Hall, 244.

273

INDEX

Weston Zo^-land, 135.
West Stow Hall, 24, 32.
Wharfe, river, 242, 244.
White House of Pixham, 78.
White Lackington, 137.
" White Lion," Hadleigh, 34.
Wimborne Minster, 177, 179.
Winchcombe, 93.
Wingfield Manor, 209, 215.
Winnington, 189.
Wolverton, 173, 174.
Woodchester, 99.
Woodlands, 178.
Wood Stanway, 90,

Wool, 176.

Wootton Lodge, 195, 196.
Wormleighton, 13.
Wormwood Farm, Neston, 1 1
Worsborough, 226, 227.
Wothorpe Hall, 18.
Wye, river, 204.
Wylde Court, 171.
Wymondham, 51, 52, 53.

Yatton Keynell, 116, 117, 118.
Yeadon, 241.

Yew Tree Farm, Bushley, 83.
Yore, river, 250, 252.

Printed by Morrison & Gibb Limited, Edinburgh

OLD ENGLISH HOUSES

A RECORD OF A RANDOM ITINERARY

Bj Allan Fea

With a Frontispiece in Photogravure of Creslow Manor-
House, Buckinghamshire, and over loo Illustrations in
Half-Tone from Photographs by the Author.

Demy 8vo. (5I in. x 9 in.) Price Half a Guinea Net.

The following review of this book, which was published last
autumn, appeared in The Evening Standard on December 23, 19 10,
and is here reprinted verbatim. It has been selected from many
others equally laudatory, as showing the character and scope of the
book with particular clearness.

HISTORY FROM STONE AND TIMBER

"Old English Houses." By Allan Fea. 10/6 net.

By his previous books on old houses and secret chambers,
Mr. Allan Fea has conferred a lasting benefit on all who by
motor-car or bicycle explore the "nooks and corners" of
England. The present volume is specially valuable to the
searcher for the romantic and the picturesque who lives in
or near London, because it deals with the Home Counties.
The only fault we have to find with the book is that it
whisks the imagination and the affections away to these
delightful relics of the past at the very time when the body
is hopelessly chained to the mill-stone.

Mr. Fea does not worry us with technicalities. There is
a pleasant gossipy flavour about the pages. If at times we
run up against "barge-boards" and " brasses " and "bench-
ends," we soon get away to more seasonable subjects — stories
of the secret passages of Parlem Park, and of Lady Place
at Hurley, where the spies of William of Orange delivered
their messages. Or we are taken to see the ghost of Lady
Hoby wailing for her cruelty to her child among the walls
of Bisham Abbey, or those other ghosts are discussed, the
one at Creslow Slanor-House — the most picturesque house
in Buckinghamshire, by the way — and at Sarratt, near
Rickmansworth. Or gentle excursions are made into
history that is neither deep nor difticult, the history of
Monmouth, of Anne Boleyn, and of the anonymous letter
that Lord Monteagle received from his sister-in-law which
saved the House of Lords from annihilation.

[over

Not the least of our debts to the author is that he gives
a great impetus to our interest in thecountrjside by showing
what a surprising number of beautiful old houses may be
found by those who will dive into the nooks and corners of
the land. Kent, in particular, between iVIaidstone, Canter-
bury, and Ashford, would seem to supply an inexhaustible
number of joys to the artistically inclinc:d. To name only
a few, the entrance into Hollingbourne, Bearsted, Leeds,
exceptionally rich in old houses, and the beatitiful village of
Sutton Valence. Farther west is the unrivalled street of
Chiddingstone.

It is the fashion to believe that an enthusiast overdoes the
description of his joys. Testing Mr. Allan Fea by personal
knowledge, we find him not guilty on this count. To
Parham Hall, that fascinating Elizabethan hall near Arundel,
he does not even do bare justice. And the very numerous
and beautiful photographs give the lie to any such imputa-
tion as regards the generality of his subjects.

Pleasant to read, indulgently gossipy as these pages
are, they sometimes break out into humour which is most
unusual in antiquarian books : —

" A friend of mine was once shown the identical inn yard
where ' Henry VIII. addressed the Romans,' and in the same
village the residence of ' Queen Dowager.' I have been shown
also the house of ' Guy Fawkes, the first Quaker.' The ferry-
man at Elmley (in the Isle of Sheppey) insisted that King
James landed at that spot 'with all his fleet.' Argument
was useless — I departed worsted."

The agreeable tidings is conveyed to us by the author
that much more care is taken than of yore to preserve these
fine old houses. That charming old place, Ockwells Manor,
near Maidenhead, was rescued by the instrumentality of
a letter written to The Standard. Other venerable and
adorable mansions have been given a new lease of life by
restorations more or less tasteful ; among the number are
Burford Priory, East Mascalls, and Bramshill Park, the latter
now surpassing in the author's estimation almost any other
old mansion he has seen, and that is saying a good deal.
No one has a better acquaintance with — we were going to
say, the shells or husks of Elizabethan England, but surely
the mind or the time is reflected in a marvellous way in
these artistic creations in stone and timber, and the guide
who brings us to the view of their retiring beauties, and
makes us understand the warm life that once filled them,
gives us a new insight into the history of the past.

The counties which Mr. Fea covers in this volume include
Buckinghamshire^ Berkshire., and Oxfordshire; Bedfordshire.,
Hertfordshire., atid Middlesex j Essex, Kent, Sussex, Surrey,
and Hatnpshire, and each district is copiously illustrated

LONDON : MARTIN SECKER, NUMBER FIVE JOHN STREET, ADELPHI

DATE DUE

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3 19^2"

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PRINTEOIN U.t A

UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY

AA 001 369 521

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