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RAMBLES ROUND 




A SEKIES OS SUCCESSIYE VISITS 



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mUGE8--PUCES--SEATS-BESn)ENCES-CHABACTEBS--Ain'IQUI13ES 
OBJBCr8-<3URIOSITIES--CHmiCHE&--MONUMENTS--PUBLIC 
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H thtq Jirwtiott Jtalittng mi td %M\ 




VOL. L 



LONDON: 
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO.; 

NOTTlNaHAM: W. F. GIBSON. 
1866. 



TO 

THE BEST BELOVED AND MOST JUSTLY ESTEEMED 

NOBLEMAN, 

OF THE COUNTY OF NOTTINGHAM. 

HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE, 

THIS VOLUME 

ts, 

BY HIS GRACE'S KIND PERMISSION, 

MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 

BY 

HIS GRACE'S MUCH 08U0ED AND MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT, 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



Snatched from the few uncertiain hours of leisure, incident 
to a busy life, these " Rambles*' are the fruits of its recreative 
exercises. On this plea they may probably bespeak more 
indulgence than they might otherwise deserve — as they have 
certainly obtained more than could ever have been antici^ 
pated. Rosy-coloured dawn, and the golden light of sunset, 
have been the hours available for pursuits which could not 
be permitted to trench upon more pressing avocations. Not 
one hour requiring the more urgent employment of the 
author's pen — (it is too well known to the anxious printer 
and his " familiars") — ^has been ever devoted to these ramb- 
ling sketches : hence, their numerous imperfections, and 
this apologetic explanation. 

So deeply impressed has the author been with the neces- 
sary shortcomings of his attempt to paint the surrounding 
topography of Nottingham, and whilst doing so to fill in 
some historical, and more especially living groups, to animate 
the scene, that he has hitherto been desirous of writing 
under anonymous shelter. But he wishes now to state, in 
justification of the unexampled favour with which his brethren 



VI PREFACE. 

of the press — from the daily sheet and acute weekly critic of 
the London papers, to the more immediate organs of pro- 
vincial journalism — have, with scarcely an exception, met his 
endeavours, that topographical research is not to him an 
entirely new field of labour. For many years he had the 
honour of furnishing the chief supphes of this class of de- 
scriptive literature to several eminent publishers, and has 
now to acknowledge that the present effort mainly originated 
in a general suggestion, thrown out by Mr. Pishey Thomp- 
son, the excellent historian of Bostonr— not to him, indeed, 
but to the members of the Archaeobgioal Society of the 
Diocese of Lincoln — ^that if every one would go home, and 
try what he could do to elucidate the history and topography 
of his own hundred, materials for a statistical acoount of 
England would not long be wanting. 

The author is grj^tified to add, that on being made aware 
of what, he had done, Mr. Thompson has joined with the 
critics of the periodical press, in the expectation that such a 
work, judging of it so far as it has gone, may be found ti> 
constitute a valuable local history. 

Working with a distinct object of usefulness thus before 
him, in the production of a local record and guide, which 
should reflect and indicate the environs of Nottingham, as 
they are, and might possibly be thought worthy of preservation, 
the author, mindful of his obligations to gratify, as £ar as 
possible, the popular taste, takes leave to recapitulate the 
substance of his original prospectus : 



PRBFACE. Vii 

** A site of unrivalled picturesq uenees and beauty, fraught 
with all that interest to the hearts of thousands which hoveis 
about the cherished name of *Home/ belongs to NottinghauL 
Undulating in waves of natural loveliness, its grassy and 
woody circles of surrounding hills upheave an endless succes- 
sion of varied landscapes, whose claims to notice are height- 
ened in all directions by the murmurs of some poet's song, 
the memories of the olden time, or the astotmding develop- 
ments of modem enterprise and industry. In few oentras 
of attraction in this favoured isle are so many soggestiye 
objects to be found commingled, as within the circuit of laa, 
twelve, or—^by favour of railway transit it may be, sometimes 
— ^twenty miles around Nottingham. Persuaded that this 
field teems with gratifying interest to the vast multitudes of 
our population, it is intended to bestow upon it, by means of 
popular periodical publication, a little cultivation, with* a 
view of bringing the literary results within the reach of every 
one. There can hardly be anypublioation more suitable for 
general circulation throughout the district, better fitted for 
the perusal of every private individual, or for reception int» 
every family, as well as for the use of strangers, seeking to 
form an acquaintance with our scenes, than one which 
touches upon no topic of contention, trenches upon no for- 
bidden themes, and which it is obvious must form a vehicle 
in which instruction and amusement may be transmitted 
with equal facility. 

" Thus, whilst the future Rambler • views those scenes «o 
charming,' the whispering tones of some interpreting voice 
would seek to impart intelligence concerning them, gleaned 
alike from the history of the past and from observations of 



\ri^i PBEFACB. 

the present. The breeze that fans the health-seeker's cheek 
need not henceforth be the only refreshing breath that 
gladdens the visit to each neighbouring spot. To draw from 
the panoramic procession of town, meadow, river, woodland, 
village, road, railway, and country scenery — from the lordly 
expanses and wooded ^lendours of the park^ alike with the 
more ordinary aspect of the common ; from the noble man- 
sion and the humble cot; the church-yard trees and tombs, 
and sacred recessea of the church; the market crosses, 
thatched roofs and ricketty walls of rural townships, or the 
many twinkling rows of the lighted factory windows ; nay, it 
may be, from the deep-embowelled mines, and other hidden 
arcana of labour — ^information indicative of the true position 
and genuine importance of each and all of these, must serve 
to impart new life to the picture, new zest to the enjoyment." 

In following up these proposals the author must take leave 
at this stage to express his acknowledgments to those by 
whom he has been favoured with very great facilities, more 
especially to the Eight Hon. Lobd Middleton, and the Rev. 
C. J. WiLLOUGHBT, Rcctor of WoUaton; to the late Alfbed 
Lowe, Esq., and Edwabd Joseph Lowe, Esq.,. his son ; to 
T. C. HiNE, Esq., and Mr. Evans, his assistant; to the 
Eev. KiBKE SwANN, of Gedling ; and Mr. Alderman Her- 
BERT ; to Mr. J. Froggatt> of Lenton Poplars ; Mr. Eamss> 
of Lenton; to Mr. John Shaw, Churchwarden of Lenton; 
to Edmund Percy, Esq., George Rawson, Esq., and -H. 
Bruce Campbell, Esq. ; to Mr. R. Sutton, of the Notting- 
ham Review, (for the use of engravings) ; and to Mr. W. 
.Chapman, of Nottingham, for the communication of many 



PREFACE. 



valuable facts saad suggestions ; to Thomas North, Esq., of 
Basford Hall ; to the Mayor of Nottingham (Richard Bir- 
KiN, Esq.) ; and finally, to His Grace the Duke of New- 
castle, for extending his patronage to the work. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPT.ER T. 

NOTTINGHAM PARK. 

Nottingham Park; the modem entrance; gradient of the tunnel; 
the Derby Boad, and what it once was ; the use of dukes ; the 
remains of ancient rock habitations ; young Pugin's Grothic fac- 
ings; the tunnel and open shaft; embellishments of the park 
entrance ; elm avenue into the park ; view from " Newcastle Tor- 
race ;" the great Nassau Balloon passing over the meadows ; the 
future of aerostation ; balloon ascents in Nottingham ; plan of the 
vUla roads of the park ; superb effect of this rus in urhe ; genius 
of Mr. T. C. Hine; origin and vicissitudes of the jMtrlc; private 
residents ; William Felkin, Esq. ; John Heard, Esq. ; sculptured 
tunnel and cavern at Mr. Alderman Herbert's ; H. Bruce Camp- 
bell, Esq. ; George Gill, Esq., and his benevolences ; tennis court 
in the rook cistern or ancient reservoir at J. Bradley's, Esq.; 
Standard Hill and its historical associations ; Nottingham Gene- 
ral Hospital and grounds ; Nottingham Castle and ruins ; Fish- 
pond gardens; bowling greens; rock holes; barracks — ^p. 1. 



CHAPTER II. 
WOLLATON HALL. 

Lenton lodge approach ; avenue of limes ; views in the park ; extent 
and scenery of the park; herd of deer; rare and beautifiil trees; 
architecture of the hall ; views from the lower windows and ter- 
race ; fountain and statuary on the lawn; the trees of the 
" Wilderness ;" yews, cedars, pinasters, enormous copper and 
other beeches; a Scotch pine; deodara; arbor vitae, hemlock 
spruce, and evergreen oak ; the cellars ; brass four-pounder ; wine 
cellars; ale cellars; " wetting the other eye;" jolly ale barrel; 
ancient retainer; singular plunge bath; enormous culvert; the 
grand staircase; genius of Yerrio and La Guerre; mythological era 
of house decoration ; career and works of Verrio ; the Prometheus 



CONTENTS. XI 

at Wollaton, and its probable date ; Barber, of Nottingham, and 
his portraits ; Beinagle's p<»rtraits of Lord Middleton's hunt ; the 
great hall ; grand stone screen ; organ gallery ; grotesque Gothic 
ornaments; pictures in the haJl; specimens of Giordano; copy 
from Vandyck; Lord Howe's action off Ushant; Sneyders* hunt- 
ing pieces ; works of Bosa da Tivoli, Sibrechts, etc. ; dkiing-room : 
family portraits, pieces of humour, and still-life; the saloon: 
glass decorations, etc. ; family portraits and histories ; Sir Francis 
Willoughby, the founder of Wollaton; Sir Godfrey Eneller; 
Bomney ; originals, by Beubens ; inlaid cabinet of ^sop's Fables ; 
beautiful presentation piece, " the return from the -vintage ;" the 
library: books of Francis Willoughby the philosopher; femily 
portraits ; sketch of the philosopher's life and writings ; Pompeio 
Belloni ; copies from Vandyck ; ** Strafford and his Secretary ; the 
billiard-room ; curious family portrait, by Barber of Nottingham ; 
Lord Chief Justice Willoughby (Edw. HI.) ; Sir Hugh Willoughby 
and the Arctic expedition of 1563 ; family portraits, by Sir Joshua 
Reynolds, etc ; views at Wollaton and on the river Trent, at Wil- 
ford ; park view from the house-top : grounds ; French pavilion ; 
stables; decoy lake; walks and wQ,ters; kitchen gardens, etc — ^p. 53. 



CHAPTER IIJ. 

liENTON.— MONASTIC, DOMESTIC, EDUCATIONAL AND 
INDUSTRIAL. 

Approaches to Lenton ; origin of the name ; course and character of 
the river Leen ; .romantic life of William Peveril ; foundation of 
Lenton Abbey ; gifts to the abbey ; quarrelsome dispositions of 
the monks ; perambulation of the monastic site ; traces and relics 
of the buildings ; attempted restoration of the religious houses 
and church ; coins and curiosities discovered ou the site ; histori- 
cal and general Teminiscences of the monastic ruin ; Peveril court 
of Lenton ; domestic abodes and beauties of Lenton and neigh- 
bourhood ; modem church and schools, and educational efforts ; 
industry of Lenton ; Mr. Wilkinson's herd of short-homed cattle ; 
Messrs. Bayley and Shaw's fellmongers* works ; Mr. Hall's starch 
works ; Mr. Eames's gassing and bleaching works, etc — p. 111. 



CHAPTER IV. 

HIGHFEELD HOUSE AND GROUNDS. 
The way to Highfield House; avenues; vistas; extensive grounds of 
one hundred and sixty acres ; lare trees : the deodara, araucaria 
imbricata, cupressus fiinebris, &c.; marriage of the rose and 
acacia; a wilderness of roses; antique Roman cinerary; rookery; 
ferns (Alices); gardens; vineries; orangexy; eaoti and orehids ; 



CONTENTS. 

six hundred exotic ferns ; the bush-fighting plant ; romantic walk ; 
sandstone bluffs , meadows and pastures ; wild lake of five acres ; 
the swan and elegant swan-goose ; water weeds ; secluded shell 
and spar grottoes ; lofty sandstone rocks ; capacious caverns ; relics ; 
bronze sword ; recoil of the Boman Invasion from the forest 
bounds ; picture gaUeiy; Highfield House Observatory— p. 166. 



CHAPTER V. 

BEESTON OBSERVATORY. 

A philosopher at home ; scientific labours of Mr. E. J. Lowe ; com- 
mencement of observations in 1840 ; first contribution to the 
press, 1843 ; contributions to science : Registrar General's Re- 
ports, since 1845, British Association on Meteors, 1848, and every 
subsequent year, ditto on shells, mortality of the swallow tribe, 
and wind laws ; Royal Astronomical Society, June, 1848 ; solar 
spots; meteors; zodiacal light; comet of 1854, etc. — ^Royal So- 
ciety: growth of land shells; reproduction of toads and- frogs; 
287 thunder storms; the Times and lUustrated London News re- 
gisters : Forbes* British Molusca; Moore's Gardeners* Magazine 
of Botany; Association Medical Journal; "The Institute;" pa- 
pers to learned bodies ; lectures at Nottingham, Beeston, Bath, 
etc.^ published works: treatise on "Atmospheric Phenomena;" 
"Prognostications of the Weather;" " Conchology of Notting- 
ham," (illustrated) ; and " Climate of Nottingham" ; description 
of the observatory and its instruments ; the ear^quake pendulum ; 
gimbal vane ; meridian gun ; Electrometers ; exploring wires ; 
Ramboni's diy pile, gold leaf, Dutch Metal, thin straw, and pith 
ball electrometers ; Negretti's thermometers ; Dr. Franklin's 
identical hygrometer ; Daniels' ditto ; thermometer stand ; rain 
gauges ; ozonometer ; transit instrument ; the atmospheric 
recorder of the late Mr. Lawson, <bo— p. 185. 



CHAPTER VI. 

BRAMCOTE AND THE HEMLOCK STONE. 

The Derby-road, right and left, to Bramcote; three approaches to 
Bramcote ; rurid streets and terraces ; the Sherwin Arms ; Cross 
roads; turnpike bar; Saxon possessors; William the porter; 
Herbert of Bramcote and his curse ; the nuns and prior of Sem- 
pringham ; the Handley family ; the Sherwins ; old vUlage church 
and tower; monuments; schools; private residences; the hem- 
lock stone ; way to the site; Bramcote Hall and Park; Bramcote 
hills ; traditions of the hemlock stone ; druidical altar ; materials, 
dimensions, and description of the pillar ; views from the site ; 
natural causes of the formation — ^p. 311. 



CONTENTS. XUl 

CHAPTER VII. 

TKOWELL AND WOLLATON VILLAGES. 

Erewash Valley landscape from Stapleford to Trowell; Derbyshire 
" clouds** ; old hall and old church ; Trowell in the olden time ; 
Saxon and Norman inheritors ; regimes of the de Trowells, the 
de Bnmnesleys, Hackers, and Willoughbys; early English and 
later periods of Trowell church ; old chancel ; credence; piscina; 
sedilia ; lychnoscope ; nave piers ; font; ascent of the bell tower ; 
battlements; view from the top; road to Wollaton; Trowell 
moor; ihe collieries; Wollaton village and environs; the "Ad- 
miral Bodney ;" rectoiy; church; monuments, etc — p. 226. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
STEELLEY AND BILBOROUGH. 

Bural walk through the ** Wood-yard ;" the Quarry Plantation ; Not' 
tingham Canal; BiLborough Cut; Broomhill Plantation; Lord 
Middleton and his miners ; the " song of the broom" ; Gorse Plan- 
tation ; the Boughs ; Old Park Farm ; the Dumble ; Bilborough 
Wharf; Holly Wood, Shepherd's Wood; Bilborough Thorns; 
the reservoir ; Coventiy Lime ; Strelley Lodge and Coal Wharf 
Catstone Hill ; Tram-road ; Strelley Hall and demesne ; Strelley 
Broad Oak ; lie family of Strelley ; curious changes of orthogra- 
phy ; the family of Edge ; Strelley village and rectory ; Strelley 
church; restoration and monuments; marriage festivities and 
dnlce domum ; Bilborough village, church, and rectory-— p. 247. 



CHAPTER IX. 

BEOXTOWE AND BASFORD. 

The Fox Covert-road ; Broxtowe HaU ; the weapontake ; the Hundred; 
Mr. Bailey's famous tradition ; Mr. S. Parrott's picture of the old 
hall and the new ; Old Basford ; the Leen valley ; ancient manors ; 
Bagthorpe, or Algarthorpe Hall, and the Elands; the Honor 
Court ; church of St Ledger ; birthplace of the author of " Festus" ; 
new burial ground; gardens; Basford Union; historical inci* 
dents and occurrences; New Basford; primitive church; lace 
and hosiery manufScictures ; bleaching and chemical works; old 
waterworks; gas works; basket works; cosl works; T. North, 
Esq. ; Mr. Woodhouse, C.E. ; Cinder HUl and Babbington ; des- 
cent of the pits; new church of Cinder Hill — ^p. 272. 



ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. I. 

Kew Map of Nottmghamshire, with views of Nottinghain 
Castle, Newstead Abbey, and Worksop Manori Armorial 

Bearings, <fec to face Title. 

Bird's-eye view of the Villa Plan of Nottingham Park .... paqe 1. 

Vignette of Newcastle (Ducal) Arms — 1. 

liCnton Lodge, WoUaton Park — 65. 

Wollaton Hall ; — 69. 

Betom from the Vintage — 80. 

114 Figures of Land and Fresh-water Shells 192.3.4-5.6.7-8. 



RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 



CHAPTER I. 

NOTTINGHAM PARK. 




NEWCASTLE, (5tliDUKE 
OF) Henry Pelham Fiennes 
Pelham Clinton, p, c, co. 
Stafford, and Earl of Clinton, • 
in the peerage of Great Bri- 
tain; son of Heniy, 4ii) 
Duke, K.G., by Geoi^giana 
Elizabeth, dau. of Edward 
Miller Mundy, Esq., M.P., 
of Shipley, co. Derby; bom 
)1811; succeeded his fatier, 
Jan. 12, 1851 ; married, 1832, 
Lady Susan Hamilton Dou- 
glas, only dau. of Alexander, 

10th Duke of Hamilton, (which marriage was dissolved 1850) ; and 

has issue, 

Henry Pelham Alexander, Eatl of Lincolx, K 18S4. 

Edward William, lieot. Bifle Brigade, h, 1836— Susan Charlotte Catherine, b. 
1839— Arthnr, b. 1840— Albert Sidney, b. ISif*. 

His grace was educated at- Eton and at Christ's Church, Oxford ; was 
M.P. for South Nottinghamshire from 1832 to February 1846, and for 
the Falkirk Burghs *from May 1846, till his accession: was Secretary 
of State for the Colonies, (1832) and for the War Department, (1854.5) 
a I^Ty-counciUor, a Member of the Council for the Duchy of Corn- 
wall, Keeper of St Briavil's Castle, and is Colonel of the Sherwood 
Bangers Militia; was formerly a Lord of the Treasur]^, and has been 
First Commissioner of Woods and Forests, (1841) Chief Secretary for 
Ireland, (1846). The late Duke, who was Steward and Keeper of 



2 ^ RAHBUes KOUSTD NOTMNGHAIT, 

Sherwood Forest, succeeded his father in his eleventh year; and dta> 
ing a continental tour, was one of the English dertained in France for^ 
.four years, on the renewal of hostUities after the peace of Amiens^ 
Having served as lord-lieutenant and custos-rotulorum of co. Notting- 
ham for thirty years, under four monarchs, he was superseded 1839 
hy the Earl of Scarborough, in consequence of a misunderstanding with 
thje government of the day* In 1831, the Duke's castle of Nottingham 
was burned to the ground by a mob, incensed at the political course 
taken by his grace during the progress of the Eefbrm Bill* The family, 
descends from Henebald de Clinton, Lord of Clinton, co. Oxford, in the 
time of the Conqueror, from whom, 6th in descent, was John de Clinton, 
summoned as Baron Clinton, 1299,. from which remote person the male 
line has been represented by peers in parliament without intermission ; 
consequently they are the oldest members of the House of Lords with 
that distinction, except the families of Berkeley and Neville. The 9th 
baron, lord high admiral, was for a series of important services created 
Earl of Lincoln by Queen Elizabeth. On the death of Edward, 13th 
Lord and 5th Earl, this ancient barony feU into abeyance between the 
daughters of the 4th earl, and is now nossessed by the heir general of 
the survivor. Henry Clinton, 7th Earl of Lincoln, K.G., married. 
Lucy, dau. of Thomas, Lord Pelham, and sister of Thomas, Duke of 
Newcastle ; and their second son, 9th earl, marrying his cousin, dau, 
and heir of the Bight Hon. Henry Pelham, inherited the dukedom on 
decease of her uncle, and assumed by royal Mcense the additional sur- 
name of Pelham. The present Duke has proceeded to the Crimea, 
to view the operations of the siege of Sebastopol, with the undertakings 
of which he was so intimately connected as British Minister of War, 
and has been residing in the tent of General Bentinck, a cadet of the 
Nottinghamshire ducal family of Portland. 

Creadon*— Baron, 1299 (passed to famfly of Trefusis; ; Earl, 1572; Bake, 1756* 
Motto — XiOyaultd n'a bonte — Loyalty has do shame. 

Retidencea—Potim.aii'Bqfiare; Clumber Park, and Worksop Sfoner, co. lifotto^ 
Bafod, CO. Cardigan, 



NOTTINGHAM PAUK — ^THE MODERTT ENTRANCE— GHADEENT OP THE TUN* 
NEL — THE DEBBY BOAD, AND WHAT IT ONCE WAS — THE USB OF 

DUKES — THE BEMAINS OF ANCIENT ROCK HABITATIONS YOUNa 

PUGlN'S GOTHIC FACINGS — THE TUNNEL AND OPEN SHAFT — ^EMBEL- 
LISHMENTS OF THE PARK ENTRANCE — ELM AVENUE INTO THE PARK 
— ^VIEW FROM " NEWCASTLE TERRACE" — THE GREAT NASSAU BALLOON 
PASSING OVER THE MEADOWS — THE FUTURE ' OF AEROSTATION — ' 
BALLOON ASCENTS IN NOTTINGHAM — PLAN OP THE VILLA BOAD» 
OF THE PARK— SUPERB EFFECT OF THIS RUS IN URBE — GENIUS 

OF MR. T. C. HIKE — ORIGI^N AND VICISSITUDBS OP THE PARE. 

PRIVATE RESIDENTS — WILLUM FELKIN, ESQ. — JOHN HEARD, ESQ. — 
SCULPTtJRED TUNNEL AND CAVERN AT MR. ALDERMAN HERBERT'S — 
H. BRUCE CAMPBELL, ESQ.— GEORGE GILL, ESQ., AND HIS BSNEVO' 



NOTTINGHAM PARK. 



tJENCES— TENNIS COURT IN THE ROCK — CISTERN OR ANCIENT RESER- 
VOIR AT J. BRADLEr'S, ESQ* — STANDARD HIIiL AND ITS HISTORICAL 
ASSOCIATIONS — NOTTINGHAM GENERAL HOSPITAL AND GROUNDS — 
l^OTTINGTHAH CASTLE AND RUINS — £'ISH-P0N1> GARDENS— ^^BOWXJNG 
0RK|:NS — ^ROCK HOLES — ^BARRACKS. 



•* When c«me was the month of May, 
She would walk upon a day, 
And that .was ere the sun ariat; 
Of women but a few it wist ;, 
And forth she went privily 
Unto a park was fast by, 
" . ' All soft walkand on the grass 

Till she came there, the land was 
. ' Through which ran a great river, 

It thought Her fair ; and said here 
I will abide under the shaw ; 
And bade her women all withdraw : 
Andthere she stood alone still, 
To think what was in her will. 
'She saw the sweet flowers spring, 
I She heard the glad fowls sing," &o. 

Gower's Bosiphele^ 

The above " reduction" by Warton, is from the only English 
part of Gower's great poem the Clamatio Amantis (Lover^s 
Complaint), all the. rest being in Latin. It shows -what a 
difference there must be in the views and objects with which 
people now a-days^ enter into ** Parks," com'pared with times 
of old. Nottingham Park too, although the private property 
<jf a nobleman, has for the long period of a century and a 
quarter, now rapidly nearing' its close, been freely used and 
commonly regarded as a pleasure ground for the people, and 
the Rambler's usual object in bending his footsteps towards 
it, has hitherto been to obtain a mouthful of fresh air. It 
was not therefore ** before the sun arist," and in point of fact 
there were plenty of people looking on, as we proceeded up 
Ghapel-bar, and arrived at the new entrance to the Derby- 
road Tunnel, the modern way into the park. When the duke 
acquired the property through which this tunnel passes, ho 
undertook to cut a slope or gradient, of one foot in fourteen, 
from tte Derby-road down into the deep valley which curves 
round almost into the heart of the park, from the base of the 
castle rock. By applying a spirit level, or still better, a much^ 
more simple and accurate instrument which a north country 
gentleman (Wm. Gillespie, Esq., of Torbane-hill, near Bati^ 



4 BAMBLE6 BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

gate, N. B.) has invented, called an " Inclinometer," and 
which it is exceedingly strange thdt no one had previously 
hit upon — it will be found, however, that his Grace has not 
succeeded in reducing the gradient absolutely to the required 
slope, but to about one foot in twelve, which might be consi- 
dered pretty steep for carrie^es, were it not that the distance 
is short. As we shall soon perceive, his Grace has neverthe- 
less furnished the park wi^ a new and splendid avenue of 
access. This Derby-road itself, for which the public are 
indebted to a former Lord Middleton, is, at some parts, on a 
steeper incline. Yet, what it is, compared to what it. was, 
one can now have no conception. It was once a perfect rut, 
running in, over, and amongat a series of sand-hiQs, rendering 
the town, from this point, nearly inaccessible. People did 
not pass out in this direction then to Castle Donington, nor even 
conveyances to Derby — but they went along by the Leen and 
Trent Bridges. A former Lord Middleton, in 1740, obtained 
permission from the Corporation of Nottingham to raise up 
the deep hollow way which extended from Chapel-bar to the 
top of the Sand-hills, which he did, by having the hills on 
both sides cast into it. So late as 1811, the road was 
heightened and the foot-paths improved upon the south; 
whdst, upon the north side, it was absolutely paved and 
lighted with lamps ; so that we may perceive the slow process 
of upwards of a century's improvements through which the 
road that now sweeps so superbly down on Nottingham baa 
reached its present fine condition. Some people have asked 
" the use of Dukes" — the formation, at once, .and out of his 
own resouices, of such a work as this tunnelled way, consti- 
tuting so handsome an approach to the future finest part of 
Nottingham — the unbuilt City of the Park — exemplifies the 
value, to the community, of such a nobleman as the Duke of 
Newcastle. In executing the former road-works, the workmen 
found several rock walls and partitions between rooms, along 
the line of the Derby-road ; and as these were at once dis- 
cerned to be neither Saxon nor Roman, let vs bear them in 
mind in examining the rock-holes of the park, since it is argued 
that they must therefore have been British. That many of 
our Nottingham caverns were British, in the most ordinary 
acceptation of the wokI, no one who knows about the largest 



PUGIN 8 GOTHIC FACINGS. C 

of ihem all, on Dog Kennel-hill, the work of one man, James 
Eo68» or Rouse, who got sand m it for a period of thirty years ; 
or about the numerous excavations on this very Derby-road, 
«11 the way out to Radford, can reasonably doubt. Regularly 
formed walls and partitions are however altogether another 
thing — they constitute •• proofs of design," and the highest 
branch of inductive knowledge warrants our drawing infer- 
ences of intelligence and intention, from proofs like these. 
On entering within the cut leading to the tunnel, we at once 
notice the manner in which the Baptist Chapel, on the one 
hand, and the Roman Catholic property on the other, had 
been seemingly endangered by driving the excavation through 
tit such a depth. This arose from the respective owners not 
having sufficiently provided, as they were bound to have done, 
for that emergency. The latter property has been faced up 
with buildings towards the cut, admirtibly designed by th« 
younger Pugin, son of the distinguifihed architect of the 
adjoining Roman CaUiblic Church of St. Barnabas ; and the 
Baptist Chapel Trustees, on the opposite side, will immedi- 
ately have to execute similar facings, which will greatly aid 
in imparting a finished air to the tunnel at its entrance. 
The works executed under the auspices of young Pugin, con- 
sist of Gothic ^rches and buttresses, harmonizing finely with 
the adjacent structure of St. Barnabas, which is regarded as 
a grand though severe example of the Ecclesiastical Gothic. 
The indine, which descends from the Derby-road to the 
entrance of the tunnel, commences with an open cutting, 
carried down fe) a depth of thirty feet; at this depth, the 
entrance to the tunnel is bridged by a boldly-thrown semi- 
circular arch of brick-work, twenty-six feet high, flanked by 
massive stone buttresses, constructed both for pressure and 
support, tod admirably in keeping with Pugin^s retcdning- 
works on the left The general effect is that of extreme 
security and decision. The roadway, twenty-three feet in the 
clear, is here slightly curved westwards, so as to render the 
first or artificial {Le, the buflt) half of the tunnd an excellent 
example of what is known in engineering as the skewed arch. 
At the termination of the bridging, half way through, there 
is a splendid open shaft, ascending by a magnificent stone 
staircase in the very centre of the work, to Victoria-street, 



6 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

adjoining " the Eope-walk'* on the summit-ground above. The 
broad, wide flag-steps, nearly one hundred in, number, are of 
beautiful and durable Yorl^hire stone, and are sub-diTided 
into five handsome flights of stairs, by the interposition of 
spacious landings. The staircase, lined with hewn ashlar of 
the same stone, ascends in an easy spiral, extending from the 
base of the southern tunnel rock-wall, to the top of the vast 
ovate aperture on the north ; the extensive opening environed 
by a handsome step-wall or parapet, presenting a very finished 
aspect to Victoria-street, whilst affording a glimpse of the 
tunnelled way passing through underneath into the Park, and 
removing all conceivable objections to an approach of such a 
nature to the most ornamental part of the site of Nottingham, 
by throwing in life and hght throughout its whole extent- 
The inclined road below, constituting a handsome carriage 
way, passes for about one hundred yards under the bridge,, 
the open shaft, and the tunnelling which is cut through the 
strangely striated bed of sandstone rock of extraordinary 
thickness. Facing the Park, the tunnel finally emerges on 
another open cutting of thirty feet in depth. The retaining 
walls at the base of this cutting are most refreshingly fringed 
or ridged with narrow grass borderings, and these, pictur* 
esquely carried round like a string course above the mouth 
of the tunnel, as well as along the roek stepping and ledges 
of the cutting, have reaHy a very pretty and novel effect. 
The tunnel mouth, by the way, instead of being like that of 
•the brick archway, semi-circular, is thrown into a fine staimch 
horse-shoe form. Under the direction of Mr. Pearson, oi 
Chilwell, trees of considerable size, transplanted from Not- 
tingham Castle' plantations (the property of his Grace), hav^ 
been carefully sunk in peat soil, in and around the steep 
embankments opening upon the Park, and promise to enjoy 
a twenty years' start of the ordinary modes of embellishing 
public places with foliage. Many other shrubs have also 
been suppHed, and disposed around these embankments ; the 
rocks have been bearded with slips of ivy, and evei;! an 
arboricultural surprise attempted, by coaxing one tree toi 
vegetate in a sandstone niche over the tunnel mouth. The 
side paths laid with the rich red Beeston gravel, which, when 
well rolled, rivals asphalt in compactness and durability, con- 



THE GREAT NASSAU BALLOON. 7 

trast very brilliantly with these trances of greenery; and, at' 
the extremity of the approach thus handsomely formed, the 
way from the Park is lined off by a double row or avenue of 
beautiful young elms, which, diverging at the gate of the 
4ipprQach, are canied upwards in graceful lines to the very 
summits of the banks, which on either hand are bounded more- 
over with ornamental shrubbery eight yards in width. Alto- 
gether a sudden and magical transition from town to country 
is meanwhile here afforded to Nottingham, by his Grace, and 
freely presented to public use, though ultimately meant of 
course to accommodate the splendid buildings about to arise 
in Nottingham Park. 

Our party did not muster its full complement in deploying 
upon Nottin^am Park via the tunneL Some had clambered 
to the top of the shaft, and were now seen stationed on the 
verge of the steep bank or cliff, alas! in process of being 
lowesed fifteen feet, in order to form " Newcastle Terrace," 
looking in the direction of Clifton Grove, over one of the most 
exquisite of landscapes on the whole face of nature. Of all 
the views &om the park, we love and admire this the most 
Rising over the chimneys of Nottingham Barracks, which, to 
say truth, ape die worst lookijog assemblage of objects visible 
irodi this glorious Vantage ground, well as they may appear 
when seen fronted with a swelling bank of green, from the 
enchanted circle of Wollaton Park — ^a strange object might be 
noticed mountii^ gracefully into the sky. It was Derby 
Arboretum-day, and this was the veteran Green's Great Nas- 
sau Balloon. Freighted with Mr- Green and his son, three 
officers of the Derbyshire Militia, and seven cwt. of ballast, 
this aerial machine seemed like some strange barque just 
departing from the shore* and venturing on the boundless 
ocean — so vast was the level expanse, or deep fiat-bottomed 
iioUow over which it hovered ou high, with the Trent winding 
like a silver snake through the landscape beneath, and the 
light green meadows and dark green woods of Clifton running 
out into the distant horizon, whilst, nearer, the profuse green 
Arbours of the Fish-pond Gardens, the green hedge-row and 
tree-divided meadows, with pyramidal rows of poplars, the 
Castle Rock, the Railway Warehouse, with here and there 
other buildings, and innumerable trees dotting the scene, all 



8 SAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

spread out beneath the •* ship of heaven" in slow and Btatefy 
motion, an expanse resembling a map of faiiy-land unrolled — 

N '* Smooth as the swan^ when not a breeze at even 
Dil^turba the surface of the silver stream- 
Through air and sunshine sails the Ship of Heaven." 

8<nt(hey*B Kehtma, 

All this we witnessed from the terrace-height, whilst some 
of our friends gravely advanced across the greensward of the 
Park, also gazing upwards at the great balloon. After hover- 
ing, as if suspended in middle air, at a height of nearly two 
miles above the earth, Mr. Green seemed to have attained his 
object of making for Euddington, in order to descend near 
the hospitable mansion of Sir T. G. A. Parkyns, Bart., — a 
feat which he so nearly accomplished sa to pass close over Sir 
Thomas's garden wall, and to aKght betwixt Bunny Park and 
Bradmore village, 

** And now towards its port the Ship of Heaven^ 
Swift as a falling meteor shapes its flight, 
Yet gently as the dews of night that gem 
And do not bend the harebeU's slenderest stem." 

Ibid. 

This, in point of fact, was one of the most successful ascents, 
or rather descents, ever made in aerostation, and approached 
as nearly as possible to an amount of control over the balloon, 
dei^T i|d from lengthened experience; warranting the expecta- 
tion,, poner or later, of something tangible being attained in 
the science of navigating the air. The difficulty subsisting 
is well understood to consist in the vessel (or balloon) moving 
in the medium, whose motion serves to propd it. A ship .or 
sailing vessel at sea catching hold of the denser, is moved 5y 
the more rare and elastic of two media connected with her ; 
in other words, the opportunity is obviously afforded of calling 
in the propulsive powers of the one to overcome the resistance 
of the other. Yet time was, when it must have seemed as 
hopeless to think of propelling a ship against both wind and 
tide, as it may now seem to guide a balk>on through the ain 
In the case of the ship, a third power has been worked of the 
same nature as the other two. Without pretending to the gift 
of prophecy, therefore, it were easy enough ta predict that the 
future navigation of ths aerial highway must be dependant oa 



ABBOflXASIOK IN KOTIINGHAM. 

the^ptieumatio conditions of gaseous expansion and condensa^ 
tion — and. in that direction lies the path of discovery. The 
people of Nottingham have seen strange scenes in the way of 
aerostation. Cracknell, in July, 1785, had his Montgolfier 
torn to pieces in front of the race stand on Nottingham Forest^ 
by a mobj impatient of the long process of inflation by that 
(Montgolfier) method, which had just created some excitement 
in France ; tixed at last of waiting, they prematurely cut the 
cords of his balloon, let it off into the air, and made a bonfire 
of the rest of his materials on the spot. It is some tribute to 
the moral progress and refinement of the people to observe, 
that in July, 1854, when detained an undue length of time 
4n the process of inflation, and when his ♦* Britannia" balloon 
was ultimately dashed against the projecting point of a pble, 
and disrupted so as to cause the entire escape of the gas, and 
its complete collapse, Mr. Green, senior, was greeted rather 
by the commiseration than the imger of the holiday crowds in 
the Nottingham Arboretum, fifty thousand of whom met this 
sudden disappointment without a murmur or a hiss, and 
turned round good humouredly to enjoy the other passing 
sports of the occasion. The first balloon ascent, however, 
reailly witnessed by the inhabitants of Nottingham, was that 
of 1st November, 1818, when Mr. Sadler, senior, gratified an 
assemblage of people so immense that no such concourse had 
erer before been witnessed in the neighbourhood on any ba- 
sion, by ascending from the yard of tlie Canal Wharf, voider- 
neath the Oasde, afterwards so fearfully commemorated by an 
explosion of gunpowder. Exactly ten years afterwards, (8rd 
Nov., 1828), his son, Mr. W. Sadler, made a second ascent fk>m 
the Castle-yard, in presence of seventy thousand people. About 
eight years ago, (1847), Greenes 370th successful ascent was 
€^cted from the Barrack-yard, on the opposite side of the 
Park, in a yellow and crimson striped silk balloon, ISO feet 
round, 68 feet high, (including the car), comprising 15^,000 
ypds of silk, and 820,000 gallons of gas. Mr. Foxcroft, a 
solicitor, together with Captain Forster, accompanied Mr, 
Green on this occasion. Exactly as when lately beheld from 
the Park, the balloon rose high at half-past five p.m. above 
the deep level of the meadows, and hung long hovering over 
tiiem. It passed away over Beeston, to the aouth-wcst, and at a 



10 RAMBLES BOtTHP NOTTINGHAM. 

quarter to nine descended on the lawn of Earl Ferrers, at 
Staunton Harold Hall, Derbyshire. At the Nottingham 
Arboretum, in 1853, Mr. Chambers not only made a beautiful 
ascent, but several partial ascents throughout the day, lead- 
ing his ballbon about the grounds like an intelligent being, 
and taking any one who chose up a Httle \7ay from terra 
firma^ and letting him down again at will. Since then 
the Messrs. Green, father and son, have either ascended, or 
essayed to do so, in the face of considerable difficulties — the 
last instance, being that of Mr. Charles George Green, the 
son, with his great balloon " Le CorUinsnt" which werit up 
in a high wind in July, 1855, and traversed the country to 
nine miles beyond Grantham in less than forty minutes, 
where it descended, and was torn to jneces on a tree. ' 

The engineer and architect of Nottingham Park Tunnel, 
is our eminent Nottingham architect, Mr. Thomas Chambers 
Hine, to whom the town is so infinitely indebted for the im- 
provement of our street architecture. He is the duke's 
architect, and designed and superintended the formation of 
the tunnel, (Mr. Evans being his principal assistant). We 
have seen a coloured plan by Mr. Picken, (lithographed by 
Day and Son, lithographers to the queen), giving a sketch 
of the handsome villa residences with which the park is des- 
tined to be covered, and their disposition upon the ground. 
TMs Uthograph is unfortunately not a perfectly accurate deU- 
neation of the Park and its environs; we do not catch from it, 
more especially, the effect i^d appearance of the upper part of 
the Park and elevated portions of ground already built over, 
with the grand family houses and hanging gardens that form 
a splendid sort of rhizome around the scene. In truth, our 
/avourite standing ground is to be preserved in heightened 
beauty by a most miraculous instance of attention to tile 
enjoyment of the public on the part of his grace ; for, although 
" Newcastle Terrace," at the head of the Park, is to be lowered 
fifteen feet, the alteration is expressly calculated to depress the 
elevation of the buildings along the hne below that terrace; 
so that, whilst the breadth of the present road will be thrown 
into garden space for the existing buildings on the summit- 
ground, a foot path, beautifully planted, will run along the 
exterior wall of these gardens, sustained by a retaining wall 



PLAN OF THE 7IIXA BOADS. ' 11 

thirty feet in height, acul overlooking the whole varied scenery 
of park and meadows, castle, gardens, plantations, river, woods 
and hills below, our own sketch affords a graphic conception 
of what the architecture of the detached and semi-detached 
villas, and what the style of the roads and gardens are to he. 
The Park is to be most picturesquely and: pleasantly laid out 
•in paraHelograms, ^ot formally intersecting each other how- 
ever at right angles. One of the principal roads is that 
which ascends, with a graceful sweep, right from the mouth 
of the tunnel up to and beyond the elevated plateau near the 
back wall of the Barracks, on which, at present, stands a 
clump of ancient sycamores.* The centre of a square here 
marked out is intended for the site of an elegant Httle church, 
somewhat larger than the Baptist Chapel at the Derby-road 
extremity of the tunnel, but greatly resembling it, except in 
being rendered more definitely cruciform, in having a transept^ 
with a spire not unHke the elegant spire of Trinity. A trans- 
verse line of road, but not a straight line, extends across this 
square, only interrupted by the church, from the Derby-road 
upper park gates to the present road through the Park to 
Lenton^ debouching nearly opposite the Newcastle BowHng- 
green. But another intersecting road which sweeps along 
the curve of the present park valley, from the beginning of 
the Lenton-road (whence, indeed, it is protracted down to the 
Leen at Canal-street), — up to the above-mentioned Hne of in- 
.tersection with which it '* anastomoses'' near the above park 
gates, is to be regarded, we beheve, as the main road ; and 
will, when completed, afford the most direct access from 
Radford and the upper parts of Nottingham to the railway. 
In the bottom of t]^e valley there will run a drainage road, 
and adjoining it some oblong plots of ground are to be beau- 
tifully laid out, a fine fountain in the centre, and left free to 
the public for ever, for recreation grounds ; that is to say, the 
right-hand piece will be adapted for butts for archery; and 
that on the left-hand converted into a bowling-green. They 
will probably, however, require to be taken up and maintained 
by public societies or companies, to he chartered by his 
grace at a pepper-coni rent. Another transverse line of road 
follows ^the course of the stockade which, at the west end of 
the Park, fences off the present garden allotments. The site 



12 BAMBLES BOUND NOTVINOHAM. 

of the Barracks will probably, however, be absorbed in the 
improvementSt as the lease is now quite expired, and the 
cavalry head-quarters are removed to Sheffield. Three of 
the most conspicuous roads upon the plan have still to be 
mentioned, being those which the whole of the roads 
already referred to may be said to intersect. Gommenc- 
mg at difierent distances along the. park . valley these 
principal roads unite with the roads which traverse itie back 
part of the Park. All is most ingeniously contrived to pro- 
duce an effect as truly picturesque as might be expected from 
the unrivalled position of the ground. These roads, lined 
with trottoirs running along by^low parapet walls and railings, 
afibrding scope for the display of the beautiful garden grounds 
amidst which the edifices, removed back at uniform distances 
are to be set down, wiU possess a rich-luxurious air of suburban 
elegance and ease. The various styleis in which the buildings 
are to be got up— whether it be the square palatial . compo*d 
blocks of Italian stateUness, (perhaps the true villa school 
of architecture), or the clustered ornate-chimneyed, pointed- 
roofed and gabled red brick Tudor gothic, rising here apd 
there in beautifiil contrast to the other edifices, as well as to 
the green young leafy shrubberies destined to rise around 
them — ^will leave the spot without a parallel in the world of 
ru8 in urbe. Strangers will flock to see *' The Villa Town of 
Nottingham,'' and will vote all other suburban endeavours 
erroneous in comparison. The effect has not been untried 
on the undulating site of the extended town of Nottingham 
Inclosure ; and wherever it has been fairly attempted, nothing 
could be more beautiful than the result The eye of Mr. 
Hine has learnt from these isolated effects to judge favourably 
of the result of their combination on a grand scale : and 
where another man would have bidden arise a <<Bath" or a 
''Buxton Crescent" in all the majesty and folly of unbounded 
extravi^ance — ^to make the most of the natural features and 
advantages of the ground, and to preserve inviolate the sacred 
privacy of an English family home, even amidst the streets of 
a manufacturing to\#n, has rather been the aim of this gifted 
architect We call him so ; for eminently beautiful and varied 
as have been his numerous designs for the embellishment of 
the streets, and in the actual creation of the suburban archi- 



OBiaiK OF NOTTIMOBAH PABE. 13 

tecture of Nottingham, they have all been signalised by that 
charm of appropriateness which is the real test of fitness in 
this utilitarian age. When he spoke the other day, at the 
opening of Messrs. Adams, Page, and Company's large ware- 
house, (one of his latest triumphs) and vindicated its imposing 
grandeur against the shabbiness of the Nottingham public 
buildings, especially of the General E^cchange, ridiculing the 
square shops and common stalls of the latter, surmounted by 
an upper row of square-headed windows, and these incongru- 
ously overtopped by a central window with a circular head* 
the whole having horrible urns grinning down alarmingly 
on the Market-plifce for finials, togeUier with a paralytic female 
figure holdix^ manifestly in her palsied hand a pair ot faUB 
scales — there spoke a mind which entertained no fear of con- 
sequences, at least in prosecuting his art, and following out 
the legitimate consequences of true ideas in taste— or, as it is 
the fashion to say, in aestheties, Mr. Mine began his career 
by designing the Testimonial to Lord Greor^ Bentinck, at 
Mansfield ; should he be spared to see comple^^d these build- 
ings in Nottingham Park, he may well say with the illustrious 
architect of St. Paul's, Sir Christopher Wren — Simonummtwn 
T£quiri», eircumapiee!^^*' If you ask for a monument, look around 
you !" But rather let us revert to the past or the present, 
and leave the future to take care of itself. 

As far as the origin of Nottingham Park is traceable, it 
figures as an appenage of the Casde. Thoroton, Deering, &e., 
are fond of quoting a certain anonymous M.S., which states 
that William Peverel had license firom the king (Henry I.) 
to include or enclose ten acres ad faunendum pomerium (to 
make an orchard), "which," observes the former author, 
" after the forest measure, contains above fifty statute acres, 
and that I conceive to be near the proportion of the old park 
of Nottingham." In the enumeration of Jeffrey Knyveton, 
Constable of the Castle and Clerk of the Forest, 23, Henry 
VII, (1508), there is a close called ♦* Oastle Appleton"— -but 
the Park is rather supposed to be indicated by that denomi- 
ixated the *' Cony-garth." Thus we find it figuring : first as 
an orchard, next as a rabbit warren, then as a deer park to 
the castle, and finally as a sort of open common and suburban 
building -ground to the town. In the survey of the Fonest 



14 RAMBLES ROtrNB NOTTINGHAM. 

of Sherwood, (1609) Nottingham Park is returned as being 
129 acres. The general estimation is, that it contains 129 
acres» 1 rood, and 9 perches of land, from' the boundary of 
the Leen on the south, to that of the castle rock and Stand- 
ard-hill on the east, and those of the parishes of Lenton and 
Radford on the west and north. The Castle, its Park, as 
well as Standard-hill, are what is termed extra-parocMal ; 
that is to say, they are in no parish. The acres whereby we 
now compute its extent are necessarily Imperial, and not 
Forest acres ; and, allowing for the extent to which its open 
boundaries have been clipped and pared by the bowling-greens 
and gardens on the south, including the Fishpond Gardens 
forming the lower angle of the Park underneath the castle 
rock; the barrack site on the north-west ; and the large and 
beautiful houses, with their pictures(j[ue hanging gardens, 
which line its northern and eastern extremities, not more, 
perhaps less, than 100 acres of open pasture, have been en- 
joyed by the inhabitants of Nottingham since 1720, when it 
was disparked, having then abundance of fine old trees, of 
which the few sycamores already commemorated alone remain, 
and up till then being plentifully stocked with deer. 

Around the Park are already situated the residences of 
many of the leading men of Nottingham — every way most 
conspicuous amongst them may be mentioned, commencing 
on the right hand, in a survey of its surroundings — ^William 
Felkin, Esq., who has twice had the honor of being Mayor of 
Nottingham, but has possibly played even a more distinguished 
part in the Great Exhibitions of all Nations in 1851, in 
London; and in 1865, at Paris. This gentleman, son of the 
Rev. W. Felkin, of the a^oining town of Ilkeston, . (Der- 
byshire) may be said to have entered life at the stocking- 
frame when only thirteen years of age, and followed the 
hosiery business under the Nottingham firm of Heard and 
Hurst, up to 1820, when he became connected with the 
bobbin-net branch of the machine-made lace trade, under 
Mr. Heathcoat of Tiverton, for whom he travelled through 
France and Italy, in 1824-6, engaged in an inquiry into the 
silk products of the continent, and was fortunate enough to 
become, from the knowledge attained by travel, the discoverer 
and patentee of the ** Patent Reeling" process of preparing 



CAREBB OF MB. FELKIN. 15 

silk. In Heatlicoat*s silk filature, at Tiverton, it is recorded, 
that 36,000 lbs. of cocoons of Idee silk were reeled under Mr. 
Felkin's superintendence in one year, that of 1825-6, in which 
last year Mr. Felkin took up his abode in Nottingham, in the 
capacity of agent to Heathcoat's eminent firm. From that 
time forth, Mr. Felkin has eithibited in Nottingham a warm 
sympathy in the interests of labour ; having taken a promi- 
nent part as Chairman of the Short Time Committees of 
1828*9 ; having drawn up statistical accounts of the lace 
trade in' 1830, 1833, and 1836 ; similar accounts of the 
hosiery trade in 1832 and 1844 — the latter statement, read at 
the Meeting (^f the British Association, at York, being the 
elaborate result of facts collected through the instrumentality 
of JJ30 parochial agencies in the Midland Counties of Not* 
tingham, Derby,' and Leicester. This, however, was not the 
first paper read by Mr. Felkin before the British Association ; 
for, at the Liverpool Meeting, in 1837, he had read a paper 
on wages ; and in the statistical section at Newcastle-upon- 
Tyne, in 1838, "An account of the situation of a portion of 
the labouring classes in the township of Hyde, Cheshire" — 
the object of which was, to bear out by facts several points 
advanced in his paper of the preceding year, in order to 
" Stimulate employers to a careful consideration of the extent 
of their responsibility for the welfare of the people more im- 
mediately dependant upoji them ; and those who are employed 
to a strong and paramount conviction of the power they 
possess to modify their own condition in society, and in many 
cases to secure a comfortable independence." Such objects 
may indeed be cited as truly those of Mr. Felkin's life, pur* 
sued with unwearied assiduity, with i^und views of Bible 
Christianity, and enforced with an ability which few men 
ever displayed so vigorously or sustained so long. Mr. Fel- 
kin's other publications relate to " the production of silk 
throughout Europe, and a proposition for improving Bengal 
silk," 1832 ; Laws of the Conseils des Prudhommes in France, 
(a condensed transl^-tion from the Code Napoleon) 1836; 
Speech in favour of a Property Tax , delivered in Nottingham 
Town Council, 1841 ; Plea for Missions beyond the Alps and 
Pyrennees, 1845, &c., &c. His valuable and authoritative 
evidence is to be found in the Parliamentai^ Blue Books, 



16 BAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM, 

on the Employment of Children in Mines and flactories ; the 
Ten Hours* Bill ; the Exportation of Machinery ; in the En- 
quiries into the Silk Manufactures, and into the Condition of 
tiie Hand-loom Weavers ; the Health of Towns ; Education; 
Penny Postage ; Repeal of the Com Laws ; Midland 'Hallways; 
and Nottingham Inclosure. Mr. FelMn was also long accus- 
tomed to draw up for the Nottingham newspapers the Reports 
relating to the Trade of Nottingham^ which are still regarded ' 
as of so much importance in business circles. He ranks as 
a Fellow of the Statistical' and of the Linnean Societies; and 
after having served the interests of the burgh as Chief Mar 
gistrate both in 1838 and X851, during the latter of which 
years he officiated at the Great Exhibitipn as Chairman of 
the Jury, Class 20 (Clothing), he has again been called upon to 
take up a prominent position as a Juror at the Exposition .of 
the> World*s Industry now open in France, where the lace and 
hosieiy trades of Nottingham have found in him an advocate 
and expositor capable of placing them in the most advantage- 
ous light 

One of the other prominent residences overlopkmg the Park 
is that of John Heard, Esq., an alderman of Nottingham, 
who has on several occasions been mayor of Nottingham, and 
who has, for a long series of years, with the utmost' respect- 
ability and credit to himself, officiated sis Cl^airman of the 
Local Board of Charitable Trustees, to whom the Town Coun- 
cil of the Borough have committed the administration of the 
numerous and important municipal charities, including 
the productive loan fiind for young tradesmen of the town 
embarking in business, instituted by the will of Sir Thomas 
White ; the Free Grammar School ; and many Hospitals for 
the ^ustentation of aged and infirm persons — ^though not all 
of the almshouses in which Nottingham abounds. 

George Gill, Esq., a venerable and philanthropic gentle- 
man occupying another of these residences, is distinguished 
by his liberal support and endowment of more than one 
benevolent project for the education and social elevation of 
he working classes. One of these institutions is the 
Peopled College, situated near the Park, in College-street, 
to which he has not only largely contributed time, money, 
and books, but recently executed in its favour a deed of gift 



G. GILL, ESQ., AND HIS BENEVOLENCES. 17 

of about i6400 of cash advances which he had disbursed for 
the promotion of its object of imparting to the youth of both 
sexes, children of tradesmen and operatives, the most efficient 
commercial and general education, on terms within the reach 
of all classes of iLe community. One of Mr. GUI's favourite 
schemes, he has recently (1854) sought to realise by the pur- 
chase of the building in Beck-lane, formerly occupied as the 
Government School of Design, for a People's Hall, where, 
along with a well-selected Hbrary of modem books, accessibly to 
readers at the smallest possible rate ; with reading-room, con- 
taining newspapers and periodicals; conversation, chess, and 
refreshment rooms, and all the conveniences of a popular dub, 
there is included a commodious lecture hall, in which gratuitous 
lectures are frequently delivered to young men by the leading 
lecturers of the town and neighbourhood. The object of these 
arrangements is to substitute intellectual pursuits, and, if 
possible, mental improvement for the attractions of the tavern 
and the casino ; and with this view Mr. Gill has more espe- 
cially directed the People's Hall and its apartments to be 
thrown open to the meetings of money clubs, sick and friendly 
societies, &c., usually held at pubhc-houses. The subject has 
long occupied the attention of the venerable founder of the 
People's Hall, and he has been in correspondence respecting 
it with the most eminent and remarkable advocates of popular 
improvement and education. The great difficulty experienced 
has been in relation to the employment of the Sabbath, which, 
without wishing to connect the institution with sectarianism, 
in any form, Mr. Gill yet finds it no easy matter either to fill 
up unobjectionably, or to leave alone. It is said to be Mr. 
Gill's intention,* upon getting the institution, in the manage- 
ment of which he is aided by a committee of clergymen and 
others, of all denominations, into efficient working order, to 
hand it over, or bequeath it by will, for the public benefit. 
Last, though not least, we must not omit to commemorate 
the Alms-houses, erected and endowed, in 1852-3, by Mr. Gill, 
at 8t. Ann's Well-road, one of the most needy localities in 
Nottingham ; and to which he has so far imparted an im- 
proved constitution as to reUeve these institutions, which 
abound so extensively in Nottingham, from the idea of pauper- 
ism attaching to their inmates — by the selection of working 



18 BAH6L£S BOtmD KOTTIMGHAM. 

men of at least sixty-five years of age for receipt of the 
charity, who have ** seen better days," have borne irreproach- 
able characters, and, though reduced in circumstances, have 
not been in actual receipt of parochial rehef for a period of five 
years. Mr. Gill has made the first selection of tenants, hav- 
ing reserved the nominations in that instance to himself; 
but, of course, the future management reposes in the Charita- 
ble Commissioners of England. 

As an example of the Park mansions situated on the sum^ 
mit of its bounding acclivity, with their remarkable ''hanging 
gardens," separated from them by a terrace road, dipping sheer 
downwards into the Park valley, we may mention the resi- 
dence of Hugh Bruce Campbell, Esq., clerk of the principal 
road trusts, and this year under-sheriff for the county. The 
gardens which were formerly only a series of terraces, have 
undergone a conspicuous modification and improvement, in- 
asmuch as at their lower extremity, Mr. Campbell has erected 
a range of admirable stables, looking out upon the Park, and 
overlapped by a broad garden parterre, commanding an ex- 
tensive view of the Park and Meadows, the Trent, and 
Clifton Grove — whilst actually forming the roof of the stables ! 
Mr. Campbell is a gentleman of literaiy tastes and abilities. 
He occasionally contributes to the periodicals on different 
subjects, and his pretensions are of a first-class character 
Some of the most felicitous hunting songs of the day are 
reputed to have emanated from his pen. 

One of the best wooded and ornamented portions of the 
elevated environs of the Park, is that occupied by the abode 
of J. Bradley, Esq., of the lace thread factory, at Mansfield, on 
the apex of the height nearest the Castle. Mr. Bradley is 
also the owner of the picturesque Swiss-looking cotts^es 
perched amidst dark clusters of elms, on the steep slope 
below his mansion, which, itself, commands by far the finest 
of the prospects around the Park, chiefly from its proximity 
to the exquisite landscape details, rendered less attractive 
by distance when viewed from the houses at the top of its 
circuit. The plot of ground on which the house is situated, 
accessible by a carriage drive from the top of Park-row, is 
tastefully laid out and planted. Mr. Bradley has made a 
recent " annexation," which must be regarded as a singular 
curiosity ; — a passage hewn in the solid rock, in the rear of 



KING 0HABLE8 RAISISra THB STANDABD. 19 

Ills premises, conducts to a large and deeply cut excavation 
of considerable extent, surrounded on three sides by the 
adjoining houses ; at the other, shelving up to the natural 
level. This is the ancient reservoir of the Nottingham 
Waterworks Company, the site of which Mr. Bradley has 
purchased, converting the further half pf it, lying at a uni- 
form depth of about twenty feet, into an excellent tennis 
court, bounded by walls of solid rock. In an archsBologicai 
point of view, the excavation becomes exceedingly interesting, 
in consequence of its connection with a subterranean way, 
or water gate, leading underneath the General Hospital, and 
emerging amongst the excavations of the Castle rock ; whilst 
marks of the subterranean passage having been guarded by 
a portcullis, and, adjoining it, a recess or chamber, with an 
opening half way up, enabling any one to look over into the 
nioat, also indicate, that, originally, this excavation had 
formed part of the dry moat defences which are supposed to 
ha,v.e environed ** Standard Hill.*' 

Rising near the bouse of Mr. Bradley may be observed 
two tall upright poles or flag staves ; the one is situated upon 
Standard Hill; the other and higher standard-post being 
attached to the General Hospital. Standard Hill, formerly 
called Hill Close, obtained its name from the historical fact 
of King Charles I. having, on the 38rd August, 1 642, erected 
his Standard at Nottingham, and on the 25 th having rer 
moved it to this place, under circumstances the narrative of 
which has been so graphically compounded — from the state- 
ments of Rushworth, Clarendon, Whitelock, Lilly, and " The 
Parliamentary History" — by the great French historian, 
Guizot, that, as the latest and mo^t succinct account of the 
transaction, we may oflfer but a slight apology for presenting 
it here : — 

" Blood," says Mens. Guizot, speaking of the breaking out 
of the English civil war of 1840, " had already been spilt in 
several encounters, more like broils than battles. The king, 
by two fruitless attiempts on Hull and Coventry, had already 
given parliament occasion to charge him as the aggressor. 
The two parties equally dreaded this reproach : both equally 
ready to risk every thing to maintain their rights, both 
trembled at having to answer for the future. At last, on the 



QO BAMBLES BOUND NOTTINaHAM. 

23rd of August, Charles resolved formally to call his subjects 
to arms, by erecting the Royal Standard at Nottingham. At 
six in the evening, on the summit of the hill which overlooks 
the town, surrounded by eight hundred horse and a small body 
of militia, he first caused his proclamation to be read. The 
herald had already begun; a scruple arose in the king*s 
mind, he took the paper and slowly corrected several pas- 
sages on his knee, then returned it to the herald, who had 
great difficulty in reading the corrections. The trumpets 
sounded, the standard was brought forward bearing this 
motto :^— 

* Render unto C^sar the things which are Caesar's.' 

But no one knew where to erect it, nor the ancient ceremonial 
of the Lord Paramount assembling his vassals. The sky was 
clouded, the wind blew with violence. At last they planted 
the standard in the interior of the Castle, on the top of a 
tower, after the example of Richard III., the latest known 
precedent. The next day the wind blew it down. 

* Why did you put it there?* asked the king, *it should 
have been set in an open place where every one might have 
approached it — not in a prison.* 

" He had it taken out of the Castle, just outside the park. 
When the heralds sought to plant it in the ground, they 
found that the soil was a mere rock. With their daggers 
they dug a small hole in which to fix the staff, but it would 
not stand, and for several hours they were obliged to hold it 
up with their hands. The spectators withdrew, their minds 
disturbed by evil forbodings. The king passed some days at 
Nottingham, in fruitless expectation that the country would 
answer his appeal. The parliamentary army was forming a 
few leagues off, at Northampton, and already numbered 
several regiments. 

* If they chuse to attempt a coup de main,' said Sir Jacob 
Astley, Major-General of the royal army, * I would not answer 
for his majesty not being taken in his bed.* 

** Some members of the council urged him to try negociation 
onoe more. 

'What! already?* said the king, *even before the war is 
begun!' 



ALDERMAN HERBERT'S ROCK SCULPTURES. 21 

**They insisted— on the ground of his weakness. Four 
d^uties proceeded to London, (Aug. 25), but returned un- 
successful ; one of them, Lord Southampton, had not even 
been allowed to deliver his message personallj to the house. 
The king quitted Nottingham towards the middle of Sep- 
tember, and, notwithstanding his regret at removing farther 
from London, established his head quarters at Shrewsbury, 
understanding that the western counties showed more zeal 
in his cause." 

This picture, though drawn by a foreigner, is perfect in all 
its parts. The digging of the soft rock with state daggers, 
and then having to hold up with the hands for hours after 
all, the immense royal standard, with its numerous quar- 
terings, and the text of scripture emblazoned as the motto 
of the occasion, in the gusty blasts that swept that lowering 
sky — this is a detail which leaves nothing to be imagined ; 
except, indeed, the thoughtful and sorrowful yet headstrong and 
bigoted monarch, crudely patching afterthoughts on his procla- 
mation, upon his knee, as the very herald was reading it on 
the field f The whole conjunctures were of evil omen — the 
standard imprisoned after such a precedent as that of the 
usurper Richard, and after all overturned within, the very 
£astness wherein it had been immured — a fastness held for the 
parliament throughout the rest of the civil war] There is 
not a signal of an auspicious kind attending this unhappy 
king^s embroilment with his subjects. 

Adjoining the residence of Mr. S. Newham, (a gentleman 
of taste and literary ability ; a vice-president? and frequent 
lecturer at the Mechanics' Institution ; and a magistrate of 
the town) — that of Mr. Alderman Thomas Herbert, an emi- 
nent lace manufacturer of Nottingham, is signalised by the 
advantage which has been taken of the rocky garden terraces, 
to produce a most harmonious series of artistic effects. Mr. 
Herbert's house is accessible both from the Ropewalk, now 
called Victoria-street, and from the Park, or Newcastle- 
terrace, to which roads it is intermediate ; and whilst the 
garden-plot contiguous to the edifice has been laid down with a 
beautiful bit of refreshing sward, and decked with the choicest 
flowers, including some fine exotics within a small but hand- 
some conservatory, not to mention flowering trees and plants. 



2'2 RAMBLES BOtJND NOTTINGHAM. 

Bucb as the acacia, (its terraces affording, over their balustrades, 
a cominandiDg park-view) — an ornamental tunnel has been 
driven down through the solid rock, and under the public 
road, at a considerable slope, a distance of ninety feet, to the. 
lower part of the grounds, close upon the Park. Descended 
by flights of steps, and agreeably lighted at each extremity 
so as to reveal the sculptures along the side walls, it becomes 
perceptible that the stairs have been ornamented with balus* 
trades cut in the rock, in imitation of those at Haddon Hall, 
including their quaint and massive parallelograms and still 
more massive piers, terminating in globular knobs. In as- 
sociation with the Druidical period to which the rock habi- 
tations of Nottingham are so habitually referred, Mr. Herbert^ 
under whose personal direction these ornamental works have 
all been elaborated, has, however, imparted to the principal 
part of the passage features indicative of Druidical and Pagan 
worship. Some scope was furnished for this deviation by a 
mistake of the excavator, who, in driving through the ori- 
ginal passage, veered considerably from the direct line, 
and thus opened up a false passage or cut de sae, which, when 
the proper one was afterwattls excavated, was separated from 
it by a sort of rock wall. This rock wall has now been hewn 
into vast Egyptian pillars, bearing in one instance the figure 
of the Sphynx, and in others entwisted with enormous snakes, 
the emblems of serpent worship ; but, in the first recess on 
the left, has been cut the figure of a bard of the Druids, 
Inlaying upon t)ie harp, and surrounded by crouching dogs 
and objects of the chase. Huge figures of the chief priest 
and ovate, or sdcrificial priest of the Druids, stand sculptured 
on either hand of the passage, near the bottom of the flight. 
The chief priest, robed in flowing draperies, derived from 
the best authorities, wears round his temples a regal chaplet 
of oak leaves, and bears in his hand the sceptre of supernal 
sway. The ovate, a less majestic figure, is also character- 
istically attired. At the far extremity of the tunnel, a win- 
dow charged with stained glass, admits the daylight, whose 
i4chly tinted rays flicker upon the stone floor like floods of 
sunshine streaming through the orange and russet leaves of 
a dark oak grove in autumn, and thus the very age and 
era of these Druids of the rock seems vividly recalled. A side 



GROUP or FIGUBBS IN THE LIVING ROCK. 33 

door opens — not directly on the outer air — ^but upon a spa- 
cious cavern, having a groined circular cupola, sculptured out 
of the solid rock, lighted from above and supported on 
square pillars, with rusticated pannelling — the interspaces 
betwixt the pillars and cupola being ornamented with heads 
of cherubs, scythe and sand-glass — the emblems of time and 
eternity. The back part of this chapel, the representation of 
Ohnstiait, as the sculptures, of the tunnel are of Pagan 
worship, contains one of the most remarkable sculptures, 
considering the appropriateness of its situation and character, 
which we have ever seen. — It is a colossal embodiment of 
the familiar scriptural group of Daniel in the lions' den. 
Certainly no other situation could realise more strikingly 
that of the prophet. Advantage has been taken of the 
eavernous character of the site to fissure and rough-hew the 
rock into more than the semblance of reality, for of course it 
is the reality itself. The manes of the lions are handled 
with great vigour, their poses and attitudes well demonstrated, 
and as the grouping was necessarily an idea of the great 
master from whom the conception is borrowed — the attitude 
—so forcibly balanced betwixt the movements of horror and 
resignation, into which the figure of Daniel, with its scanty 
irapery falling away from it, is thrown — the very repose of 
he sleeping lioness and rampant wantonness of the cubs 
a3pear exceedingly well preserved. The yellow colour too 
o" the sandstone, heightened by the rich light supplied 
b^^ the stained glass both of the roof and front of the chapel, 
ctntributes greatly to the effect , and, in short, the whole 
ggantic vision is calculated to appear as if some fossilated 
eidence of this stupendous miracle of JUmighl^ goodness 
hid been uncovered after the lapse of 8^es in attestation of 
tie truth of Scripture. The faces of the rocks, cropping 
ioth upon the outer terraces, have also been successfully 
esployed by Mr. Herbert for purposes of embellishment — 
thdr right wing has been faced with bastions like a Gothic 
eucBinte, with a Gothic door, (that which leads from what 
we lave denominated " the chapol'*), and two Gothic windows 
intervening — but the adjoining wing has been sculptured 
witk an ecclesiastical facade, consisting of door, windows and 
atogs tracery — the natural rock projecting in a slight ledge 



24 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

above, and supporting a garden terrace capable of beiag ex- 
tended athwart the top of the other wing at any fatttre period, 
but terminating, in the mean time, in a beantifullj sitoated 
bower or summer-house, commanding far and wide the level 
and enchanting view over the Park and Meadows, with a bine 
liquid glimpse of the Trent looking out from the centre of 
the wooded landscape, like a soft imploring eye upturned 
from earth to heaven — the dark feathery ridge of Clifton 
Grove rushing out into the sky — and, in the hollow beyond 
it, the phantom outlines of the Cham wood Hills hovering in 
the distance — ^whilst far over meadow and orchard, the 
scenery of Leicestershire melts into the horizon. Beautifully 
laid out, paved, trimmed, and decorated, advantage has been 
taken of every excrescence of rock about these terraces to 
sculpture them into being ; on the front plots crouches the 
lion, and creeps the alligator; couching spaniels and lithe 
monkeys are disposed about the steps, whilst various masks 
and heads, (some of them actually sculptured in miniature 
from the little boulders imbedded in the sand-stone conglo- 
merate) add diversity and picturesque variety to this retreat, 
which few could ims^ne to exist so close upon the open Park. 
The General Hospital, which crowns the fore-part of Stand- 
ard-hill, founded in 1781, " For the Sick and Lame Poor of 
any County or Nation,'* built by public subscription, and er- 
vironed by two acres of lawn and gardens, conferred by hii 
Grace the Duke of Newcastie, and the Corporation of No- 
tingham, having undergone considerable enlargement in 185^, 
is now one of the most imposing edifices of the town <r 
neighbourhood. Originally raised to the height of only thr^ 
stories, provision had been made in the construction of tie 
walls for superadding another, should necessity require. This 
has accordingly been accomplished, and the general efltect t>i 
the grand palatial structure, which is built of brick, with strilg 
courses of stone, has been greatiy enhanced by the full devel^ 
ment of its lofty square Italian architecture. The rand 
extension of the town of Nottingham, the increase of casial- 
ties from building, and from the introduction of machiniry, 
as well as the development of late years of epidemic diseises 
and fevers, rendered it absolutely imperative that all the 
additions of which the Hospital was susceptible, shouU be 



NOTTINGHAM CASTLE RUINS. 25 

called into requisition. Accordingly, the noblemen and gen- 
tlemen of the county and tovm, who have invariably emulated 
one another in their munificence towards this pet local charity, 
came forward handsomely with the necessary donations towards 
the funds, not only to erect the fourth story of the principal 
edifice, but also to provide a handsome chapel, now built upon 
the west wing of the Hospital, for the celebration of divine 
worship witbuh its bounds. The Hospital, which on its ele- 
vated site has quite a majestic appearance, is ornamented in 
front with a large clock ; pervading the facade a terrace walk, 
in summer usually set out with beautiful exotic plants in pots, 
passes onwards to the chapel ; the lawn in front of this walk is 
ornamented with a handsome fountain of overflowing stone 
basins, over which a large umbell of water is ever throvra up 
when in play ; and the elevated grounds, inclosed within a 
high retaining wall, are also surrounded with the luxuriant 
foliage of large overshadowing trees. Besides the in-door 
accommodation provided for the lame and sick poor, the Hos- 
pital scheme includes that of a general dispensary for out-door 
patients ; of whom, indeed, the latter generally exceed 6,000 
per annum, whilst the former are not, perhaps, above 1,200. 
The numbers in 1854-6, were: — In-patients, 1,423; Out- 
patients, 5,567; total, 6,868; annual receipts, £4,101 58. 7d. 
Nottingham Castle, is the terminal point of the abrupt ridge 
of sand-stone that hems in the town of Nottii^ham, on the 
west, and the most picturesque and commanding object of the 
town or neighbourhood, although reduced to llie shell of a 
modem villa, and exhibiting but few remains of its feudal 
strength, beyond two bastions at the gate-way, (one occupied 
as a porter's lodge). A large enceinte opposite the opening of 
Castle-gate, exhibits the huge solidity of the ancient struc- 
ture all the more strikingly from its crumbling condition; 
and a fourth bastion at the entrance to Brewhouse-yard, 
besides a few fragments of wall, must be considered as all 
possessing a historical character in this most conspicuous 
object in our landscape. It is difficult to believe that a for- 
midable erection, planted upon such a site, could have occu- 
pied other than an important place in our national annals ; 
and, in sooth, the history of Nottingham Castle* would involve 
the recapitulation of some of the most striking incidents in 

• See Hand Book to Nottingham Castle, by T. BaUe7> la. W. F. Glbaon, 25, Long-row. 



96 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

that of England. Eyery geologist, however, now knows .that it 
is erroneous to ascribe the form and appearance of this remark- 
able rocky site, composed entirely of the soft sand-stone drift 
of the new red formation, to any such thing as a ** tremendous 
convulsion of nature," it being nothing else than a mere 
raised beach, and its superbly elevated bluffs being due to 
nothing more than the subsidence and denudation of the 
subjacent alluvial bottom of the vale of Trent. Professor 
Phillips, nevertheless, thinks this ** probably not expHcable by 
the mere wasting of these soft rocks by floods of water, but due to 
some law of physical geology yet unexplained. We can only 
conjecture," he observes, " that it is connected with the repose 
of subterranean forces which prevailed after the violent com- 
motions of the coal strata, over nearly all Europe, till the 
tertiary era. Indeed, the coarse con^omerate of the town 
and castle rock of Nottingham, consisting of rounded pebbles 
of quartz, granite, porphyry, and slate, derived either from, 
the hills of Chamwood Forest, or from rocks identical with, 
that range, now completely worn away, indicates by the very 
arrangement of these pebbles, the commotion under which 
they were aggregated, and consequently infers the transition 
to repose, whereby they were arrested." All this, however, was 
going on for ages anterior to human history, and yet the 
record is extant and legible. As much cannot be alleged in 
regard to the transactions of men. Were we to go back upon 
the Danish, far less the British or aboriginal occupation of 
this stronghold, we should certainly be giving countenance to 
the most fabulous assumptions, for we have no evidence of 
the existence of Nottingham Castle prior to the Conquest; 
except, that the town having been fortifled and enclosed with 
a strong wall, a. d. 910, by the elder Edward, we are told, 
that, before the walling-in of the town, there stood a grand 
tower on the rock where the Castle now stands. In Doomsday 
Book, the most exact survey ever taken of England, (with all 
due deference to the science and skill of the Sappers and 
Miners, and Her Majesty's Board of Ordnance, a.d, 185 1) there 
is no mention whatever made of Nottingham Castle. With the 
Norman ascendency, however, commences in a manner its 
authentic history ; and although Dr. Deering (an industrious 
local author, and, foreigner as he was, no mean authority) 



ORIGIN OF THE CASTLE. 57 

asserts it to have been founded by William himself, on his 
march against the Earls of Chester and Northnmberland, 
106 8-— being evidently suj^rted in this .by Gamden and 
Hollinshed — ^the common supposition is, that it owed its origin 
to bis natural son, William Peveril. Henceforth we find 
records of its having been visited by Henry I. ; of its having 
been taken from, and re-taken by, the Peverils, in the war 
betwixt the Henrys, (father and son) until the forfeiture of 
the entire fee of Peveril for the poisoning of Ranulph, Earl 
of Chester. This Peveril tragedy entailed most sweeping 
consequences. King Henry II, Anno 1165, disinherited 
William Peveril, as we have said, " because of poyson given 
to Ranulph, Earl of Chester." There is, in fact, an instru- 
ment extant in the Cottonian Library, whereby Henry, Duke 
of Normans, afterwards King Henry II., gives to Ranulph 
of Chester inter alia the whole fee of William Peveril, wher- 
ever it was, unless he could (dirationare se) clear himself in 
the said duke*s court, of " the wickedness and treason** in 
question. Hecham is excepted — but ** Grimsby £8^0 land he 
gave him, and Nottingham Castle and the borough, and 
whatever the said Duke had in Nottingham in fee and inherit- 
ance, he gave him and his heirs" — nay, " if the duke could 
take Hecham by force, he would restore it to Earl Ranulph 
if he would have it," witli sundry other places, such rts 
"Derby," ** Mansfield," and " Beivar." The matter, however, 
did not entirely end here. William PeveriFs daughter Mar- 
garet having married William Earl of Ferrars and Derby, her 
son, Robert Earl of Feirars, and his son William, burnt Not- 
tingham, in the time of Henry II., for which deed Robert was 
outed of his earldoms of Nottingham and Derby, by Richard I., 
who gave them to his own unworthy brother, John Earl of 
Morteign, afterwards King John ; and with the history of thi^ 
profligate prince Nottingham and its Castle are next associated. 
John, in tiie sixth year of his reign, appointed the celebrated 
Baron Robert de Veteri-ponte, Castellan of Nottingham. The 
chief and most characteristic incident of the reign of John, is, 
his hanging over the castle wall, on the report of a fresh revolt, 
A.D. 1213, twenty-eight illustrious Welch youths confined 
here as hostages. Most historians notice ihe construction 
oi a postern in the castle wall, towards Lenton, of a breadth 



88 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

and height sufficient to admit two armed horsemen carrying 
two lances on their shoulders, to go in and out, by the order 
of Henry III., in the 56th year of his lengthened reign. The 
position of this postern gate is still known — at the top of 
Park-row. In the reign of the Edwards, the Castle was suffi- 
ciently distinguished by royal predilection, almost to justify 
of itself the remark of Thoroton — " 'Tis certain that from the 
beginning of the reign of Henry II., this Castle of Notting- 
ham hath, for the most part, belonged unto the crown ; neither 
is there any place anything near so far distant from London, 
that I know of in aU England, which hath so often given 
entertainment and residence to the kings and queens of this 
realm since the Norman conquest" Hither, then, frequently 
resorted Edward I., on his way to and from the Scottish wars 
— the Greys, (ancestors of Lady Jane Grey) and the Sea- 
graves being successively his governors. Here Edward II., 
surrounded by his favourites, appointed one of them, the 
unhappy Piers Gaveston, governor, in 1311. And here his 
faithless queen, Isabella, sSter Edward's deposition and mur- 
der, shut herself up with her guilty paramour, Roger de 
Mortimer, Earl of March, to whom, it may be remembered, 
the queen dowager had contrived to secure the regency of the 
kingdom in the minority of Edward III. The secret passage 
called ** Mortimer's Hole," from its having been employed by 
the governor, Richard de Grey, of Codnor, for admission 
of the conspirators against the regent, still constitutes one of 
its most extraordinary acyuncts. It is at present a tunnelled 
staircase, or rather passage, (for the steps are worn away) 
descending through the soHd rock from barricade to barricade 
right down the south-east front of the precipice, 183 feet high, 
to the north bank of the Leen, occasionally emerging through 
a loop or air-hole, like a gaUery, upon the open air, but in 
general excavated in the sohd rock. Traces remain to mark 
where this winding passage was barred by gates ; and recep- 
tacles, honey-combed in the rock, indicate where provisions, 
arms, or ammunition for its guards were stored. Throughout 
the greater part of the descent, the passage is enveloped in 
darkness, yet is by no means impracticable, and few persons 
ever pay a visit to the ruins vnthout penetrating the mysteries 
of ** Mortimer's Hole." Unknown^ however, to Earl Mortir 



THE FATE OF EARL MORTIMER. 29 

mer, carrying on his guilty commerce with Queen Isabella, 
who is proclaimed by Froissart " one of the fairest ladies 
of the world" — ^the governor of the Castle, or rather his con- 
stable, William Eland, of Algarthorpe, to whom this secret 
passage was familiar, revealed it to William Montacute, (Earl 
of Salisbury) who laid before the youthful king the project 
of taking Mortimer. Young Edward and his barons then 
penetrated, under the guidance of Eland, into the very-heart 
of the Gasde ; where, after some resistance on the part of two 
knights of the guard, the remainder made submission, on 
being rendered aware of the presence of the king ; and in the 
interior of the buUding, Edward and Montacute found Morti- 
mer in consultation with the Bishop of Lincoln, in an apart- 
ment adjoining that of the queen. Starting from his seat, 
the regent was siezed and overpowered; and, as they were 
dragging him from the chamber, the frantic Isabella rushed 
in, exclaiming : — 

" Bel fitz, bel fitz, ayez pittie du gentile Mortimer. — (Fair 
son, fair son, have pity on the gentle Mortimer.) Now fair 
sirs, I pray you that you do no harm to his body, for he is a 
worthie knight and our well-beloved friend and our dear 
cousin ! " 

Mortimer, however, was carried off through the passage 
which now bears his name, transmitted under a strong escort 
to the Tower of London, impeached before parliament, con- 
demned, drawn, and hanged for two whole days on the gallows 
at Tyburn. Yet, on that Friday night, the feast of St. Luke 
the Evangelist, 13S6, when, at dead midnight, a period was 
thus summarily put tt) the scandal he had brought upon the 
crown and kingdom, both the queen and he deemed them- 
selves secure from aU intrusion, for to no one would she 
intrust the castle keys, but had them nightly "layde under 
the chemsell of her beddes head unto the morrow." Notting- 
ham Castle, twenty years srfterwards, became a royal prison — 
that of David 11. of Scotland, who was detained here eleven 
years after his capture at Neville's Cross. The same dungeon 
had, in all probabilityj previously held the regent Murray, of 
Scotland, who, in 1336, was exchanged for Montacute, Earl 
of Salisbury. David, who figures principally on the records 
of> history as a saint, had, from all the tokens he has left 



80 KAMBLES BOUND NOTIiNOHAM 

behind of his temper, abundant errors and ebullitions to repent 
and atone for. He had himself, for instance, to thank for 
falling into capdvity, having rushed incensed upon his fate at 
Neville's Cross, (1346) inconsequence of the regent's capture 
nine years previously ; and, as Wynton, the rhyming prior of 
of Lochleven informs us in his chronicle, even after he had 
been ransomed, by his subjects agreeing to pay for his ransom 
100,000 lbs. of silver in fourteen years, so irascible was his 
temper that, snatching a mace from the hands of its bearer, 
he suddenly struck with it, on the head, two of a crowd that 
pressed upon him as he went to his privy council, exclaiming: 

" -^ how do we now— 

Stand still, or the proudest of you 
Shall on the head have with this mace." 

This was royal ingratitude with a vengeance ; and yet the 
memorials we are supposed to possess of King David, m 
Nottingham, are more in accordance with his pretensions to 
sanctity, than thus to sway with a rod of iron. Cambden, for 
example, in his Britannia, says, in describing the Castle : " In 
the first court, we descend with lights down many steps into 
another subterraneous vault, and arched rooms cut in the 
rock itself, on the walls of which are carved Christ's Passion 
and other things, by ih& hand (as they say) of David, King of 
Scotland, who was kept prisoner there." And although the 
discovery of these relics has long ago been regarded as futile, 
yet our first English antiquarian, John Leland, who died in 
1583, seems easily to have identified both. Mortimer's Hole 
and King David's Dungeon, though in his time the royal 
ec^fioe was partly in ruins. We must give part of his descrip- 
tion of a buildmg long since vanished : — " The bass court is 
large and mighty strong, and there is a stately bridge (with 
pillars bearing beasts and giants) over the ditch into the 
second ward, the front of which is at the entrance exceeding 
strong, with towers and port-cullices. Within is a &ir green 
court, fit for any princely exercise. The south-east parts of 
the Castle are strong and well towered ; within the old tower 
there is another court, though somewhat less than the last 
mentioned, in the midst whereof there is a staircase of stone, 
about six or seven feet above ground, in which there is a door 
to enter, and steps to lead (of late mudbi worn) through the 



QUEST FOR THE CASTLE DUNGEON. 81 

main rock to. the foot thereof, and the bank of the river Leen. 
By this passage, the keepers say, Edward III. band came up 
through the rock and took Earl Mortimer prisoner. The 
dungeon stands by'south-and-east, and is exceeding strong, 
et natura loci et opera.'* Now, so late as the days of Deering, 
(who died in 1749 — his M.S. not being published until after- 
wards) we have from that author some account of the Oastle 
interior, in which he mentions a spacious green court on the 
north — much larger than any described in the old works, 
because the structures of the new Castle took up more ground ; 
and, in this court, facing the middle of the north front, a 
a wooden door opening into the Park, with, about twenty 
yards west of this, a door leading by a staircase out in the 
rock, into the great and strong tower built by Edward IV., 
which was half an octagon, with walls twelve feet thick. 
Observe then what follows : — ** This passage," says Deering, 
" Mr. Paramour remembered very well. Besides the bridge 
which goes over that part of the ditch where the ancient forti- 
fied bridge once stood, another was built across the mote more 
directly opposite to the old gate of the outer ward after this 
new palace was finished, for the more convenient driving a 
coach up to the Castle, but the foundation of this was so 
badly secured, that the north side of it fell down some few 
years after. This has lately been made good with earth, and 
is railed on each side and covered with green sods, and is now 
become a pleasant way into the green court, between which 
and the north front of the Castle there are many steps lead- 
ing east and west down into a paved yard, by which, when 
his grace and family are here, the tradespeople who serve the 
house with provisions, can go into the kitchen and other offices 
under the main building. At the west end of this yard, there 
goes a door out of the rock, where his grace the [then] present 
duke, in 1 720, caused a convenient slaughter-house to be built, 
whither oxen, sheep, deer, &c., were brought immediately from 
the Park, and, when dressed, by the just-mentioned door 
through this yard, into the kitchen and store places. At the 
east end of ihis yard is to be seen a place walled up with 
brick — this opened the way into the dungeon of which Leland 
speaks, and also Mr. Cambden, where those figures we have 
spoken of before were engraven on the walls ! His grace when 



82 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

in NottiDgham, in the year 1720, as I am informed, had this 
place opened, in order to see whether anything of them Tvas to 
be found, but it being ahnost entirely filled up with rubbish, 
no discovery could be made." What folly! Although we 
quote this description of the north court of the Castle, because 
it explains the most traceable parts of the castle buildings as 
they still exist — particularly the kitchens and offices, includ- 
ing the slaughter-houses and subterranean way westwards 
into the Park — all regularly shown to visitors, this only shows 
how absurdly people will bewilder themselves and others. 
Had not Gambden and Leland both expressly told us that the 
dungeon in question was situated on the south-east, we could 
possibly have surmised why Deenng and the Duke of New- 
castle should have looked for it on the north-west, or anywhere 
else that might strike them ; but, with this antiquarian inti- 
mation of its position, we should not, with submission, despair 
of finding it on the south-east of the Castle yet. Somewhat 
too much of this, perhaps. Let us now sum up the residue of 
the Castle history. In the reign of Edward III. alone, it 
was the scene of the three important parliaments of 1384, 
1387, and 1857. Eichard 11. held in it three of his famous, 
or rather infamous, state councils, 1387, 1392, and 1397. 
Tradition, moreover, affirms it to have possessed within itself, 
three wells, three chapels, and a college of secular priests. 
Amongst the illustrious persons committed to it, besides those 
already enumerated, we find in the reign of Edward III., 
Peter-de-la-Marc, speaker of the house of commons, (1376) 
for resisting in his place in parliament the unconstitutional 
influence of the royal mistress. Dame Alice Pierce ; in that of 
Henry IV., (1411) the renowned Welch chieftain, Owen 
Glendowr, and many other personsjof note; for in those days 
of feudal grandeur, the proudest fortress was often only the 
head prison of its district. Where the dungeon was situated 
is now an antiquarian dilemma. To look for it, as some have 
done, in the neighbourhood of " Mortimer's Hole," an outlet, 
rather than a secret cell of the Castle, is absurd. We have 
also ridiculed the idea of a search for it where one of the 
dukes of Newcastle directed the walled-up dungeons to be 
opened on the north, as preposterous. And yet, there is the 
rare but rude historical sculpture of "Christ's Passion," 



GOTHIC PORTAL OF THE CASTLE TABD. 33 

executed by the captive king of Scotland, (David II.) somewhere 
to be discovered in the subterranean portion of the Castle, 
which should serve to identify a spot of no mean interest in 
archaBological eyes. Lelana places the dungeon south of 
Mortimer's Hole, and under the steps leading up to the paved 
court of the former Castle. And the great antiquarian, 
Cambden, speaks with the precision of an eye-witness of such 
apartments, many steps deep in the rock, descended from the 
first court, (of the old Castle, of course) and completely hidden 
from the light 'of day, and wherein the light borne by the 
adventurous visitor disclosed not only the psission of our 
Saviour, but many other things, engraven on the walls. 

But, in recapitulating the tales of antiquarians, we are only 
wearying the reader with the obliterated traces of scenes 
and circumstances long buried in obHvion. Let us rather 
enter the dilapidated bastion by which the modem ruin is 
approached, and describe what is to be seen. Few haunts of 
the view-ittMiter are more worthy of a visit than the Castle of 
Nottingham. The double bastion, through which passes the 
huge Gothic portal of the Castle-yard, in its defaced and mould- 
ering condition, still attests — though but a relic of the mighty 
strong-hold — ^the strength and tenacity which the fastness 
must have maintained to the last — ^tempting us to apply to it 
the apostrophe belonging to another such edifice, standing also 
alone in its desolation, far away : 

Newcastle ! Why new ? thou art old in decay ! 

Though thy massy walls scare desolation away, 

Thou art shrinking heneath the cold finger of Time, 

Which lonely hath left thee in baldness sublime ; 

Aloft, and alone, on thy still grassy keep, 

Thou stand'st like a sentry at ward on the steep ; 

No blossom of ruin, no waU-flower atones 

For the wreck of thy glory, by decking thy stones — 

The primrose and buttercup shrink from the sod 

Where thy haughty old masses will melt ere they nod. — m. s. 

One bastille is inhabited as a porter's lodge, whence, for the 
trifling charge of sixpence for each individual, a person will 
be sent to conduct strangers round the ruins. The portal 
also affords free access to such as have perched their gardens 
of delight in and about the Castle rock. Amongst these pic- 
turesque slopes and terraces, many have lately set up their 



34 BAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

" Imt uni rusV' on this fertile and delightful eminence— a true 
horticultural site by the law of nature ; for here it was that 
wild celery was first reclaimed and brought into use in England, 
growing abundantly on the Castle rock at the time when French 
prisoners of the last war were confined on it, until one of them, 
with the genius of his countrymen, from Hugh Capet down to 
Alexis Soyer, for flavouring soups, was led to bestow upon a 
somewhat poisonous narcotic the pains of cultivation, thereby 
rendering it what it now is — one of the finest esculents sold 
in Nottingham market. Here, too, grew die gilliflower — 
the pride of the summer — wild, but abundant, in uncultivated 
luxuriance. The boys of Nottingham knetr well the habitat, 
and it is recorded in Sutton's Bate Book, (June, 1782) that 
Thomas Hudson, a boy of 13, (who knows but that he still 
survives?) fell one hundred feet down from a projectment of 
the Castle rock, whilst plucking the wild gilliflower with which 
it was overgrown in profusion — fell right into one of the 
gardens underneath, without sustaining any material injury. 
One of the most commanding garden views, with a com- 
modious cabin pushed close to the southern verge of the 
precipice, is in the occupation of an artist of great felicity 
in water colours, and an ornament to the town of Not- 
tingham for his • artistical productions, although but an 
amateur — ^we refer to Mr. Samuel^ Parrott. But the large 
green enclosure of the Castle-yard, ascended by a steep and 
partly-embanked path, leads the way to the Castle. The 
summit ground is a green field, in the occupation, we believe, 
of Miss Ereeth, of Nottingham, who rents it of the Duke of 
Newcastle : it is thickly environed with trees and modem 
plantations, and now completely isolated from tlie eminence 
to the north, occupied by the General Hospital, Standard-hill 
Academy, &c., by the deeply-cut road, with its rock cuttings 
and retaining walls, forming one of the principal entrances 
into the Park. To the left, by a broad flight of steps, massive 
even in their desolation, the visitor reaches the principal 
paved terrace traversing in front of the eastern facade of the 
ruined Castle. A round stone ball, which had once sur- 
mounted a gate pier at the foot of these steps, still remains 
here ; the other will be found at the bottom of the declivity near 
the entrance of the grounds, having, it is said, been hurled 



DATE OF THE NEW CASTLE. 35 

down the steep bj the rioters of 1831, for the purpose of 
bursting open the staunch old outer gates, which had resisted 
their utmost violence. Probably the stranger will first, how- 
ever, step down into the base, or kitchen court of the building. 
Here he will find all the gigantic lingering evidences of. 
culinary arrangements, of a princely household; kitchen, 
brewhouse, slaughterhouse, and storehouse, of vast propor- 
tions : or by stepping to the rear ^f the building, facing the 
west, a more definite view will be obtained of its general con- 
figuration, which has more naively than artistically been 
described as an oblong parallelogram, with a square taken 
out. Into this recess denominated a square, the carriage 
drive for setting down company conducts ; and the door of 
the ** back front" is here situated on an elevated landing. 

The outbreak of the civil wars beheld the old castle of Not- 
tingham in quite a ruinous condition ; the Restoration found 
it nearly demolished. Now, there is something worth probing 
to the quick in the origin of the modem castle of Nottingham. 
So little is known regarding it, that the inscription on the 
block over the back door having become illegible even in the 
time of Dr. Deering, we are indebted to the zeal of a sei'vant 
for having preserved a copy of the inscription, which was as 
follows : "This house was begun by WiUiam Duke of New- 
castle, in the year 1674 (who died in the year 1676), and 
according to his appointment by his last will, and by the 
model he left, was finished in the year 1678." In point of 
fact, the erection of this edifice, planned by William Caven- 
dish, the actusd founder and conquestor of the ducal titles of 
Newcastle, seems to have been carried out, more as a monument 
to his renown than anything else, by Henry his son. We 
shall have occasion to throw some more favourable light 
therefore upon the architectural character of the Castle, than 
has generally beeh conceded to it. But, in the first place, 
who was William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle-upon- 
Tyne? ^not " under-Lyne," as in the present family title.) He 
was a cadet of the Devonshire family — a hero Qf the civil 
wars, whose valour approved itself in many a bloody fray. 
His great achievement, to which his title was doubtless due, 
was, that, amidst the extreme defection of King Charles's 
subjects, in 1642, he succeeded in manning and fortifying 



36 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTIKGUAM- 

the towns and castles of Newcastle and Tynemouth for the 
royal service, and in levying forces sufficient, in the depth of 
winter, to route the Yorkshire rebels, and capture most of the 
strongholds in their county. The blackened shell of Notting- 
ham Castle, therefore, commemorates his victories at Gains- 
borough (Lincolnshire), Chesterfield (Derbyshire), Percy- 
bridge, Secroft, Tankersley, Tadcaster, Sheffield, Rotherham, 
Yarum, Beverley, Cawood, Selby, Halifax, Leeds, and Bradford. 
In the last of these battles he vanquished the great northern 
army, leading the assault in person, and taking twenty-two 
cannons, and many colours. Created Marquis of Newcastle 
and Baron Cavendish by Charles I., he followed Charles II. 
into exile ; and on his restoration was advanced to the dignity 
of Duke of Newcastle and Earl of Ogle. The second duke, 
Henry, married into the Pierrepont family, but being deprived 
of made issue, the estates descended first to the Holies family 
(one of whom was advanced to the title as third duke), and 
then to the Pelhams. From an account of what Nottingham 
Castle cost building, beginning 1680 and ending 1683,* we 

* It is diffictdt to reconcile these dates : John Blackner, who is him. 
self suflaciently reckless and blundering, adopts the latter, (1680-3) 
and throws the responsibility of the former 1674-8 as that of the 
building of the Castle, upon Dr. Deering, amiably stigmatising the 
poor doctor's as an old story. How he could assume the latter, how- 
ever, to be " the more correct," is incomprehensible. Both versions 
represent the structure as having been partly built by William, the 
first Duke of Newcastle, partly by Duke Henry. Duke William died, 
unquestionably, in 1676 — the middle of Deeiing's period; and we 
therefore doubt very much whether the extract from the steward's 
books, in 1680, unless it took quite a retrospective view of his dealings, 
really comprehended the bvilding expenditure of " the buried mi^esty" 
of Newcastle at all. In this view we are quite fortified by the entries 
as originally given by Dr. Throsby in his edition of Thoroton, viz. : — 

His Grace the Dnke of Newcastle, paid with 500 A, of wood,.. 4781 11 6 

And His Grace Henry Dnke of Newcastle, October 16, 1680... 7259 6 7 

Feb. 5, > To Mr. Wright for cedar wood 1-20 

1680 ) To Ditto, for marble chimney-pieces 52 9 

To packing them 3 13 8 

12th' For a saw for the cedar 1 10 

More paid from the 12th of Feb., 1680 to the 30th of Angt., 1681, 351 13 6 
More paid from the 20th of Angust, 1681, to the 12th of Nov. 

following 651 14 2 

More paid from the 1 2th of Noyember 1681, to the I8th of 

Febraary following 253 2 11 

From the I8th of Feb-, 1681, to the 14th of April, 1683. 677 5 7 

<sei4,002 17 9 



THE OBNATE FEUDAL GOTHIC. 37 

learn that the sum of £14,000 was in one way or another 
expended on the erection, only £4,731 having been laid out 
in the lifetime of the first duke, the rest being expended by 
the fihal piety of the second. The hackneyed story that the 
architect of this castle was " March, a Lincolnshire man," a 
great unknown, whose name there now remains nothing else 
to celebrate, has always appeared to us a gross absurdity. 
March may have been the builder. Be it so ; the man is 
now as mute as his bricks and mortar. In that age, how- 
ever, which had seen Vanbrough emulating the earlier flights 
of Inigo Jones, England possessed architects whose works she 
would not willingly let die ; and amongst the foremost of them 
the incomparable artist Smithson, whose fluent Gothic castle 
of Wollaton will yet be owned to be the ne plus ultra of British 
manorial architecture — as it has already been transcribed by 
Baron Rodischild, as the most illustrious example which 
money could fend to follow in this wealthy and aristocratic 
isle. We call it the English Feudal Flamboyant — and could 

We feel convinced that this is not a regular extract from the stew- 
ard's account book; although it may have been a memorandum 
confusedly jotted down from the accounts of expenditure. The great 
payment of, or up to, Oct., 1680, in the second item, could not other- 
wise have preceded the dates subsequently given. Besides, the first 
item, relating to the payment inwocd by the first duke is not dated at 
all, and all the others are ; and the mistake, therefore, seems to have 
consisted in Throsby and Blackner heading the account, and in all 
other writers having been content to follow suite, as " beginning Feb. 
the 12th, leSO," (with the cedar saw!) which it clearly does not. 
Moreover, the period at which noblemen happen to pay their accounts 
is not always the index of that at which the work was done. Noblemen 
take long credit And, as regards the spirited William Cavendish, first 
Duke of Newcastle, he was haply no exception to the rule. His 
beloved lady the Duchess Margaret, ("a very learned lady and philoso- 
pher, but by whom he had no issue" — ThoroUm) tells us that all he 
<!Ould redeem of his Welbeck estates, on his return from Holland at 
the Restoration, was j£730 a year ; and we know that, having set him- 
self with great ability to disentangle his affairs, he intended this noble 
edifice '' to be one of the most grand buildings, as a seat, in England, 
towards the accomplishment of which he devised the income of certain 
estates out of his domains," — a circumstance which, perhaps, pot only 
explains the first payment by himself in timber, and the periodical 
payments by his son thereafter — but in all possibility warrants us in 
drawing a vast distinction betwixt the precise dates at which the 
Castle was built, and those at which it was paid for. p. p. 



88 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

swear that the same "unknown" architect who designed 
WoUaton for the Willoughbys, devised the extraordinary 
facade of Nottingham Castle. If so, it was Smithson. Deer- 
ing has preserved " a copy of a plan" of Nottingham Castle, 
"taken" by Smithson in 1617, from which it has been alleged 
that the present building was completed in 1 678 or 1683 — a long 
period, and the architect did not live to see its accomplish- 
ment; but then the inscription preserved by the servant 
bears out the fact that the work was constructed S'^<i^^ <^ 
modd. 

From the technical description of this interesting edifice 
by Mr. H. M. Wood, surveyor of the corporation of Notting- 
ham, appended to Mr. Hicklin's excellent local history — the 
only just appreciation of the style and character of its archi- 
tiecture is, in our opinion, afforded. Dr. Throsby, the con- 
tinuator of Thoroton, outraged and indignant at the erection, 
on account of the superiority of the site, reviles it as a squat 
and formal edifice, and demands an^" effect as bold as nature ; 
a lofty and massive pile towering towards the heavens, with 
turrets and embattled walls, the taste of ages past, placed on 
its brow." Now, although when viewed from the distance^ 
or even from the base of the rock, the Castle wears certainly 
the aspect of a modem villa residence, or, at the best, of an 
Italian palazzo, such as the club-houses in London un- 
doubtedly, on nearer inspection, it is found to have been 
enriched with all the elaboration of art, and even the graces 
of sculpture appertaining to the taste and civilisation of ages 
less remote than those adored by Dr. Throsby. Why should 
men always build upon the past — men, whose aspirations are 
all towards the future? who, whatever they undertake that is 
great or good in itself, are simply contributing something to 
posterity; or, if more selfishly inclined to regard the present 
only, are surely bound to famish to succeeding ages the 
monuments of their own congenial tastes, rather than con- 
fused misrepresentations of past and exploded systems! 

