V Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 httRs://archive.org/details/seriesofpictures01morr • • VOL. 1. L ONDON: WILLIAM MACKENZIE, b<), LUDGATK HILL. E DIN B URG H A X I) DUBLIN. A SERIES OF PICTURESQUE VIEWS OF SEATS OF THE NOBLEMEN AND GENTLEMEN OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. WITH DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICAL LETTERPRESS. EDITED BY THE REV. F. 0. MORRIS, B.A., AUTHOR OF A "HISTORY OF BRITISH BIItDS," DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO II Ell MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY THE QUEEN. VOL. I. LONDON: WILLIAM MACKENZIE, 69, LUDGATE H ILL. EDINBURGH AND DUBLIN. I CONTENTS. PAGE "Windsor Castle. — The Eotal Residence . . . . j Harewood House. — Earl of Harewood ..... 7 Wilton House. — Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery . . . .9 Castle Howard. — Earl of Carlisle . . . . . n Howsham Hall. — Cholmley . . . . . .13 Sudeley Castle. — Dent . . . . . . 1,5 Picton Castle. — Phillips . . . . . . .21 Wentworth Woodhouse. — Earl Fitzwilliam .... 23 Eyeringham Park. — Lord Herries . . . . . .25 Holme Lacy. — Stanhope, Baronet ..... 27 Eaton Hall. — Duke of Westminster . . . . .31 Thrybergh Park. — Fullerton ...... 33 Floors Castle. — Luke of Eoxrurghe . . . . .35 Lea. — Anderson, Baronet . . . . . . 37 Farnham House. — Lord Farnham . . . . . .39 Ilam Hall. — Hanbury . . . . , . 41 Warwick Castle. — Earl of Warwick . . . . .43 Burton Constable. — Constable, Baronet ..... 45 Franks. — Power . . . . . . .47 Chatsworth. — Duke of Devonshire ..... 49 Guy's Cliffe. — Percy ... .... 53 Knowsley Hall. — Earl of Derby ..... 55 Garnstone. — Peploe ....... 57 Teentham Hall. — Duke of Sutherland ..... 59 iv CONTENTS. ChARLECOTE. L.UCY . . . . . . .61 Bipley Castle. — Ingilby, Baronet ..... 63 Bueghley House. — Marquis of Exeter . . . . .65 Alton Towers. — Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot . . . . 67 Broadlands. — Cowper-Temple . . . . . .69 Temple-Xewsam. — Meynell-Ingraji . . . . . 71 AYollaton Hall. — Lord Middleton . . . . . .73 Inverary Castle. — Deke of Argyll ..... 75 Xewstead Abbey. — "Webb . . . . . . .77 Blenheim. — Duke of Marlborough . . . . . 7 'J Cranbury Park. — Chambeelayne . . . . . .81 Scone Palace. — Earl of Mansfield ..... 83 AVhitley Court. — Earl of Dudlly . . . . . .85 Glanusk Park. — Bailey, Baronet ..... 87 Burton- Agnes Hall. — Boynton, Baronet . . . . .89 Balmoral Castle. — Royal Private Besidence. ( Vignette Title-page. J . . 91 THE COUNTY SEATS. WINDSOR CASTLE, THE ROYAL RESIDENCE. The history of Windsor Castle is the history of England and of England's Kings and Queens. To do it justice would require a far abler pen than mine, and far more space than is allowed by the narrow limits of a work like the present. The building is worthy of England, and of the long and illustrious line of monarchs that have sat upon our throne, and though there are many more striking and more picturesque situations to be found among those that abound in the broad lands of the island, there is perhaps none more thoroughly suitable for the Palace of the Ruling Sovereign of England, inasmuch as there is none more thoroughly English in its character and features. Standing as it does on a gentle eminence in a part of the country which is neither flat nor mountainous, and surrounded as far as the eye can reach by beautiful Home scenery of a similar character, the winding Thames completes the beauty of the landscape, and at the same time carries to the ocean the story of the events which unite for ever its own name with those of Britain, thence to be borne by our ships of native oak to every corner of the globe — a world-wide history, the History of England. Windsor Castle, originally a fortress of the Roman invaders, and probably of previous existence, was founded by William the Conqueror, and has, as might be supposed, received numberless alterations and additions since. According to some historians, it was' newly built by Henry I., where, in 1122, he celebrated his marriago with his second Queen, Adeliza of Louvain. In the centre of the building, and raised on a mound, is the keep, or round tower, from which a full view of the neighbouring country is obtained. I. 13 2 WINDSOR CASTLE. In 1170 a Parliament was held in the fortress under Henry II., in which William the Lion, King of Scotland, and his brother David attended as feudal barons of the realm. Henry III. added greatly to the fortifications. Edward I. held a grand tournament in the adjoining park. Edward III. was born here, hence called Edward of Windsor. This monarch made great improvements in the Castle and town. These vast works were superintended by the celebrated William of Wykeham, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, and the munificent founder of New College, Oxford, who was appointed keeper of the Manors of Old and New Windsor in 1359. On the Winchester Tower there is still to be seen a stone on which are cut the words "Hoc fecit Wykeham." The king on seeing the words "was exceedingly wroth against Wykeham, and but for his dexterity the affair would have gone seriously with the architect. Being summoned into the king's presence, the king demanded his explanation, when Wykeham told the king he read the inscription wrongly; it was not 'that Wykeham, made the tower, but that the tower made Wt/keham,' whereat the king's wroth was appeased." In this reign King John of France and King David of Scotland were both prisoners together in the Castle. Henry VII. made various alterations in it. Queen Elizabeth constructed the terrace walk on the north side. During the civil wars in the reign of Charles I., Windsor Castle was garrisoned by the rebel troops. It was unsuccessfully attacked by Prince Rupert in the autumn of 1042; and in 1048 it became the prison of the unfortunate monarch. Charles II. repaired and richly furnished it. In the year 1824 the sum of £300,000 was voted by the nation for the general improvement of the Castle, and subsequent grants have raised the amount appropriated for the buildings alone to nearly £800,000. It has in modern times been the favourite residence of King George III., King George IV., who greatly enriched it, William IV., and Queen Victoria, whom may God preserve. The Chapel of St. George was given its present form by Edward IV., and was completed by King Henry VII. It is within it that the Knights of the Garter are installed, and the long lines of their banners that float from under its roof, are in themselves a history which connects it more or less nearly with almost the whole of the nobility and gentry of the country — a commingling of ranks, from the scions of Royalty down to the Commons of the land, which has had vast influence in making England the mighty and happy country that it is. The state apartments are as follows : — The Queen's Audience Chamber. Three sides of the room are hung with Gobelin tapestry, representing — Esther confided to the care of Hegai; the triumph of Mordecai; the crowning of Queen Esther by Ahasuerus. It contains also a portrait of the grandfather of King William HI., by Honthorst; a portrait of the father of the King, by Honthorst; a whole-length portrait of Mary Queen of Scots, by Janet; a / WINDSOR CASTLE. 3 portrait of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, by Honthorst; and of William III., by Honthorst. The Vandyke Room contains no fewer than twenty-two paintings by Vandyke, namely, — 1. Henry, Comte de Bergh. 2. Charles I., Queen Henrietta, Prince Charles* and Prince James. 3. Mary, Duchess of Richmond. 4. Thomas Killigrew, and Thomas Carew. 5. Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I. C. Lady Venetia Digby. 7. George Villiers, and Lord Francis Villiers. 8. Prince of Carignan. 9. Henrietta Maria. 10. Beatrix de Cusance, Princess de Cantecroy. 11. Five Children of Charles L, — Prince Charles; James, Duke of York, and the Princesses Mary, Elizabeth, and Anne. 12. Charles I. 13. Henrietta Maria. 14. Lucy, Countess of Carlisle. 15. Sir Kenelm Digby. 16. Prince Charles, afterwards Charles II. 17. The Artist's own Portrait. 18. Henrietta Maria. 19. Three Children of Charles I., namely, — Prince Charles (Charles II. ;) Princess Royal (Mary, Princess of Orange;) and Prince James, (James II.) 20. Mary, Countess of Dorset. 21. Charles I. on horseback. 22. A portrait of a person unknown. Upon the crimson silk damask hangings are displayed the insignia of the Orders of the Garter, Bath, St. Patrick, and the Thistle. The Queen's State Drawing Room is adorned with fourteen paintings, nine of them by Zuccarelli, namely, — 1. The Meeting of Isaac and Rebecca. 2. The Finding of Moses, (painted expressly for George III., the artist being left to the choice of his subject.) 3 to 9. Seven large landscapes, one of which represents Jacob tending the flocks of Laban. 10. Portraits of Henry, Duke of Gloucester, when a child, the youngest son of Charles I. 11. George I., by Fountaine. 12. George II. 13. George III. 14. Frederick, Prince of Wales. The rich silk hangings are ornamented with the arms of William IV. and Queen Adelaide. The State Ante-Room contains beautiful specimens of carving of fruit, fowl, fish, and flowers, by Gibbons; and a portrait on stained glass of George III., in his coronation robes. The Grand Staircase has several suits of armour of the sixteenth century, military trophies, a sculpture of an infant Hercules, antique study, etc. The Waterloo Chamber, in which many of the state banquets are given, has a series of thirty-eight portraits, confined to those distinguished personages who were connected either in an immediate or accessory manner with the battle of Waterloo. The portraits were all painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence, except those otherwise mentioned. 1. Le Due de Richelieu. 2. General Overoff. 3. Duke of Cambridge. 4. Right Hon. R. B. Jenkinson, second Earl of Liverpool, K.G. 5. William IV., (by Sir David Wilkie.) 6. George III., (by Sir William Beechy.) 7. George IV. 8. Viscount Castlereagh, K.G. 9. Duke of York, K.G. 10. Baron Von Humboldt. 11. Right Hon. George Canning. 12. Right Hon. Henry Bathurst, third Earl of Bathurst, K.G. 13. Count Munster. 14. Cardinal Ercole Gonsalvi. 15. Prince of Hardenburgh. 16. William III., King of Prussia. 17. Francis I., Emperor of Austria. 18. Alexandria I., Emperor of Russia. 19. Count Nesselrode. 20. Pope Pius VII. 21. Count Capo d' Istrias. 22. Prince of Metternich-Winneberg. 4 WINDSOR CASTLE. 23. Viscount Hill, G.C.B., (by H. W. Pickersgill, R.A.) 24. Charles X., King of France. 25. Prince of Sckwartzenberg. 26. Archduke of Austria. 27. Lieutenant- General Sir Thomas Picton, G.C.B., (by Sir Martin Archer Shee, P.R.A.) 28. Duke of Angouleme. 29. William Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Oels. 30. The King of the Belgians. 31. General Sir James Kempt, G.C.B., (by H. W. Pickersgill, R.A.) 32. Count Platoff. 33. Duke of Wellington, K.G. 34. Gelhard Von Blucher, Prince of Wahstadt. 35. Count Alten, G.C.B., and G.C.H., (by Reichmann.) 36. Marquis of Anglesea, K.G., (by Sir M. A. Shee, P.R.A.) 37. Lieutenant-General Count Czernitschoff. 38. William Frederick George Lewis, Prince of Orange. The chimney-pieces, and some of the picture-frames, etc., are encircled with carvings by Gibbons of wreaths of fruit, flowers, etc. The Presence Chamber is embellished with some magnificent specimens of Gobelin tapestry, illustrating the history of Jason and the Golden Fleece. It also contains the rare and costly Malachite vase presented to the Queen by the Emperor of Russia; and two exquisitely worked vases of granite, a present from the King of Prussia to King William IV. St. George's Hall, two hundred feet in length, thirty-four feet wide, and thirty-two feet high, has whole-length portraits of the following sovereigns: — James I. and Charles I., by Vandyke; Charles II. and James II., by Sir Peter Lely; Mary, William III., Anne, and George I., by Sir Godfrey Kneller; George II., by Zeeman; George III., by Gainsborough; and George IV., by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Also on twenty-four shields, behind the throne or chair of state, are the arms of each sovereign of the Order of the Garter, from the time of its institution in the reign of Edward III. to King William IV. Also four knights in complete armour, one representing the founder of the order, and the other his son, Edward the Black Prince. The Guard Chamber is nearly eighty feet in length, and thirty-one feet high. It contains the bust of Lord Nelson, by Sir Francis Chantrey, its pedestal being part of the mast of the Victory shot through by a cannon-ball. There are also busts of the great Duke of Marlborough, from Rysbach, and the Duke of Wellington, by Sir F. Chantrey, with their respective banners over them, by the annual presentation of which, on the anniversaries of the victories of Blenheim and Waterloo, the families of these two of England's greatest generals hold the estates of Blenheim and Strathsfieldsaye. Also two brass guns captured by Lord Hardinge in India, two taken by Lord Cornwallis at the storming of Seringapatam; and whole-length figures in armour of the Duke of Brunswick, 1530; Lord Howard, 1588; the Earl of Essex, 1596; Henry, Prince of Wales, 1612; Prince Rupert, 1635. There is also a collection of arms of various kinds tastefully arranged on the walls, and the famous shield by Benvenuto Cellini, said to have been presented by Francis I. of France to Henry VIII. on the "Field of the Cloth of Gold." The Queen's Presence Chamber has its walls decorated with Gobelin tapestry, representing a continuation of the events in the life of Queen Esther; and other pictures, namely, — 1. A full-length portrait of the Princess Elizabeth of Brunswick, (1649,) and her sister, by Mytens. 2. The Princess Dorothea, by the same master. I WINDSOR CASTLE. 5 3. Henrietta (the wife of Philip, Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV.,) and her two daughters, by Mignard. The Gold Pantry contains a vast quantity of rare and costly articles, of which the following are but a few : — The celebrated "Huma," representing a bird studded with precious stones, and captured from Tippoo Saib at the storming of Seringapatam, supposed to be of the value of upwards of £30,000. The National Cup, richly embossed with the figures of St. George, St. Patrick, and St. Andrew; the Rose, the Shamrock, and the Thistle, formed of precious stones sumounted by imperial crowns. "Amongst the numerous shields here deposited is the celebrated shield of Achilles, of exquisite design and workmanship. It is impossible to describe, with anything like accuracy, the beauties of the various salvers, vases, tankards, cups, epergnes, candelabra, etc.; they are all executed by the first artists, and the most refined tastes. We may, however, briefly refer to the celebrated candelabrum of St. George, which may be thus described : — The upper division I'epresents the combat of St. George and the Dragon in full relief. The lower division has also in full relief four figures supporting shields, bearing the arms of England, Ireland, and Scotland, and the Prince of Wales's plume. Many of the epergnes are embellished with sculptured subjects from the designs of Flaxnian. There is also a very curious silver cup, made out of Spanish dollars taken at the surrender of Havannah in 1702, and presented to George IV., when Prince of Wales, on his twenty-first birthday, in 1783, by Sir J. Dyer. There are several bulb cups, some splendidly ornamented; others, of ivory, highly coloured with allegorical devices from Flaxman's designs, richly mounted in gold, and adorned with rare brilliants and other precious stones.'" The Private Apartments, which can only be viewed by an order obtained from the Lord Chamberlain, and then only when the Sovereign is not residing at Windsor, consist of The Corridor, containing busts of Queen Victoria; Queen Anne; George I; George II.; George III.; George IV.; William IV.; and Ferdinand, King Consort of Portugal. Prince Albert; Prince George of Cumberland; Prince George of Cambridge; and a son of the King of the Belgians. Princess Royal, and Princess Charlotte. Dukes of York, Kent, Cumberland, Cambridge, Gloucester, Edward of York, Wellington, Bedford, Devonshire, Gordon, and Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Marquis of Granby, and Marquis of Anglesea. Earl of Harcourt, Earl Grey, and Francis, Earl of Moira. Countess of Charlemont. Viscount Castlereagh, and Viscount Lake. Lords Erskine, Ellenborough, Thurlow, and Granville, Baron Ligonier, and Lord Melbourne. Sir Robert Peel, Sir Thomas Hardy, Sir Geoffrey Wyatville, Sir Isaac Newton, and Sir Richard Keates. Archbishop Markham. Pope Pius. Cardinal Gonsalvi. Pitt, Fox, Pope, Shakespeare, Sheridan, Handel, Sebastian Le Prestre, Marshal, Dr. Johnson, Garrick, Boyle, Clark, Locke, Bacon, Platoff, Blucher, etc. The White Drawing Room. The Green Drawing Room. The Crimson Drawing Room. The Queen's Private Boudoir. The Private Dining Room. The Grand Reception 6 WINDSOR CASTLE. Eoom. The Eubens Room. The Picture Gallery. The Purple Throne Room. The Library. St. George's Hall. The Prince Consort's Painting Room. The Private Chapel. The buildings occupy about twelve acres of ground. The Castle is open to visitors on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. The Royal Family of England descends from Guelph, younger brother of Odoacer, conqueror and first barbarian King of Italy, who died in the year 489. ft HAREWOOD HOUSE, NEAR WETHERBY, YORKSHIRE. EARL OF HAEEWOOD. Harewood House, the magnificent residence of the Earl of Harewood, is beautifully situated in a noble and gracefully undulated park of upwards of two thousand acres, and looks down over a garden, which in summer is a very blaze of flowers of every hue, upon a fine lake in front. Behind it, a few hundred yards off, on the other side of the hill on which it stands, are the ruins of Harewood Castle, overlooking the valley of the Wharfe, from which in a westerly direction a lovely view of Wharf edale is bounded by the Craven mountains, nearly twenty miles away; while towards the east the great vale of York stretches out, with York Minister rising up from it at about the like distance. In the year 1080 William the Conqueror gave Harewood, with other large estates in Yorkshire, to Robert de Romelli, said by Gabriel de Moulin to have been of an ancient and eminent family in Normandy. He had an only daughter, Cecily de Romelli, married to William de Meschines, Earl of Chester, who thus became, in 1120, Lord of Harewood. They founded a Priory at Embsay, in Craven, which was afterwards removed by their daughter Avicia to Bolton Abbey. They had issue — 1. Rafe, died without children. 2. Matthew, died issueless. 3. Alice, married to Fitz-Duncan, son of the Earl of Murray, nephew to Malcolm, King of Scotland. 