" From terraces approached on the east," says Mr. Wood, 
" by .a lofty flight of steps, and on the west by an acclivitous 
carriage drive, the building rises with a rusticated stylobate 
upon a plain plinth. A string-course terminating this story 



DECCRATIVE SCULPTURES. 39 

becomes the base on which the plinth of the Corinthian 
columns and antae rest. This order thence proceeds to the 
summit of the building. The windows of the principal story 
are crowned with broken triangular and segmental pediments; 
broken for the purpose of placing busts along the front in 
alternate society of the sexes.'* He also describes the plan of 
the Castle as a jrectangle» with a court taken out of one of its 
sides — a description, perhaps, more convenient than correct. 
'' It stands," he adds, ** mth its principal front to the north- 
east, of a length of about 203 feet, with a breadth of 96 feet ; 
the area of the court to the south-west being about 58 feet 
square." " The principal facade," he says, "has a rusticated 
basement story, supporting a Corinthian order extending 
throughout the two upper stories", (the fact being, however, 
that an Ionic frontispiece or doorway is interposed along with 
the fulciment of an equestrian statue) composed of six columns 
in the centre, with six antae at the extremities, surmounted 
by an entablature en suite. The interodumniations are also 
rusticated, but broken by two tiers of windows ; those on the 
principal floor being protected at their bases by balconies, and 
surrounded by architraves and pilasters with carved key- 
stones and trusses, supporting in their turn broken or dis- 
connected pediments, inclosing within the tympanum of each 
a bust, having the reputation of being sculptured after a 
member of the founder's family, respectively, [the very idea 
of decoration of the family mansion at WoUaton!] The 
windows of the upper story are embellished with mantles in 
alto relievo, broken in the folds of the keystones — Shaving 
carved on Hie face of each a crest and garter, alternately with 
the star and garter of a knight of the order — surmounted by 
a ducal coronet. These mantles are commonly called " leather 
dressii^." The State Drawing Eooics occupied 120 feet 
of this front, and were accessible from the eastern terrace as 
well as from the western court by a double flight of steps. 
The drawing rooms communicated with the Ball Room, ex- 
tending through the southern front, and being 84 feet long 
by 18 feet wide, and 16 high. The principal stairs in the 
southern wing give access to this suite of apartments, as well 
BA to those to the west, appropriated to Queen Anne, during 



40 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTISGHAM. 

her majesty's visit here,* and which had become celebrated 
from being fitted up with cedar^ but more especially from 
having a floor of that material, and being divided into pannels 
in the bed-room. These pannels were oblong, with lozenges at 
the angles, and in the centre formed of inlaid wood. The 
whole of the other fronts were of plain ashlar, save that the 
basement story to the south was rusticated, and similar quoins 
gave an indication of strength and ornament to every external 
angle on the west. The modillion comer of the north-east 
continued entirely round the building, except that it was no 
longer enriched after returning from the angle antae of the 
north and south-east. The cornice was surmounted by a 
parapet of five feet in height, relieved by a plinth, cornice, and 
pilasters. In the northern wing there was also a geometrical 
stone staircase, correspondent in design with ^at in the 
south, but somewhat less decorative, and it descended into 
the sub-story of domestic offices, which opened into asub-court, 
and that again by spacious subterraneous passages, commu- 
nicated through the slaughter-house, near to Richard's Tower, 
with the Park. These offices displayed to the northern 
vnndows a sea of lead, being like the Castle itself, flat roofed. 
The two smaller rooms of the state suite were hung with 
tapestry, the subjects being from the Old Testament, whilst 
that within Queen Anne's bed-room vras of the evangehsts 
and martyrs. Time had ravaged these memorials of the 
splendour of the seventeenth century. The ball-room and 
a breakfast-room were hung with gilt-impressed leather. The 
other principal apartments were generally lined with moulded 
panneled wainscoting, which, with the doors, sashes^ 
shutters, and fittings, were of oak. Within the minor apart^ 
ments the humbler material of deal was employed. It is, 
however, a little extraordinaiy, that not an oak-wrought floor 
was in the whole building : vdth the exception of tbe cedar 
floors, all were of deal throughout the principal and attic 
storeys. Very little interior decoration was to be found. The 

• Some writers have contended that Queen (then prin^ss) Anne 
did not reside in the Castle, hat lodged at the Feathers Inn, Wheeler- 
gate. Thorshy, however, saw in the Castle^ the bed in which she slept. 
Tradition also points to the traces of an earthen enclosure in the Park 
valley, by the designation of" Queen's," and sometimes, " Queen Anne^s 
Garden." 



SIR W. WILSON, THE STATUARY. 41 

marble chimney-pieces were few, plain, and of inconsiderable 
value. The stairs may be esteemed a main feature in this 
edifice ; for remembering that they were erected coeval with 
the great stairs of St. Paul's Cathedral, which have the repu- 
tation of being the first in the kingdom, it is no little merit 
to the projector that these were constructed on a design and 
extent perhaps greater than any in the neighbourhood, even 
at this day, and certainly at &e date of their production. 
We want no more evidence to upset the silly notion that this 
great work, then, was that of " March, a Lincolnshire man" 
— the mere builder, who copied " the model," but certainly 
never made it, and whose genius utterly failed him when- 
ever internal decorations, not given by the real designer, were 
demanded. 

Another point of resemblance in special detail, (though 
no two things could be more dissimilar in the general result) 
betwixt Nottingham Castle and WoUaton Hall, has been 
overlooked by every one except Blackner — ^who speaks of it as 
an arcade at the south end of the Castle, under which 
people might take shelter during a shower — and that is the 
elevated terrace and cloisters on the south front of each. 
The chief point is, however, the statuary ; and attached to the 
grand equestrian figure, of which the romance of demoli- 
tion, once enacted here in troublous times, has left us but the 
torso — there hangs another tale (besides the horse's); it is 
that of the sculptor, w^ho is said to have executed this fine 
work (the figure of the Duke of Newcastle), out of a single 
block of stone, from Castle Donington. "Wilson," says 
Peering " was an ingenious artist, of whom it is remarkable, 
that, after this performance of his, he was spoiled for a time 
for a statuary ; because a Leicestershire widow lady, the Lady 
Putsey, who was possessed of a very large jointure, falling 
deeply iA love with him, got him knighted, and married him ; 
and he Uving up to the extent of his apron-string estate, and 
his lady dying before him. Sir William returned to his former 
occupation, and the public recovered the loss of an eminent 
artist." The Castle having been demoUshed by an infuriated 
mob — the question of compensation to be awarded its noble 
owner came on for trial at Leicester — one architect valued Sir 
William Wilson's statue at £260, esteeming it worthy of the 



43 BAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

chisel of Westmacot or Chantrey ; two others, however, com- 
puted it at the value of £150 — the chief reason for the reduc- 
tion being apparently the fact of its having latterly figured 
with a wooden leg, substituted for the original, and painted 
over to resemble it, in consequence of a painter having 
broken the latter off, by placing his ladder incamtiously 
against it 

The view from the southern esplanade has been regarded 
as excelling in beauty and compass even that from Windsor, 
Variety as well as extent characterises the panorama: the 
long reaches and fine curve of the Trent at Wilford — the 
broad silvery bosom of the stream extending upwards to the 
dark and lofty intersection of the wooded ridge of Clifton 
Grove; and the brilliant liquid glimpses of its downward 
course, revealed from the Castle esplanade — form truly en- 
chanting touches in the vast and varied picture. With the 
Ruddington range of hills for a back-ground in this direction, 
and the picturesque eminence of Colwick prominently pushed 
forward, so as to close in the middle distance on the extreme 
left, the long extended vale of Belvoir opens up to the eye 
betwixt these lines of objects, and the majestic towers of 
Belvoir Castle are, with almost magical atmospheric effects, 
seen projected against the horizon at the extremity of the long 
wooded ridge of Leicestershire hills on which it stands. Be- 
twixt — a rich and cultivated valley, traversed by navigable canal 
and river, wooded like a nobleman's park, and disjdaying 
right in front of the spectator the vast flat alluvial expanse of 
the Nottingham meadows, gives breadth as well as beauty to 
the scene. Immediately environing the site on which you stand 
are seen the strangely piled-up town — with its noble minster- 
like church of St. Mary's, and the steeples of Sneinton, 
Trinity, St. Peter, and St. Nicholas — the greenery embower- 
ing the CastLe rock and gardens, the romantic features of the 
rock itself, and the neighbouring waters of the Leen and 
Canal ; the railway, and 3ie rising residences in the meadow- 
flats — the splendid factory and warehouse piles of Nottingham 
eastwards. The eye then penetrates the undulating surface 
of Derbyshire, again encounters the scenery of Leicester- 
shire, in the dimly-visible outlines of Chamwood Forest — 
find feasts upon the beautiful rise of Wollaton Park, and 



BUBNING AND DESTRUCTION OF THE CASTLE. 43 

the pictorial beauties of the wood-embosomed villages ©f 
Beeston and Lenton. 

Although the reader will perceive we are intentionally present- 
ing nothing like a history of the Castle, in noticing the leading 
incidents and associations with which it is connected, it is still 
incumbent to glance at the occurrence which, for the third time 
(at least) reduced and retained it under the form of a ruin. It 
was on the dark and rainy evening of the 10th October, 1831, 
that the mob of reform rioters, after their disastrous visit to 
Colwick Hall, from which must be dated the death of Mary 
Chaworth, (Mrs. Musters, the beloved of the poet Byron,) re- 
turning to Nottingham Market-place, suddenly raised the 
shout of "to the Castle!" flushed with wine and excess, 
trooped off to the assault of the lonely and deserted pile. 
Extinguishing the gashghts on their route — ^^an attempt was 
made to force the old oak gate, which, with almost unconquer- 
able strength, ofiered, however, an obstinate resistance, and 
before the long battering-ram, applied by the rioters, had 
staved in a pannel through which a few of their number could 
contrive to creep, others had either breached or scaled the wall 
at some other point. A light obtained from the adjoining 
Riding-school showed the way up to the Castle — the rioters 
en route arming themselves with the garden rail fence, which 
they pulled up. The entrance into the building was effected 
by breaking a window in the east front, near the commence- 
ment of the terrace. About half-a-dozen entered and began 
the work of destruction by stripping the tapestry from the 
walls, and breaking the bannisters of the stairs ; speedily 
joined by forty or fifty more, the windows on all hands 
were rapidly demolished, the furniture of all sorts broken and 
destroyed ; apertures opened in the floors of the various rooms, 
the broken bannisters and furniture piled over the openings, 
and set on fire. Shortly after seven o'clock, smoke and flame 
issuing from several portions of the Castle, gave token of the 
deed ; 150 of the rioters were still at work in the building 
when it was in flames, and two mutilated bodies found next 
morning amidst the blackened ruins, though only those of 
two poor children drawn heedlessly into danger, told that the 
outrage had sought and found its victims. One iconoclast, 
armed with a crowbar, dealt the equestrian statue of the 



44 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

founder, OTer the doorway, those terrible blows that have left 
it what it is. The whole of the other sculptures were destroyed 
or carried oflf, as the most signal trophies of this lawless 
exploit. Tapestries of exquisite beauty were cut or torn from 
their frames, and disposed of to Ifce byestanders at three shil- 
lings a yard ; the inlaid cedar wood of Queen Anne's apart- 
ments was also broken up in fragments, carried off, or destroyed. 
Dark and tempestuous as the evening proved, it did Uttle to 
check the work of destruction, and nothing to impede the 
progress of the flames. The rain plashed, down in torrents, 
but the flames from the dry old edifice rose beacon-like on 
the rock, higher and higher, reddening the midnight sky, and 
lighting up the scene to a remote distance with almost the 
light of day. It was not till then that the fiiry of the blaze 
abated; thenceforth its intensity continued, however, to 
decline, without any interposition or effort for its extinction 
having been made by the authorities — and day broke on the 
roofless, black, and shattered wreck of what had once been 
Nottingham Castle. " Between the hours of nine and ten," 
says Mr. Hicklin, in his History of the Castle^ " the confla- 
gration had reached its height ; the town was comparatively 
free from tumult, and thousands thronged the Casde-yard to 
gaze with mingled feelings on the dreadfully novel spectacle. 
Volumes of flame issued from all the windows of the building; 
the dun-coloured smoke rose mist-like in rolling masses among 
the pelting rain ; showers of sparks were falling in all direc- 
tions ; the roofs were dissolving in streams of molten lead ; 
on the terraces and walls men might be descried by the light 
of the fire hunying to and fro like restless spirits at some 
infernal incantation; while the blazing Castle glared on 
the atmosphere from its rocky steep amidst the darkness of 
the night as a tremendous sacrifice to the demon of anarchy 
and crime." One man only was, tried by special commission 
for being concerned in this outrage, but acquitted from defect 
of evidence. The Duke of Newcastle sued the hundred of 
Broxtowe for the damage he had sustained. The venue was 
laid at Leicester, and the verdict was £21,000. 

The beautiful and fertile gardens at the base of the Castle- 
rock, with the large allotments, which strike the stranger 
entering Nottingham from the west by railway with so much 



NOTTINGHAM WATERWOBKS. 45 

surprise, from their unique and ornate aspect, have undergone 
considerable transformations. From a lish-pond to a garden 
might appear quite enough; but this is by no means all ; and 
if our coloured engraving of the two roadways immediately to 
be executed from the Park to Canal-street, bridging the Leen 
and passing onwards to the railway line and 3ie Meadows, 
be consulted, it will be found that neither is this likely to be all 
the alterations these fairy bowers and fertile paradises are des- 
tined to undergo. Unquestionably at its origin, these formed 
the fish-ponds of the ancient Castle, variously constructed 
like those made by the monks at Newstead, and still in use, 
according to the several purposes to which they might be 
applied of preserving fish for sport, or for immediate consump- 
tion. Blackner informs us that after the establishment of the 
Nottingham Waterworks Company, the ponds were let to 
them for the purpose of being used as a reservoir — an object 
never accomplished ; for although the subject of a service sup- 
ply of water to the town was first mooted in the corporation 
hall in 1694, the proposition adopted in 1695, and the 
lease or charter of the premises at the bottom of Finkhill- 
street granted to the company formed in 1696, we know that 
little progress was made by them in the object of their under- 
taking until the advent of their celebrated engineer, Thomas 
Hancock, in 178*2. This very able and philanthropic enthu- 
siast introduced the hydraulic engine, whose main-wheel sets 
in motion a number of crank-levers — though moved itself by 
the power of water, like the wheels of the great waterworks at 
London-bridge, and thus, by means of leaden pipes laid from the 
engine, supplies the lower parts of the town with water, whilst 
the higher parts are supplied by water forced up from the Leen 
into a rock-hewn cistern, which, at the time of which we write, 
was situated behind " Derry Mount," the site of the General 
Hospital, and has been already commemorated in these 
Rambles as having been converted by Mr. Bradley, its present 
owner, into a tennis-court ; the present water reservoir having 
been removed to the somewhat superior altitude on the north 
side of the old Castle ditch, or Park-row. The Waterw^orks 
premises are situated at the eastern extremity of the New- 
castle property, and in immediate connection with the fish- 
ponds ; but in the company's hands they suffered the most 



46 RAMBLES ROUKI> NOTTINGHAM. 

entire neglect, and speedily became converted into an un- 
sightly marsh, overgrown with rank, luxuriant, and unceemly 
water- weeds. Under these circumstances, in 1795 tHe fish- 
ponds were parcelled out by the Duke of Newcastle's steward, 
and let to the townspeople as garden allotments. At the 
greatest conceivable labour, expense, and patience, they were 
by this means converted into one of the most fertile spots 
around Nottingham. Soil had, in the first instance, to be 
filled in to the depth of several feet, and the bottom consoli- 
dated and elevated ; the surface, minutely sub-divided by living 
and shortly luxuriant hedgerows, acquired that enriched 
appearance which peculiar care can alone impart ; decorated 
with the fanciful pleasure-houses, endless in number and 
variety, which, along with the graceful trees, flowers, and 
shrubs, which constitute their other characteristics, the foot 
of the cavernous rock of Nottingham Castle became at length 
luxuriantly embowered in beauty. By the opening up of 
the Villa-roads, conducting from the Park valley to the rail- 
way (described on p. 11) several of these gardens will be 
swept away ; and it is not a little gratifying to us that we 
are enabled, by our coloured ground plan, and bird's-eye 
view of the Park improvements, to foreshadow these arrange- 
ments so completely, that every one will see at a glance the 
course to be taken by the new roads or streets. 

In the Castle Rock, and along the course of the elevated 
ridge extending due westward, as far as Highfield House, 
and eastwards by St. Mary's Church, Sneinton, &c., we find 
a series of cavernous apertures so remarkable, as to have had 
the most marked attention of antiquarians directed towards 
them, in the expectation of being able to identify them as 
the dwellings of the ancient Britons. We must confess we 
do not anticipate being competent to wed them in this manner 
to antiquity, persuaded that the traces of every fact by which 
the point could have been satisfactorily established has 
perished. Dr. Stukely, who is the prime authority for these 
conjectures, is unfortunately a professed dealer in natural 
wonders, as the title of his book, " Itinerarium Curiomm" 
will indicate at once ; and after all he offers us but a guess — 
** One may easily guess Nottingham," he says, " to have 
been an ancient town of the Britons : cts soon as they had 



THE TEMPLE IN THE PARK. 47 

j^ofer tools (! ) they fell to work upon the rocks, which every- 
where oflfered themselves so commodiously, to make houses 
in; and I doubt not here was a considerahle collection of 
colonies of this sort" — a rabbit-warren, in fact, of ancient 
Britons I His description of the celebrated Eock-holes of the 
Park — ^hke a sort of minor proposition, of which the above is 
the major — is indeed more circumstantial. He speaks of a 
"lec^e of perpendicular rock, hewn out into a church, 
houses, chambers, dove-houses, &c. The church is like those 
of the rocks at Bethlehem, and other places in the Holy 
Land ; the altar is natural rock ; and there has been paint- 
ing upon the walls ; a steeple, I suppose where a bell hung, 
and regular pillars ; the river Leen winding about, makes a 
fortification to it, for it comes at both ends of the cliff, leaving 
a plain in the middle ; the way into it was by a gate, cut out 
of the rock, and with an oblique entrance for more safety ; 
without is a plain, with three niches, which I fancy their 
place of judicature, or the like ; there is a regularity in it, 
and it seems to resemble the place called ' The Square' in 
the Pictish Castle (another of the doctor's curiosa), in Scot- 
land. Between this and the Castle is an hermitage, of like 
workmanship." This is all very well — fact mixed up with 
fancy, ad libitum. The description would almost pass muster 
at the present moment, but the conjectures are altogether 
inadmissible, inasmuch as the ancient Britons had no 
churches ; but in the glorious words of David Vedder, their 
temple was the Temple of Nature : 

" Talk not of temples — ^there is one 

BuHt without hands — to mankind given ; 
Its lamps are the meridian sun, 

And all the stars of heaven ; 
Its walls are the cerulean sky ; 

Its floor the earth so green and fair ; 
The dome is vast immensity. 

All nature worships there." 

Neither did the Druids administer justice in niches; their 
place of judicature was the mount of judgment — adjoining 
their fearful altar of human sacrifice — the rocking-stone of 
our vdld and lonely moors. Dr. Stukely ought also to have 
known that the Picts, though vanquished by, or more probably 



48 RAMBLES R0I3ND NOTTINGHAM. 

absorbed in the Irish Celts, or Scoti, were a polished and 
even powerful people, far advanced in the arts of civilization, 
and particularly in that of building, as their indestructible 
forts, towers, and castles, still remain to attest. They were 
the last people to be found the occupants of caves. The 
ecclesiastical relics, however, to which Dr. Stukely refers, 
are attributable to the period of the revolution, when these 
places became the refuge of the Papists, ejeeted from the 
town during its occupation by the Parliamentary troops. 
These devotees seem to have fashioned this " church in ^e 
catacombs," and may possibly have inhabited the holes, in 
many instances, as religious recluses. It is, at aU events, 
certain, that the zeal of the parliamentary troops was ex- 
pended in the injury of the caves, in consequence of their 
having, from these circumstances, acquired the appellation 
of " The Papists' Holes.'' Nor was it here alone that the 
partisans of the proscribed religion found refuge ; other 
chapels, and similar traces of their secret devotions, have 
been discovered under Plumptre House, at Mr. Comyn's, on 
the Long-row, and at other parts of " Nottingham under 
ground" — a " ramble" which we have in store for a future 
number of our series. Blackner slightly corrects the descrip- 
tion of this spot by noticing that wlulst the end towards 
Lenton is still washed by the Leen, that towards Nottingham 
is more than forty yards from the river; and with the excep- 
tion of the dovecot, there is not a room left entire. In 
Blackner's time, the cavities which were left open in summer 
became a refuge for the cattle grazing in the Park, from the 
scorching rays of the sun, and in the night presented a 
shelter for the commission of crime. He estimated that a 
few years would serve to obliterate entirely these singular 
and laborious works. It is, indeed, not a Httle remarkable, that 
during the first week of March, 1830, when the rock at the 
Lancasterian School, Derby-road, gave way, forcing in the 
irorth wall, and occasioning the complete demolition of the 
building, another descent of rock and soil took place the very 
same week, at the ** Loggerheads," Narrow-marsh, and a 
ponderous mass of rock fell in at the west end of the Rock- 
holes in the Park. Rock falls were, at this period, quite 
frequent. On the 10th of May, 1 829, at half-past two on a 



EROSIONS IN THE NOITINGHAM ROCK. 49 

Sunday monling, half a ton of earth descended through the 
roof of the '* White Swan" public-house at Sneinton Hermitage, 
where the sand bluffs, at the elevation of about forty feet 
above the level of the Meadows, overhang the houses. Five 
persons in filn adjoining house had barely time to escape ere 
their abodd was overwhelmed and crushed beneath several 
hundred tons of falling rock. The noise of this rocky ava- 
lanche approached that of thunder. Several tons more gave 
way in July, as workmen were subsequently relieving the 
rock of its more dangerous protuberances, and passed through 
the roof of another pubhc-house, "The Manvers' Arms." 
Nor had the" Loggerheads" rock been immoveable during 
the year 1829 — having, in fact, been visited on the 13th of 
April with one of its greatest calamities — the fall of an im- 
mensely high rock and wall, together with a summer-house 
overhanging the verge of the cliiF, at least fifty feet above 
Narrow-marsh, crushing five houses adjoining the *• Logger- 
heads" pubhc-house, underneath many hundred tons of 
rock, son, stone, and brick. The inhabitants made a mira- 
culous escape. Three years previously, (18th Feb., 1836) a 
much more melancholy catastrophe had occurred at the bottom 
of Hollow-stone, facing the London-road, from the falling in 
of the roof of one of several spacious caves there hewn out of 
the sandstone, whilst a number of youths were at play in them 
in the afternoon. After in some measure securing the roof, 
the bodies of no less than seven boys were disentombed, some 
of them still alive, but all of them past recovery. In fact, 
there is no end to the occurrence of incidents of this nature 
in the vicinity of these rocks ; on the 3rd of December, 1824, for 
instance, heavy rains occasioned the subsidence of the Castle 
rock and wall facing Gilliflower-hill, betwixt the Hiding-school 
and Brewhouse-yard, and buried two houses and some people 
in the ruins. We have traced back a few of these occurrences 
to show the character of the erosions to which our sand forma- 
tion is incident. A pure silica, simply compacted together, 
and destitute of adhesive particles, even where layers of 
travelled shingle have been imbedded in its drift, great pres- 
sure alone holds it together ; and every drop of surface-water 
percolates completely through its extent. To the slow under- 
mining process thus occasioned, add the more active excava- 



50 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

tions, which to such an extraordinary extent have cavemed 
the ground under the Nottingham rock, and it will easily be 
judged that, wherever the dip and inclination of the different 
layers of the sandstone strata will admit, the action of water 
must, sooner or later, tend to their dislodgment. This being 
the case, to the improvements effected on the principal rock- 
holes of the Park, by their coming into the possession of the 
Wellington, or Newcastle Bowhng Club, must be attributed 
their probable preservation. Some have affected to execrate 
the conversion of these places into dining and culinary apart- 
ments, by the club ; and have even objected to the front being 
glazed, and protected from the weather. It is quite certain, 
however, that the planting and trimming of the grounds 
without, as well as the care now taken to keep the caves dry 
within, is infinitely more creditable than the state of matters 
apprehended by Stukeley, and described by Blackner. Enter- 
ing from the Park, the neat grounds and shrubberies on the 
summit of the rock, commanding, as they do, a far-extending 
view, terminated on the east by Belvoir Castle, hardly pre- 
pare the visitor for the level and delightful spot at the bottom 
of the external flight of rock steps, into which landscape 
gardening, of no mean order, has converted the bowling 
grounds. Over their level surface, the entrance of the reced- 
ing caves is approached. Their aspect is eminently Gothic — 
spacious, and not ill-defined — they are still utterly irregular 
in form, and in their obvious want of pretensions to the name 
of architecture or of art, excite the more surprise at their 
Appearance. 

The only remaining object in the detour of Nottingham 
Park, is the series of buildings denominated *' The Barracks ;" 
but, as they are shortly destined to be numbered with the 
things that were ; and, in themselves, present only features 
of mere commonplace and temporary interest, it would hardly 
be expedient to dwell upon them here. Suffice it, that the 
foundation of the building was laid in 1792, in the north-west 
comer of the Park, near the favourite clump of ancient syca- 
mores ; that, besides stabling and accommodation for three 
troops of horses, the Barracks comprised officers', sutling, and 
hospital apartments, and, until the year 1856, generally 
formed the head quarters of the cavalry in the eastern mid- 



BEPABTUBE OF THE OBBTS FBOK NOTTINGHAM. 51 

land distxict The ground lease from the Duke of Newcastle 
having then expired, the cavalry head-quarters were removed 
to Sheffield ; and Nottingham, out of which the Scots Greys 
have twice departed to victory, (at Waterloo and in the Crimea) 
amidst the shouts of popular enthusiasm, remains without 
soldiery, save and except the active and well-bedizened lads 
of the recruiting sergeant — unless the militia quarters 
should be transferred hither, from Newark, or the superb 
yeomanry regiment should be embodied and quartered in the 
town. The Greys left Nottingham on the 3rd of July, 1864, 
em route for Liverpool. 



NOTTINGHAM TO THE GREYS. 
AiB : ** Scots wha hoe.'* 

Heaven preserve you gallant Greys, 
Town and people sound your praise. 
Once again victorious bays 

Spring to grace each brow! 

Would to God the tyrant Czar, 
From his icy throne afar, 
Saw our mingled peace and war. 
Would he saw us now ! 

Thousands spread around your feet. 
Cheers, and sighs, and wishes meet. 
Bright eyes sun the peopled street. 
Sad but proud adieu ! 

Ev'ry heart you cany hence. 
Be your fame your sure defence; 
See your country's hope intense 
Centred upon you 1 

Pledge we then the parting cup. 
Gallant spirits ! dram it up, 
Blessings drink in eveiy sup, 

Blessings fond and free ! 

One and all we pray God speed, 
Nerve each arm to crown each deed. 
With some proud victorious meed. 
Earned triumphantly! 



52 BAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

When wer }ifdl your wished retam. 
Shouts shall rise and eyes shall bum. 
Though some lost, some loved we mourn — 
Glorious in their fall I 

"Whilst m battle, then, contending. 
Think on what your sword's defending — 
Homes and altars — ralour lending 
Prowess unto all ! 



CHAPTER II. 

WOLLATON HALL. 



DIOBY, 7tii LORD MEDDLETON, Baron Middleton, of Middle- 
ton Hall, Warwickshire, and Wollaton, Notts. ; bom 1769 ; succeeded 
his cousin Henry, 6th Lord, June 19, 1835 ; a captain in the navy; of 
Norman extraction; descended fh)m a common ancestor, with Lord 
WiUoughby D'Eresby. Francis Lord Middleton, of Wollaton Hall, 
having died in 1758, was succeeded by his son Franoia, who died sud- 
denly and unmarried, December 16, 1744, at the age of 48. The next 
lord, Thomas, brother of the said Francis, having also died without 
issue, June 19, 1781, the family honours and estates devolved upon 
Henry WiUoughby, Esq., of Birdsall, in the county of York, and father 
of the late noble lord. Henry WUloughby, Baron Middleton, died 
at Wollaton, June 14th, 1800, aged 74, and was succeeded by Heniy 
his son. This lord also died 19^ June, 1835, at Wollaton, aged 74, 
and was succeeded by his cousin, Captain Digby WiUoughby, of the 
Boyal Navy. 



UBNTON LOPaS APPRO ACH^-AYENUE OF UMEB-^VIEWS IN THS PARK — 
EXTENT AND SCENERT OF THE PARK— HERD OF DEER — RARE AND 
BEAUTIFUL TREES — ^ARCHITECTURE O^ THE HALT, — ^VIEWS FROM THE 
liOWER WINDOWS AND TERRACE— FOUNTAIN AND STATUARY ON THE 
LAWN — THE TREES OF THE "WILDERNESS" — ^YEWS, CEDARS, PINAS- 
TERS, ENORMOUS COPPER AND OTHER BEECHES — ^A SCOTCH PINE — 
DEODARA— ARBOR VITAE, HEMLOCK SPRUCE, AND EVERGREEN OAK — 
THE CELLARS — BRASS FOUR-POUNDER — ^WINE CELLARS — ^ALE CELLARS 
"WETTING THE OTHER EYE" — JOLLY ALE BARREL — ^ANCO'-NT RE- 
TAINER — SINGULAR PLUNGE BATH — ^ENORMOUS CULVERT — THE GRAND 
STAIROASB^ GENIUS OF VEERIO AND LA GUERRE — MYTHOLOGICAL 

ERA OF HOUSE DECORATION — CAREER AND WORKS OF VERRIO THE 

PROMETHEUS AT WOLLATON, AND ITS PROBABLE DATE — BARBER, OF 
NOTTINGHAM, AND HIS PORTRAITS— RENAOLE'S PORTRAITS OF LORD 
MIDDLETON'S HUNT — THE GREAT HALL — GRAND STONE SCREEN—^ 
OBOAN GALLEBY — ^GROTESQUE GOTHIC OBNAKENTB — ^PICTURES IN 



54 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

THE HlIiL — SPECIMENS OF QIOHDANO— COPT FBOM YANDYCK — LOSX» 

HOWE'S ACTION OEF USHANT SNEYDEKS' HUNTING PIECES — ^WOBKS OF 

B08A DA TIYOLI, SIBBECHTS, ETC. — ^DININO-BOOM : FAMILY P0BTBAIT8, 
PIECES OF HUMOUB, A^D 8TIIX-IJFE — THE SALOON : GLASS BECOBA- 
TIONS» ETC. — FAMILY FOBTBAITS AND HISTOBIES— BIB FBANCIB WIL- 

LOUGHBY, THE FOUNDEB OF WOLLATON — SIB OODFBEY KNELLEB 

BOMNEY — OBIGINALS,BY BEUBEN8— INLAID CABINET OF £80P'8 FABLES 
— BEAITTTFITLPBESENTATION PIECE, " THE BETUBN FBOM,THE VINTAGE" 
— ^THE LEBBABY: BOOKS OF FBANCIS WILLOUGHBY THE PHIL080PHSB, 
— ^FAMILY POBTBAITS — SKETCH OF THE PHILOSOPHEB'S LIFE- AND 
WBITINGS — POMPEIO BELLONI— COPIES FBOM YANDYCK, " BTBAFFOBli 
AND HIS SECBETABY" — THE BILLIABD-BOOM: CUBIOUS FAMILY POB- 
TBAIT, BY BABBEB, OF NOTTINGHAM — ^LOBD CHIEF JUSTICE WILLOUOHBT 
(EDW. m.) — SIB HUGH WILLOUGHBY AND THE ABCTIC EXPEDITION 

OF 1553 ^FAMILY POBTBAITS, BY SIB JOSHUA BEYNOLDS, ETC. — ^VIEWS 

AT WOLLATON AND ON THE BIVEB TBENT, AT WILFOBD — PABK VIEW 

FBOM THE HOUSE-TOP: GBOUNDS — ^FBENCH PAVILION — STABLES 

DECOY LAKE — ^WALKS AND WATEBS — KITCHEN GABDENS^ ETC., ETC. 



"Lovely art ihoa, fair WoUaton; magnificent are thyfestare^. In years now 
Tenerable my towery^crested presence, eminefitly boldly seated, strikeatlLe beholder 
vrith respectful awe.— Unlike many of the visionary built edifices of the preeent 
day, designed but with little variation of style and uniform in disoi'dering archi- 
tectural order, thee we must admire, chaste in thy component parts, and presenting 
•n unbroken whole."— 2%rMfl>y> Thorolon^ vol. ii., p. 215. 



WoLLATON Hall, the seat of the Right Hon. Digby 7th 
Baron Middleton — saluted by Dr. Throsby with the burst of 
Ossianic admiration culled for the motto of this chapter — is 
approached from Nottingham by the splendid Lenton Lodge, 
which we have figured for these " Rambles," and which, in 
architectural style and character, will be found in beautiful 
accordance with the noble mansion to which it gives access. 
Two magnificent turrets — we indeed should call them towers 
— ^flanked by window-looped porters' lodges of solid masoniy, 
and surmounted by wrought stone bartizans, having arabesque 
parapets of grandly chiselled scroll-work, here command the 
high-way to Derby, where the Leen and Canal are spanned by 
a bridge. A slight divergence of the turnpike places the lodge 
full in front of the approaching visitor, as if through its portal 
lay the onwards route. The effect is at once beautiful and 
imposing. The gigantic archway and superb iron gates — 
unequalled even by Coalbrook Dale and the Great Exhibition, 



LENTON LODGE, WOLLATON HALL. 



55 



because of the apposite and effective position in which they 
are placed — ^give a glimpse into the grassy park, which one 
thing only can surpass ; and that is, the privilege of passing 
under the lofty groinings, and standing within the sweep of 
the expanse which bursts upon the vision. Over the archway, 
cut in low relief, are the arms of the noble house of Wil- 
loughby of Middleton — a race renowned in arts and arms — 
a race whom science ranks amongst her apostles and martyrs, 
and who have braved all hazards at their country's calL 
Such were Francis Willoughby, the father of English Natural 
History, and Sir Hugh Willoughby, the first victim of our 
Arctic exploration, as well as othera of the family in more 




Lientoa Lodge, WoUaton HalL 



recent times. The arms of Willoughby — azure fretty or, for 
Willoughby of Eresby, impaling or on two bars gules, three 
water bougetts arg, for Willoughby of WoUaton, are sculp- 
tured ou a shield sustained by two male figures, supporters 
— ^the dexter a pilgrim monk in hooded cope and stole, with 
staff in hand, and cross and rosary suspended from his girdle; 
the other a nude Hercules, wreathed and crowned, resting 
on his club ; and each sustaining a banner, with water bouget 
emblazoned. The crest is a coronetted bust surmounting a 



56 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

coronet.* Within the archway, the park is for some space 
open and undulating ; bounded, seemingly, by the horizon — 
or by the planted grounds distinguished on the map of the 
Ordnance Survey as Lehton wood, and farther north-west, 
Gorse-wood, the fine swelling wooded summit of Arbour-hill 
rising to the south, whilst the carriage-way curves shghtly 
and gracefully along the invisible meadow fence, where hosts 
of haymakers are, perchance, sportively prosecuting their 
labours, or courting the luxurious noonday shade during a 
temporary pause ; and the rich and fragrant odours of the 
scented grass fill the air with incense richer than any that is 
wafted on the breeze of Araby the blest ; for where will you 
find a scent to match the bouquet of an English haj-field? 
At length the long cathedral aisle of the avenue of limes com- 
mences. It is rather more than three quarters of a mile in 
length, and winds its way towards the central ascent in this 
noble demesne of seven hundred acres of ornamental wood- 
lands — thrown, in fact, into one magnificent deer-park. And 
there they are ! What a glorious herd of graceful creatures ! 
Symmetry, colour, carriage, bearing, agility, and the proud 
crown of antlers waving haughtily — all blend together in the 

♦ A genealogist might venture the following explanations respecting 
this noble family : — It appears from Thoroton, that the ancestors of 
the Willoughbys were the Morteins — the first of whom (Kobertus de 
Moretein), lived in the time of Henry I., at the foundation of Lenton 
Priory — and were the successors of Warner, the man of William 
Peveril. The first of the Willoughby's of Wollaton, was Bichard de 
Willoughby, to whom William, son of Boger de Morteign, in the ele- 
venth year of the reign of Edward 11., (1818) granted the whole manor 
of Wollaton, with exception of the capital messufige, &c., and this Sir 
lUchard de Willoughby was the son of Bichard de Willoughby, son of 
BaJph Bugge, of Nottingham, '' the original ancestor" says Thoroton, 
** of divers good families, as in Willoughby-on-the-Wolds may be ob- 
served, and in other places of this book. That branch of Bingham 
bore for their arms three bougets upon a fesse, being, it seems, from 
the eldest son : this of Willoughby divided the fesse into two bars, with 
two budgets on the uppermost and one upon the lower, as the seal of 
Sir Bichard Willoughby, appended to his deed, bearing date J7tli 
Edward III., (1344), whereby he passed th€ advowson of the churdii 
of Stanton-on-the-Wold to Sir Gervase de Clifton, yet remainirg at 
Clifton, manifesteth." In short, from all this we may conclude that 
the origin of the name of Willoughby is from Bugge, or Boug-upon-the 
Wolds — Wold-e-Boug. — cLio p. 



THE GREAT AVENUE OF LIMES. 57 

trooping shapes of these most appropriate tenants of this 
lordly park. They are principallj the dappled fallow deer, 
of whom there are not fewer than twelve hundred — but t hcjiu 
are some black; and of that tameless denizen of the wild; the 
noble red deer, there are at the present time six stags and 
twelve hinds. They pay no heed to a passing stranger ; "his tread 
disturbs them not. The eminence westwards of Arbour-hill, 
is the Deer-bam-wood, where the deer are fed in the winter. 
The park abounds in other game; particularly hares and 
pheasants. The tall aspiring lime trees of the long avenue, 
wide as is the carriage-way which separates its rows, meet 
over head at a height of seventy, eighty, or ninety feet ; the 
length of the vista alone prevents its proportions from seeming 
most stupendous. Loolung back, what glimpses are caught 
of the ruin-crowned rock of Nottingham Castle — ^the red brick 
buildings of New Lenton and Radford, — the bold green 
swelling ascent which rises upwards to Nottingham Barracks 
— or the respectable Gothic tower of Lenton Church nestling 
at the foot ; nay, far beyond, in the distance, the Colwick 
range of eminences, beautifully darkened with wood and re- 
lieved with green pastures. Every thing stands out in full 
relief in these pictures seen from this dark avenue ; for they 
are flooded with the light from whose glare the visitor is 
shaded. We can discern the ex-mayor's (Mr. Thackeray's) large 
works, Fisher's great factory ; and even those of lesser note, 
one by one. But let us turn and pursue our way. Outside 
the carriage avenue there run parallel others, if possible, more 
noble, for they are wider apart — not with a beaten roadway, 
but with a green oarpet of sward, cast into all the thousand 
hues of green by the Hght and shade which keeps flickering 
through the branches — no pattern could be more changeful. 
With regard to the other avenues leading on to WoUaton viUage, 
&c.. Sir William Jardine, in his Memoir of Francis Wil- 
loughby, (Naturalists' Library, vol. v., p. 138) says, " There 
are two noble avenues of oaks at WoUaton, which were planted, 
oy as it is worded in the family records, * sown ' by him. The 
use of the particular word *sown,' as applied to these avenues, 
reminds of Evelyns Sylva^ which was pubhshed in the year 
1664, and in which he recommends that oaks should be 
' sown,' in order to preserve the tap-root, which is often 



58 BAMBLE9 BODND NOTTIirOHAM. 

destroyed by transplanting." From this information, which 
has been gleaned or culled by Miss Sylvia Pebbleflint, it is 
computed by that young lady that the Wollaton oaks " sown" 
by Francis WiUoughby, who died in 1673, at the early age of 
37, are within a very little of being two centuries old. She 
suggests also, that their splendid, vigorous, and flourishing 
condition, may be due in no slight degree to the scientific 
skill with which they were planted or ** sown," and the ad- 
mirable soil encountered by their tap-roots. We know of 
nothing to compare with these glorious avenues, save Bushy 
Park and Hampton Court; and the trees there are much too far 
apart to realise the whole of the magical effects of Wollaton 
in the season of full leaf and sunshine. 

Truly has Throsby said or sung, that Wollaton Hall is 
" eminently bold seated." Where the carriage-way through 
the park branches off to the north towards Wollaton village 
lodge — it shows (to quote the Doctor again) " its towery- 
crested presence." The northern and southern fronts, with 
exception of the terrace and double ascent of steps which 
mark the superiority of the latter, nearly correspond. The 
general features of these facades present a combination of 
elegance and art, the last and highest development of the 
Castellated Gothic, well warranting the proud inscription 
upon the southern front: — 



EN HAS FRANCISGI WILLOUGHBAEI AEDES BABA 

ARTE EXTBUCTAS WILLOUOHBAEIS BELICTAS. INCHOATAE 

TwnT.yx y^— Ti^T^T.y x v v 1 1 1". 



The structure is indeed a miracle of fine massive proportions 
united to light and airy grace ; one of the best proofs of 
which is, that in building for Baron Rothschild, at Mentmore, 
his wonderful mansion at Leighton Buzzard, which is to cost 
£100,000, Sir Joseph Paxton, who may be called "the light of 
the age" in the novelty of his architectural combinations, found 
nothing in England, or even within the realms of his own 
invention, comparable to Wollaton Hall, and by permission of 
its noble owner, sent over his accomplished assistant, Mr. 
Stokes, who has drawn and modelled from it, with the aid 
of numiorous German artists, every possible detail for adoption 



SOUTHERN FACADE OF WOLLATON HALL. 



59 



at Mentmore. The amazing extent of fenestration — not 
the puny loopholes which perforate the dead walls of our dull 
and gloomy palaces of the Italifm school, hut bona fide win- 
dows, tall and \dde, which extend in tier above tier along the 
lines of the central curtain of the building, and, partially 
relieved by rounded niches, which, in the side faces, are filled 
with statuary, extend even over the bold advanced square 
flanking towers of the building — and mount again, one tier 
above another, to the very top of the massive square tower 
which, rising majestically within the outer walls, fills up the 
central space of ihe building — all without impaiiing, despite 




the immense display of glass, the slightest feehng of inseciirity 
such as that excited by the somewhat earlier edifice of the 
period — Hardwick Hall. It was doubtless this wonderful result 
of fenestration which captivated the taste of the hero of our 
crystal palaces. But Wollaton is no crystal palace. It is 
a substantiality of stone and lime. Doric pillars and pilasters 
merely are interposed to separate the windows in its facades 
— but their own vast width and proportions offer to the eye 



60 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

all that massive grandeur of effect which in art is gei^erallj. 
praised as squareness of drawing, but which here is peQ)elu- 
ated in stone and lime. Throsby, who characterises the roof 
of the Hall as " supported with arches something like West^ 
minster Hall" — ^refers to the interior olf the latter building ; 
and although that of WoUaton Hall can hardly be compared 
to anything else, it is not to be supposed that in the archi- 
tectural composition of WoUaton, the arch is a leading 
feature. The windows, with exception of the upper 
tier are, as already noticed, uniformly square-headed and 
decided in character. To harmonise in some degree with the 
overhanging circular turrets of the angles which, rising over 
the roof, form the finial points of the structure, the upper 
tier of windows is elongated and rounded at the top in a sub- 
dued manner, broken up with mouldings ; and the arabesque 
ornamentation of the ballustrades, &c., on the terraces and 
balconies are curvilinear, sometimes circular ; but these curves 
bear only a small proportion to the square and firmly defined 
mass of the building, which is light and elegant amidst its 
grandeur, and massive and substantial without being heavy. 
The figures occupying the external niches are admirably 
sculptured stone busts ; two of which, in the northern facade, 
bear the names of " Plato" and " Aristotie," respectively — only 
one other, on the southern face, being inscribed with the name 
•• Virgilius." These undoubtedly were regarded by the 
enlightened builder as sufficient to indicate the classicality of 
the rest. The builder, by the way, was Sir Francis Wil- 
loughby ; he was immensely rich, and left accordingly this 
magnificent monument of his affluence to poirterity. Yet 
Throsby, who was aware of this, carelessly repeats the story, 
repeated in almost every local history, that this fabric, which 
he nevertheless describes as — " taken as one built for a com- 
moner," exceeding " the loftiest ideas of imagination," and 
even adds that, since " it is wholly built of stone" it *' must 
have cost the owner an immense fortune," was, after all, built 
with stone got from Ancaster, in exchange for pit-coal ! Hence 
it has been usual for writers to assert that Wollaton Hall was 
thus built. Going back to the source, however, of all this 
csontradiction, we find it stated in Cambden's Britannia^ that 
" Wollaton ifi rich in seams of coal, where Sir Francis Wil- 



LAWN PROSPECTS AND SCULPTURES. 61 

loughby, Knight, nojbly-descended from the Greys, Marquises 
of Dorset, in our days, built out of the ground with great 
charges (yet for the most part levied out of the coal pits), a 
stately house with artificial workmanship, standing bleakly, 
but offering a goodly prospect to the beholders far and near." 
The explanation is sufficient to show that it was money, and 
not coal, that was exchanged for the Ancaster stone ; and it 
serves likewise to remind us that the glorious sylvan beauties 
which we now enjoy at WoUaton, having grown up for our 
gratification since liie days of Cambden — we owe these, in 
common with the superb architecture of the noble pile they 
environ, to the far-reaching foresight of the founder. From 
the lower windows of the house, and the southern terrace, 
the views are sweet and sylvan. One small window to the 
north commands the grassy glade of the decKvity towards 
WoUaton village and church, in an enchanting manner. But 
the finest park view is unquestionably obtained southwards 
from the front terrace over the cloisters, where an opening 
has been preserved, reheving the heavy swell of the Deer- 
bam-hiU, and under the dark green wing of a venerable yew, 
disclosing, low down on the horizon-line, the Beeston, or 
" Derby" Lodge, as it is termed of the Hall. Above this 
rises dream-Hke, however, in the real distance, the feathery 
steep of Clifton Grove, dark with its towering pinions of 
tufted trees, that seem like wings added to the visible ball of 
earth, though, in truth, forming scarcely a fringe of dust upon 
its mighty surface, Before entering the house, we may as 
well continue the description of the front view. That from 
the house-top wiU be pictured hereafter. Immediately in 
front of the terrace is a soft and springy lawn of exquisite 
turf, which rises elastic to the tread as the pile of a Persian 
carpet. In its centre a fountain basin — and, removed to some 
distance off, and arranged in a line, are four life-sized statues 
of Neptune, Mars, Venus with Cupid and Apollo. With ex- 
ception of Mars, they are mostly nude ; and Lady Middleton 
directed Neptune to be posted at the left extremity, behind a 
tree, so as to be invisible from the terrace and most parts 
of the lawn, although in a hne with the others. The sculp- 
ture of these figures is admirable, more especially the Venus 
and Cupid; although some of the accessories are probably 



6i) lUMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

defective in execution, and the wreath upon the brows of 
Apollo wears a disagreeably comuted asp^ect, and obscures the 
features. From the lawn, a broad flight of steps descends 
into the planted grounds called, we believe, "the Wilderness," 
extending in front and laterally, and bounded by a " ha ha," 
or sunk fence. Here, trees in every variety and size are 
arranged with that unstudied art which is the perfection at 
once of landscape gardening, of painting,, and of poetry — for 
ara est celare artem — art is to conceal art. Vistas of exces- 
sive beauty open upon the eye, in whichever way its glances 
are directed through the trees — whether under the dark 
yews or the sweeping cedars of Lebanon, of which there are 
many here ; or amongst the four young pinasters, in which, 
we beUeve, the present lord takes some pride, terming them 
" the old gentleman's children." Passing to the east front of 
the Hall, which abuts on the Wilderness, a dark spreading 
copper beech of a singularly expanding habit attracts the 
attention. Not far from it is a tremendous beech which, 
by our computation, is the largest of its kind in Britain, being 
eighty feet in height, and eighteen feet in girth at five feet 
from the ground. Near to this, an extremely curious arbor 
mtae dips down its branches in curved hooks near the main 
stem, and then curves them upwards, like some forms of 
chandelier. And proceeding along the walk by the "ha ha," 
towards the camellia house, a Scotch pine of the most enor- 
mous dimensions — twelve feet in the round, and more than 
seventy feet in height, throws up its great thick bole, curved 
like a cucumber, and scaled with large healthy plates of ruddy 
bark — clear and uniform in thickness for forty feet of its 
height, and above that polled of dead branches wfiich had 
been destroyed by some ivy with which this noble denizen 
of nature was overspread, until Lord Middleton judiciously 
directed removal of the ivy, and ensured the preservation of one 
of the noblest pine trees out of Norway — ^highover head its thick 
bushy crest of dark green needle-lie foliage ghtters in the 
light. On opposite sides of a well cleared breathing space, 
two well-grown specimens of the Himalayan deodara, planted 
ten years ago by Mr. and Mrs. WiUoughby, throw up luxu- 
riantiy their straggling twigs and branches— the arbor vitae 
exhibits its straight and staid propriety, the hemlock spruce 



GREAT ALE CELLAR. 6d 

its dark green spikes — 'and the qusrcus sempervirena (American 
or ever-green oak), keeps alive, with its non-deciduous foli^^e, 
the green hues of spring and summer, amid tjie richly coloured 
glories of autumn, and the sear leaves or naked hranches of 
winter itself. 

In the description of a structure so interesting as Wollaton 
Hall, no one will prohably object to our beginning with the 
foundations. On the way to the cellars, may be seen one of 
the brass guns captured by his lordship when a captain in 
the British navy, from a privateer laden with Jamaica coiBfee, 
of which it had just plundered an English trader. The 
coiBFee proved a rich prize when brought into Southampton ; 
the guns were brought to Wollaton Hall, and have been 
mounted for the defence of the building. The gun near the 
cellar head is a beautiful brass four-pounder, bearing the 
inscription " F. Kinman, . 1813." Besides the immense ale 
cellars, there are two wine cellars, nine yards by fourteen, 
and four yards by twelve respectively — ^now in use, and stored 
with very choice port, sherry, and Madeira. The former Lord 
Middleton used the larger cellar, in which there are many 
wine bins now out of use ; but the ale there is potent — espe- 
cially as it is the fashion in his lordship s household to insist 
on the visitor " wetting the other eye." After proceeding in a 
direction due east for fifty or sixty feet, the wide and lofty 
excavation turns at right angles, or due north, for, we 
should say, about ninety feet, and there terminates in some 
very remarkable excavations, communicating, we beheve, with 
the arterial drainage of the park. The terminal object of 
the vista is here a huge disused ale tun, resting on its tres- 
tles, and of the enormous capacity of six tuns. Our cicerone 
in these subterranean parts, remembered its having been filled, 
but he was a retainer who had seen seventy years* service, hav- 
ing entered it at the early age of six. The cellar contains a fine 
spring of water ; a large dark cave or chamber was, we believe, 
originally intended for a plunge bath. It has since been 
converted into icehouses. 

The first object that salutes the eyes of the visitor to the 
interior of Wollaton Hall, is necessarily the grand staircase — 
concerning which we are told, in the family records, that 
" the painting on this staircase was done during the minority 



64 KAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

of the sons of Francis Willoughby, the naturalist, and it is 
supposed that the painter was Verrio. The two boys attend- 
ing the sacrifice, ^represent the naturalist*s two sons. It was 
restored by Henry the sixth lord, at a cost of J6800. The 
elder Renagle, R.A., was the artist employed." It certainly 
possesses the florid colouring and fantastic extrayagance of 
the well-known productions of Verrio and La Guerre at Chats- 
worth ; and Dr. Throsby, by the bye, attributes this rich and 
splendid piece of decoration to La Guerre alone. " A certain 
kind of painting," says Allan Cunningham, " obtained great 
reputation in this island during the reigns of the Stewarts, 
which may be called the architectural. It professed to be the 
handmaid of architecture; when the mason and carpenter 
and plasterer had done their work, its professors made their 
appearance, and covered walls and ceilings with mobs of the 
old divinities — nymphs who represented cities— ^crowned bel- 
dames for nations — and figures ready ticketed and labelled, 
answering to the names of virtues. The national love of 
subjecting all works to a measure-and-value price, which had 
been disused while art followed nature and dealt in sentiment, 
was again revived, and these cold mechanical productions 
might be paid for in the spirit which conceived them." Honest 
Allan, whose censures we believe to be directed chiefly against 
the works of Sir James Thomhill, who flourished at the same 
period, is somewhat mistaken here ; for instead of being cold, 
the divinities of the Wollaton staircase are, if anything, too 
warm ; " but the mystic nymphs," he adds, " of Thomhill 
and La Guerre, though evidently spreading out all their beau- 
ties, and making the most of their charms, could never move 
the nerves of a stoic. It is in vain that a goddess tumbles 
naked through a whole quarter of the sky. It is astonishing 
how much and how long these works were admired, and with 
what ardour men of education and talent praised them " 
Why, the truth is, that they are any day superior to size or 
wall-paper. The painted and gilded salons of the continent 
possess a lustre which casts our modem common-place inte- 
riors entirely into the shade ; and if we have ceased to admire 
this gorgeous style of decoration, we have most unfortunately 
forgot to substitute anything in its stead. So true is this, 
that, when a few years ago, fresco decorations were first pro- 



LIFE AND WORKS OF VBRBIO. 65 

posed for the new houses of parliament, it was found that the 
art had to be entirely restored in England, having fallen into 
complete desuetude. Verrio, at least, was not paid by square 
measure, as the iuthor of The Lvoes of British Painters seems 
to allege. Horace Walpole has, with great piquancy, described 
his style as artificial and insipid. The one term may be 
admitted, but not the other ; and we know that Verrio was 
paid enormously for the numerous works which he painted 
in England. A native of Lecce (6. 1639), his invitation to this 
country, (after having painted the fresco of " Christ Healing 
the Sick," in the College of the Jesuits at Naples, and the high 
altar of the Carmehtes at Toulouse,) by no meaner a judge of 
art than Charles II., for the decoration of Windsor Castle, is 
no slight testimony to his artistic rank. Few of his works 
remain; but most of the magnificent ceilings of Windsor; 
one side of St George's Hatt ; and the chapel and great 
staircase at Hampton Court, are admirable specimens of his 
art. Strangely enough, his best productions are nevertheless 
to be found in the midland district — the works done for the 
Marquis of Exeter, at Burleigh House, and those for the 
Duke of Devonshire, at Chatsworth. This at WoUaton will, 
in its way, bear comparison with either. This staircase is 
situated in the north of the building. The ceiling is painted 
vnth the subject of Prometheus stealing the fire from heaven, 
in presence of the gods and goddesses, who express their 
amazement at the sacrilege. On the left side of the staircase 
the decorations are predominated over by Minerva, on the 
right side by Jupiter. Prometheus is accompanied by the 
njmphs and a Sylvan god, with the vulture. We only wish, 
the matter were susceptible of more intelligible explanation. 
The introduction of the two young Willoughbys, Francis and 
Thomas, as attendants on the sacrifice, fixes the date of the 
production. The philosopher died 1672, in the 37th year of 
his age ; his sons, when painted, must have been about ten 
and twelve — the eldest was not four at the death of his father, 
but was created a baronet at the age of ten, in honor i of the 
deceased naturalist, (having died at 20) — ^so that about 1680 
may be fixed as the date of this decoration 
' The Entrance Hall contains remkrkable portraits by 
Jtf r. Barber, of Nottingham, of two of his lordship's agents, 
. F 



66 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAH- 

Messrs. Chouler and SHght; a view of Middleton EaD/ 
Warwickshire ; and a fine piece of Renagle's, representing 
for the landscape part, Chesterton windmill, in Warwick- 
shire, and, for the figures, portraits of the gentlemen and 
horses of Lord Middleton 's hunt. 

Enter we now the Great Hall, with its grand carved stone 
screen, the admiration of all beholders. Situated on the 
western side of the lofty hall, and supported upon Doric 
pillars, it sustains an organ or music gallery, commanding a 
fine view of the magnificent interior, and thither we shall 
repair to look around us. But, first of all, amongst the 
ornaments and objects of vertu on the table of the hall, 
where stand also a few books of law and reference for the use 
of his lordship in his ms^isterial capacity, we may be per- 
mitted to notice a curious Peruvian ornamental whistle, 350 
years old, according to the inscription ; and an Indian carved 
dagger, with gold embossed sheath. 

The organ in the gallery is old but excellent ; and beside 
it may be noticed the original folios of most of Handel's 
stately and solemn strains of music. The coup d'aU from 
the gallery is magnificent, and the square proportions of the 
hall, and grotesque Gothic ornaments of satyrs and other 
figures crouching underneath the massive beams and trusses 
of the hall, fill and satisfy the eye with all the amplitude and 
variety of ornamentation. On the terrace ledge, or string 
course, running round the sides of the hall, are stationed 
water buckets, against the possible outbreak of fire in this 
fine mansion. From roving over the general contour, the 
gaze is, however, speedily rivetted upon the splendid pictures 
hung around, of which we present an enumeration, with a 
transcript whereof we have been honored, appending a few 
notes of criticism as we proceed : — 

Pictures in the Hall. 
East End — Upper Row. 
1. " Neptune and Venus,** Ac. Luca Giordancx 

%, ** Jupiter and Europa." Ibid. 

[This eminent Neapolitan (1632-1704) studied under Spagnoletto, 
as well as Pietro de Cortona, at Borne ; and also infused into 
his labours the fruits of a study of the works of Correggio, in 



XEAiiL Howe's action off ushaxt. 67 

Lombftrdy, and the ooloarmg and oomposition of the Venetian 
school. Hift distinguishing characteristics were, a fine imagi- 
nation an Aapidity of execution ; whence he earned the sobri- 
quet of LucoFb-Presto, or Luke Make-haste ! although necessity, 
alas! seems here' to have been the instigator of speed — ^his 
avariciouij^athjturging him on perpetually, even at his meals, 

_ with the cry wi|Pb has clung to his memory, " Luca fa presto." 
His best, works are supposed to be the fi^scoes which adorn the 
escurial at Madrid, and the gorgeous interiors of Florence and 

. of Rome. Some of his finest pictures are at Dresden ; but the 
name of Giordano is best known from the altar-piece of the 
*' Battle of the Angels and Fall of Lucifer," in the Church of 
the Ascension, at Naples.] 

East Side-^Vnder Row. 

1. ** The Philosopher in his Study." 

2. " Charles I. on Horseback." — Copy after Vandyck. 

[We need not here offer any analysis of the style of Sir Anthony 
Vandyck, ( 1 599; 164 1 ) two hundred of whose works are scattered 
throc^hout our island, (for at one period he is said to have 
painted a portrait in a day). Walpole prefers his portraits of 
Strafford, and his secretary Mainwaring, at Wentwortii House; 
but most critics assign the palm to tiiis equestrian group of 
Charles. Both are, however, copied in the WoUaton ooUectioii 
— ^the other will be found in the Library. No. 5, of oar enumer- 
ation.] 

3. " Lord Howe's Action of June, 1794," presented to Digby 
Lord Middleton, the present lord, (who was first lieute- 
nant on board the CuUoden, in this action), by his friend 
Captain Sir Nisbet Willoughby, R.N., Kt., K.C.H. 

[This crowning exploit of onr gallant Nottinghamshire admiral, 
Earl Howe, of Lcmgar, was performed after his becoming vice- 
admiral of England, on the death of Lord Bodney. Lord Howe 
sailed from St. Helen's in command of the channel fleet, on the 
2nd of May, 1794, in search of the French, and on tlie 21st 
discovered them off Usfaant. Within a week after, the French 
ship Revolutionaire, after a sharp engagement, struck to Captain 
Parker, of the AvdacioitSj but was rescued by five other vessels 
of the French fleet coming to her assistance, and towed into 
port The general action off Ushant actually commenced on 
the 29th of May, but the combatants were, before night-fkll, se- 
parated by a fog. On the 1st of June, however, twenty-nine 
French ships of the line again encountered Howe's English 
fleet of twenty-four.' The fight lasted several hours ; ten of the 
enemy's ships were dismasted ; seven were taken, one of whi(^ 
having sunk, Earl Howe had the giory of towing into Ports- 
aaouth sax ships of the line ; of the rest of tha .enemy's fleet, 



68 RAMBLKS BODMD NOtTINOHASl. 

dispersed and shattered, three only of those actually engaged 
were able to rejoin the flag of the French admiral. The picture 
at Wollaton gives a chaste but lively representation of this gal- 
lant naval engagement,] 

West End. 

1. " Hunting a Wild Boar." Sneyder8(?) 

3. " Hunting a Bear." Ibid. 

[The first of these pictures, or more probably the other and more 
masterly " boar-hunt," on the eye line of the northern wall, is 
noticed thus by Throsby: — "In the saloon is a masterly per- 
formance of dogs worrying a boar." Francis Sneyders (1679- 
1657) is the undoubted prince of animal and hunting pictures. 
The fact of his peculiar talents having been invoked to ^eir aid, 
both by Beubens and tForflsens, so that pictures are in eidstence 
the joint production of these three great artists, establishes hia 
ability. The best collections of England include many of the 
productions of Sneyders. The fact of these two pictures being 
Sneyders' is queried, because it is the larger and more vigorous 
boar-hunt only which is ascribed to him in his lordship's MS. J 

North Side — Upper Row, 

1. " A Herdsman and his Flock.'* Rosa dii TivoK. 

2. « Italian Kitchen" 

3. " Horses and Cattle." 

[Philip Peter Eoos, commonly known as Eosa da Tivoli (1655- 
1705) was also chiefly an animal painter. He elaborated his 
life studies from a sort of menagerie which he kept at Tivoli, 
where he resided; but he was a native of Frankfort, and a sub- 
ject of the Landgrave of Hesse, who sent him to study at Bome, 
where, from his eccentric habits, he died impoverished, though 
accustomed to receive large sums for his works. The galleries 
of Vienna, Dresden, and Qie German cities, contain his master- 
pieces; but there are, besides, a very great number of his 
paintings in Italy, and many in England.} 

North Side ^Under Row, 

1. " Hunting a Wild Boar." Sneyders. 

2. " Lions disputing possession of a Deer." 

South Side — Upper Row, 
1. " A Pastoral Scene — Sheep," &c. Rosa da Tivoli. 

% " Hunting the Wolf." Ibid. 

3. " APastoral Scene — Shepherd and Cattle" Ibid. 

[A note appended totheentry of these pictures authenticates their 
history. ** These three pictures," it states, " in the upper zx>v 



D97IKG-B00M AT WOLLATON HALL. 69^ 

of lihe south side, were purchased by Henry, 6th Lord Middleton, 
of Mr. Harrison,iof Walworth, for £500; and are supposed to 
have been brought from Italy by Mr. Jennings, who had the 
title of Count de Waltrorth. Mr, Jennings sold Walworth to 
Mr. Stevenson, of whom Mr. Harrison bought it. The pictures 
were in the Drawing-room."] 

South Side — Under Row, 
1. " Hunting a Wild Boar." Sneyders. 

a, " Portrait of Sir Francis Willoughbj," 

who built the house. Sibrechts. 

8. " Wollaton House," painted in 1695. Ibid. 

. Having finished our survey of the Hall, me may now enter 
the Dining Room, which, like all the apartments of the 
house, is grand, lofty, and spacious; superadding, however, 
an air of comfort and quiet appropriate to the place. The 
pictures embellishing it are highly characteristic of its hos- 
pitalities. For instance, it exhibits on the 

Dining Boom — North End. 
1. ** Dead Game, Lobsters," &c-, painted 

both to the life and death, by Sneyders. 

Over the door—N, E. 
% " Fruit, with Bullfinch." Ibid. 

Over the door^N. W. 
3. ** Fruit, with Monkey and Parrot." Ibid, 

South End. 
I. ** LargeStill-Lifepiece— Fruit, Fi8h,"&c. Ibid. 
West Side. 

1. " Henry, sixth Lord Middleton," by Barber of Nottm. 

2. " Digby, seventh Lord Middleton." Ibid 

[This clever local artist was extensively employed by the noble 
lords— more of which anon.] 

East Side — Upper Row, 

1. " Men Playing at Cards." Hemskirk. 

2. " Boys Eating Hasty Pudding." Sibrechts. 

£0f this picture Throsby takes especial notice. ** I saw," quoth 
the worthy Doctor, *' in this charming dwelling, also, a piece of 



70 RAlfBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

hunloiii>— * Two boys Eating Hasty Padding:'- a Kttl« stoiy 
belongs to this painting. One of the late lords of Wollatoii 
seeing two boys at the -vUlage eating has^ padding, in the act 
of qaarrelling over their mess, had this pictare drawn. The 
least appears to be crying becanse the other acts upon the old 
adage, * love father, love mother, love own-self best.' " — SibrechtM 
therefore seems to have been a painter favoured with the com- 
missions of the family, Anno 1695.] 

3. " Sir Francis Willoughby, Knt.," father of 

the philosopher, buried in Middle- 
ton church. 

4. "Sir Nisbet Josh. Willoughby, C.B.H., 

Capt. R.N. Barber, Nottm. 

5. " The Lady Cassandra WiDoughby,'' wife 

of Sir Francis, No. 8, and daugh- 
ter of the Earl of Londonderry, 
buried at Middleton. 

[The two families of Willonghby d'Eresby, and Willoughby of 
Wollaton, were, in fact, united in Sir Francis Willoughby, the 
father of the naturalist ; he being the son of Sir Percival Wil- 
loughby, Knt., of the house of Eresby, by the eldest daughte*^ 
and co-heiress of Sir Francis Willoughby, of Wollaton. He 
married the Lady Cassandfa, daughter of the Earl of London- 
derry ; the naturalist, Francis Willoughby, and two daughters^ 
(Lady Wendy and Mrs. Winstanley) being the issue of the mar- 
riage. The following epitaph " on Mr. Willoughby' s father and 
mother," from the Latin of John Bay, supplies a knowledge of 
their characters : — " Here lie interred Francis and Cassandra 
Willoughby. He was descended from the ancient WiUoughby's, 
and she added to the lustre of that family by the splendour of 
her own, being the daughter of Thomas Bidgway, Earl of Lon- 
donderry. Readers, are you desirous that I should briefly give you 
some idea of their characters ? He holding the command over 
his passions, renderjed himself exemplary by the courtesy of his 
manners, by the cultivation of religion, and by a remarkable 
integrity of life. She, by the most exquisite accomplishments 
of mind and boby, left to posterity a most happy example of 
conjugal virtues. He, by persevering vigour and prudence, 
restored, repaired, renewed his family property, not only injured, 
but almost reduced to a wreck. She, truly sharing in his for- 
tunes, and following the footsteps of her husband, by the exerr 
cise of an acute understanding, and by a munificence frugally 
directed, extended, conducted, and in a singular manner, adorned 
her domesiic duties. She gave ofifspring to her husband, Fran- 
pis, who is here buried; LetiUa, the wife of Sir Thomas Wendy» 



HUMOUBOCS DINING-ROOM PIECES. 7,1 

ICiught of the Bath : and Gathenne, wife of Clement Winstan- 
ley, Esq. They died in mature age : the one on the 17th of 
December, a.d. 1655, in the 76th year of his age ; the other on 
the 25th of July, a-p, 1675." — ^Family pictures thus naturally 
lead to family histoiy and genealogy. John Bay was the grand 
recorder and historiographer of the WiUoaghbys ; the only thing 
we miss at WoUaton, is the portrait of this grave divine, many 
of whose lettei's are dated from thenoe.] 

6. " An Italian Cook." Valentine. 

[There is a whole fund of humour in this sketch ; the face of the 
Chefde Cuisine is rich in roguery, and redolent both of sea-coal 
fires and revelry. He looks as if he were about to make wine- 
sauce, with the lion's share of the wine for himself, and but 
little of it for the actual service of the table.] 

East Side — Under Eow, 

1. " Sick Woman and the Doctor." Hemskirk. 

{A cabinet picture of the hard Dutch school, with a good deal of 
the stem reality of Eembrandt's " Subject in Anatomy."] 

2. *• Coiyuror," &c. 

3. " The Alchymist," an original of Teniers. 

f David Teniers the younger, (1610-1694) ; many of whose works 
are to be found in England ; we have, however, the original idea 
of this piece from a wood-cut of the 15th century, probably by 
Albert Durer — ^the well-known portraiture of Basil Valentine 
in his laboratory.] 

4. " A Devout Party saying * Grace before 

meat.'" Hemskirk. 

6, '' A Dutch Market-place." Palamedes. 

£In addition to these pictures, we find that we have noted several 
oliiers not entered in the list of which we have availed our- 
selves, viz., " The Temptation of St. Anthony," " Colliers Playing 
at 'Put,'" and portraits of "His Honour and Madam Wil- 
loughby, 1768/' We were delighted to meet with these last 
quaint illustrations of Mr. Thomas Bailey's well-known sketch 
of ** Shrove-tide at Apsley Hall"* — of which the worthy old 
squire and lady are the prominent figures. It may be recollected 
that they firmly adhered to "the old religion;" and that at 
Shrove-tide it was the custom of the hall to provide butter and 
lard, fire and fiying-pans, for all the poor families of Wollaton, 
Trowell, and Cossall, who chose to come thither to eat their 
pancakes. They first of all, however, had to make them — each 

* Bee Hand Book to Newsttad Abbey. By Thomas Bftiley. NoUingham : 
W. F. Gibflon. 



79 RAMBLE8 ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

wife and mother for her own family ; and one inseparable eon^ 
dition was attached — ^the proper tossing of the cake in the air, 
and catching it scientifically on the turned side when it required 
turning in the pan, accordmg to the good old rule. Mr. Bailey 
descrihes right heartily the laughter and the mirth of these 
occasions, in which the old couple ahundantly participated, for 
they always graced the kitchen with their presence, seated in 
large high-hacked chmrs, and dressed in their antique hoUdsy 
costume.} 

Excellent portraits also appear in the Dining-room, of the 
late and present lords^ painted, we believe by Barber, of 
Nottingham. 

In i-HE Ante-Chambek to the Dining-room. 

" Large Family Group," cpmprisipg Henry, fifth Lord Mid- 
dleton ; Dorothea Lady Middleton, and their three 
daughters — the two elder of whom, Dorothea and 
Harriet Willoughby, are eminently beautiful. ' 

[Henry Willoughby, of BirdsaU, in the county of York, became 
fifth Lord Middleton, and inherited the family honours, through 
the failure of the direct line in the person of Thomas, the foui^ 
lord. He was bom 19th December, 1726, and married Dorothy, 
second daughter and co-heiress of George Cartwright, Esq., of 
Ossington, by whom he had issue as above mentioned. He 
died June 14, 1800.] 

" German Fish Market;" a piece of some merit, and 
"A Scrap Piece^" on paneL 

Pictures in the Saloon, 

[It may be thought retrogressive to return from Dining-room t0 
Saloon ; but in sooth we follow the order of enumeration pre- 
scribed to usr rather than any course of our own. This Saloon, 
by the way, is a finely-proportioned interesting apartment. 
Throsby takes notice of the fine glasses in the Dining-room — 
"two of the most magnificent he ever saw" — ^but those in the 
Saloon and Library are perhaps more effective. The latter 
presents the spectator in a very novel aspect to himself— the 
larger pier glasses being empanelled in the wall at such an 
angle as to turn the figure more than half round; so that one 
meets his own reflection as if it were that of a stranger — ihu» 
more than realising the sacred similitude of St. James, " He ift 
like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass : for he 
beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forget- 
teth what manner of man he was." The glasses of the Saloon, 
in the front window recess, are so disposed as to multiply op 
repeat the reflections ad libitum; and, as his lordflhip jocose^ 



SIB FRANCIS AND SIR PERCEVAL WILtX)UGHBT. 73 

remarks, he is never '* alone" while seated there ; in teuet, the 
place wears the appearance of a crowded haU.} 

Over recess, near the little window. 

1. " Sir Francis Willoughby," who built 

Wollaton House. ^ucchepo. 

[This or the other portrait in the Hall (in all probability the latter, 
as it is engraved in the Naturalists' Library) must mean Francis 
Willooghby, the naturalist. It is singular enough that there 
should be two portraits of " Sir Francis Willoughby" entered as 
of him " who built the house ;" Sibrecht's landscape, &c,, ( 1695) 
being contemporary not even with the last Sir Francis, but 
with his brother, Sir Thomas, the first Lord Middletoo, created 
by Queen Anne, 1711.] 

Over the door leading into the Staircase, 

2. " The Lady of Sir Francis Willoughby," 

who built the house. Ibid. 

[N.B. Sir Francis died in London, and was buried in St. QUes's 
Church without Cripplegate.] 

Over the folding doors leading into the HaU. 

3. "Bridget, the eldest daughter and co- 

heiress of Sir Francis Willoughby 
and his wife, Nos. 1 and 2." 

[She married Sir Perceval WiQoughby, of the house of Eresby, 
by which marriage the two houses of £resby aud Wollaton were 
united.] 

4. " Sir Perceval Willoughby." C. Johnson. 

[In the back-ground of this picture is a ship, with a Latin motto, 
signifying " lost by words, not by winds or waves ;•* which is 
supposed to refer to his having been ruined by law-suits — con- 
testing the uiy^st will of his father-in-law, Sir Francis Wil- 
loughby (No. 1), who buUt Wollaton, and who lived just one 
year too long, re-marrying in his dotage a young wife, who 
pressed on him to make a will, leaving her the greater part of 
his Nottinghamshire estates ; and from some very extraordinary 
circumstances attending his death, it was universally believed 
that he was poisoned. — Family M.S,] 

North Side, 

6. " Thomas, first Lord Middleton, in his 

Tobes" second son of the philosopher. Sir G. Eneller. 



74 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

6. '' Cassandra, his sister, first Duchess of 
Chandos ;" she was first cousin of 
her husband — they being the child- 
ren of two sisters, co-heiresses and 
daughters of Sir H. Barnard. Sir G. Kneller. 

[Sir Thomas WilloTighby, Bart., was one of ten peers raised 
in the tenth year of the reign of Queen Anne (1711) to the 
dignity of a baron of England, by the style and titl^ of Thomas 
Baron Middleton, of Middleton, in the oounty of Warwick ; as 
his deceased elder brother had been elevated, whilst yet an 
infant, to the rank of baronet, in commemoration of his father's 
attainments in science. The first Lord Middleton married 
Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Bichard Bothwell, of 
Stapleford, in the county of Lincoln (not Notts.), Bart, and by 
her had four sons, Francis (second Lord Middleton), Thomas, 
Bothwell, and Heniy. His lordship, prior to his elevation to 
the peerage, served in several parliaments for the county of 
Nottingham; he died 2d April, 1729. The painter, Gk)dfrey 
EneUer, a native of Lubeck, was a pupil of the school of Bem- 
brandt, and state painter to five successive monarchs of England 
— Charles 11., James II., William HI., Queen Anne, and 
George I. One well qualified to judge has told us that " the 
works of Eneller are numerous ; they are almost exclusively 
portraits ; and over whatever he produced he threw an air of 
freedom and a hue of nature, not unworthy of Vandyok. All 
the sovereigns of his time,* all the noblemen of the court, all 
the men of genius in the kingdom, and almost all the ladies of 
rank or of beauty in England, sat for their portraits." When he 
painted the head of Louis XIY., the king asked him what mark 
of his esteem would be most agreeable to him f The painter 
answered modestly and genteelly that he should feel honoured 
if his mcyesty would bestow a quarter of an hour upon him, 
that he might execute a drawing of his face for himself. It was 
granted. He painted Diyden in his arm-chair, in plain drai>ei7, 
holding a laurel, and made him a present of the work. The 
poet repaid this by an epistle, containing encomiums such as 
few painters deserve : 

*' Such are thy pictures, Kneller i such thy skill. 
That nature seems obedient to thy will ; 
Comes out and meets thy pencil in the draught, 
Live« there, and wants but words to speak the thought." 

• " Hast thou forgot that mighty Bourbon fear'd, 
He still was mortal till thy draught appear' d? 
That Cosmo chose thy glowing foim to place 
Amidst the mastera of the Lombard race ? 
See on her Titian's and her Guido's urns, 
Her fi&lling arts forlorn Hesperia mourns ; 
While Britain wins each gamnd from her brow— 
Her wit and freedon^ firstr-her painting noyt'^-^Tiekm. 



KNELLBS AMD THE POETS. 75 

To the inoense of Diyden was added that of Pope, Addison, 
Prior, Tickell, and Steele." So far Cunningham {BritUh Paint- 
erv, i., 48.) But a reference to the context, of which the above 
is by no means the best passage, proves to us that Allan is 
slightly at fault in saying that it was Bryden's own portrait (a 
severe sculpt of which, by Shea, adorns the very volume we 
consult), when it was certainly Shakspeare's which evoked that 
beautifiil poetic tribute, not onlylo Kneller, but to painting at 
large, commencing, " Once I beheld the fairest of her kind," &c. 

" RaphMri, like Homer'f, was the nobler part, 
But Titian's painting look'd like Virgil's art. 

Thy genius gives thee both ; where true designs- 
Postures unforc'd and lively, colours Join. 
Likeness is erer there, but still the best, 
Like proper tkoughte in proper Umguage dreet: 
Where light to shades descending, plays, not stiiTes, 
Dies by di^rees, and by degrees revives. 
Of various parts a perfect v^hole is wrought : 
Thy pictures think, and toe diviM tKeir thought. 

8XAKSPB4BS, thy gift I place before my sight, 
With awe I ask his blessing ere I write; 
With reverence look on his majestic face I 
Proud to be less, but of his god-like race." 

Such is a more exact idea of fhe tribute Dryden paid to Kneller : 
nor do we know how a juster appreciation of the painter's pecu- 
liar mellowness of style could be expressed than in the critical 
tribute of the illustrious poet. Of this exquisite light and shade, 
dying and reviving, the picture at Wollaton is itself a fine illus- 
tration; but what would we not give to see Kneller*s Shakspeare ? 
We are not aware in whose possession it remains. Pope's 
epigram " to Sir Godfrey Kneller, on his painting for me the 
statues of Venus and Hercules," is as nearly as possible dog- 
gerel, of which the bard of Twickenham ought to have been 
ashamed, if he tendered it as legal payment. Of Tickell's finely 
imaginative tribute, a specimen has already been offered : it is 
addressed to Sir Grod&ey Kneller, at his country seat, ^'What^ 
ton's shades and Hounslow's airy plain," concluding with the 
invocation — 

** Binee alter fhee may rise an impious line, 
Coaise manglers of the human face divine. 
Paint on, till Fate dissolve thy mortal part, 
And live and die the monarch of thy art t" 

The praise of the poets may possibly be pronounced extr&va. 
gant; and, indeed, had we cited the inflammatory strains of 
Prior and Congreve, or the flowing iambics of Addison, instead 
of the grave and stately measures of Dryden and Tickell, it 
might have proved so ; and we shall spare our readers the hum- 
ble though beautiful prose of Dicky Steele. " "Why have we quoted 
any of them at all ?" You foiiget, dear reader, we have you by 
the button-hole; all this, and much more may we inflict upon 
thee, as the French restaurants do bread, (and charge for it) 
pain au 4i9cretio^,. We trusty however, it is uq pain to listen to 



76 BAMBLS8 BOUND MOimiaHAM. 

the noble estimates which, in times past, one high and glorious art 
oonld afford to frame of another. Where be these sentiments 
now? We can scarcely trust echo to answer; for there may be 
little or no reply. Does it not do thine heart good, too, to notice 
how these fine old lords filled up their spacions houses with 
the best and ablest productions of their day? It is a notable 
teuct that, family pieces, as the predominating number of them 
are, there is not a,trashy picture in WoUaton Hall. It has de- 
manded, we doubt not, a vast amount of taste, tact, and expen- 
diture, to render and keep them thus exclusive. But the moral 
readable from this our episode of Sir Godfrey Kneller and his 
works is, simply, that " the living may gain knowledge from the 
dead." Let the present generation, in its superabundant wealth 
and discernment, give proofs to posterity of having encouraged 
the highest art, by placing in the high places of the land, the 
lasting proofe of the highest genius, and it will deserve to be as 
honourably remembered as these fine old lords who have given 
to WoUaton its admirable and characteristic collection. 

We have more than once had occasion to notice the efforts of 
** Barber, of Nottingham," to bring up the historical or family 
department of the WoUaton gaUery ; and the sight of this pic- 
ture of KneUer's reminds us of a curious circumstance which, 
properly speaking, should have been reserved for the Billiard- 
room. It may be observed, however, that KneUer's picture, in 
rigid compliance with the costume of the period, (Anne's reign) 
has exquisite red heeled boots. Now, in producing the portrait 
of Henry, the sixth lord, iu the east end of the BiUiard-room — 
by command of his lordship, who was a devoted admirer of this 
work of EneUer — Barber ingeniously contrived to make a per- 
fect transcript of KneUer's picture, with exception of the heels 
and head ; tiie heels are black, instead of red, and the head is 
the head of the sixth, on the body of the first, Lord Middleton !] 

7. " Thomas, Fourth Lord Middleton, in his 

Robes," Romney. 

[This lord was brother of Francis the third, and son of Frauds 
the second Lord Middleton, the former of whom died unmar- 
ried, whUst he himself, although married (7th April, 1770) to 
Georgiana, daughter of Evelyn Chiidwick, Esq., of Leake, died 
without issue, at his seat in Warwickshire, Middleton, near 
Tam worth, January 18th, 1781. His lordship was, however, 
bom within the town of Nottingham. Mr. Sutton, in his Date- 
Bookf points out the house ; it was that of W. Partridge, Esq., 
Low-pnvement. George Bomney, (1784-1802) in the opinion 
of Flaxman, the first of aU our painters for poetic dignity, 
painted many of England's noblHty, and thereby secured the 
intense hatred of Reynolds, who at one period could only afford 
to 3peak of him as " the man in Cavendish-square." WeU, the 
man in Cavendish-square was tibe Mend, and nearly inseparable 



BOMNEY AND THE POETESSES. 77 

companion, of the poet Hayley, the greatest master of the 
English sonnet. Hayley was in turn his biographer ; and Emma 
Lyon, Lady Hamilton, the chere ami of Nelson, his model — the 
model of his Bacchantes, Calypsos, Magdalenes, Joans of Arc, 
and Pythian Priestesses — all unfinished, for Bomney painted 
other filings than twenty guinea portraits. He painted (from 
Emma) the Cassandra of the Shaksperian Gallery ; and, as we 
have appealed to the poets on behalf of other painters, of Bom- 
ney it may be said that besides the tributes of Hayley himself, 
and of Anna Seward,Oharlotte Smith, and Eliza Heron, whom 
lie met at Hayley's house, at Eartham, he earned also, by the 
presentation of a portrait, the immortal praise of Cowper. Not 
that Miss Seward was not similarly stimulated. She spoke 
affectionately of her father; and 'Romney would paint her por- 
trait, that it might be bestowed upon the parent she loved so 
welL The result was, a repayment in verse, the joint effort of 
Hayley and Anna; but of the eighty-eight lines caUed " Coming 
to Eartham" and " Leaving Eartham," it appears upon compe- 
tent testimony, (for heaven forbid that we, or any reader of ours, 
should read them,) that two lines alone bear upon the subject, 
and fifty-six, redundant of Eolus, Orion, and the muses; Boreas, 
Auster, Zephyr, and Eurus, have no reference to any subject 
whatever ! Cowper's sonnet is another sort of thing : 

" Romney ! expert Infallibly to trace 
On chart or canvas — ^not the form alone 
And aemblance, but, however faintly ahown, 
The mind's impreaaion too, on every face, 
With stiokea that time ought never to erase — 
Thou hast so pencilled mine; and though I own 
The subject worthless, I have never known 
The artist shining with superior grace : 
But this I mark, that symptoms none of woe 
In thy incomparable work appear: 
Well I am satisfied it should be so ; 
Since on maturer thought the cause is clear; 
For in my looks what sorrow couldst thou see, 
Whilst I was Hayley's guest, and sat to thee t" 

Sooth to say, these gatherings at Hayley's were sufficiently 
ludicrous. " When they gathered together," says a lively writer, 
** at the breakfast table, the ordinary greetings were Sappho, 
and Pindar, 'and Raphael; they asked for bread and butter in 
quotations, and * still their speech was song.' They then sepa- 
rated for some hours ; poetasters, male and female, retired, big 
with undelivered verse, and Romney proceeded to sketch from 
the lines of Hayley, or make designs as he had suggested. 
When the hour appointed for taking the air came, the painter 
went softly to the door of the poetess, (Anna Seward) opened 
it gently, and if he found her 

' With looks all staring firom Parnassian dreams.' 
he shut it, and retreated; if, on the contrary, she were unem- 
ployed, he said, * Come, muse,' and she answered, ' Coming, 



78 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

Raphael/ and so the time went hy." StiU, it is not the least 
boast of the collection at Wollaton, that it possesses these 
examples of so traly English an artist as Bomney; and the fact 
farther oonJQLrms what we have advanced regarding the good old 
ancestral practice, so greatly fallen into desuetude, of fil&ng onr 
haronial hiedls with the best productions of the best masters of 
the day.] 

8. " Laetitia Willoaghby." 

£She was daughter of Sir Francis WiBonghby, whose portrait is 
in the Dining-room, and sister to the philosopher [it is, there- 
fore, the philosopher's portrait which is in the Hall.] She mar. 
ried Sir Thomas Wendy, K.B. Eay dedicates to her one of his 
publications, and compliments her delicately on her Iftftming 
and attainments, virtues, and good qualities, and also ux>on her 
being the favourite sister of that highly honoured charaoter, 
Francis WiUoughby, his patron and friend]. 

Opposite the window, 

9. " Francis Lord IVIiddleton," half length, in 

his hunting coat 

Over the Utile mndow, 

10. " Henry WiUoughby," one of the younger 

sons of Sir Perceval and Bridget 
Willougbby. 

[His monument is over the fireplace in WoUaton Church ; and as 
that little mausoleum of the race of WiUoughby oontaiiis the 
monuments of at least three of the name, finding, as we do, 
these pictorial notes so eminently conducive in a quiet way to 
the elucidation of family histoiy, we may as well give here a 
rendering of the Latin inscription : — ** Here lies Heniy Wil- 
loughby, Enight, and Dame Bridgett his spouse, counsellor, 
and one of the most learned assessors of the Inner Temple of 
London; most devoted to his studies, yet not untaught in 
religion and uprightness; who died the 18th September, in 
the 48th year of his age, and in the year of the Lord 1541."] 

Weet End. 

11. " Achilles discovered in Female Weeds 

at the Court of Lycomedes, by 
Ulysses." Reubens. 

[Classical as it seems, the snloect of this superb piece is not 
Homeric ; the fiction of AchiUes having been concealed by his 
mother Thetis, under the name of Phyrra, and in ISomale weeds, 



KASTER-FIECES OF REUBENS^ 79 

at the court of Lycomedes, Hog of Soyros, in consequence of the 
Oracle that he should perish in the Trojan war, is firom The 
HUUny ofi^ Trojan War, ascrihed, indeed^ to Byctis, a Cretan 
who accompanied Idomeneus to Troy, but in reality supposed 
to be a composition of the fifteenth century ! Shakspeare was 
as bad as Reubens in this reject, and drew more of what he 
knew of " the tale of Troy divine," iSrom mediaoval romances, 
than firom the pages of " Uie blind old bard, with his immortal 
story." All that, however, does not impair the conceptions 
either of the painter or the dramatist. The wise Ulysses, being 
apprised that Troy could not be taken without tJie assistance of 
Achilles, and receiving also firom the soothsayer Calchas a hint 
of the whereabouts of the " goddess-bom" youth, proceeds to 
the court of Scyros in the capacity of a pedlar, offering jewels 
and arms for ssJe ; the king's daughters eagerly dote upon the 
jewels, but Achilles in petticoats completely betrays himself 
by snatching up the arms.] 

la. "William Prince of Orange." Reubens. 

13. " Mary of Orange.'* Ibid. 

Between the Windows opposite the Fireplace, 

14. ** Portrait of a young Prince of Bavaria." Ibid. 

15. "A Scripture Piece." Ibid. 

[Nos. 11 and 16 were shown in Dublin in 1853. Wollaton is rich 
in the glorious and radiant pictures of Beubens, (1577-1640) 
which Barry describes as painted on the supposition that the 
sun is in liie room, (his pupil, Vandyck, deviating into the re- 
preseBtation of common daylight) ; indeed, it may be said, that 
the immense efforts of Verrio and Laguerre are all continua- 
tions of his school. " Allegorical histories," as Fuseli seriously 
termed them, " empty representations of themselves, the 
supporters of clumsy forms, and clumsier conceits ; splendid 
improprieties, the substitute of wants, which no colour can 
paUiate, and no tints supply." But where, we should like to 
know, are his colour or tints to be met with elsewhere ? Jordaens 
alone approaches Sir Peter Paul. The church of the Santa 
Croce in Grerusalemme, at Borne; the Munich Gallery (with 
the well known picture of Beubens and his wife) ; the National 
Gsdlery of England (with the famous allegory of Peace and 
War) ; tiie ceding of Whitehall; and the painted Ball Chamber 
at the Hague ; where he still carries off the palm over Jordaens, 
and nine others of the best Butch masters of his day, aU attest 
his brilliancy and skiU. But his fame rests ''on the far-famed 
"Descent from the Cross," in the Cathedral <^ Antwerp.] 

To US, one of the most interesting, sa it is certainly one of 
the most beautiful objects in his lordship's Saloon, is a beau- 
tiful Parian statuette group^ "The Return from the Vintage," 




of which we are hap- 
py to present an 
engraving, and to*be 
enabled to give the 
history : 

" During the sum- 
mer of 1850, the 
present noble lord 
kindly gave pennis- 
sion to a select party, 
in connexion with 
the Athenaeum and 
Mechanics* Institu- 
tion at Longton, in 
Stafifordshire, to visit 
his seat at Wollaton, 
and inspect the ma- 
ny attractions which 
are to be found in 
that princely resi- 
dence. He gave them 
such a hearty and 
substantial welcome 
that, so far from the 
memory of their ex- 
cursion being effaced, 
they were desirous of 
showing his lordship 
some token of their 
respect and grati- 
tude. After some 
deliberation, they de- 
cided ©n presenting 
to the noble lord 
a beautiful piece of 
workmanship from 
their own locality, as 
a specimen of the 
high state of skill 
attained in the fictile 



BEAUTIFUL PBE8ENTATI0N PIECE. 81 

art It is composed of a new material called Parian, now 
so largely employed m the construction of brooches, bracelets, 
and for other artistic ornamental purposes. The deputation 
consisted of W. K. Harvey, Esq., of Longton, StaiFordshire, 
the President of the Longton Athenaeum and Mechanics* 
Institution, and S. P. Goddard, Esq., the Honorary Secretary. 
They arrived at the Hall, on Friday, the 29th November, 
1860, shortly before one o'clock, and were received at the 
entrance by Mr. Radford, the butler. The testimonial was 
unpacked with the greatest care, by Mr. John Taylor, who 
had accompanied the deputation for the purpose ; and we are 
happy to say, that the noble gift was duly deposited and pre- 
sented without any accident or injury. The above gentlemen 
were invited to partake of luncheon with his lordship, with 
whom was the following party of friends and relatives: — 
Henry Willoughby, Esq., of Birdsall, in the county of York, 
and Mrs. WiUoughby; the Rev. C. W. Hudson, of Saundby 
rectory, Nottinghamshire, M.A., and the Hon. Mrs. Hudson; 
Miss Willoughby, of Birdsall ; Dr. J. C. Williams, of Not- 
tingham; Henry WooUey, Esq., Admiralty; John Barker, 
Esq., Leamington; the Rev. C. J. Willoughby, rector of 
Wollaton, M.A. ; Mrs. Charles Willoughby ; the Rev. Francis 
Hewgill, rector of Trowell, M.A. ; Captain Geo. B. Martin, 
C.B.,R.N., Bingham; Mr. Falconer Wilson, 14th Regiment ; 
Captain J. A. Legard, R.N., and Miss Legard, Lenton Hall. 
The statuette was then brought into the room, and placed 
on a raised stand in the centre of the table. After the com- 
pany had minutely inspected it, and expressed their admira- 
tion of its beauty, Mr. S. P. Goddard advanced to the Right 
Hon. Lord, and spoke as follows : — " It is a great honour and 
gratifying pleasure to wait upon your lordship, in conjunction 
with my friend, Mr. Harvey, to present to you this tribute of 
respect, on behalf of the members of the Longton Athenaeum 
and Mechanics' Institution, in return for the great kindness, 
marked condescension, and unbounded hospitahty, which 
your lordship displayed on the occasion of their late visit to 
Wollaton Hall. It is a statuette group, representing " the 
return from the vintage" — ^the production of Mr. Alderman 
Copeland, one of the members for the borough of Stoke, and 
a patron of the institution. We trust that it not only reflects 
a 



83 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINOHAll. 

tbe greatest credit on the m9.nufacturer^ but on the extensiTe 
and populous district of the StaflrordshireJPotteries, where it 
was produced. In requesting jour lordship's acceptance of 
the testimonial — not out of consideration of its worth, but 
from the motiyes and feelings with which it is presented, 
allow us, also, to express the hope, that the remainder of your 
life may be passed in the continuous enjoyment of good 
health, and the possession of eyer|r blessing and happiness 
which this world can afiiord." His lordship was manifestly 
overcome, and appeared scarcely able to utter what he felt on 
such an interesting occasion. He warmly thanked them, 
and expressed his gratification at the very handsome present 
which had been so very unexpectedly offered to him. The 
deputation having inspected the Hall and Grounds, returned 
about half-past five o'clock, highly gratified with their recep- 
tion at the noble mansion. 

The Saloon contains some curious cabinets of no smaH 
value — one of which, a rare old ebony, with large scroll 
ornaments of brass, has an antique Chinese aspect that 
would make its fortune at Messrs. Manson and Christie's. 
Decidedly the most interesting is au ingeniously inlaid one, 
with the crest, a cardinal's hat, and three bees, or flies, for 
armorials: and a unique series of Mosaics, in miniature, 
rspreaenting the following out of Msop'a Fables: — the lion 
and tne mouse — the stork and the fox — the cock and the 
previous stone — ^the vase of flowers — the salamander — the 
phoenix^-vase — Jupiter — the boys and the frogs — the dog 
and the shadow — the man and the hour glass, &c., &c. Of 
the beauty and delicacy of these minute and exquisite repre- 
sentations^ it would be difl&cult to convey any idea. The 
imperishable colours of the Mosaics, the consummate art with 
which they are disposed, and the beautiful and natural 
manner in which they tell 

**— — Jean Jaques Bossean 
If beasts confabulate or no— 

utterly baffle and beggar description. The top and sides 
of the cabinet are embellished with floral ornaments ; and 
the folding doors in its front being thrown apart, disclose the 
faces of a small set of drawers beautifully inlaid with different 
marbles, malachite, ebony, &c. 



GREAT EKODITION OF FRANCIS WILLOl'GHBY. 83^ 



LiBBARY. — South End. 

In enteiing this room, one cannot help treading with 
reTerence. Though not the principal abode or place of study 
of tiie philosc^»faeF, Francis WillouglubT, the father of English 
cMmithology, it yet contains the greater part of his library, 
remoTed hither from Middleton Hall. In the quaint, old, 
pedantic fashion of the period, it was the custom to pro- 
nounce Mr. Francis Willou^by '* one of the gxeatest wrtuod 
in fiUiope." The survey of his library gives to view, indeed, 
an acquaintance with all tide curiosities of reseaxchT— but it 
also evinces a masterly and comprehensive knowledge of those 
seiences which are commonly owned to be the most profound. 
The Philaaopkioal Liters prove that, in the estimation of Dr. 
Isaac Barrow, the most kamed man of his times, Francis 
WiUoughby was a most accomplished mathematieian. Our 
esteemed friend, Sir William Jardine, in the only thing 
ai^roaching to a memoir of WiUoughby which has hitherto 
been penned-r-viz., that in Sir Wilham's NistwraliaU' Library 
—(vol. V.) notices tiiat Dr. Barrow speaks of Mr. WiUoughby s 
observations concerning the spiral line as having sufficiently 
evinced the invalidity of a supposed demonstration concerning 
its equality with the semi-peiiphery. And, since Sir William 
wrote, within these last ten years, the learned Professor 
Moseley has, in point of fact, proved the identity in value of 
the spiral with the logarithmic curve. Barrow also says of 
WiUoughby: "Your discourse inferring the solidity of the 
^here from the surface, by comparing the coneentrieal sur-^ 
fiaoes of the sphere with ^e parallel circles of the eone, is 
Very ingenious and solid." Again : '* Your observations about 
t^ equality of the annuli with spherical portions, is also true 
and ingeniously proved." Willoughby, in fact, was one of 
those to whom Barrow dedicated his Euclid. What may still 
more serve to surprise our modem savans is, the singular 
f^ that the solar red or rose-coloured protuberances which 
have so veiy lately created an excitement, both amongst the 
members of the British Association for the Advancement of 
Science, and the Go-ahead Professors of America, wereliteially 
the subject of the speculations of Mr. Willoi;ighby and others, 
in the Philosophici^ Tvcmsofitiom qf 16^6, and they were 



84 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

likely to have known quite as much about the matter then as 
is known now. Their observations relate to an eclipse of the 
sun, 22nd July of that year, and ** about the middle, between 
the perpendicular and horizontal radius of Mr. Boyle's sixty 
feet telescope, there was perceived a little of the limb of the 
moon without the edge of the sun, which seemed to some of 
the observers to come from some shining atmosphere about 
the body either of the sun or moon." ** December, 17, 1665," 
says Sir William Jardine, " Mr. Willoughby being in the 20tii 
year of his age, lost his excellent father, Sir Francis Wil- 
loughby, Knt., and became possessed of his estates, and, 
with them, of the noble mansion of Wollaton Hall, in Not- 
tinghamshire, and of Middleton Hall, in Warwickshire ; the 
latter of these became his general place of residence during 
the remainder of his life, though we sometimes find him at 
Wollaton Hall, and some of Mr. Bay's letters to different 
persons are dated thence. At Middleton Hall he had a good 
library, classical and philosophical ; containing, also, all the 
works on natural histoiy, and many French and Italian 
works, collected in his travels. These are now at Wolla- 
ton." Accordingly, the eye glancing over the well-stocked 
shelves of that spacious Hbraiy, soon detects its richness in 
the classic authors of antiquity, including many of the 
Delphini and Variorum editions; invaluable works on nu- 
mismatics, now scarce and rare as the coins they enumerate ; 
and, along with these, the most esteemed authors upon all 
the various branches of social poHty. In short, it is here as 
interesting to trace amidst the judicial works and books of 
reference and entertainment of the lords of Middleton, the 
tomes which men like Willoughby and Ray assembled around 
them, as it is at another rare Nottinghamshire edifice, 
(Hardwick Hall) to inspect the yet immortal library, friends 
and companions of Hobbes, of Malmesbury, long though it 
be since he lived, and smoked tobacco in tiieir midst! The 
modem naturalist will pounce with delight upon these huge 
folios, the Pandects of Gesner, Aldrovandus, Peter Olina, 
the Itahan, Bellonius, Marggravius, Clasius, Hernandez, 
Bontius,* Wormius, and Piso,f which then formed the text- 

♦ Natural History of the West Indies. 
+ Natural History of the East Indies, 



FRANCIS WILLOUOHBy's LIBRARY. 85 

books of the cumbrous systems of natural history. Next, 
however, to the original Latin and English folios of Wil- 
loughby*s own works, (mostly by Bay) the Library contains 
no attraction so rare as his collections of " as many pictures 
drawn in colours from the life as he could procure" — first, the 
famous volume containing the pictures of aU the water-fowl 
frequenting the Rhine, in the vicinity of Strasburg, purchased 
from Leonard Baltner, a fisherman, of that cathedral city, as 
well as of fish and water insects found there, drawn with 
curiosity and exactness, by an excellent hand — secondly, the 
large Nuremberg volume of pictures of birds, drawn in colours 
— and, thirdly, the collection of drawings, by good artists, of 
the other species Willoughby himself had seen beyond seas. 
Conspicuous, however, as we might well expect in the 
Library of Wollaton, will be found the two^ great works of 
Francis Willoughby, edited by Ray — the " Ornithology* " and 
" Pisces f. " Notwithstanding the habits -of excessive industry 
and rare philosophic genius which, according to the eulogy 
of Ray, Willoughby superadded to every other human virtue, 
he published but Httle: — two papers in the Philosophicai 
Trans€u:tions of 167 1, " on a kind of wasp called Ichneumons," 
and " on the hatching of a kind of bee lodged in old willows," 
neaiiy summing up the whole. Ray at length induced him 

• Franclsd Willoughbeii de Middleton, in Argro Warwicencis, 
Armigeri, e Regia Sodetate Omithologias libri Tres : in quibus Aves 
omnes hactenns cognitse, in metbodum naturis sols convenientum 
ridactcQ accurate discribuntnr. Descripdones icones elegantissimis et 
Tivarium avium similimis aeri incisis illustrantur. Totum opus recog- 
novit digessit, supplevit Johannus Raius. Suraptus in chalegraphoa 
fecit illustriss : D. Emma Willoughby, Vidua :* London, 1676, folio : 
translated with this title — The Ornithology of Francis Willoughby, of 
Middleton, in the county of Warwick, Esq., Fellow of the Royal Society. 
In three books. Wherein all the birds hitherto known being reduced 
into a method suitable to their natures are accurately described. The 
descriptions illustrated by most elegant figures nearly resembling the 
live birds, engraved in seventy-eight copper-plates. Translated into 
English, and enlarged with many additions throughout the whole 
work. To which are added three considerable discourses. I. On 
the Art of Fowling, with a description of several nets, in two large 
copper-plates. II. Of the ordering of Singing Birds. III. Of Falconrv. 
Lond. 1678. 

+ Frandsci Willoughbaeii Armig. Ichthyographia siva de Histobu 
PiSOXUX LxBJtl QUATUOB, &c. OxoD, 1686. 



86 BAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

to think of labouring and pabliriiing, for tihe 4li!S6e-li^d \ 
of *^ the gkny of God^ the aesistanoe of oth^is in ihe same 
studies, fl^ die honour of hh native land^" 6uch were the 
motives of the undertaking in the midst of wlndi poor Wil- 
loughby expired. Bay edited the posthumous woriu, and, 
as appears from the tilie page^ the first was publxshed under 
the patronage and at the ejcpense of the Ebjal Society^ with 
exception of the oopper-plates^ produced at the diarges of the 
philosopher's widow. The work contaitis a vast amount of 
ori^nal observation^ and gives a fall and exaet aeoount of the 
habits of birds, «is well as of their diseases, and the mode of 
keeping them ; besides also frequently good accounts of orm- 
thological dissections. The plates, to be «ure, despite the 
pains bestowed upon them, aie now regarded as too inaccu- 
rate for scientific use; but the letter-press is, to this day, 
alloni^d to be a perennial source of correct information on the 
habiti and structure of birds ; and^ Ouvier asserts, that all 
subsequent ornithologists have followed Willoughby, axid 
maintains his observations to be wond^i^fiiUy correct The 
second work, embracing the fishes> lor what reason is cm- 
known, did not receive any assistance from the widow, by 
that time ro-married to Sir Josiah Child; but the Boyal 
Society, *< by the help of Bishop Fell, got it printed at ^e 
Theatre, at Oxford, the Royal Sociel;y beaiing the diarge, 
and the cuts being engraved at the cost of divers wort£ae 
members of that learned body^ " Its descriptions are considered 
good by naturalists. Cuviet states it to contain many obset- 
vations on Mediterranean fishes not elsewhere to be found ; 
and, indeed, it is well knovm that, by a careful distinction of 
specific character, Willoughby was enabled to rectify tiie 
errort of many preceding writers. So great has been the 
influence, in fact, of his writings on the science of Zoology, 
that it has been truly and beautifully remarked, <* had he 
lived to have laboured.more, and to have developed the great 
principles of dassification in Zoology, which Ray did ki 
Botany, then might it have been said that the modem foun- 
dations of both sciences were laid at the same period in Great 
Britain." This great part > in science was reserved for the 
Baron Cuider to perform ; how much he owed to Francis 
Willoughby, he has been hims^f the foremost to oonfesa. . 



FRANCIS WILLOUGHBY's PORTRAIT. 87 

Bestoriog to their places these interesting tomes, let us now 
look upcm th^r surroundings, and chiefly the apprppriate 
ptetords on the walls. 

1. «< Sir Thomas Wendy," of Haslingford, 

near Cambridge^ who married Ledtia, 
daughter of Sir Francis and Lady 
Cassandra Willoughby, and sister o£ 
the Natural Philosopher.' 

West Side, 

2. " Francis Willoughby, the Natural Philo- 

sopher.*" 

(It is &ot known by whon this pietare was exeouted. Marble 
'busto both «f Bay alkd WiOong^by are to be Ibumd opposite each 
other, in the libnoy of 3Vinity Ckdlege, Cambridge, *'at the 
e(»ni»eneem«it of tfaait long soeoession of resemUaaees on 
either hand, •of the great and wise of past agest whioh deepena 
the veaarsidoti inspired in ^e visitor by die view of the works 
assembled around him.'* Surely the portrait of Francis Wil- 
loughby ought to possess a similar spell over the visitor to the 
libraiy at WoUtfton^ where it is peenliarly the genim loeu " It 
may be permiUtod to confess the impression^" says Sir William 
Ji^ne, refening to an engraviiEig d^ved from this very picture, 
an oiigisal painting now at WoUaton Hall*— "that there is a 
most mariced agreement between the portiaitof Mr. Willoughby 
• * * and his charaetor, as delineated by his faiihAxl and im- 
partial frlMMl, (Ray) whe was almost daily in his company 
duiing nearly hiedf his ]ifk. By the aid of merely that natural 
fikin in physiogfiomy which most persons believe themselves to 
acquire in their intercourse with the world, it seems •easy to 
TOad in his eoantenanoe that perfect salgugation of the animal 
propensities, and omnipotent snpremaey of intellect* that un. 
earUily purity modified by de^ feseurces of benevolence — that 
accurate contemx)laliten!eM which allied him to the sublimest 
occupations and purposes. It is our beau ideal of a naturalist's 
eountenattoe/* The long wavy masses of half neglected hair — 
fiur it might be, or slightly aubuni« hanging pendant to the 
«lio(ulder over the ears, cut only at the forehead, and slightly 
disparted into straggling lodra; tiie rich coloured fiill and 
flowing eye of the fiunily, deep set in thought, and overpent 
with dark distinctly arched eyebrows — the long and findy 
lisrmed noee, prominent cheek bones, small fiill lips, slightly 
parted, atnd beautiftilly rounded chin— -oompose &e picture, 
which is hnead size only; for this strange, thooghtfiil, somewhat 
emaoiatod head is boldly relieved from the negligently curling 
idain linen «oIbar, ftUuig down over dw breaal« not nnlake a bib, 



88 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

and cniiously enhancing the air of almost childish innocence 
and sorrowful simplicity worn by the great philosopher. He 
was bom at Middleton, 1635; his fa&er being Sir Frazieis 
Willoughby, Knight, builder of WoUaton, his mother the Lady 
Cassandra, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Londonderry — ^their 
family consisting of the naturalist, their only son, and two 
daughters — Lady Wendy, (No. 1) and Mrs. Winstanley; — 
He was entered in his eighteenth year, (1663) as a Fellow 
Commoner of Trinity College, Cambridge, and there contracted 
the friendship of Dr. Isaac Barrow, the. celebrated divine and 
mathematician, and cemented with the celebrated botanist, John 
Bay, a union, rather than any ordinary alliance, which even 
death seemed to have vainly severed. Bom in 1628, Bay was 
seven years the senior of Willoughby. The latter, at the age of 
twenty-one, (1655-6) took his degree of Bachelor of Arts; and, 
at twenty-three, (1669) that of Master of Arts. He went to 
sojourn at Oxford in September, 1660, (Wood's Festi,) in order 
to constik some rare works in the public library ; but, in the 
same year, rendered assistance to Mr. Bay, in his CaUilogu» 
Planta/rum Circa Ccmtabri{fiam NaecerUmm, which is acknow- 
ledged with the highest encomia. This was the year of the 
Bestoration, and Mr. Bay entered into holy orders. Still, in 
conjunction with Bay, Mr. Willoughby seems to have occupied 
the months of July and August, 1661, in one of those delightful 
rambles, (so like ours) teaorded. in Bay's Itineraries, They 
passed from Cambridgeshire northwards to Huntingdon, Stilton, 
and Peterborough, through Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, the Palati- 
nate of Durham, and Northnmbeiiand, iuto Scotland, as far as 
Glasgow and Stirling, returning through Cumberland and West- 
moreland; noting as they went, not ozUy botanical objects (and 
their joum^ was fruitful in discoveries) but churches, cathe- 
drals, monuments, inscriptions^ customs, natural productions, 
trades, commerce, &c., (just as we shall do around Nottingham.) 
In May, 1662, the two friends again set out from Cambridge on 
another excursion, which extended itself through Northampton- 
shire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, and several counties of Wales, in 
going; and, in returning in July following, through Glouces- 
tershire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, Dorsetshire, 
Wiltshire, and Hampshire. Bay's itineraries of these journies 
are the results of their joint observation. They separated for 
a short time, towards the close of the latter excursion ; and it 
may be interesting as an example of what engaged their atten- 
tion, to quote from the PhUosopMecU Letters^ published by Bay, 
Mr. Willoughby's account of what he saw, and how he acted 
when left tdone. ''I met with several adventures," be says, 
*'on the remaining part of my journey after I l^t you. You 
may remember the day we parted , I had intended to have gone 
to Cirencester, but hearing by the way of a great deal of trea^ 
sure that was found in a field, I preseiMly coiyectured that it 



FRANCIS willouohby's tkavels. 89 

might be Boman coin, and directed my coarse thither. The 
field was near Darsley, a town we left about a mile to the left- 
hand as we rode from Gloucester, where I found above forty 
people digging and scraping, and bought a great many silver 
medals of Uiem, and one incomparable fair one of gold,* that 
had been found a little before. The whole history of how 
these came to be discovered I shall reserve till I see you. I 
thought to have made strict inquiry after the snap-apple bird, 
but falling very sick at Malvern, I was forced to give all over." 
When the Bartholomew Act came out, in 1662, requiring the 
signature of a declaration that such persons as had taken the 
oath of the Solemn League aad Covenant were under no obli- 
gation to that oath — Mr. Bay said, " he feared they might be," 
end, with a few others, refused to sign — ^a purpose to which he 
steadily adhered through life, and which deprived him of the 
power of accepting any preferment He was thus thrown exclu- 
sively upon his friend, Mr. WiUoughby, as a companion for life, 
and provided for by a pension in his will. Soon after Bay thus 
forfeited his fellowship, both he and Mr. Willoughby left Cam- 
bridge, and, in company with Philip Skippon, Esq., (afterwards 
Sir Philip) and Nathaniel Bacon, Gent, passed over from 
Dover to Calais, (April 18, 1663} Mr. Willoughby being then in 
his twenty-eighth year, but in consequence of the King of France 
having recendy commanded all Englishmen to withdraw them- 
selves from his dominions, they were imable to make the grand 
tour of Europe, and taking the direction of the Low Countries, 
proceeded through Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, as far as 
Sicily and Malta — ^attending to " natural, topographical, moral, 
and physiological'* topics; and to "politics, literature, me- 
chanics, antiquities, and other curiosities." They separated at 
Montpelier, and, accompanied by a merchant, Mr. Willoughby 
commenced, August 31, 1664, his travels in Spain. His diary, 
devoted to the same multifarious variety of objects, is an admi- 
rable specimen of minute observation of all that came under 
his notice. Unfortimately the whole papers, minutely and 
accurately describing the birds which Willoughby and Eay had 
seen in High and Low Germany, and particularly about the 
Danube and the Rhine, were lost on Uieir return, and this 
occurrence is said to have occasioned the imperfection of Wil- 
loughby* s great work on fishes. But th^e collection made by 
Mr. Willoughby during these travels, of birds, fishes, shells, 
fossils, seeds, dried plants, and coins, are, mostly, still in ex- 
istence at WoUaton Hall. The good knight, his filler, died 17th 
December, 1665, and Mr. Willoughby, then in his thirtieth 
year, thereby became inheritor of the estates and noble man. 
sions of WoUaton Hall and Middleton; and, although he 
certainly made the latter his general place of residence during 
the remainder of his life, and performed there his famous 

* Now in the culleotioo at WoUaton Hall. 



90 RAMBLES ROtlMD NOTTlNOHAM. 

experiments on the ascent of l&e sap ib Ctves, We sooietimes 
find him ftt Wollaton Hall, for many of Mr. Bay's letters to 
di^erent pertons are dated from that plftce. ih^ Xihraiy, 
which now surrounds us at WoUaton H«J1, this admirahle old 
(dassicjBkl and philosophical collection of books, amidst w^ch we 
are now descanting ex eathedta, combining all the wbrks on 
Katurftl Histoiy, and many of the French and Itdiaa toibes col- 
lectedl on his travels, was then at Middleton'^-4>utk now it is 
here, haunted by the very spirit of Fnincid Wiilougkby. The 
greater part of ike winter of 1670 was devoted by Bay to 
" reviewing, and helping to put in order, Mr. WiUoughl^s col- 
lection of birds, lishes, shells, stones, ^c, and in coigHnction 
with Mr. 'Wllloughby, ia rendering to Dr. Wilkins (the far-£uned 
Bish6p of Chester) thM assistance by framing his tables of 
plaxitd, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, &c., Am* the Use of the Vnivenal 
Charatter,* which he had requested." l%ese tables, according 
to Br. Derham, (the biographer of Bay) were drawn up byMr. 
WiQoughby and Mr. Bay, because they were the best iable of 
living men for such an undertiJdng. Certainly, they were not 
theVnselves 'Satisfied with the results, which t2iey afterwards 
anxiously endeavoured to amend. A third itinenoy (of the 
west of England) wte performed in 1677 by Mr. 'Wllloughby, 
wil^ Mr. Bay. They started in June ; passed through Worces- 
tershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, and 
Bevonshire, into Cornwall, and reached die Land's End on the 
l'7th of August, noting fowls, iishes, plants, mines, the method 
of making salt, &c., and returning through Hampshire to 
London, which they reached on the ISth of September. In his 
d3rd year (1688) Mr. Willoughby married Emma, daughter and 
co-heiress of Sir Thomas Barnard, the mother of his three 
children, Francis, Cassandra, and Thomas. In Ihe spring of 
1689 be commenced the prosecution of his remarkable inquiries 
into the theolry of vegetation, by the peiformance of thbse ex- 
periments on the sap of trees, already referred to. The "results 
he communicated in manypapers to the Boyal Society, published 
in die Philosophical Transactions. He was deeply engnged in 
an investigation into the natural history of insects, (and. Indeed, 
tile extended work Was afterwards pnblished by Bay, the deserip- 
tions in which, acknowledfred as his by name, might of them- 
selves be considered a very sufficient and praiseworthy occupa- 
tion of Willoughby*B short life,) and having left few European 



* The wodU of Bitliap WilUni tfire, it iiireU knotm, exceedingly c . , 

although io the presest state of idence they nay appear chimerioal and abeord, it 
i« not a little remarkable that, in two leading instances, ve have seen revived and 
keenl3r canvassed at the pTesent day— not only his notions teepeeting other habitable 
worlds, {tx ffr, the moon, whither he proposed going by a tying machine) ns hi Sir 
Darid Brewster's More Worid» Tham One, ftc, hut also in the profbnnd efehaological 
researches and pursuits of the Chevalier Bunsen, the ob|}ect of the very work printed 
in 1668. by order of the KoyalSooi^y, as an " Buoy toioards a real Ckaracter and 
PhilotopkictU Language" 



FBANCia WICLOUOHBT S EPITAl^. 9i 

<8]^oeSes tindeste^ed, waA loeditatiiig, at tlii6 «k»8e of tbe year, a 
'vajage to the New Woiid^ wlmi lie ^^erienoed an attack of 
iUiiess, whi^h isaoed in hia Yoyage to * that boome whence no 
traveiler Totoitiis*' He reeovered, indeed, but after frequent 
relapses, died on the 8rd of July, 1670. In the account of his 
deai& it is stated that in tke beginniaig of June, 167d^, " he was 
seized with a violent pain ia ids itead, whidh, in oOnaequenee 
oi his using dlasoardi«Bib, removed to his side, and that he fell 
into a pleiirasie, wliioh terminated in that kind of f^ver called 
oslbaRiialisv within less than a mxmiSbi after he took to his bed." 
This mode of itnedioal trei^tot and its dOBsequtoces^ ettikingly 
iiluBtEates the daaiiige whdch has sines th^ oolne over &e 
science and practice of physic. The diascordium, employed as 
^an ^edtuaty, was, it seeitts, made with the plant called by the 
older botanists Seordium, and Teitcrium SeordfUtm by linnseus— 
a bitter aromatic plant, now never used in medicine. Mr. 
WillOughby was buried in Middleton Church. Perhaps the 
best summary of his life and virtues is embodied in the follow- 
ing translation of the inscription on his monument, from the 
tjatih of Eay : '* Mb. IJiancis Willoughby^s ISpitaph. — Near 
this spot lies fVancis, the truly illustrious son of the best of 
parents. If piety, probity, truth, disinterested fidelity, a rigid 
observance of virtue, resolute soMerty, ^cere wisdom, 'gre4t 
leai^iiAg Without pedantry, i^eligion wittiput superstitioQ, 
nobility without pride, have anything in them, let all good 
men revere his worthy nasne. In the course ^f M^ life, after 
that he had investigated by travel the various characters of the 
nations of Europe, their languages, arts, manners, and laws, he 
cultivated and perfeeted tine same ia the redreifientof hib home. 
He penetrated into the recesses of mathemati0al science, to 
others inaccessible. He searched out the vieuious secrets of 
medicine^ he \ib nicely eicikfiftitied ithe whole system of philoso- 
•phj, that he restored its peculiar qualities and names to eveiy 
part ; he gate also a new arrangement to natural philosophy, 
fiad thk he aeodmlpllshed with so nmch elail, dfthgence, and 
fidelity, that he still iq»peared as a nelr and tai un^ring and 
Mthfttl intei^reter of nalture. He married Emma Barnard, 
decoad daiigh<tet-K>f 1^ Henry Barnard, who was the mother of 
Francis, OassMBdra, and Thomas. And now, highly respected 
In ^e, and deeply r0gi*etted in death, he was numbered with 
immortal spirits on the 3rd of July, 1672, in the 37th year of 
his age. The rest let a prayer express^ May his sons, his 
ffrandsons, and ^esr postei!ity, transcribe their father's character 
iaato their own." To this brief sketch, which, with one excep- 
eepCion^ is the only one to be dwelt upon at length amidst the 
shades of the departed dead of the house of WiUoughby, we 
Heed only add, m the words of Francis Willoughby's all but sole 
liiogtieipbeiF, ** If ever any man had temptations to the pride of 
birUi, it was Mr. WiUoughby, the authentic and unbroken 



J09 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

records of whose family cany his descent by the Cither's side 
np to the Oonquest, through a sacoession scarcely ever descend- 
ing, for an^ great length of time, beneath the level of nobility, 
and including in its progress alliances with the chief soyereigns 
of Europe. But Mr. WiQoughby was aware that, as far as con- 
cerned himself, this was an accidental distinction, that he 
derived no worthin^s from the virtues of his ancestors, and 
that if he would support the hereditary honours of his family, 
and avoid those honours becoming a reproach to himself, he 
must * labour after what might render him more deservedly 
honourable, and more truly to be called his own, as being ob- 
tained by the concurrence at least of his own endeavours.' "*] 

3. '* Henry, fifth Lord Middleton." Pompeio Balloni. 

[This lord, the first of the family of Birdsall, in Yorkshire, who 
inherited the family honours, bom 19th December, 1726, mar- 
ried, January, 1757, Dorothy, second daughter and co-h^iress of 
George Cartwnght, Esq., of Ossington, Notts., and had issue a 
son, Henry, (6th lord) bom 24th April, 1761, and three 
daughters, as commemorated in the large family piece, ahready 
described.] 

4. "Portrait." Unknown. 

5. " Lord Strafford and his Secretary." After Vandyck. 

[A fine copy after Vandyck's chef d'oBUwe.^ 

North End. 

6. " Portrait." Unknown ; supposed not a 

Willoughby. 

The Billiabd-boom. — East End, 
1. " Henry, sixth Lord Middleton." Barber, of Nottingham. 

[This meritorious artist, who died l^^th September, 1843, at the 
advanced age of 73, seems to have been honoured with the 
artistic confidence of the late Lord Middleton, and to have per- 
formed under his directions the present extraordinary feat in 
portraiture. In the course of these notices we have already 
discussed a memorable portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller, of the 
first Lord Middleton. Society had not, in Kneller's days, en- 
forced its stem sumptuary laws, and reduced men of figure and 
fashion to the quietest of all exteriors — ^the plain black and 
white costume of an English gentleman of the nineteenth cen- 
tuiy. Undoubtedly, the peers and wits of the era of Queen 
Anne wore, amongst other extravagances, red and high-heeled 
boots ; but the noble lord justly admiring the picture, commis- 
sioned the artist to re-produce it with his own, instead of his 

* Ray's PxeCace to the Englisk edition of WiUoughhy't Omitkology. 



LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE WILLOUGHBY. 93 

ancestor's, likenesg. The result was that Barber cqsied off 
costume and all, only oolonrmg the heels black instead of red, 
and clapping the head and countenance of his noble patron over 
all, he produced at the distance of a centuiy and a half — this 
veritable piece of portraiture, a Za Sir Godfrey Eneller.] 

2. " Sir Ricliard de Willoughby, Lord Chief- 

Justioe; twenty-eight yeaxs Justice 
of the King's Bench in the reign of 
Edward III. (1327-1377.)"* 

[This old portrait, like some old historical ballad, has no known 
maker's name— no history ; its chromatic character greatly re- 
sembles the old Holbeins at Hampton Court, although it must 
be older — ^for Hans Holbein (1497-1554) flourished only in the 
time of Henry Yin., having come over to England in 152e,and 
died, after nearly thirty years' practice— of the plague; so diat 
there was an interval of ftilly two hundred years. The costume 
is singularly quaint and rigid; but in the illuminations of 
Froissart, and^ the Metrical History, we find the high conical 
black hats and black robes of the justiciars and officials (origin- 
ally ecclesiastics) standing forth distinctly amidst the gaily 
embroidered costumes of a period renowned for foppeiy ; for the 
succeeding king, Richard 11., was in his time "the greatest fop 
in Europe." The Lord Chief-Justice Willoughby appears, how- 
ever, in plain black doublet and trunk hose, basket-hilted 
sword, and sash.] 

3. " Sir Francis, the first Baronet ; he was 

son of the Philosopher, and elder 
brother of Thomas, first Lord Mid- 
dleton; and died in his Slst year. 
N.B. He built the stables at Wol- 
laton." 

[We have already mentioned this founder of the stables, Sir Prancis 
Willoughby — the youthful baronet of ten, who died at the age of 
twenty ; and we may now mention that the great naturalist, his 
father, dying also at the early age of 37, left three children, 
Francis, Cassandra, and Thomas, the eldest of whom was not 
four years of age, in the charge of his widow Emma, second 
daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Barnard, (afterwards 

* The family M.S. states that he was twenty-eight yean Lord Chief-Justice. 
Thoroton, however, gives that as the whole period for which he was on the bench. 
Sir Richard was the grandson of the celebrated Ralph, of Nottingham, "the great 
merchant of the staple," and founder of the family. Bred to the law. Sir Richard 
held the high dignity of Justice of the King's Bench, from the third to the thirty first 
0f Edward III.— "discharging for some time during the absence of Godfrey le Scrope, 
the chief Justice beyond seas, on the king's business, the duties of Chief Justiciary 
of the Kingdom."— *rAoro<oii. 



d4 BAMBLES ROUND KOTTINGHAM. 

married to the rich TTiriboy merclumUSijr Jomk CbM)^ But, 
th» oare of tbeir instmctioaEk rested Xfttioly wiik the ceL^rated 
John Bay, whose pore laibinky maQr be veoogiueed in the very 
iQBcription on the^adeof WeUaton; as it certainly may in the 
" epitaph OT«r Mss Francfe WiUoughby's ^dest wuj Erancis," 
thus translated by a receipt ineumbent of the parish of Middle- 
ton (Warwickshire) : — " Near this place lies Francis Willoughby, 
Baronet, a youth of almost ]^rodig^ous promise^ of most elegant 
manners, the most acute genuis» a judgment n^a^ly even in 
youth, and mature in ^e powers^ of l^is v4^ tbough not in 
age: the eldest son of Francis and Emma Willoughby, snatched 
away by an imtimely fate, he bid fkrew^' to U^ in the 20th 
year of hie age, on the l^th of July, which day waa the day of 
his birth and of his death. 

' 0*er the warm ashes of the yottthlSu] ^^ad, 
The short-lived lily, rose, aad vidtot spread.' 

Thomas WiUonghby, Baronet, has most devotedly consecrated 
this monument of ready affection and regret."] 

6. " Sir Hugh WiHoug^by, &ozen in Ihe 
North Seas in tHe year 156^.'* 

[This quaint Holbein-li^e figure, wijth huge rosettes upon the 
shoes, apd embroidered garters-n^th^ insignia, no doubt,«of that 
high order oS cbiiYsixj which an English sovereign, in whose 
coimsels wet W^ JU9t seen i^ Willoughby predominating, had 
instituted to the honour of the pure in mind, and of the peerless 
Countess of Salisbi^y, under die now world-renowned motto, 
" Honi 8ott qui ma^ypense," — demand's of us an indldental his- 
toriette ; for the name of Sir Hti^ WiUeughby is that of one 
of England's worthies — ai^ though we njayhe no hero worship- 
pers, his story is one which should be tqld by many a fire-side, 
and his renown should be " familiar to our ears* as household 
words." Many there are who may have heard the name of the 
famous voyager, Sebastian Cabot — a name second only to those 
of Christopher Columbus and Vasco di Gama, in the history of 
enterprise and discovery. He was a native of Venice, who, 
having settled at Bristol in the reign of Henry TH., obtained 
from that monarch, who had been disappointed in his hopes of 
forming an engagement with the great Genoese, (Columbus) a 
patent, dated March 6th, 1496, "to go in search of unknown 
lands, to conquer, and to settle them." Now Cabot,, we are told, 
"concluding, by reason of the sphere, that; if he could sail by 
the north-west, he should, by a shorter tract, come to India, 
advertised the king thereon, "who immediately commanded two 
caravels ibo be furnished with all things appertayning to the 
voyage, whieh was, as far as he remembers, in the year 1496, in 
the begii^ning of the summer." The result of this voyage 
brought disappointm.en.t only to the expectations of Sebastian 
Cabot, who, retiring into Spain, only returned again to England 



THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION OF 1553. 95 

in I547» vlulst Henry YIII. was^till upon the iJirone. In that 
year, howerer, ihe acoession of Edward YI. occasioned his being 
created <' pUot-xxL^^or," and made " governor of the Mysterie, and 
company oi the metrchants adventurers for the discoverie of 
regions, dominions, islands, and places unknown." It was, 
accordingly, by the advice of this renowned navigator, and 
under his direction, that a voyage was undertaken for the dis- 
covery of a north-east passage to Cathay — the name at that time 
api^ed to the six nortliem provinces of China, separated from 
t£e other nine by the great river Kiang. Three shi|)s were 
therefore fitted out for tJbis enterprise, under the captain- 
generalship of Sir Hugli Willoughby — ^no precaution being 
omitted requisite for the safety of vessels having to navigate 
Indian seasr-^nd these ships Uius affording the ^t recorded 
instance in English history of a precaution which had frequently 
b^ore been adopted by the Spaniards^ v^., of being sheathed 
with lead, for protection from the ravages of the marine worms of 
warm climates. Old HaUyut, in his celebrated collection of 
voyages^ supplies the names and, particulars of the ships — ^the 
first being the Bona Eiperamaa, admiral of the fleet, *" of 120 
tons burtiien, having with her a pinnesse and boat,*' "William 
CHfferaon, master; tiie second **ilAward B<maventure, of 160 
tannes, wit^ her pinnesse and a boat, Kichard Chancelor, cap- 
tain and pilot-m%jor of tlie lleete f and the third " the Bona 
ConfidewtiOi of 90 tunnes, having with her a pinnesse and a 
boat," OomeUus Purforth, ina^ter of the ship. In the pages 
of the same old author the cuii(^s may even find lists of the 
names both of men a3d ofilcers of the several ships. He gives 
likewise a copy of " the juramefttijim, or othe^ ministered unto 
the cf^taioe, an4 the othe to be ministered unto the master of 
the ship." " Ordina^ces, instructions, saxd advertisements of 
and for the direction of ihe intended voyage to CatJuay," ex- 
tending to as many as thirty-three articles, were •* compiled, 
made, and delivered by the B^ght Worshipful M. Sebastian 
Cabota, Esqueir, governor of the Mysterie," dated " the 9th day 
of May, in Uie yeare of our Lord Grod 1553, and in the seventh 
yeare of the reigve of our most dread saveraigne lord ^Idward VI." 
In this curious document, so creditable to ancient t^es, Chris- 
tianity is oJkiaMy set forth as the ruling principle of action, 
and guiding principle of duty, for all concerned in the voyage. 
Morning and evening they are ei\joined that " praier, with other 
common services, appointed by the kjng's majesty, and lawes of 
this realme, be reade and saide in every ship daily; in the 
admiral by the minister, (Eiohard Stafford) and by the merchant, 
or some other person learned, in the other shippes : and the bible 
paraphrases to be read devoutly and Christianly to God's honour, 
and for his grace to be obtained and had by humble and hartie 
prayer, for the navigants accordingly." It was thus that our 
ancestors set out a voyaging. Strict regulations are iatroduced 



06 BAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

' against " carding, dicing, and other such di^elish games/ In 
one article, (2S) they are required **not to disdose to any 
nation the state of our religion, but to pass it over in silence, 
without any declaration of it, seeming to have with such lawes 
and rules as the place hath where they shall arrive." In ano- 
ther, (30th) they are told if they " see any people weare lyons 
or bearrs skins, having long bowes and arrowes," not to be 
** afraid of that sight, for such be wome oftentimes more to feare 
strangers than for any other end." And again, (31) "There 
are people that can swim in the sea, havens, and rivers, naked, 
having bones and shafts, coveting to draw nigh your ships, 
which if they shall find be not well watched and warded they 
win assault, desirous of the bodies of men, which they <5ovet for 
meate ; if you resist them they dive and so will flee, ai:\d there- 
fore diligent watch is to be kept in some islands bom night 
and day." The devoted men who ^left the shores of Eng- 
land in these early times, on this strange and adventurous 
voyage, were, moreover, supplied with the celebrated missive 
letter, (in Greek, Latin, English, and other known languages) 
80 highly and deservedly eulogised by Mr. Bailey, in his AnndU 
of Nottinghamshire * as constituting *' a mission of love, and 
peace, and well-being to the nations, never before witnessed in 
the transactions of Wngs and princes upon earth." The " Let- 
ters missive which the right noble prince Edward the sixth sent 
to ihe kings, princes, and the potentates inhabiting the north- 
east parts of the world, towards the mighty empire of Cathay, 
at such time as Sir Hugh de Willoughby, Knt, and Bichard 
Chancelor, with their company, attempted their voyage thither, 
in the year of Christ, 1553, and the seventh and last year of his 
, reign," breathe nothing but the more than noble sentiments of 
love for all mankind; inculcate only the golden precepts of 
Christianity—especiaDy that of doing unto others as we would 
that others should do unto us. Such a State Paper might grace 
a worthier page than ours; but Mr. Bailey having already 
transcribed tiie document at length into his Armals, whilst refer- 
ring the reader thereto, we hasten to communicate, within the 
briefer compass of our space, some few of the particulars of this 
most memorable voyage. The royal letters missive are dated 
from London, " which is the chief city of our kingdom;^ in the 
year from the creation of the world 5515, and seventh year of 
our reign," and " these foresaid ships, being fully furnished," 
as Haklyut teUs us, "with their pinnisses and boates uel- 
appointed with all manner of artillerie, departed from Batcliffe 
and hailed into Deptford, the 10th day of May, 1653.** The 
voyage had no auspicious commencement. Sir Hugh's diary 
commences with the 11th of May ; and down to the iSOth they 
had only reached Tilbury Hope, having encountered adverse 
winds during their whole passage down the river. Their route 

' See Annals of Nottinghamshire. By Thomas Bailejr. Nottingham : W. F .Gibson. 



SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY 8 ARCTIC VOYAGE. 97 

w«s tracked by the same successian of baffling storms, as they 
sought to sail in the given direction. In the beginning of 
August, as appears from an entry in Sir Hugh's diary, they 
vere off " Stanfew harber, Lofoot, Lynam, and Finmark" — but 
** Irom that day,' came wind and terrible whirle- winds, so that 
we were not able to bear in, but by violence were constrained to 
take the sea again; and, oar pinnesse being unshipped, we 
sailed north and by east, the wind increasing so sore, that we 
were not able to bear any saile, but took aU in and lay adrift, 
to the end to let the storm pass over. And that night by vio- 
lence of winde and thicknesse of mists, we were not able to 
keepe within sight ; and then, about midnight, we lost our pin- 
nesse, which was a great discomfort to us. As soon as it was 
day, and the fogge ouer past, we looked about, and at the last we 
descried one of our ships to leeward of us, when we spred an 
hullocke of our foresaile, and bare round with her, which was 
the Confidence, but the Edward we could not see." The fact 
was, that Ghancelor either wilfully or otherwise mistaking his 
course, had entered the Categat, and, reaching Russia, met with 
so favourable a reception as to establish ** The Russian Company 
of Merchants," which has ever since subsisted. The diary of 
Sir Hugh WilLoughby proceeds to recount little else than disas- 
ters ; at length we come to the last, dated September 18th, to 
which Haklyut has attached the marginal note, " Here endeth 
Sir Hugh Willoughbie his note, which was written by his own 
hand," intimating that the following notes were found written 
on the outside of the pamphlet or book. (1.) ** The proceedings 
of Sir Hugh Willou^bie after he was separated fW)m the Ed- 
ward Bonaventure." ^3.) " Our shippe being at anker in*the 
harber called Sterfier, in the island Lofoote." " The next day," 
says the closing entry of this intensely interesting diary, " being 
die 18th of September, we entered into the Haven, and there 
came to an anker at six fadoms. This Haven runneth into the 
main, about two leagues, and is in breadth half a league, wherein 
were very many se^e fishes and other great fishes : and upon 
the main we saw bears, great deere, foxes, with divers strange 
beastes and guUoines, (ellons) and such other which were to 
tts unknown and wonderful. Thus remaining in l^s haven by 
the space of a weeke, seeing the yeare farre spent, and also very 
eviU wether, as frost, snow and haile, as though it had been the 
deepe of winter, we thought best to winter Uiere. Wherefore 
we sent out three men south-east, three days' journey, who re- 
turned without finding of people, or any simiJitade of habitation." 
This is all the positive record that remains of the gallant navi- 
gator's fate; yet more remains of another nature. Inadequate 
to witiistand the rigours of that arctic winter so faithfully de- 
picted in the " Sea lions" of Fenimore Cooper — and yet adopt- 
ing apparently every precaution that prudence could suggest, 
recalling forcibly the still more recent disclosures of the Uttle 
H 



99 BAMBLKS ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

that is known of the last efforts for self-preservation of the 
equally devoted Sir John Franklin— Sir Hugh Willoughby, 
and most of his company — no less than seventy persons, sur- 
vived till at least January, 1554, as appeared from Sir Hugh's 
will, discovered in the ship. After upwards of four months' 
endurance, however, the whole of them perished of cold at their 
place of refuge, which Haklyut says was called " Arzina, in Lap- 
land, neere unto Kezur." The ships and dead bodies of the two 
ships' companies were found frozen, early in the year, by some 
Eussian fishermen, who secured the papers. Sir Hugh, it is 
said, was found seated in his chair, with his will, and the ship's 
log book, regularly kept, up to Januaiy, 1654, before him. The 
poet of the Seasons, in allusion to their fate, has the following 
touching lines itx bis WiiUer : — 

«'MiBerablethey, 
THio here entangled in the gathering ice, 
Take their last look of the descending sun : 
Who ftdl of death and fierce with tenfold ftoBt, 
The long, long night incumhent o'er their heads 
Falls horrible. Such was the Briton's fate. 
As with first prow (what have not Britons dared f) 
He for the passage sought attempted since 
«o much in vain, and seeming to be ehut 
By Jealous Nature with eternal bars. 
In these fell regions, in Arzina caught. 
And to the stony deep his idle ship 
Immediate seal'd, he with his hapless crew 
each ftill exerted at his several task 
Ftoze into statues ; to the cordage glued 
The sailor and the pilot to the helm." 
» 

LiBBABY. — West End, 

5. "Sir Francis, the second Lord 

Middleton." Sir Joshua Reynolds. 

[No English collection of pictures — ^more especially of family por- 
traits—can be considered perfect without a specimen of Sir 
Joshua Eeynolds. Inapproachable in the brilliancy and mag- 
nificence of his colouring, which, despite the predictions of the 
critics of his day, tJie corroding touch of time seems still unable 
to impair, Beynolds stands alone in the free grace and dignity 
of his manly, no less than of his feminine delineations, despite 
the fiat formalities of the costume and character of the age in 
which he lived. West preferred the reality, indeed, of these 
costumes, to the pretence of classicality, and triumphed and 
failed alternately, as he either achieved or attempted more than 
they could well sustain. But the divine radiance of Reynolds's 
colouring carried him through all ; and the Georgium Tertian 
country squire, in his dose-cut powdered wig and pigtail, looked 
as well in his skye-blue breeches, as the Duchess of Malfy in 
her train of cerulean satin — provided his brush laid on the 
azure ! It is so with this superb portrait, with which we close 



MAGNIFICENT PANORAMA FROM THE ROOF. 99 

these notices of the Wollaton Gullery. The colouring of this 
picture is most magnificent. Francis Lord Middleton, the son 
and successor of Thomas, the first peer, died in 1768. Of the 
career or merits of Sir Joshua Eeynolds, (1723-1792) the deaf 
old master of St. Martin's-lane, Htde need here he said ; the 
son of a country rector, and master of a free grammar school, 
he amassed a fortune of iJ100,000 by his own undivided exer- 
tions, acquired the friendship of Dr. Johnson, founded and 
became first president of the Royal Academy, and achieved a 
public funerid in St Paul's Cathedral, with a statue from the 
hands of Maxman. Such was the painter of this fine portrait, 
the acknowledged head of the British School of Painting — the 
English master who invented for himself a style in which all 
the graces of judicious composition, borne out by a superb 
breadth of light and shade, were magically invested with a rich 
and mellow colouring, so beautiful as to be believed perishable 
and evanescent, but which has bravely stood the test of time. 
The Billiard-room contains a few other pictures of some merit, 
by local artists, probably, for they include Radford, from WoUa- 
ton Hall — a cool green scene ; and the liiver Trent, near WUford, 
equally cool in tone, but scarcely so happy in effect.] 

Ascending to the roof of the building, after this minute 
examination of its interior, we ai-e rewarded with a vision 
which all England can scarcely parallel — a landscape, so vast, 
so rich, 80 truly varied, and of which the Hall seems the 
natural centre-point, that we do not wonder at a local writer 
speaking of it as " scarcely to be expected in such a situation ;" 
we only wonder at the coolness of the expression, when con- 
trasted with the excess of the surprise. Whether you peram- 
bulate the leads of the lower square of buildings within the 
parapet, or ascend to the superior elevation of those of the 
central tower, on all sides the extent and beauty of the wooded 
and watered panorama becomes magnificent. So completely 
does the character of the surrounding country, richly diversi- 
fied with wood in all directions, blend with tiie green glades 
and wooded knolls and clumps of the deer-park, that the eye 
assumes the whole to be a continuation of the Wollaton 
pleasure grounds. This soft and varied landscape, in its 
absolute loveliness, blots out the dim suspicion of a populous 
manufacturing town being hid three miles away beyond the 
ridge of the Nottingham sand hills. Eadford and its disen- 
chantments die away in the splendid sweep of apparently 
embowered pleasure grounds all around, and nothing is seen 



100 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

but a highly diversified hut still completely park-like scene, 
where, northwards, the eye penetrates the rich valley of the 
Leen, by Basford and Bulwell, 

** 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view," 

and ranges the heights and woods of Broxtowe and Bilborough 
— runs up the Daybrook ravine towards the embellished 
environs of Sherwood-rise — skirts Radford and New Lenton 
on the east — escapes down the wide and open vales of Trent 
and Belvoir, and notes the Ducal Castle, hovering like a cloud 
*twixt earth and heaven — or revels over the delicious expanse 
of meadows, with the broad and silvery river waters — ^revels 
on the luxurious beauty of Wilford, the gorgeously wooded 
bluffs of Clifton, the spectral and mysterious outlines of the 
hills of Chamwood, far in the uncertainty of distance. The 
Trent is here the most beautiful of objects, winding through 
the open meadows, hid only in some profusion of foliage, ever 
to emerge in glimpses of renewed and heightened beauty. 
Directly south, there is Beeston, environed too with rich and 
stately trees; and ChilweU and Attenborough, Toton and 
Barton. More to the westward, the scene enriches — ^the 
ground undulates, the beauties of Bramcote, of Stapleford, 
of Strelley, form a fitting frontispiece to the romance of Derby- 
shire. There is not a picture in his lordship's collection 
more enchanting than this natural panorama. 

We ought to observe, that the first stage of the elevation 
whence this unrivalled survey of the surrounding landscape 
is afibrded, brings us face to face with some of the peculiari- 
ties and details of the architecture of the building. In a 
former chapter, we assigned some reasons for ascribing to the 
architect Smithson — from whose model the somewhat analo- 
gous structure of Nottingham Castle was framed — the sugges- 
tion, if not the production also, of WoUaton Hall. We are 
perfectly aware that other traditions have been preserved, and 
that> Sir Francis Willoughby, the founder, who seems un- 
doubtedly to have been a man of taste and spirit, receives the 
credit of having designed the structure. Now, when we are 
told that Mr. Ruskin, the great authority of modem archi- 
tecture is to build a house, we are told, at the same time, that 
be is to be assisted by an architect ; and it is our belief, that 



ARCHITECTURAL SCULPTURES OF WOLLATON HALL. 101 

if such a man existed as we have already ventured to describe, 
there can be no question that Sir Francis Willoughby, the 
Mecaenas of his day and district would certainly consult him. 
Amongst the details brought into closer approximation on 
ascen^g to the top of the building, the same curious assem- 
blage of busts, " in alternation of the sexes, "as at Nottingham 
Castle, is the first thing observed in walking rouiid behind 
the parapets. They are certainly very interesting; but as 
they are, in numerous instances, surmounted by the Wil- 
loughby cognizance of the owl, (which, by the bye, we find to 
be the object emblazoned on the banners sustained by the 
supporters of the family arms, and not water bougets, as 
stated at the outset of iina chapter), we cannot exactly say 
whether the others are correctly designated as " Kings" and 
" Emperors." The grand open scroU finial ornaments of the 
flanking towers were, it seems, in common with the niche^ 
now filled with these stone busts, intended to have been filled 
up with valuable Italian marbles, which were actually sculp- 
tured, and on their homeward voyage, when the vessel 
freighted with these works of ,art perished by shipwreck. 
The circular openings in the stone-work, and many of the 
niches, thus remain destitute of ornament. Notwithstanding 
what we have said of the architecture of the Hall, it is only 
right to quote from an able and discriminating county histo- 
rian, another view of the matter, which, however, is met at 
some points by the foregoing observations : " This noble 
mansion," says Mr. Bailey, " one of the principal architec- 
tural glories of this county, is said to have been built from a 
design of Sir Francis Willoughby himself, and strictly 
according to his own taste. The whole work, however, was 
superintended by John Thorpe, a celebrated artist of that 
time, and who was engaged in the construction of many of 
the noble works executed about this period. The architec- 
ture of this house has, at various periods, been the subject of 
discussion among critics. That it does not belong to any 
regular or recognized form of art is very certain ; still, the 
efiect of this union of the Italian style with Gothic arrange- 
ment, when carried out, as in the instance of Wollaton Hall, 
under the eye of cultivated taste, fails not to produce a grand 
and imposing ejfifect, satisfying the eye, whilst it stimulates 



102 BAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM 

and expands the imagination. That the pure Italian style 
{qy. Greek?) is not fitted for our climate, nor agrees well with 
the mental constitution of Englishmen, which requires some- 
thing more massive and elaborate to dwell upon than is 
furnished by its light and simple forms of elegance, is clear, 
by the dissatisfaction with which every one contemplates 
Nuttall Temple, in the vicinity of WoUaton — a pure specimen 
of the Italian style. The Temple is an elegant building, 
graceful in its proportions, and constructed according to the 
severest rules of art. In Italy it would be beautiful, but in 
the stem and capricious climate of England its very elegance 
seems utterly out of place, and it sinks into insignificance 
compared with the massive grandeur of WoUaton, or any 
building of smaller dimensions, constituted upon its principle. 
In the circumstances of the peculiar period at which the 
Hall was erected must be sought the grounds of the style of 
its architecture. Everything belonging to old habits of 
thought and action was beginning to give way in men's 
minds ; they were escaping from the gloom of an age of con- 
vents and abbeys, and castellated mansions ; they had become 
addicted to travel, and were in quest of new forms of elegance 
in which to give visible expression to the struggling emotions 
of their hearts. StiU they had not become disposed to cast 
off everything which belonged to the past ; hence such com- 
binations of style in architecture as distinguish this and 
several other houses of the nobility erected about the same 
time. The ranges of low apartments, with square-framed 
windows, decorated with muUions and tracery, were no longer 
fitted for an age when men in almost everything were calling 
out for more light. Wollaton, it is true, has square stone 
windows, but they are without tracery, and the apartments 
are spacious and lofty. And here the taste of the designer 
of the work is strikingly manifested ; as, for the purpose of 
reHeving the monotony of this form of window, the uniformity 
is relieved by the front and sides of the house being relieved 
in the line of vision by square projecting Ionic pilasters, whilst 
the whole space is diminished by niches, some oblong, and 
others circular, filled with busts of philosophers, emperors, 
&c., and some very rich and eloquent mouldings. The 
building itself is square, with four large towers, adorned with 



WGLLATON HALL STABLES. 103 

pinnacles, whilst in the centre the body of the house rises 
higher, with projecting coped turrets at the corners." — Annals 
of Nottinghamshire, vol. ii., p. 499. 

In the upper parts of the flanking towers, apartments are 
formed and used for various purposes ; in one of which, the 
mounted guns, captured by his lordship from " F. Kinman.," 
(whoever he was), the privateer of 1810, are found mounted 
on wheeled gun carriages, ready to be run out for the defence 
of the Hall, if such should ever be requisite. Nor was this 
always so problematical a contingency as it may at this 
moment seem. The rioters who "harried" Colwick Hall, (as 
the Borderers say) and fired the Castle of Nottingham, me- 
naced WoUaton also; but the place was well prepared for their 
reception; and these guns upon the roof would have dealt 
terrible devastation through the ranks of the turbulent and 
excited multitude, long before they could have approached the 
stately pile. 

Now that we have reached our vantage ground, \if ground 
it can be called) on the roof of WoUaton Hall, like any other 
old gentleman mounted on his hobby, we feel it rather difficult 
to get down. Fortunately, we are hke the French wit, 
(Rochefoucault) to whom a poor author was lamenting the diffi- 
culty pour vivre — " Connais pas la necessitie" (I do not see 
the necessity) was the cool reply ; and as everything that 
remains to be described at WoUaton now lies exactly under- 
neath, we reaUy do not see the necessity of getting down at 
aU. The most enchanting and interesting portions of the 
vast and varied vision of landscape beauty around us, belong 
to the Park itself. 

That stately square of noble looking buUdings in the hoUow, 
immediately to the west, but judiciously thrown backwards 
completely into the rear of the nobler mansion, is the stables, 
buUt by Sir Francis WiUoughby, the first heir of the philoso- 
pher's name and honours- Their fine ornamental front looks 
out on a slightly swelling spot of sward, bordered by the lake. 
In advance of die main entrance, are placed two stone piers, 
surmounted by an enormous pair of stone balls. The facade 
of the stables is itself architectural and ornamental ; present- 
ing an advancing and receding centre, and wings perforated 
by two tiers of deeply moulded windows, those of the lower 



104 BAUBLES ROUND NOTTIKGHAlf. 

Story having arched heads, whilst those of the upper are 
square and broad. The central portion of the facade con- 
tains a grftnd axched gateway below, surmounted by a circular 
clock face above ; it is flanked by ornamental pillars, and 
pilasters, and terminates in a tympanum, bearing an exceed- 
ingly florid, large, and beautiful sculpture of the royal arms, 
which is greatly coveted and admired. The internal capacity 
and arrangements of the stables, extending to thirty-five 
single stalls, with accommodation for sixty horses, if required, 
by no means belie the expectations created by this imposing 
exterior. The stud stands as a nobleman's horses should, in 
a beautifully kept, almost palatial set of six feet stalls, with 
clean looking buff- coloured divisions, striped with broad black 
bars. The separations are nine feet long. There are thirty-three 
stalls and three loose boxqs. A large solid oak block of now 
perfectly black, indeed pure, ebony, adopted thirty-five 
years ago by the late Lord Middleton, for a mounting-block, 
lies in the front range of the stables. The saddle-house 
exhibits a very considerable variety of well-kept materials for 
a general mount. In the intersection of the first square, 
there is a large coach-house, with six or seven dark blue- 
coloured CM-riages, drags, omnibuses, chaxs-a-banc, &c., one of 
the newest of the former being of the make of Holmes, of 
Derby, the others by London makers. The old yellow family 
coach stands here also, in state, with the full heraldic bear- 
ings and crest of the family, motto and all, " Verite sans peur** 
(truth void of fear), emblazoned on its pannels. In the build- 
ings surrounding this last are comprised granaries, (above) 
servants* bed-rooms, washing-houses, laundries, bake-house, 
fowl (plucking) house, brew-house, and some other ofi&ces. 
The next court was once the farm yard, which, with the pig- 
geries, &c., has been removed completely to the rear ; and 
the principal place in it worthy of notice is now the riding- 
school, ninety feet by forty feet, occupying its entire western 
range. In the rear, are the kennels for pointers and spaniels ; 
the chief kennels of Wollaton, unoccupied since the discon- 
tinuance of the pack of fox-hounds kept by the late lord, are, 
however, very fine ones, situated about three-quarters of a 
mile to the westward. The piggeries are, perhaps, as com- 
plete as a porcine academy coifld possibly be ; and the pigs 



WOLLATOK PARE, LAKE, AND DECOY. 105 

living in these seven divisions of airy styes, with open runs 
before the abode of each, through which constantly meander 
pure and purifying streams of water, must be inevitably well- 
bred pigs. They are, at all events, well treated ; steaming 
and cooking apparatus being kept in requisition in their 
neighbourhood for supplying them with properly prepared 
food. Outside of all, the workshops of the blacksmith, 
plumber, painter, glazier, stone-masons, &c., are attached to 
this square and compact colony of offices; exterior to all 
which appear the poultry and farm yards, with their relative 
kinds of produce. 

Westwards, the lake or picturesque sheet of water, with 
margins alternately grassy and wooded, branches out into 
various sinuosities, and along by its waters and underneath 
the shadow of its woods, run some of the finest and fairest 
walks in the Park of Wollaton. Inapproachable in the winter 
season, the finely arranged decoy for wild fowl is protected by 
the warning intimations upon .a board, set up to prohibit 
any one save the decoy-man going near to disturb the ducks, 
of which from one to two thousand pairs are, probably, in 
occupation of this singular lake, about the present period of 
the year, (December). It is the business of the person 
managing the decoy, to allure the fowl from station to station, 
where he may see without being seen, and thus to induce 
them to enter a tube, at the top of which they are netted and 
taken. 

The scene presented to the westward, where this large 
sheet of water lies surrounded by trees, is highly picturesque. 
The lake is fed by two ditches, traversing the park, one of 
which leads from a pond situated below the village of Wolla- 
ton, and the other from TroweU and Bramcote-moor ponds. 
Altogether, we feel that the cultivated grounds immediately 
around the Hall, demand a more specific and conclusive de- 
scription than we have yet been able t oafford them ; more 
particularly the celebrated Kitchen Gardens on the north of 
the park, under the able management of Mr. Haythom, 
senior, who has, for upwards of fifty years, been gardener at 
WoUaton, and whose name is familiar to every lover of horti- 
culture in the district. We have, therefore, obtained the aid 
of his son, Mr. Haythom, junior, a most intelligent and rising 



106 BAMBI.E8 ROUND NOmMOHAM. 

horticulturist, who has favoured us with the particulars em- 
braced in the following paper : — 

THE PLEASURE GROUNDS. 

Descending the steps from the south front, you alight on 
a most extensive lawn, adorned with statues, fountains, gold 
and silver fish, and other ornaments, all in character with 
the place. To the right are some picturesque and noble spe- 
cimens of the qiiercvs ilex, upwards of three hundred years 
old, clothed with ivy, and propped to preserve their ancient 
ramifications. Looking left, or to the east, a magnificent 
view presents itself — in the immediate foreground is a splen- 
did specimen of the fagus sylvatica purpurea, clothed to the 
ground. Here the ground gradually declines to a level with 
the Park, separated by a sunk fence, which is continued 
round the grounds. Looking forward, you have a splendid 
view of the surrounding landscape, adorned with hundreds of 
deer and cattle — belted on the right with the beautiful avenue 
of lime trees, not to be surpassed. In the distance, you have 
a panoramic view of Radford, Ison Green, Lenton, Notting- 
ham Castle, and the spires of the churches in the valley 
beyond, forming pleasing features of great interest. Taking 
a southerly direction, you approach the terrace-walk, thirty 
feet wide, and three hundred feet long, supported by a stone 
ballustrade of great beauty. Descending the flight of steps 
which leads to the lower grounds, you reach a broad gravel 
walk, running parallel with the upper terrace. Looking 
southward, you have a fine open breadUi of lawn, bordered on 
either side with a magnificent and dense mass of conifera. 
Here the Park is broken into gentle swells, beautifully wooded, 
presenting some extensive and picturesque views, with the 
towers of Beeston lodge, and the populous district of Beeston, 
in the distance. Turning to the left, the walk leads you 
through a mass of evergreens, and pierces a wood called the 
" Wilderness," consisting of some of the finest beeches to be 
met with. Returning by the same walk, in a westerly direc- 
tion, you arrive at the " Rosary," on the left hand, belted by 
a mass of evergreens, and completely hidden from the main 
walk. This garden was, some years ago, re-arranged and 
planted with tibe choicest varieties, by Mr. Haythorn. Beyond 



WOLIATON GROUNDS AND GARDENS 107 

this, is a modem flower-garden, also laid out by the writer. The 
beds are laid out on turf, and are devoted to bedding plants 
in the summer. Immediately to the right of the walk, is the 
magnificent conserratory, containing some of the most splen- 
did specimens of camellias in England. This house is 
seventy feet long, forty-six feet wide, and twenty-one feet high. 
With regard to horticultural and architectural proportions — 
two important features in similar constructions — ^this house 
is not to be surpassed. The roof is supported by hollow cast- 
iron columns, which also carry off the water which falls on 
the roof, through drains placed for its reception, into reser- 
voirs beneath the floor. These columns are highly oma- 
mented with mouldings, and have wires attached thereto for 
the purpose of training creeping plants to them. The walks 
are covered with an arched roof, formed of double plates of 
rolled iron, between which is formed a vacuum of two inches, 
which confines a stratum of air, to prevent the escape of heat, 
or the admission of cold. Over these plates the gardener walks 
to give air, &c. The house is heated by steam, from pipes 
placed under the walk, the boiler being placed at some dis- 
tance, in a shrubbery. The whole is constructed of iron and 
glass, and has been erected many years. It, with others, no 
doubt, suggested the idea of the " Crystal Palace." Passing 
through tie conservatory, after leaving a fine specimen of the 
evergreen oak to the right, descends a covered way to the 
stables. To the right, is a magnificent view of the mansion ; 
to the left, is the superb lake and decoys of forty acres, well 
stocked with fish and aquatic birds. Before you, is a noble 
pile of stabling. Leaving them to the left, by a circuitous 
route, you arrive at the 

Kitchen Gardens. 

These are on a very extensive scale, comprising nine acres 
within the walls, of rich yellow loam, of an average depth of 
two and a-half feet, upon a red sand ; and having 9,700 square 
feet of running glass. The walls are twelve feet high, having 
a stone coping, which projects a few inches. A walk, twelve 
feet wide, runs up the centre of the garden — other walks, nine 
feet wide, go round it. The principal entrance from the park 
is by the centre walk, through some massive iron gates. Dwarf 



108 RAMBLES BOUND NOrTINGHAM. 

apple trees, four and a-half feet high, pruned in the form of a 
goblet, border each side of the walks. A range of forcing 
houses, for peaches, grapes, and pines, four hundred feet in 
length, containing 6,763 square feet of running glass occupies 
the northern limit of the garden, backed by sheds, &c. The 
forcing ground for melons, cucumbers, and vegetables, is on 
the western side of the garden, containing 8,100 feet of 
running glass. The greeiihouse, an old-fashioned building, 
eighty feet long, and thirty feet higV, contains some fine spe- 
cimens of acacias, auricarias, oranges^ lemons, camellias, <&c. ; 
one plant of the latter, valued at 150 guineas, is sixteen feet 
high, and twenty-six feet in circumference, probably the 
largest portable double white camellia in England. The 
flower garden, about half an acre, in front of this building, 
is laid out with box-edging and gravel walks, and planted in 
the mixed style. The whole place is shut in and sheltered 
by forest trees of great magnitude, and is only visible from 
the upper part of tibe mansion. 

The origin of Wollaton Park involves not a few archaBO- 
logical difficulties, and is a subject of considerable interest. 
So late as the nineteenth year of the reign of Edward II., 
(1326) and even the sixteenth of Edward III., (1343) it, or 
the greater part of it, passed under the name of " Sutton 
Passeys ;" the manor, as Thoroton tells us, having, by this 
latter date, /'become the possession of Richard de Wil- 
loughby, lord also of Wollaton, with which family it con- 
tinued ; and is now, and long hath been, totaUyJdecayed, and 
only known by the name of Wollaton Parke, and other 
demesnes of that manor; howbeit, the parishiotiers of 
Eadford say it is in that parish, and within their perambula- 
tion." Throsby adds that neither the site of "Sutton 
Passeys," nor that of its church, can now be traced. Our 
own inquiries, indeed, confirm that fact ; for no such name 
exists in the recollection of " the oldest inhabitant" of the 
neighbourhood. But if we might be permitted a conjecture, 
passing through Lenton Lodge, just before turning into the 
three-quarter-mile avenue of Wollaton Park, there are two 
remarkably aged lines of hawthorn, which seem to answer, 
firom their position, to a spot that may have stood " within 
the perambulation of Badford ;" and unless the plantation of 



EXTINCT CHUBCH AND TOWN OF SUTTON PASSETS. 109 

these venerable thorns, which this season fruited in rich pro- 
fusion, can be otherwise accounted for, we should venture to 
pronounce them far more ancient than any other thing now 
standing in the Park, and far more likely than any other 
traces it affords, to indicate the site of the extinct village 
green. Here, in all probability, stood a parochial church, 
for Lenton itself was not at that time a territorial parish, but 
belonged to the parish of Arnold. In the ninth year of the 
reign of Edward 31., (1316) Sutton Passeys answered for a 
whole viUa ; and John de Passeys was then returned as lord 
of it. In the reign of Henry III., (1216-1272) the family of 
Passeys appear to have held this land by sergeancy of finding 
a horse and sack in the army of Wales. It was Robert de 
Passeys, son of Ralph, who twice vowed gifts of fifteen acres 
of these lands of Sutton to God and the Church of the Holy 
Trinity at Lenton, for the souls' healths of his wives, Adeline 
and Alice — gifts which his son, WilHam de Passeys, con- 
firmed, giving four acres for himself. The land, like some 
other lands of that soc at that time, was, in the time of 
"William the Conqueror, only a waste. Before the Conquest 
it had comprised, however, two manors, held by the wealthy 
Saxons, Alaric and Brun, and pretty highly rated to the 
Dane-geld; Ulsi, the Danish lord of Olaveston, (now cor- 
rupted into Wollaton) holding a caracute and a half of the 
land in security of the geld. !^ow interesting, to rouse from 
out the dim repose of fiiese musty records the people of the 
past — ^the sturdy Saxon, the rapacious Dane ; the spots where 
they were located, when the world was theirs ; the very Dane- 
geld — the tax imposed by the fierce marauder, borne past in 
procession before us by these long-departed spirits — nay, the 
very seizure of the land for its payment all but re-enacted ! 
What follows next ? The waste and desolation which fall 
like a bhght over that fair landscape, under the sway of 
accumulating oppression. The mounted Norman enters in — 

" And where the "Spahi's foot hath trod, 
The verdure flees the tainted sod." 

The waste condition attained in the times of the Conquest 
was altered, however, to its palmy state in the times of 
Henry III., when the uxorious founder of the De Passeys 



110 KAMBUSS ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

family sought to propitiate with the rich and beautiful gift of 
these fifteen acres (old acres, remember,) nothing less than 
the favour of those " oily men of God," who then lorded it 
over this heritage of Lenton Abbey ! Sainted shades of the 
gentle Adeline and AUce ! noble ministrants to the subduing 
and softening influences of religion in that harsh age of 
Cimbric jars — ^when manors were only to be obtained by such 
as furnished horses and sacks for the extermination of the 
Welsh-Britons — the grateful memorial implied in this dedi- 
cation of a portion of his domain by King Henry's holder of 
a fief of sergeancy, speaks volumes in your praise ! Finally 
descending through die De Passey line to Ralph and Richard, 
the progenitors of the noble house which now enjoys this fine 
possession, the property and the broad acres have become 
indeed enhanced in beauty ; but the nulitaiy De Passeys, the 
pious ladies of their house, their village church, their hamlet, 
aye, the very altars of Lenton, upon which their gifts were 
laid, have passed away, with scarcely a trace remaining, save 
some fragment of column, or mullion, or encaustic tile ;— 
but more of this in the succeeding Ramble. 



CHAPTER III. 

LENTON.— MONASTIC, DOMESTIC, EDUCATIONAL 
AND INDUSTRIAL. 



GEOBaE GREGORY, Esq., of Harlaxton HaU, near Grantham: 
descfflided from William Gregory, of Nottingham, gent., who purchased 
fipom the Chamberlain of the City of London the Manor of Lenton, in 
virtue of Letters Patent, 6 Charles I, (1631) with the fair, royalties, 
and privileges, rents and services thereto belonging, with exception of 
the fee farm, which was then reserved to the king, but afterwards 
purchased from the Right Noble James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and 
Lennox, to whom the king had granted the same, by George Gregory, 
son and heir of the said William Gregory, in the reign of Charles U. ; 
George Gregory, however, obtained from tiiat monarch, [16 C.II, 1675) 
letters patent authorising another fair, in addition to that established 
so far back as the reign of Heniy L, (1100) to be kept in Lenton, on 
the Wednesday next after Pentecost, and six following days. The heir 
presumptive to the estate of Lenton, is John Sherwin Sherwin, Esq., 
of Bramcote Hall. The late Gregory Gregory, Esq., died in the spring 
of 1855. 



APPBOACHES TO LENTON — OBIQIN OF THE NAME — COUBSE AND CHABAOTEB 
OF THE BIVEB LEEN — ^BOIUANTIC LIFE OF WILLIAM FEVEBIL — ^FOUN- 
DATION OF LENTON ABBEY — GIFTS TO THE ABBEY — QUABBELSOME 
DISPOSITIONS OF THE MONKS — ^PEBAMBULATION OF THE MONASTIC 
SITE — TBACES AND EELICS OF THE BUILDINOS— ATTEMPTED BES- 
TOBATION OF THE BEMGIOUS HOUSES AND CHUBOH — COINS AND 
CUBIOSITIES DISCOVEBED ON THE SITE — HISTOBICAL AND GENERAL 
BEMINISCENGES OF THE MONASTIC BULE — PEVEBIL COUBT OF LENTON 
— DOMESTIC ABODES AND BEAUTIES OF LENTON AND NEIGHBOUB- 

HOOD MODEBN CHUBCH AND SCHOOLS, AND EDUCATIONAL EFFOBTS 

— INDUSTBY OF LENTON — MB. WILKINSON'S HBBD OF SHOBT-HOBNED 
CATTLE— MESSRS. BAILEY AND SHAW'S FELLM0NGEB8* WOBKS — ^MB. 
EAMES'S GASSI.^Q AND BLEACHING WOBKS, ETC. 



112 RAMBLES ROTJKD NOTTINGHAM. 



" When the dying flame of day 
Throuf h the chancel shot its ray, 
Far the glimmering tapers shed 
Faint light on the cowled head, 
And the censer burning swung 
Where before the altar bung, 
That proud banner which, with prayer 
Had been consecrated there." — Lonsfellow. 



* In this sweet haunt thy bllf sfdl life 

Shall glide like meadow-streamlet flowing. 
Unreached by sounds of demon strife, 

Unknown to passion and unknowing; * 

For thee the flagrant airs shall rise, 

For thee shall bloom those fragrant roses, 
Till far beyond yon trembling skies 

Xhy heart in endless peace reposes."— &«ra/tf Qriffin. 



" Prising knowledge as her noblest wealth 
And best protection, this imperial realm, 
Whilst she exacts allegiance, shall admit 
An obligation on her part, to teach 
Them who are bom to serve her and obey; 
Binding herself by statute to secure 
For all the children whom her soil maintains 
The rudiments of letters, and inform 
The mind, with moral and religious truth. 
Both understood and practised."— R'onfettN>rtA. 



" The workshop must be crowded. 

That the palace may be bright ; ' 

If the ploughman did not plough, I 

Then the poet could not write ; 
Then let every toil be hallow'd. 

That man performs for man, 
And have its share of honour 

As part of one great plan.'*— i2o&er/ Gilflllan. 



Lenton truly requires many a poetic motto to elucidate its 
characteristics ; our poets may stand reduced, however, to a 
parti quoirri expressive of the four great ages of Lent<^, or 
rather, of the four great acts of the drama of human hfe of 
which it has been, or is now, the scene — ^the monastic and 
the private life, (vie priveej the educational, and the in- 
dustrial. 

To elucidate these fairly and in order, the reader will for- 
give us, therefore, if we retrace our steps from Wollaton Park. 
In doing so, we confess to the loss of several pretty walks and 



BYE-WAYS TO LENTON. 113 

landscape views in gaming the monastic village from Not- 
tingham. Where is the enchanted vision that hursts upon th^ 
sight as, quitting Nottingham Park, we emerge through the 
gorge of the Derby-road, just where the last and most extra- 
ordinary of all created pieces of road architecture has been 
set down as an obstruction of the queen's highway, in the 
shape of a toU-bar ? Omittiag the little gardens hght and 
left, " sunny spots" as they are " of greenery," look at the 
rise of Lord Middletim's park and grounds opposing us ; look 
at the trees that clothe them in the most beautiful and 
m^estic raiment of the earth; look at the village and its 
farms, nestUng in the valley below ; at the great outlet through 
which the eye escapes into the valley beyond ; at the white 
thread of vapour which tracks out the course of the railway 
above ; the tall poplars that tell of the water-side ; and the 
thickly scattered villas, that speak at once the character of 
the place ! There are modes of access, too, from Nottingham 
to Lenton, which boast of not much less enticing beauties. 
Skirting the south side of the Park, we pass on by the extreme 
end of New Lenton, and take our choice of two thoroughfares 
proceeding under the railway — one by ** Flora Cottage," the 
trim and elegant abode of a musical composer of whom Not- 
tingham bids fair to be one day proud — Mr. Henry Farmer; 
and by a huge quaint old house on the opposite side of the 
way, formerly the family abode of the late Mr. Bradley, father 
of a resident in Nottingham Park, already commemorated in 
these Rambles. The o&er way, is under umbrageous shades, 
and by shady tea gardens, along the banks of the Leen and 
the Canal — a walk which, in the summer season, is cool and 
delightful; and, moreover, brings us at once to the scene of 
the local antiquities of Lenton village. 

Retracing our steps, however, from Wollaton Park to the 
heart of the village, we arrive amongst the almost obliterated 
traces of monastic remains, conjuring up from their very frag- 
ments associations which lead us back to the origin of all the 
surrounding lordships, and re-peopling the spot with the 
grand historical figures that here pass successively across 
the screen of life's magic lantern — that " come like shadows, 
80 depart." It was here that the Peverils fixed their 
religious endowments and civil jurisdiction ; for, although 



114 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM, 

nearly every vestige of the old Clugniac abbey has vanished— 
till a comparatively recent period the Peveril Court extended 
its sway from this obscure and singular centre over parts of 
five or six adjoining English counties ! Beautiful as the 
neighbouring seats of retirement and retreats of ease may be, 
(and they are more beautifiil than many may suspect) the 
very names they bear — ^leading, however, to singular historical 
confusions — ^Lenton Hall, Lenton Abbey, Lenton Firs, 
Lenton Fields, Lenton Grove, Lenton House, recall, in every 
case, the times of old. 

First of all, then, it is proper to inquire what may have 
been the aspect of this sweedy-embowered, tliis lovely spot, 
before and after it became the scene of monastic magnifi- 
cence, or formed merely the vicinage of lordly grandeur, and 
whence it took its bland and gentle name ? Lenton takes 
its name unquestionably from the River Leen, by Dr. Deer- 
ing called **Lind,*' of the valley of which it occupies the 
debouchement opposite the Trent. The signification of the 
word Lm, or Leen, is most probably that of the Saxon root, 
" the spring," from the soft verdure which marks the low- 
lying course of this whole river, rather than from the Latin 
Leniens, or l^tntas, to which it has been commonly ascribed, 
in attestation of the mildness and softness of the features of 
the valley. On consulting the map of our "Rambles," 
already published,* it will be found that the Leen rises near 
Newstead Abbey ; its tributaries extending from the neigh- 
bouring hills around — some proceeding from the skirts of 9ie 
ancient forest, on this side the forest water-shed — others from 
the spurs of " the hills of Annesley bleak and barren" — from 
the Holin WeD — from the Mosley spring; and on through the 
" upper" and " lower" lakes of the Newstead grounds, through 
the hawk lawn, and over the celebrated '* ragged rock"— 
emerging at Jack o'Sherwood's, and uniting in the neighbour- 
hood of Papplewick Hall with another branch from Hopping 
Hill Farm, the Gold Wood, and the Wire Mills. Passing 
Papplewick it arrives at the Upper Mill, within a mile or so 
of Linby, (to which, in common with Lenton, it gives its 
name,) and descends by the Upper Mill, Wark Mill, and Old 

• With Part II. 



COTJBSE AND CHARACTER OF THE LEEN. 115 

Mill, through Papplewick Moor, through the gorge and fox 
covert of Congel Hill, (receiving the natural drainage of 
Congel mires and the Goosdale bog) to Waterfield Gate and 
Oobbler's Mill. When the Leen reaches Middle Mill, Forge 
Dam and Mill, Moorgate, and Bulwell Spring, it passes a 
series of com mills and bleach works, twist mills, &c., to Bul- 
vfell green and village, whence passing more bleach fields, it 
enters the thickly populated vicinity of Basford, and after 
watering the flats, curves round under the shelter of the 
beautifully wooded bluffs of Bobber s Mill, and continues its 
career, ministering incessantly to mills and bleach works, 
until it arrives amidst the low lying habitations and com 
mills of Radford. From Radford Marsh it advances upon 
Lenton, and anciently, they say, continued its onward course, 
as might indeed be naturally expected, direct into the Trent, 
opposite the church at Wilford. The dry channel, or course, 
of the diverted stream is still considered to be visible. But it so 
happened that William the Conqueror wanted the Leen — not 
so much for the defence or security of his castle of Notting- 
ham, perched upon its lofty rock, as for a water supply to its 
garrison and a com grinding water power — and hences after 
passing through Lenton, the river may be perceived to sweep 
abruptly round, and to find its way to the foot of the Not- 
tingham Castle rock, whence, in the disgusting language of 
John Blackner, it forms the common sewer of the town. Mr. 
Blackner forgets that before forming the common sewer, 
however, of the town, it forms also the common drink of the 
inhabitants, being pumped up for filtration in the Water 
Company's reservoir, after having subserved, we venture to 
say, infinitely more useful purposes in its course than any 
known stream of its extent and volume. 

The original importance of the River Leen is perhaps most 
distinctively marked by its having formed a great land mark 
and ancient boundary of the Forest of Sherwood. Thus, in 
the perambulation of the tenth year of the reign of Henry III. 
we find that the Forest boundary went ** from the Castle of 
Annesley by the great highway to the town of Linbye, and 
through the midst of the town to the water of Leine, so to 
Lenton, and fix)m thence by the same water," not, indeed, 
as it now runs, but *' as it was wont of old time to run into 



116 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINaHAM. 

the Trent, and so along the River of Trent to the fall of 
Doverbeck — saving Wellay Hay, and one or two of the king's 
demesnes woods in the county of Nottingham." A " hay," 
by the bye, was a wood unenclosed. Again, in another 
perambulation, (30, Henry VIII.) the boundary begins at 
** the king's castle of Nottingham, passing into King's Bridge 
Meadow Gate, the old Trent, and the ancient course of the 
water of Leene, (which is the boundary between the King's 
Meadow and the Meadow of Wilforth) tiience by the ancient 
course of the Leene to Carlum Meadow; thence by the 
common way to the bridge upon the Leene, nigh to the orchard 
of the Priory of Lenton ; thence by the water Leene to the 
boundary of the king's village of Bulwell, and so about the 
king's woods of Bulwell Rise to the water of Leene up to 
Lindby Mill, the middle of the town of Lindby, Lindby 
Cross, and the Castle of Annesley, leaving the said castle on 
the right hand." When the Leen ran direct into the Trent, 
(as these extracts attest, on a little attentive consideration), the 
Priory of Lenton was not yet in existence. When the high- 
way bridge spanned the Leen, as at present, near the site of 
the Priory orchard, the Leen no longer flowed directly 
onwards to the Trent, but sweeping round, washed the foot of 
Nottingham ^Castle rock. 

The career and position of William Peveril, the founder of 
Lenton Abbey, was singular and romantic. The natural 
son, according to Dr. Deering, of William the Conqueror, by 
the daughter of a Norman tanner, he was long literally a 
nonentity amongst the Norman chivalry, because he was, in 
fact, a man without a name: — not, indeed, that the living 
figures of the Beauvais Tapestries (in which the portrait of 
William Peveril is doubtless included) held the stain of 
bastardy to be indelible as it is considered by our pure 
English law, for the historical reminiscences of these times 
are abundant in proofs that the bastards of the great were fire- 
quently advanced to offices of personal power and trust, 
tiiough rigidly excluded from succession and inheritance. 
Such was the case with Wilham Peveril, or rather William 
Nobody — for the man was nameless ; and the first step in 
his advancement was to find out some mode of distinguishing 
and addressing him. This was not so easy a matter as it 



ROMANTIC CAREER OF WILLIAM PEVERIL. U7 

now seems. William of Normandy had himself no surname 
to lend him, save that of a sovereign prince, which he had 
no intention of bestowing. Hence an expedient was resorted 
to, which might at this day be deemed a clumsy one, but 
which was then regarded as effectually answering the purpose. 
The Norman tanner's daughter, and Conqueror's concubine, 
was given in marriage (richly endowed, no doubt,) to E^ilph 
Peveril, who, for very sufficient considerations, was induced 
not only to make the feminine tanner an honest woman, but 
to give her son William also what he wanted, and that was — 
a name. Having thus become William Feveril, the trans- 
formed bastard, as soon as he was declared to be somebody, 
obtained the command of the Castle, the lordship of Notting- 
ham, (he was never Earl of Nottingham, that was a distinct 
title originating with the Ferrers) and no fewer than a 
hundred and sixty-one other lordships in various parts of 
England, inclusive of the celebrated country of the Peak, in 
Derbyshire, with which the name of Peveril has been so 
prominently interwoven in romance. With part of these very 
Peak lands, as we perchance shall see, he endowed the Abbey 
of Lenton, which he founded. Fighting by the side of the 
valorous King Stephen, to whose fortunes he stedfastly 
adhered — ^possibly from associations imbibed at Nottingham — 
the stout old bastard was taken prisoner at the battle of 
Lincoln by Ralph Pagnel, on the part of the fierce Empress 
Maud. On Stephen's subsequent success, William Peveril 
was enlai^ed. His first essay was to retake the Castle, 
which he accomplished by the aid of a trusty band ; and 
reinstating himself by this bold stroke in its governorship, 
he held it for the king until his death. It was well for 
Lenton Abbey that the first William Peveril built and en- 
dowed it; for his grandson, William Peveril, the next whom 
we find in succession, speedily forfeited the power. This 
guilty man, entering into one of the foulest intrigues that 
had till then been known to stain the name and character of 
nobility, corrupted the wife, and entered with her into a plot 
for the poisoning of Ranulph, Earl of Chester. The stem 
and stoical Henry, Duke of Normans, afterwards King 
Henry 11., espoused the cause of the injured earl, passed an 
act of attainder upon William Peveril> and compelled him to 



118 BAMBLES BOUND NOTTIlfGHAM. 

enter the cloister of Lenton for the expiation of his wicked 
life. He thus became a brother of St. Benedict within the 
walls of that very abbey which had been founded and endowed 
by the munificence — not to say the piety — of his immediate 
ancestors. This Peveril tragedy occurred in the year 1156 ; 
for the document is yet extant in which King Henry disin- 
herited William Peveril, " because of poyson given to Ranulph 
of Chester." The very instrument, or at least a copy of it, 
so ancient as to be indistinguishable from the original, is in 
the Cottonian Library ; indeed, we have already quoted some 
portion of it in these Rambles, (p. 27) wherein the fee of Wil- 
liam Peveril is given to Ranulph, (who thus appears to have 
survived the poison) unless he (William) could clear himself 
of his wickedness and treason. He elected to shave his crown, 
and enter the cloister ; but first left a daughter, Margaret, 
married to William, Earl of Ferrers and Derby; and her son, 
Piobert Earl of Ferrers, with his son William, burnt, (in 
revenge most probably) the town of Nottingham, in the time 
of Henry II. It served them not, for Richard I., in conse- 
quence, ousted William de Ferrers of his earldoms both of 
Nottingham and Derby, and gave them to his brother, John 
Earl pf Morteign — afterwards King John. Up to this time 
we find the Peverils to have successively been— Wilham 
Peveril, theSfounder of the Abbey, who died 5° kal., February, 
1113, (nth, Henry I.)— the Lady Adelina, his wife, who is 
mentioned in the foundation charter, having died 14** kal., 
February, 1119, (18th, Henry I.) and consequently having 
survived him several years, notwithstanding the expressions 
in the deed, generally taken by antiquarians, to relate to par- 
ties predeceasing ; (2) Sir William Peveril, his son, who died 
16° kal., May, 1130, (12th William Rufus) ; 3dly we have the 
reprobate, William Peveril, who became dead to the world, 
11 55 ; and then we have Margaret and William of the Ferrers 
branch, with its hopeful offspring. We happen to know that 
there were so many William Peverils, because the second 
added to the rich endowments of the first, inasmuch as it 
appears that king Stephen, at Nottingham, at the earnest 
entreaty of William Peveril, the younger, and Oddona, his 
wife, and Henry, his son, confiimed what William himself, 
or William his father, or any other benefactors, had done for 



FOUNDATION OF LENTON ABBET. 119 

this priory. The original endowments were, however, by far 
the most munificent. We ascertain the date of the founda- 
tion to have been prior to 1108, the date at which Gerard, 
Archbishop of York, one of the witnesses to it, died, (for dates 
were not attached expressly to charters till a much later 
period). Previous to that date, then, William Peveril, in 
honour of the holy Trinity, for love of the worship of God, and 
the common remedy of the souls of King William and Queen 
Maud, and their cluldren, and of their and his own parents ; 
and for the health of King Henry, and Queen Maud, his 
wife; of William, their son, and Maud, their daughter; 
for the state of his kingdom, and for the health of his own 
soul, and of Adelina, his wife, and his son, WiUiam, and all 
his own children, gave to God, and to the church of Olugny, 
and to Pontius the abbot and his successors, this monastery, 
which he had founded. He gave to it possessions which, not 
to enter into any tedious enumeration, show the start at once 
taken by these monks, in position and influence. He gave 
them not only the town of Lenton, but its appurtenances — 
then, as now, consisting chiefly of com miUs — except, indeed, 
four — two being retained for his own demesne, a third for 
Adehna, his wife, and a fourth for Herbert, his knight — but 
the monks had all the rest, and these were seven. Kadford, 
(Mortein and Keighton, places absorbed in Lenton) Newthorpe, 
and Papplewick wood and plain, went along with the founda- 
tion ; so, Ukewise, did Blacowell, in the Peak, Corthahal, in 
Northamptonshire, (with a triviad exception) tithes,^ and a 
country fellow holding a virgat of land to gather up the tithes 
— ^naming no fewer tiian twenty-four of his demesnes, (thir- 
teen of them in the Peak) of which two parts of the tithes are 
thus dedicated — and giving particularly his whole tithe of 
colts and fillies, wherever he should have "harace" in the 
Peak, or any other of his demesne pastures. Not only so ; 
he gave the whole tithe of his lead, of his venison, (as well in 
skins as flesh) and of his fish of his fishing at Nottingham, 
to th€se lucky monks. Nay, the whole tiiree churches of 
Nottingham, (St. Mary's, St. Peter's, and St. Nicholas) were 
at that time apparently his to bestow, and he gave them by 
concession of has lord King Henry — ^land, tythes and appur- 



120 RAMBLES B0T3ND NOTTINGHAM. 

tenances.* Many other churches were conferred by William 
Peveril on the monastery of Lenton, viz., Badford, Linby, 
Langar, in Nottinghamshire, with land and tythes, and a 
villain holding a virgat of land ; Foteston, in Leicestershire ; 
Herleston, Corthahal, Irencester, and Eissenden, Northamp- 
tonshire, with vii^at of land and a villain. Nor did he stop 
at granting his own substance to this pious work, but seems 
as freely to have imparted, in his capacity of over-lord, two 
parts of all the tithes of the demesnes of twenty of ** his men" 
— ^men, some of whose names now sound rather illustrious in 
fame and story — such as Avenellus de Hadden, ancestor of 
the house of Rutland. These twenty "men'* were, moreover, 
compelled to attest the grantor's deed, as witnesses, and in 
this form to ratify their own. It appear8,however, that William 
Peveril having, at the entreaty of his faithful wife, Adelina, 
given to the monastery of Lenton, at or near the period of its 
foundation, the churches of Hechlin and EandiaB, to which 
gift the attesting witnesses were, as usual, his bold knights 
and retainers, Robert de Ferrariis, Avenell de Hadden; Robert, 
son of Drogo ; Robert, son of Warner; Ralph Hauselin, &c. ; 
the second William Peveril, his son, " by ill advice," for a 
long time withheld, or took away the benefit of the boon — a 
deed which he lived to repent in sackcloth and in ashes, for he, 
" for the love of God, and for the safety of the souls of his 
said father and mother," repenting, by consent of his heir, 
William, the younger, (3rd) restored them again. The wit- 
nesses to this transaction were, the daundess Hugh de 
Burun, William Avennel, Adam de Morteyn, Oddo de Boney, 
Robert de Herz, Guilbert de Macuinci, Norman de St. 

♦ It may serve to indicate the consideration in which the Monastery 
at Lenton continued to be held, down to the most recent times, and 
the sort of sway it exercised over the mind and intellect of the town of 
Nottingham, to notice that, in the foundation deed of the Free Gram- 
mar School of Nottingham, (4, Henry VIII.) 22d Nov. 1513, Dame 
Agnes Mellors conditions that, " if it fortune the mayor, aldermen, and 
common council to be negligent and forgetful in finding and choosing 
of the schoolmaster and usher, forty days next after such time as it 
shall fortune him to be removed or deceased, keeping and doing the 
obiit yearly, &c., then the prior and convent of the monastery of the 
Holy Trinity, at Lenton, shall have as a forfeiture the rule, guiding, 
and oversight," &c. — Extract from finmdaUon deed in DugdaU, 



GIFTS TO THE M0NA8TEBY OF LEKTON. 121 

Patricio, &c.* These names recall, almost of themselves, the 
lives and times of these their ruling spirits. Strangely con- 
ditioned, indeed, were some of the free, or unfree-will oflferings 
thus bestowed upon the monks, and we may mention one as 
illustrative of the fact that their benefactors were not abso- 
lutely clear from suspicions of the worldliness and carnality of 
the holy fathers. John, constable of Chester, for instance, 
gives freely enough to God " any draught of sperlines next 
after the draught of his steward, in his fishing of Chillewelle, 
and whatsoever in the said draught God should bestow on 
the said brethren, as salmon, or lamprey, or any other kind 
of fish, he gave them freely," the witnesses on this occasion 
being Henry Biset and Albreda de Lisures, his wife, (sister 
to the constable) with Geoftrey, (their son) Sanson de Strelly, 
with Gufr, Hugh and Philip, (his sons) Roger de Weston, 
and many others. Another time, however, the constable was 
more circumspect in his bestowings : he gave them a draught 
of Berse, called " Sand-warpe," — but only " so that the fish 
should be for the monks' own use, and not let to farm." The 
most dreadful form of gift by which the monks were enriched, 
though perhaps not uncommon in an age of superstition, 
when the entire independence of the nation was paralysed by 
the unwitting oath of a priest-ridden king, sworn over a set 
of old bones, venerated as concealed relics — was that of Her- 
bert de Bramcote, by which he confirmed to the Holy Trinity, 
and the monks of Lenton, the gift which Axor, son of Ulfac, 
made of two caractes of the fee of Arnold, which the said 
Herbert held in Bramcote, ** leaving his heirs the curse of 
Almighty God, and his own, if they should ever attempt to go 
against his grant." The witnesses to this awful objurgation 
were, H. de Burgo, the king's justice, Wm. Brewer, Stephen 
de Seagrave, Ralph de Neville, Philip Marc, Wm. Rufus, 
Robt. de Harleston, Walter de Eastwayt, John de Leke, 
Heylas Briton, Gervas de Amale (Arnold). They were litigi- 
ous too, and we fear bellicose besides, these Lenton monks. 
At least, betwixt the prior and convent of Lenton, and Henry 
Lord de Grey, of Codnor, Derbyshire, there was once a case 
depending in the king's court, which could not be determined 

Kegr. de Lenton, pk 14. 



123 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAK 

according to their minds for a length of time, worthy of any 
chancery suit of modem days, viz., forty years. It was "con- 
cerning the right of patronage of the moiety of the church 
Adinboro.'" At length, to make peace — and avoid the eJ/mUm 
of blood — ^the Archbishop of York induced the monks to 
sheath the carnal weapon, by giving them, (January, 1246) 
forty shillings yearly out of half the chapel of Bramcote. The 
monastery of Lenton was thus founded by William Peveril, 
before 1108, for a colony of Clugniac monks, subject to the 
great foreign abbey of Clugny; but, in the 16th of Eichard II., 
(1393) the monks of Lenton became what is termed denizens, 
that is, they ceased to be aliens ; and hence, during the 
Clugniac supremacy, they would constitute merely a priory to 
the abbey of Clugny, whilst three hundred years after the 
foundation they would appear as an abbey. William Peveril, 
in fact, at its foundation, gave the monastery to God and the 
Church of Clugny, and to Pontius, the abbot, (of Clugny) 
and his successors. King Henry I., confirming the deed, 
and granting the eight days' fair of Lenton, speaks vaguely of 
it in his charter as a monastery. But King Stephen (being 
at Nottingham) confirms the benefactions to this " priory." 
And even after the dissolution of the monasteries, Kmg 
Henry VIIL, in granting to Sir Francis Leek, Knt., certain 
of its possessions in the Peak, (d3rd March, 1545) speaks of 
them as then in the king's hands, '* by reason of the attainder 
of Nicholas Heathe, the last prior of the monastery, lately 
attaint, and convict of high treason." Legally speaking, 
then, this rehgious house at Lenton was in all probability 
from the first, and continued to the last, only a priory. Its 
possessions were, it is said, finally ceded, in the fifth year of the 
reign of Queen Elizabeth, to John Harrington. 

The original abbey of Clugny, founded by William, the 
first Duke of Aquitane, in 910, became the chief house of 
the order of St. Benedict, and the abbey buildings, which 
included one of the largest and finest Grothic churches in 
Europe, were destroyed at the French Revolution of 1784, 
excepting the abbot's house alone, which still remains. The 
present town of Clugny is partly built on the site, and with 
the materials, of the abbey buildings. The introduction of a 
colony of these French monks at Lenton, shortly after the 



BSTABUSHMBNTS OF ST. BENEDICT OF OLUGNT. IJJB 

Conquest, and by a son of the Conqaeror, seems quite in 
accordance with the history of their establishment in this 
country. It was indeed William de Warren, the son-in-law 
of the Conqueror, who first of all introduced these Benedictines 
into England, having built their first English house, the 
monastery of St. Pancras, at Lewes, in Sussex, 1077-8. 
Accordii^ to Tanner, there were ultimately twenty-seven 
priories and cells of this favoured order in England ; and 
Dugdale even enumerates and gives some account of not less 
than forty two, besides three others, whose existence has 
been but imperfectly determined. Judging from any re- 
mains of which we are aware, their richly endowed structures 
were all of the most magnificent description. Clugniac 
monasteries seem, indeed, to have been the favourite hobbies 
of all the royal races of the realm ; for Walter, the first of 
the Stewarts, when he fled from Shropshire into Scotland, at 
or shortly after this very period, viz., during the conflicts be- 
tween King Stephen and the Empress Maud, appears to havo 
carried with him a number of Clugniac monks from Wen- 
lock, in Shropshire, and to have founded the Clugniac 
monastery of Paisley, 1164. Norman architecture, of the 
most gorgeous style and character, characterised these 
fabrics. Their central and conspicuous object was invariably 
a cruciform church, built after the cathedral model, sur- 
mounted by a lofty steeple of exquisite workmanship, and 
having its interior adorned with numerous altars and chapel- 
ries, dedicated to various saints. Now, from the slight and 
shattered remains which we possess of Lenton Abbey church, 
we know that such must have been its character. The 
basements and fragments of the shafts of its columns, still 
remaining, correspond in their ifiasculine ms^esty of size 
and cylindrical forms with those of the naves of Durham 
Cathedral and Southwell Minster, which, it is well known, 
are amongst the most stupendous we possess. A fragment 
of a Lenton window mullion, in our possession, delicately 
moulded, evinces what must have been the exquisite beauty 
of the structure to which it belonged. The quaint old 
carved font, preserved in the modem church of Lenton, an 
oblong square receptacle, two feet six inches in height, 
sadly disfigured as it is by time, betrays the most curious 



124 RAMBLBS BOUND NOTTINGHAM 

sculptural elaboration — having on one side a bas relief of 
the crucifixion, and on others rows of angelic forms, under 
»leeply recessed arches. The superbly coloured inscribed 
lloor tiles, in the possession of Mr. George Gordon Place, of 
Nottingham, and other accomplished arcbseologists, furnish 
tdso attestations of magnificence passed away. That the 
(exterior of the church was equally imposing when entire, we 
may likewise surmise even from the circumstance recorded by 
Thoroton, that in his time, 1677, "there was only one square 
Kteeple left of the monastery, which not loug since fell down, 
and the stones of it were employed to make a causeway 
through the town." Although invariably spoken of as *' the 
Ohurch of the Holy Trinity," (EecUsiaS. Trinitatis quae est 
in Lentona Monachis GluniacensiumJ it is also somewhere or 
other stated that the ohurch (but probably a chapelry) was 
dedicated to St. James, as no doubt were many other altars 
and chapelries yrithin its rule — St. James being almost inva- 
riably included amongst the Olugniac tutelaries. 

Few and faint as are the traces we possess of this ancient 
foundation, we can in fact effect almost a restoration of the 
Abbey buildings of Lenton, by recalling to mind what was 
the usual arrangement of the principal buildings of such 
abbeys. We ought to state that formerly all these establish- 
ments belonged either to regulars or seculars — the regulars 
fc»llowing the rule of St. Augustine, (Bishop of Hippo, in 
A frica,) St. Bennet, and sundry private statutes approved by 
the Pope, living and sleeping under one roof, and being 
d< ^nominated canons, monks, or friars, and their houses 
called abbacies, priories, or convents ; whilst the seculars, 
governed by private rules composed by their own chapters, 
or borrowed from other colleges, and frequently not approved 
of by Rome, lived separately in their cloisters, or in private 
dwellings adjacent to their churches, under the government 
of a dean (decanus) or provost (proepositus). 

The regular abbeys comprised, 1st, a church, with a nave 
or great western aisle, choir, transept, and, usually, a large 
chapel beyond the choir, dedicated to the blessed Virgin, 
with smaller chapels or chantries a^oinlng the side-aisles of 
the choir, or, sometimes of tbe nave. 2ndly. The great 
cluister attached to one side of the nave, (which, at Lenton, 



A aKSTORATION OF LENTON ABBEY. 126 

appears to have been the northern) and having two entrances 
into the church at the eastern and western ends of the nave, 
for the greater solemnity of processions. Srdly. The dormi- 
tory of the monks, over the western side of the cloister — a 
long range, distinguished by windows, still known to archi- 
tects as " dormer windows," each window indicating a separate 
cell, containing a bed, a mat, a blanket, a coverlet, a desk 
and stool. From this apartment a door opened immediately 
into the church, to facilitate the midnight offices of devotion. 
4thly. The refectory, attached to that side of the cloister 
opposite the church : there the monks dined. In the centre 
of the upper end of this apartment, raised by two or three 
steps above the floor, stood a huge crucifix. At a table on 
the right hand was the seat assigned to the lord abbot, or 
prior, when he dined with the monks ; on the left, that of 
the sub-prior. The monks themselves, sat ranged in the 
order of precedence or seniority, on either side of a large 
table in the middle of the room. Under the refectory, were 
the cellars. 5thly. The locutorium, or parlour of the monks, 
a large room answering to the common hall of a college, 
.where, in the intervals of prayer and study the monks sat 
and conversed, was next to the refectory. Here was the only 
constant fire allowed in winter; beyond it extended the 
kitchen and offices, and immediately adjoining, the buttery, 
lavatory, &o. 6thly. The chapter-house, which always stood 
in the centre of the eastern side of the cloister, and was the 
plape in which the important public business of the abbey 
was transacted. Few that have ever seen it will readily for- 
get the magnificence with which the interior of the chapter 
house of Southwell Minster is carved and decorated. On 
one side of the chapter-house was a place encircled with stone 
benches, where the tenants of the abbey awaited the conve- 
nience of their lords ; on the other side was the strong room 
in which the monastic records were deposited ; above were the 
library and scriptorium, where the monks occupied them- 
selves in reading, transcribing, or translating. On this side, 
close to the transept of th5 church, was usually placed the 
treasury where the costly plate, jewels, and church ornaments 
were preserved. Beyond the great cloister, there was some- 
times a smaller cloister for the lay brethren. The prior had 



196 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

separate accommodation, consisting of a hall passing forth 
from the side of the church opposite to the cloisters, a 
spacious house, chapel, and garden. The principal con- 
ventual officers, the cellarer, house steward, sacrist, almoner, 
&c., had also separate houses'. . There was also, within the 
abbey, a strong prison ; for the abbots exercised, within their 
monasteries, unlimited jurisdiction. 

To these common details of the arrangement of conventual 
buildings we should have attached but little importance, had 
it not occurred to us, on a casual visit to the site and remains 
of Lenton Abbey, that they might be applied as a key to 
unlock the whole secret of its existence, and perhaps enable 
us to place before the reader as complete a restoration of 
this perished establishment as could possibly be hoped for 
at this distance of time. Having paid one day a visit to a 
local archsBologist,* in consequence of some discoveries of 
bones, encaustic tiles, mediceval pottery, fragments of orna- 
mental sculptures, coins, iron keys, and stirrup irons, lately 
made at different points around the site of the monastery, in 
the course of laying down a system of water-pipes for the supply 
of the village, we repaired sdong with him to the adjoining 
grounds, in order to proceed systematically over all their 
traces of antiquity. It may be known to some of our readers 
that Old Lenton almost consists of a single wide street, from 
which, however, there emerge several short and some crooked 
streets, nearly at right angles. Now, the principal street, 
Wilford-road, itself at the end next the river, presents a cur- 
vature exactly similar to that of the stream, and at that part 
it turns round, for a short way, from passing nearly north 
and south, to a course sweeping due east and west. Before 
reaching this curve is a street, termed far excellence Abbey- 
street. Here we found a well-levelled garden adjoining the 
spot where a rose noble of Edward III. had lately been dug 
up, in opening the street, in a state of preservation which did 
assuredly no discredit to its antecedents, even supposing 
these to have been monastic ; and in this garden considera- 
ble quantities of bones, and other remains, have been dug up. 

• Mr. J. Froggatt, of Lenton Poplars, who possesses an nnriyalled 
collection of ancient coins, discovered &om time to time, throughout 
various parts of the county. 



A DESEBTED OBAVE-YABD. 197 

Abbey-street itself then sweeps round in the same direction 
as the river, betwixt it and which there is here inter- 
posed the handsome residence of Mr. John Place, termed 
*' The Abbey," and in fact erected in imitation of the ancient 
monastic style, i.e., the Gothic. It is worthy of remark 
that in excavating the foundations of Mr. Place's residence, 
not only were there discovered many of the stone cofl&ns and 
sarcophagi incident to the intramural interments of the 
great, but the curious font already referred to, pronounced 
by many to be Saxon from its state of dilapidation, (though 
evidently Norman, judging from the sculptures alone,) 
several bases of the pillars of the conventual church, and it 
is said, a still more curious and remarkable object — a brass 
plate of the Crucifixion, alleged to have been in the posses- 
sion of Cardinal Wolsey, and therefore, in all probability, 
left here behind him on his way to close his strange career 
at Leicester Abbey. Entering next the almost deserted 
church-yard by an unfastened old iron gate, placed in an 
angle of that enclosure on the opposite side of the way from 
the house of Mr. Place, candour obliges us to confess, that 
a worse, or more unwholesome grave-yard was never, perhaps, 
seen. Within its precincts are still interred the superstitious 
and the poor — though, since the consecration of the new 
parish church at New Lenton, the very family monuments 
have begun rapidly to disappear from this desolate spot. It 
is large and open, but so wet underneath, that every girave 
that is dug in it, becomes a perfect well of water ; and the 
putrescence arising from the decomposition of the masses of 
mortality it must have at one time contained, must have 
been dreadful. One or two solitary family burial grounds 
remain, enclosed by iron palisades and railings, with one or 
two straggling ash saplings ; and the roofless shell of an old 
parish church, said to have been built on the site and with 
the materials of the hospital, after the destruction of the 
priory. Yet, this building thus in the second phasis of 
ruin, is still, so far as its chancel is concerned, used as the 
legal parish vestry, and is said to have once upon a time 
looked well, encased in ivy. Any old or ornamental stones 
it may have included, appear to have been carried to the new 
church ; particularly two, near the reading desk — one with 



198 BAMBLE8 BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

a cross and chalice ensculptured, and another bearing the 
date 1333. We only remarked amongst the few defaced 
mural tablets one, which bore to have been put up in memory 
of John Blanchard, son of John and Ann Blanchard, 1803, 
and had, underneath, the following simple lines : — 



" Sweet innocency's form lies here 
Lamented ."by its parents dear, 
"Who hope at last, in endless joy, 
To meet again their lovely boy." 



Promiscuously strewn over the face df the shapeless enclo- 
sure, the few flat tombstones, defaced and crumbling in 
perpetual damp, are fast dwindling into decay, and scarcely 
any of their inscriptions can be called legible. The cholera 
broke out in one of three houses on its southern boundary, 
and fever seldom forsakes the immediate vicinity of this 
noisome deposit of festering mortality. Well did the im- 
mortal Shakspeare judge, when he made his grave digger, in 
Hamlet, pronounce the opinion he has done upon the effects 
of grave-yard damp. In the south-east corner, however, of 
this spot, huge fragments of the angle of the transept waU of 
the abbey church are still extant ; and thus we get a glimpse 
of one or two well-defined points in its actual position. To 
obtain inspection of this angular portion of wall, whence the 
external ashlar casing has necessarily been long ago removed, 
we must pass out of the cemetery inclesure into Abbey-street, 
and enter near the top of the cross street. Old Church-street, 
the back court of a half-finished house, which is occupied by 
a person who is gradually building and finishing it. He 
will show the basements of the walls, and even cnide por- 
tions of the ancient ornamental flooring of encaustic tiles, 
which he had reached at a level of six feet below the present 
apparent surface, on digging his foundation, (although all 
the more florid tiles found he has sold.) Further on, at the 
corner of Old Church-street, remain, however, the t\^o most 
distinct fragments of the ancient church of the monastery, 
and those most capable of furnishing us with a conception of 
its obliterated traces: these are the fragments of two huge 
columns of the transept, standing diagonally one behind the 
other, (but cardinally due north and south) in Simpson's 



SITE OF THE CHURCH AND PRIOR's APARTMENTS. l29 

little garden. The shafts of these two pillars, three and a-half 
feet in diameter, have been perfectly cylindrical ; one has the 
beautiful basement mouldings quite entire, and a portion of 
smooth shaft, four and a-hdf feet in height, up which runs 
a sprig of ivy, whilst it is tufted on the top with grass. It is 
evident that this was the northern transept of the church, 
and that the body of the nave, chancel, and southern transept, 
were thrown a considerable way over in the direction of Mr. 
Place's house and grounds — exactly corresponding with the 
places where tlie remains in question have been dug up. The 
deserted church-yard, allowing for several encroachments, we 
may therefore conclude, to outline pretty definitely the ancient 
cemetery garth of the monastery— there is, indeed, no other 
way of accounting for its maintenance as a burial ground, for 
wMch it has latterly proved so very unsuitable. Besides some 
principal portions of the church site, we must also seek about 
tlie house and grounds of Mr. Place, for the prior's hall and 
residence. There would first be found the lobby, giving 
entrance into this hall from the church,'with its little chamber 
on the right, looking into the prior's garden. Here sat the 
porter, with, perhaps, a corresponding projection into tiie 
garden faither on, used as a waiting-room. Still farther on, 
a cross-building would present to us the prior "s dining-room — 
and passing still onwards, in continuation of the line of the 
lobby and hall, the prior's private chapel. Towards the 
curve of the river must be placed the prior s offices ; for each 
prior not only ruled despotically, (being accountable only to 
the parhament of his monastei7, or rather, to a general 
chapter of the order, held once a year, whose decisions were 
subject to rejection or confirmation by the pope) but also Uved 
in great state, in his private apartments, separate haU, or 
palace. He possessed servants, horses, hawks, and hounds ; 
entertained guests and private individuals at his table. His 
chaplain managed his household. In the case of an estab- 
lishinent such as Lenton, he chose his own sub-prior, who 
acted for him, presiding in the choir, the chapter-house, and 
refectory ; saw the doors of the convent locked at five p.m., 
and kept them locked till five, a.m. ; visiting the dormitories 
at night, and reading over the names of the monks, who were 
bound to answer. So much for the priors apartments. 

E 



130 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

Casting now our ejes over to the opposite side of the church 
site, we shall find the site of the ample court of th^ cloisters, 
those prominent features of all monastic confraternities. 
Leaving the church upon this side, we would have come, in 
its palmy days^ first of aU into a small parlour^— "a place fof 
•merchants to utter their waires," according to the ancient 
writers ; and also a place where the friends of the monks, 
•and the monks themselves,, had interviews with each other. 
This chamber was also connected with the rites of burial ; 
for, immediately without, it will be remembered, lay the 
centry or cemetery garth, the present state of which we have 
taken some pains to depict, and through this chamber, therefore, 
the monks passed on funeral occasions, after saying or sing- 
ing dirige or devotions in the chapter-house adjoining. Over 
this parlour, was situated the library. The chapter-house 
stood next in order ; arches opened from it into the cloister, 
on the one side ; on the other, it looked through windows 
into the cemetery garth. Betwixt the chapter-house and the 
large crOss-range of the refectory, which bounded the farther 
side of the cloisters, was frequently situated a dungeon. The 
histoiy of the Peveril Court of Lenton, when we come to give 
it, wili'shbw that the dungeon or prison of the anciert abbey 
must not be confounded with the Peveril prison, of which 
Blackner attempts to make a pathetic story ; for the lay prior 
of the monastery (Mr. Gregory) is quite a different person 
from the steward of the Peveril Court of Lenton, (Lord Mid- 
dleton — R. Barker, Esq., being his deputy.) A staircase here 
also led up to the library, passing over the chapter-house, 
and so on to the scriptorium, or writing chamber, and, in fact, 
to the triforinm, which was above the aisle of the church 
transept. Sometimes the monks used this triforium for 
artistic purposes — evident symj)toms of a chimney appearing 
here, employed in burning in the enamel of their beautiful 
illuminated tiles, and the colours of their stained glass. The 
refectory was a building of bold geometric character, with a 
stately east window, and vaulted cellar underneath. It con- 
tained a pulpit or reading window, with a stone screen in 
front, whence, at the dinner hour, the master of the novices 
observed, say the authorities, "this wholesome and godlie 
order for the continuellie instructing ther youth in vertew 



SITE OF THE CLOISTERS AND OFFICES. 181 

and leming — ^that is:— -one of the novices, at the election 
and appointment of the master, did read summe part of the 
Old and New Testament, in Latten." The court of the 
cloister, of which two sides have now been described, did not 
always form a perfect square. Its centre was, however, usu- 
ally adotned with a richly carved stone fountain, (distinct 
from the square church font found at Mr. Place's, for it pos- 
sessed arm-holes for the priest, in the act of immersing the 
child.) This fountain, supplied with water conveyed in pipes 
from an elevated reservoir, was thus enabled to play like 
those at Newstead Abbey. On the third, or farther side of 
the cloister, stood the common house, over which the master 
presided, *' and to this end or purpose, a fire was constantly 
kept in that building." Behind it, was the sub-prior's chamber ; 
arid, behind that, the dormitory or dorter. Betwixt and the 
refectory, however, the kitchen interposed. It was, usually, 
a large vaulted chamber, considerably below the level of the 
other buildings; and, judging from the number of animal 
bones disinterred at a particular point in the pipe-laying 
along the Lenton streets, we might readily be led, at least, 
into its vicinity. The space betwixt the kitchen and other 
biiildinga, is supposed to have been occupied with ** aumbries," 
closets, and one very strong plate chamber. ' These were the 
public portions of the monastic buildings, and from indica- 
tions we have given, there could, we think, be little difficulty 
in laying out a highly probable ground plan of the monasteiy 
of Lenton. 