4. Avicia, married to William de Courcy, of Stoke Courcy, in the county of Somerset, Steward of the Household to King Henry I. The two daughters being co-heiresses of vast estates and wealth, retained their surnames after marriage, and the latter, Avicia (de Courcy) de Romelli, had by her husband a son, drowned in leaping over the Strid, a narrow chasm in the rocks between which the river Wharfe flows, above Bolton Abbey: — > "He sprang in glee, for what cared he That the river was strong and the rocks were steep ; But the greyhound in the leash hung back, And checked him in his leap; And never more was young Romilly seen Till he rose a lifeless corse." Wordsworth and Rogers have both recorded this event. There are, however, doubts about the truth of the legend, and Dr. Whitaker imagines it may refer to one 8 HAREWOOD HOUSE. of tlie sons of the first foundress of the Abbey of Embsay, both of whom died young; and it is supposed by many that the story was an invention of the monks, in order to remove from the cold and cheerless heights of Embsay to the lovely seclusion of the valley where Bolton Abbey now stands, the extreme beauty of which is exceeded by no scenery in England. The manor of Harewood then descended, in 1180, to the eldest son of William and Avicia, (de Courcy,) De Romelli, whose daughter carried it by marriage into the family of Fitzgerald, in 1195, which was followed by that of De Breant, 1225. De Redvers, 1240. De Fortibus, 1270. Earl of Lancaster, 1274. (Edward Crouchback, second son of King Henry III.) Lord Lisle, 1300. De Aldeburgh, 1365. He had two daughters, co-heiresses of the Harewood estates, namely, Elizabeth, married Sir R. Redman, or Redmayne, Sybill, married Sir William Ryther. Gascoigne, in 1545, Marmaduke Gascoigne marrying the daughter and heiress of Henry Redmayne, Esq. Wentworth, ancestor of Lord Strafford, 1580, by marriage with Margaret, daughter and heiress of William Gascoigne. Sir John Cutler, 1693, (by purchase.) Earl op Radnor, 1693, (by marriage with Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir John Cutler.) Boulter, 1696, (by will of Sir John Cutler in failure of a direct heir.) Lascelles, 1739, (by purchase,) ancestor of the Earls of Harewood. Among the paintings at Harewood House are two views of Plompton Rocks by Turner; Richmond Castle, Knaresborough Castle, Aisgarth Force, and Harewood Castle, by Dahl; Henry, second Earl of Harewood, by Jackson; Mr. Pitt, Henrietta, wife of the second Earl, Lady Worsley, Mrs. Hale and five children, and Edward, Earl of Harewood, his wife, and child, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Lady Frances Hope, Lady Cavendish, Mr. Arthur Lascelles, and Mr. Edwin Lascelles, in a group; Edward, first Lord Harewood, and Jane, Countess of Harrington; Lady Mary Yorke, daughter of the first Earl, and Edwin, Viscount Lascelles, both by Hopper; Louisa, Dowager Countess, wife of the third Earl, by Richmond, presented by the tenants of the estate; Henry, third Earl, on horseback, by Grant, R.A., presented by the members of the Bramham Moor Hunt; and Henry, second Earl of Harewood, a full-length portrait by Sir Thonas Lawrence, presented to the Countess of Harewood by a numerous body of the freeholders of the county of York. The family of Lascelles, Earls of Harewood, derives from John de Lascelles, of Hiuderskelfe, (now called Castle Howard,) in the Wapentake of Bulmer, in the North Riding of the county of York, living in 1315, WILTON HOUSE, WILTON, WILTSHIRE. — EAKL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY. Wilton House is an imposing structure, and the grounds immediately adjoin the town of Wilton, which is pleasantly situated on the junction of the rivers Nadder and Wiley, from the latter of which it derives its name. It was rebuilt, as to its present front, by Inigo Jones, a part of the previous mansion having been destroyed by fire in 1648. In the year 773 an abbey was founded here by Weolkstan, Earl of Ellandum. In 830 it was completed, when Egbert, King of England, converted it into a priory for thirteen nuns, and his sister Aburga was made prioress. In the reign of Alfred the Great the priory was demolished by the Danes, but on their being expelled from the country he founded in its stead a monastery on the site where his palace had stood, and added a lady abbess and twelve nuns to its original foundation. In the reign of Edgar, a lady named Walfrith being the Abbess, it was again destroyed by Swein, in revenge for a massacre of the Danes. It was afterwards restored, but in Ethelred's reign the Danes again invaded the country, and he was succeeded on the throne by a Danish monarch, followed by three others of that race. On the restoration of the Saxon kings the monastery was rebuilt by Edith, wife of Edward the Confessor. It was now constructed of stone, having previously been of wood. In the year 1066 William the Conqueror obtained possession of the throne, and, as recorded in Domesday Book, doubled the value of the house, the abbess at that time being Christiana, sister of Edgar Atheling, and here she educated Matilda, her niece, who afterwards became wife of Henry Beauclerc. During the civil wars that followed, Wilton met with its share of disaster. In the year 1143 King Stephen arrived here with his brother, the Bishop of Winchester, and a large force, and began to convert the monastery into a place of military defence, but he was attacked in it by the Earl of Gloucester, and fled, when it again was sacked. It was, however, afterwards restored. In the reign of Edward the First, Juliana Gifford being the abbess, a knight named Osborn Gifford carried off two of the nuns, with, as is hinted, their own assent. In the reign of Henry the Eighth the monastery shared in the general dissolution of those institutions, the abbess being Cecilia Bodenham, and was shortly afterwards I. c 10 WILTON HOUSE. levelled with the ground. It was then granted by that monarch to Sir William Herbert, who was ancestor of the present Earl, and was made Earl of Pembroke by- King Edward the Sixth, about the year 1560. The principal paintings at Wilton House are the following : — The celebrated picture by Vandyke, seventeen feet in length by eleven feet in height, containing ten whole-length figures. — Philip, Earl of Pembroke, and his wife; their five sons — Charles Lord Herbert, Philip, William, James, and John; their daughter Anna Sophia, and her husband, Robert, Earl of Caernarvon; Lady Mary, daughter of the Duke of Buckingham, wife of Charles Lord Herbert, and above, in the clouds, two sons and a daughter who died young. King Charles the First and his Queen Henrietta; William Earl of Pembroke; the first wife of Philip, second Earl of that name; three children of Charles the First; the Duchess of Richmond and Mrs. Gibson; the Duke of Richmond and Lennox; the Countess of Castlehaven; Philip, the second Earl of that name; Sir William Herbert, the founder of the family; Sir Charles Hotham; the Duke of Montagu; Lady Rockingham; Frederick, Prince of Wales; Anne, Princess Royal; the Princess Amelia; the Princess Elizabeth; Sir Andrew Fountaine; Barbara, second wife of Thomas, Earl of Pembroke; an Architectural Design; another of the like kind; Dogs; Flemish Nobleman; the Woman taken in Adultery; Sea Victory; Virgin and Infant; Andromache fainting at the death of Hector; the discovery of Achilles; Fruit; Ark of Noah. Thomas, eighth Earl of Pembroke, added to the collection, and removed to their present place the cabinets of Guistiniani and Valetta, and of Cardinal Mazarin and Cardinal Richelieu. The armoury in the hall contains trophies and memorials of the battle of St. Quentin, in 1557, in which the Earl of Pembroke commanded the English forces. Among the curiosities are some fine specimens of horns and bones of the moose deer. The cedars in the grounds near the house are said to be the finest in England. There is also a magnificent specimen of the ilex, and a yew tree of remarkable extent opposite to the Park. The House is shown to the public on stated days. The Parish Church was rebuilt by the late Right Honourable Sidney Herbert, afterwards Lord Herbert of Lea, brother of the then Earl of Pembroke, at a cost of upwards of £60,000. This family of Herbert is derived from Sir Richard Herbert, Knight, of Ewyas, a natural son of William, first Earl of Pembroke, who had been advanced to that dignity May 27th., 1472. The senior line, descended from Sir William Herbert ap Thomas, living in the reign of Henry the Fifth, and who resided at Ragland Castle, in Monmouthshire, is represented by the family of Herbert of Muccruss Abbey, near Killarney, in the county of Kerry. 12 CASTLE HOWARD. Thomas Lawrence, two; Sir Peter Lely, ten; Cavalieri Liberi; Lilienbergh; Mabeuse; Carlo Maratti; Marlow; Mignard; Sir Anthony Moore; P. Panini; Juan de Paresa; Nicholas Poussin; Primatiecio; Rembrandt, three; Sir Joshua Reynolds, seven; Mario Ricci; Sebastian Ricci; Julio Romano; Salvator Rosa, four; Rottenhamer; Rubens, three; Saracino; Teniers the elder; Tintoretto, three; Titian, five; Rosa di Tivoli; Pierini del Vago; Vandevelde; Vandyke, five; Vangoyen; Paul Vansomer; Velasquez, three; Paul Veronese; Simon de Vos; Wouvermans, two; Zuccarelli; Zucchero, two. There are also others by Aikman, three; Sir George Beaumont; Dobson; Ellerby; Old Frank, three; Gale; Howard; Hudson; Jackson, eleven; Nicholson; Northcote; Proctor; Ross; Snow; Stone; Stubbs; Westall; Wheatley; Williams; Wissing; Wootton; and one of the Venetian School. There are besides a large number of other paintings, upwards of sixty, more or less valuable, of which the artists' names are not satisfactorily known; and many valuable and beautiful statues, busts, and bronzes, besides paintings on the walls and ceilings. The family of Howard descends from William Ho.ward, an eminent lawyer, who was made Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and acted in that capacity from 1297 to 1308. HOWSHAM HALL, NEAR MALTON, YORKSHIRE. — CHOLMLEY. Howsham Hall, built, according to tradition, of stone brought from the neighbouring Abbey of Kirkham, is very pleasantly situated on the south bank of the River Derwent, in a beautiful part of the valley about eight miles from Malton, and twelve from York. The winding river, with its hill-side woods, combine in giving a charming character to the local scenery, as any one will say who takes the private path that leads from the old grey mansion to the high grounds above Westowe, which afford an extensive and majestic view over a richly-wooded country, including the great plain of York, up to the West-Riding hills beyond Ripon, the district of Crayke, Castle Howard, and the North Yorkshire Moors, and on the other side part of the Wolds, Malton, and the country on to Scarborough. This seat formerly belonged to the great Yorkshire family of Wentworth, and passed by marriage to the Cholmleys of Whitby Abbey. The style of the architecture of the house appears to belong to the latter part of the reign of James II., but the building is stated to have been erected about the time of Queen Elizabeth. Like most other old mansions, Howsham has its legend, being said to have been laid under a malison by St. Hilda, which story probably had its origin in the remarkable words of Sir Henry Spelman on the history of sacrilege, which were written to shew that the possession of church property entails, if one may say so, a failure of male heirs; and singular as the coincidence may appear in a vast number of instances, it is no less true as a matter of fact and melancholy history in many. The whole of the building is surmounted by a curious ornamented parapet; over the front is a shield containing the four quarterings of the Cholmleys. The family of Cholmley, now extinct in the male line of this branch, is descended from the ancient family of Cholmondeley, of Cholmondeley, in Cheshire, and the contraction of the name is stated to have taken place about the time of Henry VII. or Henry VIII. One of its members, Sir Hugh Cholmley, in the time of the civil war, bravely defended the Castle of Scarborough for more than twelve months against the Parliamentarian Army, and, during the whole time of the siege his lady remained with him in the castle, and attended the sick and wounded. At length, having surrendered on honourable terms, in 1645, Sir Hugh and his family went into exile; his estates were sequestered, and his seat at Whitby converted into a garrison, and plundered of everything valuable by the Parliamentarian troops. He continued in exile till 1649, when his brother, Sir Henry Cholmley, found means to appease the Parliament, and he was permitted to return to England. About the middle of I. D 14 HOWSHAM HALL. the last century the family left their ancient seat at Whitby, which is situated on a hill on the west side of the town, between the church and the ruins of the Abbey, only a small part of which remains, and made Howsham their chief country residence. Nathaniel Cholmley, Esq., of Howsham, betook himself early to the profession of arms, and had his horse killed under him at the battle of Dettingen; but on the death of his father he retired to his paternal estate, and represented successively the towns of Aldborough and Boroughbridge in Parliament. He was succeeded by the late Colonel George Cholmley, the last of his race, of whose uniform kindness and hospitality the author of the present work would be very forgetful, if he did not pay a willing tribute of grateful recollection to his memory. A very handsome church for the hamlet of Howsham, which possessed none before, has been erected within the last few years at the sole cost of Mrs. Cholmley, his widow. There are a number of fine and valuable portraits and other paintings at Howsham, among which are the following: — Sir William and Lady Anne Twisden, by Gerard. James Butler, Duke of Ormond, godfather of Lady Elizabeth Wentworth, by Lely. Sir Richard Cholmley the Black Knight, by Zucchero. Sir Hugh Cholmley, Governor of Scarborough Castle, by Lely. Sir Hugh Cholmley, of Whitby, fourth Baronet, Governor of Tangiers, by Lely. Hugh Cholmley, of Whitby and Howsham, by Jervais. Catherine, wife of Hugh Cholmley, Esq., only daughter of Sir John Wentworth, by Jervais. Nathaniel Cholmley, of Whitby, by Riley. Henrietta Catherine, daughter of Stephen Croft, Esq., second wife of Nathaniel Cholmley. Colonel George Cholmley, (the late.) Mrs. Hannah Cholmley, daughter of John Robinson Foulis, Esq., of Bucton Hall and Heslerton Hall, Yorkshire. George Cholmley, Esq., (late Grimes.) Mary, wife of Nathaniel Cholmley, Esq., and her three children, by Sir John Medina. Charles I. and child, by Vandyke. Henrietta, wife of Charles I., and child. William III. Mary II. James II. in buff armour, by Nicholas de Largilliere. Sir Henry Spielman. James Stuart, Duke of Richmond, and the dog that saved his life, by Vandyke. Virgin and Infant, by Corregio. Charles I. on horseback, by Vandyke. There is besides a most curious and valuable series of eight ancient Spanish pictures, supposed to have come into the possession of Sir Hugh Cholmley, of Tangiers, from a captured Dutch vessel, and originally mounted on cotton. They were brought from Whitby to Howsham. 1. Spanish Soldiers entering Tabasco, led by Geronimo de Aquila. 2. Cortez' arrival at Vera Cruz. 3. Cortez' reception at Xoloc by Montezuma. 4. Montezuma killed by the Indians, who also set fire to the houses of the Spaniards. 5. Cortez leaves Mexico pursued by the Indians. 6. The capture of the Mexican Royal Standard. 7. The last combat in Mexico by Cortez and his soldiers. 8. Guatemozin, last King of Mexico — people trying to escape in canoes — taken by the Spaniards, which ended the siege. The family of Cholmley deduces from Richard le Belward, whose younger grandson, Robert le Belward, having had the lordship of Cholmundeleih, otherwise written Cholmondeley and Calmundelei, given him by his father, assumed that name in lieu of his own. SUDELEY CASTLE, NEAR WINCHCOMBE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. DENT. "Thy sun is set, thy battlements are fallen, And sunk to ruin thy baronial hall, Once far-famed Sudeley! Waves the cross no more On thy reft towers; nor grins the leopard rude* His feudal fierceness on thy tumbling roof." Slit Egertoh Brydges. "In old times/' says Camden, "certain noblemen here dwelt, and of it had their addition, De Sudeley, descended of a right ancient English race, to wit, from Goda, King Ethelred's daughter, whose son, Ralp de Mederetinus, Earl of Hereford, begat Harold, Lord of Sudeley, whose progeny flourished here for a long time." "There had been a manor place at Sudeley," observes Leland, in his "Itinerary," "before the building of the castle, and the platte is yet seen in Sudeley Parke, where it stode." Walter de Maunt, Lord of Sudeley, married Goda, sister of King Edward the Confessor, and had, Harold, surnamed de Sutlei, from the name of the place, who possessed it at the time of the Conquest in 106G. He was succeeded by John, followed by Raphe, who had two sons, 1. Otvel. 2. Raphe, the latter of whom, Raphe, succeeded, and next after him, Bartholomew (Sir) de Sudle, Sheriff of Herefordshire, and Governor of Hereford Castle, and a Justice of Assize. He married Joan, daughter of William de Beauchamp, of Elmley, and sister of William, first Earl of Warwick of that name, and left issue Sir John de Sudeley, who was father of Bartholomew de Sudeley, whose son John, had issue 1. John. 2. Joane, married Sir William Boteler, of Wemme, and had a son, Thomas, who inherited the lordship. A leopard's head on a cross diamond was the coat of arms of the house of Chandos. 16 SUDELEY CASTLE. 3. Margerie, married Sir Eobert Massy, Knight. The son, John, died without children, and was succeeded by the above-named Thomas Boteler, (Sir) who was followed by his son, Sir Raphe Boteler, created Baron of Sudeley, and some time Governor of Calais. This nobleman built the castle of Sudeley, from the spoils, it is said, he had acquired in the wars with France. It was a splendid structure, and is described by Fuller as "of subjects' castles the most handsome habitation, and of subjects' habitations the strongest castle." "At this splendid retirement it was that in the decline of life, and removed from courts and camps, the founder probably hoped tranquilly to pass the remainder of his days. But deceitful, often, is the smile of fortune, and liable to disappointment are human expectations. So fluctuating was the state of public affairs in his time, that the person and property of the subject were alike unsafe; and the favourite of one reign was generally obnoxious to the succeeding. On the fall of his unhappy royal master, he made an effort to have his attendance in parliament excused, on account of the infirmities of age; and his wishes were so far complied with, that she obtained letters patent from Edward IV., exempting him from that service during life. Yet this appearance of indulgence was not long continued; for, being suspected by the Yorkists of a strong attachment to the Lancastrian interest, he was apprehended at his castle, and conveyed prisoner to London, when, in order to avert worse consequences, he found himself compelled to sell both the manor of Sudeley and his princely mansion to the king." Soon afterwards Sudeley Castle was granted to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who exchanged it with the crown for Richmond Castle, in Yorkshire. In the first year of the reign of Henry VII. it was bestowed on Jasper, Duke of Bedford, (younger son of Owen Tudor and his wife Catharine, widow of King Henry V. of England,) or, rather, was held by him for the owner; for, according to Leland, he "kept householde here/' but it is not noticed among the estates of which he died seized. In the time of King Henry VIII., Leland wrote that "now it goeth to ruinne, more pittye." In the reign of Edward VI. it was granted with the manor to Sir Thomas Seymour, uncle of the king, and brother of the Protector Somerset, who was then made Baron Seymour of Sudeley, and appointed Lord High Admiral. It was splendidly restored by him. He shortly afterwards married, in 1547, as her fourth husband, the Dowager Queen Catherine (Parr,) widow of King Henry the Eighth, she having been deeply attached, and nearly contracted to him before her almost compulsory marriage to the king. While at Sudeley the Queen had under her charge the innocent and memorable Lady Jane Grey, whose untimely and sad fate need not be here recorded. On the 13th. of June, 1548, the queen arrived at Sudeley for her confinement, and died on the 5th. of September, a week after the birth of a daughter named Mary. She was buried at Sudeley. / SUDELEY CASTLE. 17 There is a curious M.S., discovered in the Herald's office, entitled "A Boke of Buryalls of true noble persons." It furnishes at full length an account of the ceremonies performed at the funeral of the queen; to wit, "A Breviate of th' entirement of the lady Katheryn Parre Quene Dowager late Wiefe to Kinge Henry th' eight and after wiefe to Sr Thomas lord Seymer of Sudeley and highe Admirall of Englond." The following is the inscription over the tomb: — K. P. Here lyethe Quene Kateryn Wife to Kyng Henry the VIII. and Last the Wife of Thomas Lord of Sudeley, highe Admyrall of Englond, And vncle to Kyng Edward the VI. dyed 5 September MCCCCC xlviii. Among the documents printed in the Burghley Papers is the following statement of Lady Elizabeth Tyrwhitt, which seems to be the deposition of one of the ladies in waiting made before the Privy Council when the bill of attainder was preparing against Seymour. "A too dayes afor the deth of the Quen, at my cumyng to har in the mornyng, she askyd me where I had been so long, and sayed unto me, she dyd fere such things in harself that she was suer she could not lyve: whereunto I answaryd, as I thowght that I sawe na lyklyhod of deth in har. She then haveyng my lord admyrall by the hand, and dyvers other standyng by, spake thes wardys, partly as I took hyt, idylly, 'My lady Tyrwhitt, I am not wel handelyd, for thos that be abowt me caryth not for me, but standyth lawghyng at my gref; and the moor good I wyl to them, the les good they wyl to me;' whereunto my lord admyrall answered, 'why swet-hart I would you no hurt,' and she saed to hym agayn aloud, 'no my lord, I thinke so,' and imedyetly she sayed to hym in his ere, 'but my lord, you have given me many shrowd tauntes.' Thos wordys I parsavwyd she spake 18 SUDELEY CASTLE. with good memory, and very sharply and ernestly, for har mynd was for unquyetted. My lord adrayrall parsevyng that I hard hyt, callyd me asyd, and askyd me what she sayd, and I declaryd hyt plainly to hym. Then he cosowltyd with me that he wold lie down on the bed by har, to loke if he could pacyfy har unquyetnes wit gentyl camynycacyon; whereunto I agred. And by that time he had spoken thre or four wordes to har, she answered hym very rowndly and shortly, sayeing 'My lorde, I wolde have given a thousand markes to have had my full talk wyth Hewke the fyrst day I was delyveryd, but I doorst not for displesyng of you:' and I heryug of that my hart wold sarve me to her no mor. Sych lyke comunycasyon she had with hym the space of an oar, wych they did hear that sat by har bed syde." "Elizabeth Tyrwhitt." Shortly after the death of the queen, Seymour paid court to the Princess Elizabeth, but his enemies were on the alert, and fomented the disagreement betweeen him and his brother the Protector, when he was speedily committed to the Tower, condemned without a trial, and beheaded on Tower Hill, March 20th., 1549. At his death Sudeley again reverted to the crown. It was then bestowed on the Marquis of Northampton, but he was shortly afterwards attainted for espousing the cause of Lad Jane Grey, and of course deprived of his estates. It was next granted by Queen Mary to Sir John Brydges, who was one of the foremost in her train on her entrance into London, August 3rd., 1553, and attended her to the Tower, which she then committed to his custody for his services, and he was shortly afterwards raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Chandos of Sudeley. He fought at the "battle of the Spurs." He died on the 4th. of March, 1557, and was buried at Sudeley, and succeeded by his eldest son, Edmund Brydges, K.G., who, like his father, engaged in military pursuits, and was knighted on the field by the Duke of Somerset, for his bravery in the battle of Musselberg. He married Lady Dorothy, daughter of Edward Lord Bray, the foundress of almshouses still standing at Winchcombe for twelve poor persons. His son and heir, Giles, third Lord Chandos, lived a quiet country life, and had the honour of entertaining Queen Elizabeth at Sudeley, in one of her "Progresses," as recorded by Nichols. On this occasion he presented Her Majesty, it being, it appears, her custom to expect some such present from her hosts, with a splendid piece of jewelry attached to a gold chain, and consisting of a falcon or pheasant, the body crystal, the head, tail, legs, and breast of gold, fully garnished with sparks of rubies and emeralds. He married Lady Frances, daughter of Edward, Earl of Lincoln, foundress of the Grammar School of Winchcombe, for fourteen scholars, natives of the place. He died in 1593, and was followed in the barony by his brother, William Brydges, fourth Lord Chandos of Sudeley, married Mary, sister of Sir Owen Hopton, and was succeeded by his son, Grey Bridges, fifth Lord. "This Lord," says Collins, "was a noble housekeeper, and by a winning behaviour contracted so great an interest in Gloucestershire, and SUDELEY CASTLE. 