We now came to the pegs upon which it so happens that 
we hang these somewhat ample conclusions ; and, as we 
must restrict ourselves to what has fallen under our own cog- 
nizance — solely for the sake of selecting a few examples out 
of a large and scattered mass of interesting relics discovered 
at Lenton, the reader may smile, perhaps, not only at the 
slendemess of the pegs, but at the tenuity of the threads from 
which our monasteries-in-the-air appear dependant The 
absolute certainty of what we have advanced, however, wall be 
as readily authenticated by the archaeologist, as if we had 
unpaved the streets and pulled dovm. the houses of Lenton 
built of the Abbey stones, and replaced ever}^ stone one upon 
another. The most interesting and beautiful of any of the 



13d RAMBLES ROGND NOTTINGHAM. 

relics we have seen, are the floor tiles. One fragment, mag- 
nificently coloured in red and yellow, and inlaid with portions 
of the words which indicate the name of the abbey: — 
ibfl^GSaiE : ZHifim^Zlh : in beautiful antique charac- 
ters, is in the possession of George Gordon Place, Esq., 
architect, Nottingham, and was exhibited by him at a recent 
meeting of the Diocesan Architectural Society. Of the fol- 
lowing articles, a few, such as the carved mullion, iron key, 
and pottery, are in our own possession. The most recent 
discoveries made in the course of digging in Old Church- 
sti'eet, were : — a small but extremely rare old coin, of Queen 
Mary, which the possessor presumes to be Mary Queen of 
Scots, and, if so, it is historically valuable for a variety of 
reasons — chiefly as determining tiie disputed point of her 
likeness. This point ai'ose from the confusion engendered 
by the rage at one period, prevalent amongst the French, and, 
subsequently, the Scotch ladies, for being painted a la Marie 
Stuart — a circumstance which produced so many originals, 
that it is now neaiiy impossible to tell what Mary Queen of 
Scots was like. Two authentic portraits alone are pointed 
out ; one is in the hall of the Douay College, in France, and 
another in possession of that eminent antiquarian. Lord 
James Stuart, at Moray House, Fifeshire. Supposing that, 
when Henry VIII. hanged Nicholas Heath, high as Haman, 
over the archway of his own abbey, at Lenton, the rage of the 
English Reformation stimulated at same time the destruction 
of tie monastery ; we should be at a loss to accoimt for a 
coin of his daughter Mary turning up amidst the ruins ; her 
coins bearing, moreover, the double likenesses of " Philip and 
Mary," do not at all correspond. But, long as the Enghsh 
Mary's unfortunate cousin was detained in this vicinity, it is 
by no means so improbable that her friends, visiters, or secret 
supporters, may have had some of her coins in their posses- 
sion. Blended, also, as the neighbourhood is, with associa- 
tions relating to the Babingtons, (whose arms remained, in 
Thoroton's time, impaled in a chamber window of an old 
house at Chilwell) — could this coin, we may enquire, have 
had any relation to the Babington conspiracy? Oi\ that 
head, as weU as on the subject of Mary's veritable likeness, 
we happen to possess a curious electrotyped cast of the forged 



RELICS LATELY DIICOVERED AT LENTON. 183 

medal, produced against the imprisoned queen, at her trial, 
for participating in Babington's conspiracy. It affects to bear 
the bastard Latin inscription maria stovvar regi scoti anglt, 
with a large bust of Mary, which, it is supposed, must have 
been hke, to render the forgery plausible which made her 
thus appear to pretend a right to Elizabeth's crown. The coin 
is very small, rude, and not intrinsically valuable, being com- 
posed of a silver alloy. Shortly before, a curious iron key, 
nov^ in our collection, was also found, much corroded, with an 
oval ring at the head, and highly ornamented and intricate in 
the wards. It had been made before pipes were adopted, and 
has, instead, a pike. A fragment of mediceval pottery, a rude 
red clay crock, or portion of a patera, was also turned up, 
and is now before us. A profusion of bones of men and 
horses, unaccompanied, however, by any other reliques, were 
disinterred about the same period, in Old Church-street — 
** heaped and pent — rider and horse," as if they had been 
slain in battle, and had hurriedly obtained ** Christian burial" 
on the spot, which happened to be, however, within the mo- 
nastic precincts, although we have shown that the monks 
themselves could give occasion to a little bloodshed. In the lane 
called "The Abbey,'* another description of bones, evidently 
those of oxen, &c., were turned up, and to this quarter it is 
that we therefore trace the kitchens. 

Skulls, &c., have been found in abundance all along the 
line of excavation, i. e. the streets surrounding the Abbey site. 
Undoubtedly the most remarkable ossifications which the 
ground has however yielded, were the bones found several 
years ago in a tremendous stone coffin, and transmitted by 
Mr. Froggatt, of Lenton Poplars, to Dr. Hood, of London. 
These huge gigantic bones were dug up whilst enclosing a 
garden at the extremity of Old Church-street, on the left of 
the way, exactly where the chancel and crypt of the old 
church would stand. The spot had previously been an 
open field, the property of Mr. Kirke Swann. The stone 
coffin measured, internally, the enormous size of almost eight 
feet, and the bones found within it coiTesponded in dimensions. 
Those which were entire consisted of two thigh bones, two 
tibiaB, or leg bones, and an under jaw, with the whole of the 
teeth in a state of wonderful preservation, (Mr. Froggatt 



184 BAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM 

observing that Paracelsus had not in those days destroyed 
the human frame with the drug mercury, and also that the 
§weet canes of our West Indies were not warring, as now> 
against the human teeth.) The bones were, in short,, 
gigantic, and more roughly ossified than any human remains 
almost ever seen.* During the excavations in the street 
termed " The Abbey," on part of which, intervening betwixt 
the cemetery and Mr. Place's residence the principal portion 
of the ancient priory, or abbey church must, as we have 
shown, hav6 stood, many carved stones, and fragments of 
window mullions, beautifully canned and moulded, w^re also 
turned up; a whole cart load of these stoned were drawn 
away to Hyson Green, to build a wall, and others of them 
used in repairing the roads of the village. One of the work-' 
men also found here, in a bent condition, a. splendid speci- 
men of the English rose noble of Edward III., (1344) in 
pure virgin gold, which, on being cleaned and straightened, 
presents as bright and beautiful an appearance as on the day 
it was minted. To any of our readers who may not have seen 
an example of this finest of old English coins — ^^the first after 
the Conquest struck in sufficient quantity to make it current 
-T-it may be mentioned that on the sharply relieved obverse 
of the piece, weighing five pennyweights, and flAttened 
(without milling) to the superficies of om' half-crown, it repr«- 
8ents a galley on the waves, with the red cjx}ss standard of 
St. George displayed from the poop. In the galley stands 
the half-length figure of the king, in knightly ajmour, sus- 
taining a drawn sword, and displaying a pointed shield, with 
the quarterings of France and England, the three lions pas- 
sant, and the fleur de lis ; what is singular, France precede 
ing. The legend on the obverse of this coin is " edwab : d: o : 
BEX X angl: d n s: hib: & aqit x" in 14th century lettering. 
This Perpetuation of the tide to the sovereignty of Aquitainis 
— the source of the long wars betwixt France and England — 
is worth the notice of the historical inquirer. Henry, Duke 
Normandy, afterwards Henry II. of England, having married 
Eleanor, the heiress of that dukedom, after she had been 
repudiated by Louis VI. of France, to whom she was first 

•Would it be too much to suggest that tike bones might be those ©f 
that '' man of mould," the founder- — 'VSilUom Peveril him^li'? — p. p. 



CURIOUS LEOEKD ON THE BOSE-NQBLE. 135 

vumed, andthus he acquired thatgreat fief of the Carlomagnian 
i^ooarchj,. which was, virtually, independant of the crown, 
^dwaxd IIL was by no means the last who adhered to these 
tilles of Freach sovereignty, and was, according to Thoroton, 
thd first of our Enghsh monarchs who adopted that of Lord of 
Ireland, aaseenupon this coin; but this must re&r to Edward I., 
virhose charter of privileges to the town of Nottingham, (1280) 
proceeds thus: — t* Edward, by the grace of God, King of Eng- 
land, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine/' To prevent 
t;he necessity of cutting pence, he coined numbers of farthings, 
and halfpence, a.d. 1300 ; and many of his copper coins, 
pence, halfpence, and farthings, were found in 1786, in tlie 
course of digging a drain a mile to tlie south of Nottingham. 
The reverse of Edward s gold noble bears a strange inscrip* 
tion, viz., **I. H. 0. x\utem: Transiens : Per: Medium: 
Jllorum : Ibat.*' — But Jesus jjossing through the midst of them 
went his way. It is from Luke iv. 30, that is to say, from th^ 
Vulgate, or some monkish version of the Scriptures — the 
words in the authorised version being without the initial 
letters. It may be remembered that, when beginning to 
preach, Jesus ** came to Nazareth, where he had been brought 
up ;" but, whilst all bare him witness, and wondered at the 
gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, they said, 
*' is not this Joseph's son?'* Having told them, however, that 
**no prophet is accepted in his own countiy," the whole 
synagogue became filled with wrath, '' and rose up and thrust 
him out of the city, and led him unto the l^^ow of the hill 
whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down 
headlong" — " but he passing through the midst of them went 
his way. ' Such are the circumstances connected with the 
quotation. It is certainly difficult to suggest in what manner 
it could appropriately form the most conspicuous motto on 
our EngUsh coins — not only on the rose nobles of Ed- 
i^irard — but of his successor, Eichard II., and indeed we are 
Bot without traces of it on our broad gold pieces down to 
Elizabeth, although the more usual inscription on our old 
coinage is ** Posui Deum aditorem meum — Le. " I have made 
God my defender" — the reverse of Edward Ill's quarter 
rose nobles being inscribed ** Exaltabitur in Gloria" — i.e. 
** He shall be raised in glory" — ^whilst Edward VI. wreathed 



136 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM 

around his youthful head the motto, ** Scutum Jidei protegee 
earn.'' — Le. " The shield of faith shall protect him" — showing 
tha*, like the figure of the cross, a religious invocation or 
symbol of any sort was, in those days, deemed appropriate. 
We mention the explanation of the first motto however, chiefly, 
because without investigation, a casual observer is apt to con- 
nect the inscription ** passing through the midst of them," 
with the figure of the galley upon the waves — ^preserved, by 
the way, on Elizabeth's coins after the motto had been aban- 
doned.* Another of the relics dug up on the Abbey site, 

♦Thoroton, or Throsby, records a curious fact respecting the rose 
nobles of Edward III. " Edward III.," he says, " was the first of our 
kings after the Conquest who (in 1344) coined gold in sufficient 
quantity to make it current. Several of his rose nobles and their 
halves were found among the rubbish carried from a house repaired 
upon the Long-row, Nottingham, in 1782. Among them there was one 
more rare than the rest, of the Duke of Burgundy and Earl of 
Flanders, and so much like the English noble, that it will not be ne- 
cessary to give a copy of both (accordingly, he sapiently figures the 
spurious coin!) They are the same in size and fineness of gold, 
about five pennyweights each; the difference is in the legend, and a 
small distinction in the arms which the duke holds on his arm as a 
shield ; for in the place of the lions there are bends dexter, while the 
fleur-de-lis are quartered (the duke being related to the French king) 
in the same way as our noble. The legend, P. H. S»Dei Gra: Dux 
Burg : Comes et Dux Fland. The initial letters are obscure, and pro- 
bably made so on purpose, that they might the easier pass for our 
English noble. It was thought the piece was struck by Philip, who 
became Duke of Burgundy 1349. The reverse is similar to our noble, 
and the motto, J. H, C. Autem Transieju Per Medium lUuroum Ibat : 
that is, ' Jesus passed through the midst of them, and went his way/ 
(5^ Luke, ch. iv., v. 30.) If it should be asked why should a foreign 
prince counterfeit the gold coin of England, and yet use as good gold 
as our own, I answer, it has mostly been a fatilt in this country to 
yalue gold at more silver than it was worth ; it is the fault of the pre- 
sent day [hear, hear I] ; but Edward, in his first coinage, attempted to 
make a considerable profit, and ordered the noble to go for more silver 
than any nation in Europe thought it worth ; hence, if they paid us for 
wool, <fec., in coined gold, less weight would do than if they paid us in 
ingots ; and no foreigner would pay in silver, because he could procure 
Flanders rose nobles at ten per cent, cheaper than we valued them at: 
The people of England were so sensible of this, that they refused to 
give change for the king's nobles, though by proclamations and threats 
he strove to enforce the circulation ; and the parliament, to protect the 
people, passed a law that * none should be compelled to take the new 
money within the sum of twenty shillings,' which at that time was 
nearly a poimd weight of silver, and in the purchase of provisions, 
labour, <fec., was equal to ten pounds sterling of the present money." 



BESORT OF THE COUET TO THE VICINITY. 137 

and now in the possession of Mr. Hickling, mine host of the 
Kose and Crown, at Lenton, was a stirrup-iron, of burnished 
steel, in form not unlike a species of door scraper, but obvi- 
ously one of those adapted for the long plated and articulated 
steel shoe of the knight in armour, with which we are still 
familiar, in ancient tapestries and the illuminations of 
Froissart. 

These relics recal, no doubt, many and widely scattered 
passages in the monastic history of Lenton, which we must 
shortly hasten to conclude, in favour of the domestic, educa- 
tional, and industrial manifestations of the spot on which it 
still remains for us to touch. We would only observe, by 
way of completing the touches already attempted, that no 
one who knows the extraordinary relationship of Edwaid III. 
to the spot, will wonder at relics of his reign turning up so 
profusely in the neighbourhood. The loyalty and devotion 
of Eland of Basford it was which enabled Edward to dissever,' 
in 1330, the disgraceful connection fonned by his mother, 
Isabella of France, with Roger Earl Mortimer, and by ob- 
taining secret entrance to the Castle of Nottingham, to arrest 
the traitor in his den. It was in fact at Nottingham, in 
1334, the very year of the famous gold coinage, that Edward, 
on his return from Scotland, called a council of his lords 
spiritual and temporal, on the 13th of July, on the state of 
the realm. In 1337 he held a parliament in Nottingham ; 
and in 1357 another in the Castle. These meetings, but 
more especially those of the sumptuous and profligate suc- 
cessor of Edward, Richard II., would circulate money 
abundantly in the neighbourhood ; and an eminent religious 
house such as Lenton was more than likely to overflow with 
aristocratic guests on these occasions. Richard II. attempted 
at Nottingham, in 1387, his memorable coup d'etat against 
the liberties of the people, abetted by the judges of the realm, 
and resisted by the sheriffs and the haul noblesse, and 
attempted to levy an army to enforce the wrong. In 1302 
he summoned another council at Nottingham, on the Feast of 
St. John, arraigned before it the mayor, sheriffs, and alder- 
men of the city of London, and put them in prison for having 
denied him a loan of a thousand pounds ; and even removed 
the Court of Chancery from London to Nottingham, as a 



139 JU3|BLKS ROU^D NOTTI^aEAH, 

mark of his displeasure against the one, and his fayoar lot 
the other. Important councils were also held by Richard aS 
Nottingham in 1398 and in 1397, when all the justices and 
peers of the realm were summoned to meet him for the dis- 
cussion of weighty affairs of state. The best pi'oof of the 
estimation to which the neighbourhood arose by being made 
the chief centre of these national transactions is to be founds 
however, in the enfranchisement of Lenton Priory by Hichard^ 
in 1303, a step by which the brethren, ceawng to be aliens, 
became denizens of England, and their house, although re- 
taining the designation of a priory, ceased to be subject to 
the great foreign abbey of Clugny, and in fact became an 
independent monastery in itself. This concession was of 
infinite importance to the monks, and marks, in fact, a higher 
degree of favour than at first sight appeal's. Early in the 
reign of Edward III. the spirit of the people of. England had 
been roused against foreign ecclesiastics, and the Prioiy of 
Lenton was, amongst other houses o^s'jaing foreign jurisdic- 
tion, placed under sequesti'ation. The Rotuli ParliamenU 
18th Edward III. (1345) bear that "the commc ns find great de- 
fault of provisions coming from Rome, whereby strangers 
were enabled within this realm to eiyoy ecclesiastical digni- 
ties, and showed divers inconveniences ensuing thereby, viz., 
decay of prosperity, transporting of treasure to nourish the 
king's enemies, discovering the secrets of the realm, &c. 
They require a remedy ; neither would nor could bear thos^ 
strange oppressions, and demand help to expel out of this 
realm the Pope's power by force." This was English patriotic 
feeling in 1346 ! The king, in reply, ** wiUeth that between 
lords and commons some remedy may be had." In the 
twentieth year of his reign it was accordingly ordered, " that 
all lorei'^m monks do quit this realm by Michaelmas, and 
that their livings be disposed of to young English scholars ; 
for that many of such aliens as be advanced to livings were 
in their own country but shoemakers, tailors, or chamberlains 
to cardinals," facts which may account for their handicraft 
skill, one thing for which the monks of old merit praise in 
the crude eras of our history. Here also we may perceive how 
thQ charter of denizenship by Richard II. was preceded by 
that sort of reformation in the monasteiy, whiph was exactly 



MONKISH ABUSES OF CHJJBG^ SEAyiCE. 139 

calcalaited to warrant the naturali^atifm of its inmates. Tb^ 
monk3 seem speedily to have risen in popularity after the aot 
of liichard II. Thus, John l^lumptre, when he founded his 
hospital at the end of the Bridges, in Nottingham, ll^th of 
January, 1400, for the honour of God, and of the annunci^: 
tion of the Blessed Virgin, (for the support g{ thirteen poor 
women) ordained within the chapel he had built within the 
hospital a perpetual chantry of two chapbins, who should 
celebrate divine service at the altar of the Annunciation for. 
the welfare of the king, the founder and his wife, and the 
whole county of Nottingham^ and the souls of all faithful 
pei«sons deceased — a most comprehensive intention, which he 
could . find none more suitable to execute than the convent 
aad priory of Leuton, to whom he accordingly left the pre- 
fiK?atation after his decease. The monastic orders were the 
great impropriators, of the English ecclesiastical benefices, 
and at the dissolution of the nionasteries, in the reign of 
Henry VIII., held s^proprijations extending to above a thir4 
of all the parishes in the kingdom. A small part of the 
actual income tiey inferred to suffice for the officiating 
priest, and appropriated the remainder remorselessly to 
uphold the grandeur and minister to the luxury of their own 
fraternities, provided they kept the churches in repair, and 
supplied the religious services within them. After an inef- 
fectu^ attempt to remedy these abuses, by the fifteenth of 
Richard II. it was ordained by the statue, Hemy IV., c. lH, 
** Thai, the monks should be confined within the rules of their 
own cloisters, and that the vicar should be a secular person, 
not a member of any religious house ; that he shall be vicar 
perpetual, not removeable at the caprice of the monastery, 
and shall be canonically instituted and inducted, and suffi- 
ciently endowed at the discretion of the ordinary for these 
three express purposes : to perform divine service, instruct 
the people, and keep hospitality." At the period of the dis- 
solution of this religious house by Henry VIII., Lenton 
Priory most probably had attained the same high pitch of 
corruption which called forth the reprobation of all the 
moralists of the age, and furnished the rapacious occupant of 
the throne of England, in most instances, with too valid an 
excuse for stripping the monks of their possessions. Not 



140' RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

that these evils were of recent growth ; it is certain that in 
the course of the fifteenth century the discipline of the cloister 
had become generally relaxed and abused throughout the 
whole of Europe. " Renunciation of property," says Morton, 
" abstinence and simplicity in food and clothing were now 
rarely practised. Not only the abbots, and other superiors, 
kept luxurious tables, dwelt in magnificent halls, wore costly 
garments, and were attended by youths of good families as 
pages, in rich liveries, but the private monks also spumed 
the sober fare, homely garb, and devout retirement of their 
predecessors. They kept horses, and upon various pretences 
were continually going about in public ; they lived separately 
upon portions allowed them out of the common stock ; they 
bought their own clothes, which were of the finest materials 
that could be procured; and the common dormitory in which 
they slept, was now partitioned off into chambers. That 
many of them greatly erred in weightier matters than these, 
was for no slight reasons commonly asserted and believed ; 
but these were the principal grounds upon which the visiters 
who from time to time were sent by the chief authorities to 
examine into^the conduct of the brethren of the respective 
orders rested their complaints.* How bluff King Hal gener- 
ally dealt with these recreants, and how his example was 
employed as a menace in the endeavours to reform them else- 
where than in England, is strikingly illustrated in Sir 
William Eure's Lettera to Lord Cromwell.f The ^irited 
Scotch king, James V., (father of Queen Mary) had been 
listening to Lindsay of Pitscottie*s long play, The Satire of the 
Three Estaitis, as enacted before him at Linlithgow Palace in 
January, 1540, in which the abbot says — 

** My prior is ane man of great devotion, 
Tharfor, daylie, he gettis ane double portion"* 

severe satire, truly — and the king was justly enraged at these 
pictures of luxuriousness and extortion. We are told by 
Eure that, at the conclusion of the piece, " the King of 
Scottis did call upon the Busshope of Glascoe, being chan- 
cellor, and divers other busshopes, exhorting thaim to reform 
their fascions and maners of ly ving, saying, that oneless they 

♦Monastic Annals, p. 238. fM.S. Bib. Reg., 7 G., xvi. 



PBIVILEaED FAIRS OF LENTON. 141 

> 

soe did, he wotdd send six of the proudeste of thaym unto his 
uncle of England^ and as thoes wer ordered so he wold order all 
the rest that wolde not amend.'' A little money transaction of 
Henry's with the town of Nottingham, throws, perhaps, how- 
ever, additional light on the unliappy fate of Nicholas Heath, 
the last prior of Lenton, " convict and attaint of high treason." 
The town was decaying and even dangerous, being, in fact, 
one of those at that time included in the public statute 
ordaining the speedy rebuilding of its ruinous houses ; yet, to 
aid him in his war against France and Holland, his highness 
contrived to borrow from the inhabitants the sum of 
£147 13s. 4d. ; for his acceptance for the amount remains 
unretired in the hands of the corporation. Nicholas Heath 
was probably not so compliant, and suffered, the fate of a 
traitor, his crime being that of denying the king's supremacy. 
The confiscated lands and possessions of the monks were put 
under commission, and sold; the manor falHng into the 
bands of the present lay impropriators, the Gregorys, of 
Harlaxton Hall — William Gregory, in the sixth Charles I., 
(1631) having paid J^2,603 ; and his son, subsequently, £1,460 
for the fee farm, to the son of King Charles II., the Duke of 
Kichmond. The monks at all times were sedulous to estab- 
lish under their fostering care and protection, marts of trade ; 
and as Lenton never could, in this respect, aspire to emulate 
Kottingham, they estabhshed in it, as early as the reign of 
Henry I., the 11th of November, or Martinmas fair. From 
the connection of the Duke of Richmond with the fee farm, 
or as a condition annexed to its purchase by the son of Wil- 
liam Gregory, the latter, after the extinction of the monks, 
obtained from Charles II., the privilege of another fair being 
held on Lenton Sands, in Whitsun-week, yearly. The 
Martinmas fair, as Throsby tells us, was foimerly of eminence, 
and served nearly all the shopkeepers of Nottingham with 
every necessary sold in shops, or in London. The charter of 
King Henry L, granted to the monks, must have been held 
to have perished with them ; and this of King Charles was, 
doubtless, obtained as a substitute — otherwise, the right of 
fair granted by Henry I. to the monastery, was " a fair of 
eight days at the feast of St. Martin, commanding that no 
man should buy or seU in Nottingham during that time, and 



14'3 RA>rBLK8 ROUND KOTTIKGHaM. 

that all persMis coming to the fair; and fettiming, should be 
free from plaints,*' (or law proceedings). It fbUoFWia from the 
tdatitntion) of the "first of these fairs, at Martinmas, that such 
must have been the dedication-day of the ancient conventual 
church, since it was customary for ** fairft" and " wakes'* to be 
instituted, not only in connection with the sanctuary, but 
absolutely held within its pre incts. Bishop Kennett, to 
confirm the origin of fairs ffom the dedication of churches, 
says, ** it is observable that, on this account, fairs were gener- 
ally kept in church-yards, and even in churches, till the 
indecency and scandal were so great as t» want a reformation/' 
In 1230, (16 Henry III.) the archdeacons of the diocese of 
liincoln made inquiry, at their visitations, iiito the abuse ; 
soon after, Ihe king forbade the practice, at Northampton ; 
and, thereupon, Robert Grosthead, Bishop of Lincoln fol- 
lowed his example, by prohibiting it throughout his diocese. 
Still, however, it prevailed, and so late as 1498, the markets 
and fairs held '* in the holy church and in sanctuary," are 
described as attended with the grossest excesses on the part 
of the chapmen, their wives, and lemans ; " thieves, mychers, 
and cut-purses, as well as die prelates and curates of the places, 
who took money from the chapmen." When the plague of 
1608 was raging in some parts of the country, nil the inhabit- 
ants bf Nottingham were "forbade going to Lenton fair, 
unless to buy horses or beasts, on pain of imprisonment and 
disfranchisement ; and none to go there to buy London 
wares, or to deal with such wares for two months." It was 
ordered further, ** that a suflBcient watch be set betwixt this 
town and Lenton, viz., at the bridge-end, 4 persons ; Castle- 
gate, 5 ; the Postern-bridge, near to the Park, 1 ; Chapel-bar, 
2 ; Sheep-lane end, 1 ; Cow-lane bar, 1 ; at the Malt-kiln, 1 ; 
St. John's 1 ; at the Tyle-house, 2 ; and 4 honest men to be 
assigned to go to Lenton to observe and see if any one of the 
inhabitants have oftended against this order." 

To sum up a few of the historical reminiscences, it may be 
stated, that it has been alleged that William PiBveril, in 1138, 
was distinguished by holding the chief command at the battle 
of the standard, gained chiefly by the bowmen of Notting- 
hamshire hastily assembled. But, whilst Ailred, the Abbot of 
KicN-alle, the principal historian of this event, takes for his 



USEFULNESS OF THE MONKS OF OLD. 143 

hero Walter d'Esped, £lie founder of his abbey, and mentions 
frealy the names of Robert de Ferrers, and Gilbert de Lacy, 
amongst those of the commanders — ^little mention is made in 
history warranting any belief in this circumstance, apply ass 
it may to the first William Peveril, or to Sir William, his 
son. It must also be remembered that, rich as may appear 
to be the endowments bestowed on Lenton Abbey, by Wil- 
liam Peveril and his men, extending not only to the lands 
and mills, but to the rich fishings of the Trent, it was, in 
point of fact, only two parts of the tithes with which, in most 
instances, the monks were endowed, and not in the first 
instance the lands themselves. Amongst the prominent 
benefactors of Lenton Abbey, we may direct attention to the 
iiame of Hugh de Burun, the ancestor of the Byrons. Mr. 
Bailey, our couiity historian, in the course of Ws industrious 
genealogical researches, has (Connected with Lenton the origin 
<jff the well-known Nottingham family of Ingram, who appear, 
'he says, to have been the original owners of the water-mill at 
Lenton, near Wollaton Lodge — this mill, in aU ancient 
writings, being termed " Ingram's." It was afterwards the 
property of Sir Godfrey Bakefuz, who, with his wife, the Lady 
Amicia, (how pretty the names of these old ladies !) demised 
it to the prior and convent of Lenton, upon condition that 
-the people of their house and family of Lenton should be 
allowed to grind there for the toll of the 20th grain. With 
regard to the Ingrams, we find the prior and convent, in 
1384, confirming to Robert, son of Ingelram, of Nottingham, 
land and meadow-toft, and croft, which belonged to their 
church of St. Stephen, Sneynton ; and afterwards granting to 
•Bobert Ingelram, Knight, out of the same source, an annuity 
of 21s. 6d. for lite— for his counsel and service had. With 
regard to Bakefuz handing over to them the mill— we may 
remind the reader that monks, in those days, were different 
from what they afterwards turned out, when they had rendered 
themselves the opprobrium of society. The monks of France, 
in particular, were introduced into this country by the Nor- 
man kings and nobles, for the advancement of the arts, as 
well as the religion of peace — both of which they unfortu- 
nitely left it chiefly to them to practice. The monks were 
then, howev-er, the very soul of industry. They were car\'ers. 



144 RAMBLES ROU^'D NOTTINGHAM. 

painters, joiners, smiths, stone-masons, vine-dressers, and 
husbandmen. Even in England they sat under their own 
vines and fig-trees, and made their own wine, as well as drank 
it — a thing which has hardly been done since. In the 
meadows of Lenton, it was the monks who made the hay ; 
in the orchards, it was they who tended and secured tiie 
fruits. Their earnings were, in the first instance, col- 
lected into a common fund, devoted to charitable and 
religious purposes, though in the end perverted to all the 
purposes of ostentation and voluptuousness. Alms and obla- 
tions were indeed the chief recognized forms under which the 
monks were, at one time, at all warranted in touching this 
world's goods. Thus we find Eustachius de Mortein, Lord 
of WoUaton, confirming alms given by Robert, his grand- 
father, and Adam, his father, to God and the Holy Church of 
the Trinity at Lenton, and the Clugniac monks there serving 
God, viz , sixteen shillings out of that which Gerard de Algar, 
of Algarthorpe, held of him and his ancestors (Basford Wong.) 
We have mentioned something of the law-suits of the monks, 
we ought to have added, as a characteristic trait of the settle- ? 
ment of the forty years suit already I'eferred to, that the prior 
of Lenton agreed, for one thing, to pay a pound of frankin- 
cense every year at Attenborough feast. But the Lenton 
monks had another law-suit, scarcely less memorable. In 
1266 the gi-eat law-suit was ended betwixt Roger, prior of Lenton, 
and Tortius, son of Adam Wolf, a canon of Aunguin, rector 
of the church of St. George's, at Barton-in-Fabis — the prior 
having to pay him three hundred marks, wanting twelve, and 
taking his parsonage to farm for five years, at thirty- two 
marks per annum — ^good new and lawful sterling money, 
13s. 4d. to the mark — on account of having presented Thomas 
Raley, whom it took plaintiff nine yeais to get excluded by 
means of apostolic letters, <&c. At the dissolution, it is said 
that the corporation of Nottingham applied for this advowson, 
but Henry VIII. conferred it on the see of York, with which 
the patronage remains. 

Having adverted to the sort of traffic, or speculation, in- 
dulged in by the monks in the supply of church services, 
with a view of pocketing any differences accruing on the 
emoluments, we may just quote two opposite instances, in 



LAST TBAN6AGTI0NS OF THE MONKS. 145 

one of which (1269) the prior and convent of Lenton passed 
tlieir great and small tithes of Stapleford to the monks of 
Newstsad, for five marks annual rent, but of course the latter 
were thereupon to see after the church ; for it is stipulated 
that if excluded from it, this agreement was to be void. In 
the other instance, in the fourth year of the reign of Ed- 
ward in., (1330) the priory of Lenton procured the vicarage 
of Beeston, to be appropriated, and the church made a chapel 
only — ^Lenton thus becoming the mother church. This 
stroke of ecclesiastical polity was effected by the help of Popes 
Alexander III. and Lucius II., great friends of the English 
alien monasteries, who directed letters against the parish- 
ioners and vicar of Beeston to the foregoing effect, ordering • 
also the repair of the chancel, and the payment of twenty-two 
shillings yearly by the vicar to the convent of Lenton. 
Thomas Ellingham was the name of the prior of Lenton, 
who (9, Henry V., 1421) alienated to Hugh Willoughby, 
and his sons Eichard, Nicholas, and Thomas, land within 
the precinct of Radford for two shillings annual-rent, but 
with strict dupHcation fines for arrears, the prior retaining 
the right of free passage through the lands. One of the last 
monkish transactions occurred close upon the dissolution, in 
the thirtieth year of the reign of Henry YHL, (1638) when 
John Plough, junior, an Oxonian, considered a man of great 
learning in his day, was instituted in one of the pieces of 
preferment belonging to Lenton Priory, succeeding his uncle 
in their rectory of St. Peter's, Nottingham, the advowson of 
which had been purchased for him for one term of Thomas 
Hobson, prior of the monastery. Plough became, according 
to Wood, " a zealous minister of God's Word in Edward the 
Sixth's time, but was obliged, on the accession of Mary, to 
flee beyond seas." 

We may now easily trace the transmissions of property at 
Lenton from the hands of the original possessors to that of 
the Gregory family, the principal proprietors, and lords of the 
manor, and of the family of Wright, who, besides Lord Mid- 
dleton and Henry Smith, Esq., (banker) also hold estates at 
Lenton — 1 12 acres of his lordship's park being included in 
the parish, which contains 2,610 acres of rich sandy land, 
rated to the county rate at £7,937. But in the first place it 



146 BAMBLEB BOUND NOTTINGHAM 

must be stated that manufactures, rather than agricultare, 
have imparted the greatest impulse toy the progress of the 
place, since the soil came into the hands of its spirited modem 
proprietors ; it being a common subject of remark, that Len- 
ton has increased its population five times over within the 
last fifty years — the census finding in it only 193 souls, 
whilst in the enumeration of 1861, it stands for 6,590 people, 
inhabiting 1,089 houses. 

In 30th Henry VIII., (1638) when the last overt act of a 
proprietary nature with which we are acquainted, was exer- 
cised without objection by the expiring priory, in the institu- 
tion of the Rev. John Plough, junior, to the rectory of St. 
Peter, we also find still upon record, ** the orchard of the 
priory of Lenton," of that year, as already noted. Nor do we 
find Henry VIII. disposing of the Lenton monastic property 
till the thirty-sixth year of his reign, (1544) when he " in 
consideration of the good, true, faithful, and acceptable ser- 
vices of his beloved and faithful servant, Francis Leek, Knight, 
to him before those times many waies performed," granted 
him many lands and tithes in Derbyshire, belonging to several 
monasteries ; and, amongst the rest, some lands and tithes 
in Home, Dunston, Whitwell, and Ledworth, in the Peak, 
lately belonging to the monastery of Lenton, and then in the 
king's hands, (as formerly noticed) by reason of the attainder 
of Nicholas Heath,* last prior of the monastery, lately 

* It is not a little singular that this should occur so near in date to 
that of one of the most celebrated ecclesiastics of his time, also pros- 
cribed and attainted for denial of the royal supremacy, viz., Nicholas 
Heath, sixtieth Archbishop of York, who died, however, in the 8th of 
Blizaheth, 1566. He was a favourite of Henry, having been promoted 
by him to the see of Worcester ; but deprived by his successor, Edward 
VI., for refusing the oafh of supremacy. Archbishop Heath was the 
staunch adherent of Eome, and being restored to his see of Worcester, 
by Queen Mary, at the period of whose death he was Lord High Chan- 
cellor of England, in 1555, he was advanced by that sovereign to the 
arehiepiscopal dignity. His election was confirmed by the last papal 
bull ever acknowledged in this province — the buU of Pope Paul IV. 
With these misadventures of this ecclesiastic before us, we are, at the 
same time, unable to trace any certain evidence of the alleged execution 
of Nicholas Heath, the'prior. Of his attainder and the confiscation of 
his property, the Leek Charter, however, furnishes documentary testi. 
mony. Now, is there not some mistake in regard to there being two 
Nicholas Heaths, high dignitaries of the Romish church, thus attainted? 
We merely suggest the doubt. — p. p. 



INQUIRY INTO THE IDENTITY OF PRIOR HEATH. 147 

attainted and convicted of high treason. King Henry VIII. 
died 28th January , 1547 ; so that, although he had, ever 
since commencing the work of dissolution, been busily 
and rapidly dispensing, frequently to the lineal descendants 
of the founders, but still more frequently to his own especial 
favourites, the rich possessions of the monks ; it would appear 
that, save for this inopportune treason of the lord prior 
Heath, the monastery of Lenton might have escaped appro- 
priation — never having been placed under commission. How 
this exemption could have occurred it is difficult to conjecture, 
were Nicholas Heath the person for whom we take him. The 
king 8 supremacy which Heath renounced, dates so far back 
as 1639, when Henry was prosecuting his suit of divorce 
from Katharine of Aragon, and paving the way for his mar- 
riage with Anne Boleyn. In order to stop appeals to Rome, 
and obviate the dangerous consequences of papal excommu- 
nications and interdicts, he first obtained, in 1532, an act of 
his clergy in convocation, acknowledging him head of the 
English church, and making a formal submission to him, as 
invested with the supreme prerogative. This step was con- 
firmed by act of parliament, November, 1634. Probably, the 
conformity of Thomas Hobson, then prior of the monastery, 
may have saved it from instant spoliation. Meantime Henry, 
fey his letters patent, was disposing of all the surrounding 
monastic properties. For instance, in November, 1639, the 
last prior, and fifteen brethren, of Worksop, surrendered that 
monastery to George Lawson, Richard Belassez, William 
Blithman, and James Rokeby, the king's commissioners — 
the very men who probably visited, about the same period, 
the monasteries of Newstead, Welbeck, Thurgajton, and 
Beauvale; for on 28th May, 1540, Henry, by his letters 
patent, disposed of the possessions of Newstead to theByrons — 
3rd July, part of Worksop, to the Deightons — in the succeeding 
year, Beauvale, to Sir William Hussey — ^in July of that year, 
part of Welbeck, to the Pierreponts— to the Shrewsbury family, 
m 1542, and tiie Clinton family in 1643, other manors of 
Worksop and Welbeck. Demthorp, a manor of the mon- 
astery of Thurgarton, was granted in the same year as Lenton, 
1644. But, besides the grant to Sir Francis Leek, New- 
thorpe, a manor of Lenton priory, was granted in 1545, to 



148 RAMBL8BS BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

John and George Mylle. The king died in the course of 
about a year afterwards, (28th January, 1547.) Tanner states 
that the monasteiy of Lenton was granted, the 5th of Bliza- 
beth, (1563) to John Harrington. But, the principal manor 
must have remained in the hands of the crown tiU granted 
by James I. to the city of London, who sold it (4, Charles I.) 
to WilHam Gregory, Esq,, of Nottingham, as particularised in 
the title of lordship prefixed to this chapter. The vicarage of 
Lenton, valued at £12, under monastic regime, and at £9 in 
the king's books, is now a living nominally valued at £139, 
in the gift of the crown. According to Dugdale, the yearly 
revenue of the monastic house was a princely one in its day, 
viz., £329 15s. lOd. ; according to Leland, £332, and accord- 
ing to Speed, £417 19s. 3d. The pounds being real pounds 
weight of silver — each worth eight, at least, of ours. 

To the lordships of WUham Peveril, in the time of the 
Conquest, was attached a jurisdiction known as the Court 
of the Honor of Peveril — a jurisdiction ultimately extended 
by extraordinary annexations, at long subsequent periods, 
over one hundred and seventy Nottinghamshire, and one 
hundred and twenty Derbyshire towns and villages, besides 
detached places, (some of great importance) in Leicestershire 
and Yorlihire. The sittings of the Peveril Court were 
originally held in Nottingham, in the chapel of St. James, 
probably the most ancient of the rehgious foundations of the 
*ewn, described as haying been situated on the north side of 
St. James 's-street, about sixty yards from the bottom, until 
removed in 1316 temp, Edward II. to the County Hall.* 
Edward 11. appears to have exempted the town of Nottingham 
from the jurisdiction of this court, and to have given the 
chapel to the Carmelite Friars, of whose convent some of the 
curious old houses oif the right hand side of Friar*s-yard, 
Friar's Lane, Nottingham, are still remaining. After Wil- 
liam Peveril, and Sir William Peveril, his son, besides their 
enemy Ralph Pagnel, (under the Empress Maud) John Earl 
of Morteign, afterwards King John, Robert de Vavasour, and 
Hugh de Stapleford had successively administered the office, 

* Afterwards, on the revival of the court, it was for a time, at all 
events, held in some old malt-rooms, that, until about ten or twelve 
years ago, stood on the site of the chapel. — Commv/nicated Nate. 



COURT OF THE HONOR OF PEVERIL. 149 

tlie Stewardship or Bailiwick was conferred by Edward III- 
on William de Eland, of Basford, who had been chiefly instru- 
mental in aiding him in the capture of Roger Earl of Morti- 
mer, in Nottingham Castle, by conducting the party through 
the secret passage of Mortimer's Hole; and the court was 
thereupon removed to and held at, Basford, throughout an 
uninterrupted series of years prior to 1600. To this court, 
once the dread and terror of all amenable to its jurisdiction, 
from the formidable powers of imprisonment attached to it 
for judgments in prosecutions for debt and trespass, and the 
frightful expenses with which its suits were attended, a serious 
blow was imparted by the keeper, John Sands, having, at a 
later period, been necessitated to enlarge the prisoners, who 
were confined without food, or any provision for their suste- 
nance, upon being threatened with a charge of murder. The 
successors* of William de Eland in the jurisdiction were, 
according to RastaD, Rowland Revell, who married his heiress ; 
Randall Revell and Hugh Revell, his successors ; and then 
the Hutchinsons, of Basford, a collateral branch of those of 
Owthorpe, to whom the Algarthorpe estates of Eland were 
sold. These Hutchinsons, however, suffered the court to 
lapse into abeyance ; and in the fourteenth year of the reign 
of Charles I., (1638) the king, by letters patent, revived the 
powers of the Court of the Honor of Peveril, the stewardship 
of which had been attached by Edward III. to the manor of 
Algarthorpe. Lord Goring now became steward, his deputy 
being a person of the name of Chadwick, of whom Mrs. Lucy 
Hutchinson speaks as " at first a boy that scraped trenchers 
in the house of one of the poorest justices in die county" — 
" fi^om whence this boy picked up such ends of law (I know 
not how) that he got to be a parcel judge in Ireland, and 
came over to his own country swelled with the reputation of 
it, and set on foot a base, obsolete, arbitrary court there, 
which the Conqueror of old had given to one Peveril, his bas- 
tard, which this man entitling my Lord Goring unto, executed 
the office under him to the great abuse of the country." From 
Lord Goring, the stewardship descended to his son Charles, 
Earl of Norwich, to Henry Goring, to Charles, second son of 
Lord Norwich, to. Lord Wigome, and to his sons Charles Lord 
Herbert and Arthur Lord Somerset. It was then granted by 
* History of Southwell. 



150 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

Queen Anne, in the fifth year of her reign, to Sir Thomas, 
Willoughby, afterwards first Lord Middleton, whence it has 
descended to the present lord, and by him the jurisdiction 
has not many years ceased to be executed as high steward, 
through the medium of R. Barker, Esq., as deputy; Black- 
ner says, that when first the court was removed to Lenton, 
its prison was under the care of Mr. Wombwell, who built 
there a coffee-house and prison ; and in his own rambling 
way relates a piteous story of having gone one highly impro- 
bable and unpropitious day to visit the coffee-house, and 
stumbling upon a haggard and starving prisoner confined in 
the prison without food or fire. This court of pleas for the 
recovery of small debts and damages, in cases of trespass, now 
practically, if not entirely superseded by the recently insti- 
tuted county courts, used to be held periodically, at Lenton, 
in the large dining-room of the White Hart Inn, (afterwards 
at Radford, in the old workhouse), and, notwithstanding 
the extent of the jurisdiction, of which some idea may be 
gathered from the fact that, under the extensions granted by 
Charles I. and Charles IL, places such as Rotherham and 
Sheffield were included, its writs were returnable next court 
day. The high steward presided at a general court held 
twice a year, called the " Court of Trials." 

The modem aspect of the village of Lenton we have 
always deemed fraught with all the softest phases of land- 
scape beauty. The retired villas and semi-detached residences 
in which its ramifications abound, no less than the numerous 
cottage homes, mostly embowered in gardens, fruit trees, and 
shrubberies, of which it is composed, give it a quiet and 
peaceful air of retreat, which tempts the application of the 
second motto prefixed to the present Ramble. In the homely 
but hearty English of Crabbe, the cottage poet : — 

" To every cot the lord's indulgent mind 
Has a small space for garden ground assigned ; 
Her&'-till retnm of mom, dismiss'd the &rca — 
The careful peasant plies the sinewy arm ; 
Warm'd as he works and casts his looks around. 
On every foot of that improving ground j 
It is his own he sees : lus master's eye 
Peers not about some secret fault to spy; 



FRUITFUL GARDENS OF LBNTON. 161 

Nor voice severe is there, nor censure known< — 
Hope, profit, pleasure — these are all his own. 
Here grow the humble chives, and hard by them, 
The leek, with crown globose, and reedy stem ; 
High climb .his pnlse in many an even row ;* 
Deep strike the ponderous roots in soil below ; 
And herbs of potent smell and pungent taste, 
Give a warm relish to the night's repast ; 
Apples and cherries, grafted by his hand, 
And clustered nuts, for neighbouring market, stand. 

Nor thus concludes his labour; near the cot 
The reed-fence rises round some fav'rite spot, 
Where rich carnations, pinks with purple eyes. 
Proud hyacinths, the least some florists prize ; 
Tulips tall stemmed, and pounc'd auriculas rise.** 

The Lenton pleasure and profit gardens doubtless contribute 
ample supplies of garden stuffs to Nottingham Wednesdays 
and Saturdays markets, (amongst the best supplied in Eng- 
land) and success invariably attends the growers and fanciers 
in the floral and horticultural competitions, not to menticm 
the far-famed gooseberry sweepstakes of the season. We 
have incidentally enumerated some of the more important 
neighbouring residences — but it would be impossible, in a 
passing sketch, to do justice to all — 

" Deep in the bottom of the flowery vale, 
With blooming sallows and the leafy twine 
Of verdant alders fenced." 

The busy tradesman, after his arduous attentions to business, 
finds it a pleasant mile-and-a-half walk from Nottingham to 
Lenton, and embowers him3elf accordingly in its beauties, 
rising early and returning tresh in the morning to his busi- 
ness. It will not be deemed invidious if we mention that 
our worthy publisher lives there. But, in fact, the same is 
the case with many gentlemen connected with the banks and 
other places of business. In the height of summer, when 

• Nothing more striking or beautiftil occurs in the industrial cottage 
and allotment gardens around Lenton, than the high adorning rows of 
well staked French beans, or scarlet runners, growing in almost un- 
paralleled luxuriance, and covered with their brilliant inflorescence or 
rich clustering pods. 



152 BAMBLES BOUND NOTTTNGHitM:. 

these gardens are blazing with flowers, we may certainly ex- 
claim with honest Ben: — 

" I have not seen the place conld more surprise. 
More beautiful in Nature's varied dyes. 
Lo ! the blue bind- weed doth itself enfold 
With honeysuckle, and both ttiese entwine 
Themselves with briony and jessamiQe* 
To cast a kind and odoriferous shade. 
The balmy west wind blows, and every sense 
Is sooth'd and courted : — trees have got their heads, 
The fields their coats, the dewy shining meads 
Do boast the gaudy hly and the rose, 
And every bower doth laugh as zephyr blows." 

Ben Johnson, 

Some of the larger residences and grounds lie dispersed at 
intervals, upon the rise beyond the village, and of these, such 
l-esidences as those of Lenton Firs, belonging to T. Adams, 
Esq., head of the extensive Nottingham lace house of Messrs. 
Adams, Page, and Co., would be well worth describing. At Old 
Lenton, we ought to notice the establishments of Mr. Hick- 
ling, farmer ; Mr. Styring, Wheat Sheaf Inn ; facing the lane 
leading from the park, the neat residence of Mrs. Bardsley, 
with beautiful garden and grounds; also, those of Mr. 
M. Browne, coroner, Mr. Massey, Mr. Elsey, Mr. H. Rogers. 
At Mr. Godfrey's, White Hart Inn, there is an excellent and 
well-frequented bowling green, &c. Amongst other private 
residences, mention must also be made of those of John 
Morley, Esq., Lenton Hall, (formerly occupied by Captain 
Legard) ; Samuel Morley, Esq., Lenton Grove, of Mrs. 
Thorpe, of Mrs. Fisher, and of Mrs. Turner. But the 
more modem houses, having all, however, ample enclosed 
gardens, are situated towards New Lenton, a quarter of a 
mile nearer Nottingham than Old, and chiefly adjoining 
the line of Church-street. Amongst these, we must notice 
the abode of two benevolent ladies. Misses Frances Charlotte, 
and Anne Wright — because — 

" the door 
By which the poor or pilgrim never passed, 
Still open, speaks the owners' bounteous hearts — 

and because a large portion of the ground (sixteen acres) form- 
ing the site of New Lenton, and now, we believe held, as 
lord of the manor, by their brother, Francis Wright, Esq., of 



AGRICULTURE OF LENTON. 153 

Osmaston, was purchased by their progenitor, John Wright, 
Esq., of Lenton, for £100 an acre, was successfully sold for 
building purposes at £1,000 an acre, and so gave rise to this 
large and populous feature of the place. Nor must we forget 
the neighbouring farms —as, for instance, the Dunkirk farms 
of Mr. Thomas Wood, senior, of Nottingham, Mr. Thomas 
Sheppard, and Mr. William Cheetham, of Lenton, 

" There, O how sveet ! amid the fragrant shrubs 
At evening cool to sit ; while on their boughs 
The nestled songsters twitter o'er their young ; 
And the hoarse low of folded cattle 
Breaks the silence." — Michael Bruce. 

Lenton derives no little agricultural fame from the cele- 
brated herd of short horns, belonging to Mr. Wilkinson, 
whose farm-steading adjoins the railway station, above the 
intersection of Gregory-street, Lenton, with the Derby-road. 
The principal stock of this very superior herd of pure short 
horns, after having been very careftdly bred by Mr. Wilkinson 
himself for upwards of forty years — his father, from whose 
stock several of the animals were descended, having likewise 
previously paid great attention to the improvement of the 
breed — ^were sold by the celebrated London auctioneer of 
short-horns, Mr. StrafiFord, 13th April, 1864, realising Httle 
short of Jg2,000 in one day's sale, attended by the most emi- 
nent breeders of England, Ireland, and America. In the 
course of Mr. Wilkinson's improvements, choice specimens 
from the herds of the CoUings', and other celebrated breeders, 
had been at various times introduced — and the herd had 
been crossed by some of the first-class bulls of the herd book, 
as "Spectator," (3688); "Will Honeycombe," (ht^OO.) 
Bull calves derived from this blood, since tiie sale, have been 
sold as high as 150 gs. Mr. Wilkinson still keeps up a herd. 

In Leen-gate — ^washed by the running stream of the Leen, 
and equally conveniently margined by the waters of the 
Canal — is situated the great Fellmongers' Yard of the Messrs. 
Bayley and Shaw, so well known in the American export 
trade. At these extensive premises, Messrs. Bayley and 
Shaw during the principal killing season, of seven or eight 
months in the year, pass through the various processes of 
preparation, and of colouring or finishing, as many as 1,000 



154 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

skins a week, and during the rest of the year also a 
considerable number. The fellmongering trade having onoe 
been a great branch of employment at Nottingham, suppose 
we enter in, and, by permission of the worfiiy proprietors, 
obtain a survey of the pecuUar processes of the business — ^not 
indeed the most sightly or savoury in the world ; but reflect, 
gentle ladies, who roll in Hned carriages, love brightly-bound 
books, soft glove linings, and commend nice wash leather, 
that all these toils are encountered, these sights and smells 
occasioned exclusively in removing everything nauseous from 
the raw material, and out of the rough, dirty, fatty, and bloody 
coat of the sheep, producing beautiful morocco leather, and 
fine parchments ! In entering the area of the yard, it presents 
at first a rather confused aspect of lime-pits and work-sheds — 
lime, the great enemy of leather, being unavoidably requisite 
in many of the processes, but in consequence applied with 
care. In following out the numerous steps of the processes, 
they become rather interesting. In the first preparatory 
stage, for instance, in a shed on the banks of the Leen, where 
the water is constantly flowing, the skins, as they come from 
the butcher, after being deprived of any superfluous flesh, 
which that operation may have failed to detach, are damped 
with water, and coated on the fleshy side with lime, applied 
as a depilatory, which, by getting at the roots of the hairs, 
(wool) loosens and prepares them for plucking. When the 
coating of lime has had sufficient time to act, it is washed off 
the skins in the running water, and they are then sent to the 
plucking-house, to have the wool plucked off them. The 
wool, when plucked, is removed into a separate shed, where 
it is sorted, and stored or sewed up into woolpacks. It is 
wonderful what a variety of sorts is derived from one sheep 
skin — the longer sorts being of course available for ordinary 
wool-stapling purposes — ^the next, and shorter, extensively 
employed in the manufacture of blankets, and the execution 
of army contracts, whilst the worst is used perhaps for stuffing 
railway and other carriages. The bits of flesh, &c„ adher- 
ing to the skins as they come in, are chopped off, and used 
amongst other materials in the manufacture of glue. The 
skins being then subjected to enormous hydraulic pressure, 
in a press capable of applying 1,800 tons power, a fine 



MESSBS. BAYLEY AND SHAW's FELLMONGERS' WORKS. 155 

white tallow is obtained. They are then piled up in a pit, with 
an application of lime, and in this manner further purified, 
softened and distended, in order . to being split ; for many- 
may not be at all aware, that every skin produces two distinct 
pieces of leather, of difierent kinds. Before splitting, how- 
ever, the skins are mounted once more upon wooden horses, 
stumps, or blocks, and fleshed or scraped with a heavy semi- 
circular knife, having a rounded edge, and worked with both 
hands. The mode of splitting the skins is by the application 
of a very ingenious machine, which separates what is called 
the " grain" side of the skin from the " flesh" side. The 
grain side next the wool is the most valuable ; it is that of 
which the morocco leather is prepared. When skins are 
prepared without being separated in this manner, they form 
what is called roan leather. The machine by which this 
sphtting is accompHshed consists of a very broad knife, with 
a sharp edge, and of a long roller, to which the grain side is 
hooked up. A man and a boy keep the skin well distended 
along the roller, and an oscillating motion being imparted to 
the knife by steam power, in about a minute and a half the 
skin is split in two — the grain side being wrapped round the 
toller, and the flesh side falling the other way under the 
machine. The roller of one of the machines which we 
examined had a crust of concrete enamel from the lime drip- 
ping off" the skins, although only a few months in use. Be- 
twixt the layers of skin thus separated, that is the scarf skin 
and the true skin of the animal, as physiologists are aware, 
there is interposed a layer of fat ; and again tie split skin is 
horsed, or stumped, and this removed by the rapid action of 
the knife. Still the skins intended for morocco would not be 
found susceptible of the necessary prepajation for that pur- 
pose, unless further purified ; and for this object they are now 
removed into the "pure house," and steeped in a succession of 
vats, or tubs ; the first process, that of steeping them in a 
solution of the excrement of the dog, which, strange to say, 
is, from its highly ammoniacal character, of all substances the 
only known one adapted to the purpose, is in point of fact the 
least pleasant of all the stages of preparation. A weak solu- 
tion of the oil of vitriol is also used ; and in many cases, in 
Messrs. Bayley and Shaw's export trade, the morocco skins 



156 BAMBLBS ROUlfD NOTTIKQHAM. 

receive no further preparation, beyond being steeped in a 
strong solution or pickle of salt, with a view to their preserva- 
tion on being exported to the United States, where there is a 
very great demand for them in this condition, and they are 
finished up and converted to a great variety of uses in 
America. These skins are, however, assorted into dozens, 
according to quality and weight, and packed in barrels for 
exportation. An astounding quantity of the thinner skins, 
forming a slender morocco when manufactured, seems to be 
used up in the States exclusively for the inside linings and 
edgings of hats, photographic picture cases, &c. Messrs. Bayley 
and Shaw lately exported to one order 1,500 dozens for this pur- 
pose : such is the rage of the Americans for hats and minia- 
ture likenesses. The remaining sides of the skins experience 
different treatment, according as they ,are intended for con- 
version into parchments or wash leather. Those destined to 
form parchments are in summer distended upon large frames 
in the yard, not unHke tambour frames, by means of cords 
and pegs stretched and racked tightly, smeared with Spanish 
whitening, applied with a brush, which acts more gently than 
common lime in finally removing impurities by its causticity, 
and being left to dry in the air a better colour is obtained 
than in winter, when the frames or stretchers must be set up in 
a drying or stove house, and artificial heat applied to perfect 
the parchments. The curious knife already described being 
again applied to reduce all inequalities of the surface, almost 
transparent shavings, or scrapings, are removed by its 
agency, and the face of the parchment sheet rendered per- 
fectly smooth for jivriting. It is then cut to the square of its 
nailiral size, within-side of any flaws or injuries originally 
inflicted by the knife of the butcher around its margins, (all 
of which now tell materisdly against the value of a skin) and 
the strips and parings thus cut off are stored up, being highly 
gelatinous, to be" boiled down for glue. In the squaring of 
parchments there appears to be a much larger reduction on 
the size of the skins, and a much greater waste, therefore, of 
material, than in any other department of the work, owing to 
the flaws so often intruding far into the skins. The parch- 
ments are, however, assorted to their inches, eighteen inches 
square being, we believe, a very fair average size, but the 



FINISHING PROCESS OF MOROCCO, RUGS, ETC. 167 

larger being necessarily much more valuable than the smaller. 
For conversion into wash leather, again, the split skins are 
moistened, and placed under powerful and ponderous beaters, 
moved by steam. Here they are not only beaten into a soft 
and pliable condition, but cod oil being supplied to them 
during the process, is beaten thoroughly into their substance, 
and perpetuates their flexibility. It is found that cod-oil 
alone effectually answers the purpose of this preparation ; and 
notwithstanding the rise in its cost, from i^ 28 to £56 a ton, 
since it came into vogue for medicinal and other purposes, 
Messrs. Bayley and Shaw use no other. The oiled skins are 
now steeped and pressed, to extract the superfluous oil, and 
slowly dried in a loft, after which they are carefully dressed, 
trimmed, and finished by hand, and are ready for the market, 
being used in enormous quantities at Leicester, &c., for glove 
linings. The finishing processes connected with the colour- 
ing of the other descriptions of skins are not inelegant. They 
are, with exception of the brilliant red moroccos, taken into 
the dye-house, and dyed without tanning — the most ordinary 
colours being marone, blue, and green ; but the red under- 
goes a species of tanning by the agency of sumach, and the 
result is that splendid fixed colour which this leather exhibits 
to most advantage of all known materials. In the warehouse, 
where the finished goods are kept, we saw many large and 
brilliant examples of all the colours produced, including many 
lamb-skin and sheep-skin rugs, with the wool entire, forming 
not the least brilliant and beautiful specimens of the art. 
The manufacture of glue from the shreds and parings, toge- 
ther with the skins of the heads and feet of the animals left 
by the butcher, and unfit for any other purpose, must be 
conducted in the summer season, and with great care. For 
their glue, Messrs. Bayley and Shaw, we believe, are highly 
celebrated, being considered the best makers in England, and 
for the manufacture of it they are extensive purchasers of mate- 
rials beyond their own refuse, or scraps, producing it in thin 
and perfectly transparent cakes of a hght amber colour, which 
not only indicates its purity, since where glue is adulterated 
with resin, &c., its colour is generally dark and brown : but 
plso the care bestowed in the manufacture, since where it has 
been burnt in the boiling, it will appear dark blue, or black. 



158 KAMULEiJ KOCND NOTTINGHAM- 

Before quitting Old Lenton, it may be remarked that we 
have just been told by one of the best living authorities on 
the subject, Councillor Kirke Swann, of Nottingham, that 
the old Abbey gateway, within the memory of man, actually 
stood across the commencement of the Wilford-road, betwixt 
the White Hart Inn and the present entrance to the old 
Church-yard, and overarched the way. Singularly enough, 
Mr. Swann and his son, the Rev. Kirke Swann, of Gedling, 
were lately present at a funeral at the latter parish, where 
they met an elderly person, who stated that she had actually 
resided in the Abbey gate-house at the period when the late 
Rev. W. Gill (father of the philanthropist George Gill — aJas ! 
deceased since the commencement of these " Rambles") was 
Curate of Lenton, and had received from him a present of a 
bible. The Messrs. Swann (father and sonj were to have 
gone to her to see her bible ; but on the very day they had 
intended doing so, learnt that in the interval she had died. 
Mr. Swann, sen., can, however, remember the old Abbey gate- 
house having been pulled down. 

In passing onwards from Gregory-street to New Lenton, 
through some little tortuosities in the way, the line of Church - 
street at length opens up straight before us on crossing the 
Mansfield Railway—- ^which has in a manner two stations at 
Lenton, the distance from Nottingham being a mile and a 
half, although the station-house on the Derby-road, a little 
higher up the Hne, is that employed in the ordinary traffic. 
With its western end slightly turned towards the spectator 
approaching in this direction, stands the new Church of the 
Holy Trinity, Lenton, surrounded by a smaD cemetery, in 
wlvch there are a few tombs. This fine church is therefore 
situated betwixt Old and New Lenton. The first stone was 
laid on the 11th of June, 1841, by Francis Wright, Esq., by 
whom the land for the church site, as well as that for the 
vicarage-house, was given gratuitously ; and the consecration, 
by the Lord Bishop of Lincoln, took place on the 6th of 
October, 1842. In the interim, the church erected by the 
subscriptions of this pubHc-spirited parish was completed by 
the aid of the usual grant from the Church Building Society, 
and the small surrounding church-yard enclosed with a 
handsome iron railing, and low parapet, at a cost altogether of 



LENTON NATIONAL AND INFANT SCHOOLS. 159 

£4t,000. The handsome church, 41 yards long by 19 wide, 
is distinguished by a massive pinnacled tower, containing a 
clock and bell. The neat and comfortable nave is occupied 
with open low-backed pews, and comprises in the body of the 
edifice 616 seats, whereof 166 are free. The western gallery 
is calculated to accommodate in addition 344 — making toge- 
ther accommodation for 960 or 1,000 persons. In front of 
the reading-desk stands the old sculptured fbnt already 
noticed, disinterred by the late Mr. Stretton, of Lenton Priory, 
and presented by his son, Colonel Stretton, to the new church. 
The living, held by the Rev. George Browne, the vicar, is 
valued at is 139, and is in the patronage of the crown. On a 
site adjoining the church a large and commodious parsonage- 
house, in the Elizabethan style of architecture, was erected 
in 1844. Previously, however, and indeed contemporaneously 
with the erection of the church, the large and handsome 
National School-house, on the opposite side of the line of 
Church-street, calculated, as supposed at that time, for the 
accommodation jof 350 children of botli sexes, (but it has been 
found that improved ideas of education demand more ample 
school room) was erected, and has still more recently been 
considerably enlarged, at an extra cost of £470. Those 
benevolent ladies, the Misses Wright, were moreover at the 
expense of erecting, in 1851, an Infant School, a little lower 
down the way. Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools for the 
district (Dr. Langford) strongly recommended enlarged accom- 
modation, in consequence of the increased numbers in 
attendance on the boys' school ; and at the close of 1855 that 
school was consequently extended by two-thirds of its original 
size by the purchase of an addition to the site, on which a 
new and spacious room was speedily completed. Alterations 
were at some time effected on the oflfices and drainage — 
boundary walls, surrounding the whole premises, were erected 
— and new furniture and fittings, comprising seven groups of 
improved desks, or folding-dow^n tables, galleries, and furni- 
ture provided suitable to the most improved systems of 
instruction. Towards these objects the Committee of Council 
on Education made a grant of d6170 ; and £300 having been 
provided from local resources, the cost has been defrayed 
with exception of £40, in process of liquidation. These 



160 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINOHAM. 

schools, which in Novemher last educated 240 children, are 
nearly self-supporting, and in fact, half the sum annually 
required for tibeir maintenance, is provided hy the children's 
weekly pence. Francis Wright, Esq., and the vicar are the 
school trustees. The latter is also chairman, his curate secre- 
tary, and Thomas Adams, Esq., treasurer, of the committee, by 
which the Lenton National and Sunday Schools are managed. 
Mr. R. Cockrem is the master. The pupil teachers of these 
schools have been eminentiy successful in obtaining queen's 
scholarships, and several are now, in fact, masters and mis- 
tresses of schools in various parts of the country. From these 
statements, the amount of educational benefit imparted to a 
district such as Lenton, crowded with the industrial em- 
ployees of its own and the neighbouring town of Nottingham's 
factories and warehouses, may be readily conceived. 

The extensive patent starch works of Mr. Thomas Hall, 
situate in Park-street, New Lenton, may be here described 
as illustrative of a peculiar and characteristic branch of local 
industry, viz., the finishing processes by which the appearance 
of fine manufactures is perfected. In this establishment the 
finest wheat in the market is alone employed in the produc- 
tion of the brilliantiy white prisms or crystals knovm as 
"Hall's Starch." The wheat being first received in its entire 
state, passes through two dry mechanical operations — in the 
first of which it is sifted of all impurities and imperfections ; 
and in the second, the grains are partially ground or pounded 
betwixt French burrs placed, however, a little further apart ' 
than for actual grinding purposes, and thus they are reheved 
of their husk. It must be borne in mind, that the leading 
constituents now retained in the grain, are, the gluten and 
the starch ; and that the latter is the fcecvlum, a transparent 
colourless material resembling gum, enveloped in a mem- 
brane insoluble in cold water, and hence separable from the 
gluten in that medium. The next stage of the starch manu- 
facture observed in the ground floor of Mr. Hall's premises 
is, consequently, that in which the grains are immersed in 
water, for the space of about seven days, for the purpose of 
undergoing the acetous fermentation. The water turns quite 
sour ; and indeed, the acid liquor is, we believe, termed suurs, 
and when drawn off, is sold to such establishments as that of 



UB. hall's stabch wobks, new lenton. 161 

Messrs. Bajley and Shaw, already described, to be employed 
in place of vitriol, in acting upon the delicate skins prepared 
by them. The material whence these sours are withdrawn, 
being passed through sieves, which separate the starch from 
the grains, finer and finer sieves are employed in succes- 
sion, and the whole substance is then transferred into other 
troughs or vessels called ** frames." It is finally subjected to 
water altogether, for the space of about three days, at the end of 
which time, it settles or subsides into three varieties of mate- 
rial. The superficial portion called slimea, being removed, 
is found extremely av^able as a fattening for pigs ; and a 
pork-butcher rents the feed of Mr. Hall's establishment 
at so much per head per week, for as many as seventy swine. 
The second portion. forms an inferior starch, in great demand 
amongst the calico manufacturers' of Manchester, and accord- 
ingly is subjected to the drying and crystallizing processes, but 
not the bleaching processes of the finer starch. The third 
portion is the fine pure starch, precipitated or deposited in 
the bottom of the frames, in a semi-fluid condition, which, 
being washed, passed through sieves, and bleached with 
chlorine, is, in order to be finally dried and purified, next 
put into boxes hned with a patent tubular cloth, manu- 
factured exclusively by one particular fihn in Manchester, so 
as to admit of the superfluous water escaping by the aid of 
pressure, through the perforations, leaving the compacted 
masses of starch, which, being cut up into squares, and then 
scraped free of all impurities, are deposited upon ordinary 
building bricks ranged along shelves, the burnt clay of which 
absorbs the water still retained in the masses of starch, until 
the bricks becoming saturated with the water thus drained by 
them, begin to turn mouldy, when they are replaced by others, 
but are still good enough for building purposes. Being next 
similarly arranged in a drying stove, at 170* or ISO®, the 
finer qualities carefully packed in blue paper, the lumps of 
starch are found rapicQy to have spht up, or crystallized into 
those fretted irregular prisms or crystals with which all good 
housewives are famiUar, under the name of starch ; but which 
can be produced of almost any strength or quality to suit the 
exigencies of the trade in which it is required for finishing 
and dressing purposes. From Mr. Hall's, it is not only 



162 BAMBUSS BOUND NOTTIKOHAM, 

extensively supplied to the Nottingham lace dressers, but also 
largely made up into 61b., lib., and Jib. packages, for the 
shops. The current value of this beautiful material is about 
£65 per ton. This one establishment consumes from seventy 
to ninety-six quarters of wheat per week in its production. 

In finally quitting New Lehton, we find, situated near the 
Park, some industrial works of peculiarly local importance — 
being devoted to the purposes of gassing and bleaching. 
Though of course, the finer goods of all descriptions finished 
in Nottingham, do not require, and could scarcely stand the 
ordeal of the finishing processes to which the more ordinary 
kinds are subjected after emerging from the machine ; few 
amongst the general public, or beyond the pale of the trade, 
appear to be aware of the extent to which hosiery and com- 
mon net-lace piece goods, as well as a more limited descrip- 
tions of goods made for the last few years in imitation of 
crotchet, but fast running out, are indebted to the gasser and 
bleacher; of the multiphcity of the steps some of these items 
have to undergo in their preparation for market, or of the 
astonishing change effected by cleaning, brushing, and smooth-* 
ing alone on their appearance. Nets that have no reticula- 
tions at all, are cleared of their whole haze of ragged fibre by 
gas burning ; stockings that have no manner of shape, are 
brought to display calves, superb as the pedestals of «x feet 
footmen; and merino under-clothing, made of hard-spun 
mixtures of wool and cotton, is teased into the most delicate 
and dehcious softness, and pressed into the most glossy finish, 
all at not less a charge than two shillings a dozen, but by no 
slighter a skill than that of the gasser and bleacher. One 
wonders how the trade price of t£e articles thus got up can 
stand it ; but at the same time one as soon pei'ceives what the 
articles would be but for these improvements. Indeed, the 
fuller's art in its last stage of perfection is a lesson of clean- 
liness to aU who indulge in the wear of manufactured fabrics. 
Our grandmothers, who applied their homespun clothing in 
all its pristine impurity to immediate use, staild convicted 
before the red and yeUow streams of grease spouting out in 
the steam jets of the boiling house, of having infringed the 
first sanitary condition of nature ; and the cleansing now 
imparted to the prodigious bales of under-clothing, manufac- 



GASSING WOBKS OP MESfRS. BURTON AND EAMES. 163 

tured in and around Nottingham, stands forth in the light of a 
real blessing to the community, as well as a grand benefit to 
the manufacturer and his produce. The only regret the 
contemplation of this wholesome and beautiM process sug- 
gests is, that, after their first going forth, the washing-house 
should be held adequate thenceforth to perform all the 
domestic ablutions demanded by wearing apparel. Why 
should the means, and appliances to boot, which are thus 
employed in the first instance by the manufacturer to recom- 
mend his goods to the purchaser's eye, not be pursued again 
and again, rendering the articles of ordinary wear several 
times over as good as new — and probably almost at as little 
cost as an ordinary washing ? This is a matter for considera- 
tion in ** a committee of the whole house ;" and in each 
household of every manufacturing town where its advantages 
are most likely to be understood, it would, we feel assured, 
be carried nem, con. in favour of any extensive firm of domestic 
renovators that would commence the world with boilers, 
beaters, bleaching vats, centrifugals, hydrauHc presses, stoves, 
sulphur, and chlorine. 

The work superintended by Mr. Eames, is situated on the 
verge of the Nottingham rock, overhanging the Leen, and he 
has decidedly made the best of it, in adapting its position to 
his purposes. The rock has been literally scooped out and 
covered with steapi engines and machinery, whilst the conve- 
nience and arrangement of the workpeople have been carefully 
studied, and every adaptation suitable to their wants eagerly 
introduced. The adaptations and improvements effected 
upon the premises are, (more especially, to all acquainted with 
the spot) of a remarkable kind. Upwards of two hundred 
hands are employed in this establishment, besides various 
engines of about fourteen horse power each, engaged in driv- 
ing beaters, brushers, and centrifugals, &c., &c. The goods 
are first received at the ticket-room near the gate, where they 
are arranged in lots for undergoing the various operations, 
marked with various coloured threads and tickets, and sent 
down the hatch to the beaters and vats. The opposite pre- 
mises, containing the gassing machine, which operates, by 
burning, upon dry brown nets, (piece goods) exhibits one of 
the most interesting and ingenious processes connected with 



164 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

the work. A long line of gas jets runs along the machine, 
over the burning points of which the fragile web, distended 
by brushes formed of teasles, passes — not with any great 
rapidity, being guided and relieved in its progress by hands 
stationed at opposite sides of the machine. The burning 
tongues of the jets stream up through the interstices of the net, 
and are just suffered to bum out of its holes all the fibrous or 
fringed irregularities of the threads of which it is comj^sed, 
bringing them to a miniature whipcord appearance, saturating 
and hardening the entire texture of the net. The only other 
process of this kind, of which we are at all aw6ure in the 
finishing of goods, is the shawl singeing at Paisley, which 
affects only one side or surface, however, of the fabric, and is 
done by passing the shawl with great rapidity over a red or 
white hot iron plate, bent into the form of an arch. The 
principles and purposes of the Nottingham ** gassing," not- 
vdthstanding a certain resemblance in the operation itself, 
are thus distinct and different. The latter indeed appears to 
embody the memorable discovery of the effect of v^ire gauze 
upon ignition, discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy, and made 
the leading principle of his far-famed safety lamp, the miners 
sole resource against explosions of fire-damp and other inflam- 
mable natural gasses. Descending the steps, the visiter to the 
Leen works is introduced in bewildering succession through 
such a variety of departments, all essential to the preparation 
of the hosiery goods for market, as it would be equally difficult, 
tedious, and needless to detail. Suffice it that in one place the 
goods requiring boiling may be seen undergoing that opera- 
tion in cauldrons, by the agency of steam, which often extracts 
coloured jets of oils and grease inherent in the material as 
already noticed ; in another the processes of steeping and beat- 
ing are seen in performance. These beating machines — or 
kicking machines as we might rather caU &em, consist of 
heavy clams of timber, which deliberately throw out behind 
and squeeze and beat the goods effectually as they are turned 
over in the trough. In other places the goods are subjected to 
bleaching by chlorine and other means. Then come the 
drying processes, the chief of which is performed in the cen- 
trifugal machines, pans with perforated sides, the rapidity of 
whose revolutions (in the old machines about 500, and in the 



FINISHING PROCESSES OF KOTTINOHAM GOODS. 165 

new and latest improved ones 1,200 revolutions a minute), 
compels every drop of moisture to exude from the wettest 
masses of goods, and leaves them in an incredibly short 
space of time bone dry. Stoves nsing towards 200o of heat, 
are also extensively employed; those, connected with the 
sulphur-houses, imparting also colour and finish to the goods. 
Finally, the hydrauho presses are employed in imparting 
gloss to the surface; the more ordinary goods, whether stock- 
ings or under-clothing, being stretched in most instances upon 
flat lasts or shapes, which bring out their proper configura- 
tions, and after passing through hands for examination against 
the light, to discover the presence of the shghtest flaw, an 
operation which employs a great number of women and girls 
in verifying the proverb that *• a stitch in time saves nine, and 
that nine, ninety-nine" — ^they are ironed and assorted as 
finished goods. 

To a passing visit paid on returning from our third ramble 
to the Gassing and Bleaching Establishment of Messrs. 
Burton and Eames, at Lenton, we are mainly indebted for 
this insight into the Nottingham mode of finish. We do not, 
of course, refer to the "dressing" undergone by the products of 
the lace frame after leaving Uie gasser's and bleacher's, but 
simply to what is strictly implied in gassing and bleaching. 
Nottingham and Hawick stand, we believe, in some respects 
as rivals in the latter department. Purchasers admire the 
softness of the Hawick finish, and the beautiful surface of 
the Nottingham ; they tell the Scotch makers— ^you cannot 
put the face upon your goods which the English do ; and 
they tell the English — you cannot give your goods the soft- 
ness of the Scotch. Thus mutual pilgrimages are accom- 
plished from Hawick and Nottingham in quest of infdrmation. 
We believe, however, that a difference in the material explains 
the whole matter — lambs* wool, and not merino, being em- 
ployed in the coarser and heavier fabrics of Scotland ; and 
the merino of ordinary Nottingham goods requiring a con- 
siderable admixture of cotton, were it for nothing else than 
for affording greater tenuity of fibre. 



CHAPTER IV. 

HIGHFIELD HOUSE AND GROUNDS. 



ALFRED LOWK, Esq., J. P. Crest, a wolf passant, collared and 
chained, gules, reflected over his back: Motto — '*Innocentia quamiois 
in agro sangwime" — (innocence though in a field of blood). 



THE WAY TO BIORITBLD HOUSE *- AVENXJBB — TISTAB — EXTENSIVE 
GBOUNDS OF ONE HUNDRED AND BIXTT ACBES — ^BAEE TREES; THE 
DEODARA^ ARAUCARIA IMBRICATA, CUFRESSUS FCZ^BRIS, ETC. — ^XAB- 
RIAOE OF THE ROSE AND ACACIA — ^A WILDERNESS OF ROSES — ^ANTIQUE 
ROMAN CINERARY — ROCKERY— I^RNS : FILICES — GARDENS — ^VINERIES 

ORANGERY — CACTI AND ORCHIDS — SIX HUNDRED EXOTIC FERNS — THE 

BUSH-FIGHTING PLANT — ^ROMANTIC WALK — SANDSTONE BLUFFS — ^MEA- 
DOWS AND PASTURES — ^WILD LAKE OF FIVE ACRES — THE SWAM AND 
ELEGANT SWAN-GOOSE — ^WATER WEEDS — SECLUDED SHELL AND SPAS 

GROTTOES — LOFTY SANDSTONE ROCKS CAPACIOUS C\VERNS — RELICS : 

BRONZE SWORD — RECOIL OF THE ROMAN INVASION FROM THE FOREST 
BOUNDS-— PICTURE OALLER^T — HIGHFIELD HOUSE OBSERVATORY. 



" It was ao hill plaste hi an open plaine 

That roond about was bordered with a wood 

Of matchlesse bight, that seem'd th* earth to diadaine ; 

In which all trees of honoor stately stood. 

And did all winter as in summer bad, 

Spredding pavilions for the birds to bowre. 

Which in their lower branches sang ^ond ; 

And in the tops the soring hawke did towre, 

Sitting like king of fowles in m^jes^ and power t 

And at the foote thereof a gentle find 

His silver waves did soltly tumble downe," &o. 

Spenter't '*Fairie Queene.' 



Suddenly the beautiful lane, extending from Lenton to 
Highfield House terminates, and the Rambler perceives that 
the high road to Beeston sweeps past with a curve, and is lost in 



AVENUES AND VISTAS AT HIGHFIEI4D HOUSE. 167 

the ascent of an eminence in front, forming the commanding 
site of an observatory. Turning slightly to the left, the eye 
glances through the open aperture of a gentleman's gate, and 
luxuriates in the gently reflected radiance of the morning 
beams, that play over an expanse of delicious greensward, 
under the lofty fohage, and amongst the clean upright stems 
of some noble-looking trees. It is an elevated plateau of 
ornamental ground, through which a short but beautiful 
avenue winds its way up to a stately mansion ; in all directiwis 
the vision of the distant horizon obtrudes, but the boundless 
and beautiful ranges of prospects are one and all mostendiant- 
ing. " Surely," murmurs the excursionist, " this scene has 
visited me in my dreams. That vista — " and with an im- 
pulse unconscious of intrusion, he has already advanced 
through the gateway, along the drive, and is gazing eastwards 
through a sort of Paradisian walk of delicate young foliage, 
which, though arching overhead, has, like the tube of a well 
directed telescope, an object at the end of it — and that object 
the square palatial wreck of Nottingham Castle, crowning its 
splendid precipice of rock. The owner of Highfield House is 
probably abroad, enjoying his rural pursuits early in the 
morning; and the requisite explanations interchanged, is 
kindly pointing out to his charmed, if unexpected visiter, vtibe 
vision down another vista, with Wilford Church for a termi- 
nation to the " long drawn aisle and fretted vault" of another 
lovely *' temple of flie wood." At all events, we thus passed 
over all the " grounds," of which about 160 acres environ 
Highfield House — partly lawn, partly pleasure grounds and 
plantations, partly lake, and partly meadows, abounding in 
concealed beauties, bluflfe, breaks, and romantic transitions, 
which could scarcely be expected in a private demesne. We 
with surprise saw the transformation which thirty years of 
successful arboriculture had effected on the face of that little 
landscape. We beheld the huge stem of the Himalayan 
deodara already towering to the s^es, and all the most splendid 
trees of the coniferous tribe recently imported into our 
climate springing up side by side — the most magnificent spe- 
cimen of the Cupressus excelsa, of ten or eleven years growth, 
the Cryptomeria Japonica, the Scotch pine, the English yew, 
and the oriental cypress in unrivalled profusion, and of 



168 RAMBLES ROTTRD HOTTINOHAK. 

remarkable growth, including, amongst those of recent intro- 
duction, the superb araucaria imbricata, and the ghttering 
golden yew, not clipped or carved, but in the unpruned luxu- 
riance of nature — all, indeed, that our nursery catalogues can 
boast of, with the exception of the exquisite Cupressus fune- 
bris, or weeping cypress of Mr. Fortune ; and, strange to say, 
with exception of Portugal laurels, myrtles, and arbutus, 
which the two last terrible ydnters have ruthlessly slain 
— all planted, however, and tended perseveringly and with 
judicious care, within and during the past thirty years, by 
Mr. Lowe. Eoses in number and variety, as well as in select 
character and quality inapproachable, imparadise the strange 
and semi-tropical vegetation of this cultivated spot. Here a 
perfect shower of them, spouting upwards, as it were, from 
the earth, are kissed by a cloud of acacia blossoms, which 
hover white and phantom-like above the earth-bom rosy 
vnldemess; for the one are trained up to meet the other : and 
there, white and yellow, variegated, damask, blush, crimson, 
and glorious cabbage varieties of the rose itself harmoniously 
blend all the hues that are given to its beauty, with all the 
fragrance which is its beauty's dower. But we must by no 
means get poetical ; and we pass on to a tiny rockery leading 
into the garden — not without witnessing, however, the re«5 
antique Roman cinerary urn, the tablet of which is inscribed 
with names of Consuls of the great Republic, as under : 





D. M. 


c. 


NONIO. VAR. 


c. 


F. ARNENSI 




PROCTJLO 




cos. 



This urn was brought over from Rome by Mrs. Markham, and 
presented to Mr. Lowe. The design is in bos relief. On the 
front of the hollow cube of marble, which constitutes the urn, 
an elegant floral festoon depends graceftilly down each side, 
passing under the square enclosing the inscription, with 
handsomely sculptured and capitalled pilasters at each side. 
The interior of the urn is a hollow cube, covered with a lid — 
which has been set up as a garden ornament. Nor must we 



COLLECTION OF SIX HUNDRED FERNS. 160 

omit noticing the picturesque tufts of fern which are here 
ensconced, not at random, but scientifically, and with an eye 
to the careful accumulation of all the native and hardy spe- 
cies and varieties of the beautiful family of filices. The collec- 
tion comprises, we believe, every British fern; and of the 
Scolopendriums it is enriched by as many as twenty distinct 
varieties. Here are the large and elegant fronds of the Las- 
troea filix mas, and of the still more elegant Asplenium filix 
foemina, the gentle lady fern, and innumerable varieties be- 
sides, of the hart's tongue, and other more or less familiar 
forms and varieties of our native ferns — but more especially 
everything rare or peculiar which the neighbourhood aflTords ; 
for it has been ransacked on purpose by competent hands, 
and found rich in cryptogamise. The way into the walled 
gardens is over a bridge of one arch, thrown across the arti- 
ficial chasm of rocks tiiat shelter the ferns. The vineries, 
stove, and green-houses are pretty extensive, and contain — 
the one some very choice and proKfic sorts of grapes, and the 
orange tree in all its intermingled glory of fruit, flower, and 
bridal blossom; the other, many rare and valuable plants, 
strange cacti, still stranger orchids, and flowering plants of 
immense splendour, victorious in all the neighbouring floral 
exhibitions of Nottingham. By far the most superb portion 
of the exotic collection is, howevei^, the unrivalled assemblage 
of British ferns, foreign and exotic — that is, ferns in British 
cultivation, of which Mr. E. J. Lowe is now publishing a 
monograph,* with brilliant illustrations, particularly of the 
splendid gold and silver ferns, the most beautiful fancy objects 
conceivable. There are said to be collected, with this view, 
at least six hundred specimens of ferns in Mr. Lowe's green- 
houses. For this purpose considerable additions have recently 
been made to the ranges, and one house has been exclusively 
devoted to the culture of lycopodiums.f Amongst the exotic 
ferns worthy of the visiter's notice the Davallias, or hare's foot 
ferns, are perhaps especially so, as illustrating the remarkable 

• A Natural Histoiy of Ferns, Exotic and British. By E. J. Lowe, 
Esq. (Now publishing monthly, in parts. Is. each.) London : Groom- 
bridge and Sons, Paternoster Row. 

f The Prospectus of a separate volume, similar to the aboVe, on 
Lyoopodiums, has likewise been put forth by Mr. E. J. Lowe. 



170 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

manner in which the plants are propagated from the creeping 
rhizome which sends up stems and fronds at intervals, as it 
extends itself from the parent root, and thus produces a grove 
of young ferns under liie parental shade. It is also worth 
while looking at the only plant, we believe, in England, of 
the Polypodium grandidena. One remarkable fact in the 
natural history of ferns, is finely and profusely illustrated in 
this collection — this is the propagation of the viviparous 
ferns, not from seed, but by young plants springing out of 
the fronds and leaves of others, before the parent plant has 
perhaps given any of the usual indications of fructification. 
The viviparous ferns in which this habit has been observed, 
have been pegged down in the pot, and a series of independ- 
ent young plants reared from them. The growth of young 
ferns from seed, is likewise beautifully exemplified. TJie 
objects of interest just alluded to are, of course, found in the 
stove-house. The greenhouse ferns, likewise, present many 
points of interest. The Asplenium nidm, or bird's nest fern, 
is a curious and beautiful object. The PlcUycerium alcicome 
is seen growing parasitically, on a piece of suspended wood. 
The Norfolk Island tree fern is a noble object, taking under- 
neath the precise appearance of the cocoa palm stem, with 
matting ; and, in fact, attaining to thirty feet in height. The 
new fern, Polystichum tripinnatum, was discovered by Mr. 
E. J. Lowe, in Cornwall, and named as above by Dr. Lind- 
ley. The Nephrokpis exaltata, is one of the best examples 
of weeping fern, its long fronds attaining eight feet in length. 
The curious class of the Drynarias, also solicit some notice. 
One of the most interesting of these ferns is the Killamey 
fern, found at Tore waterfall ; Mr. Lowe possesses several 
examples — one of which is the variety lately discovered by 
Mr. Andrews, Secretary of the Dublin Nat. Hist. Society. We 
cannot pretend,however, to enumerate in this place all the 
strange species and endless varieties of ferns; although 
we must needs make mention of some new arrivals from 
Guernsey, were it only for the sake of instancing one of the 
minutest of the tribe, found only in Guernsey — an Ophio- 
glossum. Such is in fact the status of Mr. Lowe's collection 
of ferns, that only one or two in the kingdom surpass it. 
We shall not attempt to describe any other wonders of 



WILD LAKE, OF FIVE AGBES. 171 

the kingdom of Flora; suffice it that we instance one, 
which certainly challenges our notice in the moat spirited 
manner. This is the celebrated buakjightvng plants a small- 
leaved object, covered or budded over with what at first 
sight appears to be a cloud of dust. Taking it up and 
holding it for a moment under the pump, these buds, how- 
ever, begin instantly to expand and explode in all directions, 
until, at length, over the entire sui^aCe of the tiny plant 
arises the smoke of a regular miniature fusilade^ kept up 
with amazing enough brilliancy to justify to the full the 
pugnacious appellation of this singular exotic. 

Having seen through the gardens, we pass along to the 
farther extremity of the grounds, where they descend from 
the summit platform, which gives the name of Highfield 
House to the mansion, by a romantic walk, turning the 
comer of the sandstone bluffs, that here terminate the notable 
ridge which, perforated with caverns, extends, with some abra- 
sions and interruptions, almost in a straight line facing the 
valley of the Trent, all the way along from Nottingham 
Casde. To preserve the privacy of his demesne, the owner 
keeps it encircled with meadows and pastures in his own 
tenancy, which being partially wooded, blend harmoniously 
into the general landscape design of the pleasure grounds, 
with excellent effect. At the bottom of the high cliflfe, the 
sward has been lowered and levelled, and stretches a short 
distance onwards to a walk or road which skirts the margin 
of a wild and beautiful lake of above five acres in area— encom- 
passed by a long walk, and diversified by clumps of trees, 
coppice and underwood, scattered in great profusion, and 
with considerable attention to the picturesque, around its 
sides — or, at some points, deeply indenting its bosom. 
Swans sail statelily over the waters, fed from a neighbouring 
source, and artificially collected; and the elegant swan-goose 
forms an imposing tribe of aquatic tenants to enliven the 
surface, which is, however, almost sufficiently clothed in 
many parts with aquatic plants of rapid and extending 
growth — but these the owner can at any time (and probably 
shortly will) clear away, by running off the water, and draw- 
ing away the superfluous masses of stranded vegetation, in 
carts, to top-dress the neighbouring pastures. The swans 



I7d BAMBLB8 BOQITP VOTHNOfiAM. 

may, however, save him much of this trouble, ad they are the 
best known means of clearing ornamental lakes, such as this, 
of water-weeds — only they appear to have been lately restored 
to this particular lake, after an interregnum of geese and 
ducks, of some duration. Grottoes of shells or spar, in se- 
cluded spots around the border of the lake, take the visiter 
by surprise. And here also, in clumps, are various nurse- 
ries for indigenous ferns. But the finest part of the whole 
of this secluded piece of scenery is, undoubtedly, the face of 
the aandstone rock here turned towards the lake. From 
sixty to eighty feet in altitude, tufted aloft by fine trees, 
and with ferns and creeping plants peering forth from 
its crevices — ^the abraded front of the cliS rises perpendicu- 
larly from a pure sward of vivid dark green. In its face — 
but only towards the eastern extremity, are sundry caverns, 
of great capacity, which the proprietor has lately had cleared, 
and which are quite analagous to the numerous perforations 
of the rock in and around Nottingham, which all authorities 
concur in attributing to the Aborigines of our isle. Some 
relics, which may be accounted rather singular, have been 
found here — ^inasmuch as, destitute as ibe locality is of 
Eoman remains, one of these was a bronze sword of un- 
doubted classicality ; another a Roman key ; and an object which, 
though deeply embedded in the sandstone, was certainly, on 
all the principles known in natural science, quite an unac- 
countable item in the formation. It was the fruit of the prune 
— ^not fossilated, but recent — shown to all the savans of the 
nation, and by all of them doubted and -disowned in the 
spirit of the hemistich : — 

" Pretty in amber to observe the forms 
Of grabs, and flies, and sticks, and straws, and worms — 
Such things, we know, are neither rich nor rare. 
But wonder how the dickens they got there !" 

Now the Romans never had possession of Nottingham — 
although the Normans had — for those Peverils in whom we 
glory, possessed and plundered it. But, for a thousand 
years before the Conquest, Nottingham had been free — ^so 
far as all the usual traces of Roman subjugation enable us 
to infer ; for a pot of coins, of the Empress Faustina — the 
most prolific produce, perhaps, of the urn-burial of these 



MB. LOWES COLLECTION QF PIGTUBES. 173 

ambitious conquerors, (and we are thoroughly convinced with 
Sir William Temple, that they buried their money, as me- 
dallions to transmit their memory to future ages) — ^with the 
exception of that set of coins found somewhere in the neigh- 
bourhood, and the possibility of their having had a station 
at Bridgeford, commanding the passage of the Trent — ^these 
Eomans had no footing in Nottingham — the green wave of 
woods that covered the face of our immortal forest rolled 
them back from the recesses of our rocky homes, and this 
bronze weapon of Highfield House, found in the cavemed 
abode of an Ancient Briton, may be but a trophy of ancestral 
triumph.* They penetrated the forest, it is true, as far as 
Mausfield, and there fortified a camp — ^but more of that anon. 
Mounting the brow of the rocks by the steep acclivity at their 
eastern extremity, the wooded path along the verge repeats 
all the enchantments of the plateau prospect at Highfield. 
Entering Highfield House itself, the multitude of iine pic- 
tured, by the first masters — of which may be noticed more 
especially, " The Judgment of Paris," and " Joseph and 
Potiphar's Wife," — rescued, in many instances, from sheer 
oblivion by the taste and discernment of Mr. Lowe, and 
restored, in most cases, simply by cleaning, to their 
pristine beauty and brilliancy of colouring— constitutes a 
gallery which one would scarcely expect to see in a private 
gentleman's house. In the Library there is a fine piece by 
Ostade, (1610-1685);* the scene represents "Crossing a 
ferry in winter, on the ice." The cool tone and dreamy 

•There appears to have been a battle " toward," in which the 
Britons Were victorious over the Romans, though not without havoc 
to the British horse. The encounter, judging fix)m the skulls of 
horses, and numerous other relics found in the meadows immediately 
south of Highfield House, called " Keighton Fields," (one of the places 
absorbed in Lenton, as already mentioned,) extending all the way 
to the monastery itself, where, as also noticed, numerous horses' bones, 
skuUs, and other relics of battle, have occurred. The same fields, of 
which Mr. Lowe owns two, possessed also traces of a subterranean 
passage, having a tasselated pavement. It is not improbable that Mr. 
Lowe may direct excavations to be made here, for the purpose of excit- 
ing something more respecting these interesting traces of the past. 

f Adrian Van Ostade, born at Lubeck, 1610 ; but belonging to the 
Dutch school of painting, having formed his s^le in Holland, under 
Frank Hals. 



174 HAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM 

beauty of the highly finished landscape is surprising ; and 
another, by Rembrandt,* (1606-1674) " Jael and Sisera,'* 
exhibiting a superb breadth of light and shade ; it comprises 
two broadly and squarely drawn faces, and in the foreground 
a half-length, (Jael). Singularly enough, in gleaning the 
Rembrandt, there was discovered on the head of the hammer 
which " Jael" holds in her hand, Rembrandt's monogram, 
with date and age (1636, Mt 30). Another of the pictures 
in this apartment is illustrative of a passage in Tasso, by 
Pietro de Gortona,t (1696-1669.) There is, also, a small 
but beautiful piece of Bennington's, exhibiting two small 
brigand-looking figures ; one standing, armed, the other 
squatted, at the pedestal of a broken column. 

[Upon local considerations merely, Richard Parkes Bon* 
nington, a native of Nottingham, here merits a paragraph to 
himself, especially as we shall frequently be found to stumble 
upon exquisite specimens of his art. Bom at Arnold, near 
Nottiilgbam, he first practised art under more than usually 
favourable auspices, his father having been an artist, and 
even a teacher of drawing in the Nottingham schools. Ben- 
nington, under these circumstances, evinced all the precocity 
of genius, by drawing and sketching objects with accuracy, 
at the age of seven — ^some say three 1 At fifteen, his father 
carried him to Paris to study at the Louvre. The praise of 
the Parisians, and the rapid sale of his works, induced a 
longer stay than had been contemplated. Sea-coast and 
river-side scenery, blending land and water, cloud and sky, 
became his chief subjects. He travelled into Italy; and 
Venice next charmed his eye and inspired his pencil. On 
his return to England with the productions which consum- 

* Paul Gerretz Bembrandt, (Bembrandt Van Bjn) was the son of a 
xoiUer, and the old mill on llie Bhine, near Leyden, was but latelj 
destroyed. Bembrandt, when he settled at Amsterdam, became a 
money getter and miser ; he enhanced his income chiefly by tampeiing 
with his celebrated etchings; and is also known to have palmed oS 
tlie copies of his works made by his pupils, as his own. 
- -I- Pietro Barratini, ■ bom at Gortona. He settled at Bome, and was 
knighted by the pope. His style is bold, free, rigorous, even coarse, 
and seldom finished, except in conspicuous parts. Learned and mas- 
terly in design, though overchai^ed with mannerism, he is sober and 
harmonious in colouring. In aU these respects Mr. Lowe's example is 
a very characteristic one. 



BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPES, CATILE AND FLOWER PIECES. 175 

mated his fame, a pressure of commissions, and the results 
of unremitting study on a weak frame, terminated his career 
by an attack of brain fever, subsiding into rapid decline. 
He had not quite concluded his twenty-seventh year when 
he died in London, ^3d September, 1828. Yet Bennington 
■was tall, handsome, and apparently strong in form. His 
pictures, more prized because they are tlie less numerous, 
have been described as those of "a softer sort of Gains- 
borough,"] 

By Ibbotson there is a fine view of the Mallam Cove, in 
Yorkshire. By Barrett* and Gilpin,t (1733) conjointly, " A 
Group of Cattle reposing." Over the doorway, a landscape 
attributed to Poussin, (1612-1675); J a landscape sketch by 
Keubens; a fine cattle piece by Cooper, (1844) ; " The Stoning 
of St. Stephen ;" " Martha and Mary with Christ ;" " While 
it is yet Dark — Christ and His Disciples at Emmau's;" 
** Morning;" and ** Evening ;" five small cabinet pieces, by 
Bird ;§ a sea piece, by Powell ; and a flower piece, by Bap- 
tisteH (1635-1699.) The Entrance Hall possesses a wondrous 

♦George Barrett, the Irish landscape painter, horn at Dublin 1732, 
ohtained in 1764 the first landscape premium of the Society of Arts, 
London (60 guineas) ; was an original member of the Eoyal Academy, 
founded 1761 ; ohtained through Edmund Burke the appointment of 
Master Painter of Chelsea Hospital ; and died at Paddmgton 1784. 
Bold and natural in design, his landscapes are rather heavy in colouring. 

■f-WiUiam Gilpin, the author of Forest Scenery^ (horn 1724, died 
1804) is well known, though a clergyman, to have illustrated the prin- 
ciples of heauty in landscape, as well by his pencil as his pen ; yet we 
have not ascertained with certainty that he was Barrett's coadjutor in 
this performance — it was more probahly the painter Sawrey Gilpin. 

JGaspar Poussin, whose real name was Doughet, horn of a French 
family at Bome in 1613, acquired his appellation from I^icholas 
Poussin, having married his sister. Landscape was his walk of art; 
and the figures which sometimes embellish his pictures are by Nicholas. ' 
He died at Rome 1675. 

§Edward Bird, R.A., the English penre painter, bom at Wolverhamp- 
ton 1772, commenced the practice of iart as apprentice to a Birmingham 
teaboard manufacturer ; was then a teacher in Bristol ; exhibited in 
1807 at Bath; established his reputation by a piece called **Good 
News ;" was elected an academician ; painted '* The Field of Chevy 
Chase, the Day after the Battie" (his masterpiece), and "The Death 
of Eli;" became painter to the Princess Charlotte (1813); died in 
18i9 ; and is buried in Bristol Cathedral. 

If Jean Baptiste Monoyer, commonly called BaptistCf bom at Lisle 



176 BAUBLES B017MD NOTTIMOHAM, 

Cuyp,* (1600-1672) of an immense size, representing the 
interior of an Italian church. It is very cold in its tone, 
hut admirahle in its perspective ; and some effects produced 
hy gleams of sunshine on the nearest pillars are masterly. 
Another large piece in the Hall represents, from Ovid, the 
classical contest hetwixt Apollo and Mars. We do not know 
the painter. There are also at the extremity of the Hall a 
piece hy Wheatley, called "The Love Letter;" and the 
original picture, by A. Fraser, engraved for the vignette of 
Sir Walter, Scott's favourite " red backed" edition of The 
Betrothed. At the farther extremity of the Hall are two 
huge pieces — " Morning" and " Evening," by Rosa di Tivoli; 
and a picture by Creswick, an eminent artist. There is 
also a ** Dutch Market-place," by Mommers ; and a spirited 
hunting piece, by Moreland. The elegant Drawing-room of 
Highfield House forms one of the most brilliant picture 
galleries we have ever entered. The Andrea del Sarto 
(1488 1530)f which seizes the attention upon entering, on 
the right, is a " Holy Family," with two draped figures, and 

1635; deTOted himself to fruit and flower pamtuig; ornamented Yer- 
sailles, Mendon, Marly, and Trianon, in France— and in England 
Montague House, (afterwards the British Museum); he continued 
twenty years in England ; and died in 1699. 

♦Albert Cuyp, called tiie Butch Claude, was bom at Dort 1606; 
though reckoned amongst the cattle painters, his works are not con- 
fined to one department of art. The church interior in Mr. Lowe's 
picture is not unlike that of the Church at Dort, celebrated for its 
pulpit of sculptured marble — ^more recent, however, than the days of 
Cuyp, who was a rigid Calvinist, and delighted not in " vanities." The 
gleam of sunshine on the piUars of Mr. Lowe's piece is worthy of the 
artist. 

f Andrea Yannuchi, was called Andrew the Tailor, (Andrea del 
Sarto) from the occupation of his father, which was literally what the 
soubriquet impUes. Tnis eminent son of the ninth fraction of humanity, 
was bom at Florence liie beautiful, 1488 ; studied at Eome ; returned 
to Florence and painted for the monastery of the Salvi his " Descent 
of the Holy Ghost," " Birth of the Yirgin," and " Last Supper." Hay- 
ing painted the " Dead Christ" now in the gallery of the Louvre, for 
Francis I., he was invited to Paris, and was rapidly attaining affluence, 
when, in an evil hour, he bethought him of revisiting Florence, where 
he soon squandered away all his own money, as well as large sums 
entrusted to him by the King of France for the purchase of statues, 
drawings, pictures, &c., and thus reduced to poverty, he died in 1530 
of the plague. 



TENIERS, VBK0NE8B, AKD RUYSDAEL. 177 

three in flesh tints. After a rock and torrent, painted bj 
Vanderstraeten, (1636) a grand picture of a Magdalen (appa- 
rently), and an angel (much more mundane, however, in bis 
wings and habiliments) instructing her in the Holy Scrip- 
tures, with the sacramental wine cup of transparently painted 
glass, containing wine, and the inevitable emblem of the 
shattered skull of frail mortality at the bottom of the picture, 
forms a very striking work of art ; it is inscribed with date 
and initials ** H. G-, 1610" and ascribed to Henry Goltzius. 
Another " Holy Family'* is worthy of notice ; it is by old Franks. 
Nor must we omit to mention a picture by Simon Vanderdoe ; 
a landscape, by Kuysdael ; another, by Decker ; and, better 
than, all, " Fishermen," by David Teniers. Not the least 
interesting amongst these remarkable and valuable pictures 
is a small quiet sketch by John Martin, in his early days, 
namely, a view from Holywell, Flintshire. An extraordinary 
piece by Alexander Veronese (1582-1648),* painted upon 
black marble, prognosticates to the beholder the occurrence 
of no ordinary scene. It represents Christ before Pilate. 
The light, that of a candle, is managed in an astounding and 
preternatural manner. The effect of its rays, thrown over 
the face and raiment of the Saviour, is supematurally sub- 
lime and simple, forming a striking contrast to that ef the 
Eoman on the judgment seat, pointing in an excited manner 
towards " the Son of Man," We have here also " Willie 
brewed a peck o' maut, and Rab and Allan came to pree," 
by A. Fraser, a cabinet piece of the humourous class, very 
freely painted. A very spirited battle piece, by Burgognone, 
representing an animated combat betwixt mounted Saracens 
and Crusaders, is also very beautiful : the combatants seem 
to be bawling lustily as they strike. The foreshortening of 
a dead horse stretched in the foreground is excellent. A 
picture of Ruysdaers.f with rocky foreground, and foaming 

• Alessandro Veronese, of the family name of Turchi, and ealled Vero- 
nese, from having been bom at Verona, 1582 ; from a mere colour- 
grinder at Verona, went to Venice, and finally established himself in 
Borne, where he died — ^his works combining the merits of both schools, 
(the Venetian and Roman.) He died at Some, 1648. His best works, 
a ** Pieta," and " The Passion of the Forty Martyrs," are at Verona. 

f Jacob Buysdael, bom at Haarlem, 1635, though brought up as a 
surgeon, was a simple and accurate imitator of nature in woods and 

N 



178 BAMBL£6 ROUND NOTHKOHAM. 

water ; then dense woods, interminable distance and a steeple 
to mark it, is very fine. But a Claude, (1600-1682)* with 
the peculiar glow of the master, tinging the sails of the 
shipping, and the superincumbent clouds, with the last 
golden rays of the setting sun, whilst in contrast in the 
foregojund " the calm cold eve" is already declining — is quite 
a gem. After looking, however, at a sketch by Pickersgill, 
another and exceedingly different specimen presents itself, 
in a magnificent Claude — **A View near Tivoli," where square 
buildings and towers crown the summit of a lofty and per- 
pendicular rock or cliff; and dark clumps of tall trees counter- 
balance the opposite part of the foreground ; and though the 
perspective is open and extensive, all would frown majesti- 
cally down on the spectator, save for the rich and magic 
glow that irradiates the distance A singular picture by 
Rotennamerf represents " The Last Judgment," — Christ 
Bitting on a rainbow in the clouds of heaven, attended by a 
glorious company, and the yawning graves below giving up 
their dead. The great picture by Karel du Jardin, *• Venus 
and Adonis," here attracts the eye. It is an oblong, 6 feet 
long by 3 feet high, and conceived to be of great value, 
from the circumstance of a similar but smaller picture, and 
considered by critics inferior to the present example, (which 
is the original of the famous engraving) produced £1,800, 
when brought to the hammer at the sale of the effects of 
Mr. Jeremiah Harman. By Danby there is a characteristic 
sunset. A gem, richly, lavishly, and luxuriously painted by 
George Moreland, that prodigal of genius, represents a group 
of gipsies. The original of "The May Queen," by Stephan- 
hoff, engraved for one of the annuals, is a pleasing litde 

waterfalls; his figures were painted in by Ostade, Woarermanns, 
Yandevelde, or Bei^ghem. He died, 1681. 

* Claud Gellee, tiie glory of the French school of painting, was bom 
in 1600, at Chamagne, in Lorraine. He died in 1683. 

f Johan Botennamer, bom at Munich, 1564, first painted at Home 
historical compositions, minutely finished on copper — ^but astonished 
the world by his versatility in undertaking a large altar-piece of saints 
and angels, repainted in the church of Santa Croce, at Mantua. At 
Venice he studied colouring under Tintoretti, and imitated his style. 
On settling at Augsburg, many of his bad^-grounds were painted by 
Breughel, and some by BriL Died, 1604. 



KAREL 1>U JARDIN, PIOMBO, AND MURILLO. 179 

picture. A pair of brilliant sketches by Albano (1 578-1660)* 
are respectively " Europa and the Bull" and " Ganymede." 
A " Mastiff and Pup," by Karel du Jardin, is a very masterly 
animal picture. A picture of great brilliancy and merit on 
the sulyect of Pharaoh's daughter — •♦ The Infant Moses and 
his Mother," is attributable to either Rafaelle or Correggio— 
on the strength of the outline which these painters alone 
were known to employ. Perhaps the most splendid picture 
in Mr. Lowe's collection is ** The Judgment of Paris," com- 
prising the nude figures of Minerva, Venus, and Juno, 
unrobing, with several attendant cupids; the peacock of 
Jane, shield of Minerva, trees, and other accessories, besides 
the two male draped figures seated at the foot of a tree, as 
in the well known engraving. " St. Ursula by the wayside," 
painted by Sebastian del Piombo ;"t " St. Aloysius Gon- 
zago," by Murillo, attired in black velvet, relieved by a white 
lily, and exhibiting in the darkly-coloured flesh tints re- 
markable vigour; "A Magdalen and Landscape," by one of 
the Caracci ; a humourous piece of " The Parson and Tithe- 
Pig," by Wheatley, with a fine window perspective of the 
Tjhurch in the distance ; " Figures and Cattle," by Zuccha- 
relli ; a superb ** Venus Anadyomene," or Venus rising from 
the sea, by Anthony Kuypel ; a " Landscape," by Van 
Huysum ; and a beautiful ** View of Windsor CastJe," by 
Hoffland, complete, we are afraid, but a very faint enumera- 
tion of this resplendent Drawing-room colle<?tion. 

* Francesco Albano, bom at Bologna, 1578 — ^the feUow-stndent in 
art of Guido Beni, under Ludovico Caracci, completed Annibale Car- 
acci's ornamentation of the Spanish National Chapel of San Diego, at 
Bome, and painted several large pictures at Rome, Mcmtua, and Bo- 
logna, although it is on his smaller productions, like the present, fall 
of feminine grace and softness, that his reputation rests ; died, 1660. 
His flesh tints have an ivory-like finish from over elaboration. Three 
of his "Marys, at the Sepulchre," and two " Holy Families," have been 
engraved by ^ir Eobert Strange. 

•f Sebastian del Fiombo, or Luciano, bom at Venice, 1485, died at 
Bome, 1547 ; obtained the named Del Piombo, in allusion to the lead 
of the sigaet, of which Pope Clement VHI. conferred on him the office 
of keeper. Michael Angelo, jealous of the fame of Raphael, produced 
the designs of his greater works, such as, " The Raising of Lazaras," 
(now in our National Gallery) and employed the powers of Piombo as 
a colourist 



180 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINOHAJtf. 

In the Dining-room, a singular picture, by Hemsliaw, 
embodying many small figures, and highly finished ; and a 
lajge piece, by two artists — Decker and Hondekoeter — first at- 
tract the eye ; but the best pictures in this apartment are an 
exquisite "Infant Jesus," by Guide,* over the chimneypiece ; a 
splendid picture of the " Battle of the Boyne," by Old Wyk, 
and a large family piece, by Gainsborough, representing those 

fems of the English aristocracy "The late Earl Spencer, 
)uchess of Devonshire, and Lady Besborough, when child- 
ren." There are also worth examination, a picture, by Wil- 
liams ; Dutch figures, Leduc ; a sea-piece, by Vander Cabel; 
a "Lace-maker," by D^e Hooge ; a large canvass of "Ruins," by 
Panini ; and, last not least, a most undeniable " Bear and 
Stag," by Reddinger. Some other objects of interest are to be 
noticed in Mr. Lowe's Dining-room. There are a pair of 
silver cups, one of which bears to be the prize for the best 
collection of greenhouse plants, gained by the worthy owner 
of the house in 1863 ; and the other a race-cup, won by a 
pony belonging to Sydney Lowe, Esq., his brother, at 
Grantham races, in 18*26. It is proper also to notice, that 
few amateurs have attained to the same height of refinement 
in musical execution as Mr. Lowe, who led the early orches- 
tral performances at the Nottingham Mechanics' Institution, 
when it first commenced its career — having then been, and 
still remaining, one of its directors. Accordingly, his rare 
vioHns — a Straduarius, worth two or three hundred guineas, 
and several other valuable violins, one of which belonged, we 
beHeve, to the Abbe Dohbler, are amongst the " sights" of 
Highfield House, and, to the musical connoisseur, possess 
just as intense an interest as a fine picture to the lover of art. 
The Justice-room is distinguished by a. finely costumed 
picture, by Williams ; " Snatching a kiss," by Watteau, and 
an exquisite landscape, by that prince of landscape painters, 
Nasmyth. But the chief object is, the colossal picture of 

• Guido Eeni, bom at Bologna, 1574, died, 1642 ; founded on the 
antique model his standard of female beauty, as found in the 
Venus de Medici, and daughters of Niobe; he is acknowledged to have 
transcended all painters in subjects breathing of pathos, tenderness, 
and devotion. The best judges have admired itie innocence and beauty 
of this " Infant Christ." 



CABLO CIONANfs MASTERPIECE. 181 

*' Joseph and Potiphar*s Wife," by Carlo Cignani,* feet by 
6i feet The expression of supplication for deliverance, upon 
the countenance of Joseph, is much admired. Moralists may 
differ upon the tendency of such productions ; but, in breadth of 
drawing, magnificence of colouring, and a chiaroscuro of the 
most unrivalled character, the artist must own thia to be 
a splendid picture. There are here, also, a number of smaller 
pieces, by Kidd, Williams, &c., which we need not enumerate. 

Ascending the stairs, we face a superb Murillo, " The Pro- 
digal Son ;" and, also, two large views of Scotch scenery, by 
Mackenzie, " Lochleven Castle," and the " Rumbling Brig." 

In the Observatory-room, at the top of the house, we meet 
with a perfect store of pictures, probably about to be ar- 
ranged in various parts of the building— as Van Thulden's, 
(1669 — a pupil of Reubens') illustrative of the famous Eclogue 
of Virgil, " Convenimus ambo" *' The Vista'* of Highfield 
grounds, by the late Charles Hooton ; small pieces and 
sketches, by Berghem and Muller; pigs, by Moreland,i' 
" Apollo, Idas, and Mlirpessa," (Ovid) by Fuseli, and many 
others. 

• Carlo Cignani, bom at Bologna, 1628, died, 1719, learnt his en- 
iai^ement of style of Correggio and Annibale Caracci; and the art of 
giving size and space to his delineations, by means of powerful 
chiaroscuro. 

f George Moreland, bom 1764, died, 1804, is so well known by his 
four thousand pictures, dashed off under all the exigencies of reckless- 
ness and dissipation, yet inimitable in all that pertains to domestic 
animals a&d rural low-life — ^horses, dogs, pigs, donkeys, gipsies — ^that 
he need hardly be commemorated here. His escapades in Leices- 
tershire, with Dirty Brookes, and with " My Dicky," in London — are 
they not written by Allan Cunningham, in his ** lives of the most 
Eminent British Painters ?" 

[We cannot quit the picture notices of this vicinity without adding 
to our remarks on those of Lord Middleton and Mr. Lowe, some notices 
of a small but superb collection in the hands of a private gentieman, 
residing at Lenton — we refer to Henry Bogers, Esq., an official of the 
Nottingham District Court of Bankruptcy. Amongst his pictures, are, 
** The Sacrifice at Lystra," by Benjamin West, an admirable specimen 
of the great Anglo-American; ** Dogs and Hedgehog," by Martin T. 
Ward, a picture which Landseer would have been proud to have painted 
— the terriers are national — Irish, Scotch, and English ; " Bed Biding, 
hood,*' by Sir Joshua Reynolds, a most beautiful specimen of brilliant 
colouring; "Bolton Abbey," by Ibbotson, a delicious Interior of a 



182^ RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

Certain objects in this room begin, however, to remind us* 
that HigMeld House is an observatory as well as a picture 
gallery. A standard barometer, on Newman's construction, is 
here at work ; and on the observatory roof, where the large 
and beautiful telescope stands ready to be pointed at any given 
object in the heavens — we observe in action the new patent 
thermometers of Negretti, on an artificial grass-plot, determin- 
ing the terrestrial radiation, whilst others with blackened bulb 
are determining the solar radiation. These instruments are 
constructed entirely of glass, having ai> inner tube protected 
by an outer, and are self-registering. The other instruments in 
use at Highfield House are, wet and dry bulb thermometers, 
by Barrow; maximum and minimum thermometers, by 
Bennett ; rain gauges, at different heights ; an ozonometer, 
on Schoenbein's construction ; a wind-vane, 54 feet higb|; 
Lind's anemometer, &g. It was a lovely night when last 
we visited this observatory, and Mr. Lowe considered 
Saturn to be a splendid object. He was kind enough there- 
fore to bring it into the field of vie#; first with 100 mag- 
nifying power, and then with 300, by which means E; 
magnificent sight was obtained of the planet — his bright 
flattened-like oval discs of light, and broad and narrow dark 
brown rings. A low power, 40 being next substituted, the 
tube of tlie telescope was pointed to Gimini — (Castor and 
Pollux) — and these rival gems were seen glittering side by side 
in Uquid glory, green as amethysts, with the lambent water of 
the finest diamonds. At 100, the nebula in Cancer was then 
resolved ; one of its principal starlets, a superb violetrcoloured 
object. Then the Trapeziuni, invisible to the naked eye, was 

Ruin, with some marvellous effects of the sealp^ ; three Landscapes, 
by the same ; " Flora and Ceres," a florid mythological piece, by Al- 
bano; " Fruit Pieces," of gorgeous colouring, by Pawlett ; " Figures," by 
Lancret ; a " Waterfall," profusely elaborated, by Schwanfelder ; and 
another by Rhodes ; by whom, also, there are four very pretty Land- 
scapes; " Going to Market," by George Moreland; "Moonlight," by 
Anderson, (extraordinary aquatic and atmospheric effects); a "Last 
Supper," which is ascribed to Murillo, and which is surprisingly 
abundant in masterly drawing, anatomical skill, exquisite draping, and 
resplendent colour; " G!attle," of characteristic excellence, by Herring; 
"Head," by Rembrandt; "Village," by Gainsborough; "Cattle and 
Figures," by Wyck; "Dutch Boors," by Ostade; and a Wilkie, and 
Rawson Walker. 



A NICJHT AT HIQHFIELD HOUSE OBSERVATORY. 183 

defined by the telescope ; and the milky cloud of the nebula 
in Orion, whilst a dark black void by its side, told of some 
vast starless tract of space. Turning then to the star-dust 
that whitened the Milky Way, the astonished eye beheld in 
it millions of stars, peering forth one from behind another, 
and telling of illuminations in the invisible depths of heaven. 
The Zodiacal light was also partly observable ; and with these 
incidental observations, testing the excellency of Mr. Lowers 
fine telescope, we took our leave of Highfield House. We 
ought first, however, to state, that here have been taken, and 
hence for some years back have been dated, the meteorological 
observations which form the daily record of the weather in 
the leading journal of Europe, the London Times, Recently, 
the chief labours of Mr. Lowe's son, the observer, (Mr. Ed- 
ward Joseph Lowe) have been conducted at Beeston Ob- 
servatory, his own residence, where the far-famed Lawson 
meteorological instruments have been erected, and are in 
operation — Mr. E.J. Lowe working both observatories, as may 
lie perused in the succeeding chapter. 



CHAPTER V. 

BEESTON OBSERVATORY. 



EDWABD JOSEPH LOWE, Esq., F.R.A.S., F.G.S., M.B.M.S., 
Hon. Mem. Dublin Nat. Hist. Soc, Mem. Geolog. Soc, Edin., &c., &c. 



A PHILOSOPHEB AT HOME — SCIEKTIFIC LABOTTBS OF MB. £. J. LOWE- 
COMMENCEMENT OF OBSERVATIONS IN 1840— FIBST CONTBIBUTIOK 
TO THE PRESS, 1843 — CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE : BEGISTRAB 
OENEBAL'S REPORTS, SINCE 1845 , BBITISH ASSOCIATION ON METEOBS, 
1848, AND EYEBT SUBSEQtTENT YEAR; DITTO ON SHELLS; MOBIA- 
LITY OF THE SWALLOW TRIBE, AND WIND LAWS — BOYAL ASTBONO- 

mical society, june, 1848 ; solar spots ; meteors ; zoducal 
light; comet of 1864, etc. — royal society: growth of land 

SHELLS ; REPRODUCTION OF TOADS AND FROGS ; 287 THUNDER ST0B*8 
— THE TIMES' AND ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS' REGISTERS — ^FOBBES'S 
BBITISH MOLLUSCA — ^MOOBE'S GABDENEBS' MAGAZINE OF BOTANY- 
ASSOCIATION MEDICAL JOUBNAL — "THE INSTITUTE" PAPEBS TO 

LEABNED BODIESL ; ECTURES AT NOTTINGHAM, BEESTON, BATH, ETC. 
PUBLISHED WOBKS : TREATISE ON " ATMOSPHEBIC PHENOMENA;" 
" PBOGNOSTICATIONS OF THE WEATHEB;" ** CONCHOLOOY OF NOT- 
TINGHAM," (illustbated) ; and "climate of Nottingham" — dks- 

CBIPTION OF THE OBSEBVATOBY AND ITS INSTBUMENTS — ^THE EABTH- 
QUAKE PENDULUM — GIMBAL VANE — ^MEBIDIAN GUN— ELECTBOMETBBS 
— ^EXPLOBING WIRES — ^ZAMBONl'S DBY PILE, GOLD LEAF, DUTCH METAL, 
THIN STBAW,AND PITH BALL ELECTBOMETEBS — NEGBETTI'S THES- 

MOMETEBS DB. FBANKUN'S (IDENTICAL) HYGBOMETEB DANIELS' 

DITTO — THEBMOMETEB STAND — BAIN GAUGES— OZONOMETEB— TRAN- 
SIT INSTBUMENT — THE ATMOSPHEBIC BECOBDEB OF THS LATE MB. 
LAWSON, ETC., ETC. 

" Never yet was good accomplished 
Withoat hand and thought." 

" Even God's all-holy labour 

Framed the air, the stars, the sun, 
Bnilt onr earth on deep foundation ; 
And the world was won." 

Barry ComwaU, 

An Observatory is a strange place to visit ! and in nine cases 
out of ten the place will be found so far to justify its appella- 



A PHILOSOPHER AT HOME. 185 

lion as to enjoin upon the visitor the maxim of the silent 
dervishes — " hear, see, and say nothing." It all depends, 
however, upon the temperament of the observer, whether the 
sublunary affliction of an intrusive visit be practicable or not ; 
and, fortunately, Mr. E. J. Lowe is one of those men who do 
not lose their humanity in their philosophy. He is, in fact, 
the best expositor of philosophical instruments whom we ever 
chanced to accompany over any establishment of the kind. 
Such being the importance of the inhabitant of this strong- 
hold of the sciences to the purposes of our visit, we shall take 
leave to describe him first. 

Mr. Edward Joseph Lowe, son of the proprietor of Highfield 
House, having begun his observations in 1840, with a com- 
mon self-registering minimum thermometer, and gradually 
extended them, may be said to have opened his scientific 
career in 1843, by sending his first communication to the 
press, viz., a letter on meteorological phenomena, which ap- 
peared in the Nottingham Mercury, a paper conducted by Mr. 
Thomas Bailey. In that year he had been engaged, at the 
request of the Royal Agricultural Society, in assisting in the 
collection of meteorological observations undertaken by that 
body twice a day, at fifty different stations throughout the 
country. Mr. E. J. Lowe was one of the fifty observers. He 
-was also one of the Registrar General of England's earliest 
meteorological observers, and has constantly aided the labours 
of that public functionary in this respect since January, 1846. 
At the meeting of the British Association, in 1848, and on 
every subsequent occasion of the meetings of that body, his 
papers on meteors have always been read ; and his contribu- 
tions upon that subject have been sufficiently numerous, as 
may be noticed from the official reports of Professor Baden 
Powell, to equal all the rest put together — the reports of 
Dr. Buist and the Indian observers ranking next — with ex- 
ception, perhaps, of last year, when the general number of 
observers was found to have considerably increased. 

To the transactions of the Royal Astronomical Society, Mr. 
E. J. Lowe has contributed articles every year since June, 
1848, on solar spots, meteors, the zodiacal light, &c. On this 
last subject he is engaged at present, in observations which 
promise to eventuate in a discovery of some importance. Mr. 



186 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTDfOHAM. 

E. J. Lowe conceives this luminous streak in the heavens to 
he a ring connected with the sun, though at an immense 
distance, in the same way as the rings of Saturn are related 
to that planet. Mr. E. J. Lowe, it may he remembered, was 
one of tiie observers who, within a few minutes of each other, 
were the first to discover the great comet of 1854. 

To the Royal Society he has also contributed a variety of 
{>apers on such subjects as ** the growth of land shells," " the 
reproduction of the toad and frog, without the intermediate 
stage of tadpole," (a circumstance which he discovered occasion- 
ally to occur in situations where the creatures had no means of 
access to water.) To this society he reported a formidable 
series of observations which he had made on no fewer than two 
hundred and eighty-seven thunder storms ; and also contri- 
buted papers on " Temperature," " Propagation of Plants by 
Collodion," &c. 

To the Tim€8 newspaper, Mr. E. J. Lowe has contributed 
occasional meteorological observations, since 1845 ; and, since 
1852, those daily meteorological reports fromHighfield House 
Observatory, of the barometer (reduced), dry and wet bulb 
thermometer, direction and force of the wind, amount of rain 
and cloud, ozone, &c., accompanied by remarks on the maxi- 
mum, mean, and minimum temperature, pressure, evaporation, 
radiation, &c., both by day and night, which have kept his 
name as a meteorologist so constantly of late before the pubUc, 
and are now, for many purposes, found and considered inva- 
luable and indispensable, because reliable, records of the 
weather. 

To the ILlustrated London News, of the current year, he is 
contributing weekly. Other papers from his pen have ap- 
peared in the Athenaum, and Gardeners' Chronicle; and he 
has also published, for the last six months, in the Irish Land 
Scheme, connected with the Encumbered Estates' Courts of 
Ireland, a somewhat novel and remarkable weather table. 

To the transactions of the Manchester Literary and Philo- 
sophical Society, Mr. E. J. Lowe has contributed several 
papers ; as well as to those of the Penzance Natural History 
Society; and to the proceedings of the Zoological and Lin- 
nean Societies. 

Of the British Meteorological Society, since it was first 



PUBLISHED WOBES OF MB. E. J. LOWE. 187 

formed by himself and others in April, 1850, he has continued 
a member oi the council till 1854, when he retired by rota- 
tation. In 1848, (January 14) he was elected a Fellow of the 
Royal Astronomical Society ; in 1850, (April 3) a Member 
of the British Meteorological ; in 1853, (Jan. 6) a Fellow of 
the Geological. He is also a Member of the Geological So- 
ciety of Edinburgh ; an Honoraiy Member of the DubUn 
Natural History Society ; a Member of the British Natural 
History Society ; an Honorary Member of the Penzance Na- 
tural History Society; and an Honorary Member of the 
Orkney Natural History Society. 

He assisted the late lamented Professor Edward Forbes, in 
his memorable History of British Mollusca ; and his contri- 
bution regarding the Orion Flavus, and Lomax Brunneus, (a 
pigmy variety) are warmly acknowledged by that ardent dis- 
ciple of comparative science. In Moore's Gardeners' Magazine 
of Botany, will also be found an interesting series of scientific 
articles on the atmosphere, by Mr. E. J. Lowe ; as well as in 
a publication called The Itistitute, which appeared in 1860-1-2, 
besides papers in the Association Medical Journal, i 855. 

He has delivered five lectures before the Nottingham Me- 
chanics' Institute, viz., four upon meteorology, and one upon 
astronomy ; two lectures at Beeston ; one at Bath, and two 
at Knipton, 

We must now speak of the more express and elaborate 
works to which Mr. E. J. Lowe has given his name. These 
are : — 

1. A Treatise on Atmospheric Phenomena.* It is dedicated 
to the Rev. Temple Chevalier, B.D., of Durham University, 
in gratitude for vsduable communications to this work dedicated 
to the benefit of meteorological science, and containing obser- 
vations on atmospheric phenomena by many of the most 
scientific men of the present day. One chief reason for the 
publication of this work was, with a view to perfect the theory 
of halos ; and the author has accordingly collected in it all 
the most curious of those appearances that have been noticed, 
whether by ancient or modem philosophers. In one respect 
the work is pecuUarly interesting — as affording, for example 

• London : Longmans; Nottingham: Benals, 1846, p.p. 376, 8vo. 



188 RAMBLES BOUKD NOTTINGHAM 

some account of the impulses that have impelled the author 
in his career. 

" For a period of four consecutive years," he says, " com- 
mencing December, 1840, I have been carefully on the watch 
for atmospheric phenomena, and have observed during that 
time, one hundred halos, seventy-five of which have been solar, 
whilst only thirty-five have been lunal*. It would follow from 
this, that the solar halo happens about twice as frequently as 
the lunar ; but, as I did not generally carry my observations 
on after twelve o'clock, many of the latter may have occurred 
without having been noticed by me, though I occasionally 
continued those observations to a later hour, when any clouds 
appeared which were of a nature likely to form this pheno- 
menon. And I have moreover remarked that before a lunar 
halo, the peculiar density of the atmosphere has been much 
longer apparent than before a solar one. This I account 
for because the light is much stronger in the day-time than 
at night, as the rays of the sun are too brilliant to allow the 
change in the air to be so quickly observed, consequently the 
transformations are, apparendy, much more rapid, as I before 
stated, in the day-time than at night." 

This passage aflfords an insight into the early and careful 
habits of judicious observation in which our Beeston philoso- 
pher has been trained, and which we shall show that he has 
carried out in the prosecution of his scientific career. 

2. The next work of Mr. E. J. Lowe was a small brochure, 
entitled Prognostications of the Weather ; or Signs of Atmos- 
pheric Changes."^ It was dedicated to Heniy Lawson, Esq., 
in admiration of the talent and zeal so long and so success- 
fully manifested by him in scientific pursuits, and as a slight 
token of esteem and respect. This little work embodies a 
searching examinatfon into the opinions usually formed on 
that topic of universal and everlasting interest (in polite con- 
versation) the weather. As, however, there may be reason to 
fear that the polite part of the interest apparently taken by 
the intelligent society of the present day in meteorology, is 
rather superficial, the author descends at once to investigate 
its more practical bearing on the agricultural periods of seed- 

• London: Longmans; Nottingham: Benals, 1849, p.p. 48. lB.6d. 



law8on'b famous thehmometeb stand. 189 

time and harvest. Here, then, we have his own account of 
that enterprise of the Royal Agricultural Society, in 1843, in 
which as already noted, he had some share. In that year 
they caused an almanac to be printed, and prevailed upon a 
number of meteorologists (fifty, we believe) to record obser- 
vations, for the express purpose of deciding how far prog- 
nostications might be relied upon. Now it appears that, 
although these meteorologists complied with the request of the 
society, up to the date of this publication of Mr. E. J. Lowe's, 
their remarks had never been reduced from the crude condi- 
tion in which they had been entered in the Almanacs. And 
it was this task which he had now undertaken. The work is, 
however, directed chiefly to confute three classes of errors, 
whether connected with the use of instruments — the cosmical 
indications (earth, atmosphere, clouds, heavenly bodies, &c,) 
— or the habits of living amimals and vegetables. 

In connection with the Lawson instruments about to be 
described, we may here quote, as a specimen of this interest- 
ing and important manual for meteorological observers, the 
account given of Mr. Lawson's celebrated thermometer-stand 
(the original now being at Beeston Observatory.) 

"It is almost impossible, under ordinary circumstances, 
for two thermometers to be similarly placed; but Henry 
Lawson, Esq., of Bath, to whom we are indebted for eminent 
services rendered to the cause of science — has constructed a 
thermometer-stand which at once gives us uniformity in the 
placing of instruments,* Mr. Lawson found, on inquiry, 
great variation in the placing of instruments. " Some faced 
the north, some the south, some the north-east, others north- 
west, &c. Some were three feet to five feet above the ground, 
some ten to twenty ; some were embowered, some placed in a 
box, some sheltered by a high house or wall, some by a low 
wall or paUngs ; some touched a wall, others distant from it ; 
some were in the angle of a high building, and consequently 
cool as a cellar ; and some exposed to the sun's rays during 
either the morning or evening." They were, therefore, influ- 
enced by radiated heat, by currents, by reflections from an 
opposite wall, by absorption of heat from the wall itself — or 

* See small pamphlet on Meteorological Thermometer Stand. By 
Henry Lawson, Dsq., F.R.S., F.RA.S., &c. 



190 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

there was not a free passage of air. To obviate these sources 
of inaccuracy, the machine denominated " Lawson's meteoro- 
logical thermometer stand" has been invented, and is so 
arranged that it may be placed in any eligible situation that 
its owner may consider most convenient "It is placed to 
face the cardinal, and therefore commanding a true north and 
south aspect. The instrument can be read off with the 
greatest facility, and the whole will be at a known distance 
from the ground. Those instruments placed on the south 
face, will have a meridian sun ; and those on the north face, 
will be always in the shade. By the general adoption of this 
stand, observations made by individuals, wherever residing, 
whether in Europe, Asia, Africa, or America, can be compared 
with each other, with far less chance of error than has hiflierto 
been the case." The stand is not costly, and should any 
person desire to construct one, " it will afford me" adds Mr. 
E. J. Lowe, " much pleasure to furnish such information as 
may be desired." 

Having indulged in the above extract, we may as well 
venture on another, equally essential to the elucidation of the 
descriptions about to ensue. 

" But the most beautiful and interesting, as well as im- 
portant instrument we possess, is the * Atmospheric Recorder,' 
invented by Henry Lawson, Esq. This machine is inces- 
santly writing down — 

The temperature of the air — 

The pressure of the air — 

The hygrometrical state of the air — 

The amount of evaporation — 

The electrical condition of the air — 

The amount of rain — 

The direction of the wind — 

The force of the wind. 
This instrument is at work both day and night, and it is 
merely necessary that a sheet of paper, prepared for the pur- 
pose, be placed upon the rollers, and the clock connected with 
it wound up, when every change that may take place in the 
atmosphere will be recorded, without having occasion again to 
visit it, except to wind up the clock, or renew the pencils. 
We have thus an instrument that will do our work for us ; 



LAND AND PRE8H-WATBR SHELLS OF NOTTINGHAM. 191 

and, as meteorologists are too apt to place their entire de- 
pendance on the great changes, not being mindful of the 
smaller changes — (whereas, it has been ascertained that the 
former occur all over the earth, and may be termed physical ; 
but that the latter are only local, and depend upon the climate 
of the locality) — ^it is obvious, therefore, that we must look to 
the small changes for the great results. With this view of 
the case, then, self-registering machines are better recorders 
than philosophers, inasmuch as no two persons can observe 
exactly alike ; but the great importance is, that instead of 
having a few of the changes that take place, we have every 
change that occurs, both great and small, registered at the 
exact moment when it occurred. This instrument will, there- 
fore do as much work as a corps of observers, and the 
results obtained will be correct." 

Such are fair specimens of the clear and candid nature of 
this pamphlet on " prognosticating." In here combating 
vulgar notions and signs of changes in the weather, Mr. E. 
J. Lowe's most remarkable point, in which he was borne out 
by an able writer in the Athen<Bum, and by facts determined 
by Mr. James Glaisher, of the Royal Observatory at Green- 
wich, was the total negation of the belief, or prejudice, that 
the moon influences the changes of the weather. This fal- 
lacy Mr. Lowe has the merit of having overthrown. 

3. The Conchology of Nottingham ; or a Popular History of 
the recent Land and Fresh-water Molhisca found in the neigh- 
bourhood"* Happily we are enabled, with the concurrence 
of the publisher, and through the kindness of the author, to 
present from this valuable and interesting volume, plates of 
the shells found around Nottingham. The critics perhaps 
would interfere if they imagined Siat in doing so, we intended 
entering into this or any other matter minutely — although 
the very value and utility of a local history is, the minute and 
faithful record of facts—" caviare" though they may be " to 
the general." Well, then, we are not going to forestal the 
interest of Mr. Lowe's volume, by extracting or abbreviating 
its information and intelligence. We refer expressly to the 
work itself, (which every student of nature, every lover of rural 
rambles shbuld possess) for the details connected vdth this 

* London: G. A. Bartlett; Nottingham: B. Sutton, 1853, p.p. 172. 



193 BAMBLES BOOND NOTTZNQHAM. 

department of our Zoology. We simply append the names 
of these shells to the illustrations of their figures, in order 
that the nature and variety of these objects, abounding in the 
neighbourhood, may be seen; and, in so doing, it will be 
recollected that we are acting simply and sincerely enough in 
the spirit of our original pros|)ectus — by which we professed 
an intention of describing "everything that came in the way." 
We have here to express our thanks to Mr. E. J. Lowe, and 
to the publisher, Mr. Richard Sutton, the proprietor of the 
Nottingham Eeview, in which paper the subject matter of the 
volume and illustrations originally appeared, as a series of 
communications, for thus enabling us to condense, as it were, 
into a glance or two, the entire view of this branch of natural 
research, as relating to our locality. We observe from the 
work in which they now appear, that the drawings of these 
shells were mostly executed by Mr. F. E. Swann, of Notting- 
ham, and the engravings by Capt. S. H. Lowe. We will only 
add that, not only with reference to our own neighbourhood, 
but to the study of land and fresh-water conchology generally, 
we believe Mr. Lowe's to be a more easy, accurate, and agree- 
able manual than any that has appeared— not excepting Capt 
Brown's, with its plates surcharged with colouring— or poor 
MacgiUivray's " Molluscous Animals." 




& 



o 



3. 5 



6. 



1 Cyclas rivicola, (The River Cycle) Leach, 

2 Ditto ditto Ibid. 

3 G. cornea, (The Homy Cycle) Linruetu, 

4 Ditto ditto Ibid. 

5 C. oaliculata (The Capped Cycle) DrapurTUxvd, 

6 Ditto ditto Ibid. 




LCCAI/ LAND AND FEESH-WATER SHELLS. 198 




7-8 Dreissena polimorpha, (The Zebra Dreissena) Pallat. 

9 Unio tumidus, (The Tumid Union) Betzvut, 

10 U. pictorum, (The Painter's Union) Linrutui. 

11 Anodonta cygnea, (Swan Fresh- water Muscle) Jbid, 
12-18 Neritina fluviatilis, (The River Neritine) Ibid. 
\i:-\.% Paludina vivipara, (Commoa Marsh Sh^l) Ibid, 

o 



lU 



RAMBLES BOCMD KOTHNOHAM. 








I 




20. 



d 



© 




2S. 



27 



29. 



30. 





5 25. 



(^ 



^. 0. ®.' « 



16-17 Bithinift tentacolata, (The Tentacled Bi&inia) 
18-19 Bithinia Leachii, (Dr. Leach's Bithinia) Shempcard, 

20-21 Valvata piscinaliB, (The Stream Valve Shell) MvS&r. 
2-28-24 V. cristata, (The Crested Valve SheU) Ibid, 

25 limax agrestis, (The Milky Slug) Ibid, 

26 L. flavus, (The Yellow Slug) Linnaus, 

27 L. arborum, (The Tree Slug) ChatUereaux. 

28 L. cinereus, (The Spotted Slug) MuOer, 
20-30 Vitrina pellucida, (The Transparent Glass Bubble 

SheU) Ibid. 

81-32 Zonites cellarius, (The Cellar Snail) Ibid, 

83-34 Z. alliarius, (The Garlic Snail) Ibid. 

85-36 Z. Nitidulus, (The Dull Snail) Drapamaud. 
87-38 Z. purus, (The Delicate Snail) Alder. 

89-40 Z. Badiatulus, (The Bayed Snail) Ibid. 



LOCAL LAND AND FKESH-WATER SHELLS, 195 



S>^i (S^^.H 





52. 



53. 







55- 




56. 



57. 




41-42 Z. excavatas, (The excavated Snail) Bean 

43-44 Z. nitidus, (The Shining Snail) MvUer. 

45.46 Z. Crystallinus, (The Crystalline Snail) Ibid. 

47 Helix aspersa, (The Common Snail) ^lUd, 

48-46 H. Eevelata, (The Green Snail) Feru99ae, 

50-51 H. Nemoralis, (The Girdled Snail) Lmwtut, 
62-68 Var. H. Hortensis, (The Garden Snail) 

54-55 H. Arbustorum, (The Shrub Snail) Linnaus, 

564^7 H, Yii^ata, (The Zoned Snail) Da CoiUL 



196 



58. 



BAMBLEB BOXTITD MOTTUfGHAH. 
^ 62. 



59. 

tf^. 65. 




tf3.:j,. 



67. 60. 



^^71. 72. 





77. 



79. 



80. 




88-59 H. caperata, (The Black-tipped Snail) Montagu. 

60-61 H. ericetonim, (The Heath Snail) MuUer. 

62-63 H. hispida, (The Bristly Snail) Linnaut, 

64-65 H. sericea Drapamaud, 

66 H. aculeata, (The Prickly Snail) MuUer. 

67-68 H. fulva, (The Top-shaped Snail) 
69-70 H. pulchella, (The White Snail) MuOer. 

71-72 H. rotundata, ( The Radiated Snail) IMd. 

73-74 H. pygmoea, (The Pigmy Snail) Drapamaud. 

75 Bulimas obscurus, (The Dusky Twist Shell) MuUer, 

76 Pupa umbilicata, (The Umbilicated Chrysalis 

Shell) Drapamaud. 

77 Pupa pygmoea, (The Pigmy Chrysalis Shell) 

78 J>. Substriata, (The Six-toothed Chrysalis Shell) Jeffreys, 

79 Balea fragilis, (The Fragile Moss Shell) Drapcamaud, 

80 Clausilia nigricans, (The Dark Close Shell) MaUm'<t RackeU. 



LOCAL LAKB AND FBBSH-WATEB SHELLS. 197 

8S. _ 86 

82. 83. 



^1 I ^ 




81 Zua lubrica, (The Common Varnished shell) MuUer. 

82-83 Azeca tridens, (The Glossy Trident Shell) PuUeney, 

84 Achatina acicula, the needle Agate Shell) MuUer, 

85-86 Succinea putris, (The Common Amber Snail Linnatu. 

87 Physa fontinalis, (The Stream Bubble Shell) Ibid, 

88 P. hypnorum, (The Slender Bubble Shell) Ibid, 
89-90 Planorbis comeus, (The Homy Coil Shell) Ibid, 

91 P. albus, (The White Coil Shell) MuUer, 

92 P. nautileus, (The Nautilus Coil Shell) Linnatu. 

93 P. marginatus, (The Margined Coil Shell) Drapa/maud, 

94 P. carinatus, (The Carinated Coil Shell) MuUer. 
95-96 P. vortex, (The Whorl Coil Shell) Linncnu, 
97-98 P. spirorbis, (The Rolled Coil Shell) MuUer. 

99-100 P. oontortus, (The Twisted Coil Shell) LinncBUi, 



198 



RAHBLBS BOUHB HOTHW^HAM. 




107 



111. 



113 



4- The Climate of Notti'ogham.^ This work affords a 
detail and furnishes descriptions of the atmospherical phe- 
nomena which occurred in the year 186d, as recorded at 
Highfield House Observatory — in which Mr. Edward Joseph 
Lowe was aided by his brother, Oapt. A. S. H. Lowe, who is 

101-102 p. nitiduB, (The Fountain Coil Shell) Liniusw, 
108 limneeus anricularius, (The Wide-monthed Mud 

SheU) Ibid. 

IW L. Pereger, (The Puddle Mud Shell) MuUer. 

105 L. Btagnalis, (The Lake Mud Shell) Linrumu. 

106 L. truncatulus, (The Ditch Mud Shell) MuUer, 
107. L. glaber, (The Eight Whorled Mud Shell) Ibid. 

108-109 L. palustris, (The Bitch Mud Shell) Linnaus. 

110 L. glutinosus, (The Glutinous Mud Shell) MvXLer. 

111 Ancylus fluviatilis, (The Common River limpet) Ibid. 

112 A. oblongus, (The Oblong Lake Limpet) Kightfoot 

113 Carychium mmimum, (The Minute Sedge Shell) MvUer.] 

114 limax Brunneus, (The Brown Slug) var. Drapamaud, 

* London : Longmiins, (pp* ^7 ; price 2b. 6d.) 1M9. 



lAWBON OBSERVATOBY INSTBUMBNTS. 19d 

also a Member of the British Meteorological Society. The 
weather of 1852 being regarded as extraordinary, it was 
conceired that this report of it might prove of some service 
to science, owing especially to the locality of the observations 
being centrally situated in this island. 

In November, 1852, Mr. Lawson proposed to give his 
instruments to found the "Lawson Observatory." This 
progressed satisfactorily for some time; but, in 1854, the 
subscriptions not advancing, Mn Lawson recommended the 
observatory scheme to be given up, and proposed to give Mr. 
£. J. Lowe his meteorological instruments; but Mr. E. J. 
Xiowe, as secretary, would not accept the gift, as he thought 
that ihe Lawson Observatory might, by exertion, be founded : 
an unfortunate dispute, however, respecting the money value 
of the instruments, determined the committee to return the 
subscriptions. On this being done, Mr. Lawson again 
requested Mr. Lowe to accept them, together with his 
transit instrument, and various other scientific articles and 
books. The second offer was accepted, and in February, 1856, 
the instruments left the Bath Observatory, and, by June, 
were all erected at Beeston, and thus formed the Beeston 
Observatory, which is now one of the most complete meteor- 
ological observatories in Great Britain. 

As a matter of curiosity it may be noticed that the excel- 
lent dead-beat clock which drives the web of paper on the 
Atmospheric Recorder, has an interesting history. The late 
Dr. Name, of London, F.E.S., was a great c^ticiaa and 
instrument maker. Mr. E. J. Lowe possesses, as afterwards 
noticed, amongst his instruments, an old thermometer, 
which he prizes as having been that of Dr. Name. Now, 
Dr. Name was the maker of this clock ; for, in fact, it was the 
first transit clock erected at the Cambridge observatory. It 
possesses a good compensation pendulum, which hangs from 
an oak support behind the clock frame, and independent of 
it. The clock is one of great excellence, but, on the substi- 
tution of an improved astronomical clock at the Cambridge 
observatory. Dr. Name's clock came again into his own 
possession. Both Mr. Lawson and his brother were at 
one time apprenticed to Dr. Name; the Doctor, we believe. 



300 KAMBLE8 BOUND MOTHMGHAM. 

also married their mother, and thus it was that his clodc 
and instruments came into Mr. Lawson's posaession. 

The wind law, which Mr. £. J. Lowe is now engaigod a 
establishing by means of numerous observations, promises 
to yield Eome remarkably definite and important results. 
Already he has ascertained by a constructive diagram kept 
for six, eight, or ten months, as a general rule, and ex- 
cepting the irregularities of one very stormy period, that 
the air remains calmest on an average betwixt the hours 
intervening from 11 at night, till 2 a.m., and is least calm 
from 1 till 5 p.m. — unless where storms interrupt the ordi- 
nary course of observation. 

It remains only to notice, that Mr. E. J. Lowe s incom- 
parable cabinet of shells, beautifully classified and arranged, 
combine all the objects figured in the foregoing pages, and 
many others besides — ^the minute and curious shields of the 
Limax faml dissected out of the animal, and almost a micros- 
copic object — ^besides some hundreds of dried fronds of British 
and exotic ferns, lichens, minerals, Tertiary and Grantham 
fossils, &c., and the examples of recent mollusca, contributed 
as already noticed, to the work of Professor Forbes. 

One forenoon last summer, we availed ourselves of the 
kindness of the Observer, to go over his splendid meteor- 
ological and other scientific apparatus at Beeston observa- 
tory, especially the meteorological instruments presented 
to him by H. Lawson, Esq., of Bath, prior to his decease, 
and now in operation, including the unique and incompara- 
ble atmospheric recorder, beautiful transit instrument, and 
the thermometer stand, for the invention whereof Mr. Law- 
son is so justly celebrated in science. 

The house occupied by Mr. Lowe, a little to the N.E. of 
Beeston, was purposely erected for an observatory. Nor do 
we conceive that a better situation could be obtained even in 
the neighbourhood of Nottingham, correctly regarded as it 
is as the best in England for such an object. The roof has 
been adapted for the reception of the various instruments in 
use ; and the surrounding view, notwithstanding the profu- 
sion of wood, affords in three directions athwart the Beeston 
Meadows, a low and natural horizon ; whilst on the north, 
where the trees are nearest, observations can be taken fireely 



"* THE EARTHQUAKE PENDULUM. 201 

to within lO© of the horizon, which is perfectly sufficient for 
all accurate purposes. The Beeston Observatory is devoted 
chiefly to meteorological observations, and it was and is the 
intention, we believe, of Mr. Lowe, to carry on the publica- 
tion of the observations recorded there by all the instruments, 
from and after the ensuing first of July, 1855. Thus our 
observer has under his charge, as already noticed, two dis- 
tinct observatories — ^not only the Highfield House Observa- 
tory, the property of his father, Alfred Lowe, Esq., and 
with the results of his labours in which the public have long 
been rendered familiar by Mr. E. J. Lowe's daily meteorolo- 
gical reports in the columns of the Times — ^but also the 
Beeston Observatory, occupying the vantage ground we have 
mentioned, now fitted up with the unrivalled collection of 
instruments we are about to describe. 

The first instrument to which our notice was directed in 
the hall or lobby of Mr. Lowe's house, is the " Earthquake 
Pendulum," which ascends within the pendulum case to the 
top of the building, a height of thirty-three feet, where it is 
attached to the building. The pendulum rod within the 
case is of deal wood, accurately joined in twelve feet lengths, 
Mr. Lowe having substituted a wooden pendulum-rod for 
that of copper wire employed by Mr, Lawson, which last he 
found might be made to oscillate to the extent of six inches 
in the wire, without even moving the point — ^^'hich, as will 
be immediately observed, entirely defeats the object in view ; 
for the pendulum-rod terminates in a loaded bulb (brass and 
lead) 2lbs. in weight, possessed of a hard steel point, which 
acts upon a smooth surface of powdered chalk. The conse- 
quence is, that whenever the top of the building is tempo- 
rarily disturbed or displaced by the shock of an earthquake, 
the pendulum oscillates, and the steel point inscribes a cor- 
responding result upon the chalk, according as the shock is 
more or less intense. No shock has been experienced at 
Beeston during the twelve months which have now elapsed 
since the earthquake pendulum was erected ; and Mr. Lowe 
will be satisfied if he is enabled to register one in the course 
of several years. 

Ascending to the house top, the electrometers are found 
situated in an apartment in which lightning or exploring 



202 BAMBUES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. * 

'wires are conducted from the trees around, one 700 feet 
distant, in an easterly direction, at a height of 40 feet aboTe 
the ground; another, 250 feet, in a south-west direction; 
and a third, 150 feet, in a north-west direction, much upon 
the same system of arrangement as that adopted hy Andrew 
Crosse, Esq., at his Squirearchy in Wales. In fact, a wire 
proceeds from a tree situated at almost every cardinal point 
of the compass, and guarded hy ten insulators, is conducted 
through Mr. Lowers instruments for investigation, previous 
to being transmitted to the earth down the upright light- 
ning conductors, which are of the latest fashion, upon the 
bayonet principle of Sir W. Snow Harris. The instruments 
for measuring the electricity, are of the most delicate and 
beautiful construction. The principal one is Zamboni's 
dry pile, of two gilded balls and cylinders, for determining 
the negative and positive character of the electricity, and its 
relative amount. The others are test instruments — thin 
straws which separate; gold leaf and Dutch metals which ex- 
pand with electricity; and pith balls, which test its intensity 
by flying apart like the governors of a steam engine. 
.When the atmosphere is greatly surcharged, an alarm bell, 
ef the best bell-metal, rings vehemently. 

Recently has been added, Glaisher's portable electrometer, 
an infitrument in which electricity is excited by burning a 
fosee at the >^ummit of a brass rod. Flashes of lightning 
are apparent in their effects upon the wires, at four or five 
miles distance ; and, immediately before nearer, flashes ai'e 
seen, the action becomes paralysed, and the sides of the 
electrometer are then struck violently. 

Here, also, are several other remarkably curious and 
valuable instruments. The beautiful little pocket sextant; 
with Mr. Lawson's simple measurer, for denoting and mark- 
ing off for future reference the angle of distance betwixt two 
objects; an electrical kite, made of some description of 
oiled paper, and said to have once belonged to, or to have 
been made by, Benjamin Franklin. 

The slips of prepared test paper, for telling the presence 
of ozone ij^ the atmosphere, exhibited strangely varying 
hues, from the slightest sufiPusion to the deepest shade of 
bronze ; whilst, as Mr. Lowe informed U8» the papers used 



BAIK ANGLES, OZONOMETBB, THSBMOMETEB STAND. 809 

at Highfield House Observatory, (quite adjacent) throughout 
the same period, exhibited no indications whatever of ozone 
in the atmosphere. The Beeston Ozonometer is, however, 
upon one principle, (Dr. Moffatt's) and that of Highfield 
House upon another, (Schonbein's). The burnt sulphuric 
smell by which ozone sometimes indicates its presence in 
the air is, by some observers, considered healthy, although 
others attribute cholera to a deficiency, and influenza to an 
excess of ozone in the air. 

Mr. Lowe having observed that, owing to gravitation, 
the rain does not fail at the ai^e at which the wind blows, 
but at a lower angle, has constructed a jointed wooden frame 
of great ingenuity and simplicity, capable of being set to the 
angle at which the rain is falling, and thus marking and 
saeasuring it. 

On stuping oat from this apartment upon the roof, vre 
observe a slip of test paper fluttering, attached to the Law- 
son thermometer stand, with, howevear, only the faintest 
scarcely perceptible traces of the presence of ozone. On a 
subsequent visit, we found the quantity of ozone in the 
atmosplieie materially different, and the test paper quite 
bronzed. 

This thermometer stand is of very ingenious and com- 
pact construction, being composed of open ventilated cases 
for containing the variouB instruments vnth which it is 
charged. The most remarkable, unquestionably, of all these 
instruments, is that which is inscribed with the name of 
Benjamin Frankhn — being a hygrometer made of mahogany 
board — boiled in one instance for twenty-four hours, to com- 
plete saturation, and baked in the other for a like period, 
to produce complete dryness, the difference of these opposite 
results enabling a scale of admeasurement of the moisture 
in the atmosphere to be obtained and constructed. One of 
t^ese mahogany slabs having met with an accident, has, 
indeed, become a curiosity of science, having been stitched 
together by Franklin's own hand, and in that coDdition re- 
maining a monument of the fact that nothing defeats a man 
of genius. 

In the north face of the thermometer stand, protected 
from the weather, are exposed several wet and dry 



204 RAKBIJBS BOUMD NORXNCIBIM. 

bulb thermometets, both vertical and horizontal, Nigretti^s, 
DanieVs, &g., with their scales finely graduated upon trans- 
parent glass. One of these Mr. Lowe has turned to veiy 
good account, inasmuch as he has applied it to self-register 
with the wet bulb — keeping the bulb moistened with silk, 
which draws water from a little tin reservoir suspended near 
by capillary attraction ; and taking advantage of the con* 
struction of the thermometer tube,* in which a little wedge 
of glass inserted near the bend, permits the mercury to flow 
past, but checks its return in such a manner, that a portion 
of the column remains in the tube to indicate the height to 
which it had risen. On the southern face of the stand, the 
blackened bulb alone of a thermometer is exposed, for ab* 
sorbing and registering the greatest heat of the solar rays. 
The neatness of this stand we have already adverted to — 
being composed of wood, open in all directions, it remains 
either perfectly cool or at the natural atmospherical tempe* 
rature, and free from any radiation of heat. So precise was 
the late Mr. Lawson in all his arrangements, that above the 
little desk folding down externally at the side, for noting 
observations, are still to be seen his pencil and piece of India- 
rubber. A neighbouring stand is occupied by a hygrometer, 
employed in determining the temperature of the " dew point," 
by evaporating ether, when a ring of dew is immediately seen 
to form round the tube at the point in question, which, when 
we saw it, happened to be 65®. 

Proceeding next towards the newly-erected transit room, 
we pass Mr. Lowe's large telescope, which occupies a con- 
siderable space upon the roof, being eleven feet in length, 
with an object glass of four inches diameter. 

In the transit room is situated the exquisitely beautiful 
transit instrument of Mr. Lawson, alongj with a sidereal 
clock. This instrument, as the reader may be aware, is 
adapted to ascertain the moment of the passage of any celes- 
tial object across the meridian. The telescope, which is 
rested upon Y supports, as they are called, moves upon a 
horizontal axis, and points either due north or due south, 
(for which purpose windows are opened in the roof and 
angles of the transit house, and a mark placed upon 
* Nigretti and Zambra's Patent Mazimam Tharmometer. 



TRANSIT BOOM — ^ATICOSPHXBIO BECOBDSB. 906 

an obelisk under a laburnum tree in tbe garden below, to 
fix the south) or it (the telescoped may be used vertically, as 
a microscope. The levels are obtained by suitable adjust- 
ments ; and the readings are subjected to three different 
checks, by the employment of Vernier glasses. In the field 
of view are beheld the celestial objects, carried by the 
diurnal motion of the sphere across the meridian, by point- 
ing the telescope, it may be hours before, according to their 
declination, and waiting till they cross the meridian, which 
they will appear to do horizontally. Now, a small frame 
fixed in the eye-piece of the telescope, with five wires ex- 
tended across it vertically, and three horizontally, affords 
the means of knowing exactly (by the clock) the moment at 
which an object passes the meridian — the centre horizontal 
wire dividing the five vertical wires equally — and all being 
so extremely fine that, magnified as they are by the eye- 
glass, they still seem but mere hairs.* *' The stars," says 
Dr. Lardner, " seem like so many luminous insects, creep- 
ing with a visible motion across the field in horizontal 
directions, and passing in succession behind each of the 
parallel vertical wires." Of the stars, Mr. Lowe obtains two 
observations, but as the one limb of the sun enters the field 
of view as his other emerges from it — of the sun he ob- 
tains ten. In the Transit Boom are drawings of snow crys< 
tals, sections of hail stones, weather charts, with sanitary 
statistics, &c. ; and a portrait of Mr. Lawson. 

The last and largest apartment added to the summit of 
Mr. Lowe's observatory is, however, that which forms also 
its most important accession as a meteorological establish- 
ment — being that which accommodates that most exceedingly 
beautiful, simple, yet most ingenious of self-registering 
instruments, "the Atmospheric Recorder." Twenty-one points 
or pencils are here incessantly at work, recording the inci- 
dents of time and tide. No blast that blows, no storm that 
beats, disturbs their action ; on the contrary, nothing does 
so but the equanimity of a dead calm — ^particularly that of 
the pencil which writes down the force and direction of the 
vrind. We ought to observe that the pencils are either red 
or black — ^the red, as the endless web of paper is drawn 
• ThMe wires are single gpider-tDebi, 



dOO BAHBLB8 BOUIO) NOTTXNQHAK 

underneath them, drawing steadily the Tarious zero lines, at 
the rate of half an inch per hour — the black, registering the 
deviations from these in a manner not to be mistaken, and 
in each instance as if actuated not only by living intelli- 
gence, but endowed with an artistic touch. The apparatus 
comprises a framework of two feet by three feet six inches, 
firmly supported and strongly braced together. Ten ittohes 
from each end of the frame revolves a roller of a foot circum- 
ference; the southern roller is moved by a clock which, 
when at Bath, went for a month continuously, but find- 
ing that this occasioned inaccuracies from over-lapping 
on the barrel of the clock, Mr. Lowe has reduced it to four 
days, when no overlapping is occasioned on the barrel, and 
no inaccuracy caused from friction. The northern roller 
winds up the paper as it is written upon, and is propelled by 
61b. weights. But there is a third roller, of the same di- 
mensions, placed near the clock rollers, arranged so as by 
pressing throughout equally upon the paper, to keep in con- 
tact with the driving roller. The sheet of drawing paper is 
exactly twenty-four inches wide, and of any length from 
SO to 110 feet. Upon a strong bar crossing the frame are 
placed the fulcrums of several indicators. All these zero 
and registering pencils are ranged in a straight line across 
the centre of the table. Three of the atmospheric variations, 
those of the barometer, thermometer, and hygrometer are 
indicated, not by pencils, but by sharp steel points pricking 
the paper. These are spring points, on which a lever 
descends or falls every quarter of an hour, and the results, 
like those written by the pencils, may be measmBd oE 
betwixt the respective zero lines on a finely graduated 
ivory scale belonging to the instrument. We forgot to say, 
however, that, driven by the clock, the first pencil of aH 
diligently records the lapse of time, on each side of the 
paper, in a larger and smaller triangular bordering at inter- 
vals, not unlike those of a Vandyke lace collar. The varia- 
tions on the barometer are indicated by a float. This 
presented some difficulty to the constructor, because a 
barometer with a float on the top of the mercury would have 
no longer been hermetrically sealed; but, by bending the 
tube round, he obtained the compensating or opposite result 



▲TM08PHEBIC REGOBDEB. Q07 

in the ixmnterpoising column of mercury, and was also able 
to employ the float. 

The thermometers are arranged in a still more remarkable 
manner ; ho fewer than ten of them bent and suspended 
upon a delicate balance, being required to give the moving 
force which shifts the position of the registering point. Every 
fifteen minutes a hammer is suddenly dropped by the clock 
upon this pricker, and the point is driven into the paper, and 
thus the temperature recorded. The hygrometic part con^ 
sists of a completely saturated and baked cross-grain mahogany 
slip, the invention of Franldin — ^the difference of these two re- 
sults, carefully taken, fumishii^ a scale ; and in use this hygro- 
meter is weighted and suspended in a tube placed outside 
the observatory, protected from the sun and rain, and having 
free power to act upon the indicator. From the absence of 
electricity in the atmosphere at the moment of our visit, we 
had not the advantage of observing the electrometer in 
action, which Mr. Lowe very much regretted, describing its 
mOTements as something majestic. A wire brought down 
from the conductor to an insulator in the top of the obser- 
yatory, and thence to an upright or standard, passes through 
another insulator to a metal disc, between which and a spring 
a moveable disc is attached to a glass or insulating arm. 
But the electricity is in the first instance collected by means 
of plates, or points, and any excess is discharged by means of 
a wire into the earth. The direction of the wind is shown by 
an indicating pencil, and three zero pencils, one drawing a 
W, another an E, and the third a N or S wind, according as 
the direction pencil points, in coimection with a vane — on 
which prominent object of all observatories, by the way, we 
ought to have observed at the outset, that Mr. Lowe has 
effected some improvements in the gymbal vane, which show, 
by means of counterpoises, that the wind does not always blow 
horizontally. There is a good deal of ingenuity manifested in 
the wind vane, in the fact that, whilst the vane performs its 
registrations by turning a cylindrical tube or stem, the force of 
the wind is at the same time measured by a rod, which descends 
down that very stem — aboard, a foot square, being kept facing 
the wind, by the vane, every part of which is relieved of friction 
by counterpoise weights. The action of the wind upon this 



S08 BAMBIiES BOUND KOTTINOHAM. 

plate raises accoTding to its force a combination of suspended 
weights, by means of a chain passing over a pulley in a line 
with the direction of the wind, and well protected from the 
weather. These suspended weights being in connection with 
an inclined lever and indicating pencil, the latter writes off 
the varying gusts of Boreas in zigzag . calligraphy. It is 
truly interesting to behold what nature thus writes ; and still 
, more so to see how the pencil sweeps round in curves at the 
wind's capricious changes — in the latter case the dark pen- 
cilling, gone over, and over, and over again, always marks the 
prevailing direction ; in the former nothing can exceecl the 
graphic characteristics of the handwriting of the wandering 
breeze, which, from the dull and almost straight line of the 
dead calm, dances off through all the mazes of moonshine 
on water, sometimes, as Mr. Lowe assures us, interlacing 
itself like true lovers' knots. The direction of the wind is 
vmtten in good round hand — ^its force in most appropriate 
Italian. On the top of the observatory, near the head-pieces, 
of these two intelligent scribes, may be seen seated another 
more plodding companion. It is the rain-guage — with a 
receiving surface of a foot square, whence the rain is con- 
ducted by a pipe into a receiver situated inside under the 
registering apparatus, and inside this receiver there is an air 
ffoat connected with a set of inclined planes, each of them 
oqual to a fall of rain of one inch, and consequently in moving 
upwards with the float, these inclined • planes act upon the 
pencil, recording the amount of rain. The only unsteady 
hand employed in this incomparable machine, is the evapo- 
rating dish, and then only in gales of wind, which, from ibe 
necessity of the air being allowed to act freely on the surface 
of the water, writes tremulously, and with the hand of a fast- 
wasting old man. It consists of two cubes, each one foot 
square, one covered and the other open — the latter protected, 
however, by a plate of glass at an angle which precludes the 
access of rain. 

Such is a very imperfect sketch of the celebrated meteoro- 
logical and other contrivances of Mr. Lawson, which we have 
judged might prove interesting Jto our readers, seeing that 
despite the extraordinary opposition to their dedication to the 
public benefit in this neighbourhood, we are destined never- 



NBfW INSTHTJMENtS AT BEE8T0N. 209 

tbeless to eiigoy the advantage of them ; for in the hands of 
Mr« Lowe, whose seal as a meteorological obseirver is be^^ond 
all praise, they will, no doubt, diligently chronicle and trea- 
sure up a mass of fticte for the service of a science the most 
important to agriculture and to public health of any with 
whioh we are acquainted. Until we saw them we had no 
conception of the beauty and efficiency (we suppose we dare 
not Bay a word of the value) of Mr. Lawson's instruments; 
and we cannot help hailing tiieir acquisition by our eminent 
local observer as a boon of no small magnitude to this quarter 
oi the country. 

Amongst the new instruments recently adopted by Mr. 
E. J. Lowe, there is an improved registering metallic ther- 
momet^, employed to ascertain the ejffeet of the eleetricity 
on t^tnperature, by means of two pins moved by an index 
needle, and thus showing the maximum and minimum. 
There is also a new and convenient evaporator, by Newman, 
a very elegant instrument. The water in the dish is, before 
and after evaporation, let down into a glass-stem, which is 
graduated so as to show the difference. As the metal sides of 
evaporating dishes ftre also apt to get hot; there is likewise 
employed an evaporator by Negretti and Zambra, in which 
all unnatural evaporation is avoided, by placing it within a 
wooden dish filled with wet sand, so as to preclude all loss 
from what are called " local" circumstances.* A metallic 
thermometer is used in connection with the exploring wires, 
(p. 202) an ordinary thermometer not being considered a 
proper instrument to employ on account of its being enclosed 
in glass — a non-conductor. Other interesting novelties com- 
prise a thermometer for telling the temperature of the upper 
regions of the air — the bulb being placed in a flat dish, which 
is speedily filled with water by rain, and thus indicates its 
temperature before it (the rain) can acquire that of the sur- 
rounding objects ; a thermometer placed above sand, which 
has indicated some interesting facts, evincing the existence 
of greater cold than upon grass ; the newly-invented patent 
minimum mercurial thermometer, of Negretti and Zambra, 

•Negretti's patent rain guage on the roof of Beeston Observatory, has 
a canal around the rim, and a bent tube in the centre of the funnel, 
for guarding against evaporation. 
p 



QIO RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

which is pronounced one of the triumphs of our day, since it 
was thought the production of such an instrument never 
could be accomphshed. 

Mr. E. J. Lowe has, indeed, above thiitjr thermometers of 
different constructions, each devoted to a particular purpose, 
at work at the Beeston Observatory. Whilst Negretti and 
Zambra's, with Barrow's standard barometers, are employed 
at Beeston Observatory, (as well as the Lawson instruments) 
we have already remarked that at Highfield House Observa- 
tory the barometer employed is Newman's. Mr. E. J. Lowe, 
in his meteorological works, shows that no other than standard 
barometers are to be depended upon for takmg observations ; 
and that the common wheel barometers and weather glasses 
are not at all to be depended upon-— or if so, that there 
are a considerable number of corrections requisite for perfect 
accuracy, which axe never applied in practice. 

In the Hall of Beeston Observatory Mr. E. J. Lowe has 
now going Mr. Lawson's celebrated astronomical clock, with 
a superb mercurial pendulum. 

We do not proceed farther than the Observatory m the 
Beeston direction — Beeston village being properly included 
in the Railway Bambles, which will in due season be given 
in our series. 



CHAPTER VI. 
BRAMCOTE AND THE HEMLOCK STONE. 



JOHN SHEBWIN SHERWIN, Esq., of BramcotoHills, J.P. 



THB DEBBT BOAD, BIOHT AND I.EFT, TO BRAMCOTE — THREE APPROACHES 
TO BRAMCOTE — RX7RAL STREETS £SD TERRACES — THE SHERWIN ARMS 

CROSS ROADS — ^TURNPIKE BAR — SAXON POSSESSORS — ^WILLIAM THE 

PORTER — ^HERBERT OF BRAMCOTE AND HIS CTJRSE —THE NUNS AND 
PRIOR OP SEMPRINOHAM — ^THE HANDLEY FAMILT — THE SHERWINS — 
OU) VILLAGE CHURCH AND TOWER— MONUMENTS— SCHOOLS — ^PRIVATE 
RESIDENCES — ^THE HEMLOCK STONE — ^WAY TO THE SITE — ^BRAMCOTE 

HALL AND PARE — BRAMCOTE HILLS TRADITIONS OF THE HEMLOCK 

STONE — ^DRUIDICAL ALTAR — MATERIALS, DIMENSIONS, AND DESCRIP- 
TION OF THE ptLLABr— VIEWS FROM THE SITE — ^NATURAL CAUSES OF 
THE FORMATION. 



" The Cottage Homes of England I 

By thousands on her plains, 
They are smiling o' er the silvery brook, 

And round the hamlet fanes ; 
Through glowing orchards forth they peep. 

Each from its nook of leaves ; 
And fearless there the lowly sleep. 

Like the bird beneath their eaves. 

The free fair Homes of England ! 

Long, long in hut and hall, 
Mfl^ hearts of native proof be rear'd 

To guard each hallow'd wall— 
And green for ever be the groves. 

And bright the ilowery sod, 
Where first the child's glad spirit loves 

Its country and its Ood. 

Felicia Heman*, 



Choosb an early day in spring for a stroll to Bramc«^te. Let 
the sun shine, and the birds carol ; and no walk on earth 
could possibly prove more delightful. The queen's highway 
sweeps majestically past Lord Middleton's lordly park of 



212 BAMBLUS BOUND MOTnNGHAM. 

Wollaton. The lark, sky-high, soars over the going plough ; 
and the happy clodhopper whistles hehind. Such is the 
scene upon the left. On the right is the Park wall, over- 
topped by evergreen, or at all events by non-deciduous trees; 
in front the well-kept way, and smoothly-beaten foot-paths, 
neatly marked with the iron mile-stones of this iron age — 
*' 2, 3, 4 miles from Nottingham; 14, 13, 12 miles from 
Derby." "Come along, honey," says the Irishman, "its 
only six to the piece of us !" Well, then, we declare, on 
breasting this ri^ of hills, at two miles from Nottingham, 
«here are two large residences — ^Lenton Firs, &c., already 
commemorated, then the avenue sweeping up to Mr. Morley's 
abode of Lenton Hall, on the high ground above Highfield 
House; and the road diverging southwards to Beeston, 
which opens a little way from a private residence just oppo- 
site that gate of Lord Middleton's Park, known as Beeston 
Tower, which presents the aspect of a doubly embattled enceinte, 
with an open portcullis of iron, or chevaux defrize, let down 
to the ground, through whose open railings is caught a glimpse 
of th^. trees and plantations within, and the upper portions of 
Wollaton Hall. Now the turnpike becomes picturesque. 
The road has been cut down in engineering fasluon, leaving 
high embankments on the Park side, with forest trees in situ 
along the exterior of the Park wall, showing that some in- 
exorable act of parliament bad taken its slice more or less off 
this lordly demesne. The interest deepens, and so does the 
foliage; for at length overhanging the wall, in splendid 
horizontal masses of leaves, a line of dark old yew trees near 
its termination deepens the gloom ; whilst, opposite, the httle 
ivy-clad lodges of Lenton Abbey and Lenton Grove, with a 
few fantastically Dutch cropped evergreens, open up an ap- 
proach to the left. From this point the view to the south- 
west is eminently agricultural* The sheep are penned around 
the field-stored heaps of turnips, in process of being scientifi- 
cally " eaten off" by those " golden-footed" enrichers of tho 
soil : the fields are fringed with a profiision of trees not yet 
in foliage, but soft, ekgani, and featbeiy in their fonns: 
and the eye even 'gains and reposes on the receding oatlines 
of the boundary range of hills upon the southern horizon. 
The Park wall soon divei^s to the north, and a stockade 



BUBAL STBEETS AND TEBBACE8. 51^ 

eontinties for some distance, to protect the fence of the Wol- 
lat<m demesne. A little and not very romantic bridge spans 
the sluggish stream of Tottle Brook, which takes its rise two 
miles above, in Trowell Moor. On the next rise to the left, 
stands the farm-steading of Lenton Field, with large sub- 
stantial eom-ricks close to the highway. Exactly at the 
fottr-mile stone a bndle path to the right , pursues a devious 
and romantic course through gorse covers, com fields, and 
game jweserves, to the heart of WoUaton villfi^e. An artist 
with half an eye to the picturesque, might find profit for his 
pencil in its wild but tiny gorges, or in the sweet white cot- 
tages that nestle at intervsds along the way ; but this is not 
our route. We cannot fail to tell the entomologist, however, 
that on the first day of their appearance last season, (20th 
June) two youthful but elegant stag beetles were captured at 
this four-mile stone itself. To the left opens first the avenue 
to the beautiful house and grounds of Bellevue, and then a 
pretty country road or lane, marked by a finger-post, wind- 
ing up the ascent to the village of Bramcote, with its 
diminutive square church, and primitive square church tower, 
(arowning the height, and leaving it doubtful which is the 
laigest. Bramcote is rich, however, in its approaches ; for 
if we continue along the turnpike, instead of penetrating to 
the head of the village by the first approach, we shall observe 
on the right Bramcote Hill, an abrupt elevation, crowned by 
a remarkable clump of trees, and passing some roads leading 
up to farms, arrive at the elegant gate of John Sherwin 
Sherwin, Esq., of Bramcote, opposite to which there is a 
second road, or sort of street, (at least it has houses on one 
side) leading up to the top of the village; whilst on the 
summit of the rise, facii^ the turnpike, appear the rustic 
fiaoade of the houses termed '* Bramcote Terrace ;" for sweet 
little Bramcote, in its unsuspecting simplicity, aspires at 
every comer to civic dignity, and the astonished vidtor, 
although in not the slightest danger of losing his way, will 
find the village streets perfiinctorily labelled in great staring 
letters, down to the last and newest " Chapel-street" inclu- 
sive. Past "Bramcote Terrace," the rise surmounted, appears 
a fine turnpike vista of the lower part of the village, revealing 
through its ap^ture some quaint old countiy dwellings, 



214 BAMBLE8 BOUND NOTTINOHAM. 

amidst road-side foliage, as far as the turnpike bar and the 
comer of the •' Sherwin Arms.** There are cross roads here 
to Nottingham, Derby, ChUwell and Ilkeston. The third 
leads once more up to Bramcote church, through the main 
street of the village ; whilst passing through the toll-bar, the 
fourth is our way to the renowned " Hemlook Stone.** The 
^' Sherwin Arms** (Mr. Samuel Bagshaw) is also the Post- 
office — ^and a most creditable road-side inn it is. 

Bramcote has, undoubtedly, an antiquity of its own, but it is 
wonderfiilly immersed in obscurity. In truth, since Thoroton 
and his continuator Throsby, from a Tillage consisting of 
forty or fifty houses, as they have set it down, the place must 
have increased immensely; and instead of boasting, as at 
that time, but of " one good house, in which lives &e Ket. 
Mr. Bigsby, and in another a Mr. Robinson, in the cotton 
line," Bramcote has become the favourite retirement of rich 
merchants and bankers from " the lace metropolis ;** and its 
whole aspect has been renovated with new erections, in the 
shape of fine schools and modem houses. To go back as 
far as we reasonably can, the principal part of Bramcote be- 
fore the Conquest was comprised in the manors of four 
worthy Saxons — Ulchel, Godric, Alvric, and Levric; then, 
when the land became parcelled out, one William Gstiarius, 
that is, William the Usher, or Porter — some black rod, or 
gold stick, of the Conqueror's court — got his eye upon the 
fair inheritance, and had it for his fee. It may be remem- 
bered from our details concerning Lenton Abbey, that it was 
part of Bramcote which Herbert de Bramcote gave to the 
Holy Trinity and the monks of Lenton, guarded by the dread 
anathema of the curse of Almighty God and his own upon his 
heirs, if they should ever attempt to go against his grant — a 
conjunction which rather reminds us of the terms upon which 
a celebrated criminal judge once discharged a little boy from 
the bar of offended justice, " Go, sir ; but remember that 
from henceforth the eye of Almighty God, and that of the 
Metropolitan Police, is fixed upon you !** It is curious enough 
to note that the curse in question did not preserve the title of 
the prior from disputation. The monks did have a contro- 
versy in the King's Court about eight bovats of land in 
Bramcote. The property afterwards passed to the nuns» and 



OLD GHIVALRT OF BRAJfCOTB. 215 

subseqnentlj to the prior of Sempringham ; and in Eliza- 
beth's time partly l)ecame the property bf the Willoughbys. 
The chief portion was aeqniied, however, by the family of 
Handley, (well known as the founders of one of the Notting- 
ham almshouses) and the royalty now belongs to Mr. Sherwin. 
The whole lordship of 1,100 acres is thus in several hands. 

The old chivalric names connected with Bramcote, were — 
H. de Neville, whom we find confirming by deed the doubtful 
bovats of that soc to the litigant prior already referred to ; 
the de Riseleys, (Herbert and WiUiam) who held betwirt 
them half a knight's fee, the fee of Mortimer ; and the de 
Birchinwoods, or Birchwoods, who held the sixth of a knight's 
fee, and did suit for their bovats to the Honour of Peveril. In 
the nomination of villages, 9 Edward II., (1416) the de 
Byleys (in whom we presume to recognise the ancestors of a 
worthy contemporary and local historian) appear as lords of 
Bramcote; and, in the succeeding reign, 3 Edward III., 
(1330) claimed assize of bread and ale of his Bramcote 
tenants. The property of the de Biseleys was afterwards 
held by John de Beley. John de Thometon also had a mes- 
suage and certain oxgangs of land in Bramcote, prior to 
13 Edward 11., (1320) and the Kars, or del Kars, of Eud- 
dington, had also transactions wit^ the Willoughbys, relating 
to property in this place ; there being at Bramcote a place 
termed Earr Manor, as well as lands belonging to the 
Babingtons, of Ohilwell. The old Hall or Manor-house of 
Bramcote, however, situated on the southern slope looking 
towards Beeston, and now the farm-house on one of Mr. 
Sherwin's farms, in the occupation of Mr. Henson, is a 
building of the Elizabethan style, and one of the objects 
most worth visiting in connection with the village. One old 
wainscotted chamber, in excellent preservation, yet displays 
a carving of the arms of the Fitzherberts, its original 
occupants. 

That class of readera who are invariably for cutting matters 
short, may perhaps infer, that we can settle Ibe internal 
stairs of Bramcote without much circumlocution. And so, 
indeed, we might But the extensive charities of Henry 
Handley, if passed over here, as it were in their native habitat, 
apply to so many other places around, that they would ever- 



216 JUMBLES BOUND SOTQIIOHAM. 

.lafitixigly be found opringing up for espkuiatton, and it may 
be as well to dispose of them at once. A man to whom Sbak- 
speare's detraction of human nature is so plainlj inapphcaUe — 

" The ill men do, lives after them, 
The good is oft interred with their bones," 

is well entitled to our respect and o<HiflideratiQn. There are 
some things, too, connected with the memory of Handley, 
interesting if not curious. Passing into St. Peter's Church, 
of Nottingham, there, amongst the arms and aehieyements of 
the Strelleys and Plumptres ; the water bougets of the Rut- 
lands, and other ennobled offspring of honest Ealph Bu^, 
"merchant of the stafde," we shall find bearing date the mid- 
dle of the 17th century, the remarkable ooat — argent a fesse 
gules between three goats, in oourse, sable, homed, bearded, 
and hoofed, or. These curious bearings, we are at the same 
time informed, are those of" Henry Handley, Esq., a founder 
of the hospital in Stoney-sti>eet, within the town of Nottii^- 
ham, who endowed the same with forty pounds per annum out 
of lands in Bramcote, in the county of Nottingham, for the 
maintenance of six men and six women." And again, if we 
repair to Stoney-atreet itself, we shall see — as Goldsmith 
says — " the place where the hospital is not,'' being remoTcd 
to Handley-street, WoUaton-etreet, with tiie old defaced in- 
scription sculptured afresh upon the stone,' as quoted by 
previous writers " fortn/onmitum"— rthe very reasimfor which 
it is transcribed here :-— " Henry Handley, whose body is 
interred in the church of BraimcoU, in the county of Nottmg- 
ham, caused thia almshouse to be erected iar twelve poor 
people, and did give one hundred pounds yearly forth of his 
ancient inheritance lands, at and near Brameote aforesaid, for 
pious and charitable uses, to continue for ever. Namely, 
forty pounds for the maintenance of the said twelve poor 
people ; twenty pounds for a weekly lecture in this town ; 
twenty pounds for a preaching and residmg minister at 
Brameote; five pounds for the poor of Brameote; five pounds 
for the poor of WUford; twenty shillings to the poor at 
Beeaton; twenty shillings to the poor of ChilweU; twenty 
shillings to the poor of Jttenbowugh and Totfm; twenty shil- 
lings to the poor of Stapl^ord; twenty shillings to the poor 



MISS lovoxhcn's aucshouses. 317 

of Trowdl ; twenty shilliiigs to the poor of WoUaUm ; and four 
pounds to the poor prisoners in the gaols for the county of 
Nottingham yearly for ever ; and one tibird hell to the afore- 
said churoh of Bramcote. This pious, most charltahle, and 
at this time most seasonable donation, as it deservedly perpe- 
tuates his memory to be honored by all posterity, so it gives 
a most worthy example for imitation. He died on the 10th 
day of June, 1650." 

Miss Frances Jane Longden, of Bramcote, who inherits 
part of the property of the founder, and, we believe, pays the 
quarterly aUowances of the occupants, herself erected and 
endowed at Bramcote, in 1862, four almshouses, for four 
poor women — ^having, we believe, the right of presentation 
also to the four centre habitations of the twelve in Notting- 
ham ; whilst the 'Mayor of Nottingham, (or the Charitable 
-Trustees, as hb ddegates) presents to the four en the north, 
and Earl Manvers to the four on the south. The twenty 
pounds payable for a preaching and residing minister at 
Bramcote, is now, however, paid by John Sherwin Sherwin, 
$j8q., to the resident officiating curate, the Bev. William 
Henry Cantrell, M.A., who also holds twelve acres of glebe 
land, and occupies a handsome parsonage-house, erected in 
-1843, at a cost of £1,600. The various sums to parochial 
•and other poor, are all payable at one of the banks. As for 
the twenty pounds payable for a weekly lecture in the town 
of Nottingham, Blackner is ready widi a notable story to 
account for its defeasance : — 

'< The Rev. Mr. Davenport," he says, " being a curate of 
Bt. Mary's, and holding but a small income, the legacy was 
given to him from a principle of compassion, to enable him 
ihe better to provide for a very numerous family. In process 
of time, Mr. Davenport obtained the benefice of Ratcliffe-on- 
Tient, from which place he used to come every Wednesday 
morning to read the lecture in St Mary's church. For a 
thne he used to accompany the lecture with the morning 
pray^s, as an accommodation to the vicar. At length he 
-dediined reading prayers ; in consequence of which, the vicar 
DSfiised to let him pass through the vicarage seat, which it 
was necessary for him to do in order to mount the pulpit 
Notwithstanding this obstruction, Mr. Davenport continued 



318 BAMBLBB BOUND MOTTINOHAJfi. 

to oome as usual, and when he found the vicarage seat dwyc 
closed against him, he would give it a shake, and at the same 
time make a significant nod to some of the congregation, by 
way of saying, ' take notice that I am here.' After pursuing 
this course some time, Mr. Davenport neglected to attend — 
the legacy remained undemanded during three years, and 
fix)m that time it has been lost" Such is Blackner's story. 

The Sherwin family have played, for the space of two 
centuries, a conspicuous part; first as lawyers, and ulti- 
mately as magistrates in the town of Nottingham. We first 
of all find Robert Sherwin, mayor of Nottingham, in 1631. 
Before 1531, there being no house in Nottingham but was 
thatched with reed or straw, and built of wood and plaster, thus 
the house of Mr. Sherwin, at the top of Pilcher-gate, with its 
fine garden in front, made afterwards into a paddock, occu« 
pying all the ground betwixt Halifax-lane and St. Maiy's- 
place, as far as the theatre — ^besides having another garden 
adjoining to the house — necessarily formed, when built in 
the ninth of the Commonwealth, (1657) a prominent feature 
of the town, and indicates the consideration the f^umly 
had by that time attained. A monument in (we believe) St 
Peter's church, the inscription upon which appears in Dr. 
Deering's collection, tells us some&iing of a preceding gener- 
ation — " Here lyeth Mary the wife of John Willman, gent, 
daughter to Henry and Elizabeth Sherwin, who died in 
childbed, the 21st of August, 1648, in the 27th year of her 
age, and had issue only one daughter." Some verses follow. 
John Sherwin, in 1680, served the office of sheriff of No^ 
tingham. In the aldermanic contest of 1681, he had twice 
as many votes as Toplady, who was nevertheless elected by 
the influence or direction of Gervas Rippon, the mayor — 
Alderman Edge, of the Btrelley family, whose legal relation- 
ship with the town of Nottingham we shall shortly have 
occasion to notice, declining to vote. A vote being at this 
time taken for the surrender of the old charter, and the 
adoption of the new, which had just arrived on the annual 
election-day of mayor, Mr. Greaves was nominated, and sup- 
ported in his pretensions to the office, by Mr. Edge, under 
the old charter ; who, when required to read the new, in his 
capacity of town-clerk, observed, that he ** knew what he 



THE 8HEBWIMS IK CIVIC CONTEST. S19 

was under the old charter, bnt not what he was under the 
new." A poll ensued, and rival mayors contested their 
eligibility at law. In the evidence of Alderman Parker, at 
the trial of the successful party, before the notorious Judge 
Jefiries, in the Court of King's Bench, for riot, Parker stated 
that " Mr. Sberwin, Mr. Greene, and many of them came 
down hallooing and shouting * no new charter.' They cared 
not for the new charter, it was not wordi a groat" 
Lord Chief JuUice. " Who said that ?" 
jilderman Parker, <' Sherwin, a man of good estate." 
Fines were imposed on the parties implicated, ranging from 
five to five hundred marks ; John Sherwin suflTering to the 
extent of one hundred. The Edges went along with the 
8herwins in these municipal conflicts ; and, in this case, 
Ralph Edge, of Strelley, was a witness for the defence. He 
was Town-clerk of Nottingham, and died in 1684. The dis- 
pute, however, survived him ; and, in 1687, produced no 
fewer than three mayors in the course of a single year, under 
the following peculiar circumstances, viz. : — 
[Gervas Rippon, 
1687- John Sherwin, 
, George Langford. 
" James n," says Tluosby," by unwarrantable means, endea- 
voured to new model the corporation, in which he reserved to 
himself power of placing and displacing the members of that 
body. He sent lus quo warranto this year to the town, which 
turned out of office Gervas Rippon, &c., and replaced them 
with John Sherwin and George Langford. John Sherwin 
died in his mayoralty, and George Langford, (although^ 
dissenter) was in office the succeedmg year, and in the suc- 
ceeding reign received full confirmation of all its rights, 
privileges, and immunities under the charter of Charles I. 
On St. Mary's fifth bell, (1695) is inscribed the name|of 
Nicholas Sherwin, as one of the wardens. Of the Sherwins, 
in their professional capacity, the records of the borough fur- 
nish abundant notices. Thus — Mr. Sherwin was attorney 
for the complainant in a celebrated com case, ** Fotherby v, 
Tri§^," in 1701. John Sherwin was one of the sheriffe, in 
1711 ; and, subsequently, mayor, in 1718; whilst he was at 
the same time, town-clerk. On 22nd May, 1776, occurred 



d^O RAMBLBB lUXJNO HOTiaKOHAM. 

tide death of an ofHilenl: lady of the family, Miss Sarah 
Sherwija, at her house in St. MaryVgate, at the age of 64, 
aunt of the eminent barrister, John Sherwin, who is to be 
regarded as founder o£ the Bramcote family. Her decease is 
eluefly memorable in the town of Nottingham for the magni- 
ficence of the funeral pageant The remains of this Lady 
were interred in St Mary's church, on the 6th of June-^the 
supporters of the pall being Lord Middleton, Sir Gervase 
Clifton, Sir Thomas Parkins, Sir Thomas Smith, John 
Wright, Esq., Bamuel Smith, Esq., (as chief mourner) John 
Foxcroft, Esq., John Westoomb Emerton, Esq., and the Bay. 
Mr. Gregory. The oonneotion of the Sherwin and Gregory 
families has already been adverted to iu the preamhk to 
liOnton ; where it is pointed out that i^ present proprietor 
of Bramcote Hall, John Sherwin Sherwin, Esq., is heir pre- 
Bumptiye to the Harlazton and Lenton estates. 

The present John Sherwin Sherwin, Esq., is the son of 
the ]ate John Longden, Esq., of Bramcote ; his mother's 
name is Charlotte Mettmn, a lady of a highly respectable 
Nottingham family, (the Rev. Geoorge Mettam, rector of Bar- 
well, Leicestershire, died recently at the advanced age of 90 ; 
leaving, however, two daughters, who are married; and the 
two Misses Mettam, of Nottingham, admirable specimens of 
ladies of the old school, died some time previously, as also 
did Capt. Mettam, of Eamdon, so that the £amily name of 
Mettam haa become ahnost ertinot). John Longden, Esq., 
succeeded his unele, John Sherwin, Ekiq., of Bramcote; the 
property having been a purchase by the Sherwin family 
noticed above, from the Hardings, who acquired it &om the 
Handley family. Miss Frances Jane Longden, by whom the 
almshouses at Bramcote were built and endowed, is the 
sister of the present John Sherwin Sherwin, Esq. They had 
an elder sister, Miss Charlotte Sherwin Longden, who mar- 
ried Edward Markham, Esq., and died at Bome. She was 
interred in the family vault at Bramcote. The present pro- 
prietor is, under the entail of the late George De Ligne 
Gregory, vested as next in succession to the estates of Lenton 
and Harlaxton, should he survive the present George Gregory, 
Esq., of Harlaxton ; and, if not, these estates go over to Miss 
Frances Jane Longden. 



PBHTAtCE BBSIDENCieS AT BBAMGOTE. 3S1 

The private residences at Bramcote, besides the elegant 
abode of J. Sherwin Sherwin, Esq., of Brameote HiUs, 
already noticed, are those : — of Miss Jane Frances Longden, 
to whose munificenee is due, as we have already intimated, 
the erection of the four handsome new almshouses (almost the 
best buildings in the village) at the opening of the lane lead- 
ing eastwards from the church, which, with large-hearted 
Shakspeare, we must pronounce— 

« to relief of lazars, and weak age, 

Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil, 
•^■^-^ AlmshoiaBes right well supplied." 

of William Cripps, Esq., who has filled the oiB&ce of mayor 
of Nottingham ; Lawrence Hall, Esq., (Brameote Grove) and 
John Hadden, Esq., (Brameote Lodge), the former once an 
extensive starch manufacturer, the latter one of the most 
eminent members of the hosiery branch of Nottingham busi- 
ness—who there enjoy their " otium cum dignitate." In 
these partial retirements of business men, who can fail to 
recognise the spirit in which, amidst lifers turmoils, the poetic 
soul of the poet Cowley, in his successive retreats at Bam 
films, and Chertsey, in Surrey, panted for repose ? — 

** Books should, not business, ^itertain the Ug^^t, 
And sleep as undisturbed as death, the night 

My house a cottage, more 
Than palace, and should fittinjg be 
Foot all my use, n^ luxury. 

My gard^i painted, olee 
With Nature's hand, not art's ; and pleasures yiald 
Horace might envy in his Sabine field." 

Charles James Wright, Esq., banker^ Nottingham, son of the 
distinguished translatoir of Dante, (who tiU lately resided 
at Stapleford Hall, in this neighbourhood, having now re* 
moved to WatnaU Hall) ooeupdes an el^pant residence in this 
picturesque villagie-r- 

" An elegant suflBciency, content, 
Batiorement, rural quiet, friendship, books, 
Progressive virtue and approving heaven." 

Thompson. 

Nor must we omit to notice^ the parsonage^ the residence of 
the perpetual curate, the Bev. W. H. Camtrell, M.A., erected 



ilU2 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTIKOHAM. 

in 1843, at a cost of dgl,500, with twelve acres of glebe ; 
parochially, the church is annexed to Attenborough. At the 
inclosure, in 1771, 32 acres, 2 roods, 5 perches were allotted 
(to Chesterfield school for com tythe) 23 acres, 3 perches for 
hay tithe ; 4 acrejs, 2 roods, 2 perches to the vicar (of Atten- 
borough-cum-Bramcote), and 5 acres to the churchwaidens. 
The church lands now let for d62d 10s. per annum, which 
goes towards the repair of the church. 

The singular looking old village church and tower occupies 
the crest of the eminence, standing amidst trees in a small 
and crowded grave-yard, containing many new and ancient 
tomb-stones, and many altogether nameless graves, raised 
apparently to an artificial height by the roads which environ 
its limited space being cut down to a deep level all around, 
excepting on the south, where the parsonage adjoins it. The 
square bell tower (said to contain three bells) and the body 
of the church are of the same date ; the chancel is palpably a 
modem and temporary extension. The old portions of the 
building are singularly plain and unpiietending, yet massive 
and minster-like, although the whole edifice is a mere toy. 
On the south projects a quaint old porch, with stone seats, or 
benches ; on llie north lliere is a closed up oaken door, with 
pointed arch, and a massive moulding terminating in carved 
knots, only one of which, however, is extant The little 
church has consisted simply of a nave and northern aisle, 
and two Vesica piscis of an oval form, now plugged up, appear 
to have perforated the eastern and western wcdls of ^e latter. 
The church windows are square-headed, with perpendicular 
shafts, or mullions. The roof is flat, but there appears to be 
a small gallery in connection with the tower at the west end. 
^The chief burying-ground without the church (west of the 
tower) is that of the Aislabies. In the church, near the 
altar, are tablets, one commemorating the death of John 
Little, gent., at the age of 98 ; the other one of the vicars of 
Attenborough-cum-Bramcote. 

To reach the Hemlock Stone from Bramcote, we must 
choose the ILkeston-road. The distance is less than a mile 
from the turnpike bar. On the right we have, after passing 
a few cottages, Mr. Sherwin's park fence — first a privet hedge, 
and then a low wall, with an interior rampart, embankment, 



SITE OF THE HEHLOOK STONE. 323 

or green sloping glacis of grass. A fine low iron gate, near 
the termination of the demesne, (the extent of wMch is, we 
believe, one hundred acres) affords a full view of Bramcote 
Hall, a low square building, facing the south, with offices to 
the rear, reposing against a magnificent back-ground, formed 
by the lofty wooded eminence of Bramcote Hill, where the 
trees in early spring, with theii evergreen tops, rise over the 
lower woods of russet brown in such a manner, as at a dis- 
tance to represent tall clay bluffs, surmounted with wood. 
Soon we arrive near some scattered clumps of houses, with 
cultivated gardens, and outlying ranges of glass houses, as if 
horticulture were the staple pursuit in the sheltered valley of 
Stapleford .And looking to the right, in which direction one 
of four cross roads again branches, '' Lo ! where the giant on 
the mountain stands.'' It is the Hemlock Stone, quite at 
hand — double capped with two broad bonnets, or phlanges, 
of stone, sustained by a tall scooped pillar of crumbling sand- 
stone. WeR may tradition connect this land mark with every 
form of superstition, which it has beheld in its long watch 
over the valleys beneath it 1 It must certainly be true that it 
is a natural, and not an artificial structure of Cyclopean atchi- 
tecture. But the site of this gigantic object, on the spur of a 
ridge, where an intersecting valley slightly separates from it 
the adjoining height of Bramcote Hill, and leaves it not only 
conspicuous in itself, but placed so as to command, right and 
left, extensive ranges of vision, is one which for the purposes 
of Druidical worship, for instance, could never have been 
neglected, especially where a natural altar appeared to stand 
self-erected, and ordained before the worshippers. While, 
therefore, there can be no difficulty in tracing to natural 
causes this remnant of water-worn rock, known as the Hem- 
lock Stone, we must not too hastily reject the traditions 
which indicate it as a sacrificial stone of that bloody and 
inhuman ritual of our heathen ancestors — those '* stoics of 
the wood," and " men without a tear," who delighted in im- 
molating virgin innocence to the fierce luminary of day. It 
was always in such positions that such altars were placed ; 
and if circumstances had elevated a little higher than usual 
the summit of the Hemlock Stone, the Druids, we dare say, 
would readily accept the omen. A huge crumbling mass of 



d24 RAKBLES BOtmD NOTTIKOHAIC. 

red sandstone, ratiher oblong than circular, but quite irr^ 
golar in its shaft, with one of its sides extending nearly 
twenty-five feet from east to west, and measuring altogether 
in giith about fifty feet at the base, crops up perpendicularly 
^m the slightly depressed shoulder of the ridge which here 
separates the Bramcote and Stapleford valley. This k>wer 
shaft is considerably worn away, and beautifully vermicukted 
at the bdse, as if with those markings peculiar to the soft and 
weathered sandstone strata, pronounced by Dr. Buckland 
" rain drops.'* In parts, it is also richly coated with minute 
lichens. It is surmounted by two broad and distinct masses 
of a tough green rag-stone, or homeblend, called in the ver- 
nacular of ttie district " hemlock stone," (and hence the name 
of this notable object) projecting or shelving one over another 
in irregular phlanges, and both jutting considerably over the 
sandstone shaft, giving the whole immense mass of rock the 
curious appearance of a huge double-headed fungus, or toad- 
stool. In a slight depression on the southern ed[ge of the 
upper cap, flourishes a small stunted thorn. The two caps 
appear laminated, or rather fractured, into massive blocks^ or 
large oblong layers. The whole height of the Hemlock 
Stone in front, on the lower side facing Bramcote Hill, is 
probably forty or fifty feet, and in the rear about thirty feet 
from the ground. About the -base, the sandstone is thicldy 
carved with the initials c€ visitors, dates, &c., some of them 
ensculptured upon tablets, painfully elaborated. The sand« 
stone formation and superincumbent greenstone dip north- 
wards into the hill. The summit seems inaccessible, hat 
boys, we are informed, experience no difficulty in gaining it ; 
and although the view northwards and southwards must have 
become considerably obstructed since the plantations on the 
heights have grown up, still the commanding elevation on 
which this great diluvial monument 'rests, commands a long 
, range of the Erewash valley, from north to soaith) with the 
white steam cloud of the locomotive marking the railway 
line ; a beautiftil view of Stapleford on the west; a^d eveo to 
the eastward — a tolerable perspective in at least one direction. 
Itself standing on the edge of a wood, in a pasture field, not 
far reclaimed from a state of nature, with fiirze bushes 
l^ooming around in the mild precocious spring time, and 



THE HEMLOCK 8T0ME. 2^5 

young catUe grazing near, it is an object no less striking 
than strange. Mr. Sherwin, we believe, has lately- acquired 
the farm on which the Hemlock Stone is situated, and will 
take care that it sustains no injury or dilapidation beyond 
such as are inevitable at the hand of Time. The most casual 
inspection of these diluvial remains, we think, must satisfy 
any one of the natural and simple mode in which their appear- 
ance has aii^n, %lfhough it would be quite absurd in any one 
now a days to follow Dr. Stukely, and conclude them to be the 
remains of a quarry ! In the first place there is not a single 
particle of the ponderous stone from which the pillar takes its 
name, and with which it is doubly topped, to be found upon 
the eminence which it occupies ; although the stone termed 
** hemlock stone" is found in the immediate vicinity, and 
upon the corresponding height called Bramcote Hill. And 
in the next place, it is altogether unusual for the remains of 
quarries to be found on the tops, instead of the bottoms, of 
such elevations. But it is easy to conceive that two such 
masses of compact rock as still remain superimposed on this 
sandstone shaft, pressing perpendicularly upon it, would 
consoUdate and preserve its mass to some extent from being 
worn away, whilst all the loose sands of the surrounding sur- 
face were swept off to the depth to which this sandstone 
pillar, with its double-topped burdens, now remains isolated 
and alone. A sensible countryman, whom we encountered 
near the spot, when hard pressed to state the prevailing 
opinions regarding the Hemlock Stone, perseveringly declined 
to advance any but his own, which was, " that it had been 
left %y Noah's flood." There can really be no other sup- 
position. 



CHAPTER VII. 

TROWELL AND WOLLATON VILLAGES. 



[chief land OWNEB-— lord IHDDLETON.] 



XBEWASK YAIXKY LANDtCAKB FBOJI 8TA9LEFOBD lO XBOWBIX'-HDKBBT* 
8HJBS, " GLOUDB"— Ol4l>.HAXJE» ASU) SSLD CHUBCH — TBOTBKLL IN THR 
OliDENTIME — SAXON ANPNOKHAN IMmiETTOBa — ^REGIMES OF THE DK 
TBOWELLS, THE BE BBXJNNESLET8, HAGEEBS, AND 'WIIXOUOHBT8 — 
EABIflt ENGLISH AND LATEB FEBIODS OF TBOWEUi dHmtOR — eHJD 
OfiAHCBL ^*^ CBEDXNCX •^FISCIKA ^-SXDIIXA -^ITCBNQSGOFB ***HA.YS 
FiEB^-r«rONT^-A9QCNt OF THE B£IX TOWEa — ^^ATCUSMBNV&^^VISW 
FBOM THE TOP— BOAD TO WOLLATON — ^TBQWHLL MOOR— THE COLLIE- 
BIES — WOLLATON YCLLAOE AND ENVIRONS — THE ** ADMIBAL BODNEX* 
—HBXCTOBT—CHUBCH-— MONUMENTS) ETC. 



*' Now I gain the monntaiu'e-brow, 

MThftt a landaoape lies below ! • 

No clouds, no yaponrs intervene. 

Bat the gay, the open ecene 
Does the foce of Nature show 
In all the hues of heaven's bow, 
And swelling to embrace the light 
Spreads around beneath the sight 

" And see the rivers, how they ran, 
Through woods and meads in shade and eon ; 
Sometimes swift, sometimes slow, 
Wave succeeding wave they go; 
A various journey to the deep — 
lake human life to endless sleep ! 
Thus is Nature's vesture, wrou^t 
To instruct our wand'rlng thooghtl 
Thus she dresses, green and gay. 
To dispene our cares away." 

Dfier'8 ehvngwr^HiU. 



VIEW FROM THE HEMIX>CX STONE. SdT 

*' New, f»mroB» readar, fet me intvetto fhy flEutherance thiw faat, fbat in thy 

neighbotmng cbarches, if thoa shalt finde any ancient funeral inscriptions, or an- 
Uqiaa obliterated mannments, thou wonldst be pleased to copie out the one, and 
to take 80 much relation of the other as tradition can deliver ; as. also, to take the 
in8eri]itions an<f epitaphs upon tombs and gravestones, which are of tnose times ; 
waAf withaU, to take order that that such thy collections, notes, land obaervitlonBy 
may come safely to my hands ; and I shall rest ever obliged to aoknowledge thy 
paines and ooarteeie.*>-ireeMr'« Funeral Monumenti, 



Makts& our way towards Trowell, which is seen to the north- 
westward, from the Hemlock Stone, we in fact descend into 
the vftlley of the Erewash, and would, in the natural course, 
beo(HHe fairly involved in all its river, railway, and canal 
complications — ^not to mention the meanderings of the 
boundary line of the counties of Nottingham and Derby, 
with the zig-zag course of the river — were it not that our 
*' railway clause" exempts us, for the present, from touching 
particularly upon these points, which are properly reserved 
for the Erewash Railway Ramble. Our vantage ground at 
the base of the Hemlock Stone, towering on the denuded 
shoulder of hill betwixt Bramcote and Stapleford heights, like a 
pillar of strength as it is, and forming a most singular and 
conspicuous object from many points around, particularly from 
the Cloud HiH, to the west of Sandiacre, displays within the 
Girctrit of vision: — New Stapleford, a stockingers' village of 
some thirty houses, almost at our feet; somewhat south- 
wards and westwards, the steeple, clustering trees and houses 
of the large and ancient village of Stapleford itself, including 
those of Stapleford HaB, celebrated as the seat of Admiral 
Sir John Borlase Warren ; the irregular line of the village 
of Sandiacre on the fore front of the elevation beyond, ter- 
minating in the noble decorated church belonging to the 
I>ean and Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral ; faint traces, in the 
intervening valley, of railway, river, and canal — the river 
scanned by road bridges, which mark the boundary points of 
the two grea.t counties ; the green and lofty swell of hills, 
quaintly termed in the Derbyshire dialect, which now begins 
to familiaaise itself to the ear, " Stapleford Clouds," or more 
commonly " Cbud Hill," (these soft hiU ranges are through- 
out Derbyshire comia[K>nly termed '* Clouds," reminding us of 
the frequent recurrence of the term " Cludd," Clydd," Ac, itt 



226 BAHKiES BOUND NOTTINOHAH. 

Welsh topography, and being in all probability a remnant of 
the ancient British tongue); in the centre of the picture, 
and in the receding bosom of the hills, maried out by the 
flames of its own iron furnaces, casting a strange and lurid 
light upon the face of day, and over the lovely freshness of 
the surrounding landscape, stands the village of Stanton-by- 
Dale. Two railway stations, Sandiacre and Stanton Gate, 
a mile and a half apart, accommodate these several places by 
trains three times a day each way ; and TroweU village in 
about half a mile distant from the latter. It is about a mile- 
and-a-half walk from Bramcote, or rather Stapleford Hill, in 
which are the remains of an imaginary copper mine.* A little 
to the north a hamlet called Swanseafield, (doubtless in 
feference to the supposed copper mine) extends towards 
I'rowell Moor and Trowell Moor Plantations. Half a mile to i 

the northwards the Wollaton road passes in a straight line | 

from east to west towards Trowell, twice crossed by the Not- 
tingham Canal, which makes a sweep to the southwards of 
the road, through Trowell Moor, from Wollaton Bridge to 
Trowell Bridge, thereby accommodating the mineral carriage | 

from Engine Pit Colliery, but occasioning the necessity of a I 

tram-road from Trowell Moor CoUiery. 

Trowell, called Torwell in Doomsday Book, (no doubt firom 
the Saxon tor, a tower or turret, or pointed top of a hill — ^the 
weU of the tower, or simply of the hill) answers to its name. 
It is a small but pleasant village; and in the direction 
wherein we now approach it, " the old hall," now apparently 
a private residence, but presenting a large and harmonious 
exterior of manorial-like architecture, is the first object of 
interest which attracts attention. A friend has favoured us 
with his views on the subject, which are as follows : " Though 
the original hall may have been Elizabethan^ or more early 
Tudor, I am satisfied that it assumed its present appearance 
in the reign of James II., or WilHam III., as it has eyeiy 
appearance of the domestic architecture which prevailed in 
France during the time of Louis XIV., and which was intro- 
duced into this country at that period. There is an excellent 

* An immense stun of money was snnk in this hopeless attempt, 
which the slightest knowledge of geology would have disconcerted at 
the outset. 