19 had such numerous attendants when he came to court, that he was commonly called 'The King of Coteswold. 5 For, having an ample fortune, he expended it in the most generous manner; his Castle of Sudeley being kept open three days every week for the gentry, and the poor were as constantly fed with the remnants of his hospitable entertainments. In short, his ability and disposition were so exactly proportioned to each other, that it was difficult to determine which had the greatest shai'e in his numberless acts of beneficence." He married Anne, eldest daughter of Ferdinand, Earl of Derby, and died in Italy in 1621, but was interred at Sudeley with his ancestors, leaving a son, George, his heir, only then a year old. This nobleman, George, sixth Lord Chandos, was a distinguished cavalier, and raised a regiment of cavalry for the king, leaving his own castle guarded by Captain Brydges, which was attacked on January 1st., 1642, by Massie, Governor of Gloucester, with 300 Infantry and two pieces of Artillery. The castle was surrendered to him on certain conditions, which, though sworn to, were immediately basely broken on the part of the "Parliament Army raised for the defence of religion," who profaned the church, and utterly wasted the goods of the poor inhabitants of that place. In the following year Lord Chandos distinguished himself at the battle of Newbury, and had three horses killed under him; he mounted a fourth, and aided much in breaking the cavalry of the Parliament. It was feared he was running into too great danger, but Charles exclaimed, "Let Chandos alone, his errors are safe." The king for his valour and services that day, desired to make him Earl of Newbury, but he modestly declined the offer "till it might please God to restore His Majesty to the peaceable enjoyment of his own." He recovered his castle the same year and intrusted the command to Sir William Morton, formerly a lawyer, but then fighting as an officer for the king. Shortly afterwards King Charles visited Sudeley Castle, and remained there during the siege of Gloucester. It was afterwards again besieged by Sir William Waller and Massie, and again capitulated, a shot having taken off the head of the captain of artillery, the place being but ill provided for a siege. The castle was almost irreparably destroyed in this and the former siege, and gave occasion for the verses placed at the head of this chapter. Lord Chandos died February 0th., 1654, (see Burke's "Extinct and Dormant Peerages,") and was interred at Sudeley, and, having no son, bequeathed the greater part of his estates to Jane, his second wife, daughter of John Savage, Earl Rivers, and on her re-marrying with George Pitt, Esq., of Strathfieldsaye, in Hampshire, ancestor of the Lords Rivers, the estate and manor of Sudeley passed into that family. In 1810 the then Lord Rivers sold the castle and, a small part of the estate to the Duke of Buckingham. Among the many valuable and interesting antiquities and works of art at Sudeley, are a portrait of King Henry VIII. and his children, by Sir Antonio More; The marriage of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York, by Mabeuse; Charles I., by Vandyke; a portrait of Queen Elizabeth, by Zucchero; also two most valuable carvings of King Henry VIII., in bone, stone, and boxwood, by Holbein; a pictra dura table weighing nearly a ton, formed of the rarest and most valuable marbles, elaborately 20 SUDELEY CASTLE. worked in intricate devices, and enriched with turquoise, lapis lazuli, etc., the stem gracefully carved and gilt, displaying the ducal arms of Tuscany. It formerly adorned the palace at Florence of Lorenzo de Medicis. Last, and chief, the autograph letter of Queen Katherine Parr to the admiral, in which she accepts him as her husband, and several personal relics of the Queen. A lock of her hair, found when the tomb was re-opened a second time, in July, 1807, (it having been previously opened in May, 1784, and October 14th., 1786,) was lent to Miss Agnes Strickland for the use of her work, by Mrs. Constable Maxwell, of Everingham Park. "It was of the most exquisite quality and colour, exactly resembling threads of burnished gold in its hue. It was very fine, and with an inclination to curl naturally.' 5 The chapel, in the early perpendicular style, built in the latter part of the reign of Henry VI., was desecrated and defaced by Cromwell and his lawless troops. It remained roofless and ivy-clad for two centuries, but in 1858 its restoration was commenced, and it has been one of Mr. G. G. Scott's most happy efforts. A canopied tomb, with a recumbent figure of Queen Katherine Parr in white marble, and an alabaster sarcophagus, have been erected, and the remains of our first Queen of the restored faith have again found a fitting resting-place. The lover of church restoration will be well repaid by a visit to her shrine: there is not a more perfect gem in this country. A choral service is now performed on each succeeding Lord's Day. A brass tablet near the door tells its story: — "To the glory of God and to the memory of John Dent and William Dent, of Worcester and Sudeley Castle, this chapel, destroyed in the civil wars of the XVIth. century, was completed by their nephew, John Coucher Dent, A.D. 1863." In the year 1837, John Dent and William Dent, Esqrs., of the city of Worcester, gentlemen of equal liberality and taste, and who had previously purchased the greater part of the Sudeley estates, succeeded in treating with the Duke for the castle and the remainder, and "with a laudable solicitude to rescue from its impending fate so interesting and fine a monument of bygone days, — for which the country owes them a debt of gratitude, — promptly commenced the work of reparation." 00 PICTON CASTLE. descended from the princely race of Cadivor ap Collwynn, Lord of Dyved, or Pembrokeshire, who died in 1089, and brought him Picton Castle. He was knighted about the year 1512, and his great grandson, Sir John Phillips, Knight, was created a Baronet in 1621. He died March 27th., 1629. His son, Sir Richard Phillips, garrisoned Picton Castle in behalf of the king during the civil wars. It sustained a long siege, and would not have surrendered when it did but for the following circumstance: — In the lower storey of one of the bastions was the nursery, having in it a small window, at which a maid-servant standing with Sir Erasmus Phillips, then an infant, in her arms, when a trooper of the Parliamentary forces approached it on horseback with a flag of truce and a letter; to receive which the girl opened the window, and while she stretched forward, the soldier, lifting himself on his stirrups, snatched the child from her arms, and rode with him into the camp. A message was then forwarded to the governor of the garrison informing him that unless the Castle was immediately surrendered the child would be put to death. On this the garrison yielded, and was allowed to march out with the honours of war. It is said that the Parliamentary general was so touched by the loyalty of Sir Richard Phillips, and the stratagem by which he had been compelled to surrender, that he gave orders that Picton Castle should not be demolished, as was the fate of the other fortresses of Pembrokeshire. Thus saved, the Castle and domains passed from father to son to the fifth Baronet, Sir Erasmus Phillips, who was drowned at Bath in 1743, was succeeded in the title and estates by his brother (of Kilgetty) as Sir John Phillips, who was, in 1776, created Baron Milford of the kingdom of Ireland. At his death, issueless, in 1823, the Peerage became extinct, but the Baronetcy passed to the family of Phillips, of Sandy Haven, in the county of Pembrokeshire, in which it still continues. The Castle and estates of Picton were bequeathed by Lord Milford to Richard Bulkeley Phillips Grant, Esq., who was great great grandson of Bulkeley Phillips, Esq., of Abercover, in the county of Carmarthen, youngest son of Sir John Phillips, the fourth Baronet. He was created a Baronet in 1828, and a Peer of the Realm in 1847, under the title of Baron Milford, of Picton Castle, in the county of Pembroke. He died January 3rd., 1857, without children, when the Peerage and Baronetcy became extinct, but the Castle and estates passed, under the will of the first Lord Milford, to his half- brother, The Rev. James Henry Alexander Gwyther, who married Miss Mary Lee, an old friend of the wife of the author of the present work, assumed by Royal license the surname of Phillips, and has issue. WENTWORTH WOODHOUSE, NEAR ROTHERHAM, YORKSHIRE. — EARL FITZWILLIAM. This grand seat of one of our greatest English families, is most beautifully situated in the West-Riding of Yorkshire, four miles from "Fair Rotherham," — fair in the days of the "Dragon of Wantley," but I fear me hardly deserving of the name now, for its smoke — nine from Sheffield, and thirteen from Doncaster. I borrow a portion of the following brief description of it from the pen of my obliging friend, Sir Bernard Burke, who has most kindly placed his vast and elaborate stores at my disposal for the use of the present work. Wentworth Woodhouse is a magnificent edifice, standing in the midst of a park that presents one of the most beautiful landscapes of the kind to be met with throughout the whole country. The building encloses three courts. The principal front, which was built by Thomas first Marquis of Rockingham, consists of a centre with two wings, extending in a line of more than six hundred feet. The great entrance is through a beautiful portico, sixty feet long and twenty feet wide, which is supported by six Corinthian columns upon pedestals, with a balustrade about the area. Three light figures surmount the pediment, and in the tympanum are the arms and supporters of the Marquis of Rockingham. The great hall is sixty feet square, and forty feet in height, with an inlaid marble floor. A gallery ten feet in width is carried quite round it, being supported by eighteen fluted Ionic pillars, with bases and capitals of white marble, while the shafts are of sienna. In niches between the columns are marble statues. The roof over the gallery is upheld by Corinthian pilasters united by festoons. The ceiling is divided into ornamental compartments. On the south side of this hall are some of the finest apartments of the building, namely, — the Ante-room, the Van Dyck Room, and the Drawing Room. On the north side are the Statue Room, the Dining Room, and the three Libraries, containing many valuable, works, some of which are inscribed with the name of the first Earl of Strafford. Beyond these rooms, looking into the garden, is the Picture Gallery, which is one hundred and twenty-eight feet long. The Garden front is of a date anterior to the Park or Eastern Entrance, and some of the rooms remain much as they were in the days of Thomas Earl of Strafford. The park contains fifteen hundred acres, the ground being beautifully varied with 24 WENTWOETH WOODHOUSE. woods and water. The aid of architecture has also been called in to heighten the general effect of the landscape. On an eminence about a mile from the house is the Mausoleum, a beautiful building ninety feet high, erected in 1788 to the memory of Charles Marquis of Rockingham, by his nephew and successor, William fourth Earl Fitzwilliam. There is at Wentworth Woodhouse a fine collection of pictures, some of Van Dyck's finest works, including his celebrated portrait of the Earl of Strafford and his Secretary, which picture is mentioned in the will of the Earl of Strafford as an heirloom in the family, with instructions that it shall always remain in this house. The Private Chapel also contains several very valuable paintings. The Museum, too, has many valuable and interesting antiques. The family may be traced up to Fitz-Godric, cousin to King Edward the Confessor. EVERINGrHAM PARK, NEAR MARKET WEIGHT0N, YORKSHIRE. LORD HERRIES. Everingham is one of those homely English mansions which speak to the passer-by of the quiet peacefulness of the "land we live in," and suggest thought of the word "comfort/' a word said to be peculiar to our country, and to have no coun- terpart in any foreign language, the reality in its fulness being only known in Old England. The house is of red brick, built about the year 1760. It stands at one corner of an extensive deer park, well wooded with ancient oaks and a variety of other trees. Attached to it is a handsome Roman Catholic Chapel, designed after the "Maison Quarree" at Nismes, in Languedoc. This park, which is about five miles from Market Weighton, in the East-Riding of Yorkshire, was anciently a domain of the Archbishops of York, and was given about the year 600 to a noble lady named Everilda, or Everildis, afterwards called Saint Everilda. She founded here a large convent, which was called Everildisham after her, and the village feast, as I am informed by Lord Herries, is still held in honour of her name; but the church, I find, is stated in Lawton's "Collectio rerum Ecclesiasticarum," to be dedicated to Saint Emeldis. The church, in which was a chantry, was in the patronage of the Everinghams, and the estate came from them to the Elleys, next to the Suthills, and lastly to the Constables, of Flamborough, by the marriage of the heiress of John Suthill, Esq., with Sir Marmaduke Constable. The town of Everingham was held by the family of Everingham, (namely, half a knight's fee or the manor,) of the fee of the Archbishop of York, by the service of performing the office of butler in his house upon the day of his enthronization ; and two carucates of land were held of the fee of Lincoln, and paid nine shillings to the Sheriff's fine. At the time of the Survey the manor was held by the Archbishop of York. The principal paintings are: — Sir Thomas More, by Holbein; an Alchemist, by D. Teniers; Pope Sixtus Quintus; Lady Lucy Herbert; Lady Constable, by Sir Peter Lely; Venice, by Canaletti; and two sea pieces by Vernet, with several others. I. F 26 EVEKINGHAM PARK. In the library are some interesting old manuscript works formerly belonging to St. Mary's Abbey, York, and other abbeys of Yorkshire. The family of Lord Herries derives paternally from Thomas Haggerston, Esq., of Haggerston Castle, in the county of Northumberland, Commanding Officer of a regiment in the service of King Charles I., who was created a Baronet on the 15th. of August, 1643. His Lordship represents in the female line the families of Maxwell, of Carlaverock, Earls of Nithsdale, and Constable, of Everingham. HOLME LACY, NEAR HEREFORD, HEREFORDSHIRE. — STANHOPE, BARONET. Many as are the seats in fair England, to each and every one of which the words of Spenser are so justly applicable, — " There the most daintie paradise on ground Itself doth offer to the sober eye, In which all pleasures plenteously abound, And none does others happiness envye. The painted flowers ; the trees upshooting hye ; The dales for shade ; the hides for breathing space ; The trembling groves; the christall running by; And that which all fair works doth most aggrace, The art which all that wrought appeared in no place ;" there are few that surpass Holme Lacy in the exceeding beauty of its situation. The name Holme is otherwise written Hamme, the Saxon word for a house, farm, or village; also, sometimes, Home, Horn, or Homme, meaning a place surrounded by water. The additional name of Lacy was derived to it from Walter de Lacy, a valiant Norman, who soon after the Conquest obtained vast possessions in the county of Hereford, so much so, that in the reign of William Rufus his son Roger had no fewer than sixty-five lordships in the county, of which the principal one was Holme. So much for the place; now for the persons. The ancient family of Scudamore was one of those whose names were inscribed on the Roll of Battle Abbey, and after living in high esteem in the county of Hereford for centuries, John Scddamore, of Holme Lacy, was High Sheriff of the County in the 16th., 21st., and 35th. years of the reign of King Henry VIII. He married Sybil, daughter of Watkin Vaughan, of Hengist, lived to a great age, and was buried, with his wife, in the church of the parish, where there is a fine old monument of their two recumbent figures in alabaster. The representative in the sixteenth century was William Scddamore, who was Gentleman Usher to Queen Elizabeth, Standard-bearer to the Honourable Board of Gentlemen Pensioners, and one of Her Majesty's Council for the Marches of Wales. He was Member of Parliament for the Shire in five successive Parliaments, and High Sheriff for the County in 1581. He was a great benefactor to the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and his son, Sir James Scudamore, was another of the chiefest friends of the justly celebrated Sir Thomas Bodley. Sir 28 HOLME LACY. William was knighted for his signal bravery at the siege of Cadiz, and served in Parliament for the county of Hereford in the first year of the reign of King James I. He was one of the most renowned men in England for chivalry, and no more need be said of him than that he is the "Sir Scudamore" of Spenser's "Faerie Queene." He married Ursula, daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Pakington, of Westwood Park, in Worcestershire, and had issue, 1. John, of whom presently. 2. Barnabas. The younger son, Barnabas, was in the army of King Charles I., and Governor of Hereford, which city he stoutly defended against the Scottish army under the Earl of Leven. He was twice summoned to surrender, but the following letter was his spirited reply:— "My Lord, "I am not to give up the King's garrison upon any summons or letter; neither shall it be in the power of the Mayor or other to condescend to any such proposition made unto him. I was set in here by the King's command, and shall not quit it but by special order from His Majesty or the Prince; and with this resolution I shall persist in Hereford. "This last day of July, 1645. "Barnabas Scudamore." His refusal prolonged the siege for another fortnight, but the city gallantly held out, and at the end of that time a second and similar demand was sent by the Earl, to which the knight replied as follows: — "My Lord, "For your favourable proffer to the inhabitants of this city, I shall returne their thankes, and resolution that they intend to suffer with me, and I shall not suffer alone for the suffusion of bloud. I am sorry to think of it, that two united nations should so much differ, having paid once well for Scotland's friendship. My Lord, I am resolved to endure all ruines and stormes which shall be made against this place, and doubt not, by God's assistance, to render His Majestie a good account of it; the which by my endeavours I shall maintain to the last, and remaine "Your Lordship's Servant, "Barnabas Scudamore." " To the Right Honourable the Earl of Leven, General of the Scottish Forces." In consequence of this firm conduct, a general assault was determined on by the besiegers, but on the appearance of the king from Worcester, with a superior force, the Scots suddenly broke up, and dispersed. It appears, from the "Iter Carolinum," that the king thereupon supped and slept at Holme Lacy. The eldest son, John Scudamore, was created a Baronet in 1620, in which year he was elected HOLME LACY. 29 Member for the County, and in 1628 was raised to the dignity of Baron of Dromore and Viscount Scudamore of Sligo, in the Peerage of Ireland. In 1634 he was sent Ambassador to the Court of France, in which office he acquitted himself with great dignity and discretion. After three more generations the male line ended, when the titles of Baronet, Baron, and Viscount became extinct, and the estates devolved upon Sir Edwyn Francis Scudamore Stanhope, Bart., as lineal descendant of Mary, (wife of Sir Giles Brydges, of Wilton Castle, Herefordshire,) daughter of Sir James Scudamore, Knight, and sister of John, first Viscount Scudamore. The original mansion of Holme Lacy is supposed to have been built by John Scudamore, Esq., at the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII., the letters E P, with the badges of the Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VI., in painted glass, being found in the old house. It was partly rebuilt in the reign of William III., by John, Viscount Scudamore, but has only recently been completed. "The house presents an uniform structure, nearly in the shape of the letter H, having three fronts of stone, with projecting wings. The north and east fronts are nearly two hundred feet in length, and. the south front one hundred and fifty feet. The house is approached by a noble terrace, seven hundred feet long, and forty-seven feet wide. The entrance-hall opens upon a gallery ninety feet in length, and is lighted by five windows of stained glass, in which are the arms of Brydges, Scudamore, and Stanhope. At the further end of the gallery, folding doors open upon the principal staircase, lighted by a large window of painted glass, in which are the arms of King Henry VIII. and Edward, Prince of Wales. On the left side of the gallery, doors open into the principal apartments, which are lofty and well proportioned, having richly stuccoed ceilings in compartments of flowers and various other designs, especially the saloon, a room of spacious dimensions, thirty-one feet in height, the ceiling of which is of most beautiful design, having pendant festoons of fruit and flowers; also some fine carving by Grinling Gibbons, over the chimney-piece. In this room and the dining-room adjoining are some fine family portraits by Vandyke, Sir Peter Lely, and others. The whole of the rooms on the ground-floor are of good proportion, and communicate with one another by folding doors, to the length of one hundred and thirty feet, and other rooms on the right and left. In these rooms are some exquisite specimens of carving by the celebrated Grinling Gibbons, in bird, shell-fish, fruit, flowers, etc. The gardens and pleasure-grounds of Holme Lacy are extensive and unique, particularly those on the south side, which are laid out in King William's style of fortification, with magnificent yew hedges of extraordinary height and thickness. The flower-garden, which is modern, is extremely beautiful. On the south side is also a terrace, eight hundred feet in length by thirty feet wide, communicating with other terraces and walks of lesser extent. Pope, Gay, and other literati of that day, were much at Holme Lacy during the time of the last Lady Scudamore, and often spent their summers with that lady. It was at Holme Lacy Pope became acquainted with John Kyrle, whom he has celebrated under the title of "The Man of Eoss," a poem he wrote at Holme Lacy. 30 HOLME LACY. In the garden of the Vicarage-house at Holme Lacy is a remarkable pear tree, which formerly covered nearly an acre of ground; much of it has, however, been cut down from time to time, owing to its too closely surrounding the house. From fourteen to sixteen hogsheads of perry, of one hundred gallons each, have been made from this tree in one year. In its growth, it in some sort resembles the growth of the banyan tree. The scenery around Holme Lacy is highly picturesque, and replete with endless variety. The view from the east end of the south terrace is surpassingly beautiful. The old tower of Holme Lacy church, with the spire of Fownhope on the right, the hills of Fownhope, richly wooded from the summit to the base; Caplar Hill, on the top of which are the remains of a Roman camp, with the Wye running at its base, form altogether a landscape rarely equalled. The scene is again charmingly varied as you ascend the park, (well stocked with deer,) which takes in other agreeable objects, and more of the Wye's meandering river. Still further on the distant view expands nobly, whilst the huge and magnificent oaks, those venerable giants of the forests, spread their umbrageous arms everywhere around. From the summit of this beautiful park you command the Black Mountains, in Brecknockshire; the Clee Hills, in Shropshire; the celebrated Malvern Hills, in Worcestershire; and the well-known hills called "Robin Hood's Butts." Although there are, doubtless, many seats more important from historical recollections and associations, few surpass Holme Lacy in beauty of situation and surrounding scenery." EATON HALL, NEAR CHESTER, CHESHIRE. DUKE OF WESTMINSTER. In the reign of Henry III. the manor of Eton was possessed by Hamon de Pulford, whose son Richard took his name of Eton from the place itself, and it continued with his descendants, the Etons, till after the death of John Eton, whose daughter and heiress, Joan Eton, by her marriage with Ralph, second son of Sir Thomas Grosvenor, conveyed it into the family of the present owner. At the close of the last century Eaton Hall was a heavy brick mansion, built by the architect, Sir John Vanbrugh, on whom the sarcastic epitaph was written. "Lie heavy on him, earth, for he Laid many a heavy load on thee." The gardens, too, were formed on a corresponding model, diversified with straight walks and leaden statues. In the year 1803, the whole, with the exception of the basement storey, was pulled down by the then Marquis of Westminster, and the present pile erected in its stead, but owing to its great size and ornamented character, several years elapsed before it was finished, and it was not till 1825 that the main building was completed. It consists of a centre and two wings, each differing in design from the other. In the middle of the west front is a large portico, sustained by clusters of columns, under which there is a carriage-way to the steps before the principal entrance-hall. The eastern front has a cloister along its whole length, and leads to a terrace three hundred and fifty feet long, from which an admirable view of the grounds and neighbouring country is obtained. The grand entrance-hall is forty-one feet long by thirty-one feet wide, and is two storeys in height. The dining-room is fifty feet long by thirty-seven feet wide, and contains several statues and valuable pictures. The ante-drawing-room is painted in arabesque. The drawing-room is of the same form as the dining-room, namely, fifty feet long and thirty-seven feet wide, and contains also many paintings of value. The library is one hundred and twenty feet long, but of different degrees of 32 EATON HALL. width, and from it the view through the corridor to the further end of the house is a distance of four hundred and seventy-two feet. The book-cases in it are of carved oak, and contain many very valuable manuscripts, and a large portion of the famous lost record denominated "The Cheshire Domesday." The great staircase, state apartments, and the tenants' hall, are all of corresponding size and ornamentation. The flower-gardens cover full fifty acres of ground, and they, too, when the house was pulled down, received the like share of alteration and improvement. The principal entrance is through the Chester Gateway, an imposing structure. The views in the neighbourhood are very fine, embracing towards the west the Welsh mountains; towards the east the Peckforton Hills, with the crag on which stand the ruins of Beeston Castle; on the south the Dee follows its winding course, the gardens sloping down to its bank; and at the distance of a mile and a half the parish church of Ecleston, a beautiful Gothic building, adds the last feature, which may be said to be wanting to no country house in England. There is a large collection of valuable pictures, among which are, — Our Saviour on the Mount of Olives, by Claude Lorraine, said to be the largest picture ever painted by that artist; A View of the Mediterranean, by Vernet; David and Abigail, by Rubens; Rubens and his second Wife, by himself. The family of Grosvenor is of French extraction, and is stated to be composed of the words "gros" and "veneur." It deduces from Gilbert Le Grosvenor, a companion of the Norman William I. THRYBERGH PARK, NEAR ROTHERHAM, YORKSHIRE. FULLERTON. Thrybergh Park is very pleasantly situated in the West-Riding of Yorkshire, about three miles from the town of Rotherhain. At a remote period the estate of Thrybergh belonged to William de Perci, the founder of the great house of Percy. It afterwards came into possession of the Reresbys. The old Hall of the Reresbys, which was also retained during the possession of the families of Savile and Finch, with alterations from time to time, was pulled down by Colonel Fullerton, and the present handsome Gothic edifice erected in its stead. The ancient and eminent family of Reresby was settled here from the time of the Conquest. Sir Adam Reresby, Knight, was followed by sixteen successors in the direct male line, when Sir John Reresby, Knight, of Thrybergh, Governor of Hull, was created a Baronet by King Charles L, 16th. of May, 1642. He married Prances, daughter of Edmund Yarburgh, Esq., of Balne Hall, Yorkshire, and died in April, 1646, when their eldest son, Sir John Reresby, of Thrybergh, Governor of York, succeeded. He married Frances, daughter of William Brown, Esq., of York, and had, with other issue, a son, who, at his father's death, in May, 1689, inherited the Baronetcy, and became Sir William Reresby, Bart., a person of profligate and worthless character, who, so far from following in the steps of his distinguished father, exhibited only a melancholy contrast to it. Hunter the histomn has left the following record of him: — "In 1705 he had sold Thrybergh and the estates connected with it. He was alive in 1727, when Wotton's account of the Baronets was published. In that work he is said to be reduced to a low condition. Brooke was informed that he was tapster of the Fleet Prison. This is not improbable, for his tastes and habits appear to have been of the lowest order. I have seen one sad evidence. He died in great obscurity, a melancholy instance how low pursuits and base pleasures may sully the noblest name, and waste an estate, gathered with labour, and preserved with care by a race of distinguished ancestors. Gaming was amongst his follies, and particularly that lowest specimen of the folly, the fights of game cocks. The tradition at Thrybergh is, for his name is not quite forgotten, that the estate of Dennaby was staked and lost on a single main." He died, fortunately, unmarried, when the Baronetcy, in all probability 34 THRYBERGH PARK. an empty honour, after the squandering of the property to the amount of seventeen thousand a year, devolved on his brother, Sir Leonard Reresby, fourth Baronet, who died unmarried on the 11th. of August, 1748, when the Baronetcy expired. Thrybergh had been sold by Sir William to John Savile, Esq., of Methley, near Leeds, whose granddaughter, Elizabeth Savile, married The Hon. John Finch, Earl of Aylesford, and was succeeded by her son, Savile Finch, Esq., of Thrybergh, who, having no son, left the estates to his wife Judith, daughter of John Fullertou, Esq., by whom they were bequeathed to her own family. The family of Fullerton is of Scotch origin, and is descended from Allan Fullertou of that ilk, living in 1240. FLOORS CASTLE, NEAR KELSO, ROXBURGHSHIRE. — -DUKE OP ROXJBURGHE. Having seen more or less of some of the Seats which I have already briefly described, as well as of many others, there is none which struck me, when I saw it some years ago, as more beautifully situated than the grand ducal residence of Floors, which I had frequent opportunities of admiring when on a salmon-fishing expedition to the Tweed. The kind friend who had invited me to stay a fortnight with him and his family at Kelso, on their way back from a tour in Scotland, is now no more, but all the recollections of a very pleasant visit still remain, and as they were lodging at the house of the Duke's steward, which was close to the park grounds, I saw the place to every advantage. The namp of Floors is derived, it is said, from its standing on a natural floor or terrace, overlooking a plain of extensive meadowland, which reaches down to the Tweed, at the spot where the Teviot joins it, both rivers then in one winding beautifully through the estate directly in front of the house, till they flow together under Kelso bridge, a noble stream of water, the very home of the salmon after his journey to the sea. To the south is a lovely view, embracing a prospect of eight or nine miles over Teviotdale, a rich and picturesque valley, worthy of its poet, Sir Walter Scott, and the scene is bounded by the lofty eminences of the Cheviot Hills and the "Border Land" of Northumberland. In this park King James II. of Scotland met his death by mischance, through the bursting of a cannon, while engaged in superintending the siege of the Castle opposite, and a holly tree, enclosed within rails, still marks the spot where the catastrophe occurred. His successor, James III., was proclaimed King, and crowned with military pomp a few days afterwards in the neighbouring town of Kelso. The house, which is a magnificent pile of building, was erected in the year 1718, by John, first Duke of Roxburghe. It contains pictures by Vandyke, Lely, Reynolds, Raeburn, Ramsay, Fratoni, etc. John, the third Duke, who succeeded to the title in 1755, collected a rare library of old English literature, especially in the department of the Drama, and at its sale, in 1812, the literary society known by the name of the Roxburghe Club was established in memorial of this valuable collection. I. G 36 FLOORS CASTLE. Floors Castle was honoured with a visit from their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales at the latter end of the year 1865. The ducal family of Roxburghe derives from Sir James Innes, Bart., of Innes, who married Margaret, third daughter of William, Lord Ker, second and surviving son of Sir Robert Ker, of Cessford, created Lord Roxburghe in 1600, and Baron Ker of Cessford and Cavertown, Earl of Roxburghe, in 1666. Of the family of Innes, it is stated by Duncan Forbes, in a MS. account, that in all their long line "their inheritance never went to a woman; that none of them ever married an ill wife; and that no friends ever suffered for their debts." LEA, NEAR GAINSBOROUGH, LINCOLNSHIRE. ANDERSON, BARONET. Lea shortly after the Conquest was possessed by the family of Trehamton, of whom the first we find was Galfridus de Trehamton, tempore Stephen. From him descended Sir Randlphds de Trehamton, who married Joan de Dive. Their daughter Margaret married John de Braose. Sir Ranulph was Member for the County of Lincoln, temp. Edward I., and sat in the Parliament which assembled at Rhudlan, in Wales. His effigy in chain armour is in Lea Church. The Manor of Lea went, by the marriage of Agnes de Braose to Urian St. Pierre, to the Cokesays, Grevilles, Berkeleys, and Howards, was bought by the Dalisons, temp. Edward VI., and again sold to their kinsman, Sir Edmund Anderson, of Broughton, temp. Elizabeth, and it is somewhat remarkable that by the marriage of Sir William Anderson with Anne Maddison their descendants get the Trehamton blood, through the Bosviles, Barnbys, Nuthills, and De Braoses, from which families the Maddisons lineally descend. The old residence at Lea was a moated Manor House, a mile to the east of the church, of which only the moats and fishponds remain. A handsome gold ring with the figures of St. Mary and St. Anne upon it, was dug up there a few years ago, being a lady of quality's ring of about Henry VI. 's time, and is preserved. The present Hall is an old farm-house added to since the family removed out of Yorkshire, and has nothing of particular interest about it, except an old chimney- piece, some oak panelling, and some family portraits, namely, — Sir Edmund Anderson, Knight, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, temp. Elizabeth, on panel; Lord Sheffield of Boterwoke, on panel; John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, by Sir Godfrey Kneller; Mr. Darley, of Aldby Park, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Sir John Lawrence, Lord Mayor of London in the year of the plague, by Soest; Sir J. Nelthorpe, by Sir Thomas Lawrence; and others of only family interest. The skirmish between the Royalists and Parliamentarians, in which Colonel Cavendish was slain, began in Lea parish, where two fields, the "Graves Close" and "Redcoats/' still attest the fact. 38 LEA. Henry VIII. and Katherine Howard passed through Lea in their progress towards Yorkshire, and spent two days at Lord Burgh's house at Gainsborough. The family of Anderson, Baronet, of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, is stated to derive from the L' Isles of Northumberland, one of that family, Robert L' Isle, in the reign of Henry IV., marrying an heiress of the house of Anderson. FARNHAM HOUSE, NEAR CAVAN, COUNTY OF CAVAN, IRELAND. — LORD FARNHAM. The only drawback that I have experienced in placing before my readers these views of English Homes and Home Scenery, the great ornaments of the country, which, as they have so often and so much pleased myself, and still please even in thus recalling, will, it is hoped, give somewhat of the like pleasure to others, is, that only one view of each country seat can be given, when an almost unlimited variety might as well, or almost equally as well, be represented. How much this remark applies to the one at present before us, may readily be understood from the fact that it stands in grounds, the various drives through which extend to no less than twenty-six miles, the demesne itself richly planted and of an undulating character, and containing four lakes, with a range of mountains in the distance, extending from Florence Court, the seat of the Earl of Enniskillen, away towards Sligo. The deer park contains three hundred head of deer. The woods are planted with fine beech trees, said to be the first planted in Ireland: and one of them, Derigid Wood, dating from 1642, is said to be the finest oak wood in that kingdom. The estate was granted by King James I. to Sir Richard Waldron, of Leicestershire, who married Miss Farnham of the same county, and gave her name to the property, and it was purchased shortly after 1641 by Robert Maxwell, Bishop of Kilmore, lineal ancestor of the present Lord Farnham, and the immediate successor of the celebrated Bishop Bedell. The house was built in the year 1700, and considerably enlarged in 1803, and further improved in 1839. It contains a very valuable and extensive library in all departments of literature, with illustrated works, prints, and drawings. The Museum has a splendid collection of minerals and geological specimens, as also antiquities from Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the ancient Etruscan cities, Roman cameos, Mosaics, and a large variety of other articles of vertu. The hothouses, greenhouses, and conservatory are rich in the rarest varieties of exotic and other plants. Among the valuable collection of paintings are the following: — The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, by Tintoretto; The "Washing the Disciples' Feet, by Tintoretto; A Pilgrim in the Desert, by Guercino; Barry, second Earl of Farnham, by Opie; Robert, first Earl of Farnham, by Slaughter, Sergeant Painter to George II.; The Honourable Mrs. Maxwell, sister to Lord Oriel, (better known as Mr. Foster, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons,) with her eldest son, John, fifth Lord Farnham, by 40 FARNHAM HOUSE. Angelica Kauffinann; Two Landscapes, by Zuccherelli; Autumn, by Clinchet;* Winter, by Clinchet;* View from the Cassina at Florence, by Burzi; View of the Piazza Granduca at Florence, by Burzi; Summer, by Clinchet;* Spring, by Clinchet;* Young Man and Girl Laughing, by Midler, of Munich; A Nun taking the Veil, by Bruls; View of the Bay of Naples, by Marinoni; Miniatures on ivory of Martin Luther and his wife, Catherine de Bora, in an ancient carved wood frame; Two Cattle pieces, by Verboeckhoven ; View of Amalfi and the Gulf of Salerno, in oil, by Thoming; The Blue Cave, on copper, by Thoming; Italian Woman and Child, by Maes; Adoration of the Magi, on glass, by Bassano; An Original Sketch, by Salvator Rosa; Fruit piece, by Bembi; The Madonna, an original of the school of Guido; Landscape, by Teniers; William III. on Horseback, in the Field of Battle, by Gaspar Netscher; A sketch, by Guardi; View of the Patriarchal Church of Castello, near Venice, by Guardi; View of the Church of Santa Maria della Salute, at Venice, by Guardi; View of the Piazetta, at Venice, by Guardi; View of the Doge's Palace at Venice, by Guardi; Two Views of La Zuecca, by Guardi; Side View of the Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo at Venice, by Guardi; View of the Church in "the Lagunes of Venice," called "La Barcetta," by Guardi; View of the Court of the Doge's Palace at Venice, by Guardi; Portrait of William III., by Gaspar Netscher; Helena Forman, the second wife of Rubens, by Rubens; Landscape, by Gaspar Poussin; Copy of the celebrated Marina of Claude Lorraine, in the Galleria degli Uffiz, Florence, by Signorini: this Copy, from its intrinsic merit, received the premium at Florence, among all the exhibited works of living artists, (being dealt with as an original,) the year before Lord Farnham purchased it. John the Baptist with a Lamb, by Jordaens; Landscape, by Gaspar Poussin; An Angel, by Guido Reni; Snow Piece, by Molenaer; The Annunciation, by Carlo Maratti; Landscape, with a Man watering Horses, by Wouvermans; An ancient Copy of the "Madonna della Seggiola," of Raphael, by Ciniani; Landscape, of the School of Salvator Rosa; Three of the Apostles, painted on copper, of the School of Salvator Rosa; Landscape, by Zuccherelli; A Holy Family, by Solimena; Two Landscapes, with Figures, by Bout and Boudwyne; The Sick Lady, by Gaspar Netscher; Landscape, with Cattle, by Zuccherelli; St. John the Evangelist, by Carlo Dolce; View of Amalfi and the Gulf of Salerno, by Thoming; St. Cecilia, by Domenichino; View of the Bay of Naples, by Thoming. There are besides a large number of very beautiful and valuable paintings and drawings in colour by foreign and other modern artists. The family of Lord Farnham derives from the second son of Sir John Maxwell, of Caldervvood, in Scotland, who went over to Ireland in the interest of King James VI. of that kingdom. His Lordship is also thirteenth in descent from King Henry VII. , through the houses of Brandon, Seymour, Boyle, and Butler. * These four pictures of "The Seasons," by Clinchet, formed part of the Strawberry Hill Collection, and were presented by the French Ambassador at Rome to Horace Walpole when a youth. ILAM HALL, NEAR ASHBOURNE, STAFFORDSHIRE. HANBURY. The situation of Ham Hall is extremely beautiful, and the house itself is well adapted to the scenery which surrounds it. The old mansion was standing in the year 1820, but was soon afterwards pulled down, and the present fine Elizabethan edifice erected it its place. There are two streams, the Manifold and the Hamps, which for some miles previously have followed a subterranean course. The following is the account given of them by Rhodes: — "Returning from the meadows to the garden-grounds of Ham, I passed a narrow foot-bridge at the base of a rocky bank, from whence the two subterranean streams, the Hamps and the Manifold/ emerge, and form a river at a burst. This is one of the curiosities of this romantic place. The river Manifold formerly flowed beneath the amphitheatrical sweep of wood that forms the background of Ham Hall; but it has abandoned its ancient course, where it had continued to run for ages, and now pursues its way for the space of five or six miles through caverns deep in the mountains, where it has obtained a passage to its forsaken channel, which it again enters in the gardens of Ham. Here the united rivers become a powerful stream, which, within a few yards of the place where they first appear, is precipitated over an artificial barrier, when it forms a cascade of considerable extent and great beauty. The Manifold now becomes a busy and brilliant stream, which, after winding round a part of the village about a quarter of a mile from the principal front of the Hall, flows through some pleasant meadows, and enters the Dove at a short distance from Thorpe Cloud." The Vale of Ham is of singular beauty, thus described by the tourist, — "I felt as if I had been treading on fairy-ground; the parts were so beautiful and so exquisitely combined, and the whole so rare and unexpected that it seemed more like a scene of enchantment that might soon pass away than anything real and permanent." "A village of a few houses only scattered amongst trees, a country church with a tower nearly covered with ivy, verdant meadows watered by a busy stream, everywhere sparkling with light, and on a gentle eminence a venerable mansion — the old Hall — rising out of, and backed by, luxuriant foliage, are the principal features of this lovely spot, which is one of the most romantic little vales that nature ever formed. No glen in the Alps was ever more beautiful, more picturesque, or more retired." Here Congreve wrote the "Old Bachelor" and part of the "Mourning Bride." 