OLD HALL OF THE HACKEBS. 229 

example of a house of this kind, but more highly decorated, 
at Risley, In the original stone work it bears the date 1689." 
From another source we learn that the old hall at Trowell 
was the abode of the Hackers. The Bev. Kirke Swann, who 
is descended from that family through his grandmother, who 
married Mr Brough, a rector of Trowell, informs us that the 
front of the old hall, now Louis Quatorze, was formerly of wood ; 
and that the centre part of this fine old timbered edifice, now 
divided into two stories, was all in one story, or hall, Cpro- 
perly so called) from top to bottom, surmounted by a massive 
open timbered roof» the beams of which are yet discernible in 
the garrets. 

The Hackers were originally of East Bridgeford, where 
John Hacker, father of four sons — Francis, John, Richard^ 
and Rowland, purchased the property of the Lord Sheffield. 
Francis Hacker, the eldest of these four sons, who succeeded 
to the property of East Bridgeford, was the father of the cele- 
brated Colonel Francis Hacker, the regicide, who also suc- 
ceeded to the East Bridgeford estates, and was attainted ; 
whilst John Hacker, who acquired the property of Trowell, 
appears to have taken no part in the troubles of the times. 
The Rev. H. Boulton, of the Park, Nottingham, obtained in 
a farm-house, and has in his possession, two ancient glass 
bottles of the Hackers*, marked " J. H." The next, indeed 
the only other prominent object, is the church, crowning its 
small but well-kept pubUc site, or church-yard, which is nearly 
environed, as usual, by roads. These having been much 
lowered in the process of modem improvement, leave the old 
grey fabric aloft and alone on a seemingly artificial elevation. 

Trowell was originally the manor of the Saxon Verebrand, 
who paid the Dane-geld; becoming afterwards, along with 
Bramcote, the fee of William Ostiarius, the porter of the 
Peverila. There was attached to Trowell in the time of the 
Confessor a forest and half a church, (the church living was 
lately in two " medieties") with six acres of meadow. The 
celebrated Saxon thanes, Ulchel^ Alaric, and Uluric, also 
flourished at Trowell. UlcheU^s land was taken from him at 
the Conquest, and given to one Alden ; Alaric, more fortu- 
nate, still continued to hold his possession of and under 
William the Conqueror ; as also did Uluric, for anything we 



330 BUMBLES Rorsmy Nottingham. 

know to tlie contraiy, his manor being incltided in the kji^s 
valuation — indeed, he was possibly the same man. The 
interest of William Ostiarius went to Mortimer, of whom, 
according to Thoroton, Philip de Kyme held it, and under 
him tiie family of Trowell. But upon what principle that 
family could thus take its name from the place, is^ inexplica- 
ble ; and moreover we find that on the contraiy William de 
Trowell paid one mark for the third part of a knight's fee, 
which he held in Stanford and Leek, of the fee of Ealph de 
Mortimer ; whilst a jury found, 32 Edward I., (1803) that 
Philip de Kyme held Trowell and Stanford-upon-Soar for 
three knights' fees. According to this view of the case, it 
would rather be the De Kymes that held under the Trowells. 
At all events, Richard de Trowell held a knight's fee here in 
the early part of the reign of Heniy III., and William his 
son gave the rents " to the church of St Mary, in Stanley 
Park, called Dale Abbey, and the canons of the order of Prae- 
monstratenses there serving God." We may as well remark 
that eleven shillings of these rents were, *' by the consent of 
the abbot and convent, returned to the sachrist of Stanley 
Park, to buy wine for celebrating the Eucharist in that 
church for ever." It is clear that at this time the De 
Trowells were the lords of the manor, as Eichard de Trowell 
gave the canons in the first instance the rents which he re- 
ceived firom William de Stanley in Trowell ; and William, 
son of Ralph de Trowell, gave them the homage and whole 
service of Hugh Balok, of Trowell, and his heirs. 

The property of the Saxon thanes obtained by William 
Peveril became escheated to the crown by the forfeiture of 
the third of that name ; and was subsequently held succes- 
sively by the nuns of Sempringham, and by tiie famihee of 
Brunnesiey and Strelley. 

The real name of the Brunnesiey family was Brown ;* but 

•The antiquity of this family is undoubted. In the north of the 
Erewash valley, about two miles N. N. W. of Greasley Church, is 
situated the neat old village of ^rinsley, with eleven or twelve huiidred 
inhabitants, whence they obviously derived their name. But the 
manor before the Conquest was that of the Saxon Brun. " The ftrst,'* 
says Thoroton, "that I can certainly fix any time to was Boger (gy. 
Robert?) de Brunnesiey, who died 12 Henry III., (1228) leaving his 
son, Gilbert de B*unn«8ley, then in the custody of Ran. Brito, which 
Gilbert held this manor and part of Trowell 36 Henry m. (1242.) 



HACESB's MON17MEN7 AT TBOWSLL. HSl 

thay, in Henrj VI. time, a^ax to have sncooeded, throui^ 
inter-marriage mih. a family of the former name — Eobert 
Brown, of Brunnesley, having married Joan, daughter and 
heir of many generations of Bmnnesleys, who had inherited 
Trowell from Gilbert de Brannesley, of the time of Henry III., 
if indeed Gilbert was the first, sinee we find that there was, 
in 20 Henxy III., a fine between Bobert de Bnmnesley, quer., 
and WilUam de Stanley, imped., (Stanley being the vassal of 
the Trowell family, abready noticed) concemiiig two bovats of 
landan Trowell, &c., ^he lijg^t of Eobert de Brunnesley, paying 
yearly a pair of white gloves^ and doing a foreign service. 
Thorofton coiyectures that Brown*s posterity, with the 
mother's property, took the mother's name, " as hath been 
very usual, for this manor descended to Francis ^runsley, as 
appears by an office taken at Nottingham, 15th March, 39 
Elizabeth, (1596) after Ins death, whose son, Gerva^e Brun- 
sley, Ssquice, sold it to John Hacker, Gent."*!' The mutilated 
scraps of stained glass in the windows of the chancel repre- 
sent, it seems, the arms of these Brunnesleys — quarterly per 
quartered chevron, or, and sable counter-clumged ; for i;mder- 
neath the east ehancel window wene the words (although we 
now find nothing of them). '' Bobertus Brinsley patronus 
istius eoelesiad^." 

Amongst the heraldic fragments may also be. recognised 

* At the north end of the dale, Hacker's motiomettt, newly made in 
Thorotoa'tf time, aad still remftifttngiit ThrosbyHt, seems io deserve ao- 
tioe, iMMUg, as we milst eoqjecture, concealed irhen the saored edifice Was 
re-pewed and repaired by t£e present patron in 1836. His lordship pays 
to the poor of Trowell twenty shillings yearly, pursuant to the will of 
fiKzatieth Hacker, made in 1790. < The Latin inscription given by Tho- 
roUA (1697 ) is T«ry. elegant, imd laay be rendered : " Heve below lies 
buried WiiliapB Hacker, O^ntleman, a patron of the m<)diety q£ this 
parish, a man versed in all kinds of learning, an obedient son of the 
EngHsh Church, nor less zealous a professor of iJie Chrislaan faith, 
which fiaith he sttion|fly exhibited and adorned alike by the sanctity of 
his life^ tke aisslduties ef his charities, by prayers in the fkruily, and 
by constant attendance to hear the Word of God. He was the li^t 
and pUlar of Trowell whilst he Hved. He died in the Lord Si^st day 
of l)ecember, in the year of grace 1668, and of his age 64. In pious 
memoiy of Whom tfohn Hacker, his son, as' well as only and bjoved 
child of his wife Anna, daughter of Thomas Gilbert^ of Lockoe, in the 
aoaatf of ]>flrby^ Esquire, ham erected and plated here tiliis sdulptimd 



2S^ RAMBLES ROUND MOTTIKOHAM. 

tbe anns of StreUey — paly of six argent and asure. Thus 
the family name of TroweU completely disappears, and others, 
certainly not less illustrious, take its place. We may haye a 
few curious remarks to offer on the variable orthography of 
the name of Strelley — not the least notable and whimsical of 
whose forms is to be found amongst the monuments of 
Trowell — for it there appears that Robert, son of Walter de 
Stretleg, for the health of his soul, and of all his ancestors 
and successors, but especially for the soul of WiHiam de 
Byve, gave to the monastery of Dale, or Stanley Park, three 
bovats of land, with the appurtenances, in Trowell. 

Any one desirous of entering the church, which, like the 
neighbouring church of Stapleford, is dedicated to St. Helen, 
should be informed that the keys, if not to be found at ** the 
old hall,'' may be obtained at the first house on the left, at the 
turn of the village, nearly opposite " The Barley Mow," (both 
clerk and rector living half a mile off", on Trowell Moor, where, 
by the by, two hundred acres were allotted to the rector of 
Trowell at the inclosure in 1788,) where also LordMiddleton, 
having extensive collieries, in 1843 a new National School 
was erected, and fifteen free scholars firom WoUaton, ten from 
Trowell, and five from Cossall, are educated at his lordship's 
expense. The interior at once reveals the antiquity of &e 
chancel, a nave of the same date, which, together with a 
Tudor tower, gives us, small as it is, an edifice of two distinct 
periods. The lanceplated windows, which pierce tbe some- 
what rude rouble-buiQt walls of the chimcel, demonstrate the 
period of its origin, and point it out as a specimen of early 
English architecture, a^d therefore not less distinct in cha- 
racter than those elegant structures usually are. The intro- 
duction of early English ecclesiastical architeeture dates as 
far back as 1190, nearly a century prior io the commence- 
ment of the " decorated," of which period the chancel of the 
adjoining church of Saudiacre is a very fine and celebrated 
example. 

We are the better enabled to hx the period from the dates 
connected with the Bruixnesloys leading back to the time 
of Henry III., in whose long reign of. half a century, the 
early English architecture culminated and expired. In the 
south weJl of the chancel there are both an ancient piscina 



PISCINA, CREDENCE, SEDILIA, LYCHN08C0PE. 238 

and credence shelf, or table, above it, notwithstanding that 
the latter is usually found in the northern wall. *" These 
piscina, called water-drains, by Rickman, were altar append- 
agBs, wherein the priests rinsed the chalice, and even washed 
his hands ; they are generally found in the form of small 
niches in the wall, and in early English examples, their ori- 
fices are either shallow and circular, or deep and reversed 
pyramidal. The present is of the former description, if, 
indeed, it possesses any character at all, being much muti- 
lated. It is remarkable, however, for possessing, like the 
credence-table above it, the additional wall-recess within the 
isame niche, running eastwards from the piscina, the use of 
which is unknown The table of the prothesid, or credence, 
was a place where the elements were deposited previous to 
oblation; the present example, though larger than the 
piscina, is still very small. The sedilia, in the south wall 
of the chancel to the west of the piscina, are three in num- 
ber ; they were seats for the priest, deacon, and sub-deacon, 
administering the holy eucharist. They are not graduated 
in size, as is sometimes the case, but of equal height, and 
boldly but chastely canopied, with pointed arches, exhibiting 
on each side a massive trifoliated carved projection. In 
keeping irith the barrow lancet windows which perforate the 
chancel walls near the north-west angle formed by the nave, 
the chancel of Trowell church is distinguished by that small, 
low, side window which has of late given rise to so much 
discussion amongst ecclesiologists, as generally occurring in 
the fearly English churches, and to which they have given 
the name of lychnoscope, (a lamp or link, and a peep-hole) a 
name still retained, although the coi^jecture which occasioned 
it is considfered to be exploded. The real uses of this fenes- 
tra! opening, found in either wall of the chancel, and at 
Trowell, existing near the north-west angle formed .with the 
nave-aisle, are still, we believe, undiscovered. Sevend causes 
have been assigned for their appearance, which dates from 
about the fourteenth century, — ^unless the present should 
prove to be earlier, as we really consider it. The received 
opinion is,' that lyohnoscOpe windows have not hitherto been 
found earlier than 1300. There is, however, an example 
in the Norman, style, at a far distant church, but whether 



234 BAMBLE8 BOUND NOTTINOHJLM. 

original, op an after insertio&» we are unable to say. Grant- 
ing this plain lancet light, the lower part (now blocked) and 
purely in keeping with the rest of the structure, to haye 
originated, therefore, with the church, (and there is no ap- 
pearanee of its having been subsequently inserted) we should 
fix the date of it, and of the edifice, at about 1300, supposing 
it to have been founded by Robert de Brunnesley, who, some 
generations later, succeeded Gilbert, ^who dates the 20th 
Henry III). Assuming these dates and inferences to be 
correct, this must therefore be one of the earliest examples 
of the lychnoscope window. Some have imagined this kind 
of window, which we should say is just calculated from its 
position to enable a person standing without to look into tHe 
church, to be a confessional ; some have considered it as the 
means appointed for lepers and unclean persons to view the 
elevation of the host — but the position of the window often 
rendered it impossible that it could serve for this ol:(iect, and 
it would be so at Trowell. Others^ again, have thought that 
it served as an external hagioscope, to see when the priest 
advanced to eommeiice the service of the altar. The most 
feasible hint, however, and that upon the strength of which 
the name of lychnoscope was given, as already stated, was, 
that it was a peep-hole through which to see that the light 
was kept burning at the Easter sepulchre ; this view was 
considered to be supported by the discovery in old parish 
registers of an item, " paid for watching the pasch-Ught.** 
It had also been observed that traces of shutters were some- 
times perceptible inside, whence it was thought probable 
that the window was opened only on the above occasion. 
But, besides that, there were better means of ascertaiaing 
that the light was kept burning than by means of a hole in 
one particular part of the chancel wall; this opinion is now 
considered untenable from tlie obcurrence of lychnoscopes in 
positions, and, moreover, under circumstances irreconcile- 
able with the theory, (as in the present instance). Investi- 
gation of the subject has, in fact, disclosed the features and 
position of the lychnoscope to be varied in a very remarkable 
way in particular districts. In some places it is alwa^ 
transomed — that is, forms part of an original window, bat is 
divided from it by a transom, which is a very unusual mem- 



VABIED F0BM8 OF LYCHNOSCOPES. 935 

bet of a window of tlie ^arly English period. In some cases, 
the Ijchnoscope has two lights, divided hj a mullioii« In 
three nearly contiguous churches, the Ijchnoscope occurs in 
a remarkable position of the north-east of the nave, or north 
aisle. In another instance, it is a plain light at the back 
part of a sepulchral recess of rude character and workman- 
ship ; in another, there is a low, plain, oblong aperture, in a 
sort of sepulchral recess, in the same position. In one case, 
it is a small oblong opening without internal splay; but, the 
most curious lychnoscope that has been described, is one 
where, at the north-west of the chancel, there is a tall niche, 
splayed yery slightly in its eastern jamb, btU very much in its 
weHem, 90 as td alUvd th4 person front vdthota to see the west- 
em face of the south pier of the chancel arch. In the upper 
part of thd church in qtiestiosl, (£uckland churdi, Oxford- 
shire) is a trefoiled light, appatently divided by a transom from 
a lower light now blocked, and in the inside of the western 
jamb remains the hinge ^ a wooden shtitteri In this 
church, the chancel is much narrowerthan the nave, but the 
liorth walls of both are in a line, so that south of the chancel 
arch there remains an eastern wall to this Bave. Stieh is not 
the case at Trowell. The frarms of these lychnoscbpes a^e 
extremdy varied, but they almost tiniversally have transoms. 
We have omitted to add that, although the external ground 
at Trowell church h^ been loweied several feet, so as to lay 
bare the basement mouldings and Jfoandation^ of the chanc^ 
underneath, th^ height of tide lychnoscope window above the 
blocking is still Huch as might serve for commanding a view 
of the interior. In the south chancel wall may be traced, at 
least on the exterior, (which is somewhat remarkable) a de* 
pressed arch of consideral^ span, and nntch depressed, 
which, in all probability formed a portion of the eanoj^y sur» 
rounding the founder's tomb — now filled up with masonry. 
Of the original fenestration, there are only two of the lanceo- 
lated ferm of windows remaining. Into these have beeii 
inserted the remains of the stained glass; of which we may 
only be too thankful, considering its scanty relics, to accept 
Throsby's scanty description : — ^* The chancel, which has 
many fragments of painted glass in the windows, is not kept 
clean. The figures there were many, and at whole length. 



336 BAMBLE8 BOUND NOTTIMGHAM. 

but their beads or eyes are gone, broken, or beat out ; doubt- 
less in the Paritanic times, when men were employed to 
demolish these harmless representations of saints, &c. A 
label from the hand of one figure is engraven, * HRIHS.' 
There are parts of other labels or inscriptions, but none 
entire." The piers of the nave (which has two side aisles) 
have octagonal shafts resting upon deep and peculiarly double- 
moulded basements, the chief peculiarity being a bold 
moulding. The large moulded capitals bear the usual 
characteristics of the style of this period. A capacious oc- 
tagonal stone font, cup-shaped, and panelled, has the centre of 
each panel filled with a large quatrefoil, and the upper 
margin finished with a battlemented fillet. Another object 
of interest, and apparently coeval in date with the ori- 
ginal fabric, which, after all, Throsby is right in his slip-slop 
English in " ranking with the indifferent," is the ancient 
porch, which is ribbed and arched. The tower, as we have 
said, is apparently of the Tudor period; it is square and 
battlemented. The ascent to the top is by a narrow stone 
staircase, passing on our way a noble peal of six lai^e bells, 
cast, we believe, in 1790, before which time there were only 
three. The view of the surrounding neighbourhood, from 
the top of the tower, is fine and varied — repeating in the 
inverse direction, the features commemorated 'at the outset 
of this chapter — the most attractive object being the two 
brown wooded hills of Stapleford and Bramcote. 

Betuming from Trowell, a finely-formed and perfectly 
diriect road leads eastwards to Wollaton village, which will 
be found to consist of the most abnormal masses of stone 
and brick ever designated by the name of building. The 
course out of Trowell, it must be confessed, is rather zig-zag, 
in order to gain the bridge which spans the Nottingham 
Canal — a navigable way of fifteen miles in length, proceeding 
from the Trent, near Nottingham, and terminating in the 
Cromford Canal, near Langley Mill ; also, a station of the 
Erewash Valley Railway, Having here united with the 
Grange-wood road, from the northwards, the way to Wollaton 
holds its eastward course through a road-side hamlet rejoic- 
ing in the name of " Waterloo," and passing through the 
Trowell Moor and Balloon plantations, is almost sknultane- 



WOLLATON TILLAGE. 2S7 

ously crossed by the tram-road (a sort of horse railway) from 
Trowell Moor Colliery in one direction, and by the old and 
rambling road called Coventry-lane, in the other, so that we 
have here the curious phenomenon of a hexagonal cross. 
Passing Balloon-houses on the one hand, and WalkerVpond 
Plantation and Glew*s Plantation on the other, a very short 
distance further s^ain brings us to the crossing of the Not- 
tingham Canal, which passes from the upper to the under 
side of the road ; and then we are in WoUaton villt^e. The 
road leading southwards to the Derby-road, near Bramcote, 
affords a delightful ramble. The village pump and an old 
dovecot, are, however, the principal objects that presently 
meet the view. A little further southwards, we shall find a 
picturesque cottage or two, and, as we have already noticed, 
en route to Bramcote, even an attempt at a wild rocky defile 
of gorse and crags, the more agreeable to the lover of nature, 
as occurring in the midst of a highly-cultivated landscape, 
rendered aristocratic by the lordly park of WoUaton appear- 
ing on the one hand, and the sylvan shades of Bramcote 
upon the other. But WoUaton village itself has no preten- 
sions to beauty. The turnpike makes its way through it as 
it best can ; on the south there is a heavy stone-built cottage, 
probably in 

" The good old days when George the Third was king," 

which seTves|at present for post-oflBce. There are two pubUo- 
houses in the village, "The King's Head," (Burton) and 
" The Admiral Rodney," (Woodward) and the road with dif- 
ficulty steering clear of the latter^ runs bump against the 
square tower of the church. To the northward, however, 
diverges a lai^e back square of houses, which, we must be- 
lieve, enabodies the majority of the population of WoUaton. 
The church, which, judging from the cardinal points marked 
off below the weather vane, runs to the north-east from the 
tower, abuts through the medium of the latter Upon the 
public road. The elevated nook of exquisitely-kept church- 
yard ground is darkly environed by a clump of fine old 
scotch fir. trees. Ivy and other creeping plants mantle the 
quaint looking waUs. The tower is embattled, with a base- 
ment pUnth running round the whole edifice, as well church 



d3b RAMBLES ROaNH NOTTINGHAM. 

as tower ; aad a pointed spire, peiifoittted with loop-holes, 
springiug from the tower. Neither churoh nor tower are of 
any definiU^ style of churoh architecture. The tower con- 
tains a beautiful peal of six beUs ; and the under part of it 
which exhibits the marks <^ a loffy pended arch, now built 
up, appears to have answered for a porch. The church, 
dedicated to St Leonand, is a singular puzzle to the ecdesio* 
legist The interior piers are clustered axid interrupted 
by broad fillets sustaining a series of' ascending arches 
Tunning towards the chancel, whidi, with the nave and a 
north aisle and small western gallery, composes the body of 
the churdbu The exterior has been materially altered or 
interfened with, in the process of letting-in the monuments 
of the Wilkmghby £amdy into the walls. Th^, the crock- 
etted ornaments ikf the canopy belongii^ to the large tomh 
in the south wall of thechsnod, are counterfeited on the exte^ 
nor <^ that wall ; and the basement plinth of the northern wall 
has been cut away on the north, not only for the introduction 
of a vestry — ^but also where the large marbles and brasses of 
the tomb of Sir Eichard Willoughby have been inserted — ^a 
stone block on the outside hetiig enseulptured wi& a rihbon 
ft ^ d legend'**' 

The body of the church within is divided into pews ; the 
large and comfortahte family pew of Lord Middleton being 
screened off behind, in the north aisle, behind the last arch 
of the nave, which has been built up for tiie parpofie* leanring 
the occupants, however, within sight and hearing of the pul- 
pit. The Willoughby vault is situated underneath tiie 
church. The most remarkable of the monuments is the 
tomb, with its vast slab of Purbeck marble, inlaid with gorge- 
ous brasses, the scrolls and legends of which are, in some 
instances gone, hut two fignres — the male in armour, and the 
female in the costume of the period, remaining; vrith otiier 
brasses reporesenting shells, escutcheons, &c*, distributed oirar 
the surface of the slab ; whilst, underneath, lies extended the 
marble sculpture of a skeleton figure of mortality, with the 
hands drawing tightly the thm dbrapery of the sfaioud abovt 
the kneesr— occupying a large recess in the north chancel 



RICHARD AND ANNA WILLOUGHBY. 23^9 

waM. EnviiKMoiag thift recess, runs a border of really yerj 
fine sculptures of shields alternating with shells ; a mw of 
large shields, alternating with figures of angels, runs above 
the reoess ; an open>work sculpture of richly carved foliage, ap- 
parently in marble, has here next been inserted, the leaves of 
^hich are quite relieved, and the whole is surmounted by a 
splendid freestone canopy, elaborately sculptured, and of the 
Ute perpendicular st^le and period. The inscription, in 
bra38> on a band running round the margin of the marble 
slab, is this: — **Hic jacet Riccardus Wyllughby, Armiger, 
qui obiit viii de Octobri, Anno Dom. Nostri JHU GHKISTI 
MCCOCIxXXI, amd Anna Uxor Ejus quae abiit xxiii die 
mensis Julii, Anno Ejusdem Domini, MCOGGLXVIII. Oi^jus 
Anhnae propitietnr Deius, Amen." 

The larger brasses spoken of indifGarently by Thorotom, as 
the effigies of '* a man in armour, and a woman," and by 
Throsby blunderingly as " two brass figures, not noticed as 
«uoh by Thoroton," are in reality very fine engravings. They 
unquestionably represent Richard Willoughby and Anna his 
wife, (daughter and co-heiress of Simon Leek, of Gotham, 
who died without issue 12 Edward IV., 1471.) The armour 
is (historically) confirmatory of the immense elbow plates 
-which characterise that of the reign of Sdward IV. onwards 
to Henry VIII. The figure is armed eap-a-pie, but displays 
no spurs, being but of the dignity of esquire. The legs are 
completely cased in plate armour,, including the sabatynes, w 
steel clogs, the greaves, or shin pieces^ cuisses, or thigh 
pieces, in angular plates, the breedi of mail in horizontid 
plates, the cuirass on the breast, the gorget reaching the 
throat, ribbed vambraces of the period for the arms, and 
long pointed gauntlets, composed in monumental &shian, in 
the attitude of prayer. The long sword depends in firont by 
a belt. The head of the figure is bare ; the hair erect and 
wiry. Dame Anna is a very elegant little figure ; her head- 
dress, consisting of two bows in front, like that rendered 
familiar to the eye in the numerous real or supposed repre- 
sentations of Mary of Scots and Queen EUzabeth, has three 
small successive falls, or pinners, drooping gracdiilly behind. 
The neek is bare, and delicately moulded ; the face and fea- 
tures regular and pleasant ; the slight figure set off by a 



5240 BAMBLBB BOUND NOTTINQHAM. 

plain cloak, with a jewelled collar, confined by long cords and 
t4is8el8, which depend in front, where the cloak is widely 
parted, revealing the arms and hands, placed in the usuid 
supplicating attitude; the deep surcoat of four huudred years 
ago is trimmed with minnever, or some other fur, and the 
skirt, or petticoat, is simple. Altogether, a gentler or prettier 
figure than Anna is scarcely to be conceived. It will be 
observed that she pre-deceased her husband, and probably 
died young. We regard these brasses as beautiful examples 
of the costume and armour of the fifteenth century. The 
arms and quarterings on the monument are those of Wil- 
loughby and Leek — singly and impaled. Tlie water-bougets, 
or shells, are family emblems. 

We may next notice a small but elegantly canopied monu- 
ment, which has been inserted in the south wall of the 
chancel, probably in the recess where the piscina had existed. 
It is that of Henry, the sixth son of Percival Willougbby, 
and Dame Bridget, his wife, mentioned in our second 
*< Bamble*' as the parties in whom the Willoughbys, of Wol- 
laton, were united with the family of Willoughby d'Eresby. 
The arms are the azure fretty, or^ of Willoughby d^Eresby, 
impaling, or, on two bars gules, and the three water-botigets 
org, of Willoughby, of Wollaton. The monumental in&crip- 
tion, if it indulge not in more than the usual latitude in 
its posthumous flatteries, represents the deceased, (who 
was, it appears, a counsel, learned in the law, and a most 
learned assessor of the Inner Temple of London, most de- 
voted to study, and not defective in reUgion and uprightness) 
as a worthy descendant of the two great English judges, who 
may be regarded as the founders of either branch of this 
illustrious family. He died 18th September, 1541. 

In the south wall also, in the space which we may conceive 
to have been occupied by the sedUia, (had there ever been 
any) we find placed a large and singular monument, which, 
we believe, is popularly pointed out as that of Sir Hugh 
Willoughby, the first martyr of Arctic discovery, *• represent- 
ing him as he was found frozen on the ice, with aU his men 
lying around him" — whilst, in fact, it is that of his father, 
surrounded by his four wives ! The basement, to the height 
of three or four feet, is occupied by beautifully sculptured 



SIR HENRY* WILLOUGHBY's TOMB AND WIVES. 241 

open arches alternately with sculptured niches and canopies, 
and in the niches two male and two female figures — the 
former, apparently, in the costume of the period, (15^8) the 
ctiatee and bob wig — but the latter perfectly draped like nuns. 
The interior of this sarcophagus is again occupied by a full 
length sculpture of a skeleton ; the marble lid, or top, by a 
large bare-headed penitential figure in plate armour, and 
girt with a sword, of a later and much more inelegant cha- 
racter, with four smaller female figures, in head-dresses over- 
lapping behind, and flowing drapery, disposed along side, one 
at each shoulder and one at each knee. These figures are 
stall strongly charged with the original red and blue pigments 
with which their vestments had been coloured ; indeed, we 
have seldom seen so much of the original colour remaining 
as in this instance. The tomb is placed under a very de- 
pressed arch, in the front of which a large shield exhibits tlw 
joint quarterings of the conjugal group ; whilst ranged on 
either^ide appear, in smaller shields, their separate armorial 
bearings, commencing with the owl-crested casque of the 
house of Willoughby itself. Pilasters in ornamental com- 
partments, ending in decorated finials, ascend at either side 
of the tomb, and, as already noticed, are even counterfeited 
on the corresponding parts of the outer wall of the church. 
A brass band sunk into the cornice of the lid of the sarco- 
phagus is inscribed : — " Hie Jacet Henricus Willoughby, 
Miles pro Corpore Kegis et Baronettus et quondam Do- 
minus de Wollaton, qui obiit xx die Mensis Man, Anno 
Domini mcccccxxviii, Cujus Animae propitietur Deus." 
Not a syllable have we about his wives. They were, however, 
as the sculptures confess, four in number. (I) He married 
Margaret, daughter of Sir Robert Markham, (by whom he had 
Sir John Willoughby, who married Anne, daughter of Ed- 
ward Grey, Viscount Lisle, but died without issue, and Sir 
Edward and others). (2) He married Elizabeth, daughter of 
Thomas Abon, or Burgh, and relict of Richard Lord Fitz 
Hugh. (3) He married Helen, daughter and heir of John 
Egerton, Esq., of Wren Hall, in Cheshire, (by whom he had 
the great Sir Hugh Willoughby, the Arctic navigator, frozen 
to death at Arzina, as already related in our second ramble^ 
and who, we may here mention, married in this neighbourhood, 



245} BAHBLES BOUND KOTTlNOHAtf. 

Jane, daughter of Sir Nicholas Strelley, and had hy her a 
son, called Henry, after his grandfather.) (4) He married 
a lady, all save the initial A — of whose Christian name is lost ; 
she bore, however, the surname of Welles, or Walters. Such 
is the remarkable matrimonial history of Sir Henry Wil*. 
loughby, knight and baronet, (not banneret — as commonly 
alleged — ^if we are to credit the inscription on the tomb.) 

Before quitting the chancel of the church, we may take 
occasion to notice a very curious florid altar piece and com- 
munion table, of wrought iron, the front of which is highlj 
gilt and decorated. 

The monument to the memory of Heniy, the sixth Baron 
Middleton, erected so recently as 1835, is a marble sculpture 
of considerable elegance, exhibiting, in white Carrara marble, 
two draped angehc forms in alto relievo, bending over it and 
bearing an inscription commemorative of the birth, death, 
and virtues of the deceased. — erected by his widow — Jane, 
daughter of Sir Robert Lawley, baronet. 

Amongst the other -family monuments, are those of Henry 
Lord Middleton, bom 1726, died 1800. And another mural 
marble, .. with compartments bearing the names of Francis, 
third Lord Middleton, of Dorothy and of Thomas WiUoughby, 
noticed in a former ramble. The part of the north aisle now 
inclosed as the family pew contains two very striking monu- 
jnentA ; one is marble, curiously gilt i^nd coloured, to the 
memory of Henry Willoughby, and Anna hiB wife, and bear- 
ing date 1591 ; it is decorated with many quarterings, and, 
at the lower part, appears a large black*s head and shoulders, 
in the form of a crest, resembling the work ascribed to Sir 
John Biron, on the ornamental chimney-pieces of Newstead. 
We give the inscription : — ** Henricus Willoughby Anniger 
et Anna uxor ejus, Henrici Gray Ducis Suffolciae Soror, 
hie feliciter in Domino obdormiunt. Ille obiit in Belle 
contra Rebelles in Norfolcia, 154 8. lUa occubit Anno Salutus 
Nostrae, 1546. Tres liberos susciperunt; Thomum qui 
obiit sine prole superstite ; Franciscum Willoughby, Equitem 
Auratam; et Margaret nuptiam Matheo Arundell, militi 
Optimus parentibus Franciscus Alius moerosus et amoris 
ergo hoc monumentum posuit."* 

• Heniy Willoughby, Esquirfe, and Anna his wife, sister of Henry 



SMITHSON THE ARCHITECT'S MONUMENT. 243 

■ Another remarkable monument in this quarter of the 
church is that of William Willoughby, of Selston, who gave 
the lordship of North Muskham to his kinsman Francis Wil- 
loughby, of WoUaton, 10th February, 1670. 

Confirmatory of the arguments advanced in a former part 
of this work, to the effect that, in all probability, the gifted 
local architect, Smithson, had been consulted by Sir Francis 
Willoughby in designing the marvellous structure of Wollaton 
:Hall, if indeed he were not the actual author of that noble 
and singular design— we cannot omit to notice the fact of our 
having unexpectedly stumbled upon a mural tablet on the 
north wall of the church bearing the following inscription : — 
*' Here lyeth y® body of Mr. Robert Smithson, gent.. Archi- 
tect and Surveyor unto the most worthy House of Wollaton, 
with divers others of great account. He lived in ye faith of 
Christ 79 years, and then departed this life y® xi*^ of October, 
Anno Dom. 1614." It is true ** nor storied urn nor animated 
bust" enshrines the humble tomb of this great genius ; but 
the date, it will be noticed, perfectly corresponds with what 
we formerly ventuted to advance. His monument is simply 
a panel with painted lettering inserted in a frame of carved 
freestone, with projecting cornice, surmounted by a small 
armorial and emblematic sculpture, in ^diich the masonic 
tokens conspicuously figure. 

We noticed another monument, to the memory of 
*• Thomas Mann, Doctor of Physic, fellow of J^sus College, 
Cambridge', 1670." 

Environed by large ornamental park-like pastures, with 
ornamental trees and water, stands Wollaton Villa, the resi- 
dence of Mrs. John Neville Edge, a lady of the family of 
Wright, of Mapperley, whose charities and benevolences are 
extensively known and felt amongst the villages around, 
and who never permits the inclement season of the year tu 

Gray, Duke of Norfolk, here repose happily in the Lord. He died in 
battle against the rebels, in Norfolk, 1548. She deceased in the year 
of salvation, 1546. They had three children — Thomas, who died with- 
out surviving issue; Francis Willoughby, Knight,* and Margaret, mar- 
ried to Madiew Arundell, soldier. To the best of parents their 
remaining son, Francis, has therefore affectionately erected thiv 
monument" 



344 BAMBLES ROUND HOTTINOHAM. 

recur without providing the necessitous with blankets, innd 
other suitable supplies of winter comforts and clothing. 

** For charity is twice blessed, 
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes." 

Opposite the church stands the rectory of the Rev. Charles 
James Willoughby, on an agreeable site, environed by seven 
Uteres of glebe land immediately west of WoUaton Park, near 
the kennels. The living has annexed to it the curacy of 
Cossal, and is valued in &e king's books at J614 Ss. 6d. ; now 
at £792, and the tithes of Wollaton were commuted, 1840, 
for je48a. 

The name of "Wollaton seems easily derived from Olaveston, 
the ancient Saxon appellation ; but the Saxon possessor, be- 
fore the conquest, appears to have been named Ulsi.* He, at 
least, paid the Dane-geld. But the place soon fell into the 
nands of Warner, the man of William Peveril. Warner was 
succeeded by the powerful family of the Morteins — one of 
whom, William, son of Eoger de Mortein, first granted the 
whole manor of Wollaton,- except the capital messuage, to 
Eichard de Willoughby, Knight, 11 Edward XL, (1317). This 
Sir Richard de Willoughby was the grandson of Ralph Bugge, 
of Nottingham, and acquired much of the property of Uie 
Morteins by purchase, both here and elsewhere. It was his 
son, the second Sir Richard, who was the Chief-Justice of 
Edward IIT„ (1330-1367) who having married for his first 
wife, (for ho had two) Isabell, the daughter of Roger de Mor- 
tein, acquired with her, not the Wollaton property, as impro- 
perly alleged in the directories, but the town of Cossal. The 
earlier Morteins were, as we know, lavish benefactors of 
Lenton Priory — the first of them having flourished at the 
period of its foundation in the reign of Henry I. At length 
William de Mortein died, 12 Edward 1., (1283) seized of the 
manors of Wollaton and Cossal — on St. Leonard's day — a 
circumstance to which we might probably attribute tbe dedi- 

♦ To arrive at the Norman pronunciation, the peculiar sound of U, 
or Oo, must be remembered— either way we shall have Oolaves^ton, 
or Oolsi-ton — ^Wollaton. — ^p. p. 



« BOAD AVENUE OF OAKS. 245 

cation of WoUaton church to St. Leonard,* if we could ven- 
ture to assign so remote a date to the structure. 

We are now clear of Wollaton — from which the road makes 
a sudden angle northwards — and hounded hy Lqrd Middle- 
ton's park wall on the one hand, and the open fields, 
beautifully backed by wooded elevations on the other, con- 
ducts through noble avenues of oaks planted externally to the 
wall, and many of them of great size and age, towards Old 
Radford. Thither, however, we do not mean for the present 
to proceed, but; diverging at the wood-yard, the residence of 
Charles Chouler, Esq., his lordship's land agent, we proceed 
on a still more lovely route, through the fields, to Bilborough 
and Stselley. 

* St Leonard is usually represented with two long fetters. — See 
Butlef$ Liv£t of the Saints. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

STRELLEY AND BILBOROUGH. 



JAMES THOMAS EDGE, Esq.. J. P^ StreUey HalL 



XURAX. WALK THBOUOH THE " WOOD-TABD** — THE QUABBT PULNTITIOV-^ 
NOTTINaHAtt CANAL — BILBOBOUOH CUT — ^BBOOMHILL PLANTAnON — 
LOBD HIDDLETON AMD HIS MIME118-— THE BONO OF THE BBOOM — 
OOBSE PlaANTATION — ^THE BOUOHS— OLD. PAfiE FABM— THE DXniBLE 
— ^BILBOBOUOH WHABF — HOLLT WOOD — SHEPHERD'S WOOD — BILBO- 

BOUGH THOBNS THE BESEBVOIB — COVENTBY LANE — STBELLET 

LODGE AND COAL WHABF CAT8T0NE HILL— TBAK BOAD — 8TBEIXET 

HALL AND DEMESNE — STBELLET BBOAD OAK — THE FAHELT OF 8TBEL- 
LEY — CUBIOUS CHANGES OF OBTHOGBAPHY — THE FAMILY OF EDGE — 
STBELLET VILLAGE AND BECTOBY — STBELLET CHUBCH — ^BESTOBATION 
AND MONUMENTS — MABBIAGE FESTIVITIES AND DULCE DOMUM — ^BIL- 
BOBOUOH VILLAGE, CHUBCH,''AND BECTOBY. 



' All these are ftir, but they may fling 

Their ahade unsung for roe, 
My fitTonrite and the forest king, 

The Britiah oak shall be ! 
Its stem, though rough, is stout and aound. 

Its giant branches throw 
Their arms in shady blessings round 

On man and beast below ; 
Its leaf though late in spring, it ahares 

The zephyr's gentle sigh. 
As late, as long in Autumn wears 

A richer deeper dye ; 
Type of a honest English heart. 

It opes not at a breath. 
But, having opened, plays its part. 

Until it ^hkB in death." 

Bmmard Bartom* 



" The gateway is atanoat in the heart of the Tillage, for the hall had been reared 
long before Engliah gentlemen conceived it to be a point of dignl^ to have no 
humble roofs near their own. A beautiful streamlet runs hard by, and the hamlet 
is almost within the arma of the prinot^ly forest, whose ancient oaks and beaches, 
and gigantic pine trees, darken and ennoble the aspect of the whole awroondiof 
region.— 1/0 An &ib$cn Lockhart^ 



WOLLATOHF, FROM THB WOODTARD WALK. 247 



' The bride hath ^aced into, the hall. 
Red aa a rose la she, 
Nodding their heads, before her goes, 
The merry minstrelsy. 

Eime of the Ancient Muriner. 



Swiftly trayersing the purlieux of New, and the squalid 
outskirts of Old Eadford, if we proceed from the direction of 
Nottingham, low down in the sheltered valley through which 
runs the Ilkeston turnpike road, we come, after crossing the 
Hallway line and the Nottingham Canal, to a part of the road 
magnificently embellished with giant oaks, obtruding every 
now and then upon the elevated foot path which passes along 
the curvature of Lord Middleton's north park walL Return- 
ing, however, as we are, from WoUaton, with the view of 
penetrating to Strelley and Bilborough, we encounter only a 
portion of the public avenue of oaks, and shortly turn into 
the private road leading through what is called the '* Wood- 
yard," by the pretty clock-faced cottage where resides Lord 
Middleton^s steward, Charles Chouler, Esq. Beside it ap- 
pears, with other offices and appurtenances of the worthy 
: steward's establishment, the veritable " Wood-yard" which 
gives its popular name to this quarter. After a short, 
•straight approach, the rambler finds himself landed in an 
open field, pleasantly skirted with plantations, through which 
the way passes diagonally towards the north-west. An agree- 
able rustic landscape gradually unfolds, like the unrolling of a 
map. The eye takes in simultaneously the outlines of the 
gigantic avenues traversing Wollaton park, the lofty towers 
of the gorgeous baronial hall itself, the nearer tower and spire 
of Wollaton church, the mansion of Mrs. John Edge, (Wol- 
laton Villa) environed with undulating and ornamentally 
wooded lawns, and even water, a lovely sheet of which, serv- 
ing as a canal feeder, and frequented by aquatic birds, lies 
in the intervening hollow. Westwards, the striking outline 
of the Gorse Plantation fills in the horizon space and en- 
riches the scenery— which rises and falls, swells and subsides, 
amidst its alternations of open enclosures, hedgerows, wood, 
. and water* in subdued and gentle loveliness. Suddenly the 



/248 BAtfBLBS ROUND MOmNOHAM. 

road rises to a stone bridge, affording a commanding sight of 
this wide and beautiful landscape ; and, underneath, appear 
the limpid waters, and successive locks of the Nottingham 
Canal. In passing towards this bridge, it may be as well to 
mention, that the plantation to the right, in the rear of Mr. 
Chouler's residence, is known as the Long Plantation ; whilst 
that upon the left, is the Quarry Plantation, partially con- 
cealed by the skirtings that shelter the field ; but, like many 
sites which have been first quarried and then planted, pre- 
senting some features of romance, on a minor, scale. The 
Nottingham Canal extends, as already intimated, a distance 
of fifteen miles, from the Cromford Canal at Langley Bridge, 
in a course trending south-eastwards, with numerous reaches 
and windings, to the town of Nottingham, where it passes 
along the whole southern side of the town, and unites with 
the Trent Navigation, forming one of those great and valuable 
arteries of cheap internal transport still available to so large 
an extent for the easy conveyance of manures, minerals, and 
bulky produce, and to which this country was infinitely in- 
debted prior to the origin of railways. The first sod for the 
course of this canal was turned in the presence of numerous 
spectators, SOth July, 17dS. Such had been the interest 
taken in the projecti and the benefit expected from its being 
carried out, that Mr. Sutton records in his Date Book, that, 
on the 9th of May preceding, on the arrival of the intelligence 
that the bill authorising the formation of the Nottingham 
Canal had received the royal assent, the church bells of both 
churches were set a ringing, and other congratulatory mani- 
festations indulged in. The truth appears to have been, that 
the project met with some opposition at the time on the part 
of an affluent proprietor through whose home park the canid 
hne might almost be said to have passed at this and other 
portions of its circuitous course. To obviate one portion of 
the late Lord Middleton s objections, the work termed the 
'* Bilborough Cut'' was formed, connecting the main line of 
the Canal with Bilborough Wharf, to accommodate Lord 
Middleton's collieries in that vicinity, now known as the *' Old 
Engine Pits'' of Bilborough, and since, we beheve, disused. 
Continuing on our woodland walk, through a second field 
strongly resembling the first, the way again rises to a bridge. 



LOBD HIBDLETON AND HIS MINBBS. S49 

V^hich, this time, passes over the dry channel of the cut, 
which may be seen winding its neglected way betwixt banks 
grown eminently beautiful in the struggle betwixt art and 
nature, up through the tortuous hollow lying betwixt the 
ground swells of Broomhall Plantation and the Dumble, near 
to the Shepherd*8 Wood House, till arrested by the rising 
ground of the Shepherd's Wood and Holly Wood. The 
working collieries being now situated to the westward of 
Trowel! Moor and at Strelley, the various tram roads con- 
nected with them in the process of modem improvement 
have been allowed to supersede the Bilborough Canal Cut, 
and its channel remains dry. One reason, we beheve, why 
these fadhties of transit are less availed of than might be 
expected is, that the noble proprietor evinces no anxiety to 
work the coal mines for the sake of profit ; and, in fact, in 
some seasons, has carried them on at something like a loss, 
solely for the sake of the industrial occupation they afford to 
the old estabhshed coUier-famihes of the district, every one of 
which has attached to its cottage half an acre of land, and, of 
coarse, never wants for pit coal at any season of the year. It 
is well known that Lord Middleton could, by leasing out these 
works, largely improve the revenues derivable from them, to 
the WoUaton estate ; but he has resisted every suggestion of 
the kind, and, with a paternal solicitude for the people located 
on his property, rarely beheld, prefers retaining the mines 
in his own hand, and working diem in the old-accustomed 
way. These circumstances seem perfectly to explain why it 
is, and from what kind of feeling, that so much natural beauty 
is found to linger amidst scenes which the Canal cut, and the 
miners* industry might rather have been expected to disfigure, 
and where the railway whistle of more than one adjacent line 
is by no means inaudible. Instead of these disfigurements, 
we have here, however, on the one hand, Broomhill, and on 
the other, Gorse Plantation, woods deriving their names from 
two of the most common, but most glorious examples of our 
island flora. Some have said it was the gorse, and some the 
broom, before whose golden tassels the great Linnaeus, on his 
arrival in this country, fell down and worshipped — not the 
creature but the Creator — thanking God that He had made 
a sight so glorious. The cytisus scoparius (common bi-oom) 



250 BA.MBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAK, 

flowers now, at the season when we write, (from March to 
June) on the lower hills, in the woods, and on the moors of 
our district. It was the heraldic cognizance of the royal an- 
'cestry of England, whose name, Plantagenet, is, in fact, derived 
from the Latin name employed for it, (not by modem botan- 
ists) but in the Georgics of Virgil — Planta genesta* Wan- 
dering through these regions of golden glory, the Rambler, 
who has promised his readers a miscellany of occasional 
pieces as well as other things — bursts irrepressiblj into song. 

Plantaoenesta, royal broom I Plantagenet and Wales, 

Have made a prond and haughty plume of thee in other vales / 

But, plant of beauty, bloom of pride, 

Low on each British mountain's side, 

Where rural furzes glow beside, 

Thou'rt gladdest in the gales ! 

Well might our queen upon her throne display thee on her brow. 
For once thou decked'st the haubergeon, t^e battle axe, Hie bow 

Of her old British ancestors 

In Gallic forays, Norman wars 

In Gimbric feuds, or Celtic jars. 
And still art British, thou ! 

In wood and wild, on hill and fell, old England sees thee yet. 
And oh I her children love thee well, nor ever can fol^et 

How they beheld the fairies dance. 

In yellow moonlight's golden glance. 

And all the blooms around thee prance. 
As the sweet evening set ! 

They wander widely o'er the earth, where sunlight gleams more fair. 
Yet this allays their native mirth— no native broom is there ; 

They see the streams in beauty shine. 

See hills and valleys of the vine 

Swell rich with globes of nnpressed wine, 
But where art thou — oh ! where f 

The Ulex Europcsus, (the common gorse) guarded by its 
chevaux de frize of spines, may be a more ordinary and less 
ornamental, but, unless the project lately broached of making 
paper from broom fibre should be turned to account, it is a 
more useful plant than the broom. In its natural state it is 



Kullis hominum cogentibus, ipsae 



Sponte sua veniunt 
Lentaeque gentotes." &e» 



THE SYMBOLISM OF OLD THORTTS. 261 

extensively used for hedgerows, and, in the West IndieS, 
where its seeds are sown and highly prized for the purpose, 
attains great height and luxuriance. But it is best known, 
perhaps, as forming, in hunting districts, of which until re- 
cently this was one, the best description of fox covert. Bruised 
in mills manufactured for the purpose, the tender shoots of 
young gorse are now also found to constitute excellent food 
for sheep and cattle ; and, for this purpose, it is even sown 
and cultivated on soils which could not probably be more 
profitably employed. The fragrance of the blooming gorse is 
one of the most delicious scents that perfume the air. The 
" Dumble" and the " Roughs", derive their names from ine- 
qualities of the surface, that add a genial spice of romance to 
this *' Wood-yard" walk. Passing onward, we soon reach the 
" Old Park farm" steading, occupied by Mr. Garrett, farmer, 
the name suggesting what the aspect of the ground confirms, 
that once upon a time this ground had been included within 
the Wollaton policies, if, indeed, it formed not altogether the 
old home farm of the family. " Bilborough Thorns" may be 
mentioned amongst the spots near this locality whose names 
commemorate their character. Rocky excrescences generally 
appear to be the natural nurseries of hawthorns ; but old 
thorns, where they occur on such sites as this, on the out- 
skirts of woody heights, we may generally take for infallible 
indications of some extinct village. The thorn was a sacred 
symbol of the ancient faith ; and our ancestors firmly believed 
of them two things — one of which was, that their boughs 
always inclined to the east ; and the other, that to cut them 
down was ominous of misfortune to the destroyer. This 
superstition was by no means restricted to the south of Scot- 
land ; but a recent poetical writer, who has appeared upon 
the Border, has thus sung of the strange belief regarding 
them : — 

** Dundrennan has her hill of thorns, 

And Carlinwark ]}as three, 
There is no wild-wood that adorns 

The Scottish land from sea to sea, 
That tells the tale of olden time, 
In Kilence solemn and snhlime, 

Like to the hawthorn tree . 



952 BAMBUCB BOUVD NOTTZHaHAM. 

The trysting-tree for lovers* vow — 
Por fairy dance beneath the bough, 

On hill, or holt, or lea ; 
And whoso fells the thorn, I trow, 

A luckless wight is he ! 
Many a tale of elf and Hbj, 
Many a legend grave and gay, 
It tells in rock-bound Galloway ; 
And there remaineth to this day 
One with gnarled and fluted bark. 
Of the three thorns of Garlinwark, 

Where James of Scotland lay." 

Henry Inglis. 

Even 80 Bilborough thorns, with the well-known capacity of 
the tree for old age, have escaped the ruthless hand of the 
spoiler, and heen left to contend only with the gnawing tooth 
of time. The path soon conducts us from Old Park Farm 
to Strelley Old Lodge, and Strelley Coal Wharf, emerging 
upon the highway just opposite to the principal lodge leading 
into the demesne of Strelley, which, having seen recently 
under very peculiar auspices of gaiety and rejoicing, we may 
take leave under such auspices to describe. Meanwhile, we 
must proceed on the route we have given ourselves. At Old 
Park Farm, the HttJe valley through which we pass expands. 
From tbe bridge which spans the dry and a^mndoned cut, our 
road, interrupted at intervals with handsome swing gates 
like those of a gentleman's demesne, has run quite close by a 
hedge-row, dotted with hedge-row timber, chiefly sturdy elms. 
The cut itself is, on quitting it, perceived to be partly defaced 
— overgrown with grass and weeds, and having the appear- 
ance of being partially planted from the self-sown underwood 
which has grown up within its shelter. It is delightful to 
listen in spring-time, in the woods which circle round this 
spot, the answering notes of the choristers of the grove ; the 
full, clear pipe of the blackbird or the thrush ringing out over 
all the vocalisation of the concert, and the deep cooing of the 
stock-dove affording a plaintive accompaniment. West of 
the bridge, the traces of the cut have this season been nearly 
obliterated, its green mounds of embankment being carefully 
levelled over and filled into the cut, so as to create a fine, 
level, undivided wheat-field. In winding up the ascent, the 
majestic proportions of WoUaton Hall seem, on looking back, 



SCEmCBT OF THB WCODYABD WALE. Hb^ 

to tower higher and higher up on the opposite horizon. No 
finer view of it is from any point to be attained, from the great 
apparent elevation of the site beheld in this' direction. Over 
the hedge-rows on the right, the wild wooded dingle of the 
Dumble is seen, winding about the foot of the Wood House, 
and Shepherd's Wood heights. Early in April, in the shelter 
of the hedgerow, the dwarf or ground elder, «,nd the first 
sweet violets and primroses were in blow. The Roughs are 
away over the fields on the left. Approaching Strelley Old 
Lodge, a Httle gate-house now inhabited merely as a cottage, 
a huge old knotted and gnarled elm, with twisted branches 
and deeply furrowed bark, stands forth on the open side of 
the walk or drive, a venerable object, worthy to rank beside the 
famed broad oaks of Strelley. To the westward, almost in 
front of the old lodge, a little reservoir has been walled in 
with brick. Beyond the plantations, Coventry Lane, a walk 
not inferior to the Wood Yard walk in picturesque beauty, 
runs south from Strelley Goal Wharf, to the intersection of 
six ways noticed in the previous chapter ; and the iron tram 
road that communicates with the coal wharf, passes westwards 
through the gorge on the north of the wooded heights called 
the ** Catstone Hill," and taking several other pits in its way, 
gains the Nottingham Canal Wharf, and feeds its mineral 
traffic. But what is the " Catstone Hill?" Elsewhere we 
have known the term associated with battle stones, with pin- 
nacled and precipitous rocks, &c., but here, we confess, we 
have no trace or indication of the etymology or its application. 
Passing by the east end of the Old Lodge, we observe on the 
left a spot abounding in rough grassy knolls and old twisted 
thorns. Crossing the main road, Strelley Hall stands con- 
cealed amidst the undulations of its site, and the well-grown 
plantations of dark spruce, or green silver fir, feathery birch, 
and other ornamental trees that peer above its lofty hawthorn 
and holly fence, till sharply turning an angle near the little 
inn called " Strelley Broad Oak," kept by Mrs. Oldershaw, we 
come in view at once of the church and hall — the former, 
however, obstructed considerably from this point by the lofty 
road-side wall of Strelley gardens, although the buildings are 
rather situated on an ascent. Strelley Rectory House, which 
stood in the vicinity, is no longer there ; for the livings of 



d54 BAMBUES BOUND NOXTZKQHAH^ 

Strellej and BUborough being united under the name of 
Strellej-cum-Bilborougb, the present incumbent of which is 
the Rev, John Hurt, brother of the patron, J. T. Edge, Esq., 
of Strelley, the rectory house was taken down in the early part 
of 1844, under the incumbency of the Rev, William Topham 
Hobson ; and one of the most striking objects beheld on gain- 
ing the upper field in the course of die Wood-yard walk just 
described, is, on looking eastward, to perceive reposing against 
the circling outline of woods; the fine square mass of the 
modem rectory house, overtopped by the old square tower and 
part of the fabric of Bilborough church, literally grown green 
all over with the mosses of age. The plain, quiet, comfortable 
residence of Mr, W. Jackson, cotton merchant of Nottingham, 
lately occupied by Mrs. Alliott ; and some other large farms 
and dwellings, afterwards noticed, are the other most notable 
residences in this lovely neighbourhood. 

Strelley Hall, built about 1790, is a plain country mansion, 
sweetly situated amidst some well-grown wood of about its 
own age, and in the neighbourhood of some older and larger 
trees. In the rear is a capacious square of offices, with im- 
mediate access to the public road, inclosing a horsepond. 
The whole groups together imposingly with the neighbouring 
parish church of All Saints, with its handsome bell tower, 
which has been recently renovated and repaired, or restored, 
both externally and internally, under the direction of that 
eminent ecclesiologist, George Gordon Place, Esq., of Not- 
tingham. The tasteful pleasure grounds, which appear to 
have been in prodess of plantation in the time of Throsby, 
are, as predicted by that writer, now eminendy beautiful, the 
graceful forms and judicious disposition of the young but 
occasionally stately trees about the sloping ascents of the sur- 
face, the fine curving avenues, and commanding prospects, 
disclosing park scenery of great softness, beauty, and variety. 
In the northern part of the demesne, the Broad Oak Plan- 
tation still bears record of the tree on which Strelley rests its 
glory, and after which, it will be perceived, that the little 
local inn is named. The Branch Mineral Railway, from 
Cinder Hill coal field to the Erewash valley, passes however 
through this upper portion of the demesne ; and the north 
lodge is situated a considerable way beyond the line, near 



CAPBICIOUS OBTHOGBAFHT OF NAMES. 25$ 

Strelley corn mill, (Mr. T. Taylor) and the wild region of the 
Longlands Roughs. 

" Strelley, like Bramcote," says a county writer, '* has always 
heen the inheritance of lawyers." Latterly it may have been 
so; but in former times it was the inheritance of the family 
of Strelley, its lords per legem terra. The family of Strelley 
were settled at Chilwell,* in the reign of Henry I., (1100- 
1135) Sanson, or Sampson, of Strelley, was, in fact, one of 
the witnesses to that extraordinary gift of fishes in favour of 
the monks of Lenton, mentioned at p. 121 of our Banibles. 
The family of Strelley continued till 27 Henry VIII., (1536) 
a long period indeed to flourish in uninteniipted succession ; 
and at this period, the male line came to an end, for the pos- 
sessions of that ancient and honourable house were then 
divided amongst four co-heiresses. It is curious now, in 
tracing this family through these successive ages, to notice 
how the names of persons get out of speUing, and almost out 
of recognition, by the caprice of their individual wearers; 
whilst those of lands and possessions undergoing, perhaps, 
little change of orthography, preserve a sort of fixed standard 
for names really identical in their origin. Thus, in 14tli 
Henry III., (1229) Robert de Moyz claimed of Robert de 
EstradUigh, parts of some bovats in Chillewelle. Now, who 
was this Lingua Franca knight Robert de Estradleigh, but 
the descendant of the veritable Sampson de Strelley, our old 
friend of the era of Henry I. ? There can be no doubt about 
it ; for Moyz claimed the bovats of his own right, as lands, 
whereof one Isilia, (another of those pretty English names 
we have once or twice before remarked — names now gone 
altogether out of use) — his great grandmother, was seized, in 
that reign. Isilia had five sons — three by William de Moyz, 
her first husband, (for she was one of those much coveted 
ladies who are twice wed) and two — Sampson and Roger — by 
Walter de Stradleighy ^another variation of the name.) Samp- 
son, {our Sampson, no doubt) is described as father to Walter 
de Strelley, (the name actually reverting to its origin.) Thus 
we see how the orthography fluctuates ; it is first spelled by 

♦ The connection of the estates of Chilwell and Strelley is still 
marked by some local names on the north of Strelley demesne, f|8 
** Chilwell Dam," and <' Chilwell Dam Plantation." 



d$6 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM, 

William, in the time of Henry I., " Stradleigh" — then 
** Strelley," twice in succession by Walter and Sampson— 
and, by tie time it arrives at the more fashionable. and French- 
ified era of Henry III., it is euphuistically rendered ** Es- 
tradleigh," a form under which any one unacquainted wiA 
the genealogical facts, might well be puzzled to recognize it 
It is refreshing to fiiid that, by the 12th of Elizabeth, (1569) 
Robert de Strelley again spelled his name in the old orthodox 
way, and used the language of the land. 

The power and consideration of the Strelley family will be 
found very remarkable. According to the parliamentary 
lists, for the preservation of which we are indebted to Prynne, 
we first find Eichardus de Strelley one of the knights of the 
shire for the county of Nottingham, and representing it, 
along with Johannes le Brett, in the first parliament of 1331, 
convoked at York, by the young king Edward III., in the 
fifth year of his reign, immediately after the capture of Mor- 
timer in the Castie of Nottingham. Of two parliaments held 
in 1333, the same knight was representative of the county, 
along with John de Oxen, in that which assembled at 
Westminster. Again, in both parliaments of the year 1335, 
(9th Edward III.) the same person represented the county, in 
the first which was held at Westminster, along with Johan- 
nes Oxenford, (probably his former colleague, whose appellation 
may have been contracted ;) and in the second, which was 
held at Nottingham, along with Thomas de Bekering. In 
no fewer than three parliaments of 1336, Richard de Strelley 
served for the county with WiUiam de Eland, Johannes de 
Oxenford, and again Willielmus de Eland, for his colleagues, 
making the eighth parliament in which he had been returned 
as knight of the shire. William de Eland, the colleague of 
the knight of Strelley, in these latter parHaments, was the 
same stout constable of the castie who had led king Edward 
and his adventurous band through the recesses o^ Mortimer s 
hole : a deed for which the monarch appears at this very date 
to have rewarded him with the Bailiwick of the Honor of 
Peveril ; and it is therefore supposed that it was at this period 
that the Peveril Court was removed from the county hall of 
Nottingham to Eland's mansion of Algarthorpe, near Basford. 
We notice this circumstance the more particularly, because 



81B SAMPSON DIfi STBELUBT. d57 

it Vould appear that the ultimate relations of the houses of 
Eland and Strellej were anything but amicable ; for the last 
of the Elands, Mary the daughter of Thomas, and widow of 
Roland Revel, by her deed, aS Henry VIII., (1639) conveyed 
over to Randall Revel her manor, her lands, her rents, her 
services, and finally this bailiwick of the Honour of Peveril, 
'* because he had holpen her in her great suits she had with 
Nicholas Strelley, Esq., concerning her said inheritance.'^ 
In 1867 Sampson de StreUey represented the county in the 
parliament held, as the parUaments now regularly began to 
be, at Westminster, along with Simon de Leek, a personage 
who up to that period appears to have, like his predecessor, 
(Richard de StreUey) become a sort of standing representa- 
tive, in so many successive parliaments did he serve. With 
Sampson de StreUey we encounter, however, eleven years 
earlier, in 1856, when we find him concerned in the building 
of the church of StreUey, for in that year he obtained for 
himself and his fbUow parishioners license '* to hear sermons** 
in the chapel situated within his manor of StreUey for one 
year, whilst the building of the parish church was in progress ; 
but whereabouts this chapel was situated, if not indeed 
attached to the ancient Hall, in the demesne, and what were 
the nature of the sermons the parishioners of that age were 
so zealous to hear, unless they resembled the far-famed dis- 
courses of the Augustinian provincial WilUam de Nottingham, 
author of a Concordance of the Evangeliste, who, although he 
died twenty years previously, continued in great repute 
amongst the religious for many years later, history sayeth 
not Sampson did not long enjoy his parUamentary 
honours : another year, and in aU probabiUty we find him 
" gathered to his fathers ;" for in the succeeding year (1368) 
the knights of the shire were Robertas de Marton and Wil- 
lielmus de StreUey. Yet we do not know in how far such an 
inference is justL&able ; since again, in 1379, Sampson de 
StreUey and Robert de Marton figure as knights of the shire. 
That this was a new Sampson, and not the hearer of 
sermons, may however be deemed probable, from what 
foUows. In 1881 the representatives of the county were 
Sampson de StreUey and Thomas de Rempston, miles, and 
in 138d Sampson de StreU^, miles, and Johannes de Burton 
s 



S58 BAVBLES BOUND NOTTINOHAM. 

(not " de Baston," as stated in a recent authority) ; so that, 
to his duties as a legislator it would seem that the heir of the 
house of Strelley superadded the honourable profession and 
rank of a soldier. Again for some years was the oounty 
represented after this by members of its other leading fami- 
lies, but in 1393 we once more find that the knights of the 
shire were William Nevil, miles, and Nicholas de Strelley. 
More than half a century later we next find the knights of 
the shire in a parliament held at Ooventry, 1459, to have 
been Robertus Strelley, miles, and Johannes Stanhope, armi- 
gero ; as well as in the parliament held at Westminster in 
the subsequent year, 39 Henry VI., (1460.) So late as 1590 
(34 Elizabeth) another illustrious name in Enghsh chivalry 
was yoked with that of Strelley in the parliamentary repre- 
sentation of Nottinghamshire, the knights of the shire being 
then Charles Cavendish and Philip Strelley, Esqs. 

. Robert Strelley, above mentioned, appears, with " Frides- 
veide," his wife, to have acquired (by grant) 'the advowson of 
the rectory of Linby in 1648 ; and in this case we certainly 
do not admire the Christian name of the lady. Whatever 
we may have heard of a man Friday, a " Frideswide" seems 
out of thie question for a feminine appellation. It will be 
found that Linby Church bore, amongst its armorial remains, 
the paly per pale of six, argent, of Strelley. 

. From entries in the mayor of Nottingham's account book 
for the year 1567, it would appear that at that date the head 
of the house must have been Sir Nicholas Strelley, Knight, 
for amongst other expenses incurred by the corporation we 
find set down — " Gyffen to Sir Jno. Byron, Sir J. Chaworth, 
and Sir Nicholas Strelley, Knights, a gallon of claret wine, 
Is. 4d. ; To Sir Nicholas Strelley, Knight, a pottle of wine, 6d." 
These gifts were doubtless always made in consideration of 
public services, legal or military, or even connected with 
pubUc sports, which could not be otherwise requited. Thus, 
in the mayor's year book of 1571, 13 Ehzabeth, tjiere is an 
entry : " Sept. 10. Given in wine 111 gallons, and 11 lbs. of 
sugar, to Sir Anthony Strelley, Mr. Manners, Mr. Marchanes, 
with other gentlemen, when they made their matches of 
shooting, 6s. 6d." It would appear that these shooting 
matches took place on occasions of a royal visit of "the 



DECLINE AK© FALL OF THE HOUSE OF STBELLEY. 1J59 

virgin queen" to Nottingham. We trace the Strelley family 
still farther downwards — amongst the " Statutes Merchant" 
enrolled in the Court Books of 1609, (6 James I.) were ** George 
Strelley, Esq., of Strelley, in the several bonds of £600, 
deeoO, and £1200." From this time we may date the decline 
of this ancient family. Their very coal mines they must have 
shortly parted with, for an entry in the " Hall Book" of the 
corporation of Nottingham, in 1 620, proceeds — ** upon the 
desire of the merchants of London, who have interest in the 
coal mines at Strelley," In Thoroton, we appear to have the 
explanation, indeed, of the extinction of the old family. 
"This manor," says he, (1677) " has been the inheritance of 
lawyers most of my time, and for some space before. It is 
now possessed by the posterity of Eleanor, sister of Sir Philip 
Strelley, who was married to Sir John Michael, one of the 
Masters in Chancery, in King James's time ; who, notwith- 
standing all his law and power, he could never get it in his 
own time from Nicholas Strelley ; which Nicholas had a son 
called George, whom he left young ; yet he kept this manor 
till he died in France, not full of age — ^his mother being mar- 
ried to Richard Lord Byron, " Throsby, a centu ry later, (1793) 
is ready also with his tale, and presents to us — not, indeed, 
the prodigal heir raising money on bonds to spend it, and die 
at a premature age abroad ; but the last known descendant of 
the race in his day, Nicholas Strelley, content to earn his bread 
by blowing and constructing curiosities in glass, in which he 
is said to have acquired a wonderful facility. How far the 
descent of this individual can be authenticated, we are not, 
however, aware, and think it right to mention that we have 
come in our researches upon many traces of the Strelley 
family, or name, located in Nottingham, and occupying only 
the rank of citizens and handicraftsmen, to whom this glass- 
blower may rather haye owed his origin. For instance, going 
back to 1340, the Nottingham exchequer tax roll, in Bromley 
House Library, shows that there was levied upon Wilham of 
Strellave, ironmonger, 20s. Again, when William de Beeston 
foundecT the Beeston Chauntry, 30 Edward III., (1366) he 
gave, amongst other property, one messuage and one piece of 
land, which are described as having been John de Strelley's, 
of Nottii^ham. Then, again, in 1364, John Strelley was 



250 BAMBIiE^ ROUIfD MDTTlNGHAM. 

one of the bailiffs of Nottingham. Thus, it id apparent^ that 
there existed a ci^c family of the name, almost coeval with 
the landed branch, and evidently a family of some standing 
and repute. As, however, was recently observed to us by a pro- 
fessional gentleman intimately conversant with these family 
records, and referring at the moment to a worthy citizen and 
tradesman of Nottingham (by whom this honored name is stall 
worn) to his peculiar tastes, and to his comparatively elegant 
pursuits and refined habits — " blood will out ;" so we believe 
that, whether blowing glass or following some less agreeable 
occupation, the " blood" of such a jEamily will not fail to mani* 
fest itself. 

For the rise of the family of Edge, the existing owners of 
the estates of Strelley and Bilborough, with portions of Bas- 
ford, Ac, we shall have to look within the town of Nottingham 
itself In the 10th of the Commonwealth, (1668) we finrt 
meet with the name of Ralph Edge, of Strelley, the descendant 
of the junior branch of. a family long established at Horton, 
in StidBfordshire, who, in the year just mentioned, attained 
the position of town-clerk of Nottingham ; and what is more 
extraordinary, retained it to the period of his death, in 16B6, 
at the age of 63, notwithstanding the circumstance of his 
having three times served the office of mayor in the interim, 
viz.: in 1664, (16 Charles 11.^ 1671 and 1678. Even at the 
date of Mr. Edge's appointment to the office of town-clerk, 
it would appear that he was not a sworn burgess of the town, 
a thing for which it is believed there is no precedent to be 
found. In stating his appointment as town-derk, in the 
place of Flamstead, the records of the corporation bear "Mr. 
Edge to be made a burgess, paying down £10, which said 
dSlO the company delivered to him again, leaving the same to 
be disposed of in the same proportion to the poor of the 
several parishes; and he was sworn a burgess before this 
company accordingly." It also appears that Mr. Edge was 
elected to the dignity of mayor without having previously 'served 
either as chamberlain or sheriff. He was, 'however, ui alder- 
man of the borough, and a magistrate of the county. It may 
be remembered, with regard to his borough politics that, 
although appointed town-clerk in the time of the Common- 
wealth, Mr. Edge did not become mayor till long after tlie 



THB FAMILT OF EDGE. il^V 

Bestoratioii. and was a witness for the defence under tb€ qm 
uwrrtmto of King James II., alluded to at p.219. He married 
Amye, (as Mr. Bailey writes it — others Anne) daughter oi 
Nicholas Charlton, Esq,, of Chilwell, but died without issue, 
his death being somewhat sudden, as he had attended and 
officiated at the meeting of " the ball" only three days pren- 
Qusly. His purchase of the estate of Strelley is dated about 
ld78. He was succeeded in the office of town-clerk by 
Charles Bawdes, (1684.) The next Ralph (some write Kichard) 
Edge of Strelley served the office of sheriff of the county of 
^otdngham^ 1709 ; and again, the office was served by ano- 
therof thename,in 1760; and, finally, by Thomas Webb Edge, 
of Strelley, in 1804. Thomas Webb Edge, the immediate 
predecessor of the present proprietor, died at his shooting 
seat, Birk Pwjk, near Richmond, Yorkshire, 20th August,. 
1344 — ^being. the third member of his family who had died 
whilst on an absence fron;L home^ intended to be temporary ; 
for, the Hev. John Webb Edge, who was rector of Strelley, 
had died at Cheltenham, in 1849 ; and the father of both 
parties, in London, in 1819. Thomas Webb Edge, Esq., 
was succeeded by James Thomas Edge, Esq., his nephew, 
then a minor, and son of Major Hurt, of Wirksworth. His 
brother, the Rev. John Hurt, is rector of Strelley-cum- 
Bilborough. 

On Thursday, tho 10th of January, 1856, Strelley Hall, 
the seat of James T. Edge, Esq., was the scene of festive 
rejoicings, on a scale of magnitude and splendour worthy 
the position and spirit of the proprietor, on the occasion of 
his marriage on the above dajf with Miss Julia Frances 
Kekewich, fourth daughter of S. T. Kekewich, Esq., of Pea- 
more, in the. county of Devon. Invitations having been 
issued to the numerous tenantry of Strelley and Bilborough, 
as well as others from Broxtowe, Basford, &c., a very numer- 
ous company assembled on the wedding day to celebrate this 
aaspioious event, and at sis: e^clock sat down to an elegant 
collation, the Rev. John Hurt, rector of Strelley-cum-Bilbo- 
rough, brother of the bridegroom, in the chair, supported by 
,the Messrs. Hurt* jun., Mr. Mills, the steward, and Mr. 
ItawsoQ, solicitor on the estates, and others. .The health 
of her Majesty the Queen having been drunk with every 



262 BAMBJLE» BOUND NOTTZNOHAM. 

demonstration of loyalty, the reverend chairman then rose and 
gave that of *^ The Bride and Bridegroom/' in a speech re- 
plete with genuine and unaffected feeling ; the speech was 
rapturously applauded, and the toast was ratified with three 
times three in hearty cheers. " The health of Major and 
Mrs. Hurt" were then proposed, and warmly responded to ; 
as was also that of Mrs. John Edge, of WoUaton Villa, 
whose charities and benevolences are so well known in the 
neighbourhood, and who has more especially just earned the 
heartfelt gratitude of all the poorer villagers around, by pre* 
seating each of them at this inclement season with blankets, 
and other suitable supplies of winter comforts and clothing. 
Nor were the healths of the excellent steward (Mr. Mills) 
and solicitor (Mr. Rawson) forgotten amongst the enthusi- 
astic pledges of the evening. The company after dark 
assembled on the balconies of Strelley Hall to witness a 
magnificent display of fireworks, provided for the occasion, 
under the auspices of an eminent pyrotechnist from Shefl&eld^ 
A large apartment, superbly decorated as a ball-room with 
flags, flowers, and evergreens, was then thrown open, and 
dancing commenced and was maintained until an advanced 
hour with great spirit. 

The following account of the return of a marnage party to 
Strelley Hall, (an event of which we chanced inadvertently 
to be witness) will perhaps afford some conception of the 
natural beauty and variety of the scene; although after 
Christmas, the rejoicings,- as recorded in the Nottingham 
Guardian newspaper, whence we extract the account, form, it 
must be remembered, but a ^^ winter's tale ;" and art had to be 
called in to supply masses of colour, and much of the gaiety 
of decoration which, in such a spot as Strelley, would at ano- 
ther season have been profusely bestowed by the agency 
of nature. 

" The tenantry of James T. Edge, Esq., on the estates of 
Strelley and Bilborough, having ascertained that the return 
of the happy couple, whose marriage rejoicings were com- 
memorated two weeks ago in the Chuardian, would take place 
yesterday afternoon, (Wednesday, 27th Jan.) at four o'clock, 
resolved on complimenting their landlord and his lady with 
a grand demonstration of their attachment and respect. Agk 



XABSXAOE KESTXYITXES AT 8TBELLET. '^03 

cordingly, l^e few previous days, but particularij Tuesday, 
(36th Jan. 1856) were spent in putting almost the whole of 
the estate under decoration. The porch of Strelley Hail was 
ornamented with a superb triamphar arch thrown over the 
entrance to the future home of Mr. Edge s bride; and stream- 
ing with banners, bouquets, rosettes, and other ornaments. 
Four similar arches were thrown orer the gateways in the 
avenue of a mile in length passing through the grounds ; 
and three more, a larger and two smaller arches together, at 
the entrance to the estates at Bilborough. The wives and 
daughters of the tenantry, dressed in their best attire, had 
reserved on lining the avenue from the hall door down to the 
second arch ; and the mounted tenantry upon meeting the 
happy oouple at the entrance to the estates, and escorting 
them home. At half-past three, therefore, the bride and 
bridegroom having reached Nottingham station by milway, 
the happy couple were met by a barouch and pair, and Mr. 
Edge taking the reins, drove his wife through Nottingham 
by the Alfreton-road to Strelley Hall. At the boundary of 
the ostate of Bilborough, marked out by a magnificent feis- 
toon of overgreens, pendant across the road from tree to tree 
of this beautifully wooded turnpike, the bridal cortege was 
met by about thirty of the mounted tenantry of the estates, 
oach distinguished by wearing at the left breast a large 
white wedding favour in the form of a rosette, and all bearing 
white wands tipped with bunches of evergreens, festooned 
with white ribbons. The rest of the way, three miles in all, 
including the. avenue of a mile in length, was one complete 
ovation. Preceded by a detachment, and followed by the 
main body of the mounted escort, the open carriage contain- 
ing the party formed the neucleus of a gay procession, which 
was thenceforth cheered en its way with loud and earnest 
demonstrations of applause. Soon after crossing the boun- 
dary, the sed blaze of a "meteor flag," near Mr. Edge's 
village of Bilborough, was seen flaring out in contrast to the 
dark blown branches of the denuded trees. This was the 
peal eommenoement of the decorations, which were so lavish 
as almost to throw the entire way through the estates into 
one arcade of evergreens, flags, streamers, and other decora- 
tiona. At the approach to the village of Bilborough, where 



964 RAMBLES BOtTMD NOTTINOBAlf. 

ft numerous party of villagers had drawn up to greet the loid 
. and lady of the manor, a massive magnificent triple arch was 
. thrown across the turnpike, with a central inscription of 
* Welcome/ in gold letters on a -blue ground ; whilst the side 
arches were flanked bj union jacks edged with golden- 
oolouied net, and the top arch surmounted by a tuft, the 
f two side arches with open crowns of evergreens. The whole 
. presented a very beautiful appearance. Pas»ng tbroogh the 
little village, ^very gateway exhibited its flag in honour of 
the occasion; and, in particular, an immense tricolor of 
France, ^red, white, and blue,' was displayed across the 
Broxtowe road to the right. The most magnificent decorations 
of all, were at the principal entrance gate of the Strelley 
avenue. Here a very sptendidly embowered «rch of ever- 
greens, intermingled with flowers, was thrown up, streaming 
with flags, and surmounted by the inscription ' Health and 
Prosperity to Mr. and Mrs. Edge.' From the centre of the 
arch depended a handsome fiond chaplet. The fli^s, rosettes, 
and ornaments that covered this beautiful creation were dis- 
tinguished by the finest taste. The apex of a v«ry fine 
pyramidal cone tree on the opposite side ef the turnpike was 
, also strikingly surmounted by a * blood red flag.' The cortege 
. then entered the oasriage drive, and anxufet the shouts of 
oonisiderable numbers asaemibled at the gate, at a more deM 
berate pace commenced the undulating ascent of the lovely 
grounds. On the right, one of the fisst objects b^eld was 
the sUtf and crescent of Turkey, (mot in. a green, by the bye, 
but in a red field) flaunting from a troe on the right Next 
appeared a hug^ union jack. Then came the finest landi in 
the avenue — a single arch formed of evergreens, tastefully 
enwreathed with the floe paesianis, (the passion flower) and 
decked with three gay pennons of the Sardinian trioolor, 
green, white, and blue or red.; whilst a beautiful cixcolar 
chaplet of roses Und evergreens dangled from the centre of 
the arob. Passing other flags and streamers by the way, the 
crest of the ascent was gained, «id suddenly the hall, 
hitherto ooncetded, burst into view and revealed the rest of 
the decorations put forth to welcome its approaching nustresa. 
The next areh was a lofty one thrown over the avenue in the 
vieiaity of the hall. It also was composed of evergreeas and 



DULGB BOMOK AT- STBBLLET HALL. 905 

brilliant flowers, draped on one sfide with pink banners, 
edged with white fringe ; on the other with a white flag and 
displaying another Sardinian tricolour, with the inscriptions 
• long life and happiness,' on one flag — to which another 
inscription replied (as a learnedand reverend lecturer* would 
<h«ve said) antiphonally, *to Mr. and Mrs. Edge.' The arboar 
over the porch was the most magnificent piece of decoration 
of all-HiUhough the hall of Strelley, amidst its own ancestral 
tiees, and backed by. the venerable form of Strelley church, 
(which having visited we are happy to say is now nearly, and 
certainly beautifully restoved, by Mr. Fisher) needed no ar- 
tifieial adomment-^bat looked in itself like a true duke domain 
for an English bride. Still the arch at the porch, with a 
rioh; and' intricate garland, suspended in the form of a floral 
tihrop, wis gaily ornamented all over with small flags — whilst 
two gorgeous tricolors waved from the upper windows of the 
edifice over all-^r^ne of them bearing the white cross of Edge 
on a shield gules, surmounted by a crown. Here a large female 
group was gathered to greet the future * lady of the land' on 
her arrival; and. precisely at half-past four an avant courier 
drove in through the court yard in the rear, with the joyous 
cry * they come;* and come they did in the order already 
detailed. . The bridegroom having driven with a graceful 
sweep up to the door, the gallant escort formed in a semi- 
circle on the opposite verge of the drive, whilst the wives and 
daughters of the tenantry drew up in line on either side the 
^oor.: The bridal party looked uncommonly well, and seemed 
in the highest spirits at the hearty welcome thus accorded 
them. Mr. Edge having handed out his bride, a perfect 
.shower of bouquets was rained down at her feet, some of 
.^hioh she stooped and picked up, in acknowledgment 
o£^ the compliment, whilst Mr. Edge himself adopted 
: others. The signal being then given, the crisp and frosty 
welkin was inade to resound with three hearty cheers, 
led off by the cavaliers of the escort ; and Mr. Edge Stand- 
ing forward said—* My friends, I cannot help thanking you 
most sincerely, for the hearty and flattering welcome you 

• The Rev. J, Murray Wilkins, Rector of Southwell, who had just 
delivered in Nottingham a most happUy illustrated lecture on Churcn 
Music. ■ 



366 RAMBLKS BOVliB HOTTDIOBAlf. 

have given us. I am sure it is most gratifying to my 
feelings; and, as for the decorations, they surprise me ; I 
could not have believed that at this season of the year the 
arches and arbours could have been so well and so hand- 
somely got up.' Another hearty burst of acclamation followed 
this brief address ; and the bride and bridegroom bowing to 
the assemblage, entered their future abode of Strelley Hall, 
wliilst the escort troop wheehng off through the court yard, 
defiled down the lane by Strelley GJiurch to the village. 
At Strelley, the village was gaily decorated; the •Strelley 
Broad Oak' inn displayed a triumphal arch of evergreens 
over its approach, with the ii^cription, * Health and happi- 
ness to Mr. and Mrs. Edge/ whilst three smaller banners 
kept answering one to another as they fluttered in the russet 
sunset — the one ' Long life to* (in gold lettering), the other 
(in lettering coleur ds ro$e) ' Mr. and Mrs. Edge/ whilst be- 
twixt them interposed a union-jack, decked wiUi ribbons and 
a yellow net border." 

The village of Strelley may certainly be described as com- 
posed of '' a district of scattered dwellings," an odd way to 
describe a village, yet we know of no better. Along the 
Alfreton-road there are a few houses, in approaching^ and 
again, after passing; the Strelley Broad Oak inn ; and again, 
after rounding the angle of the road, a few more are either 
clustered near the church, or hid amidst the sylvan and 
undulating landscape. 

The date of the church of Strelley we have already ascer- 
tained to be 1356, (30 Edward III.) It is dedicated to All 
Saints. The decorated style, of which we have already alluded 
to one of the finest examples in the vicinity, at Sandiacre, 
was maintained till 1377 — on the succession of Riohard II., 
when it was succeeded in our church architecture by the 
beautiful and strictly English style, called the perpendicular; 
to which, however, the church of Strelley, built eleven years 
before the death of Edward III., could scarcely be expected 
to belong. It is, therefore, a production of the transition 
period, from the decorated to the early perpendicular, and 
the ancient stone font is a strictly perpendicular work. The 
church, which is small, consists of a nave and side aisles, 
with clerestory, containing stained glass windows, a remark- 



IMTEBIOB OF STBELLEY CHUBCH. 26T 

ably fine chancel, and a handsome square church tower, with 
a single bell. The painting on the glass is chiefly in the 
clerestory ; the ancient shields, with exception of three, on 
one side of the clerestory, have, however, been unfortunately 
replaced with small damascened trefoils, executed by a house 
in York. The patron had, however, the good taste to rescue 
three of these, which he directed Mr. Sollory, plumber, Not- 
tingham, to restore to the clerestory window, where they now 
remain. One of these is tbe crest a dexter arm impaling a 
boards head on the point of a sword, with the motto " Alliance 
avaunce," figured by Dr. Throsby. It is, we believe, the 
intention of Mrs. Edge, the lady of the patron, to present to 
the church a stained glass inindow for the chancel. The old 
font of freestone is of a hexagonal form, having arched pan- 
nels underneath, sustaining a moulding sculptured with 
quatrefoils and plain pannels above, and a square moulded 
cornice. The old carved pews are very curious, being wrought 
with canopied heads and scroll ornaments. The cbancel 
presents two curious tombs, one in the middle, and another 
on the north side; the first without inscription; and the 
latter bearing only the date 1500. The last we may ascer- 
tain by the date to have been the tomb of John S trolley, the 
Bon of Sir Robert de Strelley, and great-grandson of Sir 
Nicholas de Strelley, who, also, by his will, 9 Henry VI., (1430) 
ordered his own body to be buried in the church of All Saints, 
at Strelley, and therefore the other tomb may be fairly 
inferred to be that of Sir Nicholas. This knight had inter- 
niarried with the Pierreponts, his wife, Elizabeth, being the 
daughter of Sir Edmund Pierrepont. And, with great 
deference, the two brasses which Throsby has figured, must 
therefore be taken, not as the effigies of Sir Robert Strelley, 
but of Sir Nicholas and his lady— or why not of his father, 
Sir Sampson, the founder of the church? These brasses 
are vary fine ones. The knight is bare-headed, in complete 
armour of an early period, from the rowel spurs to the gorget, 
with his broadsword depending in front. The lady, again, 
appears in one of those old Brittany head-dresses of which 
the age .might be easily determined by M r. Fairholt, consist- 
ing as it does of a close under-cap, or caul, and huge pinners 
projected backwards horizontally from the crown ; a flowing 



SOS BAMBLVS BOUNB NOTTINOHAM. 

mantle, loose Tetturowith cinetare at the waisti and robe 
with wide voluminous sleeves. John Strellej, the occupant 
of the other tomb, whose name, we may remark, seems to 
have been spelled Stirley, may also be noticed. He was the 
last strictly lineal inheritor of the wide domains of this great 
family. His father, the second Sir Robert, who bad pre- 
ceded him in immediate order, died 12th March, 14^8, 
(3 Henry VII.) leaving him heir at the age of 40, or at least 
he was at that age when the inquisition was taken, 4 Henry 
VII., (1489.) Henry married Saunchia, daughter of Robert 
Willoughby, Esq., by whom he had one son, who died with- 
out issue, and four daughters ; the lands descended to the 
latter. And by an instrument of division amongst the 
daughters, 10th October, 1586, (27 Heniy VIII.) the vast 
extent of the family property is manifested; for the first 
chose all the lands in Wheteley, Saundeby, Northleuerton, 
Southleuerton, Sturton, Litilbuigh, Burton, Radclifife, Cot* 
grave, Shipley, Godding, Langley,.Stapilforth, Cordingstock, 
Nottingham, and Harby. The second, all in Ghillewell, 
Troweli, Adinbrugh, Bramcote, Qalverton, Eastwood ; bouses 
in Troweli, Cossal Marsh, and Colston Basset. The third, 
all in Bilburgh, Hemsell, Cossall, Kymberley, Tomlynholme, 
Carlton, and Marshall Hall. And the fourth, all in Oxton 
and Piungar, reminding one of the enumeration of the 
baronial possessions of Lord Marmion^ by the herald : — 

" They hailed him lord of Fontenaye, 
Of Lutterward .and Scmelbaye, 
Of Tamworth tower and town," &c. 

The large monument to the memory of Balph Edge, Esq.« 
born 1689, died 1786, and erected more recently by his 
grandson, the late Thomas Webb Edge, Esq., while in the 
enjoyment of the estates, is, of course, of comparatively 
modlem origin. 

Quit^ng Strelley, not much remains to be said regaxding 
Bilborough-— its church and rectory — the latter already ad- 
verted to, erected at a cost of £4,000, and sweetly situated 
slightly to the west of the village, being now in the occupa- 
tion of the Rev. John Hurt, a gentleman who has already 
been repeatedly named. It is about halfarmik from Strel- 
ley, on the way towards Nottingham, being, oonsequei^tly., 



BILBOROUGH. S6d 

three tfnd-arlialf miles from the latter place, Whilst Strelley 
is four. The act for the construction of the road to Alfreton, 
along with other turnpikes to Grantham, Derby, &c., from 
Nottingham, was obtained in 1758, nearly 100 years ago; 
and, really, the flagged foot-paths near Bilborough, upon 
which police inscriptions rigidly forbid the mounted passen- 
ger to encroach, seem as if they had never since been 
repaired. A precipitous worn way, with side paths of this 
nature, descends opposite the handsome cottage omee in the 
occupation of Mr. Billyeald, lace manufacturer, of Notting- 
ham, past Mr. Towle*s formidable farm-steading, topped by 
its quaint antique pigeon-house ; and then the village, lying 
well together, and containing some new, and many pretty 
houses, extending along a little opposing elevation, termi- 
nates in the green and aged fabric of the church, a small 
edifice consisting of a single aisle, and tower with one bell. 
The chancel possesses two old floor-stones, simply inscribed 
with crosses, much defaced. The church is dedicated to St. 
Martin, a saint famous in the hagiography for giving half 
bis cloak to a beggar. Of the date of this structure we have 
no remaining traces. But the landed history of Bilborough 
is rather interesting. Before the Conquest, its Saxon owners 
were Ulsi Swen, (thus distinguished probably from him of 
Ulsi-ton — WoUaton) and Aylric. They, however, gave way 
before the ail-absorbing pretensions of Peveril and his men ; 
for Ambrose, the man or tenant of William Peveril, as whose 
fee it was entered in Doomsddy Book, had caracutes, socs, 
villains, servants, plows and all. Out of these possessions, 
Herbert de Bilbure, (Bilborough) was enabled to endow the 
priory of Lenton with one mark yearly out of a mill situated 
between Blac-cli£P and Radford — could it have been Bobber's 
Mill ? At all events, one Simon, the son of Simon the son 
of William, afterwards gave a silver mark out of his mill in 
Bilboro, (parish) called Bobnrsmilne, to the priory of Lenton, 
for the soul of Walter de Kyme, his brother. Then we have, 
in the third and fourth years of the reign of King John, 
(IdOd) evidences of the accession of a possessor bearing the 
brutal Norman appellation of Walter de Ry-boeif, (how like 
the Front de Boef of Sir Walter Scott !) and Isabella bis wife. 



370 RAMBLES ROUNX^ NOITINGIUll. 

Ry-Boefs title was, however, put in dispute by one of Joho*8 
barons, Robert Fitz-Aman, who challenged the right of 
Simon de Kyme, which right, of course, de Ry-Boef and his 
wife required de Kyme to warrant. A very curious ancient 
lawsuit was the consequence. Robert Fitz Aman said that 
his grandmother, Ivicia, was invested in the time of Henry I. 
in this property, which, consequently, descended to her son 
Robert, and from him to Ralph, his brother, who wds the 
father of Robert Fitz Aman. But Simon de Kyme, who 
produced Henry the Second's charter of confirmation to 
Simon, son of William son of €im6n his grandfather, pleaded 
that this Ivicia had an elder sister, Emme, who had a cer- 
tain son called Robert ; and that Robert had a son then alive 
called Ivo de Heriz, who had as good a right as Robert Fitz 
Aman, King John, or his judges, gave the decision, how- 
ever, at that time, in favour of Robert. Yet» in 11 Edward I. 
(1283) Philip de Kyme was found to have a knight's fee in 
Bilborough. And thus it was that de Ry-Boefs title appears 
to have been made good — for it was half a knight's fee in 
Bilborough of the escheat of Peveril, which Robert de Strelley 
held in right of his wife, Elizabeth, through whom the Bil- 
borough property came to StreDey. Richard de Ry-Boef is 
also mentioned as owning half a knight's fee; but in the 
reign of Henry III., the celebrated Robert de Vavasour, who 
was for so many years high-sheriff of the counties of Notting- 
ham and Derby, 20 to 39 (1230-1270) was the constant 
owner. In later times, two of the inhabitants of Bilborough 
have been somewhat distinguished. The first was Dr. Robert 
Grey, physician, of Nottingham. He died at Bilborough, 
aged 89, and was interred there 5th of December, (1708) 
leaving £20 to the poor of St Nicholas's parish of Nottingham, 
(Bilborough school, by the way, taught by Mr. Briggs, was, in 
1744, endowed by Richard Smedley wiUi £6 per annum for 
the education of four children of Bilborough and four of 
Strelley.) The other person alluded to was, however, John 
Barber, Esq., of Bilborough, a gentleman who, having spent 
Jg5,000 on mechanical patents for making " double-lay stocking 
stitch-work" upon the warp frame, the article produced 
whereby was as stout as a blanket, without being so liable to 



BILBOBOUOH CLOTHES, TRAFALGAR. 271 

eontraction when wet, conceiyed the idea of employing it for 
sailors* jackets ; and, in consequence of the Lords of the 
Admiraity having adopted it to form clothing for the navy, 
the sailors who fought at Trafalgar were clothed with the 
manufactures of Nottingham. 



Man ! if thou see'st in this thy waking dream 

Some landscape in the loveliness of peace, 
Where lovers, sheltered from the laughing heam 

Woo, in the halmy shades soft love's increase : 
If e'er hefore thee rise domestic life. 

That picture of a holy, happy scene. 
The beauteous children, and the duteous wife, 

And he, the sire, so stately and serene. 

Or if with nobler still, and wider range. 

Thy soul this world's vast mass of beings scan, 
Seeking with universal love to change 

The coldness of vain woman and proud man. 
Open and read ! thou hast a text- book here. 

Where thou may'st ponder thoughts akin to thine, 
When linked together, trust and hope appear. 

Passions grow pure, and feeling soars divine. 



CHAPTER IX. 

BROXTOWE AND BASFORD. 



HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE CHIEF LAMDOWKEB 
AND LORD OF THE MANOR. 



THl lOX COVERT KOAD — BEOXTOWE HALL— THE WEAPONTAKE — ^THE HUN- 
DRED— MR. BAILEY'S FAMOUS TRADITION — MB. 8. PARROTT'S PICTURE 
OJT THE OLD hat.t. AND THE NEW — OLD BASFORD — THE LEBN VALLEY 
— ANCIENT MANORS— BAGTHORPE, OR AXGARTHORPE HALL, AND THE 
ELANDS — THE HONOR COURT — CHURCH OF ST. LEDGER — ^BIRTHPLACE 
OF THE AUTHOR OF "FESTUS" — NEW BURIAL GROUND — GARDENS — 
BASFORD UNION — HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AND OCCURRENCES — NEW 
BASFORD — PRIMITIVE CHURCH — LACE AND HOSIERY MANUFACTURES 
— BLEACHING AND CHEMICAL WORKS — OLD WATERWORKS — GAS WORKS 

BASKET WORKS-COAL WORKS--T. NORTH, ESQ.>.-MR. WOODBOUSE, C.E. 

CINDER HILL AND BABBINOTON — ^DESCENT OF THE PITS — NEW 

CHURCH OF CINDER HILL. 



" For justice fhey bad a bench under a tree, where Ket sat, and with bim f 
•f eyery hundred whence their companies had been raised : here complaints w 
•xbibited.— iJayiTtfrd. 



" Blest Bobber's MiU, how gratefbl didst thon stand 
Ere thy fcur landscape knew the spoiler's hand : 
Ere Nutthall, with its gracefal hazels crowned, 
Heard the first swarthy collier's pick resound : 
When Broxtowe coyly fled the am'rous breeze. 
And hid herself in her ancestral trees. 
BlesI Tsle, ere manufacture's cruel power. 
By greed impell'd, first sought thy peacefal bower : 
Ere Railways like the fell sirocco, dread, 
Swept through the land and half its beauty fled ! 
But oh, what mortal tears, poor injured Leen, 
Can e'OT aktae for all the wrongs obseene 



THE HUMDBED OF BBOXTOWE. 

^PVhieli last of wealth in modern days has hronght 
Oil thy fair lymph, and such wide changes wronght: 
IJot then, as now, did bleach-works side by side 
With factories stMid, and pour their filthy tide, 
That mingling with tliee in one etream impure. 
Makes thee for half thy course a common sewer! 
If ot so of old ; from Newstead's cloistered shade. 
By Linby's holy crosses twain it stray'd ; 
Famed Radford's " Folly" left with pious haste, 
And stately Lenton's gorgeous fime it passed; 
And thence by Peveiil's castled pride it 8wept> 
And o'er the flowery mead it lingering crept : 
Until at last with sportive dalliance spent, 
It hid itself in wlUowed Father Trent" 

Alfred R. Cooke, 



273 



Opposite the old Bilborough Engine, the Fox Covert Road 
diverges from the Alfreton Turnpike to Broxtowe Hall, still 
a fine old place, although degenerated into the residence of a 
farmer and maltster, and occupying a retired yet elevated 
position, equally overlooking its own woodland dale, and the 
more distant flats and valleys of the Leen near Basford. In the 
words of Mark Akenside : — 

" Thon who the verdant plain dost traverse here 
While Leen among her willows from thy view 
Retires, O stranger stay thee and the scene 
Around contemplate well. This is the place 
Where England's ancient harons, clad in arms. 
And stem with conquest, from their tyrant king 
(Then rendered tame) did challenge and secure 
The charter of thy freedom. Pass not on 
TUl thou hast blest their memory, and paid 
Those thanks which God appointed the reward 
Of public virtue." 

Akenside is speaking here of Runnymede, and we of Brox- 
towe — Broculstowe in the ancient muniments. The difference 
is that Broxtowe is one, and only one, of the historic sites of 
ancient sway in England — which after all yestiges of their 
greatness have passed away, retain, as by a spell, their local 
influence on our social polity ; for Broxtowe to this day gives 
its name to that Hundred or Canton, or to be more Saxon 
in our choice of language, Weapontake of the county in which 
the town of Nottingham is itself included ; and, therefore, is 
second to none in ancient pre-eminence. Properly speaking, 

T 



974 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINOHAM, 

the county of Nottingham, as now politically divi^d, comprises 
two grand divisions ; but, as respects hundreds, it possesses 
six, viz., Bingham, Broxtowe, Newark, Rushcliffe, Bassetlaw, 
and Thurgarton ; Basset! aw and Broxtowe forming the north- 
em division of the county under the boundary act ; and the 
remaining hundreds the southern. In Speede's remarkably 
scarce and curious map of part of the county of Nottingham,* 
being a portion of his celebrated ** Survey," (Book 1, chap, 
xxxiv., fol. 66.) Eight wapentakes are in reality enumerated 
— the first being Bassetlaw, the second and third the north- 
clay and South-clay divisions respectively, and the rest as 
above set forth. These are clearly defined in this map by 
dotted boundary lines ; that of Broxtowe being probably the 
largest — ^its north boundary extending from the river Maun, 
above Pleasley, on liie north-west, northwards of Mansfield 
Woodhouse and Lyndhurst Wood to Bilsthoipe ; thence 
southwards by Hexgrave Park, by Beskwood Park and Ar- 
nold, (which the boundary deviates so as to comprehend) to the 
Trent at Wilford, including, of course, Radford mid Notting- 
ham, but neither Sneinton nor Colwick. The southern 
boundary of this great hundred is the Trent as far as Barton ; 
and the western, the Erewash, &c. Averaging seventeen miles 
in length, from north to south, and seven miles in breadth 
from east to west, this weapontake therefore includes the large 
tovms of Nottingham and Mansfield, and many populous 
villages, daily increasing and expanding, whilst old Broxtowe 
remains as it always was, the remote, secluded centre of all 
this busy life and population. Sir Richard Palgrave has, by 
his researches, conclusively shown that our ancient shires 
were territorial divisions, corresponding to the sovereignties 
of the heptarchy and other principalities into which England 
had one time or another been subdivided. But what were 
our weapontakes*? One old author (Cowel) says " wapentake 
is all one with what we call a hundred ; as, upon a meeting 
for that purpose, they touched each other's weapons in token 

♦ " Part of the county of Nottingham described ; the shire-townes si- 
tuation, and the earles thereof observed: performed by John Speede, 
and are to be sold in Pope's Head Alley, by John Sudbury and George 
Humble. Cum privilegio, 1610" — for which we axe indebted to Mr. 
£. O. Pickering, Long Row, Nottingham, to whom it belongs. 



THE ANCIENT WBAPONTAKE. 276 

i»f their fidelity aad aJlegiance^" And Spenser, who has also 
given some account of the matter, states, that '' hundred sig- 
jaifieth a hundred pledges, which were under t\ie command 
and assurance of their alderman ; which, as I suppose, was 
also called a wapentake ; so named of touching the weapon 
or spear of their alderman, and swearing to follow him faith- 
fully, and serving their prince truly. But odiers think that 
a wapentake was ten hundreds or boroughs." We should be 
•very apt indeed to think so now — looking on old Broxtowe as 
the centre of an influence so vast as the hundred has since 
•become ; and in the remotest times it would be di&cult to 
conceive it only to have comprehended one hundred votes of 
frankpledge under a single alderman. Whilst, therefore, we 
-cannot concur in Mr. Baileys supposition that it had anything 
Ito do with the Witenagemot, or great EngUsh council of 
Wise Men {which, we apprehend, is very wide of the mark)— 
undoubtedly its position, and even its retii^ement, indicate 
the convenience of the spot for those ancient gatherings of 
all fit to bear arms, for rendezvous or for exercise, which we 
know to have constituted the ** Wapenschaw," or display of 
^rms, and to have extended its influence over a given terri- 
tory, called the '^wapentake," or, probably, several wapentakes. 
Shmron Turner's history of the Anglo Saxons, or, better 
atill, the more recent and not less fanciful researches of M. 
Thierry, will supply to those who shun the dry and docu- 
mentary pages of Palgrave, some glimpses of the state of 
things under which our old territorial division into hundreds 
existed, Suffix^e it, that the existence of Broxtowe, as th^ 
^pot which gives name to the hundred, carries us back at 
once to Saxon times. As for the name itself — ^it is simply 
derived from Brocul, (its ancient possessor) andstowe, or 8toe» 
.in Saxon, ** a place."' To the glory of Nottinghamshire be it 
stated, or rather repeated after Thoroton, that *' for our county 
there remains not in it the name of any field, hamlet, village, 
town, or place that I could note, which is not origini^y 
fSoron, (or, perhaps of the Danes^ not so very much differing) 
except the rivers, which still seem to retain the BHtisk ap- 
pellations," Brocul was undoubtedly the owner of the manor 
.m the days of Alfred the Great — ^for then, it is said, was th^ 
£rat perfect division of England into shires or counties effected. 