42 ILAM HALL. The family of Hanbury, of which Robert W. Hanbury, Esq., M.P., the present owner of Bam, is the sole surviving male representative, were originally settled at Hanbury, in this county, where is the tomb of Sir John de Hanbury, a crusader, and where they still hold considerable property. They were during the Commonwealth presented with the Manor of Norton Canes, and are afterwards represented in Plot's Map of Staffordshire as seated at Norton Hall. Within the last two hundred years the valuable manor of Norton has three times been lost and three times recovered; it was on the last occasion repurchased by William Hanbury, Esq., the uncle of the present owner. Ham is an addition. WARWICK CASTLE, NEAR WARWICK, WARWICKSHIRE. EARL OF WARWICK. Cymbeline, King of Britain, is by some supposed to have built the first stronghold that existed on the site of the grand and historic pile of Warwick Castle. The Romans have had its original foundation assigned to them by others. Ethelfleda, a daughter of Alfred the Great, is yet again considered by other antiquarians to have been the foundress of the first Castle that was built here, but however that may be, it seems to be understood that in the year 915 she caused the donjon to be made, which was a strong tower or platform upon a large and high mound of earth, artificially raised — such being usually placed towards the side of a castle or fort which is least defensible. William the Conqueror bestowed the place upon one of his followers, named Henry de Newburgh, whom he at the same time created Earl of Warwick. It next passed to one of the family of Beatjchamp. The last female heir of that line conveyed it by her marriage to the celebrated Richard Neville, the "King Maker/' who assumed the title of Earl of Warwick. Upon his decease, his daughter having married the Duke of Clarence, the latter was allowed by the King, Edward IV., to take the vacant dignity. The Castle was much strengthened and ornamented by him, but upon his forfeiture it was granted to the family of Dudley, during whose possession of the seat it was visited by Queen Elizabeth in one of her "progresses," and the following somewhat characteristic story relative to the event is related of Her Majesty: — "The bailief, rising out of the place where he knelid, approchid nere to the coche or chariott wherein her Maiestie satt, and coming to the side thereof, kneling downe, offered unto her Maiestie a purse very faire vrought, and in the purse twenty pounds, all in sovereignes, which her Maiestie putting furth her hand reccvid, showing withall a very benign and gracious countenance." "And therewithall offered her hand to the bailief to kisse, who kissed it, and then she deliverid to him agayne his mase, which she kept on her lappe all the tyme of the oracyon. And after the mase deliverid, she called Mr. Aglionby to her, and offered her hand to him to kisse, withall smyling said, 'Come hither, little recorder; it was told me that youc 44 WARWICK CASTLE. wold be afraid to look upon me or to speake boldly; but youe were not so afraid of me as I was of youe.' " On the failure of the line of Dudley, the earldom was bestowed by King James on Robert, Lord Rich, but the castle he gave to Sir Fulke Greville, afterwards Lord Brooke, who, Dugdale says, laid out no less than £20,000, a vast sum in those days, on its improvement. His successor, Lord Brooke, was a rigid Parliamentarian, and fortified his castle on their behalf; but, advancing upon Lichfield, which was held by a strong force of Royalists for the King, he was shot dead by a soldier from a wall. His descendant, Francis Greville, was created Earl of Warwick in 1747, and was ancestor of the present possessor. The approach to Warwick Castle is through an embattled gateway at the entrance of the town. The road is cut through a solid rock, overgrown with moss and ivy, and crowned with trees and shrubs of various kinds, winding along for nearly a quarter of a mile, when the noble building breaks at once upon the sight in all its magnificence. On the right hand is Guy's Tower, the walls of which are ten feet thick, and one hundred and twenty-eight feet high. Upon the left is a pile called Ccesar's Tower, connected with the former by a strong wall, in the centre of which is a ponderous gateway with a portcullis, leading to the inner court. The entrance-hall is sixty feet long and forty feet broad, reaching to the very roof of the castle. Its walls are characteristically covered with ancient armour — swords, shields, helmets, spears, and the like — strongly recalling the idea of olden times. Adjoining the hall is a dining-room, more modern than any other part of the building. Beyond this again, is a magnificent suite of state apartments, consisting of two state drawing-rooms and a boudoir, and other apartments. The walls are adorned with a series of valuable paintings by the old masters, among which are the famous paintings of Charles the First on horseback by Vandyke, and the portrait of Ignatius Loyola by Rubens. In the greenhouse is the celebrated "Warwick Vase" of white marble, twenty-one feet in circumference, and seven in diameter, discovered in the baths of the Emperor Adrian, presented by the Queen of Naples to Sir William Hamilton, who gave it to the Earl of Warwick. There is also the magnificent "Kenil worth Buffet," presented to Lord Brooke on his marriage by his friends in the county, of which it was to be a memorial heir-loom in the castle. The family of Greville descends from William Greville, a citizen of London, living in the year 1397. BURTON CONSTABLE, NEAR KINGSTON-UPON-HULL, YORKSHIRE. CONSTABLE, BARONET. The fine old baronial seat of Burton Constable is situated in Holderness, in the East-Riding of Yorkshire, about nine miles from the town of Kingston-upon-Hull, and brings before our minds at once the "olden times/' when, " In rough magnificence array'd, Our ancient chivalry display'd The pomp of her heroic games, And crested chiefs and tissued dames Assembled at the clarion's call In some proud castle's high-arch'd hall." The spacious park contains a fine piece of water, crossed at one part by an ornamental bridge, over which the road leads to the porter's lodge. The house, which is supposed to have been in the first instance built in the reign of King Stephen, has two fronts, the one towards the west one hundred and ninety-one feet long, and the other towards the east one hundred and thirty-three feet, the remainder of the equivalent length being filled up by two projecting wings, each seventy-eight feet long, and four square battlemented towers rise a little above the level of the roof at either end of the main building. The inside of this fine house is in keeping with its outside appearance. There is a gallery one hundred and thirteen feet long and nineteen feet high, its walls adorned with a series of family paintings, and containing also a great variety of valuable mathematical instruments. •The entrance-hall is sixty feet in length, thirty-one feet wide, and of the like height. The library is also of large size, and well furnished with a valuable collection of books. Among the miscellaneous curiosities are four beautiful tables of black marble, richly inlaid with various colours, the handiwork of Italian artists. This family derives in the paternal line from Richard Fitz Pont, whose son Walter, living in the reign of Henry the Second, married Margaret, daughter and heiress of 46 BURTON CONSTABLE. Ralph de Todeni, with whom he acquired Clifford Castle, in Herefordshire, and thence assumed the name of Clifford. He had issue, two sons, of whom the elder was Walter de Clifford, whose great grandson, Roger de Clifford, was renowned for his valour in the wars of Henry the Third, and Edward the First. He married Isabel, eldest daughter and coheiress of Roger de Vipont, Lord of Westmoreland. He fell in the Welsh war, in the year 1282. Some generations after him, Sir Lewis de Clifford, K.G., was distinguished in the reigns of Edward the Third, Richard the Second, and Henry the Fourth. His descendant, Thomas Hugh Clifford, created a Baronet in the year 1814, assumed by Royal License the name of Constable, and was ancestor of the present family. FRANKS, NEAR FARNINGHAH, KENT. POWER. This place is situated in the parish of Horton Kirby, near Farninghani, in the county of Kent. It belonged in Henry the Third's time to a family of the same name, Frank, or Franks, which came out of Yorkshire and settled here. This name, sometimes written Frankish, in Henry the Sixth's time was changed to that of Martin, and the seat continued with the same till the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when it was sold to Lancelot Bathurst, alderman of the City of London, who pulled down the house, which was then situated on the right side of the river Darenth, and built a magnificent seat on the opposite bank, which in Philpott's time was in possession of Sir Edward Bathurst, and continued in his line till the beginning of the present century, when the estate was purchased by a person of the name of Ray, and continued in that family till the year 1860, when it was bought, being then almost a ruin, by Robert Bradford, Esq., who took down a great part of the interior, and restored it (as nearly as possible) to its pristine state. After the decease of Mr. Bradford, the estate was sold by the family in 1871 to Frederick Power, Esq., who has done much towards completing and beautifying the whole mansion. Queen Elizabeth used frequently to stay at this place when it was in the possession of the Bathursts, and there are now two rooms in the house which are called Queen Elizabeth's rooms, and some of the fine old ceiling and panelling are preserved. The river Darenth, which flows close by the house, is famous for its excellent trout fishing. Darenth Wood has also long been noted by entomologists as an excellent hunting-ground. The Bradford family is one if those so numerous in England, which either have originally derived their name from, or have conferred it upon, some "local habitation." In the present instance indeed the family evidently belongs to the former of these two classes, and has doubtless received its "unde derivatur" from a place; but 48 FRANKS. seeing there are towns or villages called Bradford in no fewer than five English counties, to wit, Yorkshire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, Wiltshire, and Dorsetshire, we need not curiously inquire, at least it would be to no purpose if we did, which of the said counties, or the said towns in them, was the residence of the first Bradford of Bradford, the town or village itself having in times long before received its own designation from the broad ford which gave a passage to the "rude forefathers of the hamlet" over the river or stream on the banks of which they had pitched their tent. The family of Bradford derives from an ancient house, and has the honour of numbering among its ancestors the ever-memorable and noble Bradford the Martyr. CHATSWORTH, NEAR BAKEWELL, DERBYSHIRE. DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. The situation of Chatsworth is exceedingly beautiful, in the romantic part of Derbyshire which Sir Walter Scott has celebrated in "Peveril of the Peak." The house stands in a park upwards of eleven miles in circumference, stocked with immense herds of deer, and diversified with every variety of scenery — the heather covered hill and sheltered valley, wooded height and gentle slope, the whole studded with majestic trees, the growth of centuries. Chetelsworthe would seem to have been the original name of the place; derived from a Saxon owner named Chetel, the other part of the word meaning " Court. " In Domesday Book the word is written Chetesworth, and at the time of the Norman survey the manor belonged to the Crown, and was in the keeping of William Peveril. It afterward, for many years, was held by a family named Leech. It was sold by them to the Agards. It was purchased from them by Sir William Cavendish, ancestor of the Dukes of Devonshire, the owners since. The old manor house was pulled down by him; but he only lived to begin the new mansion, dying in 1557. His widow, however, Elizabeth, the famous "Bess of Hardwick," continued and completed the work. During the civil wars Chatsworth was occupied at times by both parties. In 1643 it was garrisoned by Sir John Gell for the Parliament, but was recovered for the King the same year by the Earl of Newcastle, who placed a garrison in it under Colonel Eyre. In 1645 it was again held for the King by Colonel Shallcross, of Shallcross Hall, and was besieged by four hundred Parliamentarians under Colonel Gell, but he was forced to return after fourteen days attack. Mary Queen of Scots was confined here during part of the years 1570, 1573, 1577, 1578, and 1581, and a small raised tower near the bridge still preserves the name of the Bower. It is approached by a bridge over the river between Chatsworth and the village of Edensor, a veritable model village. The bridge was built by Paine, supposed to be from a design by Michael Angelo, and ornamented with fine marble figures by Cibber. The house is ornamented inside with paintings, chiefly by Verrio, Laguerre, Bicard, Huyd, Highmore, and Sir James Thornhill, and wood carving by Gibbons, Watson, Young, Lobb, and Davis; and on the outside with stone carving by Cibber, Geeraerslius, Watson, Harris, Nost, Nedauld, Davis, Landscroom, and Auriol. so CHATSWORTH. Along the whole of the front, extending upwards of one thousand two hundred feet, is the ornamental flower garden of singular beauty. The following particulates are derived from The Guide Book. The Hall contains numerous antique busts and figures, and two splendid vases which occupy the side openings of the North Corridor. This corridor has a tesselated pavement tastefully inlaid with a variety of beautiful marbles, and is otherwise ornamented. Along the side walls are arranged some fine antiques, supported on brackets. The Great Hall is sixty feet by twenty-seven feet. The mosaic floor was laid by Watson. The decorations by Verrio and Laguerre, are taken from the history of Julius Caesar. In one compartment is represented the crossing of the Rubicon; in another his voyage across the Adriatic to his army at Brundusium; the left side contains his sacrifice previous to going to the Senate, after the closing of the temple of Janus ; over the north entrance is his Death; and on the ceiling his Deification: the whole is wondei-fully executed. The Great South Staircase is adorned with paintings, and figures occupy the niches. The State Apartments form the most magnificent portion of the oldest part of the mansion : — the ceilings exhibit the productions of the pencils of Verrio and Sir James Thornhill, among which are the Judgment of Paris, — Phaaton taking charge of the horses of the Sun, — Aurora, as the Morning Star, chasing away Night, — the Discovery of Mars and Venus, — and other mythological subjects. The floors are of oak, curiously inlaid, and the whole suite lined with wood of the choicest description, and furnished with costly cabinets, paintings by the old masters, and Gobelin tapestries of the Cartoons of Raphael. In these rooms will be found many very rare and curious productions of art, ancient and modern: they contain the principal portion of the carvings in wood, so justly celebrated, and which have been noticed by Horace Walpole as the work of Gibbons. They comprise representations of dead game, fish, flowers, etc., grouped in a most admirable manner, — grouse, pheasants, partridges, quail, snipe, and woodcocks; the flowers exhibit the buoyancy and freshness of life. The State Bed-room contains a bed of George II.; and also the chairs and footstools used at the coronation of George III. and Queen Charlotte. The fine canopy wrought by the Countess of Shrewsbury, and the wardrobe of Louis XIV. are also here. In the State Music Room are the two gorgeously gilt chairs in which William IV. and Queen Adelaide were crowned. Here is a fine portrait of the first Duke of Devonshire in his robes of State by Mytems or Paul Vansomer. In the State Drawing Room is a striking bust of Louis XIV., the head of which is bronze, and the lower portion of oriental alabaster. Here is also a model of a Russian Farm. In the State Dining Room are busts on brackets, — William, fifth Duke of Devonshire; Francis, Duke of Bedford; Charles James Fox; and Lord George and Lady Cavendish. On a table of polished malachite (a present from Alexander I. of Russia,) stands the elegant malachite clock presented to His Grace by the late Czar Nicholas, accompanied by two fine square vases of the same material. Numerous other embellishments enhance CHATSWORTH. 51 the beauty of these magnificent rooms. The length of the suite is about one hundred and ninety feet. The view from these apartments is extremely beautiful. Overlooking the ornamental and extensive pleasure-grounds, enriched with every device of art, the eye wanders through the pleasant vale of Chatsworth to the wooded heights of Stanton and the green hill sides of Darley Dale. The South Galleries. — In the upper of these Galleries are upwards of a thousand original drawings of a deeply interesting character, by Rubens, Salvator Rosa, Claude Lorraine, Raphael, Titian, Correggio, and others. The Red Velvet Room (Billiard Room) abounds in beautiful pictures and art treasures. Its ceiling is richly decorated by Sir James Thornhill. Here is Bastlake's splendid picture of the Spartan Isidas. Here too is Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time, by Landseer. The Great Drawing Room is a noble apartment, richly furnished and stored with valuable works of art. In this room is a table deserving particular attention; it is composed of different splendid minerals of various colours, and is not surpassed in beauty by anything of the kind in the house. The Library is the second of the long range of rooms forming the east front, an extent of nearly five hundred and sixty feet. Count Bjornstjerne, the Swedish Ambassador, on seeing this suite of rooms opened, pronounced it to be the finest in Europe. The Great Library is one of the most splendid rooms in Chatsworth, and finished in a style unique in richness, elegance, and beauty. The ground of the ceiling is white, adorned with burnished gold ornamental work in basso relievo, forming a splendid framework to five circular paintings set like precious gems within. The bookcases are of Spanish mahogany, and are divided into compartments by semi-circular metallic columns, richly gilt; these expand into a finely formed leaf, and support the floor of a gallery carried along three sides of the room, for the convenience of reaching books from the upper shelves. The gallery, which is approached by a secret stair, is defended by a handsome carved balustrade, ornamented with dead and burnished gold. The chimney-piece is of Carrara marble, finely sculptured in columns of wreathed foliage, and surmounted by a magnificent mirror, six feet by four feet six inches. The Ante-Library is fitted up in the same style. The ceiling is adoraed with a beautiful picture by Hayter, and two smaller subjects by Charles Landseer. An immense collection of medallions of distinguished persons, ancient and modern, are among the curiosities of this room. A door on the west side opens into the Great North Staircase, which is distinguished for its beauty and extent; it is of oak, with richly carved balustrades, and contains portraits of the late Emperor of Russia and his Consort; Richard, third Earl of Burlington; and George IV. in his robes, by Sir Thomas Lawrence. The Cabinet Library has a splendid coved ceiling, divided into compartments, and supported by columns of beautiful marble, rising from pedestals of pure statuary, and surmounted with richly gilt Corinthian capitals. The Dining Room is the most splendid apartment in Chatsworth. The ceiling is slightly coved, and divided into numerous gilt panels on a ground of the purest white. The deep plinth that surrounds the room, and all below the sur-base, are 52 CHATSWORTH. of polished Hopton marble. The walls are adorned with family portraits, by Vandyke, Honthorst, and Sir Godfrey Kneller. The door cases are columns of Sicilian jasper and African marble, based on suitable pedestals, and surmounted with Ionic capitals. The two chimney-pieces are unique in design, tastefully sculptured in the purest statuary, and adoi'ned with life-sized figures in full relief: one is by the younger Westmacott, the other by Siever. The Ante-room contains two figures in statuary marble; very appropriate ornaments for the positions they occupy, on each side the entrance to The Sculpture Gallery. — This splendid saloon is one hundred and three feet in length ; it is the depository of the finest works of art in Chatsworth. The Orangery is a noble room, one hundred and eight feet long, well stored with orange trees of fine growth, some of which formed part of the collection of the Empress Josephine, at Malmaison; a Rhododendron Arboreum from Nepaul; choice exotics, and an infinite variety of shrubs and flowers. The Gardens are very extensive, ranging from the house southward and eastward; and tastefully laid out in lawns and shrubberies, beautifully diversified with fountains and cascades. They abound in romantic scenes, serpentine walks, ornamented with sculptured figures and vases, picturesque trees, etc. The Camellia House is well stocked with a variety of plants, which when blooming make a splendid show. The ground in front is laid out after the eastern style, with borders and shrubs interspersed with busts and figures, (among which are a colossal Flora, and two antiques, Isis and Osiris, brought by Mr. Banks from the great temple at Carnac,) and Chinese scent jars, which give the whole a beautiful appearance. The Water Works (by Grillet,) are in the style of those at Versailles. The Great Cascade is situated on the side of the hill eastward of Chatsworth; the structure at its head resembles a temple, and is a good architectural object from different parts of the grounds. This building is ornamented with the carved heads of lions, dolphins, sea nymphs, etc., through which, when in play, as well as from the floors and sides, the water rushes in great force. A road winds through the rocky defiles of the cliff. On the right is seen an immense rocking-stone, near to which is the entrance to the fountain known as the "Weeping Willow." When the whole of the Water Woi-ks are in operation the scene is magnificent. The jets appear through and over the trees, and the dense water, rising in light wreathy columns, and reflected in the sun, contrasts beautifully with the varied foliage of the trees, and produces a most brilliant effect. The Great Conservatory, before the erection of the Crystal Palace in 1851, was the most magnificent of its kind. The longest side is two hundred and seventy-six feet, and the shortest one hundred and twenty-three feet. It has a central arched roof sixty-seven feet high, with a span of seventy feet, resting on two rows of elegant iron pillars twenty-eight feet high, which divide the space about equally. The spaces between the ribs are filled in with light glazed framework, containing upwards of seventy thousand square feet of glass. GUY'S CLIFFE, NEAR WARWICK, WARWICKSHIRE. PERCY. This seat derives its double name from a person and a place, the former that of the redoubtable and famous "Guy, Earl of Warwick," the latter a high cliff which here bounds the western side of the classic Avon. The story of Guy is thus told by my friend Sir Bernard Burke: — "Guy, who, like most of his brethren in the trade of knight-errantry, had much to answer for, bethinks himself at last that it is time to repent and amend, for which purpose, according to the most approved fashion of his day, he sets out upon a tedious pilgrimage. On his return to Britain he finds the country being harassed by Danish invaders, so that there was scarce a town or castle that they had not burnt or destroyed almost as far as Winchester. In the midst of their success these ferocious invaders proposed to King Athelstan three things, — either that he should resign his crown to the Danish generals; or should hold the realm of them; or that the dispute should be ended in a single combat by a champion of either side; when, if the Dane was beaten, his countrymen would free England of their presence; but if he prevailed, then the country without more ado should be given up in sovereignty to the Danes. Athelstan accepted the last of these propositions, but not one of his court felt inclined to match himself with the formidable giant Colbrand, the elected champion of the Danes. At this crisis Guy appears in his palmer's weeds, and is, with some difficulty, persuaded by the King to undertake the combat. What it was that induced Athelstan to place his fate and that of his kingdom in that of a wayworn, unknown pilgrim, is not explained by the chronicler, but the romancer unties the knot by the usual expedient in such cases. Athelstan had a vision instructing him to trust his defence to the first pilgrim he should meet at the entrance of his palace. The day of battle arrives, when the two com- batants meet in the valley of Chilticumbe. Guy appears in the customary armour of a knight, but his adversary, the giant Colbrand, comes to the field with weapons enough to supply a whole host; he was 'so weightily harnessed that his horse could scarce carry him, and before him a cart loaded with Danish axes, great clubs with knobs of iron, square bars of steel, lances, and iron hooks to pull his adversary to him.' At this sight, notwithstanding his valour, Guy began to quake, or, as the romancer emphatically exclaims, 'never he was'n so sore afeard sith then he was born/ It would seem, however, as in the case of the renowned French marshal, that it was his body and not his soul which was afraid, for he fought his battle right gallantly I. I 54 GUY'S CLIFFE. under every disadvantage. His horse is killed, his helmet cleft in two, and his sword "broken, but he makes a prayer to the Virgin, and snatching up an axe cuts off the giant's arm, who, for all that, 'held out the combat till the evening of that day,' when he fainted from loss of blood, and Guy incontinently cut off his head." At the dissolution of the monasteries Guy's Cliffe was bestowed by Henry the Eighth on Andrew Flammock, of Flammock. In later times it was possessed by a family named Edwards, and next passed to Samuel Greathead, Esq., who built a new residence, and his son greatly enlarged and improved the place. After him Bertie Bertie Greathead, Esq., left a daughter and heiress married to The Hon. Charles Bertie Percy, who thus became the owner of Guy's Cliffe. Dugdale thus describes the scenery around. "A place this is of so great delight in respect of the river gliding below the rock, the dry and wholesome situation, and the fair groves of lofty elms overshadowing it, that to one who desireth a retired life, either for his devotions or study, the like is not to be found." Leland also thus, — "It is a house of pleasure, place meet for the Muses; there is silence, a pretty wood, antra in vivo saxo, the river rouling over the stones with a pretty noyse, "nemusculum ibidem opacum, fontes liquidi et gemmei, prata florida, antra muscosa, rivi levis et per saxa discursus, necnon solitudo et quies Musis amicissima," that is, "& thick grove there, liquid and sparkling fountains, flowery meads, mossy caverns, the gentle flow of a river over rocks, and also solitude and quiet most friendly to the Muses." Within the house is a splendid collection of paintings, many of them from the easel of a young artist, Mr. Greathead, a son of the then family. The talents of the youthful painter were of such high promise, that when he visited France during the short peace, instead of sharing the fate of the other detenus, he was allowed by the special grace of Napoleon to retire to Italy. There, however, he unfortunately died of a fever, at the early age of twenty-three. In addition to his works, many paintings by the most eminent masters are to be seen here, such as Cuyp, Canaletti, Spagnoletto, Holbein, and others of no less celebrity. The family of Percy, Earls of Beverley and Dukes of Northumberland, of the former of which is the present owner of Guy's Cliffe, descends from Sir Hugh Smithson, who married Lady Elizabeth Seymour, the heiress of the Percies, and was created Duke of Northumberland in 1776. The House of Percy had derived from William de Percy, one of the Norman chieftains who accompanied William the Conqueror in 1066, and deduced his name from the village of Percy, near Yilledieu. KNOWSLEY HALL, NEAR PRESCOT, LANCASHIRE. — EARL OF DERBY. The family of the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, is second, says Sir Bernard Burke, to none in the Peerage of England; and I may add that the pages of history well attest the truth of the remark, on which the "last words of Marmion" have further set the seal of poetry. Knowsley Hall is finely and conspicuously situated in the Hundred of West Derby, in the county of Lancaster, and thence, and not from the town of Derby, as might be supposed, the Earl of Derby derives his title. It has been altered, enlarged, reduced in size, and again rebuilt, by one or other of its various possessors in the course of centuries. The estate was originally, as given in "Domesday Book/' Chenulneslei, and was held at the time of the survey by the family of Uchtred, together with other manors. It next passed to the De Knowsleys, and from them to the Lathams, and then to the Stanleys, through the marriage of Sir Thomas Stanley, Lord Deputy of Ireland, with Isabel, daughter of Sir Thomas Latham, of Latham and Knowsley, in the reign of Richard the Second. The house was greatly enlarged by the first Earl of Derby for his son-in-law, King Henry the Seventh, in whose service he had so greatly distinguished himself, and on whose head, as Earl of Richmond, he placed the crown on Bosworth Field on the # death of Richard the Third. At the ensuing coronation he acted as Lord High Steward. The principal part of the mansion was built by James, the tenth Earl, in the reigns of King William the Third, Queen Anne, and King George the Second. The east front is occupied by a private chapel, and on the south is a corridor, over which are the arms of the family, with the following inscription: — "James, Earl of Derby, Lord of Man and the Isles, grandson of James, Earl of Derby, and of Charlotte, daughter of Claude, Duke de la Tremouille, whose husband James was beheaded at Bolton, 15th. October, 1652, for strenuously adhering to Charles the Second, who refused a bill passed unanimously by both Houses of Parliament, for restoring to the family the estates lost by his loyalty to him, 1732." The park is the largest in the county, being between nine and ten miles in circumference. It is ornamented by plantations and trees of ancient growth, and graced in front by a lake nearly a mile in length. Beautiful views are obtained from the higher grounds, especially towards the sea. 56 KNOWSLEY HALL. The paintings are numerous and valuable, especially Belshazzar's Feast, by Rembrandt, and the suicide, if so it may be called, of Seneca in the bath by Rubens. There is a curious collection of family portraits, twenty-two of which were etched by Hamlet Winstanley, a pupil of Sir Godfrey Kneller, and published under the title of the "Knowsley Gallery." The apartments are very fine and of large size. The family of the Stanleys were Lords paramount of the Isle of Man and the Isles, from the reign of Henry the Fourth to that of George the Second, holding under the Crown by the service of presenting two Falcons to the King on his coronation day. It derives from Adam de Aldithley, who is stated to have come with Duke William at the conquest to England, and his grandson, William de Aldithley, marrying the only daughter and heiress of Thomas Stanley, of Stafford, and having received with her the manor of Thalk, in Staffordshire, exchanged it with his cousin, Adam de Aldithley, for Stanley, which he made his seat, and assumed the name of the place as his own, in honour of his wife, who was of noble Saxon descent. GARNSTONE, NEAR WEOBLEY, HEREFORDSHIRE. PEPLOE. This is another of those old seats which in process of time has frequently changed, by descent in the female line, the name of its owners, as thus — Birch, of Birch, Lancashire, was father of Samuel Birch, born about the year 1600, of Ardwick and Ordshall, in the same shire, who left a son, John Birch, born in the year 1626, who became of Garnstone, and was a Colonel in the Parliamentary Army, and also M.P. for Weobley. In the former capacity he took the city of Hereford in 1645, and ransacked the Bishop's Palace, lawlessness being the habit of the Cromwellers. His daughter, Sarah Birch, heiress of Garnstone, married her cousin, John Birch, who left the property to his brother, Samuel Birch, from whom it descended to his nephew, John Peploe, (son of Ann Birch and Samuel Peploe, "Warden of Manchester,) who took the name of Birch, and the property thus passed to his son, Samuel Peploe, who dropped the name of Birch, died in the year 1845, and was succeeded by his nephew, Daniel Peploe Webb, who dying in 1866, the property was inherited by his brother, The Rev. John Birch Webb, who then also took the name of Peploe. The present house was commenced in the year 1805, by Samuel Peploe, Esq. It is in the castellated style, and of grey stone. The old house stood higher up in the park. There is a finely wooded deer park of about two hundred acres. It contains a number of ancient ceder trees and venerable Scotch firs. The place is situated about a mile from the town of Weobley, an old borough which formerly returned two Members to Parliament, but is now disfranchised. From one side of the house there is a fine view of the Clee Hills and the Welsh Mountains, and on the other side Robin Hood's Butts are to be seen. 58 GARN STONE. The following epitaph on Colonel Birch is to be seen on his tomb in Weobley Church : — In Hope of Resurrection to Eternal Life Here is deposited the Body of Coll. John Birch, (Descended of a Worthy family in Lancashire,) As the dignities He arrived at in the Field; and the Esteem Universally yielded him in the Senat-House Exceeded the attainments of most; so they were but the Moderate and just rewards of this Courage, Conduct, Wisdom, and Fidelity. None who knew him denyed him ye charatter of Asserting and vindicating Ye Laws and Liberties of his country in War And of promoting its Welfare and Prosperity in Peace. He was borne ye 7th. of Sept., 1626, And died (a Member of ye Honble. House of Comons, Being Burgess for Weobley) May ye 10th., 1691. Of the present family is Mrs. Webb, the well-known authoress. TRENTHAM HALL, NEAR NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME, STAFFORDSHIRE. DUKE OF SUTHERLAND. The silver Trent gives its name to this grand ducal residence, built as it is on the site of some house which in Saxon times stood upon its bank, and thence originated the word which now composes the second part of the title of the present mansion. Trentham Hall is situated about four miles north-west of the town of Newcastle- under-Lyme, and about five in a nearly opposite direction from that of Stone. The Trent winds through the park, and furnishes in perfection the feature without which no landscape is complete. In one part it is widened into a lake, of about eighty acres in extent. The higher hills above command beautiful and extensive views of the surrounding country. The grounds in the immediate vicinity of the house were originally laid out by " Capability Brown," and possessing in themselves the greatest natural advantages, have since had every embellishment and improvement that taste and wealth could add. The apartments within the house are magnificent and spacious, and their walls are adorned with an extensive collection of paintings by ancient and modern artists. The Church, which is an elegant building, is situated close to the house. The park contains about five hundred acres of land, and is stocked with a fine herd of deer. The pleasure grounds and gardens consist of about sixty-five acres. In one part stands the hollow trunk of an ancient yew tree, but still bearing several branches with leaves, supposed to have been planted about twelve hundred years since. Between the churchyard and the hall there stood a Nunnery in former times, a portion of the wall of which still remains. The estate of Trentham came into the possession of the family of the Duke of Sutherland through the marriage of Sir Thomas Gower with Frances, daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Leveson, Knight, of Lilleshall, Staffordshire, and Haling, in Kent, who bequeathed the whole of his extensive property to his nephew, Sir William Leveson Gower. 60 TRENTHAM HALL. Trentham has had the honour of Royal visits from King George the Third in 1805, the Princess Victoria in 1832, and the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1866, and again in 1867. The family of the Duke of Sutherland derives from Sir Allan Gower, Lord of Stittenham, in Yorkshire, at the time of the Conquest. Upon the visit of George the Fourth to Scotland in 1822, it was determined by His Majesty that the right of carrying the sceptre before the King was vested in the Earls of Sutherland. i CHARLECOTE, NEAR STRATFORD-ON-AVON, WARWICKSHIRE. — LUCY. Not to know Charlecote "argues one's self unknown/' for it is to confess to ignorance of "Justice Shallow," and therefore of Shakespeare himself. Falstaff. You have here a goodly house and a rich. Shallow. Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggars all, Sir John; marry good air! The knight's opinion, rather than the disparaging one of the owner, will be that of every one who can appreciate the beauty of an old English mansion. On the banks of the winding Avon, about four miles from the native place of the great poet, stands Charlecote Hall, the ancient seat of the Lucy family. In Saxon times the castle was possessed by one of the name of Saxi. It subsequently was held by the Earl op Mellent, from whom it passed to his brother, Henry de Newburgh, Earl of Warwick, who enfeoffed with it Thurstane de Montfort, whose son, Henry de Montfort, bestowed it on Walter, son of Thurstane de Charlecote, or Cherlcote, (a son probably of De Montfort,) who by his wife Cicely had a son William de Charlecote, who changed his name to Lucy, in consequence, as is supposed by Sir William Dugdale, of his mother having been a Norman heiress of that name. He was one the bold Barons who took up arms against King John, and was in consequence deprived of his lands, which were, however, subsequently restored to him in the first year of the reign of the succeeding monarch. A long line of knightly descendants followed him, and in the Wars of the Roses the then head of the family took the side of the House of York, and his great grandson, Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote, who lived under King Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth, rebuilt the manor house, as it now stands in all its main features, in the first year of the reign of the latter. He was Member of Parliament for Warwickshire, and a Justice of the Peace — the "Justice Shallow" of the "Merry Wives of Windsor." I. K 62 CHAELECOTE. After a farther succession of heads of the family, this long-descended line ended in George Lucy, Esq., High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1769, who died in 1786, when the "Historic Lands" of Charlecote passed to The Rev. John Hammond, who assumed by sign manual, in 1787, the surname and arms of Lucy. The family of the above Rev. John Hammond descended from the Rev. John Hammond and Alice his wife, daughter of Sir Fulke Lucy. RIPLEY CASTLE, NEAR KNARES BOROUGH, YORKSHIRE. — INGILBY, BARONET. If there is a "model village" anywhere in England, I think it is Ripley, and the richness and beauty of the country around make a fitting frame in which the picture is set. Ripley Castle is the ancient seat of the baronetical family of Ingilby. It stands on land not far from the river Nidd, the name denoting a pasture on the bank of a stream. The house is a castellated building, and was erected in the year 1555, as appears from the following inscription carved in the frieze of the wainscot in one of the chambers of the tower: — In the yeire of our Ld. MDLV., was this house buylded by Sir William Ingilby, Knight, Philip and Marie reigning that time. It has, however, been much altered and enlarged in the years that have since passed, and the greenhouses and hothouses are said to be scarcely exceeded by any in the kingdom. On a stained glass window in the principal staircase are exhibited the quarterings and intermarriages of the Ingilby family, during a period of four hundred and forty- three years. At the entrance of the village on the north side is a school-house, built in the year 1702, over the door of which is the inscription: — This school was built by Mary Ingilby, in the year 1702; and endowed with part of the fortune of Catherine Ingilby; being the two youngest daughters of Sir William Ingilby, of Ripley, in the county of York, Baronet. 