276 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTIKOHAM. 

two centnries indeed, before the appearance of that mo«t 
valuable of our old authentic records, Doomsday Book, still 
preserved in the Exchequer, and which relates to the state of 
possession at the period of the Conquest, or rather in the 
time of the Confessor, immediately preceding it, (1027-1066) 
The possessor of Broxtowe, at the period of this survey, was 
Godric. The shires, or shares into which the country was di- 
vided by our Saxon kings, was each appointed to the government 
of aneolderman, corrupted or converted to earl, by the Danes; 
and then by the governing line under the Norman Conquest, 
deputed to a shire-reeve, or sheriff— the appointment of whom 
became annual from and after the reign of Edward III. (1377.) 
The shires were composed of hundreds or weapontakes, made 
up of tythings, towns, or villages. Thoroton believed our 
hundreds to consist, not of a hundred towns, but more likely 
of that number of free sureties, or frankpledges for the peace, 
or of soldiers for the war ; from amongst which good men and 
true, two were appointed under the statute of Winchester, 
13 Edward III., (1340) just like Dogberry and Verges, to be 
constables " for the conservation of the peace, and view of 
armour," and this last was the " wapentake." We have men- 
tioned that the six hundreds of Nottinghamshire once made 
eight— but we really have traces of even more hundreds than 
these, now obsolete, or absorbed in others, though Broxtowe re- 
mains as it was. Thus Oswardebeck wapentake is now included 
in the North Clay division of Bassetlaw hundred ; which last 
comprehends, moreover, the South Clay and Hatfield wapen- 
takes; and, united to Thurgarton, there is another old 
hundred called Lyda wapentake, hence Thurgarton-a-leo, or 
rather, Thurgarton-and-Lythe. Rushcliffe hundred, too, 
contains another called Plumptre hundred ; but whether this 
was a whole, or only a half wapentake, remains uncertain, 
because Rushcliffe is in the nomina vUlarum, 9 Edward II., 
(1316) returned as but half a wapentake. Some idea of the 
fact, that, the old sites of hundreds or wapentakes, such^ as 
Broxtowe, were literally the scenes of public assemblages, and 
even the sittings of courts, may be gleaned, perhaps, from 
the fact that, in Bingham hundred, or as it was anciently 
denominated, ** Binghamshire Wapentake" — the peculiar 
place of meeting <' a certain pit on the top of a hill," situ- 



ANCIENT FAMILIES OF BROXTOWE. 277 

ated beyond the Fosse-way, near the western angle of Bingham 
lordship, and still called the " Moot House Pit" — ogives name 
to the hundred; and there the hundred court still is, or 
ought to be kept, though usually adjourned to Cropwell Butler, 
as the nearest town. 

Broxtowe, although the political centre of its district, never 
appears to have been a place of great individual consideration 
or importance. We trace it immediately after the Conquest to 
the hands of a family who took from it, rather than gave it 
that name which it possessed long ere a Norman footstep had 
been planted on our soil — the family of de Broculstowe — of 
whom Gilbert, the son of Eustachius de Broculstowe, was a 
donor to the. Holy Trinityof Lenton, more by token that it was a 
toft '* on the east part of the church," (proving that there wa^ 
at all events once a church at Broxtowe) which he gave to the 
monks. After him, we come upon the name of Gulfr. de 
Broculstowe — but part of his possessions here he held under 
the house of Nevill. Nearly the last we hear of the family 
is, John de Broxtowe, who, in the 9th Edward II., (1316) 
a pretty long way back, was lord of Broxtowe, when it answered 
but for half a villa. Indeed, in the inquisition taken at Not- 
tingham, the Saturday after the feast of St. Michael, 7th 
Henry VI., (1429) before Thomas de Mapurley and his fellow 
eommissioners, the jury, whereof another John de Broxstowe 
was one, found that in the parish of Broxstowe there were 
not at that time ten inhabitants who were householders ! 
About 20 Henry VL, (1444) whoever might have been the 
occupier, Henry Lord Grey, of Codnor, was lord of the manor. 
The manor, in the 1 4th Edward IV., (1475) was, however, 
the property of a family named Parker ; and, in 7 Henry VIII., 
became the subject of a dispute at law — Henry Willoughby, 
Knight ; John Markham, Knight ; Richard Egerton, Clerk, 
and Thomas Thurland, Esq., having claimed it against An- 
thony Fitzherbert, Sergeant-at-law, and William Whithalgh, 
who relied on the warrantry of George barker, Gentleman. 
In the 7th Edward VI., (1553) recovery was obtained by 
Walter WhaUey, Esq., against Hugh Willoughby, Knight, 
and Joan* his vsrife. But the Whalleys only held it till the 
time of James I., in the twelfth year (1614) of whose reign 
Broxtowe was granted by the king to Sir Philip Stanhope. 



278 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTlNGHAir. 

In its decadence of population, the parish merged in that of 
Bilborough, to whose church, its place of worship now des- 
troyed, became a chapel. 

A picture of the old hall of Broxtowe has been preserved 
by Mr. Samuel Parrott, and is now in the possession of Mr. 
E. G. Pickering, of Nottingham. With regard to the origin 
of the old hall, given in its unaltered state, we must first, 
however, apprise our readers that, though quaint and pictur- 
esque enough, it is by no means very ancient. It has been 
ascertained that the manor, along with that of Mapurley, 
Derbyshire, having passed through the Byron, Stanhope, and 
Parkyns families successively, after leaving that of the Whal- 
leys — Isham Parkyns, Esq., sold it to Thomas Smith, 
younger son of Sir Francis Smith, of Ashby Folleville, Leices- 
Shire, who having been knighted in the wars, built and 
adorned the hall of which the present house is but a remnant. 
Dr. Throsby, who was not guided by much archeeological 
knowledge, certainly suspected it in some parts of being 
ancient, but patched with some ordinary and modem build- 
ings, though prettily embowered in trees ; a description of 
which the latter part would still apply. The semblance of 
antiquity may, in some degree, be derived from the obvious 
imitation, on a minor scale, of the delightful manorial archi- 
tectural details of Haddon Hall, or at least of its style of 
ornament, which Mr. Parrot t's picture proves to have been 
characteristic of Broxtowe Hall before it was patched up and 
modernized. However small the place, it was most unique 
in its aspect, with abundance of Elizabethan gables, bold 
balustrades, lean-to chimnies clustered at the top, oriels, 
porches, and huge stone knobs — all well-known features of 
Haddon Hall — though certainly anything but "half hall, 
half fortress,'* as Haddon has been described. Broxtowe, in 
the time of the Civil Wars of Charles I., was unquestionably 
occupied by a small garrison, and at that time sustained 
considerable damage. It seems to have been sold in the 
time of Thoroton, or not long previously, " to Sir Francis 
Topp, then servant to his grace the Duke of Newcastle : 
his lady, Elizabeth Chaplain, who had been servant to the 
duchess since her childhood" — that is to say, it was sold to 
the lady, not to the knightly servitor, as Mr. Bailey renders 



THE BAILIFFS OF BBOXTOWE. 279 

the meaning ; for, adds the original authoritj, '' it remains 
Sir John Topp 's, Baronet, her son's." Lord Middleton is 
BOW, however, the owner. 

To Thoroton we are indebted for a very curious notice 
respecting the hundred of Broxtowe, which appears to have 
been written in Doomsday Book " Broculstou Wapentac." [Our 
readers will be prepared for many extraordinary variations in 
the spelling of the proper names, as taken from the records 
of the time, ex. gr- Streliey spelled titirchely: — 

'* There was, in the time of King Edward L, great com- 
plaining concerning the farms of hundreds, so riiat juries 
returned their verdicts which were of ancient farm, and which 
not, and how much every farmer gave for his bayliwicke : at 
which time the jury found and said that, in the time of Philip 
Hunk and Eustace de Loudham, sheriff of Nott, and other 
sheriffs in ancient time, (viz.. King John) the bayliffs of 
Brokektowe gave for having the bayliwicke, half a mark, viz , 
Morris de Notehall and other bayliifs of that time ; and in 
the time of Sir Robert le Vavasour, (which was 90 or 30 
Henry III.,(1236-46) the bayliffs, viz., John Warlett and other 
bayliffs of that time, gave 20s. And afterwards, in the time 
4>{ Sir Simon de Hedon, sheriff, the bayliff gave, for having 
the bayliwicke, four marks, (viz., 43 Henry III., 1259) and 
in the time of Hugh Babyngton and Walter de Stirchely, viz., 
4 vel 5 Edward I., (1277) being sheriffs— the bayliffs, viz., 
Stephen de Darleton, and Tho. de Lee, and Galfr. de 
Herdeley, for having their bayliwiekft, gave six marks to the 
great damage of the county, and yet lost much. And in the 
time of Qervas de Clifton, then the sheriff, viz., between 7 
*ndl8EdwardL,(1379-90)AunselldeGamelston and William 
de Tytheby gave, for* having the said bayliwicke, nine marks, 
vrith courtesies, to the great damage of the county : and this 
they did to get a living, and onlay to make the bargain sold 
their lands. The jury likewise said that Brocklestowe was 
jm entire wapentac. Yet the greatest part was of the Honor 
of Peveril, and Hugh de Stapleford held that honor of Peveril 
hj the charter of King Henry, son of King John, for the term 
of his life, and the farm of the Honour of Peveril was raised 
in the same manner as the farm of the wapentac, to the great 
damage of the county.** 



$^80 RAMBLES BOUND KOTTINORUI. 

We must close our account of Broxtowe by giving^ for the 
entertainment of the reader, a famous local tradition which 
has been preserved by Mr. Thomas Bailey, in his Hand Book 
to Newitead Abbey ; — 

" Tradition tells a beautiful love-story, arising out (^ the 
occupation of Broxtowe by the Republican forces. The 
lover who was likewise the commander of the fort, was a 
. gallant and handsome young man, of gentle birth, though 
an uncompromising republican in politics, and a puritan in 
religious principle. The object of his affection was Agnes 
Willoughby, only daughter of the then recent oceupier oi 
Adpley Wood Hall, a Boyahst and a Papist. Gap- 
tain Thomhagh, son of the brave and virtuous officer, 
who acted so distinguished a part in many a Uoody 
fray at that period, (and at lei^h perished in battle with 
the Scots at Preston Pans,) had rescued the beautiful 
maiden from the rude hands of a party of wandering vaga- 
bonds — half soldiers and half robbers, who infested aU parts 
of the country, during the time of the civil eommotions — as 
she was returning to her home, after a visit of mercy, to the 
house of a poor sick man, at the adjacent village of Bil- 
borough. Aroused by a cry of female distress, as he was 
walking, with his bible in his hand, at a short distance firoa 
the fort, in the cool of the evening, the gallant officer rushed 
forward towards the spot from whence the sounds proceeded^ 
when he discovered a young female engaged in a struggle lor 
her honour, if not for life, with two or three wretches, who had 
already hurled her to the ground. Drawing a pistol from 
his belt, he fired, and shot one of the ruffians, the other two 
making their escs^ over the fields, when the young officer, 
unwilling to leave his act of heroism and gallantry incoia- 
plete, undertook, on being informed of her name and 
parentage, to escort the terrified damsel to her father's houses 
Struck with her beauty, and impressed with the religious 
feeling that it was by an act of special overruling Providence 
that he was sent to her rescue. Captain ThomhaJgh, in spite 
of the difference of religious creed and political sentiment, 
which he was aware existed between himself and the 
inmates of Aspley Hall, could not dispossess his mind of 
the influence which the spell of her charms, and the extraor- 



MB. BAILBY's TBADITIOK OF BBOXTOWE. 981 

dinary incidents whicli bad thus brought them together, cast 
over it. Nor, had he alone felt the influence of that strange 
event which had thus exposed two youthful hearts to the thrill 
of emotions they had neither of them, at least in an equal 
degree, before experienced. The young Roundhead officer, 
in spite of his puritanical formality of dress, and, in some 
respects, of language and manners, was still handsome and 
AccompHshed : that he was brave and generous, too, he had 
given Agnes Willoughby sufficient proof, in that, without 
stopping to calculate personal risks, he had hazarded his own 
life, in order to save her from injury, if not from disgrace 
and death. Under such circumstances, could a woman's 
heart, at the impulse of the moment, do other than yield 
itself up to the tenderest of emotions ? A call, by Captain 
Thomhalgh, on a subsequent day, at Aspley, to inquire after 
the health of the rescued damsel, developed to him charms in 
her mind equal to those which were displayed in her person. 
Agnes saw, too, in her deliverer, even more of beauty and 
excellence of character, than she had before discovered. She 
could not but look upon him with more than admiration — 
with affection: yet the obtruding thought that he was a 
i^bel and a heretic, compelled her painfully to check the 
rising passion within her heart. Behgion in those days was 
an earnest thing ; something that was believed, as well as 
professed — ^that was felt in tiie heart, as well as uttered by 
the lips: a thing for which men, aye, and tender women 
too, were content to suffer, and even to die. Nor was this 
profound feeling, this stem maintenance of a faith, believed 
by either party, though in direct opposition to each other, to 
be * that once delivered to the saints,' less deeply seated in 
the heart of the Puritan, than in that of the Papist. It cannot 
therefore but be expected that the gallant Thomhalgh, in 
his calmer moments, felt the same checks to the indulgence 
of the tender passion in favour of Agnes Willoughby, as the 
maiden experienced in reference to himself. St3l they loved 
each other. Nor did the character of the young soldier, 
though viewed as a heretic, and the supporter of the usurpa- 
tion, produce anything like so unfavourable an impression upon 
the minds of the parents of the damsel as might, previously, 
have been expected. It is tme, that though they honoured 



382 RAMBX.EB BOUND H0TTIN6HAM. 

and respected him as the deliverer of their beloved chfld from 
the hands of lawless ruffians, and had never, seriously, even 
warned her against the impropriety of allowii^ the tender 
intimacy, which they could not but see was growii^ up be- 
tween the young couple, from ripening into ardent idOfection ; 
yet, in their solemn and solitary musings on the events pass- 
ing before them, they never could bring their minds, at all, 
to tolerate the idea of a ' Roundhead' and a Puritan, a rebel, 
and a contemner of the venerable and holy faith themselves 
professed, and in which their daughter had been carefoUy 
educated^ becoming that daughter's husband, and their 
son-in-law. Several stolen interviews between the lovers 
served but the more to influence the ardour of their passion 
for each other ; and at the same time, as the period for deci- 
sion drew nearer, to increase their embarrassment, by reveal- 
ing to them the dangers and difficulties, in which their union 
would inv< Ive them. They saw in each other all those natu- 
ral and acquired excellencies of character, that 

* Fair high fancy forms, or lavish hearts can wish. 
Or looked they on the mind, or mind illumined face.' 

They, indeed, seemed made to love, and to be loved by eaeh 
other ; but love, the ordinary master passion of our nature, 
more especially in the heart of woman, was, in the solemn 
moments of deep reflection, met in each of their bosoms by 
a feeling stronger — when conscientiously cherished — than 
love itself, the deep sense of relufioua duty ; the c^nsidemtion 
of what was really owing to their faith, their profession, their 
God. Could Agnes Willoughby think of becoming a hereti- 
cal Protestant— of abandoning the creed of her fathers, and 
her own deeply cherished faith ; could she think of bringing 
up her children in ways which she now b^ieved would lead 
tliem to eternal perdition ; could she sacrifice all peace of 
mind on those important subjects — all religious consolation 
on earth, all hope of heaven in future, for a lover and hus- 
band ; however much she admired, and loved, and honoured 
himlas a man, a friend, and an earthly deliverer? She 
coul(i not! The sacrifice might break her heart, but the 
cost might save her soul. Nor was the young officer, who 
had a great reputation among the troops, as a man, mighty 



MR. BAIOnr's TRADITION OF BROXTOWE. 283 

in word and doctrine, and who regularly led his regiment in 
prayer, as well as in battle, a whit less stitdtened in mind 
than was the damsel. He sought the Lord often, with teare 
and deep anguish of spirit, for assistance and direction, in 
this, the most trying and critical in his whole lifers aifairs ; 
but, as jet, he could find no comfort, nor direct answer to 
his prayers. He could not tear the image of the beautiftil 
and accomphshed maiden of Aspley Hall from his heart; 
and yet, he saw that his union with her was all but an impossi- 
bility. It was on a morning, early in November, in the year 
1645, that, after he had been seeking the Lord on his knees, 
for a considerable time, for direction on this important sub- 
ject, he received an order from Colonel Hutchinson, the 
governor of Nottingham Castle, to join him with all possible 
speed, along with whatever number of men which could be 
spared from the fort of Broxtowe, preparatory to the attack on 
the fortresses of Shelford and Wiverton, on their way to the 
siege of Newark, then held in considerable force for the king. 
Captain Thomhalgh had only just time, through the agency 
of the trusty person employed by him on all former occasions^ 
in his communication with Agnes Willoughby, to inform the 
angel of his heart of this new call of duty ; to commend his 
love to her, and ask her prayers for his preservation ; ere he 
was on his way to Nottingham Castle. Agnes received the 
message with a heavy heart. A deep foreboding of evil 
seemed to seize upon the maiden's spirit as she contemplated 
this dangetous enterprize. She retired to her chamber, and 
before the images of her patron saint, and that of the blessed 
virgin mother, she poured out the deep anguish of her over- 
laden heart; mingled with fervent suppUcations for the 
preservation of her lover. The day following, the troops left 
Nottingham, en route for Newark ; and, on the morning after, 
commenced making preparations for the assault on Shelford 
Manor-house, which had been converted into a fort, and, 
from its situation, was a place of considerable strength. In 
the storming of one of the half-moon batteries, erected by 
the besieged within the fort, and whilst performing prodigies 
of valour, at the head of his detachment, Captain Thomhalgh 
received a musket ball in his breast, and, without uttering a 
word, fell never to rise again. The intelligence of the fsdl of 



d84 RAMBLES BOUKD NOTTIKOHAM. 

the late oommander of Broxtowe was not long in reaching 
that place ; from whence the dismal tidings were speedily 
conveyed to Aspley HaU. Poor Agnes Wilioughby received 
the information with a thrill of emotion which shook, to its 
very centre, her inmost soul ; but her grief, outwardly, was 
expressed only by a flood of tears. But the man she loved 
and honoured — almost revered — had died by a sudden stroke, 
in battle, without time for repentance — a heretic ; had died 
in open rebellion against his sovereign and his God ! These 
were the solemn considerations which now sunk deep into 
her heart, and made her, at once, resolve to live a life of holy 
virginhood for his sake ; and devote all her remaining days, 
to whatever length her life might be prolonged, to prayer, 
and fasting, cmd almsgiving : if so be, that by the suppli- 
cations of the saints in heaven, joined with her prayers, the 
mercy of God might rescue his precious soul from that utter 
perdition to which, she else feared, it would be inevitably 
doomed : and faithfully she kept her word. The maiden 
immediately flung aside all her dainty attire — clothed herself 
in sable habiliments of the lowliest possible construction, 
consistent with her station in life, abandoned all the vain 
and idle amusements of the world, and lived, for sixty 
years afterwards, in the performance of all good works : a 
perfect pattern in manners, temper, and disposition, of 
every Christian grace which could adorn the female character. 
And, at length, in a ripe old age, amidst the tears and regrets 
of all who knew her, sank into the grave with a quiet spirit, 
in the cheering hope of yet meeting, in heaven, him she had 
so long and faithfully loved on earth." 

The beautiful valley of the Leen— dare we write "beautiful" 
where it embosoms Old Basford ? Yes, the soft and exquisite 
natural beauty of the Leen valley will never be eflFaced. Dr. 
Syntax in search of the picturesque, would hardly, it is true, 
wend his footsteps hither. Yet Dr. Syntax might do worse, 
and prove far more mistaken than in his admiration of the 
clifife of Bobber's Mill, the grassy margined yet sluggish stream 
that bubbles by, the snug and sheltered nooks of cabbage 
garden, fringed, perhaps, with willows that shelter in its 
windings — and the great banks of garden grounds that rise 
superior to the low and soft woolly mists of the busy town 



BA8F0RD i.8 A ROMAK STATION. 285 

and valley ; for all compose a green, leafy setting to a picture of 
general industry ; and nature here becomes social and human 
by the contact of man and his inventions, rather than that 
sweet, coy, solitary thing which poets have syllabled her. Our 
rubric, it is true, is ominous — manufactures, chimnies, smoke, 
the long ranges of the factory windows mentioned in our 
prospectus, lace, hosiery, bobbin-nets, and round frames, 
bleaching, chemistry, waterworks, gas, basket-making, and 
above (we should perhaps say under) all, coal, that great pro- 
pulsive element of all, so that out of this Leen valley paradise 
the reader must expect to emerge perfectly begrimed with the 
dust and dirt of modem enterprise and ingenuity. We begin, 
however, with the past, and must not recall the wandering 
imagination of the reader — but rather set it roving over the 
free and fertile vale of the Leen, when time was ere its 
pollutions sung by the local poet we have quoted at the head 
of this chapter first began. In a former part of these Ramhles, 
it was intimated that the great highway of communication 
betwixt the north and south of England was at this part of 
the country, from Gotham and Wilford, on the south of the 
Trent, to Lenton, and thence along the western margin of 
the Leen, forming the outer boundary of the Royal Forest of 
Sherwood. Considering the indications of Roman remains 
that have been discovered at the extreme points in the neigh- 
bourhood of this line of march — namely, at Barton and at 
Mansfield, we can now have little doubt of this having been 
part of a Roman way. Such a mode of access to parts of the 
country otherwise impenetrable, was not likely to have been 
omitted by the Romans in pushing forward their conquests 
upon York. And, besides, Basford expressly enjoys the repu- 
tation of having been a Roman position, or station. The 
name Basford implies simply *' the lower ford," or ** low ford" 
of the river ; which, if the Romans used it, we may rely that, 
according to their system of tactics, they would inevitably 
establish a station to protect it. It must not, however, be 
concealed, that the exploratory Roman camps in Sherwood 
Forest are not to be found in many of the itineraries of that 
people, although their remains are undoubted. Nottingham, 
the Causennae of the Romans, being the only position which 



USQ BAMBTiES BJOVSB NOTTINGHAM. 

they daim; although we now know that they must have 
struggled hard, and, we are proud to think, in vain, to gain a 
footing in our unconquered forest. That they had, fbr in- 
stance, a station at Mansfield, is admitted, although no 
mention even of that important camp appears in our Itinera- 
ries. From the coins found on the spot, however, the 
operations of the Roman Conquest appear to have been car- 
ried on in the district in the reigns of the emperors Vespasian, 
Constantinus, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. Several 
little exploratory camps also exhibit their remains in the 
vicinity; as, on the rising gronnd on the little eminence 
called "Whinny Hill," at the end of Mansfield Woodhouse. 
Though much destroyed by pushing forward the road which 
now goes to Ollerton, the double ditch and vuUum are still in 
some places perfect. On the forest, within three miles of 
Mansfield, there are also some remains of a camp, on a hiU 
sloping down to the little brook of ** Rainworth Water," 
dividing the parishes of Mansfield and Blidworth. And, 
south-east of the Forest of Sherwood, and within two miles of 
the village of Arnold, there is part of a very extensive Roman 
camp, with the site of the praBtorium still distinguishable — the 
spot where the general pitched his tent. This camp is 
situated on the elevated spot called Holly Hill, and would be 
the centre of action on which any outpost at Basford would 
be dependant, commanding, as it does, an extensive view 
towards Mansfield, and supposed to occupy the highest ground 
on the forest Mr. Hayman Rooke, indeed, assigns reasons 
for supposing this to have been the chief Roman camp in the 
forest district — ^it is five miles distant from Nottingham. 
Lovely Grange, near Oxton, is the site of another exploratory 
camp ; a mile westward of which there is another, known by 
the name of Old Ox, which has been thought to be a corrup- 
tion of " Old Works ;" in which case the same explanation 
must be applied to Oxton, i. e, " Works-ton." And, again, at 
the distance of one mile further on the farm occupying the 
eminence called the " Coombs," a Rcnnan camp has, in Mr. 
Rooke's opinion, plainly been traced. On the hill, also, of 
Hexgrave Park, near Kirklington village, and three-and-a-half 
miles north-east of the Coombs, another encampment exists, 



OLD MANORS OF BA8F0RD. 987 

with ditch and vallum. All these camps command extensive 
views over the forest, and are visible from Holly Hill. Coins 
have been found in the neighbourhood of them all. 

The old manors in Baaford were numerous, yet principally 
comprehended in the extensive fee of William Peveril, at the 
Conquest. One. however, was distinguished from the rest, 
as being " Tayn-land," or the lordship of an ancient Thane. 
The name of the last Thane before the Conquest who paid 
Dane geld for four bovats of this fee, was Aluric. Alcowin 
was, however the name of another Saxon who had here a 
a manor, rated to the geld prior to the Conquest ; Alfeg and 
Algod, the names of other Saxon inheritors who answered to 
the tax ; and, !&nally, Escul, who held another parcel simi- 
larly taxed. The names of the " men" of William Peveril, 
were Pagan and Safred The son of Safred, named Phihp, 
and his wife, Maud, with Peveril's consent, gave to the monks 
of Lenton, in honour of the High and Undivided Trinity, 
twenty-four acres of their demesne thus described, and still 
tolerably traceable, viz : — *'a little essart at Broculetowe, and 
a tilled place or wong called Truccherewell, and another called 
Thomiwang, another Copperodes^ besides two bovats which 
William, son of Gilbert, held, and two which Alfeg had in 
Basford." Safrid s descendants now assumed the territorial 
name of de Baseford — for Robert, son of Philip de Baseford, 
confirmed this and other gifts of his father to the church of 
licnton ; re-leasing at same time, to the church, a meadow, 
£6r which he had once sued the monks, viz. : — the upper 
island which the water of Leene did anciently compasse.'* 
Tracing downwards these manors, we find them passing suc- 
cessively (in the reign of Henry III.) through the hands of 
John Gilbert and Simon de Orreby ; ^in that of Edward II.) 
through the hands of Alveridus de Sulney,- and (in that of 
Henry IJI.) from the Sulneys to a fMDily of the name of 
Langford, commemorated by Thoroton as a family of principal 
-note and great possession in Derbyshire and other counties," 
with whom it remained till the time of Henry VIII. The 
Hollys (Clare), the De Cantelupe, and De-la-Zouch families 
held other possessions at Basford, in the reigns of Henry III. 
and Edward 11. ; and from fines levied in the time of 
Edward III., we know that the De Crumwell family held 



288 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINOnAM. 

lands in Basfonl> which, in the reign of Edwafd II., were 
granted by Gervas Clifton, and Maud, his wife, late wife ci 
Robert de Willoughby, to Anthony Wydevile, Lord Scales, 
and Newsels. Not only were the Lords Cromwell part 
owners in Basford, but the ancestors of the family from which 
the Lord Lyndhurst of our times is descended^ also held pos- 
sessions here ; since Sir William Copley, in the right of 
Dorothy his wife, died seized in the moiety of the manor of 
Basforth. " These," says Thoroton, ** came to the family of 
HoUis, and were by the last Earl of Clare, save one, dispersed 
amongst freeholders ; but the principal farm was by him re- 
purchased in his lifetime, and now, with Copley's manor, 
remains the inheritance of the Earl of Clare." Thus, it will 
be seen, that Basford has been the natal soil of several of the 
most distinguished families in the land. There is little doubt 
but that the fine abode of Thomas North, Esq., which still 
retains the distinctive title of Basford Hall, was the site of 
the identical manor which witnessed the birth of these Lords 
of Cromwell, Copley, and Clare. In point of fact, it descend- 
ed from these parties to the Cockfields, the Taylboys, (another 
famous historical name) and thence to John Ayscough, son 
and heir of the celebrated Judge of the Common Pleas, Sir 
WiUiam Ayscough, having been sold amongst freeholders by 
the still more celebrated author. Sir Roger Ayscough. 

The history of the manor of Algarthorpe, or Eland Hall, 
(now called Bagthorpe) is the next upon which we must 
enter. It has already emersed more than once upon our 
attention. We trace it back to the suzerainty of the noble 
family of Moreton, the old lords of Wollaton, the three firet 
of whom, Adam, Robert, and Eustace, gave alms to the 
Cluniac monks of Lenton out of the estate held of them by 
Gerard de Algarthorpe, and his ancestors. But the most 
notable of all the owners of Algarthorpe was unquestionably 
" William de Eland, the king's servant (vdUuiesj, who lately 
had the custody of the castle of Nottingham, and the baili- 
wick of the Honour of Peveril in the counties of Nottingham 
and Derby, for life," to whom this bailiwick of Algarthorpe 
. was granted by Edward III., in the tenth year of his reign, 
in undoubted acknowledgement of the services of the good 
constable of the castle, in snaring withint it the formidable 



ELAND HALL AND ALGARTHORPE. 289 

Roger Earl of Mortimer. His son William, who lield it in 
the 41st year of the reign of Edward III, had previously 
(^8th Edw. Ill) married, however, into the neighbouring 
family of Strelley, his wife being Cecily, the daughter of 
Sampson, and co-heir with her brother Robert de Strelley. 
Taking up their residence at Algarthorpe, the Elands bestowed 
upon it the name of Eland Hall. The third in succession 
of the family of Eland, named William, died in the eighth 
year of the reign of Henry III, leaving his son and heir, a 
fourth William, only about nine years of age Yet it appears 
that this William Eland died so early as the seventeenth 
year of the same reign— a youthful benedict of 18 — for he 
left a son and heir of the tender age of twenty weeks and four 
days, in the tuition of Margaret his widow, mother of the 
infant. In the 9th Henry VII, (1494) an inquisition held 
at Nottingham furnishes us with the last steps in the Eland 
succession; from this document, it appears that Henry 
Eland, brother to Thomas Eland, and of the age of 40 when 
he succeeded through his brother's death, died seized of the 
manor of Algarthorpe, in the above year, holding it of Sir 
Heniy WiUoughby, as of his manor of Wollaton. Mary 
Eland, daughter of Thomas Eland, son of this Henry, was 
then aged 1 year and 1 month, and was declared heir to the 
property. It was she who, as noticed in a former chapter, 
married Roland Revell, and after his death conveyed the 
whole estates, including the Honor of Peveril, to Randall 
llevel, " because he had holpen her in her great suits she had 
with Nicholas Strelley, Esquire, concerning her said inherit- 
ance." The Revells soon sold this ancient patrimony to the 
Hutchinsons. 

Mr. Bailey, whose residence at Basford qualifies him for 
giving distinct indications in reference to Eland Hall and 
the ancient manor, even if his other eminent attainments as 
a local historian were not what they are, pre-eminent, men- 
tions that the manor of Algarthorpe extended over about two 
hundred acres in a northerly direction from the lands now 
constituting New Basford, (including Bagthorpe) to the ex- 
tremity of the village, and was bounded on the west throughout 
its whole extent by the River Leen. The mansion, he adds, 
t>ccupied a field opposite to the house of Mr. G. A. Beard- 



290 RAMBI.ES ROUND NOTTINGHAlT. 

more, (designated from this circumstance, Eland Hall) this 
field being in the ancient parish surveys called " Eland Hall 
Close ;" and in the recollection of people still alive, an open 
space, (now enclosed) on the road-side leading to OldBasford, 
was termed '• Hall Green." It would seem that when the 
Hutchinsons ("the unworthy branch," which according to 
Mrs. Lucy Hutchinson, " settled at Basford") acquired the 
Eland property by purchase, the old hall fell into deca^, and 
John Hutchinson set up instead of it " New Eland Hall," a 
house a little to the north of the church, on the site of a 
house lately occupied by Mr. Samuel Sanders. Bs^thorpe 
Hall is now a farm house in the occupation of Mr. John 
Hooton. 

The bailiwick of the Honor of Peveril, as our readers are 
already aware, was granted to William Eland, along with the 
manor of Algarthorpe. William, his son and heir, acknow- 
ledged himself to hold it, 41 Ed. III., (1368) and at that 
time it appears to have extended to the counties of Notting- 
ham and Derby only, paying fourteen shillings yearly to the 
king. From the Elands it passed to the Revells ; and from 
the Revells to the Hutchinsons, under whom it fell into 
desuetude, and so remained until its revival, as already re- 
lated, (p. 149) in the reign of Charles I. During this period, 
however, it is conjectured that the sittings of this curious 
local jurisdiction were transferred from the Oounty Hall of 
Nottingham, where they had been held, if not since their insti* 
tution, at all events since the time of Henry II, to the 
mansion of the Elands, on their Manor of Algarthorpe. Its 
subsequent migrations and locations we already know. 

Buried in the d^ep and perennial green of ivy-clad walls> 
hemming in the most sequestered nook of the low and verdant 
scenery of Basford, stands the quaint old parish church of 
St. Leodegarius — a French saint we are told of great repute 
— and, we believe, more popularly known under the name 
and style of St. Ledger. What were his austerities and pre- 
tensions to canonization, it were bootless now to inquire ; Mr. 
Bailey fixes his tutelary reign, or at least the period when he 
was in vogue — and this old church was founded in his honor 
— so far back as 1126, and seems to arrive at the date in this 
manner : — " Robert, son of Philip de Basford, and grandson 



BASFORD SAXONS AFTER THE CONQUEST. 291 

of Safrid, one of the men who came in with the Conqueror, 
and was a benefactor to the priory of Lenton, as before noticed, 
gave the church at Basford, which he had built and dedi- 
cated to Leodigarius, a French saint of great repute, with the 
lands, covenants, and appurtenances thereto belonging, to the 
prioress and nuns of Catesby, in Northamptonshire, of which 
place this Robert of Basford appears to have been the original 
founder." — -Bailey 8 Annals, p. 41. 

Safrid was the " man" or tenant of William Peveril, or, 
rather, one of two men of that worthy, for there was another, 
named Pagen, holding of him in Basford, but there is no 
evidence whatever that either Safrid or Pagen. ** came in with 
the Conquest ;" judging from the names alone, (all that re- 
mains for us to judge by) Tve might, perhaps, infer both to 
have been Saxon tenants. We know that when the great 
survey was made, Alaric, the Saxon Thane, continued to hold 
his land in Basford under King William himself. We are 
not, therefore, to suppose, that in every instance the Saxon 
was supplanted by the Norman land-holder. The more we 
examine into the actual tenures of the period, the more we 
shall have to view the Conquest in a different light from 
that in which it is ordinarily regarded. There were twelve 
bovats altogether in Basford ; Philip, son of Safrid, and 
Maud, his wife, granted four of them to the monks, (besides 
twenty-four acres of their demesne); but these four bovats 
were not originally Safrid *8, or, rather, Safred's ; on the con- 
trary, two of them were the property of WiUiam the son of 
Gilbert, and two were those " which Alfer had in Basefbrd." 
The Lady Maud, it appears to ^is, was the Norman element 
in this connection. Safred and his family were Saxons. 
Philip, who married Maud, was simply " Philip, son of Sa- 
fred;" but Robert, his son, was Robei"t son of Philip de 
Basford — marking the transition, maternal though it was, 
from Saxon to Norman lineage. And then the confirmation 
referred to by Mr. Bailey, as granted by Robert, extended to 
the four bovats of the villanage of Basford, and the twenty- 
four acres of the demesne, with a meadow (still retaining its 
name^ called Brademedoe ; moreover, we are told ** he like- 
wise released to the same church a meadow, which he once 



292 BAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

sued the monks for, viz., the Upper Island, which the water 
of Lene did anciently compass." 

We do not recognise the possibility of arriving at church- 
building dates, however, by means of grants and charters of 
land ; and, with exception of the chancel, certainly should 
not assign so remote an antiquity as the above to any part of 
the fabric of Basford church; more especiaDy the tower. 
Three periods of architecture are manifest in the structure — 
the early English in the chancel ; the decorated in the tra- 
cery of the south aisle and foliated capitals of the ch^IIcel 
arch ; and the perpendicular in the plain and commonplace 
additions of the north aisle. Tl;ie period assigned for the 
foundation would give us a Norman, instead of an early 
English chancel — archaeologists do not find the latter- style 
prevail till 1188, when it is exemplified in Beverley Minster, 
(Yorkshire); but it might, nevertheless, be satisfactory to fix 
the first date of Basford church, (Le ,oi the chancel) in the 
reign of Stephen, (1 135-1 154)the first reign of the early pointed 
period. For the decorated portion, we should go at once to 
the time of Edward III. The Strelley family were then 
powerful, and are likely to have done it — if it were not 
the work of the Elands, to whom at that time they passed 
some portions of these possessions. Unfortunately, not a 
scrap of the old stained glass which formerly, decorated the 
church remains. But from the notices of it preserved in 
Thoroton, it appears that the south window of the chancel 
bore the armorials of the Foljambes ; and the east window of 
the north aisle, (which, by the way, would bring in the Strel- 
leys for the perpendicular portion) the Strelley paly of six 
argent and azure, besides the arms of Cressy, Lowdham, 
Leek, . and Annesley. A quiet glance around the present 
plain and unadorned interior of this externally ancient-look- 
ing and interesting church will, however, hardly seem to 
justify thus much discussion ; and its present state of disre- 
pair appears to indicate that a " restoration" of some kind 
may shortly sweep even the faint remaining traces of ancient 
interest away. There are some comparatively modem monu- 
ments preserved in the chancel and nave, for which we are 
indebted to the praiseworthy industry of Mr. S. F. Creswell^ 



GRAVE-STOHES AND MONUMENTS IN BASFORD. 293 

of St. John's, Cambridge, from -whose notes we transcribe 
them, although we perceive he has omitted to give us the 
record, if any, of that almost fabulous indiviciual " the oldest 
inhabitant" of Nottinghamshire, Henry Ward, who died and 
was buriied here in 1736, remarkable for having qualified to 
vote in 1734, at the age of 106, although he had been en- 
titled to be put upon the roll of freemen from the age of 21. 

"Here lyeth John Clarke, MA., and sometime Rector of 
Cotgrave, who ended his public ministry at the age of 24, 
yet served God in his generation till he fell asleep, Sept. 25, 
1669, set. 89. George Moore dep. Deer. 20, 1740, aged 60." 

" Here lyeth Mary Hawkins, wife of Nathl. Hawkins, of 
Nottingham, Gentleman, and daughter of Henry Linney, Esq., 
who died Nov. 26, 171 Iv Likewise Ann Moore, wife of 
George Moore, of Basibrd, Gentleman, and daughter of H. 
Linney, Esq., who died Nov. 18, 1749, aged 77 years." 

V Here lyeth Mr. Henry Linney, who died Feb. 14, 1732, 
aged 86 years." 

'* In memory of Mary Heaker and Rosamond Brock, the 
two daughters of Capt. Benjamin Heaker — the former of 
whom died the 21 Feb., 1760, aged 68 years; and the latter, 
27 Jan., 1799, in the 80th year of her age." 

" Near this place lie the remains of Benjamin Heaker, 
Esq., who died I Jan,, 1767, aet. 85 : this," &c. 

" Sacred to the memory of Catharine Daws, wife of Wil- 
liam Daws, who died 28 July, 1797, set. 60 years ; also Eliza- 
beth Seddon, wife of Geo. Seddon, and daughter of W. & C. 
Daws, who died," &c. 

" Sacred to the memory of HophiaNunn, wife of — Nunn, 
and daughter of W. & C. Daws, who died 18th July, 1803, 
aged 22 years ; also Henry Nunn, (son) aged 1 month. James 
Daws died Sept. 27, 1819, 8Bt. 44 years." 

A brass in the chancel likewise commemorates " Revd. 
Robt. Simpson, Vicar of this Parish, who died 20 Nov., 1 847, 
aet. 64 years ; by his unwearied exertions the ground was 
obtained and the National School erected ; the church and 
church-yard also repaired and beautified ; this tablet is here 
placed to record his useful labours, and the respect in which 
he was held." 

In the nave-.— "Here lyeth John Smith,* Gentleman, who 



S94 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

died 6 Feb. 1776, aged 71 years; also his wife Elizabeth, 
daughter of John Nevill, Esq., who died 3 Apiil, 1753, aged 
i4 years, with their three children, who all died young." 

In the south aisle — " Here lyeth the body of William 
Marshall, late of Stafford, Esq., who died — June, a.d. 17-7, 
and Anne Marshall, who died June 16th," 

"Hal Sands, 1795— E. W.— T. W." 

" — Grobett, Gent., who died .25 Mar., 1758, aged 65 
years." 

*• Sarah Bott, died Feb. 3, 1744, aged — " 

" In memory of Elizabeth, wife of Robert Jalland, who 
died Feb. 1, J 792, aged 59 years. Also Elizabeth Jsdland, 
daughter of the above, who died — (1787) aged 14 years; 
likewise Robt. Jalland." 

"Joseph Alton, died Feb. 22, 1787, aged 68 years." 

" William Eaton, 1789." " J. R." " F. R/' " A. G." 

" Here lyeth, in hope of a joyful resurrection, John Pott, 
who died 31 Jany., 1768, in the 68th year of his age." 

There being no vicarage house attached to the living of Bas- 
ford, the residence of the vicar, the Rev, H. R. Pitman, 
formerly curate of Morpeth, in Northumberland, is in a com- 
modious mansion opposite the church, and nearly adjoining 
the railway gate. Mr. Pitman is a zealous churchman and 
a most exemplary divine, labouring earnestly in the midst of 
his poorer parishioners, with his heart evidently in the cause 
to which he has dedicated his life and ministry. 

Opposite the old church-yard, at the angle of the road, 
stands a manorial-like brick edifice, environed by its own 
grounds — ^yet presenting amidst lofty trees a considerable 
frontage to the highway. This is the residence of Thomas 
Bailey, Esq., the veteran annalist of the county, so often 
referred to in these pages — and the birth-place of the last, 
and possibly the greatest of our modern English poets, 
Philip James Bailey, Esq., the author of Festus. It is a fact 
significant of the passing away of the golden epoch of our 
literature, that this singular poem, Festtis, has never been 
satisfactorily reviewed. The task is not one which, in point- 
ing out so bluntly, we could complacently pretend to execute. 
Nor would the limits or design of the present work admit of 
the attempt. Having enjoyed, however, the converse, and 



bailey's " FESTUS."" 295 

studied the life and works of this rarely gifted son of genius, 
it becomes a part of our duty to give him a place amongst 
our promised sketches of " all that comes in the way." The 
iiather of the poet, to whom the dedication of Festm is 
addressed, tells us that it was in this " old-fashioned brick 
house," that the major part of it was composed, ere yet the 
author had reached the age of twenty : the dedication itself 
echoing the self-same fact : — 

■ " When I the boyish feat began. 



Which numbers now near three years from its plan. 
Not twenty summers had imbrowned my brow." 

Many descriptions have been essayed of the author of Festus^ 
some of which have swerved so entirely from the truth as not 
only to caricature, but render him unrecognizable : such as 
his passing through the streets unknown whilst residing in 
Nottingham, and with a downcast look. This is all non- 
sense. 

Of the poem itself, an ill natured and superficial critic 
would, perhaps, set out by observing, on no better analogy 
than the resemblances of title and topic, that had there been 
no Goethe*s Famt, there would have been no Bailey's Festiis, 
Whether it might not have been better for the young and 
ardent English poet to have selected, as in his E^ter-works, 
some independent mode of manifesting the conflict of the 
human nature With the promptings of the evil one, may be 
open to debate. But, if the genius of the poem resides in 
the sentiment, then setting aside the mere resemblance of 
the machinery — which the greatest poets of all time seem 
indifferently to have borrowed from each other, or from the 
common storehouses of their art — for which Dante was 
accused of imitating Virgil — and in contempt whereof Byron 
sets out in his greatest satire, (moral or immoral) with the 
want of a hero, and ends by having recourse to " our ancient 
friend Don Juan," namely a tolerahly worn-out hero of estab- 
lished romance — there is, really, little or nothing in common 
betwixt Faust and Festtis. The author, it is true, opens with 
a prologue, of which the scene is in heaven, and the enter- 
locutors are God himself, the Seraphim and Cherubim, 
Lucifer, and the Angels. But what incident is there in 



996 RAMBLisS BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

Goethe to equal the Angel of the Earth's pleadings with 
Lucifer, or the Son of God's interposition ? Then the first 
mundane sunset scene, where the meditative Festus first 
becomes aware of the evil presence sent to tempt him ; the 
successive appeals of the frantic student to the elements ; the 
sardonic sermon of Lucifer, and sublime prayer of Festas, in 
the market-place; but, above all, the ride of Lucifer and 
Festus on Darkness and Ruin across the world, are passages 
that must thrill for ever in the brain and memory of all who 
read them. Was ever love-passage a more perfect transcript 
of the true lover's feelings for his mistress than in the first 
of these scenes, where Festus, without heeding, yet answers 
Lucifer's sneers at love? It is consummately beautiful : — 



' I loved her for that she was heautiful^ 



And that to me she seemed to he all natare 
And all yariedes of things in one; 
Would set at night in clouds of tears^ and vise 
All light and laughter in the morning : fear 
No petty customs and appeai'ances> 
But think what others only dreamed ahout. 
And say what others did hut think, and do 
What others would but say, and gloiy in 
What others dared not do ; so pure withal 
In soul : in heart and act such conscious, yet 
Such careless innocence, she naade round her 
A halo of delight.** 

So all men believe of love ; the true poet speaks for all, and 
in the faculty of doing so, no English poet has approached 
Shakspeare — save Festus. Then, again, what an aphoiism 
is this : — 

" The beautiful are never desolate. 
But some one always loves them." 

Southey's famed apostrophe to night, is tame compared with 
Bailey's : — 

" Stringing the stars at random round her head 
Like a pearl net- work, there she sits — ^bright Night I 
I love night more than day — she is so lovely. 
But I love night the most, because she brings 
My love to me, in dreams which scarcely lit ; 
Oh all but truth, and lovelier oft than truth. 
Let me have dreams like tJiese, sweet night, for ever^ 
When I shall wake no more — an endless dream 
Of love and holy beauty 'mid the atars." 



bailey's *• MYSTIC." ^97 

The most striking thing in all this wondrous poem, is, its 
strange sparkles of sententious wisdom couching in every 
line — as "error is worse than ignorance" — deep thoughts, 
such as the author is wont to enunciate in conversation, pass- 
ing on to something more profound, as if unconscious that his 
own powers of concentration had given pause to others. Of 
Festtut, we are told that twenty editions have appeared in the 
United States of America. It took five years to bring the 
work in this country into the repute to which it slowly but 
surely has won its way ; and five large editions of it have 
noi,w been given to the public. The grandest tribute ever 
paid the poem is, possibly, that in the New York Literary World, 
where the reviewer, (Emmerson) with characteristic national 
exaggerations, pronounces our Bard of Basford "more subhme 
and simple than Job ; more royally witty and wise, more to 
the point than Solomon; more picturesque, more intense, 
more pathetic than Dante ; more Miltonic (we have no other 
word) than Milton; more dreadful, more sonorous than 
Marlowe ; more worldly-wise, clever, and sveU than Goethe ; 
more passionate, more eloquent, more impudent than Byron; 
more orthodox, more edifying, more precocious than Pollock; 
more absorptive and inveterate than Godwin; and more 
hearty, more tender, more of manhood all compact than 
Bums ; more gay than Moore ; more versatile than Shak- 
speare." Pectus was first pubhshed at Manchester, in 1839. 
" An additional Scene to Festm," appeared in April, 1849, in 
the Monthly Magazine ; The Angel World, in 1860; all 
being now incorporated in the fifth edition of Festtis, (Not- 
tinghaiQ, 185S.) After a long silence, the author has, in the 
current year, (1856) given to the world a new volume, com- 
prising three poems — " The Mystic," " A Spiritiud Legend" 
and a lighter strain, called simply " A Fairy Tale." Of the 
Mystic, the scenery is simple and severe ; the scene being 
time itself, under the anologue of a sand-glass. The Divine 
hero, of whom we get, throughout, that succession of glimpses 
known in the " inspective philosophy" of Plutarch, and in 
the transcendentalism of Germany — those transient yet 
ecstatic visions which reveal more than the finite faculty can 
otherwise gain in the way of knowledge of the infinite — this 
hero is the Epopt — the spirit of Divine Enlightenment. He 



298 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTIMOHAM. 

is first referred to as living a threefold liie through all ages, 
when — 



" Seven times his soul 



Commingling scanned with its light the world." 

" In the feasts of life he roamed the universe. 
Speaking to all the mother tongue of heaven." 

Involuntarily he " chose the downward way," conscious that 
those '' whose eyen are purged with inward fire" — 

" Move ever up the reascent to light 
On a celestial gradient paved with wings,'* 

He suffered '' dignities" only that he might ennoble several ; 
and at length became graduate in mysteries, myth-insculp- 
tured in temple dome and lay columnar. Three glimpses of 
him we have next, as he sets his foot upon the mount divine, 
and eyes '' the all" beneath him ; and subsequent glances 
through every stage of successive development in human 
rehgion, whether on the banks of the Ganges, or of the Jordan, 
in the central lands of the earth, or the distant and strangely 
named islands of the sea. It will be obvious that the theme 
is the highest to which the human conception can aspire. 
Unfortunately it is of far too high a pitch for the general 
apprehension. And, as the execution corresponds, since, to 
treat of the essence of mysticism without being mystical, were 
neither in the nature of things, nor the cue of this marvellous 
poet ; this almost superhuman effort of his genius has not 
been, and in but few instances indeed may ever be, appre- 
ciated. 

Plutarch was perhaps the first who gave expression to the 
philosophy embodied in the MysUc, in so far as it embodies, 
at least, the momentary and visionary glimpses of the divine 
in human knowledge, sacred and profane. For the Scriptures, 
though they plainly show what the " visions" of their holy 
men really were — tilings actually beheld, however supernatu- 
ral — relate to holy things alone, and are the records of the 
truth. Sublime forms of error, creeds, mythologies, phanta- 
sies, and superstitions have, however, mingled in the busy 
teeming train of mortal conceptions, for good or for evil, from 
the first of time, and, as legendary lore asserts, even in some 



bailey's last poem. 299 

part of the eternity before. The inspective philosophy, in its 
sudden and evanescent revelations, has disclosed all this from, 
time to time. What a theme, then, of transcendentalism for 
a poet like Philip Bailey! Has he been equal to its treat- 
ment? that is the question. In the Mystic there are not 
much exceeding 50 p.p., and not perhaps more than 1,250 
lines. It is clear enough that if a comprehension of the 
'* Epopt" — that spirit of light adopted of each successive form 
of materialism — could be compressed into limits such as these, 
the affort must be as superhuman as the theme. Astounding 
as may be the praise here implied, we nevertheless say that 
the poet has done it ; nay, we rejoice that he has, for the tension 
of mind exerted to produce this effort appears to us to be 
greater than even he could have much longer sustained. It 
is in vain to conceal that we look upon this poem as one of 
the greatest of modem times — ^perhaps the greatest. Posterity 
will single it out, and do it justice ; but why not the passing 
generation? Instances of contemporary justice are not 
abundant, it is true — but let the poem be read and pondered 
— let its majestic topics, its sublime references and allusions, 
its deeply compressed and strongly concentrated language, its 
flashes of interpretive semi-prophetic intelhgence be once 
appreciated, and Festus itself, wiUi all its genial elements of 
common popularity, will sink into the second place beside the 
Mystic. The grand heaven-bom theme is not, in fact, desti- 
tute of the most popular elements. The loftiest yearnings 
and aspirations of man's heart are touched in it, that gorge- 
ous void which evidences his immortality is filled up, and he 
here half tastes (not satiates) the object of his greatest longing 
— the infinite. Yes ! ye poetasters, tell us how a poet should 
deal with the infinite, if not as Bailey has done it in his 
Mystic. Embodied alone and in its representative form is it 
visible to human apprehension, comprehensible by human 
language. The thing of time (temporarily so) and not of 
eternity, mark the felicity of the strain with which each grand 
poetic strophe is opened — 

" Time's saDd-dry streamlet through its glassy straits 
Flowed ceaseless." 

Yes, it flowed on and on through endless variations of ages 



300 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

and durations — " the feasts of life — " the lore of stars'' — *' the 
myth insculptured language of the light," perfected the 
** Epopt" in mysteries. What visions, what harmonies, what 
hirths were his, the embodiment of all this knowledge ! 
Listen — 



• " Soon as bom, his lips 



Dropped music like the dew-bright beads of honey 
From fleshy flow'rets pendent." 

That, we say, is wondrous word-painting — the Mystic is fiiU 
of it ; and pages of commentary and commendation could be 
as justly bestowed on every line. Thus much we say in justi- 
fication of our exalted estimate of this won(irou8 poem, which, 
it must be recollected, however, is a poem to be studied — 
not read. 

The SpirUwd Legend may, perhaps, command more ad- 
mirers as an ingenious cosmogony in which poetic life is given 
in magnificent language to the latest discoveries of modem 
science, tracing them back to, and assigning them places in, 
the creation as devised and executed by the angels. By most 
persons it is however regarded as an omitted passage of The 
Angel World. Two opposite examples of its natural history 
may be briefly cited : — 



* Vast whale, 



Whose jaws like hell's gates yawned all to ingulph 
Him upon whom death's bitter lot fell, cast 
By crew accursed in the carrion deep." 



Agai0, in beautiful contrast — 



. " The lark 



Blythe trilling in the blue, when spring's wann breeze 
And pearly flowers and brooklets bubbling bright, 
And innocent sun welcome the new-bom lamb." 

We quote these snatches of a work not destined to receive 
justice from the world, because we do not think that a prettier 
picture than the last has ever been painted in language of 
kindred simplicity ; and the accusation against tlie last 
works of Mr. Bailey is the essentially false, though seemingly 
not unfounded one, of unintelligible diction. To such, how- 
ever, as have studied his strange and abstruse topics, the 



HB. THOMAS BAILET. 801 

appositeness of the words and phrases becomes intensely 
striking, manifesting a concentrativeness of thought and 
expression nearly superhuman. 

The father of this glorious son still lives at Basford, a fine 
old man, who has surpassed his " three score years and ten," 
and in his day has been addicted by turns to all the refining 
and humanizing pursuits of taste and science, Mr. Thomas 
Bailey, besides being a voluminous prose writer, and speech 
maker, in poHtical and economic movements, at one time 
edited a Nottingham newspaper, of no mean reputation, 
called The Mercury, his articles receiving the coveted distinc- 
tion of frequent quotation in the columns of the Times and 
other contemporaries ; he is, moreover, a poet of some ability 
— his principal poetical works being The Advent of Charity j 
Ireton, and other poems. As a collector of fine arts, Mr. 
Bailey has gathered together a whole gallery of paintings at 
Basford— one superb figure-piece, an Andromeda, exciting 
the admiration of all who beheld it, and several rare histori- 
cal portraits and other gems of art being included in the 
number; more especially, a set of twelve large pictures 
painted by Mr. John Rawson Walker, of Nottingham, in 
illustration of *' The World Before the Flood" of the late 
Mr. James Montgomery, of Sheffield. In his scientific col- 
lection, Mr. Bailey has a most extraordinary assemblage 
of fossil specimens ; the number and size of the ammonites, 
trilobites, &c., being, we believe, perfectly unparalleled. 
They have mainly been gathered by his own hand; and, 
what is most wonderful, he has succeeded in finding a 
great variety of these fossils, not in situ, but amongst the 
travelled bouldera of the Trent gravel. The most valuable 
and important of Mr. Bailey's contributions to our literature, 
are his Annals of Nottinghamshire,'^ in four fine volumes, 
octavo. They are crowded with interesting facts and dates, 
and still more interesting personal and historical sketches ; 
and, as a work of reference, must ever remain a monu- 
ment of the author's indefatigable research, and a mine of 
information on local history. 

• London : Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. ; Nottingham : W. F. Gib- 
son. 1855. 



302 BAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

Not far from Mr. Bailey's mansion, on the opposite side 
of the way, a road defended by an iron gateway is seen to 
lead up by the side of the National Schools, to a little Cemetery, 
whose graves are ranged along the slope of a plot of land 
containing an acre and a-half, given in February, 1843, by 
His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, as an extension of the 
ancient church-yard, though situated, as will be perceived, 
considerably apart from it. The Cemetery is, however, a 
general one, inclosed with a stone wall, and used by all deno- 
minations of Christians in the village — Wesleyan, Kelhamite, 
Primitive Methodist, and General Baptist, all of whom have 
chapels in the place. 

The gardens of Basford are celebrated for their productive- 
ness ; those in the low bottoms and closes being stimulated 
by irrigation, were coveted, as we have already had occasion 
to see, so far back as the times of the monks, who enjoyed a 
very early litigation with Philip de Basford about " the 
Upper Island which the Lene did anciently encompas." But 
the fruitfulness of the allotments, at a higher elevation upon 
Basford Plats— especially the enormous crops of strawberries 
which they are known to produce, has equally added to the 
celebrity of these gardens. A hundred years back, when the 
foundations of those delights were laid which the holders of 
some seven thousand gardens, in and around the town of 
Nottingham, so ardently enjoy, the inhabitants of the town 
thought nothing of walking forth a much further distance to 
seek for out-door recreations. Thus, in 1750, one of the 
largest and finest bowling-greens in England, at Holme 
Pierrepont, was frequented by the elite of Nottingham, and 
an ordinary established there every Thursday ; whilst, every 
Tuesday, the ordinary and bowling were at the retired village 
of Basford ; Mondays and Wednesdays being devoted to " the 
town's green," at St. Anne's Well. The Basford Bowling- 
green Inn, (Mr. Mellors) Church-street, is still a place 
of much attraction, with its spacious green, and tastefully 
fitted-up arbours, and is largely frequented in the summer 
evenings by the devotees of this healthful recreation. 

Basford Union Workhouse, with eight acres of land at- 
tached, under industrial culture by the inmates, is one of the 
handsomest erections of its class and character in the king- 



GREAT GILBERT UNION AT BASFORD. 303 

dom ; the district comprised being one of the largest of our 
rural unions, with forty-three parishes, and a population of 
70,000, overspreading nearly 89,000 acres, rated on an annual 
value of about JBl 56,000. The old Workhouse having been 
erected in 1815, under the Gilbert Act, was, in 1836, con- 
verted into a Union Poor House, for the extensive district 
just alluded to, and, in 1842, enlarged to its present dimen- 
sions, by the accession of wings, at a cost of £2,000. Situ- 
ated apart, on the Bui well-road, in an open and airy position, 
with young trees growing up around it, this handsome stone 
edifice presents to the eye the very beau ideal of a refuge for 
poverty, old age, and decay. The several parishes compre- 
hended in the union — of which the first five are in Derbyshire, 
and the remainder in Nottinghamshire, are Codnor, Codnor- 
park, Heanor, Ilkeston, Shipley ; Annesley, Arnold, Barton, 
Basford, Beeston, Bilborough, Bradmore, Bridgford, BulweU, 
Bunny, Burton Joyce, Calverton, Carlton, Clifton,. Colwick, 
Coflsal, Eastwood, Felley, Gamston, Gedling, Gotham, Greas- 
ley, Hucknall, Kirkby, Lambley, Linby, Newstead, Nuttall, 
Papplewick, Ruddington, Selston, Stoke, Strelley, Thrumpton, 
Trowell, Wilford, Wollaton, and Woodborough. The Board 
of Guardians, of which Mr. Thomas Bailey, the subject of a 
preceding notice, is chairman, is composed of fifty members, 
Mr. B. B. Spencer, clerk and superintendent registrar. There 
are four relieving officers, at Moor Green, Arnold, BulweU, 
and Basford. Kegistrara of births and deaths are also sta- 
tioned at Greasley, Ilkeston, in Basford itself, at Bulwell, 
Arnold, Carlton, and Wilford, for these respective districts ; 
besides registrars of marriages at Basford and Ilkeston ; and 
in addition to the union surgeon, R. S. Bowker, Esq., the 
union employs a staff of eleven district surgeons. Mr Bailey, 
the excellent chairman, has recently stated that, whilst the 
total amount of relief cases in a given half-year was 2,552, 
out of this large number only 277 persons were compelled to 
accept in-door relief — and of these, 207 were in reality women 
and children, leaving only 70 men, of whom he asserts that 
not exceeding six or seven — or one in ten thousand of the 
population of the union — were able-bodied paupers. Facts 
like these speak volumes, alike for the creditable management 



304 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

of the affairs of the union, and for the honest industry of the 
population. 

In contrast to this state of matters we must, however, 
revert to Basford as the painful scene of the Liiddite outbreak 
of November, 1811; for such are the historical incidents 
with which it is most prominently connected. After an in- 
terval of thirty-six years, the system of frame-breaking, which 
had re-appeared in the Midland Counties about eight months 
previously, was renewed at Bui well and Basford on the 4th 
of November. The frameholders of the neighbourhood had 
commenced the removal of their machinery to Nottingham 
for security ; and, pending the operation, one of them, named 
HoUingworth, had placed seven or eight persons armed with 
muskets in his house, at Bulwell, to protect a portion of the 
frames on a Sunday night. Yet, notwithstanding one of the 
assailants being shot through the abdomen in the attack, the 
house was entered and gutted ; and, on the same night, ten 
or twelve frames were destroyed at Kimberley. Westley, 
the individual shot at Bulwell, died, and his body was after- 
wards removed for interment at Arnold, of which, though a 
native of Leicester, he had been for twelve years a resident, 
amidst a scene of furious excitement on the part of the work- 
ing people — ^the high sheriff and a posse of constables attend- 
zing to suppress any outbreak, escorted by a company of 
dragoons and a detachment of infantry — and the funeral 
service and riot act being read simultaneously over the grave, 
amidst yells, threats, and execrations, drums beating to arms, 
and the word of command to clear the church-yard as soon as 
the cofl&n should be lowered. Previously to this crisis of 
commotion, a number of men with their faces blackened, had 
seized eight or nine frames on Tuesday, on their way fi-om 
Sutton-in-Ashfield, by attacking the cart in which they were 
conveyed, in the open streets of Basford, shivering the frames 
to pieces with ponderous hammers, and scattering the broken 
fragments of wood and iron about the pubUc road. This 
outrage was foDowed up on the Wednesday evening by the 
assemblage of one thousand rioters at the seventh mile-stone 
on the Mansfield- road — three hundred of whom were said to 
have been armed with muskets and pistols, and the remainder 



LtJDDlSM. 305 

with a variety of other weapons. They proceeded to Sutton- 
in- Ash field, and demolished fifty-four frames. From eight to 
twelve of the rioters were captured by the Mansfield troop of 
volunteers and a few mounted dragoons, and lodged in the 
<Uounty Goal ; yet, notwithstanding that the Holme and Bunny 
troops of Yeomanry Cavalry, and Queen's Bays, then in 
Nottingham Barracks, under Earl Waldegrave, \Vere in all 
directions put in motion to scour the countiy, frames conti- 
nued to be broken at intervals for the next fortnight or three 
veeeks. At length, <in the S3d of November, the Luddites, in 
detached parties, made simultaneous attacks on numerous 
workshops at Basford, and destroyed thirty frames. The 
iron-work of these frames was minutely broken up and scat- 
tered about in all directions; yet, such was the secrecy, 
suddenness, and dispatch, that long before Earl Waldegrave 
arrived to the rescue, at the head of a squadron of Hussars, 
the perpetrators had altogether disappeared, and not one of 
them was apprehended, John Blackner, who was intimately 
familiar with all the facts of the outrageous excitement we 
.are now depicting, traces the origin of Luddism to the foolish 
act of a stubborn youth named Ludlam, at Leicester, who 
had easily earned some popular repute amongst his compeers, 
^men who looked with so little favour on tiie mechanism of the 
stocking frame) by having, when commanded by his father 
** to square his needles," abruptly settled the business by 
taking a hammer and pounding them into a mass ! Such, 
«nd no better, was the origin it seems of this terrible and 
widely spread fury for destructioit; it was the small spark 
required to kindle into a blaze the smouldering combustion 
of the operative mind. The Luddites, however, improved 
upon the example thus set them, so far as secret organisation 
would enable them, and learnt to assemble in parties of from 
six to sixty, under the command of, and in implicit obedi- 
ence to, a leader termed Oeneral Ludd, with guards armed 
with defensive, and parties for entering the houses vdth des- 
tructive weapons, each man answering to a number, and 
retiring after the accomplishment of their object on the list 
of numbers being called over, and the discharge of a pistol, 
signifying that *' all was right." Despite the military force 
in the neighbourhood, the presence of London police magis- 



306 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTIKGHAlf. 

trates and officers on the spot in aid of the civil power, the 
offer of secret rewards, and the proclamations of the Prince 
Regent's government, tliis unparalleled system of devastation 
was maintained for many months, and we are told that by 
February, 1815, no fewer than six hundred and twenty-four 
frames had been destroyed. It is recorded that the pressure 
of a protracted and ruinous war, of depressed commerce, and 
wheat at 108s. (afterwards 1428.)per qr., a depreciated currency, 
and scarcity of employment, was enhanced by these terrifying 
excesses of the Luddites. Still, in the beginning of 1 812, at 
Nottingham and at New Radford, at Clifton and at Eiidding- 
ton, frames continued to be broken. One evening, two soldiers 
stationed in a house at Basford to aid in protecting the machi- 
,nery, were, while seated at the fire, overpowered by a rush of 
seven men, and guarded ydth their own muskets whilst three 
frames were effectu ally demolished. Lord Byron, in his maiden 
speech in the Bouse of Lords, i^ainst the passage of the 
strong bills intended to repress with all the severity and rigor 
of the law these acts of flagrant violence, acknowledges " that 
every outrage short of actual bloodshed has been perpetrated, 
and that the proprietors of the frames obnoxious to the 
rioters, and all persons supposed to be connected with them, 
have been liable to insult and violence." *' During the short 
time I recently passed in Nottinghamshire," he says, ** not 
twelve hours elapsed without some fresh act of violence ; and 
on the day I left the country, I was informed that forty 
frames had been broken the preceding evening, as usual, 
without resistance and without detection." " But," adds the 
noble bard, *' the perseverance of these miserable men tends 
to prove thet nothing but absolute want could have driven a 
large and once honest and industrious body of the people into 
the commission of excesses so hazardous to themselves, their 
families, and the community." " At the time to which I 
allude," he continues, " the town and county were burdened 
with large detachments of military, the police was in motion, 
the magistrates assembled, yet all these movements, civil and 
military, had led to nothing. Not a single instance had oc- 
curred of the apprehension of any real delinquent, actually 
taken in the fact, against whom there existed evidence suffi- 
cient for conviction." The act rendering frame-breaking a 



LUDDITE ATBOCITT AT B AS FORD. 307 

capital offence was, however, passed, and continued in force 
till. March, 1814. Then were the most lamentable conse- 
quences of liUddism felt and seen, in the public condemnation 
and execution of its victims. Two young men of Basford, 
first tried, however, for breaking seven frames here, were 
sientenced only, along with several others for a like offence at 
Sutton-in-Ashfield, to fourteen years' transportation. Wil- 
liam Simpson, convicted and executed in 1813, for breaking 
into a farm house at Watnall, penitently confessed that he 
had been led into evil practices by Luddism. 

New Basford, which, as the site of important manufactures, 
we are next about to describe, now becomes the scene of 
Luddite atrocity ; it was here that, the offence was compli- 
cated with murder and attempt to murder, in the course of 
the attkck on the house of Mr. Thomas Garton, for which a 
man named Toole, who subsequently suffered death at Lei- 
cester for another offence, was arraigned, but acquitted through 
defect of evidence. The party murdered during the attack 
on Mr. Gatton's was named William Kilby, a respectable 
framework-knitter, residing within thirty yards of the spot, 
who incautiously going out to the door, and . being mistaken 
for a constable on the watch, was remorselessly shot dead.. 
Towle was a native of Basford, where, at the age of 36, he 
left a wife and four children. The offence for which he was 
executed was that of having been concerned, along with 
a body of men principally from Nottingham, in the destruc- 
tion of fifty-five lace machines, valued at £7,500, in the 
course of one quarter of an hour, at Messrs. Heathcoat and 
Boden's factory, at Loughborough. During the attack on 
the factory, Towle was so reckless as to wear no disguise save 
a silk handkerchief tied round his lower jaw. The case 
against him was strengthened by a police officer who set out 
from Nottingham Police Office, immediately on the arrival of 
a messenger sent from Loughborough, and passing through 
New Basford, where Towle lived, at seven in the evening, 
towards the Trent, near Beeston, met the man about eight, 
on the highway, coming as if from Loughborough, and 
though he turned his face towards the hedge to avoid recog- 
nition, succeeded in persuading him to partake of a glass of 
gin at a neighbouring public-house, where it was discovered 



308 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINOHAM. 

that his shoes were wet, and that he appeared fatigued. Mr.» 
aften^ards Lord Denman, was his counsel, and his execution 
was deferred for three months after sentence, on an ohjection 
raised by that able and earnest advocate, to the form of the 
indictment. The corpse was interred at Basford on the 
afternoon of the fatal daj, amidst a concourse of several 
thousand spectators. 

It would be impossible for us to do justice to Basford, Old 
or New, without in some measure entering upon the subject 
of the lace and hosiery trades with which both places are so 
intimately identified. And although we had reserved it for 
our visit to New Radford to attempt the nearly impossible 
task of describing a lace factory,* yet, from the fact of the 
present mayor of Nottingham, Richard Birkin, Esq., having 
long had his principal manufacturing premises in New Bas- 
ford, and of its having devolved upon Mr. Birkin to report 
to the jury of the Great Exhibition of 1851 upon the subject, 
we cannot more appropriately introduce a glance at the 
general features of this interesting subject than in this place. 
Mr. Birkin, in his report, sets out by observing, that in none 
of the textile fabrics have there been so many combinations 
of machinery used to effect a particular purpose as in lace 
making. Commencing with the stocking machine — the 
invention as every one knows of William Lee, a native of the 
village of Woodborough, in Nottinghamshire — and subse- 
quently curate of Calverton, but who died under the cloud 
of neglect at home, and misfortune abroad, at Paris, in 1610; 
we have next a tickler machine, then the point-net machine, 
then tbe warp-machine, Mechlin-plait machine, &c., &c., all, 

♦ " This machinery is now made of so ponderous a kind as to require 
steam for its moving power of greatest efficiency ; it is composed of 
many thonsand parts, and these of so delicate and nice an adjustment 
a» that they must be made mathematically tme, and tamed ont of 
hand with absolute certainty of harmoi^iouB working, or they would be 
useless, if not self^destructive. Whatever, therefore, file, or forge- 
hammer, or plane can effect, is seen in the lace and stocking machine 
of the present day. Such has been the reflex influence of adaptations 
in each trade upon the other, that it can no longer be said with truth, 
as formerly, that the stocking frame remains unimproved. By altera- 
tions in the latter they have become fit companions in mechanioal 
excellence.** — W. Felkin, Esq., before the Society of Arts, May, 1856. 



PROGRESS CP THE LACE MAKUFACTURE. 309 

however, witH exception of the warp machine, eclipsed by 
•the appearance of the bobbin net machine, patented by John 
•Heathcoat, in 1809. " The machine, although novel in its 
construction," says Mr. Birkin, '* and the first enabling one 
series of threads to pass round the other, was complex in its 
arrangements, and required sixty motions to complete one 
hole — the same being now made with six. The cost, also, 
of the production was such as to circumscribe its use, for 
we find, in I8l5, when the machines of this description had 
increased to 150, that one square yard of the produce was 
■ worth thirty shillings : the same quantity can now be pur- 
chased for threepence.*' Mr. Felkin, in his paper read before 
the Society of Arts, in London, in May last, mentions, that 
from twenty machiued at work in 1780, there were, in 1810, 
fifteen hundred point net frames worked by men making 
almost entirely silk net; fifteen thousand people were en- 
gaged embroidering and preparing these goods for the market. 
** A long war," he adds, ** decreased demand and great com- 
petition, superinduced slight material and inferior workman- 
ship. The decay of the trade by 1815 was complete. The 
last twenty-seven frames were sold from 1825 to 1828, and 
•neither frame nor hands is, 1 believe, now to be found, of ^1 
those who forty years ago were so busily engaged in laying 
this basis of the lace trade of Nottingham." Up to this time, 
little other than plain net and quillings had been produced 
by the bobbin-net machine. ** After repeated efforts," Mr. 
Birkin tells us, " on the leaver, circular, pusher, and traverse 
warp machines, in 1831 and 1832, plans were adopted to 
purl and bullet-hole the edges of naiTow laces, finishing tliem 
afterwards with a gimp thread with the needle ; the same 
was done on the pusher machine, and shortly afterwards on 
the circular." Mr. Birkin himself, at this time, took out a 

• patent at Basford, for spotting on the Leaver machine. The 
attempt to apply the Jacquard to the ornamentation of bob- 
bin*net was first successful in 1839, and progressed slowly 
till 1841, when a plan discovered by Hooton Deverill was 

• bought and patented by Messrs. Biddle and Birkin. The 
effect of this invention is supremely illustrative of those 
magical vicissitudes in fortune-making which have chequered 
the Nottingham lace trade, so that their parallel is scarcely 



310 BAUBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

found occurring in any other branch of industiy. " So rapid 
has been the application of the Jacquard since that period, 
that at the present time," si^s our authority, Mr. Birkin, 
** there is scarcely a machine at work without it, except those 
adapted purposely for plain net From that period the trade 
commenced anew, producing every description of pattern on 
all the known kinds of net. * * * * Such an impetus 
did the trade receive, that hundreds of machines which 
were useless or * worked up,' as the trade termed them, 
were brought into active and profitable use ; many of their 
owners, after spending from £80 to XlOO, being able to 
realize this outlay in, three or four weeks if put on with a 
saleable pattern." Inadequate as must be the summary 
allusions here made to the progress of the lace trade, to 
understand the origin and existence of such a place as New 
Basford, it is absolutely necessary to take along with us a 
view of these circumstances. Without more particularly 
adverting to the warp branch which Mr. Felkin, in giving 
its statistics, describes as being, despite their magnitude, now 
entirely in the hands of about fifteen firms, — we particu- 
larly refer, to the condition and influence of the bobbin-net 
branch as the primary element in the progress of Basford. 
♦'With the natural collapse of 1826," says Mr. Felkin, (So- 
ciety of Arts, May, 1 856) " came that of so-caJled bobbin-net 
prosperity, and a fearful one it was. Many lost all their 
means, and fell into hopeless poverty ; others died, or went 
into self-imposed exile. The immigration had been so great 
that Nottingham proper (always too densely populated) could 
not contain the people. The population burst its bounds, 
and so has continued to overflow ever since. In 1811, the 
numbers were 47,000; in 1856, 118,000 dwelling in the 
town and suburbs, an increase chiefly owing to the lace 
trade of which we are speaking," and one, we may add, 
which exactly explains the rapid rise and sudden appearance 
of places such as New Basford, Hyson Green, and Friesland, 
places which look as if they had all sprung up in a night — 
as if they had grown up in long uniform rows out of the 
earth, and never had been built at all. 

On the 25th of August, 1820, the great cotton works of 
Messrs. Robert Hall and Son, at Basford, were destroyed by 



HISTORICAL OCCURRENCES. 311 

fire — first observed by the watchman at 1 a.m., in the spin- 
ning-room on the fourth floor. The calamity, attributed to 
spontaneous ignition of cotton waste, was completely destruc- 
tive of the building, machinery, and everything in the interior, 
with the exception of the books : yet the alarm-bell on the 
top of the building was rung on the instant ; the fire-engines 
from Nottingham were brought up with post-horses. The 
flames, however, had gathered such intensity, that all efforts 
to arrest their progress were unavailing. 

We must be allowed to offer the foregoing more by way of 
specimen than as embodying the full register of Basford oc- 
currences : which, ' however, will be found in the main to 
embody records connected either with the progress and strug- 
gles of manufactures, or diversified, perhaps, by some well 
remembered crime. 

** The ill men do live sSter tbem. 
The good is ofl interred with their bones." 

The rapid advance of p>pulation in Basford, under the 
auspices of the lace and hosiery manufactures, which, from 
the proximity of its site to Nottingham, have received the 
most encouraging development, has not been less remark- 
able than that of other places adjacent The census returns 
«how that the parish has, within the last fifty years, ex- 
tended its population from S^lSi, in 1801, to 10,093, in 
1851 ; and it is well known that, besides the multiplication 
of its stocking frames and bobbin-net machinery, eight 
bleach fields have arisen^ and sereral new villages have been 
built within the parish. 

The celebrated Dr. Spray, for thirty years choral vicar of 
both cathedrals of Dublin, was a native of Basford, and 
related to the Pearsons of that place. He died January 21, 
Id'-^T, at the age of 69, and his monument, in St. Patrick's, 
describes him as having been the first tenor in the empire. 

New Basford, occupying a commanding site on the summit 
and northern slope of the eminence overlooking Nottingham 
Forest, and known as Sherwood Rise, though dating only 
since 1820, when the first brick was laid and the first house 
built, is now a large and populous place of several thousand 
inhabitants, (2,343 in 1851, but since increased to 3,000, by 



813 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAIf. 

the erection of new houses, new factories, and the progres- 
sive advance of population and looms,) all the more conspicu- 
ously, not only for being *' a city upon a hill," seen from the 
greatest distances around, but from consisting chiefly of 
those long factory ranges spoken of in our pro^ectus aft 
'' objects of no less socifld interest in our Bambles than the 
moss-grown monument of hoar antiquity, or the sculptured 
shrine of sacred worship." The rambler may say with Eco- 
lampadius, the friend of Luther, '*Homo sum et nihil 
humane alienum me puto" — '* A man I am, and nothing 
belonging to mankind think I foreign to me." Where, in- 
deed, could we find a more concentrated interest than in those 
hives of human industry where the honey of society in truth 
is made? The dignity of labour may well be the favourite 
theme of poetry and the platform, for the value of its results 
is far exceeded by the beauty of its details. Though difficult 
of access, and occupying almost an isolated position, as if 
the inhabitants, engrossed with the pursuits of labour, had 
cut themselves off from the world, in order to pursue unmo- 
lested their active and earnest occupations — New Basford, 
with its teeming population, is, within, a miniature town of 
regularly laid-out streets, intersecting each other at right 
angles, and composed fbr the most part of 8ubstantially*built 
houses, and of huge and imposing factories, with numerous 
abodes of the employers, as well as of the employed, occu- 
pying elevated sites, and commanding large surrounding 
prospects. 

But the district here, composed, to a great extent, of work- 
ing people, is comparatively poor and destitute, with scarcely 
any one resident within its bounds able or willing to assist in 
such a work as that of Church Extension. With exception 
of the owners of factories, the people almost all belong to the 
labouring classes ; and the district is consequently one of 
those erected into a separate ecclesiastical benefice, and en- 
dowed with £150 per annum under the Act of Sir Robert 
Peel, 6 and 7 Vict., cap. a7, by virtue of which Act an In- 
cumbent (presented by the Crown and Lord Bishop of the 
Diocese alternately) has already been appointed hy the Crown, 
(the right of the next presentation being in the Lord Bishop), 
and the district itself will become a new pariah aa soon as a 



PBIMITIVB LOOKING CHURCH. 313 

church is built and consecrated. Efforts towards the attain- 
ment of this end have not been wanting ; and the addition 
of £300 to a sura already raised would enable this important 
otyect to be proceeded with. We know not with what feel- 
ings the ms^ority of those who may at any time have visited 
the temporary and primitive-looking church now employed 
for the purposes of Public Worship at New Basford may 
have viewed the scene which there presents itself. The 
clergyman, the Rev. T. A. Bolton, has certainly made the 
most of his accommodations, and some, indeed, might say too 
much ; that is, however, no business of ours, and has nothing 
to do with the question before us. He has literally converted 
into an ecclesiastical interior the glazed range of a lace 
maker's work^shop, situated over a warehouse and other sheds 
in a back yard off Pepper-street, New Basford ; and he has 
contrived to throw into this little narrow range of seat-room 
the vista of an adjoining loft, which, when closed off with 
folding doors, is employed as a vestry, &c. This tem- 
porary place of worship is ascended by an exterior turnpike 
stair; it is surmounted at the eastern end by a wooden 
cross as indicative of its character, and fitted up within 
with a sort of recessed apse, containing an elevated altar» 
made in accordance with ancient patterns, and decorated 
with candles after the Catholic fashion, still retained in the 
queen's chapels and many other churches. There is also 
a credence or side-shelf for the reception of the elements, 
according to the strict letter of the Rubric, before their 
oblation on the altar. And the piscina, which is also in 
the usual ancient position, serves at present for a font. 
Those who perhaps blame the zealous Incumbent for resort- 
ing to every means that may suggest itself to his mind for 
heightening the effect of religious services reduced to such a 
situation in their performance, should instinctively appre- 
hend tha,t if there could be one plea of necessity stronger 
than another for the erection here of a fitting place of 
worship, it must be found in the fact of the ridicule and 
misconstruction to which the solemnities of religion are 
exposed by being thus miserably accommodated in a paltry 
workshop. When we say that the reproach of this state of 
things at New Basford could almost immediately be wiped 



S14 RAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

away by tbe addition of £300 to the sum already obtained 
for that purpose, we feel assured that no right minded 
Christian, of whatever denomination, would think his mite 
ill bestowed in helping to uphold the dignity and respect- 
ability of public worship in that quarter. Opinions may 
differ respecting the propriety of the chanted services, and 
observances now employed ; and whilst we have possibly 
suggested an excuse for some of these, it ought to be borne in 
mind that the establishment of a suitable parish church at 
New Basford is a matter not necessarily mixed up with the 
subsisting views or practices of any individual Incumbent. 
So near attainment and so desirable to be attained as we . 
conceive this object to be, we believe that a very different, 
because more respectable, aspect could be imparted to public 
worship at New Basford, and the influence of religion in- 
creased by the erection of a proper church. We are therefore 
very happy to understand that the site, eligibly, and indeed 
beautifully and conspicuously placed-^has been formally 
conveyed over by the generous donor, the Rev. F. S. Gawthern, 
formerly of Southhill, Southwell, and is now pallisaded and 
ready for the commencement of building operations when- 
ever sufficient funds are provided. It is a piece of ground of 
the value of i6150, occupying 1888 square yards, and situated 
Eastward, near the crest of the eminence exactly where New 
Basford is now most rapidly extending its streets and houses. 
Situated thus, the new Church cannot fail to add a very 
striking feature, and impart quite a new tone to the some- 
what tame and formal character of the plain and un- 
pretending buildings of the place. But irrespective of dl 
minor considerations, it is obvious that, where an object of 
so much consequence as the planting of a new church waits 
only, the production of so small a sum as £800 to set it going, 
that community must be sunk in abject indifference, or lost 
in apathy, indeed, amongst whom the amount were not found 
forthcoming. Such has never been the character of Not- 
tingham ; and will never be that of its neighlwurhood. The 
Lord Bishop of Lincoln, whose name is a guarantee for the good 
that is in every such work, is himself a subscriber of £26 
towards this Church Building Fund. We trust then, ere 
long, to see the commonplace strieets and squares of New 



n 



STOCKHILI4 HOUSlft— PETBIFTIHa WELL. 315 

Basford adorned by the cheering and significant feature of a 
church rising over them ; and we entertain no manner of 
doubt that such an accession to the landscape would add so 
materially to the respectability and importance of the place, 
that, in a mere worldly point of view, the owners of adjoining 
properties could not make a better investment than in the 
shape of a donation to the Church Building Fund. 

On returning to Old Basford, we should have to remark, 
(and may as well do so now) at the upper end of Mill-street, 
and at the junction of four different roads. Stock Hill House, 
the property and habitation of the Rev. T. A. Bolton, incum- 
bent of New Basford. The entrance is through a newly 
erected but ancient looking archway, leading up a dozen 
steps into a pleasure, ground and garden, adorned with nu- 
merous ornamental trees, &c., and altogether one of the most 
retired and beautiful private residences in the neighbour- 
hood. In addition to his priestly duties, the rev. gentleman 
is much devoted to genealogical and antiquarian pursuits. 
He exhibits also considerable skill in the art of carving in 
oak* &c. 

In the fields at Old Basford, between Broxtowe and Bob- 
ber *s Mill, is a curious rural weU, springing from under the 
roots of a tree. As the water runs along its course, it has 
the property of petrifying the moss there growing, several 
curious specimens of which are in the possession of Mr. 
Bailey and Rev. T. A. Bolton. The water also is considered 
good for strengthening weak eyes. 

The peculiar interest attaching to Mr. Birkin*8 factory — or 
rather to the factory of Messrs. R. and T. Birkin, the mayor's 
sons, his worship having made a purchase of the estates of 
the celebrated Admiral Sir John Borlace Warren, at Staple- 
ford, for £60,000, and retired in favour of the junior branches 
of his house, induced us, by the mayor's express permission, to 
pay it a speoisd visit for the purpose of laying a description 
before our readers. We found it, in one respect, most remark- 
able, namely, as an establishment combining within itself 
those elements of reproduction which naturalists dilate 
upon as the most marvellous of the qualities of a certain 
order of animals. Here, in fact, by the manufacture and 
production, not only of the far-famed laces of Nottingham, 



'316 KAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

but of tlie machines themselves on which these laces are 
fiabricated, the enterprising factory-owner keeps abreast of all 
those capricious changes and vicissitudes which signalize the 
.business. Thus the benefit of inventions and improvements 
peculiar to the establishment is more securely reserved for 
itself; and the jealously guarded secrets of the trade are pre- 
cluded from breathing any other than their native atmosphere ; 
.for it is from the adaptations of this complicated and inge- 
nious mechanism that all competitive advantages in the lace 
trade have sprung. This large factory, yielding active and 
constant employment to three hundred hands, extends ovfer 
an oblong space of ground overlooking the fields that margin 
the southern verge of New Basford. The principal factory 
building stretches away to the east ; but the buildings at the 
western end enclose a compact square of dressing rooms, 
pattem^designing shops, reeling, winding, and finishing 
establishments, all of which we shall notice in succession, 
«nd in the order in which we had the pleasure of being con- 
ducted over them by Mr. William BirHn, brother of the 
mayor, the intelligent and ingenious superintendent of the 
works. We of course had a preliminary peep at the engine. 
It is an old-fashioned green painted one, of 8-horse power, 
and drives perpendicular and horizontal, or lying, shafts, 
extending throughout the factory premises, under which it is 
situated. In the designing and draughting rooms on the 
west of the quadrangle, card patterns are designed, prepared, 
and made ready to perform the different lace patterns on the 
machines. The cards for the Jacquard attached to the ma- 
chines, are perforated by means of a card-punching machine, 
on the Manchester principle ; the proper punches being let 
by the Jacquard into a socket frame, which is afterwards 
removed, and placed in a roller press, where the cards are 
punched. Some of the usual triumphs of the Jacquard are 
exhibited here — as the portrait of " Charlotte Corday," exe- 
cuted and lettered in the loom at Lyons, and brought many 
years ago by Mr. Birkin, from France. 

We were now ready to enter the machine-rooms. In the 
first apartment upon the ground floor, where these moving 
mountains of complexity were at work, the attention was at 
once arrested by a vast machine of ibwenty quarters width, in 



BIEKIN*S LACE FACTOKT. 317 

foil operation. This macbine is constructed upon Beddoe's 
principle, believed to be the most matbematicdiy exact that 
exists. Altogether there are thirty -six of these immense 
machines at present in operation in this busy factory. It is 
astonishing to see them demanding so little attention, huge 
as they are, being each worked by a single attendant. In 
fact, the machine which, in its motions, is not unlike a vast 
piano-forte, with an endless succession of octaves all played 
in unison by some invisible power, weaves all its spells^-does 
everything for itself, scorning aid, and acting as if either en- 
dowed with intelligence or impelled by magic. The flat, 
round brass bobbins, which contain each a fine and beautiful 
thread of silk, attenuated but tenacious, seldom entwining 
less than three of the natural threads reeled from the cocoon, 
but more generally doubled by professional silk-doublers, so 
as to entwine six of these, and, therefore, of wonderful strength 
in proportion to its apparent thickness — these bobbins are 
ranged side by side, revolving, in operation, as many as forty 
to the inch. Each bobbin, small as seems its diameter, has 
reeled upon it one hundred yards of silk thread* The cir- 
cular bobbins weave or waft their threads, (that is, they work) 
above horizontally, whilst the warp threads are derived from 
rollers below, and keep traversing in the formation of the 
pattern, being caught up and carried to different points by 
ineans of the perforated steel bars after-mentioned. We ob- 
served a sixteen-quarters machine here at work, ^dth a large 
and magnificent pattern of blond lace. Two sets of cards 
are in use in the. production of these patterns — one appli- 
cable to the w«|,rps, the other to the bobbins. The droppers 
in the Jacquard indicate the varied and complicated move- 
ments of the minute and complex mechanism thus regulated 
by the perforations in these card^boards. One fine machine,' 
on the roU-and-locker principle, was at work in the production 
of plain silk net of the mosquito curtain description-r-forming 
an exquisite reticulation with hexagonal holes, ten to the 
inch. 

Before quitting the ground floor, we passed onward to the 
machine-room, at the entrance of which stands a powerful 
and, we believe, expensive little engine, for cutting the teeth 
of wheels used in the mechanism oi the lace factory. Here all 



318 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAk. 

the iimumerablo small pinions required in the construction 
of the machinery are cut from the solid steel, whether mitred, 
plain, or bevelled. This instrument is made by Joy, of M an- 
ter, and bears on it a brass index, with an elaborate table of 
the " numbers" of every wheel that can be required to be cut 
upon it, regulating the number of turns to be given to the 
machine in doing so. The iron-planing machine, and the 
smiths' machinery of this building-shop, in which the whole 
machinery required for the establishment id fabricated in all 
its parts, large and small, is driven by steam power, by means 
of belts, in the usual manner; and, of course, the work- 
benches are supplied with all the vices, drilhng instruments, 
&c., seen in " machine shops." A large and interesting part 
of the labour consists of drilling the necessary holes in the 
burnished steel bars, which, as already mentioned, work in 
the traversing portion of the lace machines, and which are 
so thin, that, though composed of polished steel, they are 
ninety to the inch ; and, in fact, pliant as a piece of ribbon. 
In a lower apartment behind, the forge is placed, and strong 
iron parts of the machineiy are welded. 

Next passing into the warping room : here the long beams 
which contain the silk warps are made ready to go to the 
machine, by having silk wound upon them, measured by a 
large brass index, with face and hand like a clock, so as to 
tell the quantity to a yard. Silk is also reeled here upon 
bobbins — ^the act of watching the threads, in either instance, 
demanding the keenest attention of a man or boy, who in- 
stantly that a thread gives way, stops the reeling machinery, 
and catching the ends with a small hook with which he is 
provided, adroitly knots them again together. 

In the first floor machine-room above, which is crowded 
with machines till its planks quiver with incessant motion, 
we found in operation a plat machine, which, since 1 840, has 
never ceased the production of a beautiful imitation Valen- 
ciennes lace, which it would be impossible for any but a 
skilled person to tell from the real article at a guinea a yard. 
Here, also, works the beautiful machine which Mr. Birikin 
had going at the Great Exhibition of 1851, a region, how- 
ever, rather unfavourable to the delicate constitution of these 
implements, whose achievements are so totally dependant on 



birein's lace factory. 819 

their mathematical exactitude and correBpondency of parts, 
that the very damp found condensed every morning on the 
glass of the compartment which it occupied in the Crystal 
Palace, greatly deranged this one, and occasioned much 
trouble with it after its return home, though now it is in 
beautiful working order. One of the machines exhibited a 
vast web of lace, in the act of being removed, and a fresh one 
started. 

On ascending to the top flat of the building, the tempersr 
ture proved tropical. It is the dressing-room of the factory, 
where the laces are ** got up," or dressed ; the heat main- 
tained by hot steam pipes is necessarily great, in order that 
they may be quickly dned, otherwise their beauty would be 
gone. The starch employed, is boiled by steam in an adjoin- 
ing room. The immense tables, which extend from end to 
end of the range of building, are capable of expanding also to 
any breadth — their frame-work being stretchers running upon 
tramways or rails, and worked by racks. 

The winding-rooms, which serve to transfer the silk from 
the hank to the bobbin, and on a more extended winding- 
machine, of bobbins arranged semicircularly and amphithe- 
atrically, to effect also the winding of cotton, are situated apart, 
on the north of the quadrangle. Each of these machines is 
provided with the index dial to check the quantities, in yards, 
wound on Jbhe bobbins. In one place, about twenty boys 
are employed in winding the* bits of silk thread which 
remain upon the bobbins after having been in the machines, 
and which, unless pieced together and recovered in this man- 
ner, would necessarily be wasted. Each different winding 
machine is adapted expressly for winding for some particular 
lace machine, according to its *' number," and to the quality 
of the silk to be employed upon it. The finishing-rooms, 
in which the same processes, such as drawing, clipping and 
scolloping, mending, &c., to perfect and prepaie the lace for 
market, occupy so many female hands in the Nottingham 
warehouses, are over-head. Such is a rapid survey of this 
lace factory of Mr. Birkin's, derived from cursory inspection. 
Further mechanical details will appear under our Radford 
Eamble. 



SQO BAMBLKS ROUND NDTTI»ORAM. 

We have already stated that there are eight large bleach- 
works within Basford parish. We believe the number, however, 
to be more considerable. Having already offered a special 
description (see p. 163) of the processes pursued in this trade 
of purification, at the Lenton establishment of Messrs Burton 
and Eames, who are, also, ga^sers and trimmers, but who 
have likewise an establishment at Basford, on the Nottingham- 
road, we may content ourselves with a simple reference to the 
large works of Messrs/Cox and Cartledge, (who are also dyers) 
in Lincoln-street, Basford ; to the Daybrook works, properly 
so called, (Messrs Farrands and Whyatt) and to those situ- 
ated on the west of Basford, where the Daybrook comes down 
into the Leen. There are also the bleaching works of the 
late Mr. John Fox, on the Nottingham-road, now in the oc- 
cupation of Mr. Robt. Tebbutt, of New Lenton ; those on the 
Radford-road, those formerly of the late Mr. T. B. Milnes, 
on the Bulwell-road; of Mr. J. E. Woodward, at Stump 
Cross Hall ; and those of Messrs. Ashwell and Co* 

Near the Railway line, about a quarter of a mile distant 
from the station, are situated the chemical works of Mr. John 
Ford, erected in 1860. These works are of infinite importr 
Ance to the success of the others just refen^ to, inasmuch 
as the sulphuric acid, &c., used at the bleach works, is here 
prepared; and, at the same time, superphosphate of lime, 
which our readers are no doubt generally aware, consists 
simply of bones digested or' dissolved in sulphuric acid, pro- 
dueing so wonderful an effect on crops, and effecting almost 
a revolution in i^cultural production, is extensively manu- 
factured here £6r the advantage of the farming interests. 

At Soottam, or Scot-holm, near the Leen, three covered 
springs were opened, and a large reservoir was formed in 
1827, for the purpose of affording an additional supply of 
pure water te. the Old Waterworks of Nottingham. At a 
total expense of JB60,000, the erection of extensive and mag- 
nificent Gas Works has just been completed and surrounded 
with a fine wall, on the approach to Basford, near the parish 
church. Every scientific and architectural improvement 
capable of being introduced in works of this kind, has been 
adopted ; but it is not for us to describe anything on which 



SCAXJMQ'a BAAKBT FiMTEOBT. 3S1 

t)ie>f9lMltf may ao roadOy inform Mmscif as the making of 
g^ bj the destmctiTe distillation of eoal. 

An interesting and extensive purse and bsace manulactory, 
belX)agtiiig. to Mesam. Kelk and Peaxson, exists at Whitemoor- 
pboe, ,a small hamlet on the Alfreton-road, a mile and a half 
xvMtb^west of Nottingham, (but in the parish of Basford). « 

Wiwideiing next to the opposite extremity of Basford, and 
rather tp t^e rear of the town or Tillage, where the kng and 
varied .sueoession of houses, known as Ooalpit->lane, runs west* 
wards ou<i into the. country, we eome upon the basket-works 
of Mr. Scaling, formerly of Edinburgh, but who has of late 
yeauB taken up these works, (the pmperbf, we.beheve, of Mr. 
Thi^mas Bailay) for the oonvenieoce of bnmg near the osier 
fields of tbe Trent. JV/t this establishment, the willows em- 
ployed in basket-making are pui through all the vanoua 
processes of preparation, by heat and manual labour, and 
ultimately worked upinto«rticlea of the greatest elegance and 
diversity, some of them perfectly gorgeous and luxurious in 
thmr cbaraotei!, and shown with great eclat at the Crystal 
Palaces boib of 1861 and of Sydenham. Mr. Scaling is the 
inventor of a patent.hand*implemant for facilitating the operas ' 
tion of splitting osiers, by reducing the friction. It is a veiy ' 
ingenious and beautiful little machine. And he deserves 
gseat credit for having reduced these works, whidi had for- 
ixierly, ovnng to the disaipated habits. of the hands empkiyed 
in basket-making, rathec an indifferent character, to the 
most exemplary condition of order and industry. A new 
m^^^rial, of enormous strength, combined with extreme light- 
ness and elaatioity, which he has recendy introduced and 
woven up into the bodies of gigs and phaeton carriages — being 
simply split canes — promises to afford a cheap, durable, and 
elegant substitute for these purposes. K employed in the 
coaetruction of firs^class safety railway carriages, it would 
almost insure the lives of passengers in case of collision. But 
the pretty gilded, painted, and varnished baskets, flower 
stands, tabks, 4cc., thedr beautiful shapes and captivating 
ornamentatioA) form the finest possible show of £ancy>-work, 
and Mr, Soaliug is always happy to exhibit them to advan- 
tage. Of course it will be understood, (as indeed their vast 
quantity would prove upon inspection) that all these are 

T 



332 . RAMBLKa BOUNP MOIFIISGnAH. 

mamifactijured for :tbii3 ^viudleaale ti-adey aoid' not iat retail ; 
and, we believe, that; the 'pidiica|ial mairkist for these fancy- 
artiqles is; found iuXondon. 

It belotigs . more particularly : ^o the era f&r iirl^ich^ the 
present work is written, to ^nter upmi ?the ghbje4^ of the- 
development of our mineral restmrces, to which- the progress 
of all the variety of works we have now had tocoasion to notice 
under tha he«d of Basford, is realiy ;du^; ibecause k is com- 
parativelj within ia recent period,, and liikiDly owing to the 
energy and entetprise of one individual^ 'having under his 
control from 9,000 to 10,000 acres of the important coal-field 
here abutting upon the nprfch-west of Nottingham, that the 
Basford coal-field (as dtimay be called) hiis risen into gigantic 
proportions and importance. Mr. Bailey, we think,' has 
remarked, that;. in travelling along the lino of the Nottingham 
and Mansfield Hallway, all the cottntryto the right of, and 
behind the passenger^ with exception of t^ro small cOal-fi(dlds 
in.Leieestexshitey ia destitute of ooal,; and nearly destitute of 
iibn ; whilst on the left hand, alnsrot fevery acre of an enor- 
moiis tract of land, abounds in boili. Oroesing over from the 
village of Baafordto the western extremity of the parish, we 
reach the celebrated coal- works of Ctiider Hill, belonging to 
Thomas Nocth, Esq. It is propeo: ito state at the outset, 
that the coalifield worked by Mr: Nortli at this and other 
points in the neigVihourhood— such as Babbington, Turkey- 
field, Kimberley, &c;, by the aid of no fewer ttan twenty-ono 
fixed Slid locomotive. steam engines, is pari of the greatest 
coal-field of Great Britain, described by the highest autho- 
rity aa a coal viewer in the United Kingdom, John Thomas 
Woodhouse^ iEsq., CwE., at a complimentary dinner given to 
him in jNottingham, 16th April, 1856, as lying betvrixt the 
towns of: Nottingham and lieeds. Odal> in thi^ country, is 
di^ributed. in huge basins. This coal-field, which com- 
nje0ceg half a mile from Nottinghanii, in the valley of the 
LjBen, and proceeding past Wollaton, Ohilwell, Ilkeston, 
I)eirby,.01aycro88 and Dronfidd, Belper and Alfreton, Lockoe, 
OJbie^rfield^ Huddersfield, Halifaot, Bradford, and Leeds, 
far exceeds, as at present; explored,- those of the north-west 
o^ Yorl(shire or of Lancsashire. By some ^ologists, indeed, 
it has beem identified with, and dascvibeda^ A contimiation 



COAL-FIELD OF THOMAS NORTH, ESQ. 823 

of' the Yorkshire coial basin, as re-appearing beyond the 
valley of the Tees, and extending across the Wear, the Tyne, 
und th6 Derwent, -through Durham and Northumberland. 
The Lancashire coal deposits range, however, from Manches- 
ter to near Liverpool, by Preston and Wigan, and are 
similarly supposed to be, at a vast depth, connected with the 
coal formations of Flintshire and Shrewsbury. The great 
oval basin of South Wales is also one of the largest coal-fields 
in Britain, extending from St. Bride's Bay to Pont-y-Pool. 
Detached but valuable and productive coal-fields also exist at 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, at Coventry, at Dudley, Colebrookdale, 
amongst the Clee-hiUs, in the Forest of Dean, and King's 
Wood: Such is the quantity of coal betwixt Nottingham 
^tkd Leeds, that from its inconceivable thickness, every acre 
of "the immense ex ten t contains twenty thousand tons of coal, 
every square mile, twelve millions; and ev^ry cubic milo 
seventy-two millions of tons. According to Mr; Woodhouse, 
it is endless to conjecture what extent of c^oal exists to the 
eastward, whence it is known to be dipping twelve miles 
consecutively towards Worksop, and it may, therefore, be 
rising for twelve miles more to the westward, affording the 
prospect of a boundless supply. 

Having lately spent two entire days, one upon the surface, 
the other somewhere under it, on Mr. North's ooal-field, we 
happen to be in a condition to render an account of these 
exteiisive coal-mines. We shall first, with the reader's per- 
mission, pass over the surface ; some idea of the extent and 
situation of which may be entertained, when "we state that 
Mr. North is the owner, upon long leases of eighty years, of 
the following coal districts: — 2,000 acres under Robert 
Holden, Esq., of Nuttal Temple ; 2,000 under Jas. Thomas 
Edge, Esq., of Strelley ; 2,000 under the Rev. Chas, Padley, 
of Bulwell ; 1,500 Under His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, 
(being the district under immediate operation at Cinder Hill ;) 
1,000 under Lord Viscount Palmerston and His Grace the 
Dukeof Rutland; 300 acres under Francis Hall, Esq., and 500 
in sundry lots, (including 100 acres of Mr. North's own, at 
Turkey-field), in all, 9,500, or approaching 10,000 acres of 
one continuous coal-field. 