64 RIPLEY CASTLE. "After the battle of Marston Moor, Cromwell took the route to Ripley, and sent to the castle by an officer, a relation to the Ingilbys, to announce his arrival in that town. Sir William was at that time from home, but his lady, the daughter of Sir James Bellingham, who received the communication, requested that Cromwell might be told, that no such person as himself could be admitted there, adding that she had force enough to defend herself and that house against all rebels. With some persuasion, this heroic lady was at length prevailed upon by her relative to receive the General, which she did at the gate of the lodge, with a pair of pistols stuck in her apron strings; and having told him that she expected that neither he nor his soldiers would behave improperly, she led him to the hall. There sitting or reclining, each on a sofa, in different parts of the room, these two extraordinary personages passed the night, equally jealous of each others' intentions. At his departure in the morning, this high- spirited dame caused it to be intimated to Cromwell, that it was well he had bebaved in so peaceable a manner, for had it been otherwise, he would not have left that house alive." Sir Thomas de Ingilby, about the year 1378, married the heiress of the Ripley family, and with her acquired the estate. The Baronetcy was conferred on the then possessor in the year 1642, who accordingly became Sir William Ingilby. The fourth Baronet, Sir John Ingilby, died unmarried in the year 1772, when the Baronetcy became extinct; but it was subsequently revived in 1781, in his successor, Sir John Ingilby. It afterwards became extinct again, and has recently been revived in the person of the Rev. Henry Ingilby, of Ripley Castle, who has been created a Baronet. The family of Ingilby deduces from Sir Thomas Ingleby, or de Ingilby, as above stated. BURGHLEY HOUSE, NEAR STAMFORD, LINCOLNSHIRE. MARQUIS OP EXETER. Burghley, or Burleigh House, was begun and mostly built in the reign of Elizabeth by the celebrated William Cecil, Lord Burleigh. In one of his letters, dated 1585, he says, "My house of Burleigh is of my mother's inheritance, who liveth, and is the owner thereof, and I but a farmer; and for the building there, I have set my walls on the old foundations. Indeed, I have made the rough stone walls to be square, and yet one side remaineth as my father left it me." Over one of the entrances within a central court, is the following inscription recording an earlier period of the work: — "W. Dom. De Burghley 1577." Beneath the turret is the date of 1585, when many great additions were made to the building. The grand entrance towards the north appears to have been added in the year 1587. Since these dates many other additions and alterations have been made, the whole of the house surrounding a central court. To the south is a fine sloping lawn, with a broad sheet of water, and views of park scenery. On the west side are similar home views, and distant ones of objects in Rutlandshire, Lincolnshire, and the spires of Stamford. On the north side the ground slopes to the river Welland, and an extensive tract of country is in sight. About two miles to the west of Burghley House are the ruins of Wothorp, or Worthorp House, where, according to Camden, a mansion of considerable size was built by Thomas Cecil, the then Earl of Burghley, who is recorded to have said that "he built it only to retire to out of the dust, while his great house at Burghley was sweeping." The Duke of Buckingham resided here for some years after the Restoration. In the dining-room is a large silver fountain, and two oval silver cisterns adorned with lions, the supporters of the family arms, the weight of the smaller six hundred ounces, or forty-one pounds, and that of the larger three thousand ounces, or one hundredweight, three quarters, nine pounds, supposed to be the largest piece of plate in Europe. 66 BURGHLEY HOUSE. In the jewel closet is a golden basin and spoon, said to have been used at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. There is a brilliant collection of pictures in the house. The family of the Marquis of Exeter descends from Robert Cyssel, or Cecil, an officer of the court, and in attendance on Henry the Eighth at the celebrated meeting between that monarch and Francis, King of France, on the "Field of the Cloth of Gold." ALTON TOWERS, NEAR CHEADLE, STAFFORDSHIRE. EARL OF SHREWSBURY AND TALBOT. The princely seat of Alton Towers, sometimes called Alton Abbey, the name itself of Alton being a contraction of Alveton, is situated in the hundred of Totmonslow, near the town of Stafford. A Castle was erected here soon after the Norman Conquest. In the reign of King John it was possessed by Theobald de Verdon, whose daughter, Joan de Verdon, carried it by marriage to Thomas Lord Fdrnival. In process of time the heiress of the family, Maud Furnival, brought it into the present line by her marriage with Sir John Talbot, afterwards created Earl of Shrewsbury, who had been victorious in no less than forty several battles and dangerous skirmishes, and was at last killed by a cannon in action — "The ruling passion strong in death" — at Chastillon sur Dordon, in 1453. "The great Alcides of the field, valiant Lord Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, created, for his rare success in arms, Great Earl of Washford, Waterford, and Valence, Lord Talbot of Goodrig and Urchinfield, Lord Strange of Blackmere, Lord Verdon of Alton, Lord Cromwell of Wingfield, Lord Furnival of Sheffield;" "The thrice victorious Lord of Falconbridge, Knight of the noble order of Saint George, Worthy Saint Michael and the Golden Fleece, Great Mareshal to Henry the Sixth, Of all his wars within the realm of France." During the Cromwellian usurpation, the ancient castle, which was built on a precipitous rock, below which flowed the river Churnet, was destroyed by his ignorant soldiery. The present magnificent mansion is of an irregular form, with gables and embattled towers, whence its name. The drive through the park leads by a lodge, at the foot of a steep hill, from the town of Alton, and for more than a mile lies through pine woods. The drawing-room opens into a fine conservatory. The garden and pleasure-grounds are extremely beautiful and picturesque. 08 ALTON TOWERS. In one part is placed a statuary head of Pitt, and opposite to it is another conservatory. The noble family of Talbot derives its origin from Saxon times; but its first recorded ancestor is Robert de Talbot whose name is given in Domesday Book, as holding nine hides of land from Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckingham. BROADLANDS, NEAR ROMSEY, HAMPSHIRE. COWPER-TEMPLE. Though I have been in the immediate neighbourhood of this well-known seat myself — well known from the name of its late owner, whose title for half a century has been "familiar in our ears as a household word," — I shall let Sir Bernard Burke describe the scenery around it, for no one could do it better, no writer that I know can do it so well. "Few seats are surrounded by a fairer landscape than this of Broadlands. The park, of an irregular shape, extends about a mile and a quarter to the River Test, which here unites its various branches into a single channel, and spreads out into a broad expanse of ornamental water. This park exhibits many noble trees of various kinds, scattered singly, or in groups, arranged with exquisite taste and effect. On the side that abuts on Romsey it is about half a mile in length. The width of the valley of the Test is here almost three quarters of a mile, if measured from the commencement of the rise on either side. Above Romsey it extends westward into a sort of basin, and again widens in the same direction opposite the middle of the entire length of Broadlands. Between these points it is narrowed by hills that jut out in gentle swellings, one of which slopes, lawn-like, towards the meadows, while the other stands out like a fortress made by nature, and indeed bears the marks of having been once artificially fortified upon all except its steepest sides. The summit is remarkably flat, and covered with a green turf as soft to the tread as velvet. Mingled with the grass is an abundance of wild thyme and other aromatic herbage, so that on a fine summer's day the whole place glitters with the glance of tiny wings, and the air is alive with the busy hum of bees, attracted thither by the fragrance. From the top of this eminence the views are exceedingly beautiful; and their effect is not a little heightened by their being broken and separated by clumps of trees, that are variously dispersed upon the crown and margin of the hill. These views are principally four, though of course they may yet be diversified if the spectators take up other positions. First, upon the right hand is a prospect down the valley and across Southampton water to the New Forest: perhaps it may even extend as the peasants of the neighbourhood say it does, to the Isle of Wight; but for this the day must be fine, and the atmosphere remarkably free from vapour; it may be doubted, too, whether much would be gained to the spectator by this extension of 1. L 70 BEOADLANDS. his prospect, for nothing can be well imagined more beautiful than the nearer landscape, when the clouds, under the influence of a gentle west wind, are flinging their light shadows upon it, and for a moment interrupting the sunshine. Secondly, to the left of the scene just mentioned, is the view of Broadlands, forming with its home park a graceful contrast to the beauties of nature. Thirdly, comes the view of Eomsey, the only objection to which is the too great remoteness of the abbey church, the most interesting feature that the town presents. Lastly, there is the view up the valley of the Test, which here assumes the appearance of an amphi- theatre with finely-wooded margins, the bright streams glittering among fields of the freshest verdure; while here and there some blighted trunk of a tree stands out amongst all this life and youth like a churchyard in some crowded city, as if to remind us that the scene, after all, is fleeting." » TEMPLE NEWS AM, NEAR LEEDS; YORKSHIRE. MEYNELL-INGRAM. Every one that has read "Ivanhoe," — as who that ever has been young has not? — every one that knows it by heart, — as who does not? — will recall at the name of this seat the vivid and stirring descriptions therein given us of those Warrior-monks, the Knights Templars, who once, as Sir Bernard Burke writes in his account of this place, set their mailed feet upon the neck of Kings, and had well-nigh been an over-match for the Pope himself. Here, in those distant times, was a Preceptory of this order of Military Churchmen, and one cannot but at once summon up before the eye of the mind their Grand Master, Lucas de Beaumanoir, at the head of his knightly followers, Maurice do Bracy, fresh from the fray at Coningsburgh Castle and the ruined towers of Torquilstone, Waldemar Fitzurse, Brian de Bois Guilbert, Conrade de Montfichet, and Albert Malvoisin, and "see them on their winding way/' as with their troop of "free lances" they slowly move off from Templestowe, in "long and glittering line," to the music of a wild march from some distant Eastern Land, and follow the waving banner of Beau-seant. When, however, and none too soon, they were suppressed by the hand of a stronger power, the estate was granted by King Edward the Third to Sir John Darcy, with whose descendants it remained until Thomas, Lord Darcy, got into trouble with "Bluff Hall/' who was not the man to brook opposition at the hand of a subject, and, on suspicion of his having delivered up Pontefract Castle to the Yorkshiremen in the "Pilgrimage of Grace/' forthwith made an end of him on Tower Hill. It is, however, considered by historians far from certain that the unfortunate nobleman was really guilty of complicity in the rebellion. The king thereupon bestowed the estate on Matthew, Earl oe Lennox, whose son, Lord Darnley, husband of the Queen of Scots, was born here. It was next granted by King James the First to the then Duke op Lennox, by whom it was sold to Sir Anthony Ingram, who built the present splendid mansion upon it. His descendant, Lord Irvine, left with other daughters, Elizabeth Irvine (Shepherd,) who married, 2nd. of August, 1782, Hugo Meynell, Esq., of Hoar Cross in the county of Stafford, and so brought it and the additional surname of Ingram into the present family. 72 TEMPLE NEWS AM. Temple Newsam stands upon the bank of the River Aire, about four miles from Leeds and fourteen from York, in a part of the country which is naturally very beautiful, as indeed are most parts of the Yorkshire manufacturing districts, but much marred, for the present, that is to say until our coal fields are exhausted, by the smoke that arises from so many furnaces. The family of Meynell- Ingram derives through a long line from Gilbert de Mesnil, living in the reign of Henry the Second, supposed to be descended from Hugh de Grent-Mesnil, a potent Noi'man Baron. WOLLATON HALL, NEAR NOTTINGHAM j NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. LORD MIDDLETON. Wollaton Hall, a stately structure, is situated on a knoll near the River Trent, between two and three miles from Nottingham, and is approached by an avenue of noble lime trees nearly a mile in length. It stands in an extensive park, amply wooded with ancient oaks and elms, and well stocked with deer, the ground undulated and adorned with sheets of water. The house was built by Sir Francis Willoughby, who commenced the work in the year 1580 and completed it in 1588. The library contains a valuable collection of books, as also the ancient Service Book of Wollaton Church, and portraits of Willughby the eminent naturalist, Ray his contemporary, and the sixth Lord Middleton. In the hall are several fine pictures, and among them one of the famous navigator Hugh Willoughby, who was sent out on a voyage in the reign of King Edward the Sixth, with three ships, to discover the famous and fabulous Cathay. He set sail in the year 1553, and having spent some time in cruising in the northern regions, was forced about the middle of September to put in to a harbour of Lapland, where he and the whole of his crew were frozen to death. The gallery also contains some family portraits. The Rev. Prebendary Trollope thus writes of it: — "Great is the fame of this mansion as a specimen of English domestic architecture, and but few, if any, will hesitate to acknowledge the justice of its high reputation. Here there is much for all to admire, but perhaps still more for lovers of architecture to study. Externally, this fine old fabric consists of two entirely distinctive portions, namely, the great dominant central tower and the remainder of the composition. These, although built at the same time, or nearly so, 1580-8, differ entirely from each other in proportion, style, and ornamentation." "There is much dignified beauty about the principal front, with its double flight of balustraded steps leading to the door, for which the stately avenue leading to it has prepared the visitor; while the bold breaks of its facade ensure the valuable assistance of a sufficient amount of light and shade, which plays over its surface in varied masses when a sunny day smiles upon it, and its angle towers springing aloft, with their fretted gables and their obelisk pinnacles, lightly break the sky line in a charming 74 WOLLATON HALL. manner. The garden front is of the same character, but instead of rising from a deer park, it has a stately terrace spread out before it, relieved by groups of fine evergreens and the lovely turf of an English lawn." The family of Lord Middleton descends from Sir Christopher Willoughby, K.B., living in the reign of King Henry the Seventh. INVERARY CASTLE, NEAR INVERARY, ARGYLLSHIRE. — DUKE OF ARGYLL. It is nothing new to say that most of the persons who travel to foreign lands "in search of the sublime/' have left still more beautiful scenery in their native land than much they see abroad, and are utterly ignorant of the mountains, valleys, hills, woodlands, plains, lakes, streams, and rivers, which adorn each of the three kingdoms of the British Islands. It is the old story over again of the substance being left for the shadow in many such cases. Inverary Castle offers a notable instance of this, standing in a situation of extreme beauty and grandeur, in the midst of a wide open space, surrounded by lofty hills which are covered with wood, and having in front Lough Fine, a deep amphitheatre of water, indented on all sides of its shores with a succession and variety of promontories. Immediately behind the house the hill of Dunicoick rises almost perpendicularly to the height of seven hundred and fifty feet, nearly covered with wood, through which are seen the projecting rocks of its native foundation and formation. It needs hardly to be added that the wide and extensive view from its summit is one of surpassing beauty, nature supplying in such abundance the materials to which art has added all that art can add. The plantations which adorn and diversify the scenery were begun by the then Marquis of Argyll in the reign of Charles the First, and his plans have been continued by his descendants ever since. The late Duke is stated to have devoted £3,000 a year to the improvement of the seat, feeling, as each successive proprietor of an estate should feel, that he is but a steward for those who come after him, and that thus he can best also benefit the present race of tenantry, who all have their own natural claims upon him as well. The park is extensive, graced with trees of ancient growth, and watered by the River Aray, a rapid stream, crossed by a bridge in one part, and afterwards falling into the above-named lake or arm of the sea. The entrance hall is fitted up as an armoury, with a collection of the various weapons in use, or rather that were formerly in use by the Highlanders, — "An old hall hung about with pikes, guns, and bows, With old swords, and bucklers that had borne many shrewde blows." Above it is a gallery in which an organ is placed. 76 INVERARY CASTLE. The great drawing-room is a splendid apartment, hung with tapestry, and ornamented in a most superb manner. The turrets of the building are fitted up as small libraries or private rooms. Mary Queen of Scots paid a visit to Inverary Castle in 1563. The erection of the present castellated mansion was commenced in the memorable "'45," a time not favourable for building or the quiet arts of peace, and its completion was thus retarded for a time. The old building was taken down in the year 1770. The portraits, as may be supposed, are numerous and interesting, among them being one of the unfortunate Marquis of Argyll who was beheaded May 27th., 1661. Also his son Archibald, the ninth Marquis, who was beheaded at the Cross of Edinburgh, June 30th., 1685. Others of a late Duke of Argyll, by Gainsborough; Lord Frederick Campbell, by Gainsborough; Douglas, sixth Duke of Hamilton, by Battoni; several landscapes representing views in the neighbourhood, by Nasmyth and Williams; some fine drawings by De Croc, and a numerous collection of prints by the best masters. The family of the Duke of Argyll derives from Gillespick Campbell, living in the beginning of the thirteenth century. NEWSTEAD ABBEY, NEAR MANSFIELD, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. WEBB. Newstead Abbey, "one of the finest specimens in existence of those quaint and romantic piles, half castle, half ornament, which remain as monuments of the olden times of England," is situated about five miles from Mansfield and nine miles north of Nottingham. It was originally a Friary of Black Canons, founded by Henry the Second in the year 1170. At the dissolution of the monasteries it was granted to Sir John Byron, Lieutenant of Sherwood Forest. It was besieged by the parliamentary forces, and after the murder of King Charles the First was confiscated by the Puritans, but was restored by Charles the Second to Lord Byron, who, in reward of his loyalty to the throne had been raised to the Peerage by Charles the First. It continued in the family till the year 1815, when it was sold to Colonel Wildman, and afterwards to F. W. Webb, Esq. Outside the building the principal objects worth seeing are a noble oak tree, a relique of the ancient forest; the upper lake, formed by keeping up the waters of the river Leen; the lower lake; and an aviary. Inside are the entrance-hall; the monks' parlour, or reception room; the haunted chamber; the eastern corridor; the tapestry bedroom; the tapestry dressing-room; King Edward the Third's bedroom; King Henry the First's lodgings; the Duke of Sussex's sitting-room; the grand dining-hall; the breakfast-room; the cloisters; and the chapel. In the following lines written by Lord Byron, he had Newstead in view; but the verses, me judice, are unworthy of the subject, an instance, itnum e multis, by way of proof, how much a poet may be over-rated in his lifetime, to find his level in the deserved neglect of his writings in the next generation. " Before the mansion lay a lucid lake, Broad as transparent, deep, and freshly fed By a river, which its soften'd way did take In currents through the calmer water spread Around: the wildfowl nestled in the brake And sedges, broodiug in their liquid bed: The woods sloped downwards to its brink, and stood With their green faces fixed upon the flood." I. M 78 NEWSTEAD ABBEY. "Amidst the court a Gothic fountain play'd, Symmetrical, but deck'd with carvings quaint — Strange faces, like to men in masquerade, And here perhaps a monster, there a saint: The spring gush'd through grim mouths of granite made, And sparkled into basins, 'where it spent Its little torrent in a thousand bubbles — Like man's vain glory, and his vainer troubles." The owner of Newstead Abbey is the son of Frederick Webb, Esq. U- BLENHEIM, NEAR WOODSTOCK, OXFORDSHIRE. — DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH. "If nothing were to be seen in England but this seat, with its park and treasures of art," writes Dr. Waagen, the Director of the Royal Gallery at Berlin, "there would be no reason to repent the journey to this country. The whole is on so grand a scale, that no prince in the world would need to be ashamed of it; and at the same time it is a noble monument of the gratitude of the English nation to the great Duke of Marlborough." In the year 866 King Ethelred held a Parliament in Woodstock Palace. His successor, in 872, Alfred the Great, occasionally resided there when not engaged in war, and is stated in a MS. in the Cottonian Library to have found leisure to translate "Boethius de Consolatione," and about the same time to have founded or restored the University of Oxford. King Henry the First repaired or rebuilt the palace, and built a wall round the park. Henry the Second received here the homage of Malcolm King of Scotland, and Rees Prince of Wales, in 1164. Edward the First called a Parliament at this place in 1275; and here his second son, Edward, was born, thence named Edward of Woodstock. Edward, eldest son of Edward the Third, commonly called the Black Prince, was also born here, as likewise Thomas, his sixth son. Blenheim Palace was built by Sir John Vanbrugh, the architect, at the public expense, in the reign of Queen Anne, half a million of money being voted for its completion; and was conferred, together with the Honour of Woodstock, on John Duke of Marlborough, as a memorial of the royal favour and the gratitude of the public for the very great victories he had gained over the French and Bavarians, particularly that near the village of Blenheim on the 2nd. of August, 1704. On the anniversary of the day every year a standard with the fleurs-de-lys painted on it is rendered at Windsor Castle as a quittance for all rent, suits, and services due to the crown, and in consequence a long series of flags is there exhibited. The apartments which are too numerous to be particularized, are nobly proportioned, and the architectural grandeur of the various rooms is abundantly supported by the richness of the furniture and fittings, and the value and beauty of the works of art and vertu that adorn them. In the library, which contains one of the largest collections 80 BLENHEIM. of books in the country, is a statue of Queen Anne, by Rysbrach, as also a bust of Alexander the Great, from Herculaneum. In the chapel is the monument by Rysbrach, of the great Duke of Marlborough, 1722. The house has also an observatory and a theatre. In the park is a fine expanse of water, over which is a bridge of three arches, the central one, one hundred and one feet span, being larger than that of the Rialto at Venice. In the grounds are also a temple of Diana built by Sir William Chambers; a column one hundred and thirty feet high, with a colossal statue of the great Duke at the top, and a record of his principal achievements on the pedestal; a triumphal arch, and numerous pieces of statuary. The paintings at Blenheim, almost national in their number and value, are specimens by: — Abbati; Albano; Balen; Bamboccio; Baroccio; Bellini; Bourgognone; Boudewyns; Brauer; Bril; Canaletto, four; Annibale Caracci, four; Ludovico Caracci, two; Castiglione; Claude, two; Coques; Correggio, three; Clostermans; Cortona; Cosvvay, three; Cuyp; Dance; Deleu; Dolci, four; Ferg, two; Franck, three; Gains- borough; Giordano, five; Giorgione, two; Guido; Holbein, three; Honthorst; Hudson, five; Jordaens, two; Kettle; Kueller, eighteen; Lairesse; Lancret, two; Lely, four; Maltese, two; Maratti; Mignard; Mola; Bartolorne" Estevan Murillo, two; Disciple of Murillo; My tens, two; Neefs; Arnold Vander Neer; Arturus Vander Neer; Nogari, two; Ostade; Pater; Poussin, two; Raffaelle, three; Reinagle; Rembrandt, three; Reynolds, ten; Marco Ricci, nine; Sebastiauo Ricci; Romuey, two; Roos; Rothenamer, four; Rubens, twenty-five; Ruysdael; Sanders, three; Savery; Schalcken; Slaughton, two; Smith, two; Sneyders, three; Solimene; Steen; Strozzi; Tempesta, two; David Teniers, (called the old); David Teniers, (called the young) three; Tillemans, four; Tintoretto, two; Titian, thirteen; Vandyke, sixteen; Alessandro Veronese; Paolo Cagliari Veronese, three; Leonardo da Vinci; Walker; Watteau; Weeninx; Wootton, two; Wouvermans, three; Wyck. The family of the Duke of Marlborough derives from Sir Robert Spencer, of Wormleighton, in the county of Northumberland, raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Spencer of Wormleighton, and whose descendant, Charles, fifth Earl of Sunderland, to which dignity the third baron had been elevated, brought the dukedom of Marlborough into the family on the demise of his aunt Henrietta, created Duchess of Marlborough under a special act of Parliament, his father, the third Earl, having married her next sister Lady Anne Churchill. The following anecdote is recorded of the first Baron Spencer. In a debate in Parliament on the royal prerogative, in 1621, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, remarked to him, "My Lord, when these things were doing, your ancestors were keeping sheep/' "When my ancestors were keeping sheep," replied Spencer, "your lordship's ancestors were plotting treason." The family of Churchill was stated by Dr. James Anderson, in his genealogical tables, to be derived from Gitto de Leon, a Frenchman, whose son Wandril was Lord of Courcil, the name afterwards being altered to Chirchil, and then to Churchill. CRANBURY PARK, NEAR WINCHESTER, HAMPSHIRE. — CHAMBERLAYNE. Pew mansions, even in the south of Hampshire, where country seats abound, are more delightfully situated than Oranbury. The hill on which it stands is one of the highest in the county, and from the extensive and picturesque pleasure-grounds beautiful views are obtained of Southampton Water and the Isle of Wight to the south; to the east are uninterrupted views over almost the whole of the south- eastern portion of Hampshire; while to the north the eye overlooks the lovely vale of Hursley as far as the pretty little village of Farley Chamberlayne. The park is extensive and beautifully wooded, the timber being remarkably fine. Cranbury House is a large mansion, built of red brick, with stone facings. It is difficult to say exactly when it was originally built, but it is certain that it is of great antiquity, and from traces of artificial fishponds discovered in the park, it is conjectured that it was formerly a monastery. Cranbury was once the name of an extensive district, and mention is made of it in Domesday Book. It contains a valuable collection of paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Vandervelde, Le Brun, Callcott, Richter, Collins, Westall, Copley Fielding, Thompson, etc.; and some fine pieces of sculpture by Nollekens and Chantrey, one of which, a Venus by the former, was valued by the Commissioners of the International Exhibition at £2,000. The ceiling in the saloon is very famous, the painting being the work of that eminent architect, the late Sir Nathaniel Holland. Amongst the other objects of interest may be mentioned a fine large organ of great antiquity lately restored by Willis, and an instrument called an " Apollonicon," or self-playing organ, made in the Black Forest, in Germany, and exhibited in Leicester Square till it was purchased by Mr. W. Chamberlayne, uncle of the present owner of Cranbury, for many years M.P. for Southampton. Mr. T. Chamberlayne inherited with Cranbury extensive property on the banks of Southampton Water, on a portion of which are situated the well-known ruins of Netley Abbey. Of the ancestors of the Chamberlayne family not a few figured prominently in the history of their country, amongst whom may be mentioned William Chamberlayne, Lord of North Ryston, chamberlain to Henry the Second, who made prisoner Robert do Bellemont, Earl of Leicester, in 1174. Also Sir John 82 CRANBURY PARK. Chamberlayne, who distinguished himself in the martial reign of Edward the Third, and whose descendants settled at Sherborne Castle, in Oxfordshire, which has since passed into the possession of the Earls of Macclesfield: from them, through the Chamberlaynes of Wickham, Baronets, is descended the present owner of Cranbury. The baronetcy alluded to became extinct in 1776. The family of Chamberlayne trace their descent from John de Tankerville, a Norman baron, who was made Chamberlain — or, as it was then spelt, "Chamberlayne" — to King Henry the First, and whose descendants assumed the name. « SCONE PALACE, NEAR PERTH, PERTHSHIRE. EARL OP MANSFIELD. Scone Palace, it need scarcely be here stated, was in ancient times a favourite residence of the kings of Scotland, and the celebrated stone on which they sat when crowned, was carried fron Scone by Edward the First, and is now placed in the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey. This stone is stated by Sir James Ware to have been first brought to Ireland by the colony of the Inath de Danans, and thence removed to Scotland when Fergus, the first king of Scotland, who was descended from the blood royal of Ireland, was crowned on it. The situation of this seat is extremely beautiful, the Tay flowing at the edge of the park in view of the windows, while on the opposite side is the rich scenery about Perth, and on the right the Grampian Hills bound the distant view. The palace and the abbey were both dilapidated under Henry the Eighth, but the former was restored in the early part of the seventeenth century, and here King Charles the Second was crowned in the year 1651, ten years before the ceremony was again performed in Westminster. Here also the Pretender, the Chevalier St. George, was crowned in 1715. In the year 1803, the old palace was removed by the then Earl of Mansfield, and in its stead he erected the present mansion, which was completed in 1806. It is two hundred and twenty feet long, and the sides are one hundred and thirty on the north and the south. The rooms are very fine, and contain many curiosities and paintings, and among the latter portraits of King Charles the Martyr, by Vandyke; the Marquis of Montrose; Lord Mansfield, the great lawyer, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; also his successor, and the next Earl and Countess, by Sir Thomas Lawrence. In the state bedroom is a bed presented by King George the Third to the then Earl. It is of crimson damask, with the full arms of Britain embroidered in gold at the head and the top. In an adjoining room is a bed in which Queen Mary slept, the hangings worked by herself while a prisoner in Lochleven Castle; in another one which her son, James the Sixth of Scotland and First of England, used. In these apartments there are several curious portraits of members of the Royal House of Stuart. In the cloisters, between the gallery and the corridor, are full-length portraits of 84 SCONE PALACE. George the Third and Queen Charlotte, by Bamsay, and some ancient coats-of-arms, carved in stone and built into the wall. There are in all in Scone Palace one hundred and twenty-five rooms, and it is stated that of these ninety are bedrooms. In the library is the woolsack on which the Lord Chief Justice Mansfield used to sit in the House of Lords. He was born in Scone Castle in the year 1705, and died in 1793, in his eighty -ninth year. The family of the Earl of Mansfield, who holds the hereditary feofeeship of the Palace of Scone, derives from Sir William Murray, of Tullibardine, who died in 1511. WHITLEY COURT, NEAR DROITWICH, WORCESTERSHIRE. EARL OP DUDLEY. Whitley or Witley Court, for the word is spelled both ways, was also in more ancient times written Whittlege, Whittleg, and Veceloge. At one time it belonged to the Cookseys, an old family of the county of Worcester, and was carried from them, through an heiress of the estate, into that of the Russells of Strensham. From them it was purchased by Thomas Foley, Esq., of whom Nash, the historian of Worcestershire, observes, "This family is a striking instance what great riches may be acquired in a trading county by integrity, industry, frugality, and an extensive trade, and this within four generations. Bishop Fleetwood says, the law hath laid the foundation of two-thirds of all the honours and great estates in England: more than this proportion may be reckoned in Worcestershire. In all England there is no noble family, and very few opulent ones, that sprang from the church, except Lord Sandys. All our late war, glorious and successful as it was, hath not yet ennobled one soldier, (February, 1776.) Physick hardly ever raised its professors above knighthood or baronetage. Our county, besides a Foley, can shew a Knight, a Taylor, and others who have gained a more than ministerial fortune by the iron- trade, and attention to their own domestic affairs; while on the other hand, a Wild, a Tracey, a Lane, and many others, have spent large estates in elections and hunting for court favours." From the family of Lord Foley the place passed by sale to Lord Ward. The parish church adjoins the house; and Sulivan, author of the "Tour through England," writes thus of it in the second volume of that work. "The church, which is annexed to the house, is really an elegant building; the whole of it is beautified at a great expense; the sides white and gold, the ceiling divided into handsome compartments, with good Scripture pieces, and the glass windows exquisitely painted by an artist of the name of Price, who executed them in the year 1719. Uncommonly handsome as this edifice is, it still carries a disadvantage which those who are not uncommonly orthodox would dislike. It, unfortunately, is the parish church, so that the graves and tombstones are absolutely in the area of the house. This I mentioned to the old lady who conducted us through the apartments; but she, shaking her head, and staring at me with surprise, very calmly replied, that, if people are shocked at the sight of mortality, it is very easy for them to shut the windows." The old lady was right. If there are "sermons in stones," as it has been well I. N 86 WEITLEY COURT. said that there are, even in those that we walk upon in every road, surely most of all in those which, whether speaking in the "storied urn and animated bust," or in those more plain and homely ones which chronicle in every "Country Churchyard" where underneath the green turf the "rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep," give one and the same lessou to all who survive but for a time, till their own turns shall come. The family of Lord Dudley is derived from William Ward, a wealthy goldsmith of London, Jeweller to Henrietta, Queen of Charles I. GLANUSK PARK, NEAR ClilCKHOWELL, BRECKNOCKSHIRE. BAILEY, BARONET. Glanusk Park, in South Wales, was at one time the property of Lord Orford, and was afterwards owned by Mr. John Keppel, from whom it passed in the present century into the hands of Joseph Bailey, Esq., M.P. for the city of Worcester. The present imposing mansion was built by Mr. Bailey, on the existing site, the previous house being thought to be too close to the so-called Glanusk Water, in consequence of which it was taken down. The park, which is well stocked with deer, comprises between seven and eight hundred acres of ground, exceedingly beautiful from its undulations, and is surrounded by mountains. The River TJsk, whereof Glanusk forms a part, runs for several miles through the estate, affording abundance of salmon and trout to the fisherman, as well as adding not a little to the beauty of a landscape which, from the mixture of wood, dale, rock, and meadow, presents a most romantic picture. Within the park are some ancient Druidical remains, which have, as may be supposed, given ground for a variety of speculations to the learned in antiquities, but these would be unsuited to the pages of a work like the present. The family of Bailey derives from John Bailey, Esq., of a family long resident in Yorkshire. His son, Sir Joseph Bailey, was created a Baronet in June, 1852. He married first, October 10th., 1810, Maria, daughter of Joseph Latham, Esq., by whom he had, with other issue, Joseph Bailey, Esq., M.P. for the County of Hereford, who married, June 22nd., 1839, Elizabeth Mary, only child of William Congreve Russell, Esq. He died August 31st., 1850, and left, with other children, Sir Joseph Bailey, who succeeded as second Baronet on the death of his grand- father, November 20th., 1858, and married Mary Ann, eldest surviving daughter of Henry Lucas, Esq., M.D., of Glan-yr-afon. Sir Joseph Bailey, the first Baronet, was left a large fortune by his uncle, Richard Crawshay, Esq., of Cyfartha Ironworks, Glamorganshire, who died in 1810, which has 88 GLANUSK PARK. been increased by his extensive ironworks at Nant-y-Glo. He was also possessed of considerable landed property in the counties of Brecon, Radnor, Glamorgan, Monmouth, Hereford, and Bucks., in several of which are handsome seats of his. He represented the city of Worcester in three Parliaments, and sat latterly for Breconshire. He was High Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1823, and was a Deputy Lieutenant for that county and Breconshire, and was in the Commission of the Peace for the counties of Brecon, Glamorgan, Monmouth, and Hereford. He was patron of eight livings. He died November 20th., 1858, at Glanusk. BURTON-AGNES HALL, NEAR BURLINGTON, YORKSHIRE BOYNTON, BARONET. This very fine and interesting specimen of an English gentleman's country-seat is situated in the East-Riding, on a gentle eminence at the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds, commanding an extensive view over Holderness and the level lands at the foot of the hills just mentioned. It has a south aspect, and is a good example of the style of architecture which was prevalent in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James the First. It is said to have been built after a design by Inigo Jones. The house is of brick, with stone quoins. There are some very fine rooms within, elegantly fitted up, and containing a good collection of family portraits and other paintings. The entrance-hall is very large and lofty, and the chimneypiece is elaborately carved with figures of the wise and foolish virgins. There is a magnificent screen, carried up to the top of the room, and richly ornamented with a mass of the most delicately-traced carving. It was brought here from Barmston, a neighbouring village and lordship belonging to the family. A staircase of quaint design leads up to the "Long Gallery," which has a coved ceiling in imitation of a bower of trellis-work, intertwined with roses and creeping plants. There are some pictures on the panel-work said to be by Rubens. In front of the house is a massive gateway, with four small octagonal towers. In the space between it and the hall is a statue of a Gladiator. The Parish Church is close to the mansion, and has several very elegant monu- ments of the families of Somerville and Griffith, one of them of alabaster, on which are the effigies of a knight and his lady, and above it a window of richly-decorated stained glass of recent manufacture. The family of Boynton is stated to derive from Bartholomew de Boynton, (Boynton is an adjoining parish at the other side of the Wolds,) living in 1067, who was an ancestor of Matthew Boynton, Esq., who married Anne, daughter of Sir John Bulmer, of Wilton, and was succeeded by his son, Sir Thomas Boynton, M.P. for Boroughbridgo and High Sheriff of Yorkshire in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was succeeded by his son, 90 BURTON-AGNES HALL. Sir Francis Boynton, High Sheriff in 1596. This gentleman married Dorothy, daughter and co-heiress of Christopher Place, Esq., of Halnaby, and dying April 9th., 1617, was succeeded by his only surviving son, Sir Matthew Boynton, Knight, of Barrnston and Boynton, who was created a Baronet May 25th., 1618. Sir Matthew sat in Parliament in the reign of Charles I., and sided with the republicans during the civil wars. He married, first, Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Griffith, Knight, of Burton- Agnes, in Yorkshire, sole heiress of her brother, Sir Henry Griffith, Baronet, (a family now long extinct in the male line,) and thus brought Burton-Agnes into the Boynton family. BALMORAL CASTLE,* NEAR BALLATER, ABERDEENSHIRE. — THE ROYAL PRIVATE RESIDENCE. The assertion may safely be hazarded, that until Balmoral became the property of the Queen, or rather, in the first instance, of the Priuce Consort, His Royal Highness Prince Albert, not one person in every hundred thousand in this country, or perhaps a smaller proportion, had ever even heard the name of the place. Now it is one of the "household words" which has become "familiar in our ears." The property long belonged to the family of Farquharson of Inverey, in whose possession it had previously been. It was let on lease in the year 1836 by the then proprietor, to Sir Robert Gordon, brother of the Earl of Aberdeen, for a period of thirty-eight years, and a shooting lodge was built by lr?m on the estate. In the year 1848 Prince Albert bought of him the remainder of the lease, and in the year 1852 purchased the property from the trustees of the Earl of Fife. The new castle was then erected as a residence in the north for the royal family, who have since made it their favourite resort. It is situated on the bank of the river Dee, and looks on one side up the valley to the west, and on another southwards to the foot of Craig-an-Gowan, and in the distance to the deer forest of Ballochbowie. An account of Windsor Castle commenced this volume, and being in one sense the property of the nation, and its associations of world-wide interest, I gave a full description of its varied features and historical contents. But Balmoral being altogether the Queen's own private property, it would perhaps be more proper to leave Her Majesty in the undisturbed enjoyment of that retirement which she so greatly loves, and which the author of the present work feels, with her, is the greatest earthly blessing that can be enjoyed, and especially as to be had in the northern parts of our island, the blessing of peace and quiet in the country. * See View on the Title-puge. I \ f««H 9/-G, 4-525 v.l THE GETTY CENTER LIBRARY