An. agreeable party having been formed for these Rambles, 



324 BAMSLES BOUND »0TTlNaH4V* 

the rendezvous wfus made in cabs at Bobber's jMill Cod 
Wharf, one fine morning of rather specious promise as re- 
spected the propitiousness of the weather — but let that pass — 
the elements were just sufSciently uncertain to add a iresh 
zest to the enterprize, and off we set in a private locomotive 
on a private railway line, to survey the dominions of thi« 
mineral lord. Just glancing at the arrangements of New* 
castle Pit, sank in 1858, and named after His Grace the 
Duke of Newcastle, the lord of the manor — off we set-.— 
without our locomotive, by the way, down the ineline to Rad- 
ford Wharf, along a smooth and beautiful single line of rails 
all the way tp the Nottingham (3anal Wharf, near Badford 
Bridge*— a busy scene, where immense quantities of coals i|i 
trucks, and piled in heaps, are perpetually in process of being 
transferred to the barges on the oaaal, for water conveyance. 
Thence back again, with the aid of the en^ne, was an easy 
and agreeable run of little upwards of a mile ; passing, both 
in going and returning, Aspley Hall, the seat of !l^chaid 
Birkin, Esq., iT^ayor of Nottingham, and obtaining beautifu} 
and well-wood^ rural views in the immediate yidxiity, as welt 
as throwing into varying oudine the distant traces of th« 
town. Returning to the Newcastle Pit. of whieb we had 
made the descent on a previous ocoasion, and do siot mean to 
refer again in our descent of the pits, we may mentapn thai 
these new works possess, like those at Cind^ Hill, an up- 
cast and a down-cast shaft ; and that the " <uiige" at the 
pit mouth, £or the prevention of accident, the invention of 
Mr. Samuel Walters, the under^viewer, is one of the moet 
ingenious as well as usisful things ever introduced. It is 
simply a guard of iron, which, as the platform upon which 
the feet are rested in descending the pit rises to die leyel of 
the pit mouth, is so constructed as tQ be raised six feet over- 
head for any one to pass underneath on to the platform ; but 
whenever the platform is made to descend the pit, with ot 
without its living freight, the cage drops upon and is anested 
at the pit mouth, forming a complete protection against any 
one falling in. By the action of a lever, this page apparatus 
can be thrown in or out of gear, and made to act or not, juat 
as may be desired. The mains, levels, and passages in thia 
fine pit, which is of the depth of one hundred and fifty yigrds, 



RAILWAY TBIP ON A PRIVATES LINE. S95 

Are pushed to a very considerable extent ; and the ventilation, 
under the direction of Mr. Woodhouse, is such as to have 
already attained him pre-eminence in various coal districts as 
Superintending engineer. The object of our previous visit, 
however, having simply been to examine in situ a dome-stool, 
or root of the great coal plant stigmaria flcoides, cropping out of 
the sandstone at the floor of one of the passages, and pre- 
itenting the usual enormous girth and stem-like ramifications 
of these gigantic equmtae of a more than tropic era of pri- 
mSBval vegetation — we do not intend in this instance entering 
into any details. 

Newcastle Pit was therefore soon left behind, in another 
run of three-quarters of a mile or thereby, to Cinder Hill 
Colliery, established in 1842, and fouming the great centre- 
point of Mr. North's mining operations, on which, however, 
we need not at present dwell, as this pit will be fully des- 
cribed hereafter, both above-ground and below. Away, there- 
fore, went our locomotive, to explore the coal district to the 
west ; and it may excite surprise to learn that, by a private 
Kne of rails, whose ramifications extend in one way or another 
above ground, eighteen miles, (Mr. North possessing an equal 
extent of railway under ground) we ran, by the aid of loco- 
motives, of stationary engines at the inclines, partly by gravi- 
tation, and partly by horses, to the Nottingham Canal basin at 
the eastern base of the commanding steep along whose sum- 
mit stretches the interesting and imposing town of Ilkeston. 
A capitally formed line conducted us through a cUt to the 
bottom of the ascent above Horsingdale Farm, 'immediately 
westwards of Cinder Hill. This railway formerly took a 
much lower range, and is laid down upon the Ordnance Sur- 
vey as passing from Cinder Hill south-westwards to Broxtowe 
Wood, and thence nearly due West thrcfugh Chilwell Dam 
Plantation, nigh Chilwell Dam and Spring Wood ; whereas 
it has since (in 1846) been diverted considerably to the north, 
by arrangement with Mr. Edge, of Strelley, to preserve the 
privacy of the Strelley demesne, and avoid running past the 
north lodge. The incline, from the belt of wood at the bottom 
to the summit, extends the immense distance of 3,100 yards, 
— ndt far short of 10,000 feet, and is worked with remarkable 
6ase, facility, and security, by means of a wire rope, wound 



326 RAMBLES ROUWD NOTTIKGHAM. 

upon the drum of the stationary engine, and running betwixt 
bevilled pulleys. Tliese contrivances seem to diminish the 
strain and the friction, and sensibly contribute to the smooth- 
ness and steadiness of both ascent and descent. Before enter- 
ing the Longlands Koughs, where tJie boundary of Lord 
Middleton's property is seen along a short portion of thehne, 
a distant perspective view is obtained of Nuttall Temple — an 
edifice of classic architecture, standing like the statue of 
surprise in the midst of the English rural landscape. The 
summit ground is at Strelley MUl ; a windmill, as may well 
be supposed, for here may be seen the apparition of an old 
friend, in the shape of one of the " transported" windmills 
which, till of late, used to adorn the ridge of Nottinghani 
Forest. The incline down from this summit-ground rapidly 
conducts us to the point where the Kimberley and Turkey- 
field branches of the private line diverge — the view to the 
west opening magnificently upon Ilkeston church and the 
picturesque outlines of the scenery of Derbyshire — bounded 
amphitheatrically to the north by a splendid curvilinear 
outline of eminences on the- outskirts of Sherwood Forest 
— the Felley Hills above the ruin of Beauvale Priory — tlie 
Long Hills above Hucknall Torkard — the " daik hills of 
Annesley" and of Robin Hood. The aid of horses as 
a tractive power was now essential, as we passed Babbington 
works apd " Cottage," the former residence of Mr. North, 
now in the occupation of his resident engineer, Mr. Kichai'd 
Gresham Barber, to whom, gentle reader, we are both of us in- 
finitely indeltted for the chief particulars now detailed, as the 
author and his party were indebted for many and varied acts of 
courtesy on the occasion. In this vicinity, on his own property, 
tlie mining operations of Mr. North are directed to the extract- 
ion of ironstone, occurring at quite a superficial depth, in a vein 
of tolerable thickness. The ironstone is, we believe, calcined 
at Stanton Iron Works, which are in proximity. Passing 
onwards through Cossal Marsh, only to return, however, to 
Babbington — on a rising ground to the left, stands the old 
church and village of Cossal, remarkable as the burial place 
of the Willoughbys, and as the birth-placie of Shaw, the 
Waterloo Lifeguardsman. The crossing on the level of the 
Erewash Valley branch of the Midland Railway, brings for« 



/ BABBINGTON.COLCIEIUES.' 327 

wat^ all tlie w€&oid«»d Ghaeractexiatiios of that quiet but 
exG^leat minaral and passeager line ; and we pass on to the 
Canal wkatrf or basin/ us. close as the swell of the surface will 
pennit the wafer leviel to approximate to Ilkeston-r-which is 
p^a^s within about a mile^crossing on our ^waythe tortu- 
<ir3LS icoujfse of the Erewash river, a paltry stream, destructive 
in its ^ndinga to much meadow land of considerable value, 
by cutting it u^'into shreds and patches, far more fanciful 
than di^sirabla If at this inland harbour we meet not with 
ihe.sbip8 ajudfiagS'of all nations, we meet at least with ves- 
sels of Dutch^looklBg build, inscribed with the ixames of 

.^lerably distant places, both east and west, there being 
Always eevei'ai of these curious craft '^ in harbour/' This point 
is t]!i^-ofr;the tenmni — in fact, the farthest. extremity of Mr. 
Notthla railways ; and thence our- party returned to luncheon 

. at BAbbingtioa . Cottage. The scene from- the front of this 
-edifiee is, singularly 'extensive — -bounded in the distance by a 

.bill'' range .of; lofty altitude, crowned by the grand square 
tOfWer.of.th^ idauBch, and the extended masonry of ihe town 
of' UkestgiB-^the itaiddle distance stretches out into a rich 
jaind Cultivated basin whdch, thus hemmed in, imparts an air 
^f ptrivaty and: netiremenfcto the residence strangely struggUng 
with the opposite ideas suggissted by the vast expansion of 
tj)d proapefct. The house is environed by excellent lawns and 
^arobns. A few hundred yards to the eastward are situated 
the Babbington Collieries. The inspection of the arrangements 
at these works, now occupied our. attention. A chapel has 
been provided, of rather a neat appearance, for ministrations 
of the General Baptist persuasion, being seiTed every Tues- 
day,- and* oceauonaUy on, Sundiays, by a local preacher of that 
denomination. The windows have richly stained glass ; it is 

. £tted .up with gas, and jxissesses an organ. There is a 
handsome pulpit, dnd the congregation attending usually . 
j^^nder the little chapel pretty full, about half of them being 
maka^ The next object of attraction is the large and roomy 
-cottagers', houses, which, at a cost of about Jg 60 each, have 
been .eceoted so as to provide three sleeping apartments, be- 
^idsa living rooms for each family ; and being connected with 
.flower plots in front, and small allotments of land for culture 

.3tra;sboirt distance, appear to comprise all the requisites for 



3^8 luuBLBs BouvD vontH&mkM. 

impRmng thd MndiiHidit'of tite ckss of liboQieM l»r wliom 
they ad?e doBlined. The gnat pmnpmg engine at these werks 
is a noUe specimen of dbd eld gigantie iraiking beaxn struc- 
ture of JaaieB Watty wi4di the pmllel jbints ; iHig of 130«boi«e 
power, and poneaaee a pum^iig rod of 196 feet Anodier 
engine^ on the high-preeecue principle, i^r the eerHne of the 
pits, is of 4(>*hoi8e power; it is simply med Ibr windkig, a&d 
some idea may be htmed of the mode in whiah it is oeeupied 
from the statement that, out of a pit one huddi«d and fifty 
yards doep» it serves to put oat 3,000 tons oi eoal a -week. 
During the ran to the Ttukeyfield/woarks, lihe eletnents be- 
trayed us, and although we aocomplished the inspection of 
four mcate exoellent stationary engmes at llieil piaee, loc^Mid 
down the shafts, and n^tieed ^ow the eoal was mn out ttpon 
the baxik, we must make the details of the deseent at Cinder 
Hill» still to be gixren, to suffice once for idl, and content cast- 
selves wijl^ sajting that^ leavrng this oeal^fielklY as well as tiiat 
of Kimberley again behind, we sped onwards as fast as steam 
could drag and the elements pursue, to Cinder HUl. The 
afternoon, exhibiting, howciver, a '* lucid interral,'^ we were 
^ttst enabled to complete the detour of Mr* Norih^s mineral 
. railway, by running down the new hne wMeh he has lately 
coinstructed, of about a mile in . lengihv ooimecttng with the 
Mansfield line, near Basford. It is a vety fine line passing 
not veiy far from the Barford Union Woridhouse, on the 
Bulwell'-road, and sertes to complete the work of contcrya&ce 
in all directions, by rood, and raiUcsnaU and< otherwise, lead- 
ing in all diiseetioBs on, to, over, and l^om> these tKtensive 
CQ^heri^, in all their ramificaticns. 

.We return to Cinder HilU for the puxpese of deseribitig 
. the works there, both in ilhistrationof the features pmsetitod 
above and below ground^ at the othor ooltieries/ and on ac- 
oount of some very lapge and remarkable liatui^s, peeoliarty 
their own. Amongst these is neeessioiiy the e&tensive brick- 
yard, offiYe years standing, of sia acres in extent, with aix 
going kilns or fiimaces, producing sometimes 80,000 bricka 
a day, and known to have turned out d90>O0O in a^ fovtniglirt,. 
or, in the aggregate, ten millioiis in Ryeex^ With eutsh oex- 
terity are bricks capabk of bedng manufaetuifediK^ien rsqniiied 
at this establialmu»nt> that they have been ooeasionatiy tamed 



BBJGKMAXXHt^ OK A OtOAKttC SCALE. 3529 

out pefi^(not burnt) the next day but one after being dug ftcntn 
the olay . It i^re not alU^ther pleasant walking about in this 
briek Iftboyatoty were not the flats betwiict the ranges of sheds, 
irhidi are three in number^ carefully riddled over with ashes 
A^Hot, as may well be supposed, for the convenienee of 
vi^tots, who, in truth, are mere intruders upon such a scene 
of tefiiWe activity, (for of all the energetic tasks of hutnati 
labour, brick^making, since the time of Babel, seems to hare 
demanded' the most incredible despatch) but to preserve the 
wet bricks from adhering in their early stages to the sol^. 
The splendid day which is obtained from an immense exca- 
v&ttion in the rear of the btick-works, would be found stronger 
atid more adhesive than might be convenient for manufac- 
turing purposes, were not a quantity of sand-rock, got in 
qt&i^^rtying the day, pulveiiised and nilled through its substance. 
This has also the beneficial effect of making the clay in 
drying and burning, stand to its size. The clay itself, is 
procured in an almost astounding fashion. An inclined stage 
of sixty yard« in length extends up a very precipitous gradient 
from tile bottom of the clay-pit or quarry, to the top flat of 
«n elevMed engine-house in the brick-yard. In entering this 
bouse to notice what happens there, it will be found that an 
engine of 14-horse power drives a pair of powerful metal 
■ «>»dr6, betwixt which the clay passes in its descent firom 
above ; andt as fast as knives can shear it off into the pug- 
mill', it is crushed into plasticity and instantly disgorged at 
the bottom of the engine-house, in a soft pulpy mass, quite 
ad tepidly as relays <^ spadesmen can cut and clear it away 
from a doorway, over which might be written in characters of 
day, *» the greater part of the town of Nottingham made here.*' 
But the mystery of this great pulp is not yet solved. Cauti- 
ously ascending the slimy steps — ^watch the huge cams and 
oitishers of the pug mill on the first flat, and mounting by 
ihe stairway in its interior, to the top flat, we here see the 
waggon load of clay dragged up the inclined stage by the 
engine, trhich is provided for the purpose with a mode of 
ingeniously throwing this part of its task-work in and out of 
gear by the sMght movement of a lever. The strong waggons 
of course run on a tram railway. On their arrival on the top 
flat' they are swiMy tilted over, and their contents emptied 



300 BAMBhlSS BOUJNI) NQTTINOHAH. 

into the pug maehiiifi*-^the coane mas? of Dadye day slides 

slowlj and reluctantly out of the place where U has heen 
impacted, and its gravitation has to be aided by a liberal 
wetting with bucket^ of water from a, tank — the bottoms and 
sides of the empty .waggons are likewise wetted bef(»<8 launch- 
ing, as a precaution for the future — then they are launched 
empty down tbe dizzy slope with an exciting plunge wl^ich 
a ship launch scarcely equals, rebounding against the soft got 
clay below, where strong and sinewy 9p%desmen are seen 
piling the tough slime into the next succeeding vehicle. The 
brick-kilns, in which the burning takes, place^ are foianidable 
erections of vast capacity, one being capal^le of holding 00^000, 
and another 45»000 bricks. They are drawn every ten days, 
or once a fortnight. 

. Before, however; descending from the staii^ of the engijoe- 
room,. it may be as w^U ^ nptice^.as a landmark for. future 
reference in tl^e desc^i^tof ^fJinder Hill Pit, on the Broad Oak 
Farm of the estate of Hempshalli a. plantation on a green 
eminence, at the distance of a quarter of $. jBOtile eaat by,16|- 
north, ^ by the qompaaa.. Beyond t^is Vn^iQ^i^^ is situated 
Pit No. S> an up-cast shaft, for the puiposes of ventilation. 
At this point we shall personally sifxwe in the peogrese of oqr 
*' Subterranean Bamble." , , 

Ev^n the woodyard in connection with the yroxks at Cinder 
Hill is worth inspecting; if indeeid we ought, under that 
name, to comprise all the various suites o( offip0S anfi wor]^- 
shops at which wao4 and iron are prepared and applied for every 
requisite purpose, of the pits. The wood is receiyed in large 
quantitiess, and spme of it of a qnality. which, af^rds very fine 
and. favourable specimens of our leading growths of timber. 
It is sawn lengthwise into- planks^ .which, aie ext^n8ively re- 
quired, or crosscut iqtq stoops of great st^ngth and solidity 
for under-groi;nd support^ ; and large quantities are con- 
sumed in the prpduction of frupks cuod waggp^s here producd, 
even to the very wheels, ^n which they .run, (which are of iron) 
for the use of the works. The blacksmiths' shops, and stores 
where every varieity of iron-work in use in or about the coal- 
mines is forged, ar^ therefore ^^ot the least interesting amongst 
the sights upon the surface. 
. These Gf^aX W.orks ^re, iji fact, the l&rg^t in this part of tbe 



UP-CAST ANJ) DOWN-CAST SHAFTS AT CINDER HlLL. 331 

CQimtry, anil the coal-banks and pit-mouths at all, times pre- 
sent a thronged and animated appearance, from the multitude 
of vehicles in the process of loadmg coal — superadded to all 
the other details, connected with the works ; all confusion 
being, however,!^obviated bj the systematic ordejc with which 
every branch is conducted. Having arrayed ourselves appro-. 
piT,ately for the descent, a precaution rendered necessary 
— not, as in many pits, from the exudation of moisture at the 
separations of the strata at descending the shaft — for the 
shaft here, as at Newcastle Pit, wears an iron lining, techni- 
cally called the " tub'," and is by this means rendered perfectly 
dry; but, because in going along the face of the coal, in order 
to witness the manner in which it is ."won," where progress 
has frequently to be made on all fours, from the passage 
being blocked up with the mineral produce, it may be easily 
supposed, that' this is one of those situations in which fine 
feathers do not serve to make fine birds. A suit of flannel is 
kept at most collieries for the accommodation of enterprising 
visitors. But here come the lanterns — their visual rays will 
be sadly wanted in the shades below. And now pur foot is 
on the giddy platform of the down-cast shaft. ^ There are 
two shafts at present in operation at Cinder Hill tit — the 
up-cast^ and. the down-cast, the one ten, and the other seven 
feet in diameter — and we stand at this moment poised in air; 
beneath us a depth of 220 yards In the first instance, down 
to the present "level," with a lodge or sump for the reception 
of water of the depth of thirty yards more below that. At 
this moment they are winding coals from the level at the 
other shaft, also 220 yards in depth. There, is a crust of 
earth of 23 yards in thickness ; apd below the present level 
the pit has been sunk 209 yards raore, making in all 452 yards 
in depth ; though, in the mean time, coal is worked only qn 
the level above mentioned. The borings have even been 
extended 18 yards lower than the depth last-mentioned, 
making altogether, the depth to which the earth has been 
explored, at Cinder Hill, 470 yards. At the distance of 100 
yards from these shafts, another shaft, a double, one, being 
both an up-cast and a down-cast, h^s been sunk, and will be 
used to raise the coal from the bed now being worked ; the 
present shaft being in that case had recourse to in raising the 



SB2 RAMBLB8 BO0KD KOTflKGHAM. 

coal from a seoond stratum uncl^fneath. *' The applications 
of modem sdetice,*' said Mr. Woodhouse, C.E., on a recent 
occasion in Nottingham, to which we have already had occa- 
sion to refer, in speaking of the career of that distinguished 
ventilator — ••The applications of modem science, which I 
trust I may say are as yet only upon the threshold, leave no 
douht of our heing able to work coal at the depth of 1,000 
yards with eade. tn England we have hitherto only gone 
to a depth df 600 yards, however ; Mr. North's pits at Cinder 
Hill are something under 250 yards, but have been explored 
to the depth of 200 yards m6re, making alt6gether a depth of 
fully 450 yards. And coals will ultimately be obtained at 
the depth I have stated; although they may be foUnd to yield 
A vast amount of explosive gas ; for by pursuing the mode of 
management now introduced for a few years, we shall find 
ourselves possessed of underground establishments, aiid work- 
shops of all kinds, lighted with gas, and furnished with 
washing, dressing, and reading-rooms, on a large scale, as 
easy and agreeable, and far more interesting than those on 
the top, although deprived of the light of the sun. (Cheers.) 
These things* will be brought about by the applicatioti of 
science, and there can be no doubt that ftiel will oe raised at 
a price equally remunerative to the undertaker, and cheaper 
to the consumer, than even now. 1 will not go into the 

Suestion, however, unless it should afford any gratification t6 
Ir. North, and others in the room, to know that there is not 
any great prospect of the price of coal being much increased 
above what it Is at present. (Laughter.) You have been 
kind enough to spdak of the improvements I have made ; and 
there is one I have been very desirous to carry out — the im- 
provement of the scheme of ventilation — a subject coming a 
great deal nearer home than you may imagine — for collieries 
and ventil&tion are synonymous terms. If ventilation should 
be neglected in the collieries, we may expect to hear of fifty 
or sixty people being blown up together by some great explo- 
sion. But ventilation is, in large towns, of far more import- 
ance than in pits. Look at the state of small houses in 
towns — at the state of the sewerage ; remark the disagreeable 
smells in large towns — although Nottingham is, I must say, 
0116 of the best of them — and it will be found that ventilation 



]>B9CMHT OF THE PIT. 933 

is of twice the impcMrtanice to tbe art of the curchit^ that it i^ 
to that of the engineer. Formerly, in coHieriea, it was tb^ 
case, that eyery- man became old at forty-five ; no man was 
to be found who was fresh, straight, and upright, at the ag^ 
of for^y-five, and no man was to be seen who had not beeu 
$^ared with the effects of explosions, or whose outer skin wa^ 
not suffering from the effects of recent iz\jury by accident. 
But now the whole of these evils ace remedied. So much for 
ventilation. Ope ipaore sulg^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ 
with the collieries. I am very much obliged to my esteemed 
friend, the mayor, for calling attention also to the improve^ 
ments in machinery. We cap now ascend six hundred feet 
in three-quarters of a minute, with greater safety ih^m w^ 
could formerly have done in tan minutes. (Cheers.) Most 
of you know the wo^ks of our excellent friend Mr. North, and 
after having had the pleasure of completing these works, I 
am glad to believe them to be constituted with a stability 
which no accident can shake, and that no cofmmercial crisis 
can effect their secairity. That is all I shall say of the work^ 
of your friend and mine, Mr. North. (Hear, hear.)" Whilst 
prating in this mann^, we do not forget that we had stepped 
upon the grated wooden platform to descepd. We are safe 
enough. There is a strong square beam or bar of iron pa^s* 
ing midway overhead) for grasping jui the descoAt But that 
is Qot it^-there is also the cag^fenc^ of tbo pixticular des» 
criptiop n^entioned at Newoastle Pit, lifting tbo guard from 
the pit-mouth as the platform comes up, ar^d retaining it si:^ 
feet over-head till the platform, ^aio, descends, when it falls 
down round the pit mouth, and guard? it. ^Neither is it that 
which forms or affects our sedurity-^rlook up and see the 
broad flat coil of plaited wiie, forming a belt rather than a 
rope, wound by the steam engine round the mighty drun^ 
above us ! It is that on which the safety and celerity of the 
remarkable descent about to be accomplished alike depend. 
The giant eiteam holds us in the grasp of his iron sinews, and 
we wait for the turn of the engineer's handle to mov^ as 
much as an inch. The very boiler-house is a sight! Eight 
new boilers, hissing hot with steam, run off side by side under 
tibie level of its stone platform twenty-nine feet in lengthy and 
four feet six inches each in diameter. The new engine, about 



33'4 RAMBLES ROUND -NCmNGUAM. 

lime months erected, is a beauty, of 180-borse power, capable 
of being worked tip to 200. The maker is a celebrated one 
— Diavis, of Tipton, in Staffordshire. At the. pits Nos. 1 and 
3," however, of whifch we are speaking, there is also an engine 
of IBO-horse power, having' eight boildrs, of four feet six 
inches diameter, seven' of them extending twenty-eight feet 
three inches, and one of item thirty-two feet in length. 
■ The signal is given! down we gol precipitated by this 
delicate monster of 180-horse power ! He makes quick work 
of it I 220 yards in half a minute ^ that is ftU. For the first 
second,' as the platform gives'^ay under your feet, the heart 
tfeitiks with it. Another beat of thie pulse and the repeater, 
and you think of it no more !— only the darkness grows visi- 
ble — yout lantern- shines oUt^-^the voices at the pit-mouth, 
thbu^ in confidential ■Whispers,- become audible, as if spoken 
through a trunipet, or in a 'whispering gallery. They are 
saying "we are used to it, aiid have been down before.'* Quite 
right, we have' been niilety fathonos dc^wn the most dangerous 
mine in Britain, thrfee weeks ' after a fatal explosion. This 
is mere ballooning to it; and, thanks to'Mr. Woodhouse's 
skill, there is no danger — ^there never has been a single acci- 
dent — a circumstance on which Mr. North has been expressly 
complimented more than once by the Commissioners of 
Mines and their Inspectors. But here we are, in total dark- 
ness, at the bottom. The two shafts are twelve yards apart, 
from centre to centre. Step gently out on the landing, i, e., 
into the passages adjoining the one shaft, that we may visit the 
6ther. tt is, however, an underground circuit of fifty yards 
from the one pit to the other; it could never be supposed 
that there was' a road diiiect, at least in use. The ventilating 
system requires that it should be otherwise ; • and accordingly 
wiB speedily arrive at two doors. These are quickly opened to 
admit us to pass ; but so essential is it to preserve the right 
direction of the current of air, that two boys are perpetually 
stationed at them to close them after being passed through. 
Betwixt thfese first two doors, a solid flap, or " life and death 
door," secured -up to the roof, and suspended over-head on 
hinges, so as to be capable of being let down in a single 
monrent, for the purpose of throwing the air, in case of its 
currents being disturbed by an explosion, back into its pro- 



A StTBTERRANEAN STUD AND StABLES. 335 

piei* channel. " Having thus proceeded so far in the direction 
leading tbthe furnace, which, by rarifying the column of air^ 
play^ so importatit a part in that process of ventilation for 
which Mr. Woodhouse has justly earned so much celebrity, 
we then retraced our footsteps in the direction of the up-cast 
sTiaift ; passing by it, however, With a hasty glaric6, aiid tak- 
ing, the main passage, we Advanced ten yards, as far as the- 
stables. The fact is, that this arterial passage is a regular rail- 
way tunnel, with a 'd6ubleliild' of narrow rails laid down- 
one for the conveyance of coal froin the operative parts' of the 
works to the bottom of the shaft — the'.otherior the return, 
of the empty waggons ; and it is by dodging the one or other 
of these' laden or empty trains thkt we get albiig, under the 
liientorship of the under- viewer, whose familiarity with every-, 
thing around, and instinctive knowledge of all that is about 
to happen, becomes a greater source of perplexity and amaze- 
ment than the cons'ta*nt wariiings he is obliged to afford^ in 
order' to keep ■th6 reckless stranger in these shades out of 
harm s way. These stables have necessarily a pungent smell 
of ammonia, for which there is no escape as in upper air: 
and, perhaps, the only modification of which capable of being 
effected, would be by the deposition in them of grated 
boxes containing chemicals with which ammonia would com- 
bine and become fixed, and which could be periodically 
removed, and might prove valuable. The stables here are 
constructed for twelve stalls — not all horses — though ono. 
or two we saw sixteen hands high— but the stud comprises 
also mules and donkeys — animals all equally useful on the 
railways of nether earth ; not one of the entire collection ap- 
pearing to be in the least the worse for having said — 

*' Farewell thou green earth, ye clouds and ye skies, 
Now bright with the red setting sun." 

There are, we believe, in all, twenty-six head of cattle of these 
descriptions in the Cinder Hill Pit. One faithful animal 
whom we saw alive and well, had for eleven long years never 
beheld the light of day. From the horse-stables a distance 
of thirty yards brings us to a gate strongly laced with wire, 
so open in its stHicture as not in the least to interrupt the 
stream of ventilation ; but when locked, which it is the duty 



a36 MVBLSa BOUND ^OTTIKQHAJtf. 

of the xoATX in phftwe of ike pit in thenigbt eeason regularlj 
to se^ aocomplishea, no one, without his knowledge, can pass 
tjiis barricade to the works. Not only so, but having once 
barred all access in this manner, he proceeds round and ex- 
amines into the state of all the different works within the 
grating, for the purpose of ascertaining that they are safe 
previous to the admission of any one into them again. 

Having steadily advanced with our guide and our li^ts 
seven hundred yards on the main tram-way, in a direction 
bearing 45° west by north, exposing a seam of solid coal on 
either side of the way, with intermediate pillar^ of support 
left on each side of the road, we were perpetually paased by 
trains, full or empty, going or returning. We travelled, 
however, principally on the empty line, six different coal- 
laden trains passing in the opposite direction in the course 
of our progress. We were travelling in with an air current 
which smelt very fresh at^l ag^eable, more so than in many 
a close street or crowded alley of the world of day, and no 
wondei;, for the supply of atmospheric air was flowing in at 
the rate of nearly 40,000 cubic feet per minute ; betwixt 30,000 
and 40,000 feet having been measured in our presence by 
Benjamin Byron's Anemometer, a pretty little instrument 
with glazed silk sails, set in, and propelled by, the current, 
which it admeasures by means of mechanism constructed 
exactly on the principle of the ordinary gas meter. The 
works thus requiring so hberal an accession of air may there- 
fore be judged to be of an extent which well warrants the 
exercise of the gigantic means resorted to for preserving their 
entire purity and freedom from every atmospherical taint 
that might even so much as threaten the sUghtest interrup- 
tion to business ; for 603 tons of coal have been raised in this 
busy under-ground colony in the course of twelve consecutive 
hours ; and the arrangements admit of 600 tons being raised 
within the same space of time whenever the occasion may 
demand ; indeed, it will be immediately shown that means of 
doing so, by the new engin0, are actually in progress. 

This flrst seven hundred yards' progress brings us to a 
large arched wav of splendid appearance, 11 feet by 11 leet 
6 inches. It is here that the *' fault'' in the coal stratum, in- 
termedifite to N^castle and Cinder Hill Pits, occurs; the 



DANGER SrONAL AT THE PILOT HEAD. 33? 

bled of coal being fractured and thrown upwards a height of 
fifty feet over-head, or, as the miners say in their perspicuous 
phraseology, having a " fifty-feet upthrow." These " faults," 
or »* troubles," are of frequent occurrence in mining opera- 
tions. The direction given to the disturbed coal strata being 
once known, the works can, of course, be resumed under the 
altered circumstances of the case ; but in order to effect this 
discovery in the first instance, explorations in all directions 
have generally to be made. How the matter stands here has 
long since been detected. Passing onwards, therefore, through 
the " fault," we change our direction to ISJ® east by north, 
travelling along the drift driven through the " metals," as the 
miners term the solid stone strata of magnesian limestone 
and shale, &c., here connected with the coal measures, another 
distance of seven hundred yards. In the ct)urse of this dis- 
tance, we necessarily pass the first stage to which the animals 
employed upon the tram-road work to and from the pit mouth, 
viz,, 1,300 yards. The arching along most of the way is 
very handsome, clear, -and spacious. Out of this arching 
passes a road leading southwards : and twenty yards further 
onwards, a road leading in the direction of 74^^ west by 
north, being at right angles with that upon which we are 
travelling. At the bottom of this road, passing off at right 
angles, and termed " The Pilot Head," is placed as in a con- 
spicuous, we had almost said '* a public" position in these 
** infernal " streets, a white and red signal, as on other railways ; 
but warning the unwary stranger with far more marked sig- 
nificance what sort of lands he is journeying through — for a 
notice-board, painted, underneath, prohibits all passage of this 
point unless the white signal of safety be displayed upon it, 
and intimates that the red means danger. At seventy yards 
farther along the same Hne, we reach a large and lofty 
engine apartment, excavated in the solid rock. In any brief 
portionof theway adjoining this place, (for here we paused to jot 
down notes) we could observe, where the rock was bare, an 
exudation of strong saline menstruum from the earth, col- 
lecting in heavy drops. The large engine-house now in process 
of erection on this unheard-of site in the domains of Pluto, is 
intended to accommodate a powerful steam engine for wind- 
ing the ooals along the under-ground lines of railway in its 



3S8 UAMBLEB BOUll^D NOTTIN^HAH. 

vicinity, so as to supersede thd use of horses and other 
draught animals. The boiler-house alone, which has just 
been completed, is twelve yards in length, in height eight 
yards, and in width seven: and this apartment possesses 
a brick- work casing of two feet three inches in thickness 
all round. Now, whereaboutsr does the reader conceive this 
building to be situated relatively to the surface ?. It. may be 
recollected that from the stairs of the brick-work pug mill, we 
indicated in the distance a green eminence, or plantation, on 
Broad Oak Farm, distant a quarter of a mile. Well, then, at 
the end of this boiler-house, which recedes from the main 
under-ground line at right angles, is situated the identical 
No. S pit, the position of which we foretold our intention of 
again recurring to, as occupying the above position. It is an 
up-cast shaft, situated in a field of the name just mentioned, 
betwixt Bulwell and Nuttall, and ttierefore our anxious 
friends above may have some notion of where we have been 
enjoying our siesta below. This recess, here contracted to 
twelve feet by eleven, and arched for six yards in length, then 
reaches the up-cast pit bottom, which is six yards in diameter, 
sod in the form of a bell; being brought back, ten yards 
up the shaft, into a circle of nine feet diameter. A smaU 
opening and flue passes into it out of the boiler-house to le- 
move the heat. Here the audiMe rush of air and water gives 
token of the presence of elemental action. The whole length 
of the engine-house, with its machinery, will be forty-seven 
feet. The machinery wiJl consist of a 30 -horse power steam 
engine; two of tlie boilers whereof, four feet ia diameter, aie 
already down, and placed in their proper positions. These 
boilers are, in length, each twenty-eight feet six inches^ They 
were each sent down the shaft in two separate parts or 
divisions, since rivetted together undemealli, making the 
subterrene ring with the clang of hammer and anvil, like the 
caverns of the Cyclops. 

Resuming our way ; thirty-seven yards beyond the engine- 
house, we turn off on the main line in a direction bearing 5^ 
west by north. We are now arrived upon the parallel cor- 
responding with another parallel fifty yards apart, passing 
along the face of the coal, where the works are in operation ; and 
at every fifty yards of our progress, roads or passages used for 



APPBQACH TO THE HEADINGS. 339 

the conveyance of the produce on to the main line turn off 
to the le^t Thus, betwixt the main way and the workings, 
huge blocks or pillars of fifty square yards of coal are left 
stajiding for supports. Beyond these blocks or stalls, how- 
ever, the works begin or open off in earnest — ^the coal-field 
being worked right away from them — in a westerly direction, 
until exhausted ; the adventurous miner *' stooping*' up a breath- 
ing space behind him of the close crushing mass of earth, 
and coolly moving his stoops forward and letting the mass 
behind fall in or subside, as he proceeds with his excavations. 
Hitherto all was cool and comfortable. A surmise that 
imusual, not to say artificial conditions of life and respiration 
environed us, could scarcely be said to suggest itself. Now, 
however, the state of matters changed at every step ; and as 
we neared the terminal point of the workings, the route was 
through sloppy ways, and the travelling posture a sort of 
creeping along under four feet excavations, where the human 
back could not be raised an inch without rasping against the roof. 
The use of the lantern in these contracted passages became 
also more precious ; and lucky is the wight who can long 
avoid the numerous pools that lurk beside his path. We 
found the pilotage of Mr. Walters, however, infallible. He 
knew every foot of the way. The first 260 yards of the way 
leading hither are supported by timber. Being in the full 
current of the inward ventilation, larch is freely employed for 
the supports , but, along the face of the works, this would be 
inadvisable, owing to its resinous character ; and nothing but 
oak or elm can be used as coal stoops in the actual workings. 
The timbered roadway referred to is sufficiently spacious, 
being nine feet by twelve. It is interrupted or succeeded, 
again and again, by brick archings, for a distance of 300 
yards, when this arrangement is again succeeded by a way 
supported by timber, twelve feet by six, until we come to 
approach a drift or heading driven into the coal, a distance of 
300 yards. It is this head drift which is accessible only by 
the scarcely formed exploratory aperture, (laid, however, with 
raik) four feet high by seven feet wide, through which we 
struggled on as just related. The second part of our under- 
ground journey out extends, therefore, to 1, 180 yards ; which 
added to 1,437 yards ti-avelled on our first stage from the 



340 RAMBLES ROUND NOTTINGHAM. 

bottom of the shaft, gives a total penetration of the bowels of 
the earth of 2,617 yards in length. At these extreme limits^ 
of the mine we found hard at work and " going a-head," one' 
of the adventurous pioneers by whom the workings are 
pushed forward. Those adventurous men are termed "headers." 
They work alone ; taking out their four feet by seven at the 
remunerating rate of five shillings and sixpence per lineal yard 
for their labour — providing, however, their own powder and 
tools — for both are requisite in their hazardous operations. 
Two of these " headers" carry forward, simultaneously, the 
main parallel and another fifty yards distant along the face of 
the coal. Others open up the passages fifty yards apart 
betwixt the stalls. They work in a state of semi-nudity, 
stripped to the waist ; for the heat would, but for the cur- 
rent of ventilation, be tropical ; and, on approaching the man 
at work, a hissing noise is audible like the fall of a gentle June 
shower on the multitudinous leaves of the forest, or the dull 
patter of rain-drops outside a house, as heard by the dweller 
within. This is caused by the gas issuing in minute escapes 
from the newly cut veins of the coal stratum. It thus es- 
capes in quantities too minute to do any harm or create any 
danger, except from the risk of accumulation, and this last is 
completely obviated and triumphed over by the whole produce 
of these hissing hot escapades being swept off, as fast as it 
accrues, by the access of the current of ventilation. This grand 
essential of mining -purification is constantiy maintained in a 
state of advancement to within six yards (never more) of the 
" head." TraveUing in, down one side of a brick brattice^ or 
wall of separation here pushed forward, the pure air sweeps 
forward at the rate given from the anemometer, until it reaches 
this far extremity of the works ; it then returns, carrying with 
it all the foul air which it finds in its path, up the other side 
of the brattice wall, and this carries it out of the mine. By 
this means the ventilation of the interior is rendered com- 
plete ; and the purity and sweetness of the atmosphere secured. 
In point of fact, on investigating the results, we were sur- 
prised to find so nearly approximate conditions of the tempe- 
rature above and below ; — the temperature being only 62^ 
Fah. ; and the barometrical pressure 29*86 inches in the 
furnace drift of the mines ; whilst on the surface, at the same 



RECTANGULAR SOBTERRANEAN STREETS. 341 

time, the barometer was 29*35 inches; and the thermometer 
at 61®, although, unfortunately, rain had just fallen, and the 
latter circumstance might have been thereby varied. 

As far as mining operations are concerned, we must here 
apprise the reader that, save mere preliminaries, we had 
hitherto seen none. We were now, however, to pass along 
the face of the coal. For this purpose we turned back along 
the " level," to the gate No. 16, as probably, at that moment, 
the most convenient of access, travelled up it, and passed 
along the workings to No. 13, down which we proceeded 
on to the main line, and back to the " Pilot Head." All this, 
however, is more easily said than done. Tbe reader, in short, 
must comprehend that, in coal mining, on reaching the first 
workable seam of coal, as in this instance, a broad straight 
passage termed a " bord," or " gate," is driven from the shaft 
upon the coal seam, in opposite directions, exactly as in the 
passages already traversed. The breadth of this passage is, 
as we have seen, usually twelve or fourteen feet, and it is 
formed the whole length of the seam of coal, so as to expose, 
above, the stratum which is called ** the roof," and, below, 
the stratum, which is called " the till" — its direction being 
always arranged so as to follow the cleavage of the coal which 
forms its sides. We have also seen that when the 
principal " bord" or ** gate" had been carried some distance 
each way, the narrow passages termed *' headings," were com- 
menced, as already described, at regular intervals, and always 
at right angles, so that, communicating as they do with 
another " bord" opened parallel to the first along the face of 
the coal, the mine underground resembles the streets of a 
town laid out at regular rectangles. It was up one of these 
oonuecting passages, therefore, that we now advanced from 
the one parallel to the other. And here we had abundant 
opportunities of observing how the pitman proceeds in exca- 
vating tVie coal. On each side of tbe block he fii-st cuts a 
narrow fissure with his pick-axe, and undermining the inter- 
mediate coal, he forces down the isolated lump left hanging 
above in a great cubical mass of several tons of coal at once. 
This being partially assorted into great and small, is put into 
corves, and sent down the gate to be drawn along the tram- 
road to the shaft, raised to the pit mouth by the steam 



342 BAMBLKS BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

engine, and put upon the banks. The difficulty of prc^press- 
ing along the workings when in operation is, to a stranger, 
very considerable ; and the initiated appear highly to enjoy 
his sprawling attempts to insinuate himself over and amidst 
the loose irregular lumps of prostrate coal, detached as al- 
ready described, but left blocking up the way at intervals, 
more or less, according to the recency of the operations. The 
adjacent stoops have either been removed and advanced to 
prop up the recently mined space, or there is just room 
enough left behind to hold the loose coal — Cleaving, perhaps, 
an aperture of two feet through which to scramble over it. 
And, behind, where the stoops have been struck and taken 
out, the ponderous crust of earth has already subsided — so 
hard upon the miner's heels does danger press in. This 
sort of reptilean journey once commenced, must, of course, 
be continued until a " gate" is reached convenient for escape. 
The curious explorer, therefore, thrusts his head and shoul- 
ders through all sorts of impossible crevices, drawing his 
limbs after him, and managing his lantern as he best may, 
until at length he finds his caput protruding at a height of 
four or five feet over the extreme edge of some mountainous 
block of coal. There is no help for it but to launch himself 
down head foremost — he can neither turn nor recede, but 
must take the plunge. Strange to say, however, the only 
untoward consequence of all this scrambling, is usually 
visited upon the habiliments of the adventurous individual ; 
these being, however, selected or provided for the occasion^ 
this is of very little consequence. No. 13 may well be sup- 
posed, therefore, to have been a welcome bourne when reached 
at length after this curious wriggle under the superincumbent 
earth. We are chiefly disposed, however, to remember it 
for the beautiful impressions of coal plants derived from its 
roof ; and which nearly or completely realised the description 
in Professor Buckland's BridgewaUr Treatise, though applied 
by him to the coal mines of Bohemia.'*' His picturesque 

* '* The most elaborate imitations of liying foliage npon the painted 
ceilings of Italian palaces, bear no comparison with the beauteous 
profusion of extinct vegetable forms with which the galleries of these 
instructive coal mines are overhung. The roof is covered as with a 



THE FOSSIL FLORA OF THE COAL-tlELB. S43 

language might be applied word for word to the scene pre- 
sented by the roof of No. 13; which, though it was incon- 
venient and possibly dangerous to inspect it minutely by our 
naked light, still seemed bespangled with the minute, rounded, 
symmetrical leaves of a fern-like plant resembling a peteris — 
for the infinite diversity of modern nature is not observable 
in the fossil vegetation of the mine^ — but coniferae (pines) 
ferns, and reed-like palms, resembling bamboo, equisitae or 
horsetails, and a few others appear Co constitute this ancient 
and extinct flora, of which ferns make up the full half. In 
all the blocks which we carried off from this particular roof, 
the fcdiage alluded to predominated ; though intermingled 
with compressed masses of leaves, shining with jetty lustre 
' on the compressed, and frequently glazed or polished sur- 
face (from high pressure) of the shale in which they are 
embedded, long slender stems, and sometimes large, strong 
pieces of woody fibre are seen interpenetrating, With slight por- 
tions of their outer bark, marking them for exogenous plants 
of some kind, remaining converted into thin and lustrous 
plates of coal. One piece of shale, of considerable width, was 
£uted and cordated with woody impressions. We have de- 
cided the predominating foliage in this instance to be that 
of a pecopteris^ once pinnated, the leaflets adhering by the 
centre of the base, the midrib running quite through to the 
point, and the veini^ion, which is beautifully distinct, (for in 
the shale slabs in our possession, the images look like a 
splendid enamel,) planted upon it in perpendicular opposi- 



cainopy of gorgeous tapestry, enriched with festoons oif most graceful 
foliage, flung in wild irregulai* profusion over every portion of its sur- - 
face. The effect is heightened by the contrast of the coal-black colour 
of the vegetables, with the light groundwork of the rock to which they 
are attached. The spectator feels himself transported as if by enchant- 
ment into the forests of another world : he beholds trees of forms and 
character now unknown upon the surface of the earth, presented to 
his senses almost in the beauty and vigour of their primeval life ; their 
ficoly stems and bending branches, with their delicate apparatus of 
foliage, are all spread forth before him little impaired by &e lapse of 
<»untless ages, and being faithful records of extinct systems of vegeta- 
tion which began and terminated in times of which these relics are the 
infi^ble historians." 



344 EAMBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

tion.* Alexander Brongniart, the father of Adolphe Brong- 
niart, the great writer, on these suhjects, bj whom the cod 
plants were first divided into genera, long ago noticed 
(AnnaUs des Mines, 1821) the great quantity of vegetable 
remains which accompany the coal deposits^ particularly the 
vegetables resembling our ferns ; any stems which do not 
exactly resemble any known plant, being most abundant in 
this formation ; and, at the same time, what had then but 
recently been determined, that iJie entire system of these 
vegetable remains is different from the entire vegetable 
kingdom, not only as it now exists, but as existing in more 
recent beds of the globe. This former world had been totally 
changed and re-composed. With regard to the stems, the 
more inexplicable portion of these fossil wonders, the same 
authority has set them down as the remains of a true fossil 
forest of mono-cotyledonous vegetation, resembling bamboe, 
or a large equisetum, as it were, petrified in situ; those of one 
class being cylindrical, articulated, and striated parallel to 
their edges, but not in their interior presenting any organic 
texture, their probably reedy cavity being entirely filled with 
the rock composing the bed they traverse. Such is strictly 
the case with the stems seen in our specimens. 

We may now notice that from No. IS passage, we returned 
rapidly to the Pilot Head, and proceeding up the Pilot Head, 

* *• The piesenee of organic remains in the midst of tke soKd and 
deep beds of the orust of the globe, is, in the natural history of the 
earth, one of the circumstances most worthy of stimulating the curio- 
sity and attracting the attention of observers. These remains of ancient 
worlds, often so numerous and so httle altered in their structure, 
though entirely changed in nature, seem to have been so well preserved, 
solely in order to furnish us with the only documents we could ever 
obtain on the natural history of these different periods ; they are, as 
it were, scattered phrases of that history. It is probable that examples 
of stems traversing tlie beds of the coal measures are also very fre- 
quent, and that, if but a small number of them have been noticed, and 
so few figures of them published, it is owing to the manner in which 
the rocks containing them are reached. Those rocks are almost aL 
ways deep. They are anived at only by pits and galleries, which are 
never much developed in various directions*. When forming the suV 
terranean passage, the sandstones are avoided as much as possible, as 
they only offer to the miner expense without profit ; yet these are the 
rocks which appear to contain most of the vertical stems." — [Vide our 
notice of Newcastie Pit.]— Brongniart (Senior) On the FomiZs of the 
Coal Measures, 



THE UNDERGROUND ATMOSPHERE. 345 

approaclied the great ventilating furnace, the culvert of which 
ia twelve feet high by nine feet wide, though contracted at 
the orifice to ajbout half that depth. The flue runs hori- 
zontally for about forty yards, and then makes a perpendicular 
ascent of 236 yards, thereby reaching the surface of the 
earth exactly three-quarters of a mile from the working or 
winding shaft. Here we came in contact with the return 
air, which has travelled through all the workings, but the 
excellent scientific arrangement of this furnace produces a 
free circulation of air throughout the north-east passage of 
the pit, and causes from 40,000 to 50,000 cubic feet of air to 
pass through the various passages per minute. This allows 
perfect respiration, and removes all that is noxious in the 
atmosphere, whether arising from the accumulation of gasses 
issuing from the strata, or from animals. We had almo&t 
forgot to mention the' admirable provision made for the 
accommodation of horses and other animals. The stables 
are quite equal to those in ordinary use on the surface of the 
earth, and are fitted up with every convenience. The ani- 
mals are well fed and groomed, and are in splendid condition, 
no doubt owing to the evenness of the temperature, which 
averages, excepting in the main tramways, about sixty 
degrees. The strata appeared pecuharly free from water, 
and the atmosphere and principal roads consequently quite 
dry. Of two evils to which coal mines are especially subject, 
one is the collection of hydrogen gas, called by the miners " fire 
damp," the explosion of which is generally attended with fatal 
consequences, and the other of carbonic acid gas, commonly 
called ** choke damp," not generally so violent in its results. 
Hydrogen gas is principally generated by the contact of the 
pyrites, or iron fire stone of the miners, with water, in the 
workings of the colliery, where it accumulates, if the ventila- 
tion be imperfect. It explodes by the application of fire, 
and frequently results fatally. In case of ignition the miners 
throw themselves upon the ground, there being more danger 
to be apprehended from the vacuum caused by the total 
consumption of the atmosphere than from the direct effects 
of the " blast.'* The unfortunate men, indeed, generally 
suffer more from the concussion of the atmosphere, rushing 



346 RAMBLES BOUND ITOTTIKGHAM. 

in to fill up the yacuum, than from other causes. There 
are, as alreadj mentioned, men termed " over-men," whose 
duty it is to examine the pit every morning before the miners 
commence working. But the plan of fixing the ^mace at 
the further extremity of the mine almost entirely deprives 
the atmosphere of its oxygen by consumption in the fiimace, 
and thus becoming lighter, the air rapidly ascends the up- 
cast shaft or chimney over the furnace, and is continually 
supplied with a fresh current of air from the down-cast shaft. 
Of course the rush of air would naturally take the most 
direct passage, but in order to send the ventilation through 
the whole of the pit, doors are placed at intervals in the 
various avenues, to modify the force of the air and create a 
thorough ventilation, by compelling it to take the circiiitous 
route thus boxed off. Some of these are hung upon hinges 
in the ordinary way, and others, as formerly stated, are sus- 
pended from the roof, and by the miners are termed " life 
and death" doors, frotfi the fact that, in case of the explosion 
of fire-damp, they ckn be instantaneously closed, so as to 
throw the current of air into its proper direction. Choke 
damp is rarely attended with ill effects, and is easily discov- 
erable by its extinguishing a candle. But it is more difficult 
to free the mines from this gas than from "fire-damp,*' in 
consequence of its greater specific of gravity. Both, how- 
ever, are easily detected by those accustomed to mines. It 
is generally supposed amongst miners, that " choke-damp" 
(carbonic acid gas) proceeds from the putrefaction of vegetable 
substances. 

Where mines are thoroughly ventilated, miners seldom if 
ever think of employing the " Davy Lamp", or safety lamp 
of Sir Humphry Davy, which greatly obscures the light by 
enveloping it in wire gauze. But they use little tallow can- 
dles, coloured green — not from any peculiarity in their 
composition, but from the miners' fancy for coloured candles. 

Passing 170 yards up the furnace culvert, along with the 
stream of travelled air, and having gazed upon the face of the 
grand subterranean fire of nine feet by nine, or eighty-one feet 
square, through which the current passes and is rarified, 
we retraced our steps towards the entrance of the pit It 



BASFOBD HALL AND GROUMDS. 347 

may again be stated, that the current, in entering tbe pit, 
penetrates to the extent of ^,617 yards, and in returning 
back to the furnace, (besides traversing different air courses) 
1,500 yards, making altogether a distance travelled by it of 
4,117 yards. 

The visitor to Cinder Hill will, in all probability, pay a 
visit to Basford Hall, which the liberality of its occupant, 
Mr. North, has rendered the scene of frequent and generous 
hospitalities. This elegant and commodious mansion has 
been gi'eatly extended from its original appearance and di- 
mensions, by several superb and unique additions, one of 
which, a large reception hall, affords an elegant and agreeable 
introduction to the interior. The dining-room, from whose 
low- placed windows one may step forth upon the lawn which 
environs the house, eon tains several magnificent pictures 
of great value. The house itself is thus rather a cluster of 
buildings than upon any uniform design, but receives from 
a large bell-turret at the top a commanding and manorial 
aspect. Abutting directly upon the public road, no one 
could imagine that so beautiful and secluded a scene as 
spreads around it could have been produced, whether by the 
agency of art or nature. But the grounds and waters, (for 
there is a fine lake) the trees and walks are so disposed, that, 
within the horizon line, which, all around, marks off the 
perfect privacy of this demesne, there is only one varied suc- 
cession of landscape surprises. A short, sharp turn up the 
principal drive, leads along a light Chinese bridge to the 
ball door ; half concealed from which, by dense masses of 
finely grown shrubberies, appear the oflSce ranges ; but, to 
the right, in approaching, quite concealed in a thick clump of 
trees, a deep dell, with large water basins, fountains in fall 
play, rockeries, and a spar-and-shell grotto, offer a cool re- 
treat in the raging noon of summer, whilst the small but finely 
wooded lawns and walks around the mansion are, in their 
turn, environed by fifty acres of an undulating park, which, 
from the pecuUarity of the ground, actually fills up the whole 
range of vision, and shuts out the world from the retirement 
of Basford Hall. Situated on a gentle eminence, the ground 
falls away on all sides from the mansion, but rising again 



348 RAKBLES BOUND NOTTINGHAM. 

limits the prospect within the compass of its own demesne. 
Immediately behind the building, the large and productive 
fruit, flower, and kitchen gardens are situated, possessing 
green-houses and forcing-houses of considerable dimensions ; 
the exotics are especially the admiration of visitors ; and the 
vineries are certainly the earliest and most prolific in the 
vicinity. A picturesque walk leads along the embankment 
of the lake of several acres in extent, to the extremity of the 
private grounds, close to the works at Cinder Hill. This 
picturesque sheet of water is occupied not only with tame 
swans of magnificent aspect, but with wild fowl of various 
descriptions ; the wild duck, and the little water hen, breed 
and rear their tiny broods upon the sedgy islets that dot the 
surface ; and pike, perch, and other lake-fish, in abundance, 
are to be found in the waters. 

Baslord Hall boasts the possession of a service of plate 
won under such singularly harmonious auspices by Mr. North, 
when mayor of Nottingham, in 1844-6, that our description 
of his domestic abode would be essentially imperfect without 
some allusion to the circumstances connected with it. It 
appears that when Mr. North came into office in the above 
year, the two leading political parties in the town of Nottii^- 
ham had had a most unprecedented struggle for the majority 
in the town council ; and that, immediately on succeeding to 
the chief magistracy, in a time of peace and prosperity, Mr. 
North had set himself the task of adopting such steps as 
were calculated to allay all personal and party animosity. 
The means by which he succeeded in reconciling and cement- 
ing in union these conflicting classes of his fellow-townsmen, 
were chiefly concentrated in a ball, which will he ever me- 
morable in Nottingham, for the splendour and display called 
forth upon the occasion, no less than for those happy and 
beneficial effects on the social feelings of the community, 
which they were pleased to lend such a lasting mark of ap- 
probation. This ball took place on the evening of the 1 6th 
January, 1845, and it was at the moment averred that Not- 
tingham had never witnessed a more splendid, happy, and 
brilliant scene. No expense seems to have been spared to 
render it worthy of the town, and the liberality of the host 



MB. NOBTH*S GRAND BALL. 849 

called forth an equally liberal response on the part of the 
guests. The very invitation cards, with their rich gold 
medallion border, executed, in their elaborate style of superb 
brilliancy, by Mr. R. Allen, Long-row, excited a sensation, 
and produced in the Nottingham tradesmen's shops an un- 
paralleled exhibition of silks, satins, velvets, and laces, in 
anticipation of the bail. One jeweller disposed of a thousand 
pounds worth of ornaments for the person. His worship bear- 
ing in mind the very depressed condition of a branch of local 
trade, issued to the gentlemen a suggestion to appear in 
" smail-clotbes and silk stockings." The approaches were 
profusely decorated with evergreens, illuminated with the 
town's arms in coloured lamps ; the grand staircase carpeted, 
decorated with arches of evergreens, national flags and exotics ; 
and on the landing was an Oriental tent of fluted pink and 
white, with gilt masonic banners, busts, and mirrors. The 
ball-room consisted of three apartments, superbly decorated 
with mirrors, &c. The lists of company comprised eight hun- 
dred ladies and gentlemen, who were entertained in a magnifi- 
cently fitted up refreshment room over an unparalleled bill 
of fare ; and dancing being resumed was kept up till seven 
o'clock in the morning, at which hour, says the newspaper 
of the day, " his worship left the ball-room, accompanied by 
a number of gentlemen, and as he took his seat in his carriage 
he was hailed with a hearty cheer. Thus ended this splendid 
entertainment, which cannot fail to live in the remem- 
brance of all who attended it." The service of plate, 
comprising the testimonial, was the result of a subscription 
entered into amongst three hundred individuals, and amount- 
ing to dSBlO and upwards. The presentation was made to 
Mr North at the close of his mayoralty, 5th November, 1846 ; 
and the presentation plate, by its massiveness and beauty, 
delighted and surprised all present on the occasion. It 
consisted of a large wrought epergne, with six branches and 
centre pillar, and cut-glass dishes, standing upon a plateau 
supported by three feet, having decorations in frosted silver. 
This epergne is capable of being converted into a candela- 
brum. The pillar, towards the base, is engraved with the 
mayor's arms and crest, and thus inscribed : — 



ddO RAMBLES BOU^iO NOTTINGHAM. 

PBBBENTEO BT THE 

INHABITiJ^TB OF NOTTINGHAM AND ITS NKIGHBOUBHOOD 

TO THOMAS NORTH, E8QUIBE, 

MAIOB, 

ON HIS BBTIRING FBOH THE CIVIC CHAIR, 

IN NOVEMBER, 1845, 

IN TESTIMONY OF THEIB HIGH APPKOVAI. OF THE IMPARTIAL 

AND ZEALOUS MANNER IN WHICH HE DISCHARGED 

THE ONEROUS DUTIES OF THE OFFICE OF 

CHIEF MAGISTRATE, 

AND IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THE UNEXAMPLED 

READINESS AND ENERGY 

AT ALL TIMES EVJNCED BY HIM TO PROMOTE THE 

IMPROVEMENT OF HIS NATIVE TOWN 

AND THE WELFARE OF ITS INHABITANTS. 

There were besides, a large soup toreen — four massive dishes 
and covers, convertible into eight — four sauce tureens — six 
splendid gilt goblets — six salt cellars — a vase-shaped claret 
jug, the body of burnished silver, decorated with frosted vine 
leaves, grapes and roses, in relief; and finally, the following 
pieces, forming the tea and coffee service of the mayoress, 
Mrs. North — swing tea kettle and stand, massive coffee pot, 
tea pot, sugar basin, and cream ewer, en mite. 

The modem village of Cinder Hill next attracts our notice, 
alike on social and religious considerations ; for here an un- 
forseen population has sprung up, and here, strange to tell, 
in a land so renowned for its neglect of the present and for- 
getfiilness of the past — its spiritual wants have been provided 
for. The hamlet of Cinder Hill is situated in an undulating 
valley of the parish of Basford, three miles from Nottingham, 
upon the Alfreton-road. Its inhabitants consist almost 
entirely of miners and persons connected with the works, 
located in neat and commodious dwellings, which have been 
erected for them, as required, in the vicinity. One detached 
series of newly-built cottages forms three sides of a square, 
with an ample front yard, bounded by a low brick wall, and 
is exclusively inhabited by the employ ess of Mr. North. Fur- 
ther along the highway, a second series of quadrilateral form 
appears, with large square central court, also occupied by the 



NEW CHURCH FOB THE 1IXNEB8 AT CINI>ER HILL. 351 

people engaged at the works. And another and another wiB, 
no doubt, succeed, every attention being paid in their con- 
struction to the comfort and convenience of the occupants, as 
the works of Cinder Hill extend and flourish. 

A vast and increasing population of miners has thus rapidly 
arisen in and around Cinder Hill, an outlying portion of the 
parish of Basford, to supply to which the means and 
ordinances of grace had become a problem of no mean in- 
terest and importance. Not much above twelve or fifteen 
months ago we proceeded late one Wednesday evening to that 
locality, and found the worthy vicar of the parish, the Rev. . 
H. B. Pitman, labouring in his vocation in an appartment of 
about 12 feet by 9, an offset from the roadside inn at Cinder 
Hill, temporarily dedicated to the purposes of church worship. 
Not long after that, thanks to the zeal and assiduity of the 
same divine, aided by the warm support of Mr. North, (who 
at once took up the project mooted by the rev. vicar of providing 
a church at Cinder Hill, suited to the wants of the mining popu- 
lation, and pending the appeal to public simpathy and support 
mainly to be relied on for providing the mieans of grace in 
poor and populous districts, hterally found everything, and 
promoted the execution of the work without an instant's 
hesitation,) we witnessed the laying of the foundation stone of 
a new church by his Grace the Duke of Newcastle. Not 
twelve months had elapsed since the foundation stone was 
laid until the whole building, " fitly framed together," stood 
forth a finished monument of Christian liberality towards a 
new population under circumstances of spiritual destitution. 
On Thursday, the 19th of June, 1856, th^ church was con- 
secrated by the Lord Bishop of Lincoln, in presence of his 
Gra^ the Duke of Newcastle, and a large and distinguished 
congregation, lay and clerical, under the most cheering and 
animating circumstances: a curate to conduct the reguUr 
ministrations in it having been appointed in the person of 
the Bev. Mr. Maughan, and from and after the openii^ 
services by the Bev. Charles Padley, of Bulwell, and the Bev. 
Charles J. Willoughby, of Wollaton, on Sunday, the 23nd of 
June, the miners of Cinder Hill and its vicinity have regularly 
been summoned by the beautiful peal of " Christ Church 
Bells" to worship in this new and commodious house of prayer. 



362 RAMBLfiS BOUND NOTTlKGHAM* 

The churchy which is picturesquely situated amidst a clump 
of trees at the angle <rf the old Derby-road, opposite the 
wooded demesne of Basford Hall, the residence of T. North, 
Esq., has been erected on a site, gifted by his Grace the Duke 
of Newcastle, with consent of his son, the Earl of Lincoln, from 
the designs of Thomas C. Hine, Esq., the eminent architect, of 
Nottingham; Mr. John Fisher, of Rutland Street, Not- 
tingham, being the builder and general contractor, on whom 
the execution and sufficiency of the work reflects infinite 
credit, from the fact that for less than i^2,000 the most 
beauti&l and ornamental church for 600 sitters has been 
produced that was ever turned out at the money, and must 
lead to many imitations, being truly an example of what can 
be done at the present time in maintaining the tone and 
character of church architecture. The church, which is of the 
decorated Gothic of the 14th century, with geometrical tracery 
and sculptured corbels (heads of sovereigns, &c.,) consists of a 
nave, north aisle, chancel and porch, with a turret for €bree 
bells at the south-west comer of the nave. At the east end 
of the aisle there is a splendid recess for an organ, separated 
from the aisle by a triple arcade of double rows of slender shafts 
of great elegance, sustaining foliated capitals. The effect of 
this arrangement, as seen from the nave, is remarkably 
striking. In extent the church is from east to west and from 
north to south, within the walls, of the following dimensions : 
the nave sixty-two feet by twenty-one feet, the aisle fifty-two 
feet by nine feet, and the chancel twenty-five feet by seventeen. 
The extreme altitude of the nave is 42 feet vertical height. 
The roof is of lofty pitch, light yet adequate in its appearance, 
and excites much notice from its novelty, being formed of a 
series of framed rafters and collared beams ; and that of the 
chancel of framed rafters with curved brap es. 

The windows throughout are filled with rich stone tracery ; 
the west end window being composed of two lights filled with 
tracery, extending one-third of the height from the head, and 
surmounted by a large trefoliated light. The large eastern 
window of four lights, surmounted by magnificent geometrical 
tracery in quatrefoils, is filled w^ith figured (glass) quai'ries. 
A small window of quarry lights in the north aisle, glazed by 
Mr. N. W. Leavers, of Southampton-street, London, is of very 



INTERIOB OF GHAXer's CHUBCH, CINDER-HILL. ;353 

simple design, but of good taste, being a cross and fleur-de-lis 
on alternate panes, the cross rising out of a red) ai^d the 
Beur-4e-Hs out of a green gem, the whole being enclosed in 
a running border of flowers and leaves — a very effective way of 
glazing church windows at a surprisingly low cost. It has been 
executed and presented at the expense of a gentleman who does 
not authorise us to state his name, but who trusts that the 
example he has set may meet with imitation. The aisle is 
divided from the nave by an arcade of four arches, in which 
a novel apphcation occurs — Minton's encaustic tiles having 
been introduced in the form of a neat border, constituting a 
good substitute for the ordinary hood moulding. These 
arches rest on massive octagonal piers of Ancaster stone. 
The chancel arch is supported on triple stone shafts with triple 
moulded capitals. Over the chancel arch is emblazoned, in 
medioeval lettering, on a fillet, in illuminated gold colours, the 
text, ** Glory to God in the highest ; on earth peace and good 
will towards men." The east wall of the chancel is in hke 
manner illuminated and inscribed, with a fillet bearing, instead 
of the Old Testament Decalogue the condensed form of the 
Commandments given in the New Testament by Jesus Christ: 
*' Jesus said — ^Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with aJl thy soul, and with all thy mind : this is 
the first and great Commandment And the second is like 
unto it, — Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these 
two Commandments hang all titie law and the prophets.*' 
Mat xxii, 37-40. One section of this text is inscribed on the 
north, and the remainder, or continuation, in a similar 
manner, on the south of the east wall of the chancel. The 
altar rails or supports in front of the altar are of brass, executed 
by Mr, Rhodes, of Wollaton-street, Nottingham. The chancel 
is raised two steps above the floor of the nave, and the altax 
another. The space within the altar rails is paved with 
Minton's tiles, and a handsome reredos composed of the 
same material, and presenting the very unique, and most 
beautiful effect of brilHant Mosaic work, has been erected 
behind the altar. The linen for the altar, the chalice veil, 
alms bags, and alms dish, inscribed, ** Christ Church, Cinder 
Hill, Notts., A.D. 1856, d. d. e. s." are the gift of Mrs. T. U. 

Al 



35i RAHBLES ROON0 KOimKaHA]ir. 

Smith, Nottingham. The seats are all open low-bacled 
benches of stained deal. The reading desk, which adds 
greatly to the effect of the church furniture, from its dazzling 
crimson and gold embroidery and gilding, consists simply of 
two oak stands resting upon an iron frame, the whole of the 
altar being elaborately wrought and gilt. This presentation 
was made, we believe, by the Misses Hine, the daughters of 
the architect of the building. Superbly gilt service books, 
with ornamental marks, occupy the desk, the gift of tiie Misses 
Banks. The pulpit and front are excellent specimens of 
stone carving ; and these two fine objects in combination 
with the columnar arcade of the organ recess, arrest the eye 
immediately on entering the nave from the porch. The 
sculptures let into the pulpit of Ancaster stone, by Earp, of 
London, are worthy of admiration — on the chancel side 
bearing a deeply, freely, and beautifuDy relieved figure, a com- 
bination of the dove and star in superb elaboration — on the 
pulpit front the centrepiece being the religious anagram of 
the agnus Dei, the Lamb and Banner, with gorgeous clusters 
of surrounding maple foliage, alternated at the angles of the 
stone panel with a beautiful and appropriate series of emble- 
Inatic sculptures, viz., the man, the winged lion, the eagle, 
the winged bull, the typical characteristics of SS. Matthew, 
Mark, Luke, and John. The pulpit slab or desk is in 
part sustained by an angel with outstretched n^ings, 
bearing a ribbon, on which is a script inscribed, " Preach tiie 
Word," and on the side of the pulpit next the wall is the sacred 
monograph, '• I. H. C." reposing on an enrichment of foliage 
in relief, the leaves maple and vine commingled. The base- 
ment of the pulpit is ornamented with running tracery of 
quatrefoils. The projecting trusses at the angles are sustained 
by corbels of sculptured angels, the exterior jambs being 
elegantly enriched by diapered sculpture. The cornice 
moulding terminates on eifiier side in a sculptured boss. 
From all this it will be seen that the pulpit is covered over 
with rich and costly sculpture. 

The font of Caen stone is the gift of John Thomas Wood- 
house, Esq., C.E., the great mining engineer who has the 
Burveiljlance of the collieries of Mr. North ; and if not equal 



UNIQUE FONT AT CHBIST*S CHURCH, CINDER-HILL. 355 

m artistic effect to t"he palpit sculptures, exhibits relievos of 
a not less curious and remarkable kind. It is a hexagonal 
cup with sculptured panels, elevated on a basement and 
stjdk. The panels are in succession sculptured thus : — 

Deo Gloria — ^in a bold scrolled fillet. 
Johannes — the figure of John in the wilderness. 
Thomas — Christ exhibiting his wounds to Didimus. 
Woodhouse — a rebus presenting the ark floating on the 

waters, and also the dove with the olive branch. 
F&ntem hanc dedicavit — ^A kneehng figure partaking of 

the cup in the Sacrament. 
Domino Nostro — The Crucifixion, showing the two 

Marys kneeling on either side of Christ upon the cross. 

Around the rim is inscribed in Greek text the titles of each of 
these sculptures, which are from designs by an amateur, the 
Rev. E. R. Pitman, brother of the vicar of Basford, and as 
well as the font itself, were executed by Messrs, Osmond 
and Son, sculptors, Salisbury. 

The heating of the church is effected by a stove placed at 
the west end, with a perforated iron flue under the flooring, 
passing up the centre passage of the aisle. The floor and 
passage are paved with tiles. 

The three bells were supplied by Messrs. Danks and Nixon, 
of Nottingham. 

Diameter, cwi qr. lb. Note. 

Ist 20inches 2 10 , C 

2n(i 22 , ..2 3 B flat 

8rd U „ 8 3 7 A 

The largest bears the inscription : — 

" H. R. Pitman, Vicar. 
Thomas Nobth, 1 nu i. j 
Thomas Banks, ) Churchwardens. 

1866." 

The turret in which they are hung was intended for only one 
bell, but Mr. North was anxious that at least three should 
occupy it (indeed the requirements of the canons of the church 
cannot possibly be complied with by a less number), and it 



356 BAMBLES BOUND NOTTIKGHAM. 

does the builder great credit that so Bmall a campanile carries 
the peal without the slightest risk. This is, perhaps, the 
smallest tower containing a peal in existence, as the interior 
width of the octagon is only four feet. 



END OF VOLUME I. 



INDEX 



Abbeys regnlflr, arraagement «f, 124 ; " Abbey The/' at Lenton, ]27, 

134 ; see clLso Lentou Abby, (Priory) 
Acacia (flowering) at Highfield House, 158. 
Adams, Page & Co. Messrs., opening of their large warehouse, 13. 
Adams T., Esq., Lenton Firs, 152. 
Aerostation in Nottingham, 9. 
Agate shell, needle, 197. 

Agricultural Socie^, Boyal, Meteorological Observations of, 185. 
Ailred, Abbot of Rievale, quoted, 142. 
Aislabie family monuments at Bramcote, 222. 
Akenside Mark, quoted, 273. 

Albano, sketches by, 179, and note; "Flora and Ceres," 182. 
Alaric, the Saxon, 214, (or Alvric, supposed the same), 109, 229; Ayl- 

ric, 269 ; last Thane of Basford, 287, 291. 
Alcowin, Basford Saxon, 287. 
Alden, of Trowell, 229. 
Alexander UL Pope, 145. 

Algarthorpe (Bagthorpe; Manor, Basford, 288, 289. 
Alfeg, or Alfer, Basford Saxon, 287, 291. 
Alfreton Turnpike, 269. 
Ale cellar great, at WoUaton Hall, 63. 
Algar, of Algarthorpe, Gerard de, 144. 
Algod, Basford Saxon, 287. 
AU Saints Church, StreUey, 254, 266-7. 
Allin Joseph, monument, Basford, 294. 
Almshouses ("B«treat") Mr. G. Grill's, 17. 
Amber snail shell, common, 197. 
Ambrose, " Man" of Wm. Peveril, 269. 
Anne's (Queen) Gardens, note, 4^. 
Anderson, painter, extraordinazy ** Moonlight*' by, 182. 
Angle measurer, Lawson's, 212. 
Ann«sley anna, formeriy in Basford church, 292. 
** Angel World" the, (Bailey's), 297. 
Anemometer, Benjamin Byron's, 336. 
Appleton (Castle), 13. 
Aquitaine, Wtlliam, 1st Duke of (English crown title), 122. 



INDEX. 5BS 

Archaeologist, visit to a local, 127. 

Arboretmn Kottingham, crowds in, 9. 

Archery Butts, Nottingham Paris, 11. 

Arboor-hiU, Wollaton Park, 56. 

Araucaria imbricata, 168. 

Arbor Titse, chandelier, 63. 

Arnold, Boman camp near; 386. 

Aspley Hall, Shrovetide at, 71. 

Aspley HaU, 824. 

Astronomical Society, Boyal, Mr. E. J. Lowe's Reports to, 185. 

Athenaum Papers in, by Mr. Lowe, 186 ; authority of cited, 191. 

Atmospheric phenomena, treatise on, 187; recorder, Lawson'a, 190- 

205 ; deadbeat clock of ditto, history of, 199. 
Attenborough (Adenboro), church of, 122; feast, payments at, 144. 
Ayscough Judge, 288. 

B^bingtons the, 132. 

Bagthorpe (Algarthorpe) manor, Basford, 288. 

Bailey:— Beley John de, 215; Bailey Thomas, 294, 801.308; Philip 
James, 294. 

Bakefaz Sir Godfrey, 143. 

Balloon (Green's Nassau), 7; Le Continentk 10. 

Bapdste Jean (Monoyer), 175, note* 

Baptist Chapel the, Derby-road, 5. 

Barracks^ Nottingham, 7, 12, 50. 

Batratini Pietro, 174, note. 

Barrett and Gilpin's cattle group, 176. 

Barrow's standu^ barometer, 210. 

Barber John, of Bilborough, 270. 

Barber Mr., of Nottingham, portraits by, 65, 69, 70, 92 ; imitates 
Kneller, 76, 92. 

Barrow, the learned Dr. Isaac, quoted, 83. 

Barton-in-Fabis, disputed presentation to St. George's, at, 144. 

Basford; Wong, 144; Peveril Court at, 149; Basford, Old, 284; as a 
Boman station, 285; meaning oi name, 285; old manors, 287; 
Tayn (Thane) land, 286 ; last Thane, Aluric; Alcowin, Alfeg, 
Algod, Escul, Saxons : Pagan and Safred, " M^" of William Pe- 
veril, 287 ; thede Baseforda, &c., 287, 290 ; Hall, T. North, Esq., 
288 ; distinguished families of, 288 ; Eland Hall and Algarthorpe 
(Bagthorpe), 289; New ditto: church of St Leodegarius, 290, 
292 ; Safrid the Saxon : Biademedoe, 291 ; churchyard tombs, 
Mr. Creswell's collection, 293; Bev. H. B, Pitman, vicar; T. 
Bailey, Esq., annalist of Nottingham, 294, 301 ; Philip James 
Bailey's " Festus," 295 ; " Mystic," 297 ; cemetery, 802 ; gardens, 
bowling greens, 302; Union Workhouse, 802 ; union, 303 ; Lud- 
dism, 804, 806; trials of men, 807; atrocity at New, 307; pro- 
gress of lace trade, 309; Hall'a cotton factory burnt, 310; census, 
311 ; Dr. Spray, 811 ; New Basford, 811 ; primitive like church, 
313; Stock ^iU House, 315 ; petriQring well, 315 ; BirkLn's la«e 



359 iii]>BZ. 

factory, described, 315, et segs ; bleMthfields, 9^0; dMaueal 
woiJQB, 9S10 ; Scottam; water and gas works, 320; purse and 
brace works, 921 ; basket works, •321. 

Bawdes Charlet, Towa-clark, Nottingham, 261. 

Bayleyaad Shaw Messrs., establishment at Lenton, 163. 

BeauYale Abbey, disposed of, 147. 

Bendnek Lord Geoiige, testimonial, MaAsfield, 13« 

Berse (fish), called saoid-warpe, 121. 

Beeston tower, WoUaton park gate, 212. 

Bellevue, near Bramcote, 213. 

Bells, peal of six at Trowell, 2U ; ditto at WoUaton, 238 

Bekedng Thomas de, 256L 

Beech tree immense, 62. 

Beestoa, vicanige of, appropriated, 145. 

Beeston Observatory, 184 ; visited, 200. 

Beighem, sketches by, 181. 

Birchwoods, the de, Bramcote, 2l». 

Birkin Richard, mayor of Nottingham, Teport 'On lace trade, 308 ; 
quoted, 309-310; description of lace iactoiy at New Basford, 315. 

Binghamshire extinct wapentake, 276 ; held in a pit, 276. 

Billyeald Mr., Bilborough, 269. 

Bilboroogh cnt, the, 248; thorns, 251; church, 254; rectory, 268; 
Herbert de, 269. 

Bird Edward, RA., 1T5. 

Bithinia, shells, 194. 

BlacknerJohn, his blnndering of tdatesit S^> »ote; disgasting language, 
114 ; quoted, 150« 

Blanchard'8 mural tablet. Old Lenton« 128. 

Blac-cliffe, Bilborough, 269. 

Bones at Lenton Abbey, 133 ; of William Peveril, 134, note 

Bonnington Richard Parkes, 174.. 

Bowling-green (free) for Nottingham £ark, li. 

Bowling Club (Wellington or Newcastle), 50. 

Bowker Mr. R. S., 303. 

Bolton, Rev. T. A., 313-3iau 

Boulton Rev. H., Nottingham, 229. 

Boburs-milne (Bobbers-mill), 269, 284. 

Bradley J., Esq-' 1^* 

Bramcote Herbert de, 12L 

Brass, Cardinal Wolsey's, 127. 

Browne Rev. 43c^ Lenton, 159. 

British Association, at York, Liverpool, and NewcasUe^n-Tyae, 15. 

Brun, the Saxon', 109. 

JBroxtowe, 272; hall, 273; hundred, 273; boundaries «f ditto,, 274; 
Etymon, 275 ; ancient families, 277 : de Broculstowe, 277 ; few 
inhabitants, (1420) ; QnsysciOodnor; Parker family; the Whal- 
leys ; Sir Philip Stanhope, 277 ; old hall, picture of, 278 ; Par- 
jkyns and SmiUi families, 278; garrison, 278; Lady Topp, 278; 
ittiliffis oi, 279 ; Mr. bailey's tradition of, 28a 



860 niDsx. 

Brademedoe, Basford, 291. 

Bramoote, 211 ; hai, 213 : terrace^ 213 ; streets, 213 ;, inn, 314 ; mod- 
em and ancient, 214;- Saxon manor; old hall, 21ft; resident 
curate of, 217 ; glebe and Ghureli ; -vesica pisfiis, 222. 

Brett Johannes de, 2&6» 

British Association, 184. 

Broad Oak Plantation, Strelkf , 254. 

BroGul, ancient owner of Broxtowo, 275; de Brooolstowe family, 277. 

Broom plant, the, poem on, 250. 

Brough Mr., rector of Trowell, 229. 

Brown, or Brunnesley family, 280; its aoftiquity, 230,iio<;9; Bnnsley 
village, 230; the Saxon Bruns, 233, 109; Boger, or Bobert, and 
Gilbert de Brunnesley, 109 ; Bobert Bi^wn, of Bnumesley, 281 ; 
Francis and Gr^rvase BmnBley, 231 ; arms and monumental in- 
scription, 231. 

Bubble shell, transparent, 124 ; stream ditto-, 197 ; slender ditto, 197. 

Bugge Balph, 36, note. 

Bulok Hugh, of Trowell, t20. 

Burgundy and Flanders, Bnke and Earl of, imitfltion rose nobles, 136» 
note. 

Burgognone, Combat painted by, 177. • 

Burton, and Ealnes Messrs., 163, $20; • 

Burton Johannes de, 125. 

Burun Hugh de (ancestor of the Byrons), 120, 143. 

Cabinets, inlaid, at WoUaton Hall, 82. 

Cambden's Britannia quoted, 30, 60. 

Camellia House at Wollaton Hall, fl2, 107. 

Campbell H. Bruce, Esq., 18. 

Castle Appleton, 13. 

Cavendish Charles, 258. 

Canal, the Nottingham, 236, 248. 

Cantelupe de, family, 287. 

Caracci, the Magdalene and landscape, by, 179. 

Causeway of the Bomans, Nottingham, 285. 

Catstone Hill, 253. 

Cantrell Rev. W. H., Brameote, 217, 221. 

Caverns, Bonse's, 5 ; in CasUe rock, 46 ; at Highfield House, 172. 

Cavendish WiUiam, founder of the Newcastle titles, 35. 

Castle rock caverns, Nottingham, 46. 

Carmelite Friars (Nottingham), remains of Cenrvent, 168. 

Cemetery Crorth, at Lenton, 180. 

Centrifugal drying maehines, 164. 

Celery, wQd, on Nottingham Castle rock, 34. 

Chapter House, at Lenton, 130. 

Church (iiltended) ibr Noittingham Park, 11 ; Churches bestowed on 

Lenton Abbey, 120. 
Charitable Trustees Looal Board of, 16. 
Charles I. (King), Biasing the Standatd, 19. 



iNi>i^. 361 

Chapel excavated and sculptured, 23— secret, 49. 

Chambers* Mr., balloon ascent of, 10. 

Charlton Nicholas G., of Chilwell, 261. 

Chawprth Sir J. 258. 

Chancery court of, removed to Nottingham, 137. 

Charity, Advent of, poem, 301. 

Chouler Mr. C, 246, 247. 

Christ's Passion, sculptured, by David 11. of Scotland, 30. 

Chrysalis shells, 196. 

Cignani Carlo, colossal painting by, 181. 

Cinder Hill Coal Works, T. North, Esq., engines at, 322, and New- 
castle Pit, 324 ; Cage, 324; railway excursion from, 325 ; brickworks 
at, 329; site of Pit No. 3, 330; woodyard at, 330; blacksmiths' 
shops, 330; upcast and downcast shafts, 330; Mr. Woodhouse, 
C.E., on ventilation, (fee, of, 332; descent of No. 1, 333; boiler- 
house and engines, 333; life and death flap, 334; current of 
ventilation, 335 : subterranean stud and stables, 335 ; main tram- 
way, 336 ; supply of air, 330 ; Byron's Anemometer ; quantity of 
coal raised ; the *' fault," 336 ; danger signal at Pilot Head, 337 ; 
large under-ground engine-bouse, 337 ; under-ground position of 
Pit No. 3, 338 , approach to the Headings, 339 $ headers at work, 
340 ; ventilation of the Headings, 339 ; rectangular streets of 
" levels" and " bords," or gates, 341 , scramble along the face of 
the coal, 342 ; fossil flora of the coal-field, 343 ; Brongniart's view 
of ditto, 344 ; the under-ground atmosphere, 245 ; miners' lights, 
34G , new Church for the miners, 351, et sequeiUes, 

Claude Lorraine, 178, note, 

Clarke Bev. J., monument, 293 

Clare, HoUis, family, 287, 288. 

Climate (Nottingham) treatise on, 198. 

Clifton Gervas de, 279. 

Cloister, relaxed disclipine of, 15th Century, 140-60, at Lenton, 130; 
fountain of, 131. 

Cloud HiU, Derbyshire, 227. 

Close shell, dark, 196. 

Clugny, Priory of, 122 ; first house in England, 123 ; magnificent 
characteristics of their remains, 128. 

Coalfield, great, near Nottingham, 322. , 

Coaches at Wollaton HaU, 104. 

Cockfields, the, 288 

Cod Oil, employment of in Felfanongery, 157. 

Coffins, stone, <fec., discovered at Lenton, 127, 133. 

Coins of Mary of Scots, 132 ; of Edward 111., 134 ; old English, gold, 
134 ; scriptural legends on, 135. 

Coil shells, 197. 

College, People's, Nottingham, 16. 

Collodion, propagation of plants by, 186. 

Common House (Monastic), 131. 

Comet, great, of 1854, 186. 



36fS INDEX. 

Cony-garth in Nottingliaiii Park, 18. 

Conchology popular of Nottingham, 191 ; fignres of C. Cornea and 
C. CaJionlata, 152 ; Dreissena polimoipha, Unio tamidus, U pic- 
torom, Anodonta cygnea, Neritina fluviatilis, Palndina vivipara, 
193 ; Bithinia tentacnlata, B. Leaehii, Valrata plscinalis, Y. ens- 
tata, limaz agrestis, L. flaYns, L. arbomm, L. dnert^ns, Vitrina 
peUncida, Zonites cellarius, Z. alliarius, Z. NitidtQus, Z. pnms. 
Z. Badiatnlus, 194 ; Z. ezcavatas, Z. nitidus, Z. ciystallinns, He- 
lix aspersa, H. Qevelata, H. Nemoralis, Yor. H. Hort^raxs, H. 
Arbustoram, H. Yiigata, 126 ; H. capenta, H. erioetomm, H. 
hispida, H. seiicea, H. acnleata, H. Ailva, H. Polchella, H. ro- 
tnndata, H. pygmcea, Bnlimns obscurus, Pn^a nmbilicata, Pnpa 
pygmoea, P. Substriata, Belea fragilis, ClansUia nigricans, 196 ; 
Zna Inbrica, Azeca tridens, Achatina adcnla, Sncdneo pntris, 
Physa fontinalis, P. Hypnorom, Planorbis comens, P. Albas, 
P. nautilus, P. marginatus, P. carinatus, P. vortex, P. spirorbis, 
P. oontortus, 197 ; P. nitidus, Timnseus auricularius, L. Pereger, 
L. stagnalis, L. truncatulus, L. glaber, L. palnstris, L. glutinosoB, 
Ancylus fluviatilis, A. oblongus, CaryeMum Tniniwmwi, Umax 
Brunneus, 198. 

'* Continent Le," balloon of Mr. C. O. Green, jun., 10. 

Cooper, cattle piece by, 176. 

Coombs Bomao camp, 286. 

Coidey, Sir William, 288. 

Cortena Pietro de, picture by, 174. 

Corregio or BafRiele, picture by, 179. 

Cossal, curacy of, 244; maternal inheritance of the Willoughbys, 244; 
Marsh, village, birthplace of Shaw the life-guardsman, 326. 

Councils, nationfd, in Nottingham, 137, 138. 

Coventry Lane, 268. 

Cowley quoted, 221. 

Cowel, old author, 274. 

Cox and Cartledge Messrs., 320. 

Cracknell's Montgolfler destroyed by a mob, 9. 

Creswell Mr. (ArchaBological Collection), 293. 

Creswick, picture by, 176. 

Cressy arms, formerly in Basford church, 292. 

Cripps W., Esq., Bramcote, 221. 

Qromwell, de family, at Basford, 287 ; Lords, 288. 

Cryptomeria Japonica, the, 167. 

Cunningham Allan, " British Painters** quoted, 64. 

Cupressus libanus, 62 ; Excelsa, 167— ftmebris (Fortune's), 168. 

Cuvier quoted, 86. 

Cuyp Albert, 176, note. 

Cycle river shells, 192. 

Cytisus Soopaiins, broom, 249. 

Dale Abbey, 280, 232. 
Danby, sunset by, 178. 



INDEX. 363 

" Daniel in the Hons den," scnlptnred gronp, 39. 

Dante, translator of, 221. 

Daniel's thermometer, 204. 

Darleton Stephen de, 297. 

David 11., of Scotland, imprisonment of, 20 : his temper, 30. 

Davenport Mr., curate of St. Mary's, Nottingham, 21 7. 

Daws Mrs. monument, Basford, 293. 

Dayhrook Works, Basford, 320. 

De Hooge, " Lace Maker," hy, 180. 

De-la-Zouch family, 287. 

Decoy, Wollaton Park, 105, 107. 

Decker, picture hy, 177 ; and Hondekoeter, joint pieoe hy, 180. 

Deny Mount, 45. 

Deer, magnificent park of, 56. 

Deer-ham-wood, Wollaton Park, 67. 

Deering Dr., 26, 31, 38, 116. 

Denman Lord, condemns Towle, 308. 

Deodara the Himalayan, 62, 167. 

Derhy Boad, the, 3. 

Deverill Hooton, laoe inyention, 310. 

Dew point, the, mode of ascertaining, 204. 

Dog Kennel Hill, Bouse's thirty years' ezoavations in, 5. 

Dog Kennels at Wollaton Hall, 104. 

Dohhler Ahhe, his Straduarius violin, 180, 

Dormitory, monastic, 131. 

Doomsday Book, 26, 269, 276, 279. 

Dugdale, quoted pasHm, 

Dukes, use of, 4. 

Dumhle the, 249, 251, 253. 

Dungeon, monastic, at Lenton, 130. 

Dyve William de, ancestor of the Strelleys, 232. 

£ames Mr., gassing and hleaching works, New Lenton, 163. 

Earthquake pendulum, 201. 

Eaton William, monument of, 294. 

Ebony, block of, Wollaton stables, 104. 

Ecclesiastics, foreign, in time of Edward IIX. 138. 

Edge Alderman, of Strelley, 218 ; Balph, 219, town-derk, 219. 

Edge Mrs. J. N., 243, 247. 

Edge J. T. Esq., 254, 261 ; marriage r^oicings of, 262 ; family of, 260 ; 

Balph of Strelley, 260; Bichard, 260; Thomas Webb, 260; Bev. 

John Webb, 260; Balph, monument of, 268 ; coal field, 323. 
Edward II. exempts Nottingham from Peveril jurisdiction, 148 
Edward III. and " Mortimer's Hole," 28 ; rose nobles of 134, 5, 6, note; 

his attachment to Nottingham, 137 ; confers Honor of Peveril on 

Eland, 149 ; parliaments of, 256. 
Edward YI., rose noble of, 135. 
Elands the, 292 ; William de, of Algarthoipe or Basford, 29, 137, 149, 

256,288,289. 



364 mojsx. 

Electrometers at Beeaton obMiratofy, 201 , Zambani'd dry pile, 202 ; 
Glaisher's portable, 202. 

Elizabeth, queen, grant to Sir J. Harrington, 122 • rose noble of, 135 ; 
Scriptural motto retained on coins, 136 ; entertainment in Not- 
tingham, of, 256. 

Ellingham Thomas, prior of Lenton, 145. 

Elm, lai^ge, at Strelley old lodge, 258. 

Encaustic church tiles, flooring, in aitUf at Lenton, 128. 

Erewash Valley, the, 227. 

Escul, Basford Saxon, 287. 

Espec Walter de, 143. 

Estradleigh Bobert de, 255. 

Eure Sir William, his letters to Lord Cromwell, quoted, 140. 

Evangelists, concordance of, by William of Nottingham, 257. 

Exhibition greats of 1851, 16. 

Fagus sylvatica purpurea, at WoUaton Park, 106. 

Fairs, privileged, of Lenton, 141 ; origin of from dedioatioti of churches, 

142; in time of plague, 142. 
Farmer Mr. Henry, composer, X13. 
Farrands and Whyatt Messrs., 320. 

Fellmongers' works, Messrs. Bayley and ShaWs, at Lenton, 153; des- 
cription of processes producing morocco, parchment, rugs, glue, 

&c., 154-5-6-7. 
Ffllkin William, Esq., career of, 14 ; description of laoe machineiy 

by, 308, 409, 310. 
Fenestration (amazing) of Wollaton Hall, 59. 
Fern combes at Highfield House; 169 ; collection of six hundred, 169; 

Norfolk Island tree, 170 ; remarkable ferns, 170. 
Ferrars, earls of, 27 ; burn Nottingham, 118; Bobert de, 143. 
" Festus," critique on, 295. 
Filices, Highfield House, 169. 
Fishes, Willoughby's, 183. 
Fishpond Gardens, (see Nottingham Park.) 
Fitzherberts, carving of arms of, 215. 
Fitz-Aman, Bobert de, 270. 
Flora Cottage, Mr. H. Farmer, 113. 
Floor-tiles from Lenton Abbey, 124. . 
Fotjambe family, 292. 
Font, aneient carved stone, at Lenton, 123 ; discovery of ditto, 127, 159 ; 

stone ditto at Trowell, 286. 
Foreign ecclesiastics, agitation against, imp, Edw. III., 188 ; monks 

ordered to quit the realm, 138. 
Ford Mr. John, chemical works, 320. 
Foster, Oapt, ballooning, 8. 
Fossils, collection of, Mr. BaUey-s, 301. 
Fountain for public grounds of Nottingham Park, 11. 
Foxcroft Mr., solicitor, ballooning, 9, 



INDEX. 566 

Fox Mr. John, Basford, 320. 

Foxcovert-road, the, 873. 

Fraser A., painter, original illustration of Sir Walter Scott, by, 176 ; 

cabinet piece by, 177. 
Franks old, painter "Holy Family," by, 177. 
Franklin Benjamin, his electrical kite at Beeston Observatory, [.202 ; 

his original hygrometer, 203. 
French titles of sovereignty, 136. 
Friars, Carmelite, in Nottingham, 148. 

Friar's-yard, Friar's-lane, Nottingham, old monastic buildings of, 148. 
Froggat Mr. J., of Lenton Poplars, archaeologist, 126. 
Froissart quoted, 29 . 
Fuseli, illustration of Ovid, by, 181. 

Gainsborough, large fiunily piece by, 180 ; " Village," by, 182. 

Gamelston Aunsell de, 279. 

Gardener's Chronicley papers in, by Mr. E. J. Lowe, 186. 

Gaxton Thomas, attack on house of, 207. 

Gassing and bleaching works, Messrs. Burton and Eames, New Len- 
ton, 162. 

Gassing, process of, 164. 

Gawthom Eev. F. S., gift of church site by, 314. 

General Hospital, near Nottingham, 24. 

Gifts strange to Lenton monastery, 121. 

Gill, the late George, Esq., philanthropy of, 16 

GiU Rev. W., 158. 

Giordano, pictures by, 66 ; his life, 66, riote. 

GiUiflowers, wHd, on Nottingham Castle-rock, 34. 

Gilpin's " Cattle Reposing," 175. 

Glaisher Mr., Observer Royal at Greenwich, 191 ; portable electrome- 
ter, 202. 

Glendowyr Owen, 32. 

Glue, superior, made at Lenton, 157. 

Godric, &e Saxon, 214. 

Golden Yews, 168. 

Gorse, common, 250. 

Gorings Lords, stewards of Peveril Court, 149. 

Goltzius H., Magdalene, by, 177. 

Grave-yard a, deserted and neglected, 127. 

Greaves Mr., nominated mayor of Nottingham, 218. 

Gregory George, Esq., of Harlaxton, his descent. 111 ; William, {tem. 
Car. I.), 161 ; family, 146 ; principal manor ©f Lenton granted 
to, 148. 

Green's great Nassau Balloon, 7 ; Britannia Balloon oollapsoj 9 ; three 
hundred and seventieth ascent, 9; son's balloon, "Le Conti- 
nent." 10. 

Grey Richard de, of Codnor, 28 ; Henry de, 121, 277. 

Greys,' Scots, departure for the Crimea, 41. 

Grey Dr. Robert, 270. 



866 INDEX. 

Grobett, Gent, monument, 204. 

Grosthead Bobert, Bishop of Lincoln, prohibits fiEdrs in churches, 142. 

Guido, " Infant Saviour," by, 180. 

Guardian Nottinghamshire^ quoted, 262. 

Guns, captured, at WoUaton Hall, 63, 103. 

Hackers the, (regicide), abode of at Trowell, 239 ; fieimily of, at East 
Bridgford, 229 ; William Hacker's monument, 231, and note* 

Hadden Avenellus de, ancestor of the Dukes of Rutland, 120. 

Hadden John, Esq., Bramcote Lodge, 221. 

Hall Lawrence, Esq., Bramcote Grove, 221. 

Hall People's, Nottingham, 17. 

Hall Francis, Esq., coalfield, 323. 

Hall Mr. Thomas, starch works at New Lenton, 162 ; and S. Hall and 
Son, cotton works at Basfoid destroyed by fire, 310. 

Handley family, 215 ; Heniy's charities, 216; monumental arms, St. 
Peter's, Nottingham, 216 ; hospital, 216* 

Hancock Thomas, 45. 

Hancock Thomas, hydraulic engineer, 45. 

Harrington John, Lenton monastery granted to, 121, 148. 

Harris Sir W. Snow, bayonet (lightning) conductors, 202. 

Hawthorns ancient of Sutton-Pasgeys, 108. 

Hawkins Mrs. monument, 293. 

Hay, meaning of, 116. 

Haythom Mr., gardener at Wollaton Hall, 105. 

Heakers the Miss, monument, 293 ; Benjamin, 293. 

Heard John, Esq., 17. 

Heathcoats* silk filature at Tiverton, 15. 

Heath Nicholas, last prior of Lenton, 122; convict and attaint of 
treason, 141 ; singular points of identity with Archbishop Heath, 
146, note ; no certain evidence of his alleged execution, 146 ; 
were there two f 146. 

Heathcoat and Boden, factory at Loughborough attacked, 307 ; 
Heathcoat John patents bobbin-net machine, 309. 

Heden Sir Simon de, 279. 

Hemskirk, pictures by, 69, 71. 

Hemshaw, singular painting by, 180. 

Hemlock-stone the, 222 ; form and appearance of, 228 ; commanding 
site, 223 ; Druidical, 223 ; measurement, 224 ; strata and mark- 
ings of, 224; lichens, component materials ''sand-stone" and 
" hemloek.stone," 224; laminated caps, height, visitors, dip, 
summit views, 224 ; origin ; local traditions of the flood, 225. 

Henson Mr., Bramcote, 215. 

Henry I., confirmation of Lenton fairs by, 122. 

Henry (II) Duke of Normans, 27, 117. 

Henry TV., monks confined to their cloisters by, 139. 

Henry Yin., grant to Sir F. Leake, 122 ; his luxurioufl churchmen, 
140 ; his money transaction with Nottingham Corporation, 141 ; 
his disposal of monastic property, 146-7 ; death <^, 147. 



INDEX. 8d7 

Herbert Alderman T., 21 ; his artistic caTem effeets in rock» 22,25. 
Heriz, Ivo de, 270. 

Herdeley Galfredus de, 279. 

Herring, " Cattle," by, 182. 

Hexgrave Park, Boman camp near, 286. 

Hic]din Mr., local historian, 38, 44. 

Hine T. C. Esq., architect, 10 } career of, 13. 

Highfield House and grounds, 166; way to, 166; fine site, avenues, 
vistas, extensive pleasure gnninds, rose trees, 166 ; rosary, leS ; 
flowering acacia, 168 ; rockery, Boman urn, 168 ; fern combes, 
169 ; vineries, stove and greenhouses ; collection of 600 ferns and 
lycopodiums, 169; vivipaious ferns, 170; Norfolk Island tree 
fern, 170 ; remarkable ferns, 170 ; bush-fighting plant, 171 ; 
sandstone blufis, wild lake, water fowl, water weeds^ 171 ; grot- 
toes, caverns, Boman remains, 172; rtelics of battle (Keighton 
fields), 173 ; Ostade's " Crossing the Ferry," 173 ; Bembrandt's 
" Jael and Sisera," 174 ; pictures by Pietro de CortonaandBichaid 
Parkes Bennington, 174 , Ibbotson's " Mallam Cove," 175 ; Bar- 
rett and Gilpin's *' CatUe Group," landscapes of Poussin and 
Beubens, cattle piece by Cooper, five cabinet pieces by Bird, 
flower piece by Baptiste, 176 ; entrance hall, Cuyp, Wheatley's 
" Love Letter," Fraser's illustration of Sir W. Scotf s " Betrothed," 
Bosa di Tivoli's " Night and Morning," Creswick, Manners, More- 
land, 176 ; drawing-room, Andrea del Sarto's " Holy Family," 
176 ; Vanderstraeten, Goltzius* " Magdalen," Franks' *• Holy 
Family," S. Yanderdoe, Buysdael, Decker, Teniers, Martin, P. 
Veronese's *' Christ before Pilate," A. Fraser, Burgognone, 177 ; 
Claude's "View near TivoU," Botennamer's "Last Judgment," 
Earl du Jardin's " Venus and Adonis/' Danby, Moreland. Ste- 
phanhoflf's "May Queen," 178; Albano, E. duJardin, Bafaelle 
or Correggio's " The Judgment of Paris," Sebastian del Piombo, 
Murillo, &e Caracci, Wheatley, Zucoharelli, A. Euypel, Van Huy- 
sum, Hoffland, 179; Hem^aw, Decker and Hondekoete|:, 
Guide's " Infant Jesus," Wyk, Gainsborough, Williams, Leduo, 
Vander Cabel, De Hooge, Panini, Beddings, 180; prize cups, 
Abbe Dohbler, Straduarius violin. Justice-room pictures, Williams, 
Watteau, Naysmith, 180; Cignani's "Joseph," Murillos "Pro- 
digal," Van Thulden, C. Hooton, Berghem, MuUer, Fuseli, &c., 
181 ; observatory instruments, 182 ; stars, 183. 

Highway ancient English, 285. 

Hobson Bev. W. T., 254. 

Hobson Thomas, prior of Lenton, 145, 147. 

Hoffland, " Windsor CasUe," by, 179. 

Holbein Hans, notice of, 93. 

Holden Bobert, Esq., Nuttall Temple, coal-field, 823. 

HoUy Hill, Arnold, Boman camp at, 286. 

Hollys (HoUis) family (Clare), 287, 288. 

Hollingworth, Luddite attack on his house, 904. 

Hollow-stone rock fall, 49. 



868 IKBEX. 

Itonor of Perenl, court -of, $e€ PeveriL 

Hondekoeter and Decker, joint piece by, 180. 

Hood Dr., of Lenton, Peveril's bones sent to, 133. 

Hooton Charles, painting of vista by, 181. 

Horsingdale farm, ascent by railvay, 825. 

Hospital General, Nottingham, 24. 

Hospital, remains of at Lenton, 127 ; General, Nottingham, 20. 

Howe Lord, action off Ushant, 67. 

Hudson Thomas's fall of 100 feet, 34. 

Hurt Rev. John, 2M, 261. 

Hurt Mnjor, of Wirksworth, 261. 

Hundreds of Nottinghamshire, 274, 276. 

Hutchinsons the, of Basford, 149, 290. 

Hutchinson Mrs. Luoy, quoted, 149. 

Huysum Van, landscape by, 179. 

Hygrometer Franklin's, 203. y 

Hyde, Cheshire, 15. 

Ibbotson's " Mallam Cove," 175=; " Bolton Abbey," by, 181. 

Ichthyographia Willoughby*8, 85. 

Ilkeston turnpike the, 247 ; Canal wharf, 927. 

Inclinometers Gillespie's, 4. 

Ingelram Robert, of Nottingham, knight, 148. 

Ingram mill and fiamily of, Lenton, 143. 

Inglis Henry, poem of, quoted, 252. 

Instruments at Highfldd House Observatory, 182 ; new at Beeston 

Observatory, 209. 
Ireland Lord of, English crown title, 135. 
Isabella Queen, her entreaty for Mortimer, 29, 137. 

Jackson Mr. W., 254. 

Jacquard, application of, 310. 

Jalland, fiunily tomb of, Basford, 294. 

James I., grant of Lenton Abbey to city of London, 148. 

James II., his quo warranto in Nottingham, 219, 261. 

James V., Scotch king, and his ecclesiastics, 140. 

Jardine Sir William (Memoir of Francis Willoughby), 67. 

Jardin Earel du, his "Venus and Adonis," (great picture), 178; 

" Mastiff and Puss," 179. 
Jeffries, the notorious Judge, Nottingham election trial before, 219. 
John (King,) 27, 148. ^.^ 

Ears the del, of Ruddington, 215 ; Ear manor, 215. 

Kehama Southey's, quoted, 8. 

Eelk and Pearson Messrs^ 321. 

Eennett Bishop, quoted, 142. 

Eey, curious iron, of Lenton Monastery, 133. 

Eidd, pictures by, 181. 

Eimberley, Luddism at, 304.